In 2010, Ethiopian Jewish miners retrieve a rare black opal from the Welo mine in Ethiopia. In 2012, gambling addict Howard Ratner runs KMH, a jewelry store in New York City's Diamond District. He struggles to pay off his gambling debts, which include the $100,000 he owes to Arno, his loan shark brother-in-law. His domestic life is split between his wife Dinah, who has agreed to divorce after Passover, and his girlfriend Julia, a KMH employee. Howard's business associate, Demany, brings the basketball star Kevin Garnett to KMH. While he is there, the opal, which Howard had smuggled from Africa, arrives. Garnett becomes obsessed with the opal, insisting on holding onto it for good luck at his game that night. Howard reluctantly agrees, accepting Garnett's 2008 NBA Championship ring as collateral. After Garnett leaves, Howard pawns the ring and wins a six-way parlay on Garnett playing extraordinarily well in that night's game. The next day, Demany says that Garnett still has the opal, angering Howard. Howard is ambushed at his daughter's school play by Arno and his goons, Phil and Nico. Howard's winning bet should have earned him $600,000, but Arno reveals that he placed a stop on the bet because it was made with money Howard owed him. Phil and Nico strip Howard naked and lock him in the trunk of his car, forcing him to call Dinah for help. Howard meets Demany at a nightclub party hosted by the singer the Weeknd to retrieve the opal, but learns that Garnett still has it. Howard discovers Julia snorting cocaine in a bathroom with the Weeknd and gets into a fight with him. Feeling betrayed, Howard confronts Julia and demands that she move out of his apartment. Garnett returns the opal before an auction and offers to purchase it for $175,000, but Howard refuses, believing it is worth much more. Garnett demands his ring back, but Howard lies, saying it is at his house. After Garnett leaves in dismay, Howard berates Demany for allowing Garnett to hold onto the opal for so long. Incensed, Demany quits and trashes Howard's office. After an awkward Passover dinner, Dinah rejects Howard's plea to give their marriage another chance. Just before the auction starts, Howard discovers the opal has been appraised for significantly less than his initial estimate of $1 million. He convinces his father-in-law, Gooey, to bid on the gem to drive up the price, but the plan backfires when Garnett fails to top Gooey's final bid. A furious Gooey gives Howard the opal before Arno, Phil, and Nico assault Howard outside the auction house. Howard returns to KMH, bloody and in tears. Julia comforts him, and they reconcile. Howard learns that Garnett is still willing to purchase the opal. Garnett goes to KMH to pay, giving Howard enough money to repay his debt to Arno. Arno, Phil, and Nico arrive at KMH just before Garnett leaves, but before they enter his office, Howard tells Julia to bet the cash on a three-way parlay on Garnett playing well. Julia escapes as the thugs find Howard in his office and threaten him, while Julia travels by helicopter to the Mohegan Sun casino to place the bet. Arno tells Howard to call Julia and cancel the bet, but he refuses. Furious, the three attempt to pursue her, but Howard locks them between the store's security doors. Howard watches the game on television while Arno, Phil, and Nico remain trapped. Garnett's Boston Celtics win the game, winning Howard $1.2 million. An ecstatic Howard frees Arno, Phil, and Nico, but the enraged Phil shoots Howard dead. Arno protests and tries to escape, but Phil shoots him dead, too. Julia leaves the casino with Howard's winnings as Phil and Nico loot the store.

In 2025, ENCOM and Dillinger Systems are in a race to bring digital constructs into reality. ENCOM's CEO Eve Kim and her partner Seth Flores visit a remote station near Skagway, Alaska built decades earlier by Kevin Flynn. Finding Flynn's "permanence code", enabling constructs to exist for more than 29-minute intervals, they transfer a digital orange tree into the real world. Julian Dillinger, the head of Dillinger Systems and grandson of former ENCOM executive Ed Dillinger, introduces his shareholders to Ares, a Master Control Program he describes as the "perfect, expendable soldier". Ares shows signs of self-awareness and notes Julian's indifference to his programs' survival, while Julian's mother, Elisabeth, expresses concern about their constructs' limited lifespans. Julian sends Ares and his unit to attack ENCOM's digital Grid, downloading Eve's personal data in pursuit of the permanence code. Against his programming, Ares tries to save an injured program, but Julian extracts him and disables ENCOM's Grid. Redeployed to the outside world, Ares tracks Eve's jet as she and Seth return to ENCOM with the permanence code. Learning of Julian's cyberattack from their colleague Ajay Singh, Eve flees as Ares and his second-in-command Athena chase her through the city on Light Cycles. Eve hijacks Athena's Light Cycle but is cornered by Ares, and destroys the drive containing the code. Reaching the end of his 29-minute lifespan, Ares recognizes Eve's empathy towards his plight. As Ares and Athena are "derezzed", Julian digitizes Eve onto the Dillinger Grid. Ares reveals the code can be obtained using Eve's identity disc, and Julian is willing to let her die as a result. Lying to Athena that Julian is "indisposed", Ares bargains with Eve, asking to achieve permanence in exchange for her freedom. Suspicious, Athena contacts Julian and, deciding that Ares is malfunctioning, returns with orders to de-rez him. Evading their pursuers, Ares and Eve return to the real world. En route to ENCOM, they reflect on their motivations, as Ares shows