In 1985, 8-year-old John Bennett is a friendless only child living in Norwood, Massachusetts. On Christmas Day, he wishes for his new gift, a jumbo teddy bear named Ted, to come to life and become his friend. The wish coincides with a shooting star and comes true; word spreads, and Ted briefly becomes a celebrity. In 2012, the now 35-year-old John and Ted are still living together in an apartment in Boston with John's girlfriend Lori Collins, and are staunch companions enjoying a hedonistic life. As the couple's fourth anniversary approaches, Lori hopes to marry John, but feels he cannot move forward in life with Ted around. He is hesitant about making Ted leave, but is persuaded to act when they find Ted at home with a group of prostitutes, including one who defecated on the floor, while they were out for their anniversary dinner. John finds Ted his own apartment and a job at a grocery store, where he begins dating his co-worker, Tami-Lynn. Lori learns that John has been skipping work, using her as an excuse, to spend most of his time with Ted. John and Lori are invited to a party put on by Lori's womanizing manager Rex, but Ted lures John away to a party at his apartment with the offer to meet Sam J. Jones, the star of their favorite film, Flash Gordon. Intending to stay only for a few minutes, John gets caught up in the occasion. Lori finds John there and kicks him out of their apartment, breaking up with him. Devastated and furious, he blames Ted for ruining his life and ends their friendship. Ted then goes to John's hotel room to inform him that Lori and Rex are attending a Norah Jones concert on a date together. Their conversation becomes an argument and then a violent brawl, but they reconcile. To repair John's relationship with Lori, Ted arranges for Norah Jones, an old lover of his, to help by having John express his love for Lori with a song during Norah's concert. John does an off-key rendition of " All Time High ", the theme song of Octopussy, which he and Lori watched on their first date. He is booed off stage, though the attempt touches Lori. She returns to her apartment, where Ted confesses to his role in John's relapse and offers to leave them alone forever if she talks to John, to which Lori agrees. After Lori leaves, however, Ted is kidnapped by Donny, an obsessive stalker who has idolized him since he was a child. Donny plans to make Ted into his son Robert's new toy. Ted obtains a phone to contact John, but is recaptured. Realizing Ted is in danger, John and Lori locate Donny's residence and track him. They chase them to Fenway Park, where Donny rips Ted in half. Two police cars arrive, forcing Donny to flee the scene. John and Lori gather Ted's stuffing, and Ted relays his wish for John to be happy with Lori before the magic in Ted fades away, making him a normal teddy bear again. Unable to accept the death, John and Lori unsuccessfully attempt to repair Ted. Saddened about the incident, Lori makes a wish upon a shooting star. The following day, Ted is magically restored due to the wish and reunites with John and Lori. John finally proposes to her, and she accepts. Sometime later, John and Lori get married (with Sam Jones as the presiding minister). In the film's epilogue, the narrator says that Ted comfortably accepted having a life of his own, as he and Tami-Lynn continued their love affair; Sam Jones attempts to restart his film career and moves into a studio apartment with Brandon Routh; Rex gives up his pursuit of Lori, goes into a deep depression, and dies of Lou Gehrig's disease; Donny gets arrested by the Boston Police Department for kidnapping Ted, but the charges are dropped, due to the situation sounding ridiculous. Robert hires a personal trainer, loses a significant amount of weight, and goes on to become Taylor Lautner.

At a San Francisco pet store, socialite Melanie Daniels meets lawyer Mitch Brenner, who wants to buy lovebirds for his sister Cathy's 11th birthday. Mitch recognizes Melanie from her court appearance regarding a practical joke gone awry and pretends to mistake her for a shop employee. He tests Melanie's knowledge of birds, which she fails, then discloses his knowledge of her and leaves. Intrigued, Melanie buys the lovebirds and drives to Bodega Bay after learning that Mitch has gone to his family's farm there. She learns Cathy's name from Annie Hayworth, a teacher at Bodega. Annie is Mitch's ex-lover, but their relationship ended due to his overbearing mother, Lydia, who feels insecure about any woman in Mitch's life. Melanie rents a boat and crosses the bay to discreetly leave the lovebirds at the Brenner farm. Spotting her departing, Mitch drives to meet her at the dock. At the wharf, Melanie is attacked by a gull. Mitch tends to her wound and invites her to dinner. At the farm, Lydia's hens are refusing to eat. Lydia dislikes Melanie due to her exaggerated reputation, as reported in gossip columns. The passing of Mitch's father four years ago is also brought up. Mitch invites Melanie, who is staying with Annie, to Cathy's birthday party being held the next day. Later, a dead gull is found at Annie's door. During Cathy's party, Melanie tells Mitch about her troubled past and her mother running off with another man when she was Cathy's age. During a game, the children are attacked and wounded by gulls. Later that evening, as Melanie dines with the Brenners, sparrows swarm the house through the chimney. Mitch insists that she delay driving back to San Francisco and stay the night. The next morning, Lydia visits her neighbor to discuss the problem with their chickens. She discovers broken windows in his bedroom and his eyeless corpse, pecked by birds, and flees in horror. While recovering at home, Lydia fears for Cathy's safety, and Melanie offers to pick her up at school. As Melanie waits outside the schoolhouse, a flock of crows engulf the jungle gym behind her. Anticipating an attack, she warns Annie. Rather than leaving the students in the building with its large windows, they evacuate them, and the crows attack later. Mitch finds Melanie at the diner. A heated debate ensues among those present whether the bird attacks are real, including an ornithologist who refuses to take these events seriously. When gulls attack a gas station attendant, Mitch and other men assist him outside. The spilled gasoline is ignited by an unaware bystander's match, causing an explosion. During the escalating fire, Melanie and others rush out, but more gulls attack. Melanie takes refuge in a telephone booth. Mitch saves her, and they return to the diner, where Melanie is blamed by a patron taking cover inside for the events unfolding in Bodega Bay. Mitch and Melanie go to Annie's house to fetch Cathy and find Annie's body outside; she was killed by the crows while protecting Cathy. They take a traumatized Cathy home. That night, Melanie and the Brenners barricade themselves in the family home, which is attacked by birds. After discovering that the birds have pecked their way in through the roof, Melanie is trapped and severely wounded, but Mitch pulls her out. Mitch insists they all drive to San Francisco to take Melanie, now injured, traumatized and catatonic, to a hospital. As Mitch readies Melanie's car for their escape, a sea of birds has gathered around the Brenner house. The car radio reports bird attacks on nearby communities and that the military may intervene. Cathy retrieves her lovebirds (the only birds who do not attack) from the house and joins Mitch and Lydia as they escort Melanie past a mass of birds and into the car. The car slowly drives away as the birds watch.

