MI6 sends James Bond into the field to scout a terrorist arms bazaar on the Russian border. Despite M 's insistence on letting 007 finish his mission, Royal Navy Rear Admiral Roebuck orders the frigate HMS Chester to fire a Harpoon missile at the bazaar. Bond discovers two nuclear torpedoes mounted on an L-39 Albatros trainer jet; with the missile out of range to be aborted, Bond is forced to pilot the L-39 away seconds before the bazaar is destroyed, dogfighting with another L-39 before being able to return to base. Media baron Elliot Carver starts his plans to use an encoder obtained at the bazaar by his associate, cyberterrorist Henry Gupta, to provoke war between China and the UK. Meaconing the GPS signal using the encoder, Gupta sends the frigate HMS Devonshire off course into Chinese-occupied waters in the South China Sea, where Carver's stealth ship, commanded by Carver's chief enforcer Stamper, ambushes and sinks it with a "sea drill" torpedo. Carver's henchmen steal one of Devonshire 's missiles and shoot down a Chinese MiG fighter jet investigating the scene. Stamper kills the Devonshire 's survivors with weaponry loaded with Chinese ammunition. The British Minister of Defence orders Roebuck to deploy the fleet to investigate the sinking of the frigate, and demands retaliation, leaving M only 48 hours to investigate its sinking and avert a war. M sends Bond to investigate Carver and his company, CMGN, after Carver released news articles about the crisis hours before MI6 had become aware of it. Bond travels to Hamburg to seduce Carver's wife, Paris (an ex-girlfriend of Bond's), to get information that would help him enter CMGN headquarters. He defeats Stamper's men and cuts Carver off the air during the inaugural broadcast of his satellite network. Carver discovers the truth about Paris and Bond and orders both of them killed. Bond and Paris reconcile in Bond's hotel room, and she provides him with information to infiltrate Carver's newspaper facility. Bond steals the GPS encoder from Gupta's office at the facility. Meanwhile, Paris is killed by Carver's assassin and Stamper's mentor, Dr. Kaufman. After Bond returns to find Paris' body, Kaufman holds him at gunpoint. Bond is able to kill Kaufman and escape his henchmen through a multistory car park in his Q-branch vehicle, a BMW 750iL with remote control via his Ericsson cell phone. At a U.S. Air Force base in Okinawa, Bond teams with his CIA contact Jack Wade and meets GPS technician Dr. Dave Greenwalt. Bond understands that the encoder had been tampered with, and goes to the South China Sea to investigate the wreck. He and Wai Lin, a Chinese Ministry of State Security agent on the same case, explore the sunken ship and discover one of its cruise missiles missing, but after reaching the surface they are captured by Stamper and taken to the CMGN tower in Saigon. They soon escape and contact the Royal Navy and the People's Liberation Army Air Force to explain Carver's scheme. Carver plans to destroy most of the Chinese government with the stolen missile, allowing a corrupt Chinese general named Chang to assume power and negotiate a truce between Britain and China, both of which will have begun a naval war. Once the conflict is over, Carver will be given exclusive broadcasting rights in China for the next century, which would then allow his broadcasting network to be completely global. Bond and Wai Lin board Carver's stealth ship to prevent him from firing the missile at Beijing. Wai Lin is captured, forcing Bond to devise a second plan. Bond captures Gupta to use as his own hostage, but Carver kills Gupta, claiming he has "outlived his contract". Bond detonates a grenade in the hull, damaging the ship, thus rendering it visible to radar and vulnerable to a subsequent Royal Navy attack. While Wai Lin disables the engines, she is recaptured by Stamper. Bond kills Carver with his own drilling machine and attempts to destroy the warhead with detonators, but Stamper attacks him, sending a chained Wai Lin into the water. Bond traps Stamper in the missile firing mechanism and saves Wai Lin as the missile explodes, destroying the ship and killing Stamper. Bond and Wai Lin kiss amidst the wreckage as HMS Bedford searches for them.

