In 1947, Portland, Maine, banker Andy Dufresne arrives at Shawshank State Prison to serve two consecutive life sentences for murdering his wife and her lover. He is befriended by Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding, a contraband smuggler serving a life sentence, who procures for him a rock hammer and a large poster of Rita Hayworth. Assigned to work in the prison laundry, Andy is frequently raped by "the Sisters" gang, led by Bogs Diamond. In 1949, Andy overhears the captain of the guards, Byron Hadley, complaining about being taxed on an inheritance and offers to help him shelter the money legally. After the Sisters beat Andy to near-death, Hadley cripples Bogs, who is subsequently transferred to a minimum-security hospital; Andy is not attacked again. Warden Samuel Norton assigns Andy to the prison's decrepit library, ostensibly to assist elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen, but in reality, to use Andy's financial expertise in managing the warden's and other prison staff's finances. Andy also starts writing weekly letters to the state legislature, requesting funding to improve the library. Brooks is paroled in 1954 after serving 50 years, but cannot adjust to the outside world and eventually hangs himself. After years of Andy's ceaseless letters, the legislature sends a library donation that includes a recording of The Marriage of Figaro; Andy plays an excerpt over the public address system, experiencing a moment of personal freedom before he is punished with solitary confinement. After his release, Andy explains to a dismissive Red that hope is what gets him through his sentence. In 1963, Norton begins exploiting prison labor for public works, profiting by undercutting skilled labor costs and receiving bribes. Andy launders the money using the alias "Randall Stephens". In 1965, Andy and Red befriend Tommy Williams, a young inmate convicted of burglary. Andy helps Tommy pass his General Educational Development exam, and Tommy later reveals that his cellmate at another prison confessed to committing the murders for which Andy was convicted. When Andy informs Norton, the warden refuses to act. Although Andy promises to keep the money laundering a secret, Norton sends Andy to solitary confinement and has Hadley kill Tommy under the guise of an escape attempt. Norton then threatens to destroy the library, strip Andy of guard protection, and transfer him to harsher conditions if Andy refuses to continue with the money-laundering scheme. A dishevelled Andy is released from solitary confinement after two months. He tells a skeptical Red that he dreams of living in Zihuatanejo, a town on the Mexican Pacific coast, where he can start anew. He asks Red to promise, once Red is released, to travel to a specific hayfield near Buxton and recover a package that Andy buried there. Red worries that Andy is suicidal, especially after learning that he asked a fellow inmate for a rope. At the next day's roll call, the guards find Andy's cell empty. An irate Norton throws a rock at a poster of Raquel Welch hanging on the cell wall, revealing a tunnel that Andy had dug with his rock hammer over 19 years. The previous night, Andy escaped through the tunnel and prison sewage pipe, taking with him Norton's suit, shoes, and the ledger containing evidence of the corruption at Shawshank. While guards search for him, Andy poses as Randall Stephens and withdraws over $370,000 of the laundered money from various banks, before mailing the ledger to a local newspaper. State police arrive at Shawshank and take Hadley into custody, while Norton kills himself to avoid arrest. The following year, Red is paroled after serving 40 years, but struggles to adapt to life outside prison and fears that he never will. Remembering his promise to Andy, he visits Buxton and finds a cache containing money and a letter inviting him to come to Zihuatanejo. Red violates his parole by traveling to Mexico, admitting that he finally feels hope. He finds Andy on a beach, and the reunited friends happily embrace.

A gang of masked criminals rob a mafia -owned bank in Gotham City, betraying and killing each other until the sole survivor, the Joker, reveals himself as the mastermind and escapes with the money. The vigilante Batman, district attorney Harvey Dent, and police lieutenant Jim Gordon ally to eliminate Gotham's organized crime. Batman's true identity, the billionaire Bruce Wayne, publicly supports Dent as Gotham's legitimate protector, believing Dent's success will allow him to retire as Batman and romantically pursue his childhood friend Rachel Dawes —despite her being with Dent. Gotham's mafia bosses gather to discuss protecting their organizations from the Joker, the police, and Batman. The Joker interrupts the meeting and offers to kill Batman for half of the fortune their accountant, Lau, concealed before fleeing to Hong Kong to avoid extradition. With the help of Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucius Fox, Batman finds Lau in Hong Kong and returns him to the custody of the Gotham police. His testimony enables Dent to apprehend the crime families. The bosses accept the Joker's offer, and he kills high-profile targets involved in the trial, including the judge and police commissioner Gillian Loeb. Although Gordon saves the mayor, the Joker threatens that his attacks will continue until Batman reveals his identity. He targets Dent at a fundraising dinner and throws Rachel out of a window, but Batman rescues her. Bruce struggles to understand the Joker's motives, to which his butler Alfred Pennyworth says that "some men just want to watch the world burn." Dent claims he is Batman to lure the Joker out, who attacks the police convoy transporting Dent. Batman and Gordon apprehend the Joker, and Gordon is promoted to commissioner. At the police station, Batman interrogates the Joker, who says he finds Batman entertaining and has no intention of killing him. Having deduced Batman's feelings for Rachel, the Joker reveals she and Dent are being held separately in buildings rigged to explode. Batman races to rescue Rachel while Gordon and the other officers go after Dent, but they discover the Joker has given their positions in reverse. The explosives detonate, killing Rachel and severely burning Dent's face on one side. The Joker escapes custody, extracts the fortune's location from Lau, and burns it, killing Lau in the process. Coleman Reese, a consultant for Wayne Enterprises, deduces and tries to expose Batman's identity, but the Joker threatens to blow up a hospital unless Reese is killed. While the police evacuate hospitals and Gordon struggles to keep Reese alive, the Joker meets with a disillusioned Dent, persuading him to take the law into his own hands and avenge Rachel. Dent defers his decision-making to his now half-scarred, two-headed coin, killing the corrupt officers and the mafia involved in Rachel's death. As panic grips the city, the Joker reveals that two evacuation ferries, one carrying civilians and the other prisoners, are rigged to explode at midnight unless one group sacrifices the other. To the Joker's disbelief, the passengers refuse to kill one another. Batman subdues the Joker but refuses to kill him. Before the police arrest the Joker, he says that although Batman proved incorruptible, his plan to corrupt Dent has succeeded. Dent takes Gordon's family hostage, blaming his negligence for Rachel's death. He flips his coin to decide their fates, but Batman tackles him to save Gordon's son, and Dent falls to his death. Believing Dent is the hero the city needs, and the truth of his corruption will harm Gotham, Batman takes the blame for his death and actions, persuading Gordon to conceal the truth. Alfred burns an undelivered letter from Rachel to Bruce that says she chose Dent, and Fox destroys the invasive surveillance network that helped Batman find the Joker. The city mourns Dent as a hero, and the police launch a manhunt for Batman.

