The Black Rebels Motorcycle Club (BRMC), led by Johnny Strabler, rides into Carbonville, California, during a motorcycle race and causes trouble. A member of the motorcycle club, Pidgeon, steals the second-place trophy (the first place one being too large to hide) and presents it to Johnny. After an altercation with a steward, a Highway Patrol policeman orders them to leave. The bikers head to Wrightsville, which has only one elderly, conciliatory lawman, Chief Harry Bleeker, to maintain order. The residents are uneasy, but mostly willing to put up with their visitors. When their antics cause Art Kleiner to swerve and crash his car, he demands that something be done, but Harry is reluctant to act, a weakness that is not lost on the interlopers. This accident results in the gang having to stay longer in town, as one member called Crazy injured himself falling off his motorcycle. Although the young men become more and more boisterous, their club is enthusiastically welcomed by Harry's brother Frank who runs the local cafe-bar, employing Harry's daughter, Kathie, and the elderly Jimmy. Johnny meets Kathie and asks her out to a dance being held that night. Kathie politely turns him down, but Johnny's dark, brooding personality visibly intrigues her. When Mildred, another local girl, asks him, "Hey Johnny, what are you rebelling against?", he answers "Whaddaya got?" Johnny is attracted to Kathie and decides to stay a while. However, when he learns that she is the policeman's daughter, he changes his mind. A rival biker club arrives. Their leader Chino bears a grudge against Johnny. Chino reveals the two groups used to be one large club before Johnny split it up. When Chino takes Johnny's trophy, the two start fighting and Johnny wins. Meanwhile, local Charlie Thomas stubbornly tries to drive through; he hits a parked motorcycle and injures Meatball, one of Chino's bikers. Chino pulls Charlie out and leads both gangs to overturn his car. Harry starts arresting Chino and Charlie, but when other townspeople remind Harry that Charlie would cause problems for him in the future, he only takes Chino to the station. Later that night some members of the rival biker club harass Dorothy, the telephone switchboard operator into leaving, thereby disrupting the townspeople's communication, while the BRMC abducts Charlie and puts him in the same jail cell as Chino, who is too drunk to leave with the club. Later, as both clubs wreck the town and intimidate the residents, some bikers led by Gringo chase and surround Kathie, but Johnny rescues her and takes her on a long ride in the countryside. Frightened at first, Kathie comes to see that Johnny is genuinely attracted to her and means her no harm. When she opens up to him and asks to go with him, he rejects her. Crying, she runs away. Johnny drives off to search for her. Art sees and misinterprets this as an attack. The townspeople have had enough. Johnny's supposed assault on Kathie is the last straw. Vigilantes led by Charlie chase and catch Johnny and beat him mercilessly, but he escapes on his motorcycle when Harry confronts the mob. The mob give chase. Johnny is hit by a thrown tire iron and falls. His riderless motorcycle strikes and kills Jimmy. Sheriff Stew Singer arrives with his deputies and restores order. Johnny is initially arrested for Jimmy's death, with Kathie pleading on his behalf. Seeing this, Art and Frank state that Johnny was not responsible for the tragedy, with Johnny being unable to thank them. The motorcyclists are ordered to leave the county, albeit paying for all damage. However, Johnny returns alone to Wrightsville and revisits the cafe to say goodbye to Kathie one final time. He first tries to hide his humiliation and acts as though he is leaving after getting a cup of coffee, but then he returns, smiles and gives her the stolen trophy as a gift.

Black mine inspector Ralph Burton becomes trapped in a cave-in at a Pennsylvania coal mine. He can hear rescuers digging towards him, but after five days they slow down and then stop completely, along with the drainage pumps keeping the shaft from flooding. Ralph frantically digs his own way out, but upon emerging from the mine, he finds a world devoid of any people, living or dead. Discarded newspapers provide an explanation: one proclaims "UN Retaliates For Use Of Atomic Poison", another that "Millions Flee From Cities! End Of The World". Ralph later plays tapes at a radio station and learns that an unknown country had dispersed large quantities of radioactive sodium isotopes into the atmosphere. The resulting lethal dust cloud spread around the world, killing every human who came into contact with it over a five-day period before the isotopes decayed into a harmless state. Ralph travels to New York City in search of survivors, but in vain. He restores power to a building where he takes up residence. To stave off loneliness, he takes in a pair of mannequins. As the solitude starts to become intolerable, he throws a mannequin off the building, and hears a scream. Sarah Crandall, a White woman in her early twenties, had been living in the city and surreptitiously observing Ralph for some time, but was afraid to reveal herself. She screamed because she thought Ralph had committed suicide. Ralph, an engineer, gets utilities working again and raises their standard of living, but