In the year 2130, 547 days into its voyage, the spacecraft USS Palomino has nearly completed its mission exploring deep space. The crew consists of Captain Dan Holland, First Officer Lieutenant Charlie Pizer, journalist Harry Booth, ESP -sensitive scientist Dr. Kate McCrae, the expedition's civilian leader Dr. Alex Durant and the diminutive robot V.I.N.CENT. ("Vital Information Necessary CENTralized"). As it is returning to Earth, the Palomino discovers a black hole with the long-lost and apparently abandoned USS Cygnus nearby, the same ship that McCrae's father was aboard when it vanished 20 years prior. The Palomino decides to investigate and finds that there is a mysterious null gravity field surrounding the Cygnus that allows it to defy the massive gravitational pull of the black hole. The Palomino briefly strays outside the field and is damaged by the intense gravity, forcing it to emergency dock with the Cygnus, which no longer appears abandoned. The cautious Palomino crew soon encounter Dr. Hans Reinhardt (one of Earth's most brilliant scientists, according to Durant). Reinhardt explains he has been alone on the Cygnus since it encountered a meteor field and was disabled. He ordered the human crew to return to Earth without him, but McCrae's father chose to remain aboard and has since died. To replace the crew, Reinhardt built faceless, black-robed drones, sentry robots and his sinister bodyguard robot, Maximilian. Reinhardt says he intends to fly the Cygnus through the black hole because 20 years of study has shown that it is possible. Only an enamoured Durant believes him and asks if he can accompany Reinhardt. However, the rest of the Palomino crew start to become suspicious of Reinhardt. Booth sees a drone limping, while Holland witnesses an android funeral and discovers personal items in the Cygnus crew quarters. V.I.N.CENT. meets a battered earlier model of his type named BO.B. ("BiO-sanitation Battalion"). BO.B explains the drones are actually what is left of the human crew, who mutinied when Reinhardt refused to return to Earth after the Cygnus was damaged. McCrae's father was killed leading the mutiny, and the crew was lobotomized and "reprogrammed" to serve Reinhardt. V.I.N.CENT. uses telepathy to tell McCrae. After she informs Durant what really happened, he removes a drone's faceplate, revealing the zombie-like face of a crew member. Durant tries to flee with McCrae, but is killed by Maximilian. Reinhardt orders his robots to lobotomize McCrae, but just as the process begins, she is rescued by Holland, V.I.N.CENT. and BO.B. Harry Booth tries to escape alone in the Palomino, but is shot down and fatally crashes into the Cygnus. A subsequent meteor storm and the explosion of the ship's overstressed main power plant cause the anti-gravity generator to fail. Without its null-gravity bubble, the Cygnus quickly starts to break apart under the black hole's huge gravitational forces. Reinhardt and the Palomino survivors separately plan their escape in the probe ship used to study the black hole. Reinhardt orders Maximilian to prepare the ship for launch, but then a large viewscreen falls on Reinhardt, pinning him to the deck. His cries for help are not acknowledged by the lobotimized crew nor Maximilian, who enters the elevator as his master calls for him and pursues the Palomino crew as they attempt to escape. The crew nears the probe ship before being confronted again by Maximilian. He fatally damages BO.B. before battling with V.I.N.CENT. as McCrae, Holland and Pizer continue to the probe. V.I.N.CENT. defeats his opponent by drilling into Maximilian's armor, disabling his system and sending him hurtling into the black hole. Holland, Pizer, McCrae and V.I.N.CENT. launch the probe, which they soon realize has a pre-programmed flight path, taking them directly into the black hole. Within the black hole, the Cygnus completely breaks apart. The drifting Reinhardt and Maximilian merge above a burning, hellish landscape populated by dark-robed specters resembling Cygnus drones. Meanwhile, the probe ship is led through a cathedral-like arched crystal tunnel by a floating, angelic figure. After the ship emerges from a white hole, Holland, Pizer, McCrae and V.I.N.CENT. fly towards a planet near a bright star.