Dom Cobb and Arthur are "extractors" who perform corporate espionage using experimental dream-sharing technology to infiltrate their targets' subconscious and extract information. Their latest target, Saito, is impressed with Cobb's ability to layer multiple dreams within each other. He offers to hire Cobb for the ostensibly impossible job of implanting an idea into a person's subconscious; performing "inception" on Robert Fischer, the son of Saito's competitor Maurice Fischer, with the idea to dissolve his father's company. In return, Saito promises to clear Cobb's criminal status, allowing him to return home to his children. Cobb accepts the offer and assembles his team: a forger named Eames, a chemist named Yusuf, and a college student named Ariadne. Ariadne is tasked with designing the dream's architecture, something Cobb himself cannot do for fear of being sabotaged by his mind's projection of his late wife, Mal. Maurice Fischer dies, and the team sedates Robert Fischer into a three-layer shared dream on an airplane to America bought by Saito. Time on each layer runs slower than the layer above, with one member staying behind on each to perform a music-synchronized " kick " (using the French song " Non, je ne regrette rien ") to awaken dreamers on all three levels simultaneously. The team abducts Robert in a city on the first level, but unknown to any team member, his subconscious projections, trained to anticipate such a scenario, attack them. After Saito is wounded, Cobb reveals that while dying in the dream would usually awaken dreamers, Yusuf's sedatives will instead send them into " Limbo ": a world of infinite subconscious. Eames impersonates Robert's godfather, Peter Browning, to introduce the idea of an alternate will to dissolve the company. Cobb explains to Ariadne that he and Mal entered Limbo while experimenting with dream-sharing, experiencing fifty years in one night due to the time dilation with reality. After waking up, Mal still believed she was dreaming. Attempting to "wake up," she committed suicide and framed Cobb for her murder to force him to do the same. Cobb fled the U.S., leaving his children behind. Yusuf drives the team around the first level as they are sedated into the second level, a hotel dreamed by Arthur. Cobb persuades Robert that Browning has kidnapped him to stop the dissolution and that Cobb is a defensive projection, leading Robert to another third level deeper as part of a ruse to enter Robert's subconscious. In the third level, the team infiltrates an alpine fortress with a projection of Maurice inside, where the inception itself can be performed. However, Yusuf performs his kick too soon by driving off a bridge, forcing Arthur and Eames to improvise a new set of kicks synchronized with them hitting the water by rigging an elevator and the fortress, respectively, with explosives. Mal then appears and kills Robert before he can be subjected to the inception; he and Saito are subsequently lost in Limbo, forcing Cobb and Ariadne to rescue them in time for Robert's inception and Eames's kick. Cobb reveals that during their time in Limbo, Mal refused to return to reality; Cobb had to convince her it was only a dream, accidentally incepting in her the belief that the real world was still a dream. Cobb makes peace with his part in Mal's death. Ariadne kills Mal's projection and wakes Robert up with a kick. Revived into the third level, Robert discovers the planted idea: his dying father telling him to create something for himself. While Cobb searches for Saito in Limbo, the others ride the synced kicks back to reality. Cobb finds an aged Saito and reminds him of their agreement. The dreamers all awaken on the plane, and Saito makes a phone call. Arriving in Los Angeles, Cobb passes the immigration checkpoint, and his father-in-law accompanies him to his home. Cobb uses Mal's "totem" – a top that spins indefinitely in a dream – to test if he is indeed in the real world, but he chooses not to observe the result and instead joins his children.