the two remain in separate apartment buildings. Even as they become friends and grow closer, vestiges of racial division become evident when Sarah casually uses the phrase that she is " free, white, and 21 " to describe her ability to make decisions. Ralph describes the phrase as "an arrow in my guts." In the same conversation, Sarah laments that "there is nobody left to marry." Resentful, Ralph refuses Sarah's suggestion that she move into his apartment building. Ralph maintains his distance when it becomes clear that Sarah is developing stronger feelings for him, unsure how she will react if they discover others alive. Despite living in a post-apocalyptic world, tensions remain that were instilled by the mores earned in a racially segregated American society. Ralph regularly broadcasts on the radio in the hope of contacting other survivors, and eventually receives a transmission in French, confirming there are others. One day, ill white man Benson Thacker arrives by boat. Ralph and Sarah nurse him back to health, but once he recovers, Ben sets his sights on Sarah and sees Ralph as a rival. Ralph is torn by conflicting emotions. He avoids Sarah as much as possible to give Ben every opportunity to win her affections, but cannot quite bring himself to leave the city. Ben finally grows tired of the whole situation, realizing he stands little chance with Sarah as long as Ralph remains nearby. He warns Ralph that the next time he sees him, he will try to kill him. The two armed men hunt each other through the empty streets. Finally, Ralph passes by the United Nations headquarters, climbs the steps in Ralph Bunche Park, and reads the inscription "They shall beat their swords into plowshares. And their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war any more", from the Book of Isaiah. He throws down his rifle and goes unarmed to confront Ben, who in turn finds himself unable to shoot his foe. Defeated, he starts walking away. Sarah appears. When Ralph starts to turn away from her, she makes him take her hand; then she calls to Ben and gives him her other hand. Together, the three walk down the street to build a new future together. The film ends not with "The End" but with "The Beginning."

In 19th century Europe, nobleman Kurt Menliff returns to his family's seaside castle after many years of absence in order to supposedly congratulate his younger brother Christian for marrying his former lover Nevenka. However, those at the castle know that Kurt is a sadist and are unhappy with his presence, especially his father Count Menliff and housemaid Giorgia, the latter of whom blames Kurt for the suicide of her daughter Tania, with whom Kurt had an affair before abruptly abandoning her. Nevertheless, they decide to let Kurt stay at the castle overnight. The next day, Kurt finds Nevenka sitting by herself on the beach. After seducing her, they kiss, but Nevenka suddenly backs away in a panic and strikes Kurt with a riding crop. In response, Kurt takes the crop and whips her on the back several times, to which Nevenka apparently reacts with sexual excitement as she and Kurt make love immediately afterwards. In the evening, after Nevenka fails to return to the castle, Christian sets out to look for her alongside butler Losat and Kurt's cousin Katia, who is secretly in love with Christian. Meanwhile, an unseen figure stabs Kurt in the throat with the dagger that Tania used to kill herself. Losat finds Nevenka lying unconscious on the beach, and he and the others take her back to the castle and put her to bed before discovering Kurt's body. After Kurt's funeral, the relationships between Nevenka, Christian and Count Meniff begin to fall apart, as Christian suspects his father of having killed Kurt, and Nevenka overhears Christian declaring his love for Katia. Nevenka also begins seeing Kurt in numerous ghostly visions, including one in which he whips her several times in her bedroom, leaving welts all over her body. Eventually, Count Menliff is found dead in his bedroom, having been killed in the exact same way as Kurt. As the castle occupants start to suspect each other of killing the Count, Nevenka suddenly disappears from the castle and is found in the family crypt in an apparent state of ecstasy, claiming that Kurt carried her to the crypt and whipped her. As Christian, Katia and Losat also start having supposed visions of Kurt, Christian comes to believe Nevenka's claims that Kurt's ghost is the one behind the Count's murder, so he and Losat decide to unearth and cremate Kurt's body in an effort to bring an end to the hauntings. While burning the body, Christian and Losat hear a sinister laugh and spot a figure in a cloak spying on them. Christian chases after the figure, who is revealed to be a crazed Nevenka, who attempts to stab Christian with the dagger before fleeing back into the crypt. There, she has another vision of Kurt, and attempts to stab him, but inadvertedly stabs herself, much to Christian's dismay. Before dying, she reveals to Christian that she has "killed again, this time for good." Losat and Christian determine that Nevenka had gone insane or was perhaps possessed after murdering Kurt, leading her to kill the Count and stage the various "hauntings". Meanwhile, as Kurt's body continues to burn, a riding crop placed in his coffin appears to move by itself.

