In Champion City, the amateur superhero team of Mr. Furious, the Shoveler, and the Blue Raja attempt to make a name for themselves, but their inexperience, infighting, and dubious abilities generally result in frustration while the city's powerful but arrogant superhero, Captain Amazing, consistently upstages them. However, Amazing's prowess has made his job obsolete and his corporate sponsorships are drying up. To create a need for his services, Amazing uses his alter ego, billionaire lawyer Lance Hunt, to argue for the release of his supervillain nemesis, Casanova Frankenstein, from an insane asylum. But, once released and reunited with his henchman Tony P and his Disco Boys, Casanova blows up the asylum, captures Amazing, and prepares to unleash the "Psycho-frakulator" machine to destroy the city. On a stakeout of Casanova's mansion, Furious witnesses Amazing's capture and informs his team. After an unsuccessful rescue attempt, the three realize that they need more allies and recruit Invisible Boy, the Spleen, and the Bowler. Emboldened, they vandalize Casanova's limousine. In retaliation, the Disco Boys nearly kill them, but the Sphinx, an enigmatic superhero, saves them and agrees to train them. Furious grows annoyed by the Sphinx's unconventional team-building exercises and antimetabolic rhetoric and quits, while the others flourish under his tutelage. To improve their chances, they seek non-lethal weaponry invented by Doc Heller. Encouraged by Monica, his new girlfriend, Furious rejoins the team. The group break into Casanova's mansion during a summit of the city's gangs to free Amazing. However, they become confused by his instructions and condescending attitude and inadvertently set off the Psycho-frakulator, killing him. The team despairs until the Shoveler inspires them to continue. Through a combination of surprise, teamwork, maximizing their powers, and Heller's weapons, the team successfully assault Casanova's mansion and defeat his henchmen. However, Casanova takes Monica hostage and activates the Psycho-frakulator, which begins to wreak havoc upon the city. While the team works to disable the machine, Furious unleashes his powers and throws Casanova into the Psycho-frakulator's core, killing him. The others help the Bowler destroy the machine and escape the mansion as it implodes. Afterward, the team is swarmed by reporters demanding to know their group's name, sparking an argument amongst themselves.

Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne are two good-hearted but dimwitted best friends and roommates living in Providence, Rhode Island. Lloyd, a chip-toothed limousine driver, is instantly smitten with his passenger Mary Swanson, who is flying to Aspen, Colorado. She leaves a briefcase in the airport and Lloyd attempts to return it, unaware it contains ransom money she has left for criminals Joe "Mental" Mentalino and J. P. Shay. Her plane has already departed, and Lloyd falls out of the jetway. Fired for leaving the scene of an accident, Lloyd returns home to learn that Harry, a dog groomer, has also been fired for showing up late to a dog show with the dogs covered in food. Mental and Shay follow Lloyd home, but he and Harry mistake the crooks for debt collectors and flee, returning later to find Harry's parakeet has been decapitated. Lloyd convinces Harry that they should return Mary's briefcase, and they set off for Aspen in Harry's dog-styled van. Mental poses as a hitchhiker and is picked up by Harry and Lloyd, who annoy him with their childish antics. Stopping for lunch, Mental plans to slip the duo rat poison pills, but they prank him by putting chili peppers in his burger, aggravating his stomach ulcer. Mistaking the pills for his medication, they inadvertently kill him with the poison but continue their trip. At a gas station, Harry flirts with fellow Aspen-bound driver Beth, and unwittingly saves Lloyd from being assaulted by Sea Bass, a trucker they tricked earlier. Police wait to intercept the duo on the road to Colorado, but Lloyd takes a wrong turn and drives all night through Nebraska. Harry gives up on the journey, but Lloyd persuades him to continue after trading their van for a minibike. The duo arrives in Aspen but cannot find Mary, and a frustrated Harry attacks Lloyd, breaking open the briefcase and discovering the money, which they use on a hotel suite and lavish spending spree. They read in the newspaper that Mary and her family are hosting a charity gala, where a nervous Lloyd asks Harry to talk to her on his behalf. However, Harry agrees to go skiing with Mary instead, lying to Lloyd that he arranged a date for him. While Harry and Mary have an enjoyable time together, Lloyd waits at the hotel bar and encounters Beth. Visiting Mary's home, he realizes that Harry lied to spend the day with her himself. In retaliation, Lloyd serves him coffee laced with laxatives, causing Harry to have diarrhea in Mary's broken toilet, while Lloyd reintroduces himself to Mary. Taking her to the hotel to return the briefcase, he confesses his love for her, but she rejects him. Nicholas Andre, a friend of the Swanson family, arrives, from whom Lloyd learns that Mary has a husband named Bobby, and that the money was for him, revealing himself as the mastermind behind the kidnapping. Nicholas holds them at gunpoint and is furious to discover that Harry and Lloyd spent the ransom, replacing it with IOUs. Harry arrives and after a brief confrontation with Lloyd over Mary is shot by Nicholas, and plays dead before ineptly returning fire. An FBI team bursts in, led by Beth, revealing that she's an agent on the kidnappers' case and prepared Harry with a bulletproof vest and gun. Nicholas and Shay are arrested, and Mary and Bobby are reunited, much to Lloyd's dismay. With their trip rendered pointless and their hopes for the trip crushed, Harry and Lloyd travel home on foot, after all their purchases were confiscated and their minibike broke down. They encounter a busload of bikini models on a national tour, but ignorantly reject an offer to be their "oil boys". Harry tells Lloyd that they will get their "break" one day, and they play a game of tag as they walk back to Rhode Island.

