In 1969, during the Vietnam War, jaded MACV-SOG operative Captain Benjamin L. Willard is summoned to I Field Force headquarters in Nha Trang. The officers there tell him that U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz is waging a brutal war against North Vietnamese Army, Viet Cong, and Khmer Rouge forces without permission from his commanders. Kurtz is based at a remote jungle outpost in eastern Cambodia, where he commands American, Montagnard, and local Khmer militia troops who worship him. Willard is ordered to "terminate command... with extreme prejudice." He joins a U.S. Navy river patrol boat (PBR) commanded by the Chief Petty Officer Phillips, with crewmen Lance Johnson, "Chef" Hicks, and "Mr. Clean" Miller to quietly navigate up the Nùng River to Kurtz's outpost. Before reaching the coastal mouth of the Nùng, they rendezvous with the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, a helicopter-borne air assault unit of the 1st Cavalry Division commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, to coordinate safe entry into the river. Kilgore hasn't been briefed on Willard's mission but becomes more engaged after discovering that Lance, a well-known fellow surfer, is with him. Kilgore agrees to escort the boat through the Nùng's Viet Cong -held coastal mouth and a full-scale air assault is executed on the village with " Ride of the Valkyries " playing on loudspeakers. Resisting Kilgore's attempts to convince Lance to surf with him on the newly conquered beach, Willard gathers the sailors to board the PBR and continue their mission. Going ashore to find mangos, Willard and Chef are surprised by a tiger, leading Chef to have a brief mental breakdown. Willard starts seeing cracks form in the crew. Tensions rise when Willard insists on the priority of his mission over the Chief's usual patrol objectives. Willard partially reveals his orders to convince the Chief of the mission's importance. As Willard studies Kurtz's dossier, he is shocked by Kurtz's mid-career sacrifice by leaving a prestigious Pentagon assignment to join Special Forces, all but destroying his chances for career advancement. At a remote U.S. Army outpost, the boat receives a dispatch bag containing both official and personal mail. Willard learns that another MACV-SOG operative, Special Forces Captain Richard Colby, was sent on an earlier mission identical to Willard's and has since joined Kurtz. Lance activates a smoke grenade while under the influence of LSD, attracting enemy fire, causing Mr. Clean's death. Further upriver, the Chief is impaled by a spear thrown by Montagnards and attempts to kill Willard with the spear point protruding from his chest, but Willard overpowers him. Willard reveals his mission to Chef, now commanding the PBR. They arrive at Kurtz's outpost, a Khmer temple teeming with Montagnards and strewn with the remains of victims. Willard, Chef, and Lance are greeted by an American photojournalist, who praises Kurtz's genius. Willard encounters Colby and five other American soldiers among the Montagnards. He sets out with Lance to find Kurtz, leaving Chef with orders to call in an airstrike on the outpost if the two do not return. In the camp, Willard is questioned by Kurtz, then locked in a bamboo cage. One night Kurtz appears and drops Chef's severed head into Willard's lap. Willard is released, and warned not to attempt escape. Kurtz lectures him on his theories of war, praising the ruthlessness of the Viet Cong, and asks Willard to tell his son the truth about his mutiny. As the Montagnards ceremonially kill a water buffalo, Willard attacks Kurtz with a machete, essentially dismembering him in a frantic rage. Kurtz collapses and silently whispers "the horror", before dying. Kurtz's followers watch Willard depart with Kurtz's writings, and bow down to him. Willard leads Lance back to the PBR, and they depart.