In the early 19th century, a lawyer tells a group of boys that a tontine has been organised; £1,000 has been invested for each child (£20,000 in total), but only the last survivor will receive all the capital and interest. Sixty-three years later, the last survivors are elderly brothers Masterman and Joseph Finsbury, who live next to each other in Victorian London. Although Masterman has not talked to his despised brother in years, he sends his medical student grandson Michael Finsbury to summon Joseph to see him. Michael is greeted by Joseph's niece Julia, who says Joseph is in Bournemouth with her cousins. Julia's cousins, Morris and John, receive a telegram from Michael saying that Masterman is dying. On the train to London, Joseph escapes his grandson minders, entering a compartment and boring the occupant with a diatribe of trivia. Joseph goes to smoke a cigarette, leaving his coat, which the occupant, "the Bournemouth Strangler", dons. The train collides with another train. Finding a mangled body in their uncle's coat, Morris and John assume their uncle is dead. To protect their interest in the tontine, they hide the body in the woods. Morris tells John to post the body in a crate to London. Joseph wanders away from the accident scene. In London, Michael gets a telegram telling him to expect a statue in a crate. Morris arrives and mistakes the elderly butler, Peacock, for Masterman. Morris decides to hide the body until Masterman dies, then claim Joseph died of a heart attack upon hearing the news. Morris and John plot to ship the body in a barrel to Joseph's home where Julia lives. Joseph makes his own way to London and visits his brother. Masterman makes several attempts to kill his oblivious brother. They quarrel, and as Joseph leaves the barrel is being delivered to Masterman's house by mistake. Joseph signs for the barrel for "Mr Finsbury". Minutes later, the crate containing the statue is mistakenly delivered to Joseph's house and accepted by Julia. Morris sees a delivery wagon leaving and assumes his uncle's body has been delivered. He goes to obtain a blank death certificate from Dr. Pratt. Michael helps move the crate into Joseph's house. Julia and Michael kiss for the first time. Michael says they cannot do this as they are cousins; then they discover they were both adopted, thus unrelated by blood. Michael discovers the body in the barrel and assumes his grandfather killed his brother. When Julia arrives, Michael hides the body in a piano. That night, Michael hires "undertakers" to dump the corpse in the River Thames. When they arrive, Masterman has just fallen down stairs, so they take his unconscious body. Seeing this, Morris assumes Masterman has died. Morris and John go to claim the tontine with the fake death certificate. The lawyer tells them it is now worth £111,000. Masterman is returned home by the Salvation Army, who assume he has drowned. Julia orders a fancy coffin for him. Morris orders a cheap coffin to remove the mutilated body, but it is delivered to the wrong house, and Michael sells the piano, unaware the body is still in it. The police become involved when that body is discovered. Masterman sits up as the coffin is being taken away. The cousins make off with the tontine money in a hearse. Michael and Julia chase Morris and John aboard another hearse. They then encounter a real funeral procession. After a crash, Morris and John realise they have a body instead of the money. The tontine money is about to be buried when they grab it and run off. The box bursts open, and money is blown around the cemetery. Joseph pops up from the open grave just as Masterman arrives. The lawyer arrives to say the tontine has yet to be won. The police detective arrives, and Morris is arrested. They ask who put the body in the piano, as there is a £1000 reward for catching the Bournemouth Strangler. A new argument ensues.

On 29 April, Sergeant Neil Howie of the West Highlands Constabulary journeys by seaplane to the remote, verdant Hebridean island of Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, Rowan Morrison, about whom he has received an anonymous letter. Howie, a devout Christian, is disturbed to find the islanders paying homage to the pagan Celtic gods of their ancestors, with churches having fallen into disuse. They copulate openly in the fields, include children as part of the May Day celebrations, teach children of the phallic association of the maypole, and one places a toad in a child's mouth to cure a sore throat. The islanders appear to be trying to thwart his investigation by claiming that Rowan never existed. While Howie is staying at the Green Man Inn, the landlord's daughter attempts to seduce him, but he resists, explaining that he is engaged and must reserve sex for marriage. He notices a series of photographs celebrating the annual harvest, each featuring a young girl as the May Queen. The photograph of the most recent celebration is missing and the landlord tells him it was broken. At the local school, Howie asks the students about Rowan, but all deny her existence. He checks the school register and finds Rowan's name. He questions the schoolteacher, who directs him to Rowan's grave. The next day, 30 April, Howie meets the island's leader, Lord Summerisle, grandson of a Victorian agronomist, to get permission to exhume Rowan's body. Summerisle explains that in 1868, his grandfather developed strains of fruit trees that would prosper in Scotland's climate and encouraged the belief that returning to the old gods would bring prosperity to the island among the previously Christian population. Due to the bountiful harvests, the island's other inhabitants gradually embraced paganism, and the Christian ministers fled to the mainland. Exhuming Rowan's grave, Howie finds that the coffin contains only the body of a hare. He also finds the missing harvest photograph, showing Rowan standing amidst empty boxes; the harvest had failed for the first time since the orchards were established. His research reveals that a human sacrifice is offered to the gods in the event of crop failure. He concludes that Rowan is alive and will soon be sacrificed to ensure a successful harvest this season. The following morning, on May Day, Howie seeks assistance from the mainland and returns to his seaplane, only to discover it no longer functions and its radio is damaged; he cannot leave or call for help. Later that day, during the May Day celebration, Howie subdues the innkeeper and steals his costume and mask of Punch (the Fool) to infiltrate the parade, involving a long sword dance. Rowan is eventually revealed. Howie sets her free and flees with her into a cave. Exiting it, they are intercepted by the islanders, to whom Rowan happily returns. Summerisle tells Howie that Rowan was never the intended sacrifice — Howie is. He fits their gods' four requirements: he came of his own free will, he has "the power of a king" by representing the law, he is a virgin, and he is a "fool" by falling for their deception. Howie warns Summerisle and the islanders that the crops are failing due to the unsuitability of the climate, and that the villagers will turn on Summerisle and sacrifice him next summer when the harvest fails again, but his pleas are ignored. The villagers force Howie inside a giant wicker man statue along with various animals, set it ablaze, and surround it, singing the Middle English folk song " Sumer Is Icumen In ". Inside the wicker man, Howie recites Psalm 23 and prays to God. Howie and the animals burn to death as the head of the wicker man collapses in flames, revealing the setting sun.