Jake Blues, a blues vocalist and petty criminal, is paroled from Joliet Prison after serving three years of a five-year sentence for armed robbery and is picked up by his brother Elwood in a battered former police car. Jake complains that Elwood is driving a police car, and Elwood demonstrates its capabilities by jumping an open drawbridge. They visit the Catholic orphanage where they were raised, and learn from Sister Mary Stigmata that it will be closed unless it pays $5,000 in property taxes. At the suggestion of their friend Curtis, they attend a sermon by the Reverend Cleophus James at the Triple Rock Baptist Church, where Jake has an epiphany: they can reform their band, the Blues Brothers, which disbanded while Jake was in prison, and raise the money to save the orphanage. That night, state troopers attempt to arrest Elwood for driving with a suspended license due to dozens of parking tickets and moving violations. The brothers escape after a car chase through the Dixie Square Mall. As they arrive at the flophouse where Elwood lives, a mysterious woman fires a rocket launcher at them but misses. The next morning, as the police arrive at the flophouse, the same woman detonates a bomb that demolishes the building but leaves Jake and Elwood unharmed, saving them from arrest. Jake and Elwood begin tracking down members of the band. Five of them are performing as Murph and the Magic Tones at a deserted Holiday Inn lounge and quickly rejoin. Their trumpeter Mr. Fabulous turns them down as he is the maître d' at an expensive restaurant but relents when the brothers dine with poor manners and threaten to become regular patrons. On their way to meet the final two members, the brothers find the road through Jackson Park blocked by a neo-Nazi demonstration on a bridge; Elwood runs them off the bridge into the East Lagoon. The neo-Nazis swear revenge. The brothers find Matt "Guitar" Murphy, who now runs a soul food restaurant on Maxwell Street with his wife and "Blue Lou" Marini. Murphy's wife advises him against rejoining the band, to no avail. The group obtains instruments and equipment from Ray's Music Exchange, and Ray, "as usual", takes an IOU. As Jake attempts to book a gig, the mystery woman blows up his phone booth; once again, he is miraculously unhurt. The band stumbles onto a gig at Bob's Country Bunker, a honky-tonk in Kokomo, Indiana, by impersonating the country and western band booked. They win over the rowdy crowd, but run up a bar tab higher than their pay, and infuriate the Good Ole Boys, the band they impersonated. Realizing they need a big show to raise the necessary money, the brothers manage to book the Palace Hotel Ballroom, north of Chicago. They drive around Chicago promoting the concert, alerting the police, the neo-Nazis and the Good Ole Boys of their whereabouts. The ballroom is packed with fans, police officers and the Good Ole Boys. Jake and Elwood perform two songs, then sneak offstage, as the tax deadline rapidly approaches. A record company executive offers them a $10,000 cash advance on a recording contract - more than enough to pay off the orphanage's taxes and the IOU - and tells them how to slip out of the building unnoticed. As they escape through a service tunnel, they are confronted by the mystery woman: Jake's vengeful ex- fiancée. After her volley of M16 rifle bullets leaves them once again miraculously unharmed, Jake offers a series of ridiculous excuses that she rejects. When she looks into his eyes, though, she takes interest in him again and becomes distracted long enough for the brothers to escape in their car. Jake and Elwood race back toward Chicago, with dozens of state and local police and the Good Ole Boys and the Nazis in pursuit. They elude them all with a series of improbable maneuvers, including a miraculous gravity-defying escape from the neo-Nazis. Finally arriving at the Chicago City Hall building, they rush inside, followed by hundreds of law enforcement officers, firefighters and the National Guard. The brothers find the Cook County Assessor's office and successfully pay the tax bill but are arrested by the mob of law officers immediately after. In prison, the band plays " Jailhouse Rock " for the inmates.

On the blighted planet Thra 1,000 years earlier, a powerful crystal cracked and two new races appeared: the cruel Skeksis, who use the crystal's power to extend their lives, and gentle Mystics, the urRu, who dwell in a secluded valley. Among the Mystics is Jen, a young Gelfling adopted after the Skeksis slaughtered his clan. As the Great Conjunction of the world's three suns draws near, the dying Mystic Master instructs Jen to fulfill a prophecy to heal the crystal by first retrieving a missing shard from the oracle Aughra. If Jen fails to complete his quest before the three suns meet, the Skeksis will rule forever. The Master then dies, and the Skeksis Emperor dies simultaneously. The Skeksis General successfully challenges the Chamberlain for succession in a "trial by stone" and banishes him from the castle. When the Skeksis learn of Jen's existence, they send their army of giant crab -like Garthim to capture him, with the cunning Chamberlain following. Jen meets Aughra and enters her orrery. Offered several shards, he chooses one that responds when he plays the Mystics' chord on his flute. Before Aughra can explain Jen's mission, the Garthim arrive and destroy the orrery, taking Aughra prisoner as Jen flees. Hearing the crystal's call, the Mystics leave their valley and journey to the castle. On his journey through a forest swamp, Jen meets Kira, a female Gelfling. The two learn more about each other when they accidentally "dreamfast", sharing each other's memories. They stay for a night with the Podlings who raised Kira, only for them and Kira's pet Fizzgig to flee when the Garthim raid the village. They are nearly caught, but the Chamberlain orders the Garthim back. Jen and Kira discover a ruined Gelfling city where a prophecy is inscribed: "When single shines the triple sun, What was sundered and undone Shall be whole, the two made one By Gelfling hand or else by none." Jen realizes that he must take the shard to the castle. The Chamberlain approaches and begs them to come to the castle with him. The Gelflings flee and reach the castle on Landstriders, intercepting