further signs of self-awareness and individuality. Eve realizes a copy of the code might be stored in Kevin Flynn's original office, preserved at ENCOM Tower, where they reunite with Seth to upload Ares onto Flynn's original Grid using a particle laser. They are ambushed by Athena, who destroys the laser to trap Ares, but experiences a moment of self-awareness before de-materializing. Ajay and his assistant Erin arrive, joining Seth and Eve in using Athena's own laser to hack the Dillinger Grid. Elisabeth retakes the position of CEO and tries to turn off the particle lasers, but Athena re-materializes and fatally stabs her, to Julian's horror, having interpreted her as an obstacle in his directive to obtain the code "by any means". On Flynn's Grid, Ares encounters a manifestation of Flynn, and they discuss Ares's desire for permanence. Intrigued by Ares's wish to live and to save Eve, Flynn grants him the permanence code and re-materializes him via backdoor at Flynn's Arcade. Athena pilots a Recognizer into the city, capturing Eve while the ENCOM staff breach the Dillinger Grid, but Ares intercepts Athena and her unit. Ajay, Seth, and Erin shut down the Dillinger mainframe, preventing Ares's fellow Dillinger programs from re-materializing, and a wounded Athena permanently de-materializes in Ares's arms. The police raid Dillinger headquarters, but Julian uses the laser to digitize himself. Eve and Ares go their separate ways, as ENCOM uses the permanence code to benefit the world. Ares sends Eve a postcard, traveling the world in search of Flynn's son, Sam, and his companion, Quorra. Eve reconstructs the Skagway facility on top of ENCOM Tower, including the orange tree. Back in the damaged Dillinger Grid, Julian is transformed by an identity disc that belonged to his grandfather's program Sark.

In 2002 Toronto, 13-year-old Meilin "Mei" Lee lives with her parents, Ming and Jin, helps take care of the family's temple dedicated to her maternal ancestor Sun Yee, and works to make her mother proud. She hides her personal interests from Ming, such as the fact that she and her friends Miriam, Priya, and Abby are fans of the boy band 4*Town. One night when Ming, who is strict and overprotective, discovers Mei's crush on Devon, the 17-year-old local convenience store clerk, she inadvertently humiliates Mei in public. That night, Mei has a vivid nightmare involving red pandas; waking up the next morning, she finds that she has transformed into one. She hides from her parents and discovers that she transforms only when she is in a state of high emotion. When Mei reverts to human form, her hair remains red, and so she goes to school in a touque. Ming initially believes Mei is experiencing her first period, but learns the truth when she gets into an altercation with the school's security guard, causing Mei to transform from embarrassment and run home in panic and tears. Ming and Jin explain that Sun Yee was granted this transformation to protect her daughters and her village during wartime, and that all her female descendants have also had this ability. This has become inconvenient and dangerous in modern times, so the red panda spirit must be sealed in a talisman by a ritual on the night of a lunar eclipse, which will take place in a month's time. Mei's friends discover her transformation, but take a liking to it. Mei finds that concentrating on them enables her to control her transformations. Ming allows Mei to resume her normal life, but refuses to let Mei attend 4*Town's upcoming concert. Instead, the girls secretly raise money for the tickets at school by exploiting the popularity of Mei's red panda form while lying to Ming about how Mei is spending her time. To raise the last 100 dollars, Mei agrees to attend school bully Tyler's birthday party as the red panda. Before Mei leaves, Mei's grandmother and aunts arrive to assist with Mei's ritual. At the party, Mei is upset to discover that the concert will be on the night she is to undergo the ritual. In her rage, she attacks Tyler when he insults her family, frightening the other kids. Ming discovers Mei's activities and blames Mei's friends for everything. Mei fails to come to her friends' defense to maintain Ming's approval. While cleaning, Jin finds videos she recorded of herself as the red panda with her friends and tells her she should not be ashamed of this side of her, but to embrace it. During the ritual, as Mei's red panda form is about to be sealed, she decides to keep her powers and abandons the ritual to attend the concert at the SkyDome. In making her escape, she breaks Ming's talisman, releasing her red panda form as well. At the concert, Mei reconciles with her friends and Tyler. However, an enraged Ming, having become a kaiju -sized red panda, disrupts the concert while intending to take Mei back by force. Mei and Ming argue about the former's independence. As they fight, Mei accidentally knocks her mother unconscious. Mei's grandmother and aunts break their talismans to use their red panda forms to help drag Ming into a new ritual circle. Mei's friends and 4*Town join in singing to complete the ritual, sending Mei, Ming, and the other women to the astral plane. Mei reconciles with her mother and helps Ming mend her bond with her own mother, whom Ming accidentally scarred in anger in the past. The other women contain their red pandas in new talismans; Mei decides to keep hers, Ming accepting that she is finding her own path. One year later, the Lee family raises money to repair the damage to the SkyDome. Mei and Ming's relationship has improved. Mei balances her temple duties (where her red panda form is now an attraction) and spends time with her friends and Tyler.