In Arizona, Bobby Cooper drives his 1964½ Ford Mustang convertible heading to Vegas by way of Globe and Phoenix to repay gangster Mr. Arkady. His journey takes a turn, three miles outside of Superior, when the radiator hose bursts. At Harlin's Garage, Darrell claims repairs will take time, asking about Bobby's bandaged left hand. Taking his money pack, Bobby locks his handgun in the trunk. Bobby walks into town and meets Grace, who is walking home with her new drapes. Bobby offers his assistance, and she invites him home to shower, where it's revealed Arkady dismembered two of Bobby's fingers as punishment for the overdue debt. Bobby kisses Grace, but he's interrupted and assaulted by her older husband, Jake McKenna. Walking back to Superior, Jake picks Bobby up, asking if Bobby would kill Grace for money. Bobby dismisses Jake's proposal. Boyd and Ed rob Jamilla's groceria, then demand Bobby's pack. When Bobby refuses, Boyd pistol-whips him, taking his $13,000. Jamilla retaliates with a shotgun, killing both robbers, but shredding and bloodying Bobby's cash. Unable to pay Darrell an exorbitant $150, Bobby phones acquaintances in vain for help, including Arkady, who sends Sergei after Bobby. At Waldorf Café, Bobby buys a beer from Flo. Troubled teenager Jenny flirts with Bobby, incurring ire from her jealous boyfriend Toby N. "TNT" Tucker. But Sheriff Virgil Potter enters, and TNT backs off. Desperate to recoup his $13,000, Bobby approaches Jake, who bought a $50,000 life insurance policy on Grace, but Jake needs it to look like suicide. Bobby tries pushing her off a cliff, but pulls her back. They have sex, but Grace stops short, claiming Jake's her stepfather, who molested her after her mother allegedly jumped off the cliff. Grace asks Bobby to kill Jake and steal his $100,000. Bobby distrustfully refuses. Darrell extorts another $50 from Bobby, who discovers Darrell took Bobby's gun; Bobby grabs a wrench, but Darrell wields a tire-iron. Bobby rages, trapped. Lacking fare to Mexico, Bobby hysterically begs, "They're gonna kill me!" The bus station clerk gives him the ticket, but he has to run from Sergei, who's arrested for speeding by Potter. TNT attacks, destroying Bobby's ticket; Bobby loses it, badly beating TNT, whom Jenny comforts. Out of options, Bobby phones Grace, who unlocks Jake's back door. During sex with Grace, Jake hears Bobby entering, and brandishes Bobby's own gun (which Darrell gave Jake). Bobby claims killing Jake was Grace's idea, and he'll kill Grace for only $200 to get his car back and leave town. After a ruckus, Jake enters; Grace attacks Jake with her tomahawk, and Bobby delivers the coup de grâce, killing him. They unlock Jake's safe to find $200,000, and have sex on Jake's bloody bed. Bobby gets his Mustang back from Darrell, picking up Grace and the money. Leaving Superior, Potter intercepts them, revealing he too has been sleeping with Grace, who betrays Bobby, blaming him for Jake's death. Potter tells Bobby, that Grace is Jake's biological daughter, angering her. She shoots Potter with Bobby's gun. Bobby hits Grace, recovering his gun, but after dumping Jake and Virgil down a ravine, Grace pushes Bobby into the ravine, severely injuring him. Leaving, Grace discovers Bobby has the ignition key and climbs down to retrieve it. As Bobby strangles her, she shoots him, but dies. Bobby climbs out, starts the car, and says into the review mirror, "You're still lucky." But Darrell's shoddy replacement hose bursts. Bobby leans back, laughing ironically about his continuing bad luck as he looks up at the bright blue sky where vultures circle, aware he'll soon die.

In 3028, a groundbreaking scientific project known as "The Titan Project" incurs the wrath of the Drej, a hostile race of aliens made of pure energy, who fear that it will allow humans to challenge them. Determined to wipe out humanity due to the potential of the project, the Drej initiate a massive attack on Earth, forcing the human race to evacuate the planet. During the evacuation, Professor Sam Tucker—head researcher on the Titan Project—leaves his young son Cale in the care of his Vusstran friend Tek and flees Earth in the spaceship Titan. Before he leaves, he gives Cale a gold ring, promising him that there will be hope for humanity as long as he wears it. The Drej destroy Earth, and the surviving humans flee into space. Fifteen years later, the remnants of humanity live on as refugees, but face extinction without a home planet of their own. Ex-military officer Joseph Korso, a former friend and confidant of Sam, tracks down a jaded and cynical Cale, who works in the salvage yard of space station Tau 14. Korso reveals that a holographic map leading to the location of the Titan is encoded in Cale's ring, and invites Cale to join the crew of his spaceship Valkyrie as they seek the Titan. Accepting Korso's offer, Cale escapes Tau 14 with him as the Drej pursue them. On the Valkyrie, Cale befriends pilot Akima Kunimoto, and three alien crew members: first mate Preedex "Preed" Yoa, surly weapons officer Stith, and eccentric astronomer Gune. Cale's map leads the crew of the Valkyrie to the planet Sesharrim, where an alien race called the Gaoul help them interpret the map, revealing that the Titan is hidden in the Andali Nebula. Drej fighters then attack the planet and abduct Cale and Akima in order to copy the map. Akima is rescued by the crew after being jettisoned by the Drej Queen, while Cale escapes the Drej mothership in a stolen fighter and makes his way back to the Valkyrie. The map changes to reveal that the Titan is hidden in the Ice Rings of Tigrin, a labyrinthine ice field in space. While resupplying at human space station New Bangkok, Cale and Akima discover that Korso and Preed have made a deal to sell the Titan 's location to the Drej. Cale and Akima manage to escape the Valkyrie and are left stranded on New Bangkok when Korso leaves for the Titan. Determined to beat Korso to the Titan, they fix up a dilapidated spaceship with help from the station's inhabitants. Cale and Akima navigate the ice rings of Tigrin in a race against the Valkyrie and dock with the Titan. They discover DNA of various animals onboard and a pre-recorded message left by a now-deceased Sam, explaining that the ship was designed to create planets. However, the ship's power cells were drained during the escape from Earth, and lack the energy necessary to create a planet. The Valkyrie arrives, and Preed sets off a bomb in an attempt to kill Stith and Gune. Finding Cale and Akima, Preed betrays Korso and reveals his own deal he made with the Drej, who just arrived and located the Titan. A fight ensues, and Korso kills Preed by snapping his neck. Cale and Korso fight, resulting in Korso falling over a railing. As the Drej begin their attack on the Titan, Cale realizes that he may be able to recharge the Titan by using the Drej, as they are made of pure energy, but a circuit breaker stalls before he can complete the process. As Cale attempts to repair it, Akima, Stith and Gune fight off the Drej. Korso, who survived his fall, has a change of heart and sacrifices his life to repair the circuit breaker. Cale triggers the Titan 's systems, which absorb the Drej and their mothership, killing them. The Titan creates a new world, and Cale and Akima embrace in the rain on the newly created planet as ships filled with human colonists arrive to start a new life on the planet.