the Garthim that raided Kira's village. They attack to free the Podlings but are cornered. Kira grabs Jen and Fizzgig and reveals wings, an attribute possessed only by female Gelfling, that she uses to glide into the castle's dry moat. They enter the castle through the catacombs while, above, the Skeksis Scientist uses the crystal's rays to extract vital essence from Podlings. The Emperor drinks the essence and finds that it has only temporary restorative effects, unlike Gelfling essence which was more potent. The Chamberlain tries again to seize the Gelflings, and Jen stabs his hand with the shard; elsewhere the Mystic Chanter notices a wound on his hand. Enraged, the Chamberlain buries Jen in a cave-in and takes Kira as a gift to the Emperor. The Emperor reinstates him and orders Kira drained of essence. Aughra, imprisoned in the laboratory, tells Kira to call the captive animals for help. They break free and attack the Scientist, who deflects the draining prism before falling into the fiery crystal shaft; on a rocky plain, the Mystic Alchemist vanishes in flames. Aughra frees herself while Jen, awakened by Kira's call, climbs up the shaft to the laboratory. The Gelflings make their way to a hall overlooking the crystal chamber, where the Skeksis gather for the conjunction ceremony. When the Skeksis spot them and order the Garthim to attack, Jen leaps onto the crystal but drops the shard. Kira glides down to the chamber, grabs the shard and throws it to Jen before the High Priest stabs her fatally. As the suns align Jen plunges the shard into the crystal, producing a force that throws him aside. The Garthim disintegrate and the drained Podlings regain their vitality while the dark stone covering the castle crumbles to reveal a crystalline structure. The Mystics arrive and use the crystal's light to draw the Skeksis to themselves, merging into angelic urSkeks. The urSkek leader tells Jen that they sundered themselves and damaged the crystal a thousand years ago, upsetting the world's balance. They revive Kira in gratitude and ascend toward the suns, leaving the crystal to light the rejuvenated world.

Richard, a young American backpacker seeking adventure in Bangkok, stays in a drab travellers' hotel on Khao San Road where he meets a young French couple, Françoise and Étienne, and he immediately becomes attracted to Françoise. He also meets the mentally unstable Scottish traveller Daffy, who tells him of a pristine, uninhabited island in the Gulf of Thailand with a beautiful hidden beach. Daffy explains that he settled there in secret several years earlier, but difficulties arose and he left. The next day, Richard finds out that Daffy died by suicide and left him a map to the island. Richard persuades Françoise and Étienne to accompany him to the island, and the three travel to Ko Samui. Richard meets two American surfers, Zeph and Sammie, who have heard rumors of the island, and he gives them a copy of the map. En route to the island, Richard's infatuation with Françoise grows. After swimming to the island from a neighbouring one, they find a cannabis plantation guarded by armed Thai farmers. Avoiding detection, they make their way across the island, jumping off a large waterfall and meeting Keaty, who brings them to a community of travellers living on the island in secret. Sal, the community's English leader, explains that the farmers allow them to stay so long as they keep to themselves and do not allow any more travellers to come to the island. Richard lies about not having shown the map to anyone else, and the trio becomes integrated into the community. One night, Françoise invites Richard to the beach, where she tells him she is falling in love with him, and they start an affair. Although they hoped to keep it secret, the community finds out and, while he is angry, Étienne says he will not stand in their way if Françoise is happier with Richard. Sal selects Richard to accompany her on a supply run to Ko Pha Ngan. They encounter the American surfers who are preparing to search for the island and mention Richard's map. Sal is upset but believes Richard when he says they have no copy of the map. To ensure Sal's confidentiality, Richard has sex with her at her order. On their return to the island, Richard lies to Françoise about having sex with Sal. One day, three of the community fishermen are attacked by a shark while spearfishing. One is killed and another, Christo, is severely injured. He pleads for medical attention, but Sal will allow him to leave only if he promises not to disclose the location of the beach. However, now terrified of the water, Christo refuses to be taken to the mainland for medical treatment, but Sal refuses to allow any doctors to be brought to the island to treat him. As Christo's condition worsens, the islanders simply leave him in the jungle to die, but Étienne refuses to abandon him. When the surfers turn up on the neighbouring island, Sal orders Richard to send them away and destroy their map. Later that night, an angry and hearbroken Françoise confronts Richard after Sal tells everyone she and Richard had sex, causing her to return to Étienne. Isolated from the group, Richard begins to lose his sanity, imagining he is in a video game and conversing with the deceased Daffy. He sets booby traps in the jungle and gets teasingly close to the farmers without being caught. The surfers reach the island but are discovered and killed by the farmers. Shocked at witnessing their deaths and escaping back to camp, Richard smothers Christo to put him out of his misery and gathers Françoise and Étienne to leave the island. Richard, Françoise and Étienne are captured by the farmers. The farmers are furious with the community for breaking their deal not to allow any more newcomers. The lead farmer gives Sal a gun loaded with a single bullet and orders her to make a choice: kill Richard and the group will be allowed to stay or they all must leave immediately. Sal pulls the trigger, but the chamber is empty. Shocked by Sal's willingness to commit murder, the other members of the community abandon Sal, leave the island, and go their separate ways. Sometime later in an internet café, Richard receives an email from Françoise with a nostalgic group photograph of the beach community in happier times.