As the students of a Kiev seminary are sent home for vacation, three of them become lost in the countryside in the middle of the night. They spot a farmhouse and ask the old woman at the gate to let them spend the night. She agrees, on the condition that they sleep in separate areas of the farm. As one of the students, Khoma Brutus, lies down in the barn to sleep, the old woman tries to seduce him, which he staunchly refuses. She hypnotizes him, climbs on his back and rides him across the countryside like a horse. Khoma suddenly finds that they are flying and realizes she is a witch. Invoking the name of Christ, he forces her to land and beats her violently with a stick until she turns into a beautiful young woman, who cries out that he is killing her. Terrified, Khoma runs back to his seminary, where the rector informs him that a wealthy sotnik 's dying daughter has specifically requested that Khoma say prayers for her soul. He reluctantly complies and finds he is returning to the farm where he met the witch. The girl dies before he arrives, and to his horror, he realizes she is the witch and that he has caused her death. The sotnik promises Khoma great reward if he will stand vigil and pray for her soul for the next three nights. If he does not, grave punishment is implied. After the funeral rites, the villagers tell the story of a huntsman who was bewitched by the girl and asked her to ride him like a horse, reminding Khoma of his own encounter. Khoma is taken to the chapel where the girl's corpse lies and is locked in for the night. He lights every candle in the chapel and begins to recite the prayers. He pauses to sniff tobacco, and when he sneezes, the girl opens her eyes and climbs out of the coffin. Khoma quickly draws a sacred circle of chalk around himself, which acts as a barrier. Hearing him but unable to see him, the girl persistently tries to get to him as he prays fervently. When the rooster crows in the morning, the girl returns to her coffin and all the candles blow out. Khoma gets drunk to strengthen himself for the second night. He draws the sacred circle again and begins his prayers. The coffin rises into the air and bangs against the sacred circle's barrier, prompting a panicked Khoma to pray for God 's protection. Standing up in the coffin, the girl flies around the sacred circle while repeatedly calling out Khoma's name. As the rooster crows, the coffin returns to its place, and shortly after the girl lies down, she attempts to curse Khoma, causing his hair to turn grey. Trying to explain what happened in the chapel, Khoma pleads with the sotnik to be allowed to leave, but the sotnik threatens him with a thousand lashes if he refuses, while offering him a thousand chervontsy if he completes the task. Khoma attempts to escape but is stopped by the sotnik's servants, who bring him back to the farm. On the third and final night, a drunken Khoma once again draws the sacred circle before beginning his prayers. The girl summons various demonic figures to torment him, but they cannot get past the sacred circle either. She ultimately summons Viy, a large humanoid creature. Khoma believes himself to be safe upon hearing the rooster crow, but when he makes eye contact with Viy, Viy points at Khoma and the demons attack him. The rooster crows again and the demons all flee, leaving Khoma motionless on the floor. The girl turns back into the old woman and lies down in the coffin, which instantly falls apart. The rector enters the chapel and, seeing what has happened, races off to tell the others. Back at the seminary, one of Khoma's two friends proposes they drink to his memory, while the other doubts that Khoma is actually dead.

During World War II, MI6 officers Colonel Turner and Admiral Rolland assemble a commando team to rescue American Brigadier General George Carnaby, a chief planner for the Western Front, who is a prisoner at Schloß Adler (Castle of the Eagles), an alpine mountaintop fortress in Bavaria, accessible only by cable car. Disguised as German soldiers, the team—Major John Smith, Sergeants Harrod and MacPherson, Captains Lee Thomas, Ted Berkeley, and Olaf Christiansen, and US Army Ranger Lieutenant Morris Schaffer—parachutes near the castle. Harrod is found dead with a broken neck, and Smith deduces he was murdered. Smith secretly meets with his lover, British agent Mary Ellison, but keeps her involvement from his men. Smith and his team infiltrate the village at the base of Schloß Adler where he meets undercover agent Heidi Schmidt in a tavern, who has arranged for Mary to work inside the castle. Smith discloses to Mary that Carnaby is actually an imposter, US Corporal Cartwright Jones, and his capture was staged by the British. Later, Smith discovers MacPherson dead. When a German colonel arrives in the tavern with soldiers ostensibly searching for deserters, Smith realises he is really searching for his team, and surrenders to avoid an unwinnable fight. Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen are taken to the castle, while Smith and Schaffer escape and infiltrate the castle via cable car. Inside, they reunite with Mary and observe General Rosemeyer and Colonel Kramer interrogate Carnaby. Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen arrive, revealed to be German double agents. Smith and Schaffer intrude, weapons drawn on the men. However, Smith then forces Schaffer to surrender his weapon and identifies himself as Major Johann Schmidt of the Schutzstaffel 's (SS) intelligence branch. He exposes Carnaby's identity and claims that Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen are MI6 agents impersonating German spies. Smith conveys proof of his identity by showing the name of Germany's top spy in Whitehall to Kramer, who silently affirms it, and challenges the double agents to prove themselves as German agents by providing the list of agents they set up across Britain. With the list in his hand, Smith reveals the truth: believing German spies have extensively infiltrated British intelligence, MI6 identified Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen as suspects, and launched the mission to prove this and obtain the identities of their agents and commander. Smith's ploy is interrupted by the arrival of SS Major von Hapen, who suspects everyone, but Smith causes a distraction which allows Schaffer to fatally shoot von Hapen, Kramer, and Rosemeyer. The team, including Mary and Carnaby, make their escape, taking Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen as prisoners. As alarms sound, Schaffer sets explosives around the castle while Smith radios Rolland for extraction. The group travel to the cable car station, sacrificing Thomas as a decoy. Berkeley and Christiansen attempt to escape on a cable car, but they are killed by Smith. The team escapes on the next cable car. Reunited with Heidi in the village, they use a bus to battle their way onto an airfield and escape aboard a Ju 52 transport, with Turner waiting onboard. In the air, Smith reveals that Kramer identified Turner as Germany's top spy in Britain, confirming Rolland's suspicions. Turner chose Smith to lead the mission, believing he was a German double agent—unaware he was working undercover for Rolland. To ensure the mission's success, Smith secretly recruited Mary—his trusted ally—and Schaffer, who had no ties to the compromised MI6. To avoid a humiliating court martial and execution, Turner is permitted to jump from the aircraft to his death. As the exhausted operatives fly home, Schaffer wryly suggests that Smith keep his next mission "all-British".