In the small town of West Canaan, Texas, Jonathan "Mox" Moxon is an academically gifted backup quarterback for the 3A high school Varsity football team, the West Canaan Coyotes. Despite his relative popularity at school, easy friendships with other players, and a relationship with girlfriend Jules Harbor, Mox is dissatisfied with his life. Wanting to leave Texas and attend Brown University, he constantly clashes with his football-obsessed father, Sam. He dreads playing under legendary coach Bud Kilmer, a verbally abusive and domineering authoritarian who believes in winning at all costs. Kilmer's philosophy finally takes its toll when he pushes the Coyotes' star quarterback, Lance Harbor, Mox's best friend and Jules' older brother, into taking painkilling shots into an injured knee. This leads to Lance injuring the knee further during a game, partly because Kilmer had forced offensive lineman Billy Bob to continue playing despite a concussion. At the hospital, the doctors, appalled at the massive amount of scar tissue found under his knee, explain that recovery will take at least a year and a half, costing Lance his football scholarship to Florida State. Mox, who has accompanied Lance, is shocked when Kilmer denies his role in Lance's injury, even though he ordered the trainer to provide the painkillers. Needing a new quarterback, Kilmer reluctantly names Mox to replace Lance as team captain and starting quarterback, which brings unexpected dividends for Mox. Wanting to marry someone leaving West Canaan to escape small-town life, Darcy Sears, Lance's cheerleader girlfriend, shows sexual interest in Mox and even attempts to seduce him with a whipped cream " bikini " over her otherwise naked body, but he gently rebuffs her, telling her that she can independently escape West Canaan. Disgusted with Kilmer and not strongly needing to win, Mox starts calling his own plays on the field without Kilmer's approval and also organizes an all night drinking party with his close friends on the team at a local strip club the night before a game. Fed up with the pressure from Sam, Mox chides him. Sam had been a football player at West Canaan, and although Kilmer dismissed him for lacking talent and courage, Sam still respected and obeyed him. When Kilmer discovers that Mox has won a full academic scholarship to Brown, he threatens to alter Mox's transcripts to endanger his scholarship unless he falls in line. Kilmer's disregard for the players continues, leading to Billy Bob's dramatic mental collapse. When star running back Wendell Brown, another friend of Mox's, is injured in the district title game, Kilmer persuades him to take a shot of cortisone to deaden the pain in his knee, allowing Wendell to continue at risk of more serious, and perhaps even permanent, injury. Desperate to be recruited by a good college, Wendell almost consents when Mox intervenes and tells Kilmer he will quit if the procedure continues. Undaunted, Kilmer orders wide receiver Charlie Tweeder, a friend of both Mox and Wendell, to replace Mox, but Tweeder refuses. Mox tells Kilmer that the team will only return to the field without him. Realizing that he will be forced to forfeit the game, an angered Kilmer physically assaults Mox, but the other players intercede and then refuse to take to the field. Knowing his outburst has cost him his credibility, Kilmer tries unsuccessfully to rally support and spark the team's trust in him, but none of the players follow him out of the locker room. Kilmer retreats alone to his office in defeat, abandoning the team to their fate. Using a five-receiver offense in the second half, the Coyotes proceed to win the game and the district championship without Kilmer's guidance, owing to Lance calling the plays from the sideline, and Billy Bob scoring the game-winning touchdown on a hook-and-ladder play. In a voice-over epilogue, Mox recounts several characters' aftermaths: Kilmer left town and never coached again, but his statue remained due to its weight; after the game, Tweeder drank beer and Billy Bob cried in celebration; Lance became a successful football coach, Wendell received a football scholarship to Grambling State University, and Mox went on to attend Brown on an academic scholarship.

