Rama, a rookie MBC officer, joins a 20-man squad led by Sgt. Jaka and Lt. Wahyu for a raid on an apartment block with the intent of arresting Tama Riyadi, a crime lord. Together with his lieutenants Andi and Mad Dog, Tama runs the block and allows criminals and addicts to rent rooms under his protection. Arriving undetected, the team sweeps the first floor and subdues various tenants; they also meet a law-abiding tenant Gofar delivering medicine to his sick wife. Continuing to the sixth floor, the team is spotted by two young lookouts, and after one of whom is shot, the other raises the alarm. Tama calls in reinforcements, including a pair of snipers, who pick off the officers guarding the block's exterior and a group of gunmen, who destroy their SWAT vehicle. Taking advantage of the chaos outside, Tama's men set themselves free and regain control of the first five floors. Tama cuts the lights and announces over the PA system that the rest of the officers are on the sixth-floor stairwell and that he will grant free permanent residence to those who kill them. Wahyu confesses to Jaka that he staged the mission to eliminate Tama, who is in league with corrupt police officials, including himself; the mission is not officially sanctioned by the police command and there will be no reinforcements. The remaining team members are ambushed by gunmen from above and almost completely wiped out. The remaining officers – Rama, Bowo, Jaka, Wahyu, Dagu, Alee, Hanggi and another officer – retreat to an empty apartment and are cornered by more armed thugs. Rama uses an axe to create a hole in the floor so the team can descend to the lower level. Dropping to the room below, the team struggles to fend off Tama's thugs; Alee, Hanggi, and the unnamed officer are killed and Bowo is gravely wounded. Rama uses a propane tank and a refrigerator to construct an improvised explosive device that kills the invading henchmen. With more of Tama's reinforcements approaching, the team splits into two groups: Jaka, Dagu and Wahyu retreat to the fifth floor, while Rama and Bowo ascend. As Rama and Bowo travel through a hallway to locate Gofar in room #726, they get ambushed by Tama's men rushing out of their apartments. After Rama defeats all of the attackers, he picks up Bowo (who killed an incapacitated thug while crawling towards the end of the hallway), and reaches Gofars apartment. Gofar reluctantly hides the officers inside. A five-man gang, wielding machetes, search the apartment, but cannot find them. After tending to Bowo's wounds, Rama leaves to search for Jaka's group. Rama encounters the machete gang and defeats them in a long fight, tackling their leader through a window and plummeting onto a fire escape below. On the sixth floor, Rama finds Andi, who has murdered two of Tama's men. Andi is revealed to be Rama's estranged elder brother. Rama actually signed up for the mission to search for Andi, at the urging of their father. Rama refuses to leave the building without his comrades and Andi refuses to abandon his criminal life. Rama parts ways with his brother to search for his surviving colleagues. Mad Dog discovers Jaka and his group on the fourth floor. Wahyu runs off and Jaka instructs Dagu to protect him. Mad Dog challenges Jaka to hand-to-hand combat. Mad Dog ultimately gains the upper hand and kills Jaka by breaking his neck. He then meets with Andi to report back to Tama. Tama, having learned of Andi's treachery through his surveillance cameras, attacks and incapacitates Andi. Rama regroups with Dagu and Wahyu and they head for Tama on the 15th floor, fighting through a narcotics lab along the way. Rama separates from Dagu and Wahyu when he discovers Mad Dog torturing Andi. Mad Dog lets Rama free Andi and fights them. After a brutal fight, Rama and Andi kill Mad Dog. Meanwhile, Wahyu and Dagu confront Tama, and Wahyu kills Dagu before taking Tama hostage. Tama taunts Wahyu by revealing that he knew they were going to raid the building. Wahyu was set up by his corrupt superior Reza and that he will be killed regardless of whether he escapes. A panicked and desperate Wahyu kills Tama and attempts suicide, only to find he is out of bullets. Andi uses his influence to allow Rama to leave with Bowo and Wahyu. Andi also hands over blackmail recordings Tama made with the corrupt officials, telling him to contact Bunawar. Rama asks Andi to come home, but Andi refuses and asserts that he can protect Rama in the underworld, but Rama cannot do the same for him on the outside. As Rama, Bowo and Wahyu leave, Andi turns around and walks back to the apartment block, smiling.