Early in the 20th century, Frederick Frankenstein, a lecturing physician at an American medical school, is actively distancing himself from his grandfather Victor Frankenstein, the infamous mad scientist, pronouncing his surname as "Fronkensteen". When Frederick inherits the family castle in Transylvania, he travels to Europe to inspect the property. At the Transylvania train station, Frederick is met by a hunchbacked, bug-eyed servant named Igor, whose own grandfather worked for Victor and who states his name is pronounced "Eye-gore". A woman named Inga also greets him. Arriving at the estate, Frederick meets Frau Blücher, the dour, intimidating housekeeper. After discovering the secret entrance to Victor's laboratory and reading his private journals, Frederick resumes his grandfather's experiments in reanimating the dead. Frederick and Igor steal a recently executed criminal's corpse. He sends Igor to steal the brain of a deceased "scientist and saint" named Hans Delbrück. Igor accidentally destroys Delbrück's brain and takes one labeled "Abnormal" instead. Frederick unknowingly transplants it into the corpse and brings the Monster to life. Frightened by Igor lighting a match, the Monster attacks Frederick and nearly strangles him before being sedated. Unaware the Monster exists, the townspeople gather to discuss their unease at Frederick continuing his grandfather's work. Inspector Kemp, a one-eyed police inspector with a prosthetic arm and a heavy German accent, visits the doctor's and demands assurance that Frederick would not create another monster. Returning to the lab, Frederick discovers Blücher releasing the creature. She reveals the Monster's love of violin music, her own romantic relationship with Frederick's grandfather, and her planning out the events that inspired Frederick to create a monster as Victor did. The Monster becomes enraged by electrical sparks from a thrown switch and escapes the castle. While roaming the countryside, the Monster interacts with a young girl and a blind, hermetic monk. Frederick recaptures the Monster and locks himself in a room with him. He calms the Monster's homicidal tendencies with flattery and a promise to guide him to success, embracing his heritage as a Frankenstein. At a theater filled with prominent guests, Frederick shows "The Creature" following simple commands, then performs " Puttin' On the Ritz " with him. During the performance, a stage light explodes and frightens the Monster, who becomes enraged at the booing crowd, and charges at them when they throw rotten vegetables. He is captured and chained by police. Back in the laboratory, Inga attempts to comfort Frederick; they have sex on the suspended reanimation table. The Monster escapes from prison the same night Elizabeth, Frederick's socialite fiancée, arrives unexpectedly. The Monster takes her captive, but she falls in love with him as he has sex with her. While the townspeople hunt the Monster, Frederick plays the violin and Igor plays the horn to lure his creation back to the castle and recaptures him. Just as the Kemp-led mob storms the laboratory, Frederick transfers some of his stabilizing intellect to the Monster, who reasons with and placates the mob. Kemp gives the Monster a warm reception. Sometime later, Frederick and Inga are wed and Elizabeth marries the now-sophisticated Monster. While in bed with Frederick, Inga asks what he got in return during the transfer procedure. Frederick growls wordlessly like the monster and embraces Inga while Igor plays the horn on the roof.