In New York City, four men wearing similar disguises and carrying concealed weapons board the same downtown 6 train, "Pelham 1-2-3," at different stations. Using their code names Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Mr. Grey and Mr. Brown, they take eighteen people, including the conductor and an off-duty undercover police officer, hostage in the front car. Communicating over the radio with New York City Transit Police lieutenant Zachary Garber, Blue demands that a $1 million ransom be delivered within exactly one hour or he will kill one hostage for every minute it is late. Green sneezes periodically, to which Garber always responds, " Gesundheit." Garber, Lt. Rico Patrone and others cooperate while speculating about the hijackers' escape plan. Garber surmises that one hijacker must be a former motorman because the hijackers uncoupled the head car and parked it farther down the tunnel below 28th Street. Conversations between the hijackers reveal that Blue is a former British Army colonel and was a mercenary in Africa; Green was a motorman who lost his job after being caught in a drug bust; and Blue does not trust Grey, who was ousted from the Mafia for being erratic. Unexpectedly, Grey guns down a transit supervisor from Grand Central as he approaches the hijacked train. The ransom is transported uptown in a speeding police car that crashes well before arriving at 28th Street. As the deadline is reached, Garber bluffs Blue by claiming that the money has reached the station entrance and just has to be walked down the tunnel to the train. Meanwhile, a police motorcycle arrives with the ransom. As two patrolmen carry the money down the tunnel, one of the many police snipers in the tunnel shoots at Brown, and the hijackers exchange gunfire with them. In retaliation, Blue kills the conductor. The money is delivered and divided among the hijackers. Blue orders Garber to restore power to the subway line, set the signals to green all the way to South Ferry, and clear the police from stations along the route. Before this is done, however, Green moves the train farther south. When Garber becomes alarmed, Blue explains that he wanted more distance from the police inside the tunnel. The hijackers override the dead man's switch so that the train will run without anyone at the controls. Garber joins Inspector Daniels above ground where the train stopped. The hijackers set the train in motion and get off. As they walk to the tunnel's emergency exit, the off-duty undercover officer jumps off the train and hides between the rails. Unaware that the hijackers have left the train, Garber and Daniels drive south above its route. With no one at the controls, the train gains speed. The hijackers collect their disguises and weapons for disposal, but Grey refuses to surrender his gun, resulting in a stand-off with Blue, who kills him. The undercover officer kills Brown and exchanges fire with Blue while Green escapes through an emergency exit onto the street. Garber, contemplating the train's suspicious last movement, concludes that the hijackers have bypassed the dead man's switch and are no longer on board. He returns to where the train had stopped, enters the same emergency exit from street level, and confronts Blue before he kills the undercover cop. With no escape, Blue deliberately steps against the third rail and electrocutes himself. Meanwhile, Pelham 1-2-3 hurtles through the southbound tunnel. When it enters the South Ferry loop, its speed triggers the automatic safeties. The train screeches to a halt, leaving the hostages bruised but safe. Since none of the dead hijackers was a motorman, Garber infers that the lone survivor must be. Working their way through a list of recently discharged motormen, Garber and Patrone knock on the door of Harold Longman (Green). After hastily hiding the loot, Longman lets them in, bluffs his way through their interrogation and complains indignantly about being suspected. Garber vows to return with a search warrant. As Garber closes the apartment door behind him, Longman sneezes, and Garber reflexively says "Gesundheit," as he had over the radio. Garber re-opens the door and gives Longman a caustic stare.