In 1830 Paris, private investigator Eugène Vidocq pursues the Alchemist, a man wearing a cowl and a mirrored mask. The Alchemist lures Vidocq into a furnace room at a glass factory, and during a fight, pushes him into the furnace. Hanging onto the ledge, Vidocq asks him to reveal his face. The Alchemist obliges, and Vidocq lets go, falling into the fire. Journalist Étienne Boisset goes to Vidocq's colleague, René Nimier, asking for help writing Vidocq's biography. Boisset states that he plans to find Vidocq's murderer. Lautrennes, Paris's chief of police, asked Nimier and Vidocq to investigate the deaths of Belmont and Veraldi, the owners of a cannon factory. Lautrennes believed this had been an attempt to undermine the French military in an unstable political climate. Belmont and Veraldi had died in a lightning strike, but during the investigation, Vidocq and Nimier saw the powder on a factory worker's clothes catch fire. The servant responsible for maintaining Belmont's and Veraldi's suits confessed to having received a letter, with cash, ordering him not to clean their jackets. Realizing that the lightning would need to be attracted to the men, the investigators found metallic pins inserted into the victims' hats. Lautrennes orders officer Tauzet to investigate Vidocq's death. Meanwhile, Boisset sneaks into Nimier's office and retrieves the pins. He traces the design to Preah, a dancer in a brothel, and Vidocq's lover. Vidocq also tracked down Preah, who had received a letter, with cash, asking her to put the pins in the hats. The letter included a third target – Ernest Lafitte, owner of an orphanage. Vidocq rushed to save Lafitte, but the Alchemist got there first. Vidocq pursued him, who seemed to possess magical powers. Boisset's investigation leads him to Sylvia, the brothel manager; journalist Froissard, who is investigating the masked murderer; and Marine Lafitte, wife of Ernest. They reveal that Lafitte, Belmont and Veraldi were narcissists, committed to preventing death by aging. The Alchemist offered an elixir of eternal youth in return for their cooperation in capturing young maidens for his experiments. The three rich men went along, but later stopped cooperating due to a sense of guilt, so the Alchemist killed them. After Boisset leaves, the Alchemist arrives, killing Froissard and Marine. Tauzet notices that the Alchemist is disposing of witnesses, and fears Boisset is next. Boisset sneaks in to retrieve Vidocq's notes, and encounters Lautrennes and Tauzet. Lautrennes attempts to arrest Boisset, who escapes. The notes reveal that Vidocq found a lab where the Alchemist was using the maidens' blood to create a substance for his mask, which grants eternal youth by sucking the souls out of his victims. The Alchemist arrived and attacked Vidocq, who took a piece from the former's mask before the killer escaped. Vidocq's final note states that the Alchemist would need someone to manufacture the mask, leading him to the glass factory. Boisset, Nimier and Preah head to the factory, ushered by an artisan, and trailed by both Tauzet and Lautrennes. The artisan eventually removes his prosthetic, revealing himself to be Vidocq. Vidocq had actually jumped into a secret hole in the furnace wall, which he saw in the mask's reflection before the Alchemist revealed himself to be Boisset. Vidocq faked his own death to let Boisset's guard down, knowing the Alchemist would destroy all clues and witnesses through any means necessary. With his cover blown, Boisset dons the Alchemist's mask. Nimier opens fire, but is killed as the Alchemist magically reflects the bullets back at him. Vidocq pursues the Alchemist into a hall of mirrors and forces him to look into a mirror shard, freeing the souls trapped inside the mask. Vidocq impales the Alchemist with a shard of mirror and throws him into a river. Although the others insist the Alchemist is dead, Vidocq is unnerved by the lack of a body. At Nimier's funeral, as everyone walks away, the Alchemist's laugh can be heard in the distance, accompanied by the glimmer of his mirror mask.

The film begins with a backstory of how African-American culture 's popularity with the American public began to decline in the 1980s, when style and originality began to lose appeal in the public eye due to the persistent efforts of " The Man ", a powerful Caucasian man in control of a secret organization that seeks to undermine the African-American community as well as the cultures of other minorities. The Man is infuriated that Gen. Warren Boutwell, a United States Army general (based on Colin Powell), is considering running for president, and his lackey Mr. Feather informs him of a mind-control drug which The Man uses to make Boutwell abort his plans and instead open a fried chicken franchise. The B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D., a secret organization that battles The Man's influence, determines The Man is behind Boutwell's change of heart, and recruits a freelance spy named Undercover Brother to aid them. Undercover Brother joins B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D.'s leadership, made up of the Chief, Conspiracy Brother, Smart Brother and Sistah Girl. Also tagging along is Lance, an intern who is the only white man in the organization hired due to affirmative action. Undercover Brother goes undercover as a new employee at a cigarette company owned by The Man, where Mr. Feather discovers his identity. He deploys a secret weapon that he calls "Black Man's Kryptonite ", an attractive assassin named White She-Devil. Posing as another new employee, she and Undercover Brother start dating, and she begins to make him do stereotypical "white" things, such as buying corduroy and khaki clothes, singing karaoke, and adopting a silly set of euphemisms. Meanwhile, The Man distributes his mind-control drug through Boutwell's fried chicken, infecting other black celebrities and making them act white, as well as marketing the chicken nationwide to land a crushing blow to African-American culture. Concerned with Undercover Brother's unusual behavior, Sistah Girl attacks White She-Devil while Undercover Brother fights the henchmen as White She-Devil and Sistah girl start to tear each other's clothes off and end up in the shower where they start to rub themselves before rubbing up against each other and almost kissing. Sistah Girl then convinces Undercover Brother to return to the fight. White She-Devil turns on her own henchmen to save the two, revealing she has fallen in love with Undercover Brother. They return to the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D., where Smart Brother questions White She-Devil about The Man and Lance is officially made part of the group when he declares his desire to abolish bigotry after watching Roots. The group heads to an awards gala after they find out that James Brown is The Man's next target. Mr. Feather kidnaps Brown and takes him to The Man's base. B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. secures an antidote for the mind control drug and follows via a transmitter placed on Brown, infiltrating the base posing as a cleaning crew, to rescue Brown and Boutwell. Mr. Feather prepares to administer the drug to Brown and present him as a trophy to The Man, and Brown reveals himself as Undercover Brother in disguise. Mr. Feather sends his henchmen after B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D., who rescue Boutwell, and is ordered by Mr. Feather to kill Undercover Brother. In the fighting, Conspiracy Brother accidentally begins the building's self-destruct sequence. The B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. cures Boutwell and evacuate him from the building while Undercover Brother chases Mr. Feather to the roof. The Man's helicopter circles overhead and leaves, The Man abandoning Mr. Feather for failing him. Mr. Feather jumps onto the helicopter's landing gear as it flies away, and Undercover Brother uses his afro picks to impale Mr. Feather in the buttocks, causing him to fall into the ocean, where he is eaten by a shark. However, The Man escapes. Undercover Brother survives the building's self-destruction by leaping off the building and using his modified parachute pants to escape.All three of them leave the island, the world at peace.