In a secret military laboratory operating under the guise of a pesticide manufacturer, a sealed tube is broken, starting an outbreak of a virulent bacteria. Detecting the release of the biological weapon, Joanie Morse, the plant's security officer, activates "Protocol One," a procedure sealing all of the workers inside from the outside world. Tom Schmidt, believing the cause for the lock down to be a pump malfunction, and co-worker Bob restart the pump. Cal Morse, a County Sheriff and Joanie's husband, is advised to retain the help of Dr. Dan Fairchild, a past employee who is a known alcoholic. Fairchild created an antidote to the weapon. Vic Flint, Bob's father, joins the mission. The United States government's Accident Containment Team (USACT), led by Major Connelly, arrives and sets up quarantine procedures. Connelly tells the public a cover story of the contamination of experimental yeast while a rescue team arrives to administer the antidote to the workers. Upon the release of the weapon, workers sanitize the lab, destroy animals, and inoculate themselves with the antidote. Hours later, the USACT team locate Dr. Nielsen and his team incapacitated on the floor near an air lock. They later notice that the bodies have disappeared, the air lock smashed open from inside, and a power outage caused by Dr. Ramesh Kapoor, a P4 worker, by destroying a power box. A group of workers—including Bob, Schmidt, and Tippett—believe themselves to be unaffected and want to leave, despite the quarantine. Unbeknownst to the workers, they became infected by the breach of the air lock, the bypassed pump circulating contaminated air throughout the building, and Schmidt's contact lens contaminating the building with the weapon. Joanie destroyed the piece of paper containing the code to deactivate the lockdown, but remembers the code. The group, now led by Tippett, torture her for the code, which is discovered to be invalidated once USACT tapped into the system. The rescue team eventually encounters this group of workers. The team order the group to remain under quarantine; Tippett is killed when he refuses. The rest are placed in a room to await inoculation when the team returns with the antidote. Fairchild directs the team into an unoccupied service conduit as a direct way to the P4 lab. The team encounters Nielsen. Suspecting something to be wrong, Fairchild directs the team to retreat, leaving Nielsen behind. The team are ambushed and murdered by the P4 workers, one of which is murdered by Kapoor. Despite being inoculated, the antidote did not work; suffering from the effects of the weapon, all of the infected workers become homicidal maniacs. Upon the rescue team's death, USACT activates "Protocol Two", leaving all employees to await the deadly effects of the weapon and sanitize the location afterwards. Hearing this, Cal urges Fairchild to assist him in retrieving the antidote, stopping the contagion, and saving Joanie. At the facility, Cal and Fairchild encounter an infected Bob. He tries to attack, but is killed by Cal, armed with the revolver. Most of the workers succumb to their infections, but Joanie is unaffected. Schmidt convinces her to go to the P4 lab to retrieve the antidote. En route, they encounter Nielsen, who wants to contain the knowledge of the incident, and Kapoor, who wants to kill them. They eventually escape the attack. While in the P4 lab, Schmidt succumbs to his infection while the P4 workers hunt them down. Joanie retrieves the antidote and flees while Schmidt attacks the workers, breaking Kapoor's neck before being killed by the rest. Joanie eventually encounters Cal and Fairchild. They later repel a group of workers who rip Fairchild's biohazard suit, exposing him. They enter the P4 lab to learn why Joanie is unaffected while the antidote did not work. A test discovers that her blood is full of estrogen, progesterone, and antibodies; she is pregnant. While attempting to enter P4 to attack the trio, workers are set on fire by booby traps. One worker rips Cal's biohazard suit before being killed by Joanie. Before being incapacitated by his infection, Fairchild enters a recipe for a new antidote based on Joanie's condition into a computer; it contains thorazine to make the patient sleep during their recuperation. They try out the new antidote on Fairchild, and it works. Armed with injection guns, Cal and Fairchild inoculate infected workers while Joanie takes a batch of the new antidote to the building's decontamination system. Nielsen, refusing to be injected, flees back to the lab. Eventually realizing his failure, he commits suicide. Using the decontamination system, Joanie administers the new antidote throughout the building, eradicating the weapon and treating workers breathing in the aerosolized antidote. Joanie then deactivates the quarantine and Fairchild inoculates Cal. USACT then evacuates the victims, retrieves the dead and seals the building.

Nerdy social outcast students Gary Wallace and Wyatt Donnelly of Shermer High School are humiliated by senior jocks Ian and Max for swooning over their cheerleader girlfriends Deb and Hilly. Humiliated and disappointed at their direction in life and wanting more, Gary convinces the uptight Wyatt that they need a boost in popularity in order to win their crushes away from Ian and Max. Alone for the weekend with Wyatt's parents gone, Gary is inspired by the 1931 film Frankenstein to create a virtual woman using Wyatt's computer, infusing her with everything they can conceive of to make the perfect dream woman. After they hook electrodes to a doll and hack into a government computer system for more power, a power surge creates Lisa, a beautiful and intelligent woman with reality-altering powers. She promptly produces a pink 1959 Cadillac Eldorado convertible to take the boys to a blues dive bar in Chicago, using her powers to procure fake IDs for them. They return home drunk, where Chet, Wyatt's mean older brother, extorts $175 from Wyatt in exchange for his silence. Lisa