Cyrus, charismatic leader of the Gramercy Riffs, the most powerful gang in New York City, requests that 100 of the city's gangs each send nine unarmed delegates to Van Cortlandt Park for a midnight summit. The Warriors, a gang from Coney Island, send a delegation consisting of "warlord" (leader) Cleon; "war chief" (second-in-command) Swan; enforcer Ajax; scout Fox; graffiti artist Rembrandt; music-man Snow; bearer Vermin and soldiers Cowboy and Cochise. Cyrus proposes a citywide truce and alliance to the assembled crowd, allowing the gangs to control the city together since they collectively outnumber the police by three to one. Most of the gang members applaud this idea, but Luther, the unbalanced and sadistic leader of the Rogues, shoots Cyrus dead as the NYPD arrive to raid the summit. In the chaos, Luther realizes that Fox witnessed his actions; after failing to shoot him, he falsely accuses the Warriors of responsibility. Cleon denies the assassination, however he is viciously attacked by the vengeful Riffs, killing him. Meanwhile, the other Warriors escape to Woodlawn Cemetery, unaware that they have been implicated in Cyrus's killing. Masai, Cyrus's second-in-command in the Riffs, puts out a "dead or alive" bounty on the Warriors through a radio DJ. To Ajax's disappointment, Swan takes charge of the group as they try to get home. The Turnbull ACs spot the Warriors and try to run them down with a modified school bus, but they escape and board the MTA New York City Subway. On the ride to Coney Island, the train is stopped by a building fire alongside the tracks, stranding the Warriors in Tremont. Setting out on foot, they encounter the Orphans, who are insecure about their lowly status as they were excluded from Cyrus's meeting. After Mercy, the girlfriend of the Orphans' leader, instigates a confrontation, Swan throws a Molotov cocktail, and the Warriors run to the nearest subway station. Impressed and desperate to escape her depressing neighborhood, Mercy follows the Warriors. When the group arrives at the 96th Street and Broadway station in Manhattan, they are pursued by police and separated. Vermin, Cochise, and Rembrandt escape by boarding a subway car. Fox, struggling with a police officer, is thrown onto the tracks and killed by a passing train as Mercy flees the scene. The Baseball Furies chase Swan, Ajax, Snow, and Cowboy into Riverside Park, but they are defeated in a brawl. After the fight, Ajax sees a lone woman sitting on a park bench and leaves the group despite Swan's objections. When Ajax becomes sexually aggressive, the woman reveals herself as an undercover police officer and arrests him with the help of uniformed officers. Upon arriving at Union Square station, Vermin, Cochise, and Rembrandt are seduced by an all-female gang called the Lizzies and invited into their hideout. They narrowly escape the Lizzies' subsequent attack, learning in the process that the gangland community and the police believe the Warriors murdered Cyrus. As a lone scout, Swan returns to the 96th Street station, where Mercy joins him (although he spurns her advances). After reaching the Union Square station by walking along the tracks, they reunite with the remaining Warriors and fight with an overalls -wearing roller skating gang, the Punks, which allows Mercy to prove herself in combat. Meanwhile, an unidentified gang member visits the Riffs and tells them that he saw Luther shoot Cyrus. At dawn, the Warriors finally reach Coney Island, only to find Luther and the Rogues waiting for them. Swan asks Luther why he killed Cyrus, to which Luther replies, "No reason... I just like doing things like that!" Swan challenges Luther to single combat, but Luther pulls a gun instead. Swan dodges his shot and throws a switchblade into Luther's forearm, disarming him. The Riffs arrive, acknowledging the Warriors' innocence of Cyrus' murder while saluting their courage and skill. The Riffs let the Warriors leave before descending on the Rogues and Luther, who screams in anguish at his imminent demise. The radio DJ announces that the bounty on the Warriors has been cancelled and salutes them with a song, " In the City." The film ends with Swan, Mercy, and the rest of the gang walking down a Coney Island beach illuminated by the rising sun.

Guy Hamilton, a novice foreign correspondent for an Australian radio network, arrives in Jakarta on assignment. He meets the close-knit members of the foreign correspondent community, including journalists from the UK, the US, and New Zealand; diplomatic personnel; and Billy Kwan, a photo-journalist and outlier in the journalist community. A Chinese-Australian man with dwarfism, high intelligence, and moral seriousness, Kwan is deeply involved with and concerned for the people of Jakarta and their tribulations, even regularly providing for a destitute woman and her young son. Guy is initially unsuccessful as a journalist because his predecessor, tired of life in Indonesia, had departed without introducing Guy to his contacts. He receives limited sympathy from the journalist community, which competes for scraps of information from Sukarno 's regime, the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), and the conservative, Muslim-dominated Indonesian military. However, Billy takes a liking to Guy and arranges interviews for him with key political figures. Billy introduces Guy to Jill Bryant, a beautiful young assistant at the British Embassy. Billy and Jill are close friends, yet Billy subtly manipulates her encounters with Guy. Since she is returning to the UK shortly, Jill initially resists Guy's attentions, but eventually they fall in love. When Jill discovers that the Chinese communists are arming the PKI in preparation for civil war, she passes this information to Guy, informing him that all foreigners will be in danger. She advises him to leave the country, but he uses the information to write about the communist rebellion that will occur when the arms shipment reaches Jakarta. Upset with Guy's lack of discretion and concerned it will lead back to Jill as the informant, Billy and Jill cut off contact with Guy; he is left with the American journalist Pete Curtis and his own assistant and driver Kumar, who is secretly a member of the PKI. Kumar, however, remains loyal to Guy, and tries to open his eyes to all that is going on. After the boy Billy had been caring for becomes ill and dies, Billy becomes despondent and disillusioned over Sukarno's failure to meet the needs of the Indonesian people. He hangs a banner with "Sukarno feed your people" from the Hotel Indonesia to express his outrage, but he is thrown from the window by security men and dies in Guy's arms. His death is also witnessed by Jill. Still pursuing his civil war scoop, Guy attempts to access the presidential palace where, having learned of the communist shipment, the army generals have taken over and unleashed executions. Struck down by an army officer, Guy suffers a serious eye injury. Resting alone in Billy's bungalow, Guy recalls a passage from the Bhagavad Gita, "all is clouded by desire", which Billy had recited to him. Kumar visits him and tells him about the failed coup attempt. Risking permanent damage to his eye, a bandaged Guy implores Kumar to drive him to the airport, where he boards the last plane out of Jakarta and is reunited with Jill.