In 1977 Los Angeles, Holland March is a private eye hired by Mrs. Glenn to find her niece, porn star Misty Mountains, who she claims to have seen after her death. March's investigation leads him to Amelia Kuttner. A fearful Amelia pays Jackson Healy, a violent enforcer, to scare March away. After visiting March at his home and breaking his arm, he accepts a Yoo-hoo from March's teenage daughter, Holly, as he leaves. When Healy returns home (with a case of Yoo-hoo), he is interrogated by two thugs, "Blueface" —so named after he sets off a dye pack while searching Healy's apartment—and Older Guy, about Amelia. Believing Amelia is in danger, Healy wards them off and teams up with a reluctant March to find her. The duo visit Amelia's anti-pollution protest group and meet Chet, who brings them to the burnt-down house of Amelia's boyfriend Dean, who died in the fire. They learn that Amelia and Dean were working with Misty on an "experimental film" combining pornography and investigative journalism. The two infiltrate a party to search for the film's financier, Sid Shattuck. At the party, Healy discovers the film is missing, while March stumbles upon Shattuck's dead body and crosses paths with Amelia. Holly, having snuck along to the party, stops Blueface from killing Amelia. Blueface is struck in a hit-and-run and Amelia flees. Healy subdues Older Guy and finds Blueface dying. Blueface tells Healy that his boss has dispatched a hit man named John Boy to kill all witnesses. Healy discreetly kills Blueface by strangling him. The police arrive at the scene. March and Healy are met by Amelia's mother Judith Kuttner, a high-ranking official in the Justice Department. Judith claims Amelia is delusional and hires them to find her, for which March demands US$5,000 in payment. March and Healy go to an airport hotel where Amelia is meeting with distributors for the film. However, John Boy has arrived ahead of them and is slaughtering the distributors. The duo hastily retreat, only for Amelia to land on their car and accidentally knock herself unconscious. They take her to March's house, where she accuses her mother of colluding with car makers to suppress the catalytic converter, which regulates exhaust emissions. Amelia created the film to expose their collusion and believes her mother has been killing everyone connected to the film. A disbelieving March calls Tally, Judith's assistant, and tells her Amelia has been found. Tally tells him the family's doctor will arrive to check on Amelia. At the same time, she tasks them with delivering a briefcase of money to Judith. March accidentally crashes his car during the delivery, causing the briefcase to fly open, spilling out shredded paper; the delivery was really a diversion to draw them away from Amelia. John Boy arrives at March's house disguised as the family doctor, attacks Holly and her friend Jessica, and engages in a shootout with the returning March and Healy. As John Boy evades the police, Amelia flees the house and unwittingly flags down his car only to be shot and killed. The police question and release March and Healy, who have no evidence that Judith is behind the murders. March realizes that Mrs. Glenn saw Misty in a film projected against a wall. At Misty's house, they discover a film projector, with no film. They realize that Chet is the projectionist for the Los Angeles Auto Show and will try to screen the film at the event. At the auto show, Tally intercepts Healy and March at gunpoint. Holly distracts Tally, who is knocked unconscious. Amelia's film, which Chet spliced into the auto show presentation, implicates the auto executives. On the rooftop, March struggles with Older Guy; they both fall from the roof, but March lands in the pool while Older Guy falls to his death. Holly stops Tally from reaching the film. Healy overpowers John Boy, but spares his life at Holly's behest and March secures the film from thugs sent by the auto executives. Judith is arrested, but insists that it was Detroit who wanted Amelia dead; she hired March and Healy to keep Amelia safe. Judith remarks that while she will go to prison, Detroit has still gotten away with trying to suppress the catalytic converter. At a bar on Christmas Eve, March shows Healy an advertisement for their new detective agency called "The Nice Guys".

In 1962, during the Cold War, Elisa Esposito works as a janitor in a secret government laboratory in Baltimore, Maryland. Found abandoned by the side of a river as an infant with scars on her neck, Elisa is mute and communicates through sign language. Her only friends are her closeted middle-aged neighbor Giles, an advertising illustrator, and her coworker Zelda. Colonel Richard Strickland has captured a creature from a South American river and taken it to the facility for study. Elisa discovers it is a humanoid amphibian, and bonds with the creature after visiting him in secret. Seeking an advantage in the Space Race, Strickland persuades General Frank Hoyt to vivisect the Amphibian Man to examine his respiratory system. Scientist Robert Hoffstetler, a Soviet spy, pleads with Strickland to keep him alive for further study, while being ordered by his handlers to kill the creature. Giles reluctantly agrees to help Elisa free Amphibian Man after failing a work assignment and being rejected by a local restaurant manager whom he discovered was both racist and homophobic. Hoffstetler and Zelda also become involved in the plot and successfully get the Amphibian Man to Elisa's apartment. Elisa keeps him in her bathtub, planning to release him into a nearby canal when heavy rain allows access to the ocean. When Giles tries to stop the Amphibian Man from devouring one of his cats, his arm is slashed and the Amphibian Man flees. Elisa coaxes him back to her apartment and the creature touches Giles on his balding head and wounded arm. The next morning, Giles discovers his hair is regrowing and the wounds on his arm have healed. Elisa's infatuation with the Amphibian Man culminates in sexual intercourse. General Hoyt gives Strickland an ultimatum to recover the Amphibian Man or his career will be over. Hoffstetler is told by his handlers he'll be extracted from the US in two days. The Amphibian Man's health begins to deteriorate. Strickland follows Hoffstetler to a meeting with his handlers where Hoffstetler is shot. Strickland intervenes, shooting the handlers, then tortures the dying spy into revealing the Amphibian Man's whereabouts. Strickland confronts Zelda in her home and her husband reveals Elisa has the Amphibian Man. Zelda warns Elisa to release the creature before Strickland can arrive. He ransacks Elisa's apartment and finds evidence of the creature in the bathtub and a calendar note revealing where she plans to release him. "Unable to perceive the shape of You. I find You all around me. Your presence fills my eyes with Your love. It humbles my heart. For You are everywhere." Elisa and Giles are bidding farewell to the creature at the canal when Strickland arrives, knocks Giles down, and shoots both the Amphibian Man and Elisa. Giles and Strickland fight while the Amphibian Man heals himself, then fatally slashes Strickland's throat. As the police arrive with Zelda, the Amphibian Man jumps into the canal with the unconscious Elisa and kisses her. When he uses his healing power again, the scars on her neck open to reveal gills. The now-amphibious Elisa revives and embraces him.