agrees to keep herself hidden from him, but she realizes that Gary and Wyatt, while sweet, are very uptight and need to unwind. After another humiliating experience at the mall when Max and Ian pour a slushie on Gary and Wyatt in front of a crowd, Lisa tells the bullies about a party at Wyatt's house, before driving off in a Porsche 928 she conjured for Gary. Despite Wyatt's protests, Lisa insists that the party take place. She meets Gary's parents, Al and Lucy, who are shocked and dismayed at the things she says and her frank manner, to Gary's embarrassment. After she pulls a stainless steel.44 Magnum handgun on them (later revealed to Gary to be a water pistol), she alters their memories so that Lucy forgets about the conflict; however, Al forgets altogether that they have a son. At the Donnelly house, the party has spun out of control. Gary and Wyatt take refuge in the bathroom, where they resolve to have fun despite having embarrassed themselves in front of Deb and Hilly. In Wyatt's bedroom, Ian and Max convince Gary and Wyatt to recreate the events that created Lisa, but the process fails. Lisa chides them over their misuse of the process to impress their tormentors. She also explains that they forgot to connect the doll; thus, with the bare but live electrodes resting on a magazine page showing a Pershing II medium-range ballistic missile, a real missile emerges, erupting through the floor and ceiling of the house. Meanwhile, Wyatt's grandparents arrive and confront Lisa about the party, but she places them in a frozen, catatonic state and hides them in a kitchen cupboard. Lisa realizes that the boys need a challenge to boost their confidence and has a gang of mutant bikers crash the party, causing chaos and terrorizing the guests. The bikers take Deb and Hilly hostage. Wyatt and Gary confront the bikers, which causes Deb and Hilly to fall in love with the boys. The bikers leave. The next morning, Chet returns from duck hunting to discover his home in disarray: A localized snowstorm fills his room, and a huge missile stands in the middle of the house. Lisa has the boys escort the girls home while she talks to Chet alone. Gary and Wyatt proclaim their feelings, and both girls reciprocate. Returning to the house, the boys discover Chet, now transformed into a foul, talking toad-like creature. He apologizes to Wyatt for his behavior. Upstairs, Lisa assures them that Chet will soon return to normal, and, realizing that her purpose is complete, tearfully hugs both Gary and Wyatt before de-materializing. As she leaves, the house is "magically" cleaned and everything transformed back to normal, including Chet. Wyatt's parents return home, completely unaware that anything unusual has happened. Later, Lisa turns up as the new gym teacher at Shermer High School.

Jim Bloggs and his wife Hilda are an aging couple, living in an isolated cottage in rural Sussex, England. Jim frequently travels to the local town to read newspapers and keep abreast of the deteriorating international situation regarding the Soviet–Afghan War, which is threatening to escalate into a nuclear conflict between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. Hearing a radio news report stating that a war may be only days away, Jim follows the instructions outlined in the government-issued Protect and Survive pamphlets to build a fallout shelter, including covering the windows with white paint and readying sacks to lie down in when a nuclear strike hits. Jim and Hilda are confident they can survive, as they did the Second World War, and that a Soviet defeat will ensue. As a radio transmission warns of an imminent ICBM strike and civil defence sirens sound, the couple rush to their shelter, just escaping as distant shock waves batter their home. They emerge after a few nights to find all utilities, services, and communications destroyed. Jim (incorrectly) speculates that most have temporarily ceased due to "wartime measures". The couple remains stoic and tries to resume their daily routine, preparing tea and dinners on a camping stove, noting numerous errands they will have to run once the crisis passes, and trying to renew their evaporated water stock with rainwater. Fallout dust is visible in the air throughout the house. Jim believes that a rescue operation will soon be launched to help civilians. The couple venture outside where radioactive ash has blocked out the sun and caused heavy fog. They are oblivious to the dead and dying animals strewn across the landscape, the destroyed buildings of the nearby town, and the scorched vegetation outside their cottage. Their optimism begins to fade due to the prolonged isolation, lack of food and water, growing radiation sickness, and absence of communication from the authorities. Jim worries that the Soviets will soon invade, experiencing a vision where a Soviet soldier breaks into their house. Hilda, whose symptoms are worsening, encounters a rat in the dried toilet, which traumatises her. Coupled with her worsening symptoms - bloody diarrhea, bleeding gums - she begins to lose hope. Jim tries to comfort her, still optimistic that he may be able to get medications for her from the chemist. After a few days, the Bloggs are practically bedridden, and Hilda is despondent when her hair begins to fall out. Jim clings to his belief that emergency services will arrive. Hilda suggests they lie down in the paper sacks. Jim, now resigned to their fate, agrees. As they crawl into the sacks Jim tries reciting prayers, including Psalm 23, but, forgetting the lines, starts to read " The Charge of the Light Brigade ", whose militaristic and ironic undertones distress the dying Hilda, who weakly asks him not to continue. Finally, Jim's voice mumbles away into silence as he finishes the line, "...rode the Six Hundred..." Outside, the smoke and ash-filled sky begins to clear, revealing the sun rising through the gloom. Towards the end of the credits, a Morse code signal taps out "MAD" - mutually assured destruction.