Child psychologist Catherine Deane is hired to conduct an experimental virtual reality treatment for coma patients: a "Neurological Cartography and Synaptic Transfer System" device managed by doctors Henry West and Miriam Kent that allows her to enter a comatose mind and attempt to coax them into consciousness. The technology is funded by the parents of her patient, Edward Baines, a young boy left comatose by a viral infection that causes an unusual form of schizophrenia. Baines's progress has been hampered by a bogeyman -like alter ego whom Deane avoids. Despite Deane's lack of progress, West and Kent reject Deane's suggestion to reverse the feed to bring Baines into her mind, fearing the consequences of his experiencing an unfamiliar world. Serial killer Carl Rudolph Stargher traps his victims in a cell-like glass enclosure that slowly fills with water by means of an automatic timer, then uses a hoist in his basement to suspend himself above their bodies while watching the recorded video of their deaths. He succumbs to the same schizophrenic illness and falls into a coma just as the FBI identifies him, leaving them without any leads as to the location of his latest victim, Julia Hickson. After learning of this experimental technology, Agent Peter Novak persuades Deane to enter Stargher's mind and discover Hickson's location. Deane enters the dark dreamscape of Stargher's twisted psyche, filled with doll-like versions of his victims. Stargher's innocent side manifests as Young Stargher and leads Deane through his memories of abuse he suffered at the hands of his sadistic father. Deane nurtures Young Stargher in hopes of obtaining Hickson's location, but she is thwarted by another manifestation: King Stargher, a demonic idealization of his murderous side that dominates the dreamscape. King Stargher torments Deane until she forgets the world is not real. Dr. West discovers this while monitoring Deane's vitals. He warns that what happens to Deane while she is integrated into Stargher's mindscape will inflict neurological damage on her real body. Novak volunteers to enter Stargher's mind to make Deane remember herself. Inside Stargher's mind, Novak is captured and subjected to King Stargher's torture while Deane looks on as Stargher's servant. Novak reminds Deane of a painful memory of her younger brother who died after a six-month coma due to a car accident during her college years to reawaken her awareness that she is in Stargher's mind. Deane breaks free of Stargher's hold and stabs King Stargher to free Novak. During their escape, Novak sees a version of the glass enclosure with the same insignia as the hoist in Stargher's basement. Novak's team discovers that after the hoist's previous owner went bankrupt, the government hired Stargher to seal up his property in rural Bakersfield. Novak races to the property and finds Hickson treading water in the enclosure and breathing through a pipe. Novak breaks the glass wall and rescues Hickson. Deane, now sympathetic to Young Stargher, locks her colleagues out and reverses the feed of the device to pull Stargher's mind into her own. She presents a comforting paradise to Young Stargher, but he knows it is only a temporary reprieve from King Stargher. He shifts to Adult Stargher to relate a childhood story of when he drowned an injured bird as a mercy killing to prevent its torture at his father's hands. King Stargher intrudes as a serpentine humanoid, but this time, Deane is in control and she beats him to a bloody pulp before impaling him with a sword. However, Young Stargher exhibits the same injuries as King Stargher, and killing either manifestation kills Stargher. Adult Stargher reminds her of the story of the bird and implores her to "save" him. Deane, appearing as a Virgin Mary -like figure, carries Young Stargher into a pool, putting him out of his misery as Stargher dies in the real world. In the aftermath, Deane and Novak meet outside of Stargher's house. The FBI has officially excluded the mind technology from their inquiry and Deane has gained approval to use the reverse feed on Edward Baines. Inside the paradise of Deane's mindscape, Baines walks to embrace Deane.

British diplomat and avid horticulturalist Justin Quayle is confronted by Amnesty International activist Tessa during a lecture in London. They strike up a romance, and marry after she accompanies him to his posting in Kenya. She befriends Belgian doctor Arnold Bluhm, leading to rumours of an affair. Tessa has no qualms confronting corruption, to the chagrin of Justin's superiors, and she loses a child late in pregnancy. Tessa and Arnold connect recent local deaths to drug trials being conducted by the Kenyan-based company Three Bees using the drug Dypraxa. They write a damaging report on the drug and Tessa gives it to Justin's colleague Sandy Woodrow, the British High Commissioner, who sends it to Sir Bernard Pellegrin, head of the Africa Desk at the Foreign Office. Pellegrin responds with an incriminating letter to Sandy, which Tessa persuades him to show her, and she steals it before departing for Lokichogio with Arnold. Sandy informs Justin that a white woman and black driver have been killed near Lake Turkana, and that Tessa and Arnold shared a room at Lodwar before hiring a car. Justin and Sandy identify Tessa's mutilated body, but Arnold's whereabouts remain unknown. Police confiscate Tessa's computer and files, but Justin finds her keepsake box, containing a letter from Sandy declaring his love for her and asking her to return Pellegrin's letter, and records of Three Bees' tests. After Tessa's burial, Justin learns from his colleague Ghita that Tessa kept Arnold's secret that he was gay, as homosexuality is illegal in Kenya. Pursuing the truth about his wife's murder, he follows the trail of her report. Justin is briefly detained by police and confronts Three Bees' CEO Kenny Curtiss, but receives no answers. Returning to London, Justin's passport is confiscated. He