The unnamed Narrator works an office job as an automobile recall coordinator. He goes to a doctor for his disordered sleep, complaining that he falls asleep unexpectedly and wakes up in unknown places. The doctor suggests he attend a testicular cancer support group to see what actual pain looks like. The Narrator does so, and finds that the honesty and vulnerability he experiences there improve his sleep. He begins attending other support groups and encounters Marla Singer, another impostor, whose presence unnerves him. After a confrontation, the two agree to split the groups they attend. The Narrator meets luxury soap salesman Tyler Durden on a business flight. Upon returning home, the Narrator finds his apartment destroyed in an explosion, and calls Tyler. They meet at a bar, where Tyler criticizes the Narrator's consumerist lifestyle and mocks him for not directly asking for a place to stay. Tyler agrees the Narrator can stay with him, but first asks a favor: for the Narrator to punch him as hard as he can. The Narrator does so, instigating an agreeable exchange of painful blows. At Tyler's large and decrepit house they start an underground "Fight Club" at the bar, as a way for men to reclaim control of their lives. Tyler saves Marla from an overdose, leading to a sexual relationship, while the Narrator remains cold to her. Tyler has the Narrator promise not to talk to Marla about him. His experiences at Fight Club transform the Narrator, and he grows increasingly disillusioned with his career. He extorts his boss by beating himself up in his boss's office, staging it as if the boss had assaulted him, and uses the hush money to expand Fight Club. He attracts new members, including his cancer support group friend, Robert "Bob" Paulsen. Tyler transforms the club into Project Mayhem, which commits increasingly destructive anti-capitalist acts. The Narrator confronts Tyler, who confesses to exploding the Narrator's apartment to free him from his consumerist lifestyle. They argue, then Tyler goes missing. When the police kill Bob during a Project Mayhem mission, the Narrator tries to dismantle Project Mayhem and discovers its nationwide reach. Across several cities, the Narrator finds local chapters and asks if they have seen Tyler, but they give evasive and confusing answers until one member identifies the Narrator as Mr. Durden. The Narrator calls Marla to enquire about their relationship; she calls him Tyler. Once she hangs up, Tyler appears in the room with the Narrator and rebukes him for involving Marla. The Narrator realizes he and Tyler are the same person, with Tyler taking control during the Narrator's apparent narcolepsy. The Narrator discovers Project Mayhem's ultimate objective: to erase all debt records by blowing up the skyscrapers of consumer credit companies. He warns Marla to stay away from him and goes to alert the police, but finds the officers are themselves Project Mayhem members. They attempt to castrate him on Tyler's orders. The Narrator escapes and disarms one of the bombs, prompting Tyler to attack him. The Narrator reasons that Tyler's gun must be in his own hand, and finds that he is now holding it. He shoots himself in the cheek, "killing" Tyler but leaving the Narrator alive. Marla and he hold hands and watch the skyline as buildings collapse.

In 2067, life on Earth is collapsing. NASA scientists Amelia Brand, Romilly, and Doyle are set to embark on an intergalactic mission to find life on other planets, after earlier missions—called Lazarus —reported habitable environments in faraway systems, accessible by a wormhole near Saturn. Former NASA pilot Cooper is led by coincidence (he refuses to term it supernatural) to the secret NASA facility where Amelia's father and mission leader, Professor Brand, convinces him to join. Despite objections from his young daughter Murph, Cooper leaves to pilot the Endurance spacecraft. After a two-year voyage to Saturn, the spacecraft passes through the wormhole, emerging into a planetary system orbiting a supermassive black hole, Gargantua. Three planets, previously explored by Miller, Mann, and Edmunds, respectively, have shown signs of habitability. The first and closest, Miller's planet, turns out to be an ocean world with massive tsunamis. Doyle perishes on the planet, and Amelia and Cooper struggle to escape. They return to the Endurance after 23 Earth years have passed due to the extreme time dilation caused by the planet's proximity to Gargantua's gravity. Alone aboard the Endurance, Romilly significantly ages. Their full mission compromised, the team decides to investigate Mann's planet, at the expense of ever visiting Edmunds' planet. While there, a message is relayed from Earth that Professor Brand has passed away. On his deathbed, Professor Brand told Murph, herself a scientist now, that the Endurance mission was never meant to return (since humanity's Earth existence is doomed). Murph feels betrayed that Cooper left knowingly, though he was misled as well. Cooper resolves to return, but Mann tries to stop him. It emerges that Mann falsified data of his planet's habitability, in hopes of being rescued. While he escapes, Romilly is killed in the process. Mann dies in space, leaving Amelia and Cooper as the lone survivors. Aboard a damaged spacecraft with limited resources, Cooper proposes a gravitational slingshot around Gargantua to Edmunds' planet. This will save fuel but lose them time (50+ Earth years) due to time dilation. At the last moment, Cooper ejects from the Endurance, sacrificing himself so that Amelia can complete the mission. Cooper is sucked into the black hole, falling into an unusual tesseract, where time is a physical dimension. He sees himself decades ago inside Murph's bedroom and realises he can interact with objects there. Knowing Murph will return in her adult life, he encodes data about the black hole into the ticking of his old wristwatch (placed on Murph's bookshelf). After Professor Brand’s death, Murph visits her childhood bedroom, where she comes across Cooper's wristwatch. She deduces that the supernatural coincidence that led Cooper to NASA was Cooper himself (communicating from the future), and uses the wristwatch data to finish Professor Brand’s incomplete work. Cooper realizes that humans in the far distant future have built the wormhole and are arranging events, in a way analogous to how he is communicating with Murph, to create the sequence that will ultimately save mankind. Cooper is ejected from the tesseract and is picked up in the future (his present) by a spacecraft orbiting Saturn. On a space station with a recreated healthy Earth environment, he is reunited with Murph. It is she who directed humanity's exodus from a dying Earth. Murph, now older than Cooper, who has a calendar (if not physical) age of 124, is surrounded by her descendants and does not want Cooper to witness her death. She suggests he seek out Amelia on Edmunds' planet. As Cooper sets out again, Amelia is shown discovering Edmunds' destroyed ship, and kneeling before a grave she's constructed for him. With Edmunds presumably dead, robots build a colony on the planet's surface, and Amelia removes her helmet to breathe in the air from the planet's atmosphere.