In Los Angeles, cashier Audrey Stockman spends her birthday upset after her boyfriend Drew dumps her. Her best friend and roommate, Morgan Freeman, convinces her to burn his things and texts him beforehand as a warning. Audrey has no idea Drew is a government agent being pursued by men trying to kill him. He promises to return and asks her to not torch anything in the meantime. At work, Audrey flirts with a man who asks her to walk him to his car. Forced into a van, the man identifies himself as Sebastian Henshaw. He reveals that Drew works for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and has gone missing. Audrey claims not to have heard from him and is let go. Drew shows up for his possessions, including a fantasy football trophy. People begin shooting at them and he tells Audrey that, if he dies, she must go to a certain café in Vienna and give the trophy to his contact. Drew is then shot by a man Morgan had taken home from a bar, whom she then pushes off the balcony. Morgan convinces Audrey to go to Vienna. At the café, Sebastian appears and demands the trophy at gunpoint. Audrey reluctantly hands it over before the entire café is attacked. The friends flee, chased by men on motorcycles. Audrey reveals that she still has Drew's trophy as she had switched it with one of several decoys they had purchased for such an event. Boarding a train to Prague, they discover Drew's trophy contains a USB card. Morgan calls her parents, who tell her they can stay in Prague with their family friend, Roger. Audrey and Morgan get to the apartment, but discover "Roger" is actually a spy who drugged them and killed the real Roger. Morgan tries to swallow the flash drive. After that fails, Audrey tells their captors that she flushed it down the toilet. The ladies wake up in an abandoned gymnastics training facility, about to be tortured by Nadejda, a Russian gymnast, model, and assassin trained by the older couple who had previously masqueraded as Drew's parents. Audrey and Morgan are rescued by Sebastian, who defied orders to save them. He brings them to his boss in Paris, where they once again tell the CIA and MI6 that the drive was flushed. The women are given tickets to go back to America, while Sebastian is suspended. Driving back to the airport, Sebastian explains that Drew's "parents" are actually notorious criminals. Drew was discreetly negotiating with them on the sale of the USB card, and Audrey was part of his cover. Audrey confesses that she had actually hidden the drive in her vagina. When Sebastian cannot decrypt the information on the card, Morgan calls her old Summer camp friend Edward Snowden for assistance; he helps them hack it. The trio travel to a hostel in Amsterdam, where they are attacked by Sebastian's CIA partner Duffer, who plans to sell the drive himself. They are rescued by their hostel roommate, who thinks they are being robbed and body slams Duffer to his death. Audrey answers Duffer's phone when it rings and agrees to sell the drive at a private party in Berlin. To get into the buyer, Audrey and Sebastian disguise themselves as the Canadian ambassador and his wife, while Morgan joins the Cirque du Soleil crew. Sebastian is attacked and Morgan is confronted by Nadejda on an acrobat swing, eventually killing her. Meanwhile, Audrey meets her mysterious contact and finds Drew, who is still alive and searches through her purse for the USB. Sebastian arrives, held hostage by Drew's "parents". After a standoff, Drew's "parents" are shot, leaving Sebastian and Drew, who accuse each other of trying to hurt Audrey. Drew then shoots Sebastian, and Audrey pretends to be glad before grabbing his gun. When he tries to attack her, she kicks him in the groin. Once he is on the ground, Morgan throws a cannonball at him. Drew is arrested, and Audrey, Morgan, and Sebastian escape. Sebastian later gives Morgan his untraceable phone to let her parents know she is alive. As she's talking, Sebastian's boss calls to lift his suspension. Morgan begs her for a job as a spy. Meanwhile, Sebastian and Audrey kiss. A year later, while celebrating Audrey's birthday in Tokyo, her party is revealed to be a ruse, as it's actually an assignment with Sebastian to stop a group of Japanese Yakuza gangsters.