Lucy Kelson is an intelligent, highly competent liberal lawyer who specializes in historic preservation, environmental law, and pro bono cases in New York City. George Wade is an arrogant, rich real estate developer and stylish playboy who has grown up in a life of luxury and is also quite naïve. Lucy's hard work and devotion to others contrasts sharply with George's childish recklessness and greed. George is the face of his company and works alongside his brother Howard, who is more responsible and mature. Lucy meets George in an attempt to stop the destruction of the Coney Island community center she grew up with. Learning that she graduated from the prestigious Harvard Law School, he asks to hire her to replace his old Chief Counsel, overlooking their opposing views of real estate development. She decides the benefits he offers in discretionary funding for causes she supports outweigh the negatives, especially as he promises to protect the community center. Lucy finds what George really requires is advice in all aspects of his life. She regretfully becomes his indispensable assistant he calls at all times for the next few years. After Lucy is disrupted at a friend's wedding by George's latest "emergency" (what to wear to an event he is attending), she gives him two weeks' notice of resignation. Lucy looks for work at other firms, but George has called in advance asking them not to hire her, so he can keep her on. Eventually, he admits defeat and she offers to help him find a replacement, unaware of how close and interdependent they have become. Lucy's boyfriend Ansel, who is always away with Greenpeace, breaks up with her over the phone and she is consoled by George on his private yacht. She gets drunk, brags about how good she is at sex, and kisses George before passing out. When she wakes up the next morning, she has forgotten about what happened the night before. New Harvard graduate June Carver is finally hired as Lucy's replacement, and she becomes increasingly close with George, making Lucy jealous. At a business event, June kisses George and they go to his room. Lucy learns that despite George's promise, the community center is going to be demolished in favour of a new real estate project, so goes to confront him on his apparent betrayal. Arriving at his hotel, she finds George and June in his suite in their underclothes during a game of "strip chess". George confronts Lucy the next day, her last day at work, where she reminds him he promised her to spare the community center and storms out. After Lucy is gone, George realizes his time with her has demonstrated that he needs to change. Meanwhile, in her new job, Lucy realizes she misses him. George goes in search of Lucy and reveals he decided to keep his promise to her and chose not to demolish the center. She initially rebuffs him, but overcome with tears over the revelation, runs after him. The pair declare their feelings, and George reveals he has resigned. They kiss in the middle of the sidewalk and go to the small apartment Lucy shares with her parents. The DVD version of the film includes an unreleased scene of George and Lucy's wedding at the community center attended by family and friends.

Liu Cheng (Liu Peiqi) is a widowed cook making his living in a small southern town in China. His thirteen-year-old son, Liu Xiaochun (Tang Yun), is a violin prodigy. In the hope that Xiaochun might find success as a violinist, Liu Cheng and Xiaochun travel to Beijing to participate in a competition organized by the Children's Palace, an arts institution for school children. Even though Xiaochun emerges fifth, he is denied admission into the conservatory as he does not have Beijing residency. Determined to realize his hopes for Xiaochun, Liu Cheng persuades Professor Jiang (Wang Zhiwen), a stubborn and eccentric teacher from the Children's Palace, to take Xiaochun as a private student. In the subsequent days, Xiaochun makes friends with Lili (Chen Hong), a young and attractive woman living upstairs. Lili does not have a regular job but lives off the rich men she dates. However, her heart lies with Hui (Cheng Qian), her smooth-talking, cheating boyfriend. After Lili finds out about Hui's affairs in the presence of Xiaochun, Xiaochun sells his violin to a shop, buys a fur coat that Lili fancies, and leaves it at Lili's apartment for her to find. Unfortunately, Hui finds the gift before Lili does, and gives it to Lili, claiming that it was from him. Lili does not discover that Hui lied (and that the coat was from Xiaochun) until later. Meanwhile, Liu Cheng has learned about a Professor Yu Shifeng (Chen Kaige), a high-profile professor from the Central Conservatory of Music. Believing that Professor Yu is able to bring Xiaochun to fame and success, Liu Cheng decides to switch teachers for Xiaochun. He pays Professor Yu a visit and confides in the latter the truth about Xiaochun's birth. It turns out that Liu Cheng has never been married. He found the infant Xiaochun abandoned in a train station, with a violin placed next to the baby. Liu Cheng brought both home and raised the baby as his own. Xiaochun turned out to be a child prodigy, and Liu Cheng resolved to devote his life to cultivate his adopted son's talent. Professor Yu, apparently unmoved, nonetheless agrees to give Xiaochun an audition. However, Liu Cheng arrives at Professor Yu's home with Xiaochun only to find the violin case empty. Xiaochun, angry at his father for choosing commercial success over music, refuses to play even when offered another violin. Liu Cheng is so enraged that upon returning home, he tears up the award certificates that Xiaochun won in previous competitions. Lili, remorseful over the affair of the fur coat, looks up Professor Yu and persuades him to give Xiaochun a second chance. This time Xiaochun plays, and an impressed Professor Yu accepts him without hesitation. Professor Yu has another talented young student, Lin Yu (Zhang Jing), a highly jealous and ambitious girl. When a selection trial for an international competition is coming up, Lin Yu and Xiaochun are in a contest for the only spot. Liu Cheng decides to pack up and return home first, both to allow Xiaochun full concentration and to raise some money should Xiaochun be selected to participate in the international competition. In an effort to infuse passion and emotion into Xiaochun's playing, Professor Yu tells the boy the truth about his birth. However, this only strengthens Xiaochun's love for his father. Just before the selection trial, Xiaochun, who has been chosen to participate, relinquishes his spot to Lin Yu after she reveals to him that Professor Yu had secretly bought Xiaochun's original violin from the shop to stop Xiaochun from being distracted by thoughts of it. Xiaochun then takes the violin and runs after his father. The two finally reunite at the train station. In place of fame and success, Xiaochun chooses to be together with his father.