Tess McGill is a working-class woman from Staten Island who dreams of climbing the corporate ladder to an executive position. Having earned a business degree via night school, she works as a secretary at a stockbroker firm in lower Manhattan. There, Tess's boss and male co-workers treat her like a bimbo, despite benefiting from her intelligence and business instincts. After one humiliation too many from her scornful boss (he fixes her up with a rival executive, who only wants to do cocaine and have sex), Tess retaliates by posting on a VDT what she thinks of him and of what he's done. This greatly amuses Tess's colleagues, but also gets her fired. Shortly thereafter, Tess lands another job, this time as an administrative assistant to Katharine Parker, an associate partner at the mergers-and-acquisitions firm Petty Marsh. At first, Katharine seems supportive of Tess, encouraging her to share ideas. Eventually, however, she insists that Tess's proposed purchase of a radio network by Trask Industries would not work out. When Katharine breaks her leg skiing, she asks Tess to house-sit. While there, Tess discovers meeting notes which reveal Katharine's intention to pass off the Trask Industries idea as her own. Returning home, Tess finds her live-in boyfriend having sex with another woman. Tess dumps him. With Katharine still in the hospital, Tess uses her boss's connections and clothes to ramrod the Trask proposal. With help from her friend Cyn, Tess gives herself a makeover, borrowing Katharine's stylish clothes to look more professional. Tess schedules a meeting with Jack Trainer, a mergers-and-acquisitions associate from another company. The night before the meeting, she attends (on Katharine's behalf) a dinner hosted by Trainer's firm. Trainer is attracted to Tess, and approaches her at the bar. Yet Jack does not reveal his name, even after she asks directly whether he knows the man she's slated to meet with (himself). Trainer brings Tess to his apartment, after she passes out in a cab from a combination of Valium and alcohol. Tess leaves early the next day, believing that they slept together. Arriving for her meeting with Trainer and his associates, she is surprised to recognize him from the previous night. They both feign non-recognition. After the meeting, Tess worries that her deal has failed, until Jack arrives at Tess's office. He assures her that they did not sleep together, and that he wants to move forward with her idea. Together, they prepare the financials for her merger proposal, which they present successfully to Trask. Tess and Jack celebrate by giving in to their attraction, and ending up in bed. Thereafter, Tess discovers that Jack has been involved with Katharine, but was planning to break up with her when she went skiing and got injured. Katharine returns home on the day of the merger meeting. While Tess is helping her get settled, Katharine brings up the Trask merger, claiming she was intent on taking it to Jack, and on eventually giving Tess credit for it. Katharine adds that Jack's strict ethical code has prevented him from looking at another's ideas without verifying the source, ever since he was accused of stealing himself. Jack arrives in response to a call from Katharine, who unsuccessfully tries to seduce him. Tess avoids running into Jack at Katharine's apartment, but accidentally leaves her notebook there before she departs for the meeting. Katharine discovers Tess's deception by finding the notebook, which includes Jack's phone numbers and the scheduled merger meeting. At the meeting, Tess brings up what Katharine told her about Jack's ethical code, and about his being accused of stealing. Jack insists that it was all a lie. Then Katharine crashes the meeting and outs Tess as her secretary. She accuses Tess of stealing the Trask merger idea. Unable to defend herself, Tess apologizes profusely and leaves. Tess returns to Petty Marsh a day later, intent on cleaning out her desk. Instead she encounters Jack, Katharine, Trask, and members of Trask's board. Jack sticks up for Tess, who points out a news item which presents a possible risk to the merger's success. In an elevator pitch she explains to Trask what inspired her plan for his radio acquisition. Trask confronts Katharine, who, when she is unable to explain where Tess's plan came from, is fired. Tess lands an entry-level job with Trask Industries. She also moves in with Jack. On her first day at Trask, Tess meets a colleague named Alice, whom she takes for her new supervisor. Alice explains that she is actually Tess's secretary. Tess makes it very clear that she considers Alice a colleague, thus proving herself very different from Katharine. At the first opportunity, Tess calls Cyn from her new office and tells her that she has made it.

In the early 1950s, Pete Verrill is invited by his friend, director John Wilson, to rewrite the script for Wilson's latest project: a film with the working title of The African Trader. The hard living, irreverent Wilson convinces producer Paul Landers to have the film completely shot on location in Africa, even though doing so would be extremely expensive. Wilson explains to Verrill that his motivation for this has nothing to do with the film - Wilson, a lifelong hunter, wants to fulfill his dream of going on an African safari; he even purchases a set of finely crafted hunting rifles and charges them to the studio. Upon landing in Entebbe, Wilson and Verrill spend several days at a luxury hotel while Verrill finishes the script and Wilson makes arrangements for the safari. Verrill finds himself growing fond of Wilson after the latter defends him against a fellow guest who makes antisemitic remarks in front of Verrill (who happens to be Jewish) and challenges the hotel manager to a fistfight after witnessing him insult and belittle a black waiter for spilling a drink, which Wilson loses. The two men constantly argue over Verrill's changes to the script, particularly his insistence that Wilson does not use his original planned ending, where all of the main characters are killed on-screen. Wilson hires a pilot to fly him and Verrill out to the hunting camp of safari guide Zibelinsky and his African tracker Kivu, whom Wilson is quick to bond with. The film's unit director, Ralph Lockhart, is also present and insists that Wilson start pre-production before the cast arrives, to which Wilson replies he'll do so after he shoots a "tusker". Verrill gradually becomes disenchanted with Wilson, who keeps going out to hunt despite his poor health and seems completely indifferent to the success of his movie. He even questions why Wilson would want to kill such a magnificent beast. Confronted, Wilson tells Verrill off and accuses him of "playing it safe" and not wanting to risk anything. He calls hunting a "sin that you can get a license for" and doesn't try to convince Verrill otherwise when he threatens to resign and go back to London. Landers arrives in Entebbe and insists that Verrill stay on, revealing that the studio is at risk of bankruptcy if the movie isn't finished. When Verrill does return, he is informed by Lockhart that Wilson, without consulting anyone, has decided to move the entire production to Kivu's home village despite Landers spending most of the budget on a prefabricated set. The cast, now unable to stay at the hotel, go to Zibelinsky's camp and find Wilson waiting for them with a lavish banquet. He humiliates Landers and takes advantage of several days of rain to resume his safari, now accompanied by professional elephant hunter Ogilvy. Verrill follows after Wilson again taunts him for cowardice. Wilson finally gets his chance to kill the "tusker", but when the time comes to shoot, he suddenly finds he can't pull the trigger. The elephant suddenly charges after seeing its child move too close to Wilson, and Kivu tries to scare it off only to be fatally gored by the elephant's tusks. Wilson, horrified by Kivu's death, returns to the set. He sees the villagers beating drums and asks Ogilvy what they mean. Ogilvy replies that they are communicating to everyone how Kivu died: "white hunter, black heart". Recognizing that he is ultimately to blame for what happened, Wilson tells Verrill that he was right: the film does need a happy ending after all. Sitting in his director's chair as the actors and crew take their places to film the opening scene of The African Trader, a now humbled Wilson quietly mutters "Action".