A man named Goreng awakens in a cell numbered 48. His cellmate Trimagasi explains that they are in a tower-style holding facility. Once per day, food arrives on "the platform" that lowers from level 0, stopping for two minutes on each level. Prisoners can only eat while the platform is stopped on their level, and are subjected to fatal temperatures if they keep any food. Prisoners are randomly reassigned to a new level each month. Trimagasi reveals that when assigned to level 132, he and his former cellmate cannibalized someone. One day, a woman named Miharu rides down the platform, whom Trimagasi explains regularly descends the pit to search for her child. Goreng explains that he volunteered to spend six months in the facility in exchange for a diploma, while Trimagasi confides that he is serving a year-long sentence for manslaughter. The following month, they are reassigned to level 171. Trimagasi ties up Goreng and explains his plans to feed himself using Goreng's flesh. When he begins cutting into Goreng's leg, Miharu arrives, attacks Trimagasi, and frees Goreng, who kills Trimagasi. Encouraged by Miharu, Goreng eats Trimagasi's flesh and subsequently becomes haunted by hallucinations of Trimagasi. The next month, Goreng wakes on level 33 with a woman named Imoguiri and her dog, Ramesses II. Imoguiri was the administration official who interviewed Goreng before sending him to the pit, having admitted herself after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Imoguiri only eats every other day, letting Ramesses II eat on the days that she does not, and tries unsuccessfully to convince the pair below them to ration their food. One day, Miharu arrives injured. Goreng and Imoguiri nurse her back to health. That night, Goreng breaks up a fight between Miharu and Imoguiri to then discover that Miharu has killed Ramesses II. After Miharu leaves, Goreng mentions her child to Imoguiri, who says there are no children in the pit and Miharu came alone. The following morning, Goreng wakes to find that they have been reassigned to level 202 and that Imoguiri has hanged herself. He consumes her flesh, plagued with hallucinations of his former cellmates. The next month, Goreng is assigned to level 6. His new cellmate, Baharat, is a religious man who has been attempting to escape the pit for months. Estimating that there are 250 levels, Goreng convinces Baharat to ride the platform down with him and ration the food. They forbid anyone on the first fifty levels to receive any, arguing that they get to eat every day, and fend off those who defy them. Fellow prisoner Sr. Brambang advises them that civility is more effective than violence and convinces them to send a symbolic message to the administration by leaving a single panna cotta untouched. As they descend further, they hand out portions to the prisoners, attacking those who refuse to cooperate. They encounter Miharu being attacked and try to save her, but she is killed and they are both left severely injured. Goreng and Baharat continue to descend, eventually stopping at level 333, where Goreng notices a child whom he deduces is Miharu's daughter. They get off the platform, letting it continue downward, and reluctantly feed the girl the panna cotta. That night, Baharat shakes Goreng awake and tells him, "The girl is the message." Goreng awakens, revealing this encounter to have been a dream, and finds that the real Baharat has bled to death. Goreng and the girl ride the platform to the very bottom level. Goreng once again hallucinates Trimagasi, who encourages him to get off the platform. Goreng insists that he has to ride the platform back up to the top, as he is the bearer of the "message," but Trimagasi replies, "The message requires no bearer." Goreng gets off the platform and the two walk away, watching as the child ascends.

In early 2009, Senator Dianne Feinstein selects Senate staffer Daniel J. Jones, who has just spent two years investigating the 2005 destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes, to lead a review of six million pages of CIA materials related to the agency's use of enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs). Jones and his team of six get to work in a sensitive compartmented information facility at a covert CIA site in Virginia. Intelligence psychologists Bruce Jessen and James Elmer Mitchell were contracted in 2002 to instruct the CIA in EITs. They started their work on Abu Zubaydah, for whom the FBI initially used the CIA rapport-building, where they started using EITs. Jones learned from an FBI agent that he gathered crucial intelligence from Zubaydah before the CIA took over the interrogations, though the agency claims that most valuable intel came from EITs. He shows evidence from the CIA's own records that prove that the agency falsely claimed that Zubaydah was a high-ranking member of Al-Qaeda to received authorization to start using EITs on him. A physician assistant with the Office of Medical Services who works at a CIA black site secretly reveals to Jones that he and other medical professionals had complained that the EITs were torture. However, they only got told to stop putting their objections in writing by the Director. Among files provided by the CIA, Jones finds the Panetta Review, a critical internal CIA review of the EIT program that was prepared in 2009 but never shared. A pundit on the news later claims that EITs had yielded good intelligence and prevented terrorist attacks. Jones stays up all night to disprove the claims, and the CIA's own records show that crucial information it is claiming to have obtained by subjecting a terrorist to torture was obtained by other means. Jones finishes the 6,200-page report, and it is approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Feinstein, on December 13, 2012, and sent to the CIA for final comments. Two months later, John Brennan is sworn in as the new director of the CIA. Brennan sets up meetings with CIA personnel and Jones to try to get the committee to change elements of the report. However, Jones repeatedly provides evidence to back up everything they want to change. Feinstein decides to stop this discussion with the CIA and keep the report as it is. Frustrated, Jones reveals the Panetta Review to Senator Mark Udall of the Intelligence Committee. During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on the nomination of the CIA general counsel, Udall asks why both the committee's reports and the Panetta Review conflict with the CIA's official position. The CIA, humiliated by Udall's revelation, conducts an illegal search and threaten to prosecute Jones for "stealing" the Panetta Review from the CIA's computers. Jones hints the search to the New York Times national security reporter, which ultimately leads Feinstein to formally accuse the CIA of unlawfully searching the Senate's computers in violation of the separation of powers. Brennan and the CIA are forced to back down, and the charges against Jones are dropped. Feinstein tells Jones that she is prepared to release a shorter summary of the report, but President Barack Obama grants the CIA broad authority to redact it first. When it becomes uncertain if the released document will have any useful information after redaction, Jones again meets with the Times reporter, but ultimately decides not to leak the report to the media. The Republican Party wins control of the Senate in the November 2014 midterm elections, meaning that the report will likely be buried forever when the new Congress is sworn in January 2015. Faced with this deadline, the Senate agrees to release the summary of the report. Feinstein gives a speech summarizing the report and its implications, and then Senator John McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, gives an impassioned speech supporting the report. Jones leaves his job as a Senate staffer after the report summary released. No CIA officers are criminally charged in connection with the actions outlined in the report, with many promoted, and one later becomes the agency director.