In 1981, a feather lands at a bus stop in Savannah, Georgia; Forrest Gump collects it, then recounts his life story to strangers on a bus bench. In 1950s Alabama, Forrest is fitted with leg braces to correct a curved spine. His mother runs a boarding house out of their home. Among their tenants is Elvis Presley, who incorporates Forrest's jerky dance movements into his performances. On his first day of school, Forrest befriends a girl named Jenny Curran. Forrest is often bullied because of his physical disability and low intelligence. While fleeing from several bullies, his leg braces break off, revealing Forrest to be a very fast runner. This talent allows him to receive a football scholarship at the University of Alabama in 1963, where he is coached by Bear Bryant, and witnesses Governor George Wallace 's Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, during which he returns a dropped book to Vivian Malone Jones. Forrest becomes a top kick returner, is named to the All-American team, and meets President John F. Kennedy at the White House. After graduating college in 1966, Forrest enlists into the U.S. Army where he befriends Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue, who convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him after their service. They arrive in Vietnam in 1967 and serve with the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta. Their platoon is ambushed during a patrol. Despite being shot, Forrest saves several wounded platoon mates – including his lieutenant, Dan Taylor, who has suffered severe leg injuries – but Bubba is killed. Forrest is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism by President Lyndon B. Johnson. At the anti-war March on the Pentagon rally, Forrest meets Abbie Hoffman and briefly reunites with Jenny, who has been living a hippie life. While healing from his injury, Forrest develops a talent for ping-pong, and becomes a sports celebrity as he competes against Chinese teams in ping-pong diplomacy, earning him an interview alongside John Lennon on The Dick Cavett Show, influencing the song " Imagine ". He spends the 1971 New Year's Eve in New York City with Dan, who lost his legs as a result of his injuries and has become a deeply embittered alcoholic. Forrest meets President Richard Nixon, who arranges a room for Forrest in the Watergate Hotel, where he unwittingly exposes the Watergate scandal. Discharged from the Army, Forrest returns to Alabama and endorses a ping-pong paddle manufacturer, using the earnings to buy a shrimping boat in Bayou La Batre, fulfilling his promise to Bubba. Dan joins Forrest in 1974, and their lack of success changes when their boat becomes the sole survivor of Hurricane Carmen. They create the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company; Dan reconciles himself to his disabilities, and finally thanks Forrest for saving his life. Forrest returns home to his mother as she dies of cancer. Dan invests their money in Apple Computer, and the two become millionaires. Forrest shares his earnings with the community and Bubba's family. Jenny returns to stay with Forrest in 1976, recovering from years of abuse, drugs, and prostitution. Forrest proposes marriage, but Jenny turns him down. After a night of sexual intercourse, Jenny leaves the next morning. Heartbroken, Forrest spends the next three years in a relentless cross-country run. In 1981, Forrest reveals that he is waiting at the bus stop because he received a letter from Jenny inviting him to visit. She introduces him to their son, Forrest Gump Jr. Jenny tells Forrest she is sick with an unknown incurable virus, and the three move back to Forrest's home in Alabama. Jenny and Forrest marry, but she dies a year later. Forrest sends his son off on his first day of school as the feather from the movie's opening floats on the wind.