dines with Pellegrin, who lies that Arnold must have murdered Tessa, and believes that Justin has his incriminating letter. Justin meets with Tessa's cousin and lawyer Ham, and they access her computer files to reveal her investigation into Dypraxa and its manufacturer, Swiss - Canadian pharmaceutical conglomerate KDH, which hired Three Bees to test the drug on unsuspecting Kenyans as a treatment for tuberculosis. Justin receives a threatening note and Ham provides him with a fake passport to travel to Germany to meet with Tessa's contact Birgit. She is part of a pharmaceutical watchdog group and is reluctant to speak due to the targeting of her group. Justin is attacked in his hotel room and warned to stop investigating. Arnold's body is found having been tortured to death, while the announcement of a safe Dypraxa causes KDH's share price to soar. Returning to Kenya, Justin confronts Sandy, who admits that Tessa's report was silenced to save KDH from spending millions redeveloping the drug. Justin is approached by Curtiss, who has been betrayed by KDH, and brought to a mass grave of Dypraxa test subjects. Curtiss points Justin to Dr Lorbeer, Dypraxa's inventor, who has fled to Sudan. Tim Donohue, a friend in British intelligence, confirms that Pellegrin had Tessa and Arnold killed. Unable to convince Justin to return home, he gives him a gun. Justin travels to confront Lorbeer, who is treating remote villagers to atone for the lives claimed by his drug. The village is attacked by raiders, but Justin and Lorbeer escape in a UN aid plane, and Lorbeer reveals that he has Pellegrin's letter. Tessa convinced him to record the truth about Dypraxa, but he changed his mind, instead informing KDH that Tessa and Arnold were en route to expose the company to the UN. Justin convinces the pilot to mail Pellegrin's letter to Ham, and to drop him off at Lake Turkana. Removing the bullets from his gun, his final thoughts are of Tessa before he is killed by KDH's henchmen. In London at Tessa and Justin's memorial service, Pellegrin lies that Justin committed suicide in the same place his wife died. Ham announces the reading of an epistle, but instead reads Pellegrin's letter, exposing the deaths caused by Dypraxa and the subsequent coverup. Pellegrin storms out as Ham implicates the British government, KDH, and public complacency regarding the human cost of medicine they take for granted.

Sarah is picked up by her husband Paul and daughter Jessica after a whitewater rafting trip with her thrill-seeking friends Juno and Beth. Paul is distracted on the ride home, causing a car crash that kills both him and Jessica. Sarah awakens in the hospital and collapses after Beth tells her about their deaths. One year later, Sarah, Juno, and Beth reunite for a spelunking adventure in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina along with sisters Sam and Rebecca, and newcomer Holly. They hike to a mountain cave entrance and descend. Making their way through the caves, Sarah becomes stuck in a narrow tunnel, but manages to escape before it collapses, blocking the way back. Juno admits that she has led the group into an unexplored cave system instead of the mapped one they had filed with local authorities, which means that a rescue party would be unable to locate them. The group searches for an exit and discovers old climbing equipment and a cave painting that suggests a way out. Holly, thinking she sees sunlight, runs ahead but falls into a hole and breaks her leg. As the others help her, Sarah wanders off and sees a pale, humanoid creature drinking from a pool before it scampers away. Later, they come across a den of animal bones and are suddenly attacked by a creature they call a "crawler", which kills Holly. Sarah runs, but falls down a hole and is knocked unconscious. Juno, trying to stop Holly's body from being dragged away, kills a crawler with her pickaxe, but then accidentally stabs Beth in the neck after being startled. Beth grabs Juno's pendant as she collapses and a traumatized Juno flees. Sarah awakens in a den of human and animal carcasses to see Holly's body being mauled and eaten by crawlers. Juno discovers cave markings left by previous explorers pointing to a potential exit from the caves. She finds and saves Sam and Rebecca from a crawler, and Sam deduces that the creatures are blind and hunt by sound. Sarah finds a dying Beth, who reveals both that Juno stabbed her and that Juno's pendant was a gift from Paul, confirming Sarah's suspicions that Juno and Paul were having an affair. Beth begs Sarah to end her suffering, and Sarah reluctantly kills her with a rock. Sarah then encounters several crawlers and manages to kill them all, falling into a blood-filled pool in the process. Elsewhere, Juno, Sam, and Rebecca are pursued by a large group of crawlers. They reach a chasm, and Sam tries to climb across but is attacked by a crawler on the ceiling. It rips out her throat, but she stabs it before bleeding to death. Rebecca is dragged away and disemboweled as Juno flees. Juno later reunites with Sarah and lies about seeing Beth die. After defeating a group of crawlers near an exit, Sarah confronts Juno, revealing the pendant, and her knowledge of Beth's fate and the affair with Paul. She then stabs Juno in the leg with a pickaxe and leaves her to die as a horde of crawlers approaches. Juno removes the pickaxe from her leg to hold back the crawlers and is heard screaming as Sarah escapes. Sarah falls into a hole and loses consciousness. When she wakes, she sees sunlight and clambers up a bone-strewn slope to escape the cave. She reaches her car and speeds away, eventually pulling over to break down in tears. After a truck passes, she vomits out of the window. When she sits back up, she hallucinates seeing a bloodied Juno beside her, and screams. In the UK version, Sarah awakens, still in the cave, and has a vision of Jessica, smiling as the sounds of approaching crawlers grow louder.