Late at night, an elderly toy-maker reads a book to his granddaughter. In the story the Land of Oz is ruled by Prime Minister Kruel, aided by Ambassador Wikked, Lady Vishuss, and the Wizard who is a "medicine-show hokum hustler". When the discontented citiens of Oz, led by Prince Kynd, demand the return of the princess, who disappeared as a baby many years before, so she can be crowned their rightful ruler, Kruel has the Wizard distract them with a parlor trick and sends Wikked on a mission. Meanwhile, in Kansas, Dorothy lives on a farm with her relatives. Aunt Em is a kind and caring woman but Uncle Henry is a large man with a short temper who shows little affection for his niece. He acts abusive to his three farmhands, in which two of them are in love with Dorothy. Aunt Em reveals to Dorothy that she was put on their doorstep as a baby, along with an envelope and instructions that it be opened only when she turns 18. On her 18th birthday, however, Ambassador Wikked and his henchmen arrive at the farm in an airplane and demand the envelope. When Uncle Henry refuses to hand it over, Wikked persuades one of the farmhands by promising him wealth and Dorothy. Wikked has Dorothy tied to a rope and raised high up on a tower; his men start a fire underneath the rope. The farmhand finds the note, but the other takes it and saves Dorothy, only to have Wikked and his men capture them all at gunpoint. Then, a tornado suddenly strikes. Dorothy, the three farmhands, and Uncle Henry take shelter inside a small wooden shed, which is carried aloft by the violent wind and deposited in the Land of Oz. Dorothy finally reads the contents of the envelope; it declares that she is Princess Dorothea, the rightful ruler of Oz. Thwarted by her discovering this truth, Prime Minister Kruel blames the farmhands for kidnapping her and demands that the Wizard transform them into wild creatures such as a monkey, which he is unable to do. Being chased by Kruel's soldiers, one of the farmhands disguises himself as a scarecrow, while the other creates a costume from the pile of tin in which he is hiding under. However, they are still eventually captured by the soldiers. During their trial, the Tin Man accuses his fellow farmhands of kidnapping Dorothy. As judgement, Prince Kynd has the Scarecrow put in the dungeon. Kruel makes the Tin Man "Knight of the Garter" and Wikked suggests he retain his power by marrying Dorothy. The Wizard then helps the two prisoners escape by giving the third farmhand, Snowball a lion costume, which he uses to scare away the guards. Though the Scarecrow manages to reach Dorothy to warn her against Kruel, he is chased back down into the dungeon by the Tin Man, and ends up getting trapped inside a lion cage (with real lions) for a while. He and Snowball finally escape. When Prince Kynd finds Kruel trying to force Dorothy to marry him, they engage in a sword fight. When Kruel's henchmen intervene and help disarm Kynd, the Scarecrow saves Dorothy and Kynd. Defeated, Kruel claims that he took Dorothy to Kansas in order to protect her from court factions out to harm her, but she orders that he be taken away. The Scarecrow is heartbroken to discover that Dorothy has fallen for Prince Kynd. He then flees up a tower from the Tin Man, who tries to blast him with a cannon. Snowball flies a biplane overhead, and the Scarecrow manages to grab a rope ladder dangling underneath it. However, the ladder breaks and he falls. The scene shifts abruptly back to the little girl, who had fallen asleep. She wakes up and leaves. The grandfather reads from the book that Dorothy marries Prince Kynd and they live happily ever after.