The film follows the lives of a small family living in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a desolate and radioactive area abandoned after the 1986 nuclear disaster. The family is led by Baba Prisya, an elderly woman who believes in the supernatural and claims to communicate with rusalkas (water spirits from Slavic folklore). She lives with her daughter Slava, who is in poor health and has been abandoned by her husband, and her grandson Vovchyk, a young man who is shy and fearful of the outside world. Their secluded life is suddenly disrupted one day when Baba Prisya experiences a mystical vision. She is warned by an unknown entity about an impending personal catastrophe that will soon affect her and her family. Believing the warning to be true, Baba Prisya takes it as her mission to prevent the disaster, but her family is skeptical of her visions and beliefs. One day, Vovchyk ventures out into the surrounding wilderness to gather objects from the Exclusion Zone, against his grandmother’s warnings. During this trip, he encounters Vasya, a local policeman, who brings food and supplies to the family. Vasya, who believes the area is dangerous due to the radiation and the presence of bandits, advises the family to leave the zone. Baba Prisy refuses to leave, however, convinced that the radiation is a myth and that the real threat is something much more sinister. As Baba Prisya’s visions intensify, she becomes more obsessed with preventing the foretold catastrophe. She becomes increasingly erratic, convinced that the disaster is tied to extraterrestrial forces that have infiltrated the government. According to her beliefs, the Chernobyl disaster was orchestrated to drive people out of the area and pave the way for a base to communicate with these otherworldly beings. She insists that the government’s evacuation was a cover-up and that the radiation is a distraction from the true danger. The family’s tensions rise as Baba Prisya takes more drastic steps to prevent the catastrophe, including performing strange rituals and consuming a rare mushroom she believes will open a "gateway" to reveal hidden truths. This leads to surreal, nightmarish sequences, where reality and Baba Prisya’s delusions begin to blur. At one point, the family experiences vivid hallucinations, further complicating their understanding of what is real. As the family struggles to understand the meaning of Baba Prisya’s warnings, it becomes clear that her connection to the supernatural may have been stronger than they had thought. In the final act, the mystical warning comes to fruition when an unforeseen disaster strikes the family, leading to tragic consequences. The film ends on an ambiguous note, leaving viewers to question whether Baba Prisya’s beliefs were valid, or if the events were merely the product of her deteriorating mental state.

The film opens with a commercial for New West Recovery (NWR), a Los Angeles -based rehab center founded by ex-addict Vin. In narration, Vin boasts that, thanks to the 2010 passage of Barack Obama 's Affordable Care Act, drug addiction and recovery are now pre-existing conditions, creating a large industrial complex for treatment clinics across Southern California alone. In Columbus, Ohio, homeless junkie couple Utah and Opal rob convenience stores to fund their habit. Opal also makes money as a sex worker for truckers. While panhandling, the duo encounter NWR sponsor Wood, who offers them a meal and an opportunity to get clean. Opal assumes Wood is a Christian proselytizer, but the man reiterates he's only offering drug rehabilitation. Utah accepts the offer and flies to Los Angeles with Wood. Opal, hardened by heroin and crack addiction, stays behind in Ohio. After a few weeks, Utah shows improvement and attempts to persuade Opal to join him, but she's indifferent to his progress and refuses her own treatment. With Wood's assistance, Opal finally decides to "enroll" as a NWR patient, and Utah is provided a kickback for the referral. Soon, Utah, like Wood, becomes a multi-level marketer for NWR, earning tens of thousands of dollars in other referrals, over-billed tests, and frivolous medical procedures. Vin brags about his schemes (in narration), while Utah wrestles with his inner morals. The scams appear to be victimless, non-violent crimes until one of NWR's accomplices, the corrupt Dr. Riner, wants a bigger take on a controversial surgical procedure, and insults Wood and Utah. Wood beats Riner to death and buries his body. Vin recommends Wood and Utah leave town for a few days and keep a low profile. A short time later, Vin sets Utah up with a new referral in a parked car at LAX. Before stepping foot into MWR's facility, Utah allows the man one more fix. While the man is unconscious, Utah notices more heroin and decides to get a hit himself, but fatally overdoses. Because Utah was vulnerable to relapse without intervention, it is suggested this meeting was engineered by Vin to cover loose ends in Riner's murder. An epilogue notes current statistics of addiction and overdoses, how many more criminal enterprises like NWR exist, and that twelve-step programs are the most effective method to treat addiction (and don't cost any money).