In 1984 Los Angeles, an imposing man appears naked in an alley amid electric flashes and attacks three punks for clothes. Later, a man with scars appears in an alley the same way and evades police. The first man robs a gun shop, looks up addresses of women named Sarah Connor, and begins murdering them. A waitress named Sarah Connor sees news reports about the murders and notices the second man following her. As she shelters in a nightclub, the first man kills her roommate Ginger and Ginger's boyfriend. He tracks her to the nightclub, where the second man preemptively fires on him. After a chaotic gunfight, the second man escapes with Sarah in a stolen car, while the first man gets up and pursues them on foot and in a police car. The second man identifies himself as Sgt. Reese. He tells Sarah that the other man is a Terminator, a cyborg assassin from the future, and he has also come from the future to protect her. As they hide in a parking garage, Reese explains that Skynet, a pervasive computer network built by Cyberdyne Systems, will gain intelligence and launch a nuclear war against humans. He grew up in the aftermath as machines rounded survivors into extermination camps. John Connor, Sarah's unborn son, started a resistance in the camps. On the verge of the resistance's victory in 2029, the machines sent the Terminator back in time to assassinate Sarah and prevent John's birth. The Terminator tracks Reese and Sarah, but it disappears after being shot in the eye and crashing during a car chase with the duo. The police apprehend Reese and Sarah. Sarah is notified of Ginger's murder, while Reese is interrogated by Dr. Silberman, a skeptical criminal psychologist. The Terminator returns to a hotel hideout and repairs itself. Just as Silberman leaves, the Terminator arrives at the police station searching for Sarah, slaughtering many officers in the process. Reese and Sarah escape, steal another car and sleep under an overpass, where Sarah learns Reese's first name, Kyle. The next morning, they take refuge in a motel, where they assemble several pipe bombs and plan their next move. Reese admits that he has adored Sarah since he saw her in a photograph that John gave him, and that he traveled through time out of love for her. Reciprocating his feelings, Sarah kisses him and they have sex. The Terminator locates Sarah by intercepting a call intended for her mother, tricking her into revealing her location with its voice mimicking ability. She and Reese escape the motel in a pickup truck while it pursues them on a motorcycle. In the ensuing chase, Reese is badly wounded by gunfire while throwing pipe bombs at the Terminator. Sarah knocks the Terminator off its motorcycle but loses control of the truck, which flips over. The Terminator, now bloodied and badly damaged, hijacks a tank truck and attempts to run down Sarah. Reese throws a pipe bomb into the truck's hose tube, causing it to explode and burn, reducing the Terminator to its endoskeleton. Although Sarah and Reese initially believe the Terminator has been destroyed, it soon rises. They flee into a Cyberdyne-owned factory, where Reese activates machinery to distract it, but it eventually discovers them. Reese lodges his last pipe bomb into its midsection, blowing it apart at the cost of his own life. Its still-functioning torso pursues Sarah through a hydraulic press. She clears the press, traps the Terminator and crushes it, finally destroying the cyborg. Months later, Sarah, now pregnant with John by Reese, travels through Mexico with a guard dog, recording audio tapes to pass on to her son. At a gas station, a boy takes an instant film photograph of her, the one that John will one day give to Reese, and she purchases it. She restarts her car and drives toward ominous storm clouds.