A young Butch Coolidge is visited by Captain Koons, an Air Force pilot. Koons reveals a gold watch to Butch and explains that the watch is a family heirloom and belonged to Butch's father, who served with Koons and died in a POW camp in the Vietnam War. Koons continues the tradition by giving the watch to Butch. In Los Angeles, two hitmen, Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega, drive to an apartment to retrieve a briefcase from Brett, a dishonest business partner for their boss, gangster Marsellus Wallace. Vincent mentions that Marsellus has instructed him to take his wife, Mia, to dinner the following night. At the apartment, they find Brett, Roger and an informant for Marsellus, Marvin. When Brett attempts to appease the two hitmen, Jules casually shoots Roger. He then recites a paraphrased passage from the Book of Ezekiel before he and Vincent kill Brett. Another man bursts out of the bathroom and fires at them, but misses. Jules and Vincent kill him and leave with the briefcase and Marvin. While Jules is driving, Vincent accidentally shoots Marvin in the head, covering them in blood. They hide the car at the home of Jules' friend Jimmie, who demands they dispose of Marvin's corpse and the blood-stained car before his wife, Bonnie, comes home. Marsellus sends a cleaner, Winston Wolfe, who directs Jules and Vincent to hide the body in the trunk, clean the car, dispose of their bloody clothes and take the car to a junkyard. Afterwards, Jules and Vincent eat breakfast at a diner. Jules tells Vincent that he plans to retire from his life of crime, convinced that their survival at the apartment was divine intervention. While Vincent is in the bathroom, a pair of thieves, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny, hold up the diner and demand Marsellus' briefcase from Jules. Jules overpowers Pumpkin and holds him at gunpoint, making Honey Bunny hysterical. She points her gun at Jules; Vincent returns and points his gun at her. Jules defuses the situation, allowing the two to keep the money from only his wallet and letting them leave. Jules and Vincent meet Marsellus at a bar, where Marsellus is bribing an aging Butch to intentionally lose in his upcoming boxing match. The following night, Vincent purchases heroin from his drug dealer, Lance. He shoots up and drives to meet Mia at her house. They eat at a 1950s-themed restaurant and participate in a twist contest, then return home. While Vincent is in the bathroom, Mia finds his heroin, mistakes it for cocaine, and snorts it. She passes out from an overdose, and Vincent rushes her to Lance's house, where they revive her by injecting her heart with adrenaline. Vincent and Mia agree never to tell Marsellus about the incident. Butch double-crosses Marsellus by killing his opponent. He plans to flee with his girlfriend, Fabienne, but discovers that she has forgotten to pack the gold watch. Returning to his apartment to retrieve it, he notices a gun on the kitchen counter and hears the toilet flush. Vincent, who has been staking out Butch's apartment, emerges from the bathroom. Butch kills him with the gun and leaves. While returning to the motel, he sees Marsellus crossing the road. Marsellus chases Butch into a pawnshop. Maynard, the shop owner, captures them at gunpoint and gags them in the basement. Maynard and his accomplice, Zed, take Marsellus into another room and rape him. Butch breaks free and kills Maynard with a katana, freeing Marsellus who incapacitates Zed. Marsellus instructs Butch to tell no one about the incident and leave Los Angeles forever while he himself intends to "get medieval" on Zed. Butch picks up Fabienne on Zed's motorcycle.

In 1999, in an unnamed city, Thomas Anderson, a computer programmer known as " Neo " in hacking circles, investigates the mystery of the "Matrix", bringing him to the attention of hacker Trinity. She tells him that Morpheus can answer Neo's questions. At his workplace, Neo is pursued by Agents led by Agent Smith, while Morpheus, able to somehow observe their movements, guides him by phone, but Neo ultimately surrenders. The Agents interrogate Neo about Morpheus, but he refuses to cooperate. In response, they seal his mouth shut and implant a robotic tracking device in his abdomen. Neo awakens at home, believing the encounter was a nightmare until Trinity and her companions remove the device and take him to Morpheus. Morpheus offers Neo a choice: a red pill to uncover the truth about the Matrix or a blue pill to return to his normal life. Neo takes the red pill and awakens in the real world, submerged in a mechanical pod and connected to invasive cables. He sees countless humans similarly encased and tended by machines before he is ejected from the building and rescued by Morpheus aboard the hovercraft Nebuchadnezzar. Morpheus reveals that the year is approximately 2199. In the 21st century, humanity lost a war against its artificially intelligent creations, leaving Earth a devastated ruin. Humans blackened the sky to deprive the machines of solar power, but the machines retaliated by creating vast fields of artificially grown humans, harvesting their bioelectric energy. To keep their captives pacified, they built the Matrix, a simulated reality modeled on human civilization at its peak. The remaining free humans founded an underground refuge called Zion, surviving on scarce resources. Morpheus and his crew hack into the Matrix to liberate others, exploiting its rules to gain superhuman abilities inside it. Even so, they remain outmatched by the Agents—sentient programs that protect the system—and death in the Matrix means death in the real world. Morpheus freed Neo because he believed him to be "the One", a prophesied figure destined to free humanity. The crew enters the Matrix to seek guidance from the Oracle, who foretold of the One. She implies that Neo is not the One and warns him of an imminent choice between his life and Morpheus's. The crew is ambushed by Agents after being betrayed by Cypher, a disillusioned crew member who longs to return to the virtual comforts of the Matrix. Convinced of Neo's importance, Morpheus sacrifices himself to confront Smith and is captured. Meanwhile, Cypher exits the Matrix and begins disconnecting the others, killing them. Before he can kill Neo and Trinity, he is killed by Tank, a wounded crew member, who extracts the survivors. Smith interrogates Morpheus to obtain access codes for Zion's mainframe, which would enable the machines to destroy the human resistance. Determined to rescue Morpheus, Neo re-enters the Matrix with Trinity. They free Morpheus, who escapes the Matrix with Trinity, but Smith intercepts Neo. Realizing his potential, Neo fights Smith as an equal and kills him. However, Smith resurrects in a new body and kills Neo. In the real world, machines called Sentinels attack the Nebuchadnezzar. Standing by Neo's body, Trinity confesses her love for him and reveals that the Oracle prophesied she would fall in love with the One. In the Matrix, Neo revives with the ability to perceive and manipulate its code. He effortlessly destroys Smith and escapes the Matrix just as the Nebuchadnezzar ' s electromagnetic pulse disables the Sentinels. Later, within the Matrix, Neo communicates with the system, vowing to show humanity a world of limitless possibilities, before flying away.