Destitute alcoholic Henry Chinaski lives in a Los Angeles rundown apartment and works menial jobs when he can find them. He also writes poetry and short stories which he submits to magazines and papers for little money. Henry frequents The Golden Horn, a bar where he drinks, hangs out with other alcoholics, and gets into altercations with the bartender he hates, Eddie. One night, Henry gets into a fight with Eddie and loses. To gain energy and win the next fight, he takes a sandwich from a patron and eats it, disgusting the patron and angering the bar owner, Jim, one of Henry's best friends. Jim tells Henry to go lie down in his apartment. After an afternoon nap, Henry steals food from another apartment to eat in preparation to fight Eddie. Henry then returns to The Golden Horn and antagonizes Eddie until the latter challenges him to another fight, which Henry wins. Henry then staggers on to the Kenmore, a nearby establishment where he continues his imbibement. There, he meets Wanda, an alcoholic and a kept woman. Wanda is initially annoyed with Henry, saying that she "hates people," but ends up being intrigued by him. The two buy liquor at a nearby store, and Wanda steals corn from a cornfield, attracting the attention of the police. The two run to her apartment, evading them. Wanda boils the corn but discovers it is green and inedible and freaks out, saying that nothing in her life ever works out. Henry comforts her. However, things become acrimonious between Henry and Wanda when Henry discovers that Wanda has slept with Eddie. After he chastises her for it, Wanda beats Henry with her purse, knocking him unconscious. Later, a detective following Henry sees him covered in blood and calls 911. Two paramedics arrive and are unfazed by Henry's being covered in blood, telling him not to waste their time. Wanda returns later, and the two apologize to one another. That night, Wanda claims to be dying in bed, seeing angels. Henry calls 911 and the same paramedics arrive, much to his surprise, and claim Wanda is just drunk and "too fat." After Wanda leaves to look for a job the next morning, Henry is tracked down by Tully Sorenson, a wealthy book publisher who has been impressed with his writing and is interested in publishing some of his work. She finds him through the detective she has hired. Knowing Henry is destitute, Tully pays him an "advance" of $500. Henry then breaks into another apartment after hearing a man abusing his wife. After the man threatens to cut his wife's throat, he and Henry get into an altercation which results in the man being stabbed. Henry scrambles out of the apartment building and goes for a drive in L.A. with Tully. At one point, he rams a car where a man and woman are making out while the light is green. Tully says he was immature and reckless in his response. She then takes him back to her home where, after drinks, the two have sex. At first, Henry is impressed with the promise of wealth and security, including an endless supply of booze that working for Tully could provide. However, he begins to realize that he is uncomfortable being involved with Tully, romantically or professionally, because of class differences, saying that she is "trapped in a cage with golden bars". Henry determines he must leave. He and Wanda go to the Golden Horn, where Henry requests a round on him for the entire bar. To Eddie's surprise, Henry pays with some of the advance he received from Tully and sarcastically leaves a tip for Eddie, saying "Buy a drink on me." Tully heads out to see if she can change his mind and finds him at the bar where a drunken, jealous Wanda proceeds to beat her up. When Henry does not intercede, Tully realizes that Henry does not care about her and does not want her help. So she leaves the bar and gives up on publishing his work. Eddie calls Henry out, and they go out behind the bar for another fight. Henry and the other barflies follow Eddie out the door, the fight starts, and the crowd cheers the two men.

Patrick, Tim, and Georgie are firefighters who live and work together. After saving two children from a fire, they are hailed as heroes of New Orleans. While on a fishing trip with his girlfriend Sophia, Patrick claims to witness a 35-foot long shark. Although he repeatedly tries to warn his friends, they do not believe him and insist there are no sharks in the Mississippi River. Eventually, Patrick is vindicated when shark attacks are reported on the local news. The shark is carried abreast of flood water through the streets of the city, eating people. Patrick and Tim set out across New Orleans to save the city from the shark, and scenes in which they search for or flee from it are interspersed with scenes of interactions with their girlfriends and socializing at a bar. Meanwhile, their boss, Captain Joe, procures scuba gear for them and implores them to help save the city. Tim receives a treasure map from an old man in the bar, marking where the shark sleeps, though Patrick expresses some confusion over whether or not sharks sleep. While playing pool, Patrick and Tim conceive a plan to place a tracking device on the shark, follow it in their scuba gear, and feed it dynamite hidden inside a pig carcass. After obtaining the bait, they spear the shark with the tracking device, but the animal retaliates and eats Georgie. Tim and Patrick visit a shrine erected in Georgie's honor on the beach, and together mourn their friend's death by composing a song. With the tracking device in place, Tim and Patrick pursue the shark into the bayou and kill it by tricking it into eating the bomb. Initially, Tim seems to die in the explosion, but it is revealed that he was only flung high in the air and survives. The heroes celebrate by dancing in the streets of New Orleans with a marching band.