A group of wealthy industrialists gather at the home of Mr. Lloyd, a millionaire who introduces them to Richard "Mack" McAllan, the engineer who successfully spearheaded the construction of the Channel Tunnel (the story takes place in the unspecified near-future, though it is noted in the film that the Channel Tunnel is built "in 1940") and so is the Bahamas-Miami tunnel. McAllan informs the group that the "Allanite steel" he developed, along with a "radium drill" developed by his friend Frederick "Robbie" Robbins, makes it possible to construct an undersea tunnel linking England with the United States. Though the group is initially skeptical, the backing of Lloyd and his associate Mostyn convinces the group to buy shares in the project. Three years into construction of the tunnel, McAllan is a worldwide celebrity, but his work keeps him from his devoted wife Ruth and their young son Geoffrey. Called away to New York, he is informed that the people are losing faith in the project. Lloyd needs to have him use his fame to get support. Lloyd's attractive daughter Varlia, who is secretly in love with McAllan, keeps him company to intensify the attention of the press. The photos of the couple add to Ruth's sense of isolation, and she decides to work in the tunnel as a nurse. There she is affected by an unknown gas afflicting the workers and loses her eyesight. Worried that her husband no longer loves her and not wanting him to stay with her out of pity, Ruth leaves McAllan, taking their son with her. Heartbroken at her unexplained departure, McAllan throws himself into the project, alienating Robbins in the process. Years pass. Though the cost of the tunnel in lives and money continues to mount, the British prime minister and American president eagerly anticipate its completion and the unity and peace they promise it will bring. Ruth lives in the countryside with her now-grown son, who lobbies Robbins to find him a job working in the tunnel. The tunnel is nearing completion, but the workers encounter a submarine volcano that will necessitate a detour. McAllan needs more money to establish a detour, but is opposed by Grellier, an arms manufacturer, and Mostyn. The two men earlier manipulated the stock market to become the controlling shareholders in the company. Lloyd suspects that Grellier and Mostyn plan to use the delay to depress stock prices again, and this time gain total ownership of the tunnel. However, Varlia convinces Mostyn to fund further construction by promising him the one thing he has always wanted, but never gotten: her hand in marriage. Though the project goes forward, Grellier has Mostyn killed for backing out of their deal. Despite the renewed effort, samples indicate the volcano may be too large to drill around. The drill breaks through to volcanic gases that kill hundreds of workers, including Geoffrey. The project seems on the verge of collapse. Determined to see the project through and fortified by the reappearance of Ruth (who came to the tunnel site to discover Geoffrey's fate), McAllan vows to continue. With three volunteers, McAllan and Robbins man the radium drill, and despite near-fatal temperatures, break through to the American side of the tunnel.

Not long after the Pearl Harbor attack, United States Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle assembles two dozen North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers with volunteer crews at Eglin Field, Florida, for a secret mission. Among them is Ted Lawson and his crew, co-pilot Lieutenant Dean Davenport, navigator Lieutenant Charles McClure, bombardier Lietuenant Bob Clever and gunner-mechanic Corporal David Thatcher. Given the opportunity to decline the mission, the crews opt to stay on, including Lawson whose pregnant wife Ellen joins him at Eglin Field. The crews are taught to take off from a runway only 500 feet long by a naval aviator from nearby Pensacola Naval Air Station. Lawson's plane acquires the nickname Ruptured Duck with nose art to match. Doolittle leads the group on a low-level flight at hedge-top height to Naval Air Station Alameda, California where their planes are loaded aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. He informs the men their mission is to bomb Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kobe, and Nagoya. They will launch from the carrier 400 miles from Japan and after dropping their payloads continue to designated landing spots in parts of China controlled by Nationalist forces and regroup in Chungking. When an enemy surface vessel discovers the convoy, the crews are forced to take off twelve hours earlier than planned, to attack in broad daylight over Japan and land after nightfall in China. Doolittle leads the raid, dropping incendiary bombs to mark key targets for the others. The Ruptured Duck arrives over Tokyo to find some targets already burning, and attacks its targets as planned. Anti-aircraft fire bursts harmlessly around them, and confused enemy fighters ignore them. Ruptured Duck continues toward China and runs low on fuel approaching the coast in darkness and heavy rain. Lawson attempts a belly landing on the beach and crashes in the surf. With the exception of Thatcher, the entire crew is badly injured: Lawson's left leg is laid open to the bone, and McClure's shoulders are broken. Friendly Chinese soldiers help them, and the Americans face hardships and danger while being escorted through Japanese-held territory. In the absence of medical supplies, the injured men endure terrible pain, and Lawson's leg becomes infected. Delirious, he dreams of Ellen. A Red Cross banner hangs in the village of Xing Ming where Doctor Chung offers to take them to his father's hospital, 19 miles farther. He informs the men the Japanese have captured one of the other crews, and they hurry into the hills just before Japanese search parties arrive to burn the village down. No surgeon is at the elder Dr. Chung's hospital, but Lieutenant Smith's crew is on its way with Lieutenant "Doc" White, who volunteered as gunner. The Japanese approach, and the able-bodied Americans leave, except for Doc. He amputates Lawson's leg well above the knee, using the single dose of spinal anesthesia in their possession. It wears off too soon. Lawson passes out and dreams of Ellen. A chorus of Scouts singing " The Star-Spangled Banner ", in Mandarin, celebrates Lawson's first day out of bed. When the elder Dr. Chung gives Lawson an heirloom bracelet for his wife, Lawson is puzzled. He does not remember talking about her. When he totters on his crutches, he becomes distraught at the idea of Ellen seeing him without a leg. They hurry to Ch'ang Chou to rendezvous with an American plane that takes them home. General Doolittle visits Lawson in the hospital and tells him he has work for him to do. Lawson does not want to see Ellen until he obtains a prosthetic leg and learns to walk properly. Ellen arrives unannounced. Lawson forgets his missing leg and stands; he falls and Ellen rushes to him and the two embrace on the floor.