In the Second Age of Middle-earth, the lords of Elves, Dwarves, and Men each receive Rings of Power. Unbeknownst to them, the Dark Lord Sauron forges the One Ring in Mount Doom, imbuing it with his power to control the other Rings and conquer Middle-earth. A final alliance of Men and Elves battles Sauron's forces in Mordor. Isildur of Gondor severs Sauron's finger, vanquishing him and returning him to spirit form, marking the beginning of the Third Age. The Ring corrupts Isildur, who takes it and is later killed by Orcs. The Ring is lost in a river for 2,500 years until it is found by Gollum, who possesses it for five centuries, until it abandons him and is found by a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. Sixty years later, Bilbo celebrates his 111th birthday in the Shire with his old friend, Gandalf the Grey. He leaves the Shire for one last adventure, passing on his inheritance, including the Ring, to his nephew Frodo. Gandalf investigates the Ring, learns its true nature, and discovers that Gollum was captured by Sauron and revealed two words during interrogation: "Shire" and "Baggins." Gandalf warns Frodo to leave the Shire. As Frodo departs with his gardener friend, Samwise Gamgee, Gandalf heads to Isengard to seek counsel from his friend, the powerful wizard Saruman. Saruman reveals Sauron has dispatched his nine Nazgûl servants to retrieve the Ring. Gandalf immediately attempts to flee to warn Frodo, but is imprisoned by Saruman who has allied himself with Sauron, communicating with him via a palantír. Frodo and Sam join up with fellow hobbits Merry and Pippin and evade the Nazgûl before reaching Bree to meet Gandalf, who never arrives as Saruman captures him. A Ranger named Strider helps them get to Rivendell but they are ambushed on Weathertop by the Nazgûl, who wound Frodo with a Morgul blade. Arwen, Strider's beloved Elf, finds them, rescues Frodo, and takes him to Rivendell to be healed and reunite with Gandalf, who had escaped Isengard on a Great Eagle. That night, Arwen declares to Strider she is willing to sacrifice her immortality for their love. Learning of Saruman's betrayal from Gandalf and that they are now facing threats from both Sauron and Saruman, Arwen's father Lord Elrond holds a council of Elves, Men, and Dwarves, also attended by Frodo and Gandalf, that decides the Ring must be destroyed. However, Elrond explains that it can only be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom, the volcano where it was forged. Frodo volunteers to take the Ring, accompanied by Gandalf, Sam, Merry, Pippin, the Elf Legolas, Gimli, Boromir of Gondor, and Strider—who is actually Aragorn, Isildur's heir and the rightful King of Gondor. Bilbo, now living in Rivendell, gives Frodo his old sword Sting, and a chainmail shirt made of mithril. The Fellowship of the Ring is forced to travel through the Mines of Moria due to a storm summoned by Saruman. Gandalf warns Frodo that Gollum, released from Sauron's fortress, has been trailing them with the intention to reclaim the Ring. They find the Dwarves of Moria dead and are attacked by Orcs and a troll. While they hold off the attack, they are pursued by Durin's Bane, a Balrog. The others escape as Gandalf confronts the Balrog and falls into a deep chasm while battling it. The devastated Fellowship reaches Lothlórien, where Galadriel, the Elf-queen, tells Frodo that he alone can complete the quest and warns that one of his companions will try to take the Ring. She shows him a vision of Sauron enslaving Middle-earth should he fail. Meanwhile, Saruman creates an army of Uruk-hai in Isengard to destroy the Fellowship, intending to betray Sauron and claim the Ring for himself. The Fellowship travels to Parth Galen by river. As warned by Galadriel, Frodo is confronted privately by Boromir, who attempts to take the Ring. Uruk-hai scouts ambush the group; their leader, Lurtz, mortally wounds Boromir as he fails to stop them from capturing Merry and Pippin. Aragorn arrives and kills Lurtz, comforting Boromir in his final moments, promising to aid Gondor in their conflict. Worried the Ring will corrupt his friends, Frodo decides to go to Mordor alone, but Sam insists on accompanying him, honouring Gandalf's promise to protect him. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli plan to rescue Merry and Pippin, while Frodo and Sam navigate the pass of Emyn Muil towards Mordor.