High school senior Walter "Gib" Gibson and best friend Lance celebrate moving on to college, though Gib mostly laments having lost his touch with girls. Lance heads to UCLA while Gib attends an Ivy League college in New England. The two friends regularly communicate with Gib saying his luck with girls is unchanged. Gib attempts to woo the ambitious, regimented Alison Bradbury, his English classmate by tricking her into tutoring him. His clumsy seduction angers her. Lance invites Gib to come to California for Christmas break, saying he can set him up with a beautiful girl, claiming she is a "sure thing" with no strings attached. Gib arranges a cross-country ride share with Gary and Mary Ann only to discover that Alison is also a passenger. She is headed to UCLA to visit her boyfriend, Jason. The tension and bickering between Gib and Alison become too much for Gary and Mary Ann, and they abandon the two roadside in the middle of nowhere, infuriating Alison. Alison hitches a ride from a middle-aged man driving a pick-up truck. When he attempts to sexually assault her, Gib, who hid in the truck bed, quickly intervenes. The two decide to stick together, eventually making it to a bus station. However, Gib lacks enough money for the fare, so the two instead check into a motel. While Alison is talking to Jason on the phone, Gib leaves and ventures to a nearby bar. He spends his remaining cash on drinks and drunkenly sings Christmas carols with the locals. The next morning, Gib has Allison stuff her shirt with scarves to appear pregnant, hoping it increases their chances of getting a ride. The two hitchhike to a restaurant, whereupon Alison realizes she left her appointment book and cash back at the motel. That night, the two are caught outside in a rainstorm, until Alison suddenly remembers she has her father's emergency credit card. The two stay at an upscale hotel, where they treat themselves to drinks and dinner. The next morning, Alison is pleased to find Gib embracing her, but he quickly pulls away upon waking up. While hitchhiking with a truck driver through Arizona, Alison overhears Gib saying that he is on his way to meet a "sure thing". Upon arriving at the UCLA campus, Alison angrily parts ways with Gib. That night, Gib attends a Christmas mixer where Lance introduces Gib to the "sure thing" girl. Meanwhile, Alison is bored staying in Jason's dormitory and drags him to the same party. Alison and Gib see each other, but their mutual jealousy leads to a confrontation. Gib takes the "sure thing" to Lance's room but he can only think about Alison. In Jason's dormitory, Alison tells him about Gib. He asks if she loves Gib and it is implied that she does. Back on campus after Christmas break, Gib tries making amends with Alison, but she ignores him, angry about the party and believing Gib slept with the “sure thing.” In English class, Professor Taub reads Gib's essay, which describes his night with the "sure thing". The girl in the essay asks the protagonist if he loves her, but for the first time he realizes that those are not just words, and he cannot sleep with her. Alison realizes what actually happened that night and tells Gib that she and Jason broke up. The two reconcile and kiss.

Selected at birth and legally adopted by a television studio following an unwanted pregnancy, Truman Burbank is the unsuspecting star of The Truman Show, a reality television program filmed and broadcast worldwide, 24/7, through hidden cameras. Truman's hometown, Seahaven Island, is set inside an enormous soundstage in Los Angeles, which allows Christof, the show's creator and executive producer, to control nearly all aspects of Truman's life. Truman's world is populated by actors and crew members who serve as his community while keeping him from discovering the truth. To prevent Truman from escaping, Christof has orchestrated various scenarios such as the "death" of Truman's father in a boating accident to instill thalassophobia, and has the cast reinforce Truman's anxieties with messages about the dangers of traveling and the virtues of staying home. Though the producers intend for Truman to fall in love with and marry a woman named Meryl, he develops feelings for an extra named Sylvia. Sympathetic to Truman's plight, Sylvia tries to tell him the truth, but is promptly fired and removed from the set. Truman marries Meryl, but their relationship is stilted and passionless, and he continues to dream of traveling to Fiji, where he was told Sylvia had moved, and living a happy life with her. In the real world, Sylvia joins "Free Truman", an activist group that calls for Truman's liberation from the show. As the show approaches its thirtieth anniversary, Truman notices unusual occurrences such as a stage light falling from the sky; an isolated patch of rain that falls only over him; a radio transmission describing his movements; and the reappearance of his father, who is rushed away by crew members before Truman can confront him. Inferring that the city somehow revolves around him, Truman questions his life and asks his closest confidants to help him solve the mystery. Truman's suspicions culminate in an attempt to escape the island, but increasingly implausible occurrences block his path. Eventually, he is caught and returned home under a flimsy pretext. There, he confronts Meryl and challenges the sincerity of their marriage. As he holds her at knifepoint, Meryl breaks character to call for help and is removed from the show. Hoping to bring Truman back to a controllable state, Christof reintroduces his father to the show under the guise of him having developed amnesia following the accident. The show regains its ratings, and Truman seems to return to his routines. One night, however, Christof discovers that Truman has begun sleeping in his basement. Disturbed by this change in behavior, Christof sends Truman's best friend Marlon to visit and discovers that Truman has disappeared through a makeshift tunnel. Christof suspends the broadcast for the first time in its history, leading to record viewing numbers. Truman is found sailing away from Seahaven, having conquered his fear of water. Christof resumes the transmission and, unable to fetch Truman by rescue boat, creates a violent storm in an attempt to capsize Truman's boat, ignoring the protests of the executive producers and his assistants. Truman nearly drowns but continues to sail until his boat strikes the wall of the soundstage. He finds a staircase leading to an exit door. As he contemplates leaving, Christof speaks to Truman, revealing the truth about the show and encouraging him to stay by claiming that there is no more truth in the real world than in his artificial one. Truman utters his catchphrase—"In case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night"—before bowing to the audience and exiting. Sylvia races to greet him as the executive producers end the program with a shot of the open exit door, leaving Christof devastated. Viewers around the world celebrate Truman's escape, before quickly becoming bored and switching to the other TV channels.