Holly Martins, an American author of Western pulp novels, arrives in the British sector of Allied-occupied Vienna seeking Harry Lime, a childhood friend who has offered him a job. However, Martins is told that Lime was killed by a car while crossing the street. At Lime's funeral, Martins meets two Field Security Section men, part of the ICPO: Sergeant Paine, a fan of Martins' novels, and Major Calloway. Afterward, Martins is asked to lecture at a book club a few days later. He then meets a friend of Lime's, "Baron" Kurtz, who tells Martins that he and another friend, Popescu, carried Lime to the side of the street after the accident, and that, before he died, Lime asked them to take care of Martins and Lime's girlfriend, actress Anna Schmidt. As Martins and Anna query Lime's death, they realise that accounts differ as to whether Lime was able to speak before his death, and how many men carried away the body. The porter at Lime's apartment tells them that he saw a third man helping. He offers to give Martins more information but is murdered before they can speak again; Martins and Anna flee the scene after a mob begins to suspect him of the murder. When Martins confronts Major Calloway and demands that Lime's death be investigated, Calloway reveals that Lime was stealing penicillin from military hospitals, diluting it, and then selling it on the black market, injuring or killing countless people. Martins agrees to drop his investigation and leave. An inebriated Martins visits Anna and confesses his feelings for her. A man crosses the street towards her front door, but moves away after seeing Martins at the window. After leaving, Martins walks the streets until he notices Anna's cat and realises someone is watching from a darkened doorway. In a momentary flash of light, Martins sees that the man is Lime. Martins calls out, but Lime flees and vanishes. Martins summons Calloway, who realises that Lime has escaped through the city's sewers to the Soviet sector. The British police exhume Lime's coffin and discover that the body is that of a hospital orderly who had been assisting him. Anna, who is Czech, is to be sent to the Soviet sector after the British police discover that she has a forged Austrian passport, and is questioned again by Calloway. Martins goes to Kurtz and asks to see Lime. Lime and Martins meet and talk as they ride the Wiener Riesenrad. Lime speaks cynically of the insignificance of his victims' lives and the personal gains to be earned from the city's chaos and deprivation. Martins realises that Lime sold Anna out to the Soviet authorities for his own benefit. Lime obliquely threatens Martins as he is now the only 'proof' that Lime is alive, however Martins retorts that the authorities are aware of the false burial. Lime then offers Martins a chance to join in on his scheme before leaving quickly. Calloway asks Martins to help arrest Lime; he agrees provided that Calloway will arrange for Anna to leave Vienna rather than be handed over to the Soviets. The British authorities arrange for Anna to take a train to Paris, but she spots Martins, who has come to observe her departure, at the station. After persuading Martins to reveal the plan to capture Lime, she leaves in order to warn him. Exasperated, Martins decides to leave Vienna; on the way to the airport, Calloway stops at a hospital to show Martins children dying of meningitis who were treated with Lime's diluted penicillin, which convinces him to stay and assist in capturing Lime. Lime arrives at a café in the international zone to meet Martins, but Anna is able to warn him that the police are closing in. He flees into the sewer, with the police following him underground. Lime shoots and kills Sgt Paine, but Calloway shoots and badly wounds Lime. Lime drags himself up a cast-iron stairway to a street grating but cannot lift it. Martins, armed with Paine's gun, runs after Lime finding him beneath the grating where they stare at each other. Calloway, realising Martins has chased Lime, shouts that Martins must not take any chances and shoot on sight. Lime nods his head slightly at Martins. Calloway follows down the tunnel as a single shot is heard. Martins attends Lime's second funeral at the risk of missing his flight out of Vienna. He waits on the road to the cemetery to speak with Anna, but she walks past without glancing in his direction.