Bane, a former member of the League of Shadows, leads an attack on a CIA plane over Uzbekistan to abduct nuclear physicist Dr. Leonid Pavel. Meanwhile, eight years after the death of Gotham City district attorney Harvey Dent and the arrest of the Joker, organized crime has been eradicated in Gotham by the Dent Act, legislation that gives expanded powers to the police. Police commissioner James Gordon has kept Dent's killing spree a secret and allowed the blame for his crimes to fall on Batman. Bruce Wayne, still mourning the death of Rachel Dawes, has become a recluse. Bane conspires to help Wayne Enterprises board member John Daggett take over the company, and they begin by trying to buy Bruce's fingerprints. Cat burglar Selina Kyle steals Bruce's prints from Wayne Manor for Daggett, but he double-crosses her, and she alerts the police. Bane's henchmen capture Gordon in the sewers but he escapes and is found by steadfast Gotham City police officer John Blake, an orphan who has deduced Bruce's secret identity. Blake persuades Bruce to resume his vigilantism. Bane attacks the Gotham Stock Exchange and uses Bruce's fingerprints to verify fraudulent transactions, leaving Bruce ousted from his company and bankrupt. Fearing Bruce will purposely get himself killed fighting Bane, his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, resigns in the hope of saving him after revealing to him that Rachel was going to marry Dent, and thus, Bruce should let her go. Bane kills Daggett to pursue his own goals while Bruce and Wayne Enterprises's new CEO, Miranda Tate, become lovers. Selina agrees to take Batman to Bane, but instead leads him into a trap under Wayne Tower. Bane gloats that he intends to fulfill Ra's al Ghul 's mission to destroy Gotham City before he brutally cripples Batman in combat. He takes Bruce to an ancient underground prison in the Middle East, where Bruce learns that Ra's al Ghul's child was born and raised there, but had a protector who helped that child escape. Back in Gotham, Bane detonates explosives to trap the police forces in the sewers, destroys all but one bridge surrounding the city, kills Gotham mayor Anthony Garcia, and forces Pavel to convert the fusion reactor core owned by Wayne Enterprises into a decaying neutron bomb before publicly killing him. He exposes Dent's crimes to the city and releases the prisoners of Blackgate Penitentiary, effectively taking over Gotham. He also has Gotham's elite exiled and killed in proletarian kangaroo courts presided over by Jonathan Crane. Five months later, Bruce, now healed, escapes the prison. As Batman, he returns to Gotham and frees the police, and together they war with Bane's army. During the battle, Tate stabs Batman, revealing herself as Ra's al Ghul's daughter Talia al Ghul. Bane is her decoy and guardian who had helped her escape the pit, becoming mauled in the process. Talia activates the bomb, but it fails due to Gordon blocking the signal. Selina kills Bane and helps Batman pursue Talia, hoping to return the bomb to the reactor chamber, where it can be stabilized. Talia's truck crashes, but she remotely floods and destroys the reactor chamber before dying. With no way to stop the detonation, Batman reveals his identity to Gordon, and uses his aerial craft, the Bat, to haul the bomb over the bay, where it safely explodes. In the aftermath, Batman is presumed dead and honored as a hero. Since Bruce is also presumed dead, Wayne Manor becomes an orphanage, and Bruce's estate is left to Alfred. Gordon finds the Bat-Signal repaired, while Lucius Fox discovers that Bruce had fixed the Bat's malfunctioning autopilot, implying that he escaped the Bat before the detonation. In Florence, drinking a Fernet Branca, Alfred discovers that Bruce is alive and in a relationship with Selina, and they acknowledge each other with a smile. Blake, whose legal first name is revealed as Robin, resigns from the GCPD, disillusioned with how they'd handled Bane's takeover, and receives a package leading him to the Batcave.

In 1858 Texas, several male African American slaves are being "driven" by the Speck Brothers, Ace and Dicky. Among the shackled slaves is Django, sold off and separated from his wife, Broomhilda. The Speck Brothers are stopped by Dr. King Schultz, a German ex-dentist and bounty hunter from Düsseldorf. Schultz asks to buy one of the slaves, but while questioning Django about his knowledge of the Brittle Brothers, for whom Schultz is carrying a warrant, he irritates Ace, who aims his shotgun at Schultz. Schultz quickly kills Ace and leaves Dicky at the mercy of the other newly freed slaves, who kill him. Since Django can identify the Brittle Brothers, Schultz offers Django his freedom in exchange for his help in tracking them down. Django discovers Schultz is a bounty hunter, as Schultz kills an outlaw named Willard Peck, who was posing as the Sheriff in a small town. Schultz and Django then track the Brittle Brothers down, leading them to a plantation in Tennessee. Django shoots dead the first brother, brutally whips the second before shooting him too, while Schultz kills the third brother. After getting out of it by producing the warrant for their capture “dead or alive”, they then ambush and kill the plantation owner who leads a group of lynchers to murder them in revenge. Django partners with Schultz through the winter and becomes his apprentice, and Schultz discovers Django's natural ability with gunslinging. Schultz explains that, being the first person he has ever given freedom to, he feels responsible for Django and is driven to help him in his quest to rescue Broomhilda. Django, now fully trained, collects his first bounty, keeping the handbill as a good luck charm. In Mississippi, Schultz uncovers the identity of Broomhilda's owner: Calvin Candie, the charming but brutal owner of the Candyland Plantation, where black slaves are forced to fight in wrestling deathmatches called " Mandingo fights". Schultz, expecting Candie will not sell Broomhilda if they ask for her directly, plots to feign interest in purchasing one of Candie's prized fighters, offer to purchase Broomhilda on the side for a reasonable sum, then take her and escape before the Mandingo deal is finalized. Schultz and Django meet Candie at his gentleman's club in Greenville and submit their offer. His greed tickled, Candie invites them to Candyland. After secretly briefing Broomhilda on the plan, Schultz claims to be charmed by the German-speaking Broomhilda and offers to buy her after arranging to buy a fighting slave. During dinner, Candie's staunchly loyal head house slave, Stephen, becomes suspicious. Deducing that Django and Broomhilda know each other and that the sale of the Mandingo fighter is just a misdirection, Stephen alerts and privately admonishes Candie on his greed. Candie is humiliated at being fooled by a black man, but he contains his anger long enough to theatrically display his knowledge of phrenology which he uses to justify white superiority and black inferiority. Candie's bodyguard suddenly bursts into the room with his shotgun trained on the two bounty hunters; Candie furiously threatens to kill Broomhilda if Schultz does not pay the complete bid amount, and taunts him by demanding a formal handshake to finalize the deal before he leaves. Tired of his arrogance and angered by his brutality, Schultz fatally shoots Candie with a concealed derringer and his bodyguard kills him in turn. Django grabs the bodyguard’s revolver and kills him to avenge Schultz, and after a violent shootout, in which the Candies’ lawyer is also killed along with several white overseers, Django is forced to surrender when Broomhilda is taken hostage at gunpoint. The next morning, Stephen tells Django that he will be sold to a mine where he will labor for the rest of his life. En route to the mine, Django proves to his dim-witted Australian escorts that he is a bounty hunter by showing them the handbill from his first kill. He convinces them that there is a large bounty for outlaws who are hiding at Candyland, and promises that they would receive most of the money. The escorts release him and give him a pistol, and he kills them before stealing a horse and leaving for Candyland. Django returns to the plantation and kills the slave trackers to avenge a slave they had torn apart by dogs and to ensure they will not be sent after him. He takes Broomhilda's freedom papers from Schultz's pocket, bidding his friend and mentor a final farewell before freeing Hildi from a nearby cabin. When Candie's mourners return from his burial, Django kills Candie's few remaining henchmen and his sister Lara, releases the two remaining house slaves, and kneecaps Stephen. Django then ignites dynamite that he has planted throughout the mansion. He and Broomhilda watch from a distance as the mansion explodes, killing Stephen, before they ride off together.