The planet Cybertron was ravaged by a civil war between two Transformer factions — the Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, and the Decepticons, led by Megatron. Both search for a lost artifact called the AllSpark, a cube-like object that is the source of all Cybertronian life, to win the war. The Autobots want to find the AllSpark to rebuild Cybertron and end the war, while the Decepticons want to use it to conquer the universe. Megatron found the AllSpark on Earth, but crash-landed in the Arctic Circle and was frozen in the ice. Captain Archibald Witwicky and his crew of explorers stumbled upon Megatron in 1897. Captain Witwicky accidentally activates Megatron's navigational system, causing his eyeglasses to be imprinted with the coordinates of the AllSpark's location. Sector 7, a secret U.S. government organization, discovers the AllSpark in the Colorado River and builds the Hoover Dam around it to mask its energy emissions. The still-frozen Megatron is transported into the facility and is reverse engineered to advance human technology. In the present day, the Decepticons — Blackout, Scorponok, Frenzy, Barricade, Starscream, Bonecrusher and Brawl — have landed on Earth and assumed the disguise of Earth vehicles and electronics. Blackout and Scorponok attack the U.S. SOCCENT military base in Qatar and try to hack into the U.S. military network to find the location of Megatron and the AllSpark, but their mission is thwarted when the base staff severs the network cable connections. While Blackout wrecks the rest of the base, Captain William Lennox, Sergeant Robert Epps, and their small group of survivors with photographic evidence of the robots escape the destruction. They are pursued by Scorponok, but he is repelled by air strikes. In the process, Lennox's team discovers that the only effective weapons against the Transformers' armor are high-heat sabot rounds. After Blackout's failure, Frenzy infiltrates Air Force One to hack into the military network and, in doing so, plants a virus. He finds the map imprinted on Archibald's glasses, which is owned by his descendant, Sam Witwicky, leading him and Barricade to begin tracking Sam's location in Los Angeles. One of the Autobots, Bumblebee, is also on Earth, disguised as a 1976 Chevy Camaro, and is bought by Sam while shopping for his first car. Bumblebee helps him woo his crush, Mikaela Banes, and leaves at night to transmit a homing beacon to the Autobots, with Sam briefly seeing his robot form. The next day, Barricade confronts Sam and demands his grandfather's glasses, but Bumblebee rescues him and Mikaela. After Bumblebee upgrades his vehicle form by scanning a 2007 Chevrolet Camaro, they rendezvous with the arriving Autobots — Optimus, Jazz, Ironhide, and Ratchet — who also take on forms of Earth vehicles. Sam, Mikaela, and the Autobots return to Sam's home and obtain the glasses. Government agents from Sector 7, led by Seymour Simmons, arrive to arrest Sam and Mikaela, and capture Bumblebee after the Autobots try to rescue them. Frenzy, disguised as a mobile phone, secretly accompanies the group to the Hoover Dam, where he alerts the other Decepticons upon locating the AllSpark and releases Megatron, while Sam convinces the Sector 7 agents to release Bumblebee so he can get the AllSpark to Optimus. The military’s communications are shut down by Frenzy's virus, but aided by a pair of hackers, Maggie Madsen and Glen Whitmann, they manage to alert the Air Force. The Autobot-human convoy goes to Mission City to obtain a radio to guide the Air Force and secure an extraction for the AllSpark as Decepticon forces attack the convoy. Bonecrusher, Jazz, Frenzy, Brawl, and Blackout are killed in the ensuing battle, and Sam manages to ram the AllSpark into Megatron's chest as he battles Optimus, killing him and destroying the AllSpark. Optimus takes a fragment of the AllSpark from Megatron's corpse, but realizes that Cybertron cannot be restored with its destruction. The U.S. government decommissions Sector 7 and sinks the deceased Decepticons into the Laurentian Abyss, while Sam and Mikaela begin a relationship, Starscream escapes into space, and Optimus sends a signal to other surviving Autobots, directing them to Earth.