Steven Grlscz, a charming, intelligent and reclusive vampire, selects single women as targets for his feedings. Steven can only feed on victims who fully feel love for him, as blood alone isn't enough; to this end he thoroughly researches each woman, and then manipulates her into falling in love before feeding on and killing her. Afterwards Steven is forced to expel slender, intricate crystals (physical forms of a person's dominant emotion) from his body if the love she felt was overshadowed by another emotion, such as despair or disappointment. The pain of doing so is akin to passing kidney stones, and thus Steven seeks a perfect lover in order to prevent this. After Steve watches police officers remove the body of one of his former lovers from a tree, he happens upon another woman, Maria Vaughan, in the Waterloo Station of the London Underground. He prevents Maria from committing suicide and begins dating her. This results in Maria falling for Steve. He eventually proposes to her, but immediately afterwards Steve entices Maria to his bedroom, where he drains her blood. After disposing of the body of Maria, Steven is seen by a passerby, who notices his van and later mentions this to the police. Maria's corpse is found after being netted by an illegal fishing boat, prompting Steven to call the police. Two detectives come to question him and his relationship to the victim, and while he appears innocent enough, lead Inspector Healey is immediately suspicious of Steven. While visiting a nearby factory, Steven notices another potential target: an engineer named Anne Levels. Anne's independence and quirky charm intrigue Steven, who asks her out. The two begin a relationship, although Anne is quick to note Steven's mysterious nature. Inspector Healey and Sergeant Roche continue to trail Steven as their prime suspect. Following Steven and Anne after a dinner date, Healey is attacked by a small gang in the Underground. The gang's leader takes Healey's crucifix, a gift from his wife, but Steven appears and manages to talk the gang into letting Healey go unharmed. Still wary of his suspect, Healey is nevertheless grateful to Steven for his help. The relationship between Steven and Anne progresses, but Steven soon notices that his healing abilities are starting to weaken, with a small cut continuing to bleed for days. Meanwhile, Healey is able to obtain a photograph of the van's driver, but a glare prevents anyone from clearly seeing Steven's face. Still, Steven is called in for a police line-up, with a toll operator Steven had earlier encountered acting as an eyewitness. The witness cannot remember who he had seen due to seeing hundreds of people that day, to the disbelief of the police; there is an implication that Steven might have had something to do with this memory lapse, as it is revealed that he can see through the one-way glass concealing the toll operator and inspectors. Anne and Steven are later attacked by the gang from the Underground, who demand Anne in exchange for Steven to be let go. Steven goes with the gang members, but after getting enough distance Steven overpowers them and saves Anne from being assaulted. The couple spends the night together, and Steven finds himself genuinely falling in love with Anne. The pair converse about a psychological concept: the notion that people have three minds (the human mind, the mammalian mind and the reptilian mind, with the lattermost representing primal or survival instincts). The movie's title comes from this conversation, during which Anne, sharing a childhood incident with Steve, asks him whether her actions were driven by the "horse"/mammalian mind or the "crocodile"/reptilian mind. Steven is met at work by Healey, who informs him that he is no longer a suspect in the murder of Maria, though the inspector personally remains unconvinced of Steven's supposed innocence. Steven and Healey share their philosophies about good and evil, and before parting ways Steven returns Healey's crucifix, which he had taken back from the gang. After this, Steven is called by Anne, who insists that she come to his apartment to see him. When she arrives, Steven attempts to drink from her as he did Maria but finds himself unable to go through with it. He finally reveals the truth to a horrified Anne, who tries to run from him. He confesses to her that he loves her and does not wish to kill her. Steven informs Anne that, due to not having fed on the blood of a lover, he is slowly dying; even a small wound would kill him within twenty minutes from blood hemorrhage. Despite the danger and knowledge that he has murdered others, Anne decides to stay and look after him. Steven's body is ultimately driven to near-death by his hunger. He informs Anne that he has run out of bandages, and she offers to go buy some. She returns early and sees Steven preparing to finally kill her. He chases Anne to the roof, and though she claims to no longer love him, Steven states that even if there's no more love in her heart, it's still in her blood, which would suffice. Rather than be fed on by Steven, Anne leaps off the roof. Steven is able to grab her arm in time, but she uses a metal chopstick (doubling as a hair stick and Anne's "lucky charm") to stab his hand. Steven screams in agony but manages to hold on and pull Anne to safety. She departs, shaken, as the mortally wounded Steven retreats to his apartment study, reminiscing as he finally dies, with the sketches of all the women he had targeted over the centuries surrounding him.