Frenchmen Mario and Jo, German Bimba and Italian Luigi are stuck in the isolated South American town of Las Piedras. Surrounded by desert, the town is linked to the outside world only by an airstrip, but the airfare is beyond the means of the men. There is little opportunity for employment aside from the American corporation that dominates the town, Southern Oil Company (SOC), which operates the nearby oil fields and owns a walled compound within the town. SOC exploits local workers and takes the law into its own hands, but the townspeople depend on it and suffer in silence. Mario is a sarcastic Corsican playboy who treats his devoted lover, Linda, with disdain. Jo is an aging ex- gangster who recently found himself stranded in the town. Bimba is an intense, quiet man whose father was murdered by the Nazis and who had to work as a forced laborer for three years in a salt mine. Luigi, Mario's roommate, is a jovial, hardworking man, who has just learned that he is dying from cement dust in his lungs. Mario befriends Jo due to their common background, having lived in Paris, but a rift develops between Jo and the other cantina regulars due to his combative, arrogant personality. A large fire erupts at one of the SOC oil fields. The only way to extinguish the flames and cap the well is an explosion produced by nitroglycerin. With short notice and lack of proper equipment, it must be transported within jerrycans placed in two large trucks from the SOC headquarters, 500 km (300 miles) away. Due to the poor condition of the roads and the highly volatile nature of nitroglycerin, the job is considered too dangerous for the unionized SOC employees. The company foreman, Bill O'Brien, recruits truck drivers from the local community. Despite the dangers, many of the locals volunteer, lured by the high pay: US$2,000 per driver. This is a fortune to them, perhaps the only way out of their dead-end lives. The pool of applicants is narrowed down to four drivers: Mario, Bimba and Luigi are chosen, along with a German named Smerloff. Smerloff fails to appear on the appointed day, so Jo, who knows O'Brien from his bootlegging days, takes his place. The other drivers suspect that Jo intimidated Smerloff in some way to facilitate his own hiring. Jo and Mario transport the nitroglycerin in one vehicle; Luigi and Bimba are in the other, with thirty minutes separating them in order to limit potential casualties. The drivers are forced to deal with a series of physical and mental obstacles, including a stretch of extremely rough road called "the washboard", a construction barricade that forces them to teeter around a rotten platform above a precipice, and a boulder blocking the road. Jo finds that his nerves are not what they used to be, and the others confront Jo about his increasing cowardice. Finally, Luigi and Bimba's truck explodes without warning, killing them both. Mario and Jo arrive at the scene of the explosion only to find a large crater rapidly filling with oil from a pipeline ruptured in the blast. Jo exits the vehicle to help Mario navigate through the oil-filled crater. The truck, however, is in danger of becoming bogged down and, during their frantic attempts to prevent it from getting stuck, Mario runs over Jo. Although the vehicle is ultimately freed from the muck, Jo is mortally injured. On their arrival at the oil field, Mario and Jo are hailed as heroes, but Jo is dead and Mario collapses from exhaustion. Upon his recovery, he heads home in the same truck. He collects double the wages following his friends' deaths and refuses the chauffeur offered by SOC. Mario jubilantly drives down a mountain road as a party is being held at the cantina back in town, where Mario's friends eagerly await his arrival. He swerves recklessly and intentionally, having cheated death so many times on the same road. Linda, dancing in the cantina, faints. Mario takes a corner too fast and plunges through the guardrail to his death.

At the royal palace in Karlsburg, King Ferdinand counsels his grandson, Prince Karl Franz, on the young man's imminent engagement to the wealthy Princess Johanna of Nordhausen. The king observes that although their country is poor, it has always survived because the men of the royal family marry well. The following evening, Johanna is feted with a ball, but she finds the prince's cold, formal manner off-putting. The king and Johanna's mother, Queen Mathilda, discuss the shaky prospects for an alliance between their heirs, and Mathilda says that Karl must learn to radiate warmth and charm. Karl's teacher, Prof. Juttner, is summoned to the palace in the middle of the night and ordered to instruct the prince in the graces of living. Juttner maintains that such an education comes from being with other people, and recommends that Karl be sent to his own alma mater, the University of Heidelberg. Karl is dispatched to Heidelberg the next day, along with Juttner and the punctilious royal valet, Lutz. They take rooms in an inn owned by Joseph Ruder, and Karl is immediately charmed by Ruder's pretty niece Kathie. When Karl impulsively kisses Kathie, however, she angrily rebuffs him. Classes begin, and the haughty prince bristles at being treated like all the other students. After chastening comments from Juttner and Kathie, however, Karl resolves to adapt to student life, and quickly finds that he enjoys it. On Kathie's recommendation, he joins the Westphalians, a student corps made up of good-natured commoners, and learns to consume prodigious amounts of beer. When Karl again attempts to kiss Kathie one evening, she knocks him down, as Lutz watches, aghast. Lutz orders Ruder to send Kathie away, threatening dire consequences if the incident is reported. The distraught Ruder goes to Kathie's room and finds her already packing, and tells her where to find a job in a nearby town. The following evening, the students protest Kathie's absence, and Ruder confides to Karl the name of the restaurant where Kathie now works. Karl goes to apologize, and when he causes Kathie to break some plates, she loses her job. Karl humbly beseeches Kathie to return to Heidelberg and declares his feelings for her. Now in love, Karl and Kathie return to Ruder's inn. One night, Karl is drinking and singing with the Westphalians when his true identity is accidentally revealed to the imperious Count Von Asterburg, head of the elitist Saxo-Borussian corps. Von Asterburg insists that the prince join their corps, and when Karl refuses to leave his Westphalian friends, challenges him to a duel. Karl defeats Von Asterburg in a sword fight, and the two men shake hands as friends, but Kathie is appalled. The lovers make up, and one night, at a carnival, Karl asks Kathie to go away with him. Before they can leave, however, Prime Minister Von Mark arrives from Karlsburg with the news that the king is ill and wishes to see Karl. After promising Kathie he will return, Karl returns to the palace. The king announces that Karl's marriage to Johanna will take place shortly, and when Karl protests that he is in love with Kathie, the king reminds him of his duty. Karl accuses Von Mark of having tricked him into returning, but the prime minister replies that the king is actually much sicker than he realizes. The king passes away, and preparations are made for Karl's marriage. While traveling to Nordhausen for the wedding, Karl suddenly orders the train to stop in Heidelberg. Karl goes to Ruder's inn, where he and Kathie lovingly say goodbye.