In Salamanca, Spain, an assassination attempt on U.S. President Henry Ashton unfolds from several different vantage points. GNN producer Rex Brooks directs news coverage from a mobile television studio as the president arrives to a ceremony at the city's Plaza Mayor, for the start of an international summit against terrorism. The mayor of Salamanca introduces the President, who is shot twice as he reaches the podium, soon followed by an explosion outside the plaza. Moments later, a secondary explosion at the podium kills and injures numerous people. Before the President takes the stage, Secret Service agent Thomas Barnes notices a curtain fluttering in a supposedly vacated building, and observes American tourist Howard Lewis filming the audience. After the President is shot, Barnes tackles a man named Enrique rushing to the podium. Following the second explosion, Barnes barges into the GNN studio to view their footage. He receives a call from another Secret Service agent, who reports he is pursuing the suspected assassin; Barnes is then startled by an image from GNN's live feed. Enrique, a Spanish police officer guarding the Mayor, overhears his girlfriend Veronica being embraced by a stranger and plan to meet later under an overpass. Enrique confronts Veronica, who assures him of her love as he hands her a bag. When the President is shot, Enrique rushes to protect the Mayor but is tackled by Barnes. Enrique witnesses Veronica toss the bag under the podium, causing the second explosion. Escaping the Secret Service, Enrique confronts an unseen individual at the overpass. In the crowd, Howard Lewis chats with a man called Sam, while a little girl named Anna bumps into him. Howard notices Barnes looking at the nearby window, and films him with his camcorder. Following the explosion at the podium, Howard chases Enrique and the pursuing Secret Service agents. At the overpass, Howard views the agents from afar shooting at Enrique as he greets an individual in a police uniform under the overpass. Wounded, Enrique falls to the ground. As a speeding ambulance is about to hit Anna, Howard runs into the road after her. Previously, Ashton, having been informed of a credible threat, returns to his hotel room while his body double proceeds to the plaza. Ashton and his personnel discuss the reason and origin for the terrorists' plot, and the return of Barnes to active duty; they watch on TV the double being shot and the first explosion. One adviser is intent on Ashton giving immediate order for retaliation against the village of origin of the terrorists they are aware of, when the second explosion shatters the room's windows. The staffer insists in earnest on retaliation, but Ashton refuses, so the negotiations can continue. A masked assailant bursts into the room, shoots the advisers, and abducts Ashton. At the plaza, terrorist Suarez, previously seen as Sam, shoots Ashton's body double using a remote-controlled automatic rifle placed adjacent to the window that drew Barnes' attention. The rifle is retrieved by Secret Service agent Kent Taylor, who Barnes sees on the GNN live feed leaving the scene wearing a Spanish police uniform. Barnes realizes that Taylor, who happens to be his partner, is part of the terror plot. The man Enrique saw embracing Veronica is revealed to be sharpshooter Javier, whose brother is being held hostage by the terrorists to ensure Javier's cooperation. The explosion at the hotel is detonated by a suicide bomber disguised as a bellhop, who gave Javier a room key. At the hotel, Javier kills the guards and aides and kidnaps the president, placing him in an ambulance with Suarez and Veronica disguised as medics. Javier joins Taylor in a police car to rendezvous at the overpass. Barnes commandeers a car in pursuit, but gets into a collision. At the overpass, Enrique, who did not die in the blast at the podium as intended, confronts Javier and Taylor. Javier shoots Enrique, mistakenly believing he had knowledge of his brother's whereabouts. Javier is shot dead by Taylor after demanding to be brought to his brother, killed earlier by Suarez. Enrique dies of his wounds as Barnes reaches the scene and fires at Taylor, who attempts to flee. After crashing his car, a critically injured Taylor is dragged out by Barnes, furious at his partner's betrayal, he dies right before revealing the President's whereabouts. Ashton regains consciousness in the ambulance and attacks Veronica, distracting her and Suarez as Anna runs into their path. Suarez swerves, causing the ambulance to flip over as Howard pulls Anna out of its way. Barnes runs to the ambulance where he sees Veronica lying dead. He shoots and kills Suarez before rescuing the President. In the closing scene, a GNN news anchor states that the President is recovering and that the "lone assassin" responsible for the shooting and bombing was killed.