In 2500, sea level rises have put every continent on Earth underwater. The remains of human civilization live on makeshift floating communities built out of scavenged materials known as atolls, having long forgotten about living on land. Rumors of a "Dryland" still exist, but it is considered a myth by most. The Mariner, a lone drifter, arrives at an atoll on his trimaran to trade dirt, a rare commodity, for supplies. When the locals see that the Mariner is a mutant, with gills and webbed feet, several accost him and he kills one in self-defense. As a result, the Mariner is sentenced to be drowned in a tank of organic sludge. While the Mariner is trapped in the tank, the atoll is attacked by the Smokers, a formidable pirate gang that has been systematically raiding and destroying atolls. Helen, a strong-willed atoll resident, tries to escape on a gas balloon dirigible with her young ward Enola and inventor Gregor. However, Gregor accidentally departs with only himself on board, stranding the two. She frees the Mariner on the condition he takes them with him. The Mariner skillfully fights his way out, damaging the Smokers' forces and causing an explosion that blinds its leader, Deacon, in one eye. The Mariner, Helen and Enola board the trimaran and escape. Following a brief skirmish with the Smoker's scout seaplane, the trio encounters a drifter suffering from cabin fever whom the Mariner kills after a trade gone awry, and a mutated shark the Mariner kills for food. Despite his initial reluctance and gruff attitude, the Mariner slowly warms up to his companions and has a bonding moment with Enola teaching her to swim. After evading a trap set by the Smokers, the Mariner confronts Helen about their unusual persistence. She admits they are after Enola for the supposed directions to Dryland tattooed on Enola's back. Helen then demands to know where the Mariner collected his dirt. He takes her in a jury-rigged diving bell and shows her the underwater remains of Denver, Colorado, and the soil on the ocean's floor, crushing her belief in Dryland. When they surface, the pair find that the Smokers have caught up. They capture Enola and try to kill Helen and the Mariner before the two dive underwater. The Smokers set the trimaran on fire and leave. Sorting through the wreckage of his boat, the Mariner sees a collection of National Geographic magazines and compares their images to Enola's doodles, realizing she was drawing Dryland objects. Gregor, having spotted the smoke from his dirigible, finds Helen and the Mariner and takes them to a new makeshift atoll. The Mariner takes a captured Smoker's jet ski to chase down the Smokers' base of operations, the remains of the Exxon Valdez, where they manage to manufacture fuel, ammunition and cigarettes. Deacon's advisors struggle to decipher the tattoo. To keep his followers' minds off their dwindling resources, he bluffs that he has decoded the map on Enola's back and orders them back to their stations to row. The Mariner infiltrates the "'Dez" and confronts the Deacon, threatening to ignite the oil reserves in the hold unless Enola is returned. The Deacon calls the Mariner's bluff, knowing that it would destroy the ship, but to his shock, the Mariner drops a flare into the oil reservoir. The ship is engulfed in flames, and begins to sink. The Mariner rescues Enola, escaping via a rope from Gregor's balloon with Helen and the Atoll Enforcer aboard. The Deacon fires on the balloon, shaking Enola into the ocean. As the Deacon and some of his men converge on her, the Mariner makes an impromptu bungee jump from the balloon to grab Enola before the Deacon and his men collide on their jet-skis, inducing an explosion that kills the trio. Gregor later identifies Enola's tattoo as coordinates with reversed directions. Following the map, the balloon party discover Dryland, covered with vegetation and wildlife. They also find a hut with the remains of Enola's parents. The Mariner, feeling that he does not belong on Dryland, takes an old wooden catamaran from the island and departs, as Helen and Enola bid him farewell.