In 1967, a visit by the Shah of Iran to West Berlin leads to a clash between the West German student movement and German police. In the chaos, unarmed protestor Benno Ohnesorg is fatally shot by policeman Karl-Heinz Kurras, outraging the West German public, including left-wing journalist Ulrike Meinhof, who claims in a televised debate that West Germany is a fascist police state. Inspired by Meinhof's rhetoric, radical communists Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader mastermind the Frankfurt department store firebombings of 1968. While covering their trial, Meinhof is moved by the radicals' commitment and befriends Ensslin during a prison interview before leaving her husband for radical-linked journalist Peter Homann. Left-wing activist Rudi Dutschke is injured in an assassination attempt by neo-nazi Josef Bachmann, further radicalizing the Left. Ensslin and Baader are released pending an appeal and recruit youths, including Astrid Proll and Peter-Jurgen Boock, to their cause. After spending some time abroad, Baader, Ensslin, and Proll move in with Meinhof, who begins advocating violent action but does not wish to leave her two children. When Baader is arrested again, Meinhof arranges an "interview" off prison grounds, which Ensslin and the others use to break him out; though the plan called for Meinhof to appear innocent and stay behind, she flees with the radicals, incriminating herself. Meinhof sends her children to Sicily and the group receives guerilla training from Fatah in Jordan. Homann, overhearing the others asking Fatah to kill him and Meinhof planning to recruit her children as suicide bombers, leaves the group and arranges for his colleague Stefan Aust to return Meinhof's children to their father. The radicals, now calling themselves the Red Army Faction (RAF), return to Germany and begin robbing banks. In response, German Federal Police chief Horst Herold orders all municipal police to be put under federal command for one day. During that day, RAF member Petra Schelm is pursued by police and killed in a shootout; viewing her death as murder rather than resisting arrest, Baader and Ensslin overrule Meinhof's objections and launch a deadly bombing campaign against police stations and United States military bases. However, under Herold's command, the police respond in force to the RAF's activities and many members, including Baader, Ensslin, Meinhof, and Holger Meins, are arrested and imprisoned. They stage a hunger strike in separate prisons that results in Meins' death, while the authorities move Baader, Ensslin, Meinhof, and Jan-Carl Raspe to Stammheim Prison, where they work on their defense for their trial and smuggle orders outside. In 1975, a group of younger RAF recruits acting on these orders seize the West German embassy in Stockholm, where they kill two hostages and threaten to blow up the embassy if the prisoners are not released, but their bombs accidentally detonate, wounding everyone inside and killing RAF members Ulrich Wessel and Siegfried Hausner. The prisoners are appalled by the poor execution of their orders. Meinhof, suffering from depression and remorse over the deaths caused by the RAF's bombings, is subjected to sadistic emotional abuse by Baader and Ensslin, leading her to hang herself; the others falsely claim she was killed by the government. Upon completing her sentence in 1977, Brigitte Mohnhaupt takes over command of the RAF and organizes the assassination of Attorney General Siegfried Buback as revenge for Meins and Meinhof's "murders". Mohnhaupt, Christian Klar, and Susanne Albrecht also attempt to kidnap Dresdner Bank president Jürgen Ponto, but they kill him when he fights back. Aware the imprisoned RAF members ordered both murders, the authorities place them in solitary confinement, but Ensslin and Baader obtain radios to continue smuggling orders. Launching a new campaign of terror, Mohnhaupt abducts industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer while the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacks Lufthansa Flight 181, again with the goal of securing the prisoners' release, but the West German government refuses to negotiate for Schleyer, while the PFLP hijackers are defeated by GSG 9. Baader and Ensslin tauntingly warn a negotiator and a prison chaplain respectively that the violence will continue; however, the latter also confides that she fears she will be killed soon. The next morning, Baader and Raspe are found dead from gunshot wounds next to smuggled handguns, while Ensslin is found having been hung from her cell's barred window; Irmgard Möller is also found stabbed four times in the chest, but she survives. The news devastates the RAF, who insist they were murdered, but Mohnhaupt explains that they, like Meinhof, were "in control of the outcome until the very end". The RAF then murders Schleyer, signifying the continuation of RAF terrorism past the original members.