An American former Delta Force operator, Steven Younger, makes a videotape. Los Angeles-based FBI Special Agent Helen Brody and her team are summoned to a high school, commandeered by the military as a black site holding Younger (calling himself Yusuf Mohamed). They watch Yusuf's tape, showing three nuclear bombs in separate U.S. cities, timed for synchronous explosions if his demands are not met. A special interrogator, "H", is brought in to force Yusuf to reveal the bombs' locations. H immediately shows his capability, cutting off one of Yusuf's fingers. Horrified, Brody attempts to put a stop to the measures. Her boss, Saunders, makes it clear that the threat of 10 million deaths necessitates the torture. H escalates his methods, with Brody acting as the " good cop ". Yusuf then makes his demands: he wants the President of the United States to announce a cessation of support for puppet governments and dictatorships in Muslim countries and a withdrawal of American troops from there. The group immediately dismisses the possibility of his demands being met, citing the U.S. government's declared policy of not negotiating with terrorists. When Brody accuses a broken Yusuf of faking the bomb threat in order to make a point about the moral character of the United States as a nation, he breaks down and admits that it was all a ruse, giving her an address to prove it. They find a room that matches the scene in the video tape, but no nuclear bomb. A soldier pulls Yusuf's picture down, which triggers a C-4 explosion at a nearby shopping mall, killing 53 people. Angry at the senseless deaths, Brody returns to Yusuf and cuts his chest with a scalpel. Yusuf is unafraid, and justifies the deaths in the shopping mall, stating that the Americans kill that many people every day. Yusuf says he allowed himself to be caught so he could face his oppressors. Yusuf's wife and kids are detained, and H brings her in front of her husband and threatens to mutilate her right there. Brody and the others begin to take her away from the room in disgust, but H slashes her throat, and she bleeds to death in front of Yusuf. Yusuf does not break, so H has Yusuf's two children brought in. Outside of Yusuf's hearing, he assures everyone that he will not harm the children. He tells Yusuf that he will torture his children if the locations of the bombs are not divulged. Yusuf breaks and gives three addresses (in New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas), but H still prepares to torture the children, but the others forcefully stop him. Citing the amount of missing nuclear material Yusuf potentially had at his disposal (some 18 lbs. were reported missing, with about 4½ lbs. needed per device), H insists that Yusuf had not admitted anything about a heretofore-unreferenced fourth bomb. H points out that everything Yusuf has done so far has been planned meticulously; Yusuf knew the torture might break him, and he would have been certain to plant an unexpected fourth bomb, just in case. The purpose of the preceding torture was not to break Yusuf, but rather to make it clear what would happen to his children if he did not cooperate. The government official in charge of the operation – who helped attack H moments earlier, now demands that H torture Yusuf's children for the fourth bomb. H demands that Brody escort the children back, but she says that letting the fourth bomb kill millions is better than torturing two children. H sarcastically unties Yusuf. The official draws his pistol and aims it at H to coerce him into further interrogation. Yusuf grabs the official's gun, asks Brody to take care of his children, and kills himself. Brody walks out of the building with Yusuf's children.

Jess prepares to take her autistic son Tommy on a boat trip with her friend Greg. When Tommy becomes upset, she tells him that he just had a bad dream. Jess goes to a Florida harbor without Tommy, explaining that he is at school, and boards Greg's boat with his deckhand Victor, his married friends Sally and Downey, and Sally's friend Heather. On the boat she has a dream about crabs on a beach, and wakes up disturbed, but then she forgets what disturbed her. At sea, a storm approaches, and while Greg radios the Coast Guard, he listens to a distress signal from a woman pleading for help. She says that someone is killing everyone but is cut off before she can provide her location. The sudden storm capsizes the boat. Heather is swept away, but the others climb onto the overturned sailboat when the storm clears. The five survivors board a passing ocean liner, the Aeolus. It appears to be deserted even though they saw the silhouette of a person aboard. Jess experiences a sense of déjà vu as they explore the ship. They find Jess's keys and fresh food in the dining room. Jess spots someone watching them and Victor gives chase. Jess and Greg find the words "go to theater" written in blood on a mirror, but Greg insists the crew must be playing a prank. Jess returns to the dining room, where the food is now rotting. Victor, with a head wound, tries to strangle Jess, but she fights him, and he collapses. Jess hears gunfire and follows it to the ship's theater, where Greg lies dead from a gunshot. Sally and Downey say that Greg told them Jess shot him. Someone in a burlap mask shoots Sally and Downey. Jess runs, grabs an ax and disarms the shooter, who tells her, "You have to kill them; it's the only way to get home" before Jess knocks her overboard. Jess hears yelling and sees another copy of her group on Greg's boat, who spot her (as the earlier unidentified figure). This new set of passengers boards the ship. They spot her after she drops her keys, and she attempts to warn the new Victor when he chases her, only to accidentally injure his head on a wall hook. She finds dozens of her own lockets and notes in her own handwriting telling her to kill them all. She takes a shotgun and confronts the new group, intending to "change the pattern", but a third Jess shoots the new Greg and stabs the new Downey and Sally. The old Jess chases the new Sally, who sends the distress signal heard on Greg's boat. Jess catches up to her on a deck filled with dozens of Sally's corpses, and Sally succumbs to her wound as, below them, the new Jess kills the third Jess. The overturned boat returns again with another copy of her group, and the old Jess realizes the loop restarts once everyone is killed. Desperate to stop the loop, she sets the loop into motion by writing on the mirror in blood, dumping bodies overboard, and telling the latest Sally and Downey to go to the theater. She then arms herself, dresses in the shooter's outfit, and puts on a burlap mask. After she shoots the latest group and is disarmed, she urges the latest Jess to kill everyone, before being knocked overboard. She awakens near crabs on a beach, having washed ashore, and she discovers that it is earlier that morning. She returns home and watches from outside her house as her earlier self yells abusively and strikes Tommy out of frustration with his autism. She distracts her counterpart with the doorbell, then kills her, and tells Tommy that he just had a bad dream. She puts the bagged body in her car's trunk and leaves with Tommy, vowing to him that things will change. A seagull hits their windshield and dies, but after she tosses it off the road, she sees there's a pile of many dead seagulls. Realizing she is still trapped in the loop, Jess hurriedly drives away, but crashes into a truck, killing Tommy. A taxi driver approaches her. Jess asks him to take her to the harbour, evidently hoping to bring back her son. The driver tells her he will wait for her, and she promises him that she will return. Exhausted, she joins the others on Greg's boat, starting the loop again.