In 180 AD, the Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius intends to return home after he leads the Roman army to victory against Germanic tribes near Vindobona. Emperor Marcus Aurelius tells Maximus that his own son, Commodus, is unfit to rule and that he wishes Maximus to succeed him, as regent, to restore the Roman Republic. Angered by this decision when Marcus Aurelius tells the news to him, Commodus secretly assassinates his father by smothering him personally on the spot. Commodus proclaims himself the new emperor and requests loyalty from Maximus, who refuses. Maximus is arrested by Praetorian Guards led by Quintus, who tells Maximus that he and his family will die. Maximus kills his captors and, wounded, rides for his home near Turgalium, where he finds his wife and son murdered. Maximus buries them, then collapses from his injuries. He is found by slave traders, who take him to Zuccabar and sell him to the gladiator trainer Proximo. Maximus fights in local tournaments, his combat skills helping him win matches and gain popularity. He earns the nickname "the Spaniard " and befriends Juba, a gladiator from Carthage, and Hagen, a gladiator from Germania. In Rome, Commodus organizes 150 days of gladiatorial games to commemorate his father and win the approval of the Roman public. Upon hearing this, Proximo reveals to Maximus that he was once a gladiator who was freed by Marcus Aurelius, and advises him to "win the crowd" to gain his freedom. Proximo takes his gladiators to fight in Rome's Colosseum. Disguised in a masked helmet, Maximus debuts in the arena as a Carthaginian in a re-enactment of the Battle of Zama. Unexpectedly, he leads his side to victory and wins the crowd's support. Commodus and his young nephew, Lucius, enter the Colosseum to offer their congratulations. Seeing Lucius, Maximus refrains from attacking Commodus, who orders him to reveal his identity. Maximus removes his helmet and declares he will seek vengeance on Commodus, who is compelled by the crowd to let Maximus live. That evening, Maximus is visited by Lucilla, his former lover and Commodus' sister. Distrusting her, Maximus refuses her help. Commodus arranges a duel between Maximus and Tigris of Gaul, an undefeated gladiator. Several tigers are set upon Maximus, but he prevails. At the crowd's desire, Commodus orders Maximus to kill Tigris, but Maximus spares his life in defiance. In response, the crowd chants "Maximus the Merciful", which angers Commodus. To provoke Maximus, Commodus taunts him about the murder of his family, but Maximus resists the urge to strike him. Increasingly paranoid, Commodus instructs his advisor, Falco, to have every senator followed, and refuses to have Maximus killed for fear he will become a martyr. Maximus discovers from Cicero, his ex- orderly, that his former legions remain loyal to him. He secretly meets with Lucilla and Gracchus, an influential senator. They agree to help Maximus escape from Rome to join his legions in Ostia, which will enable him to oust Commodus and hand power back to the Roman Senate. Soon after, the Praetorians arrest Gracchus. Lucilla meets Maximus at night to arrange his escape and they share a kiss. Lucius accidentally hints at the conspiracy, and Commodus threatens him and Lucilla. Commodus sends the Praetorians to attack the gladiators' barracks, and during the battle Proximo and his men sacrifice themselves to enable Maximus to flee. Maximus makes it to the rendezvous point with Cicero, but Commodus' soldiers kill Cicero and capture Maximus. Commodus demands that Lucilla provide him with an heir. He challenges Maximus to a duel in the Colosseum to win back public approval, and stabs him before the match to gain an advantage. Despite his injury, Maximus disarms Commodus during the duel. After Quintus and the Praetorians refuse to help Commodus, he unsheathes a hidden knife, but Maximus overpowers him and kills him. Before Maximus succumbs to his injuries, he asks for political reforms, the emancipation of his gladiator allies, and the reinstatement of Gracchus as a senator. As he dies, Maximus envisions reuniting with his wife and son in the afterlife. His friends and allies honor him as "a soldier of Rome" and carry his body out of the arena. That night, Juba visits the Colosseum and buries figurines of Maximus' wife and son at the spot where Maximus died.