In early April 1923, near the end of the Irish Civil War, on the fictional isle of Inisherin (lit. ' the island of Ireland '), fiddler Colm Doherty abruptly begins ignoring his lifelong best friend and drinking buddy Pádraic Súilleabháin. When a hurt Pádraic presses Colm for an explanation, he says that Pádraic is too dull, and he would rather spend the remainder of his life composing music and doing things for which he will be remembered. Pádraic is devastated and refuses to accept the situation, while Colm only becomes more resistant to his old friend's attempts to make amends, eventually giving Pádraic an ultimatum: every time Pádraic talks to him, Colm will cut off one of his own fingers. The local Garda, Peadar Kearney, beats his troubled son Dominic severely for drinking his poitín, and Pádraic and his sister, Siobhán, take Dominic in for a night. While delivering milk to the market, Pádraic is insulted by Peadar and retaliates by making public the fact that Peadar abuses his son. Peadar punches him to the ground. Having witnessed this, Colm drives Pádraic home; the two do not speak. Siobhán and Dominic try to defuse the pair's feud, to no avail. Pádraic drunkenly confronts Colm and berates him for throwing away their friendship, as well as for drinking with Peadar, whom he publicly accuses of molesting Dominic. After Siobhán leads Pádraic away, Colm says that this is the most interesting Pádraic has ever been, which Dominic overhears. The next morning, not remembering what he has said, Pádraic attempts to apologise to Colm, but the conversation goes badly. Colm responds by cutting off his left index finger and throwing it at Pádraic's door. Pádraic later sees Colm meeting with Declan, a fiddler from the mainland. Jealous, Pádraic tricks Declan into returning home by lying that his father was hit by a bread van. As the tensions worsen, local elder Mrs McCormick warns Pádraic that death will come to the island soon. Dominic tells Pádraic what Colm said about him in the pub; encouraged, Pádraic tells Dominic what he did to Declan, but Dominic, disappointed, rejects him as mean and refuses to speak to him anymore. Thereafter, Siobhán sympathetically rejects Dominic's romantic advances. Pádraic gets drunk and starts another confrontation with Colm at Colm's house; Colm says he has finished composing his song ("The Banshees of Inisherin") and seems finally open to renewing their friendship, but Pádraic drunkenly reveals what he did to Declan. Instead of meeting Pádraic at the pub, Colm cuts off all four of his remaining left fingers and throws them at Padraic's door. Fed up by the feud and long bored with life on the island, Siobhán moves to the mainland for a job in a library. Devastated, Pádraic comes home to find his pet donkey Jenny has choked to death on one of Colm's fingers. He confronts Colm at the pub; Colm offers a truce, but an embittered Pádraic informs him that he will burn his house down the next day at 2 pm. At the promised time the next day, Pádraic does so; he looks in a window and sees Colm calmly sitting inside. Pádraic takes Colm's dog Sammy with him to save him from the fire. Peadar watches Pádraic burn down the house, and as he rushes to Pádraic's house to confront him, he encounters Mrs McCormick, who leads Peadar to Dominic's corpse in the lake. After returning home, Pádraic writes a letter to Siobhán that says Jenny is doing well and glosses over his lonely, friendless life. The next morning, Pádraic takes Sammy back and finds Colm, who survived the fire, standing on the beach beside his burnt-out house. Colm apologises for the donkey's death and suggests destroying the house has ended their feud; Pádraic replies that it would have ended only if Colm had stayed inside. Colm wonders whether the Civil War is coming to an end; Pádraic replies he is sure the fighting will begin again soon because "some things there's no moving on from", adding that he thinks that is "a good thing" before leaving. Unbeknownst to either, Mrs McCormick silently watches them from the remains of Colm's house.

In an unnamed large city with multiple daily newspapers, star reporter Hildebrand "Hildy" Johnson and his Morning Post editor, Walter Burns, hope to cash in on a big story involving an escaped convicted murderer, Earl Williams. Williams is scheduled to go to the gallows at 7 o'clock the following morning for an anarchist-related murder of a black policeman. Esteemed newspaperman Johnson is about to quit the journalism trade and is on his way to marry his sweetheart Peggy Grant and relocate to New York City where an advertising job awaits him. Not surprisingly, his unscrupulous boss Burns does not want him to quit. He wants Johnson to remain on his staff so he can cover the major news story for the Morning Post. Although he is an avowed anarchist, it is revealed that Williams is likely an innocent man who has been wrongly convicted of the policeman's murder due to rising anti-red sentiments in his city. Accordingly, Burns will do anything to make sure Johnson works on that angle of the story — including delaying his wedding trip. Hours before Williams' scheduled execution, while being interviewed by an Austrian alienist and reenacting the murder, Williams manages to escape custody with the help of Sheriff Pinky Hartman's gun which the inept lawman had carelessly loaned to the doctor. With the assistance of Johnson and Burns, the newspapermen hide the fleeing Williams in a rolltop desk in a room usually occupied by a bevy of newspaper reporters gathered to cover Williams' execution. Johnson's soon-to-be mother-in-law, Mrs. Grant, sees Johnson and Burns hide Williams in the desk. To silence her, Burns has some of his cronies roughly escort her out of the building. Sheriff Hartman and the mayor of the city get a missive from the governor. It is a reprieve for Williams. However, Williams' execution would be a political boon for the two men in an upcoming election, so they refuse to accept it. Instead, they send the messenger away with a bribe and the address of a house of ill repute. Johnson's future mother-in-law eventually returns to the press room and Williams is found in the desk. The reporters all rush to call bulletins into their editors, each with widely varying and greatly exaggerated details about how the fugitive Williams was re-arrested. Johnson and Burns are about to be arrested by Sheriff Hartman for aiding a fleeing criminal and kidnapping Mrs. Grant when the messenger from the governor reappears. Saying he is happily married and his conscience cannot let him accept the bribe, he tells the reporters about the politicians' refusal to accept the governor's pardon for Williams. The politicians quickly agree to drop their charges against the reporters in exchange for them not mentioning their own wrongdoings in the newspapers. Despite offers of a promotion at the Morning Post from Burns, Johnson says he is retiring from the newspaper business to go on his wedding trip. Burns seems to accept Johnson's career decision gracefully, even giving Johnson his prized gold watch as a thank-you gift for his services as a star reporter for the Morning Post. However, moments after Johnson and Mary depart for the railroad station, Burns arranges for the police to arrest Johnson at the train's first stop on the pretense that Johnson has stolen his watch.