The film opens to Adam Beckett, a pianist reluctantly performing Chopin to an audience in Carnegie Hall. When Beckett is asked to play an encore, he gives away that he is not actually playing, but using a player piano. The outraged crowd storms the stage and wraps Beckett with the piano rolls. Adam awakens on a train in Europe and realizes it was a nightmare. He is accosted by a Swedish architect, to whom he explains his stymied dreams of becoming an artist. After encouragement from him, Adam resolves to return to America to follow his dream. Upon returning, he discovers that the Port Authority has taken control of New York and is restricting entry into the city. Upon failing a drawing test at the Port Authority, Adam is forced to work in a menial job under a trigger-happy boss. He has to watch traffic before it enters the Holland tunnel and prevent vehicles from entering with faulty parts, such as a headlight out. Feeling he won't be creative living under his aunt and uncle's roof, Adam moves to a hotel. He is given a room whose last occupant disappeared mysteriously, leaving all of his belongings behind, including several paintings. At work Adam meets Mara, a fellow aspiring artist. He tags along with her to SoHo and she takes it upon herself to expose them to lots of different art forms to determine which most appeals to each of them. His kindness to a tramp leads him to be taken into an underground network where he is first cleansed by fire, then discovers that the city's tramps are controlling the destiny of all the cities in the world. They instruct him to travel to the Moon on a mission. When Adam returns above ground he goes immediately to Mara's, but she is indifferent to him. Upset, he hurries to the city bus bound for the Moon. In transit, the bus has different levels, one for dancing, one for dinner. Adam is the youngest by far, and one of the older ladies tells him they all have chips implanted in the back of their necks. It causes them to say Miami rather than Moon when they speak of the trip. Upon arrival the bus is greeted by the Moon Maidens and Eloy, meant to be Adam's true love, who tells him it's too dangerous to talk. Adam jumps off the shuttle heading to the shopping at Moon-o-Rama and Eloy picks him up with a buggy to take him out of Consumerzone. Adam awakens in an alley. He's told he must hurry to his concert in Carnegie Hall. After playing Chopin's polonaise no. 53 he receives a standing ovation. He looks up and sees Eloy waving to him from a box.

Searching for a way to address overpopulation and global warming, Norwegian scientist Dr. Jørgen Asbjørnsen develops "downsizing", an irreversible process that shrinks organic material. He becomes part of the first group of human test subjects and is encouraged that the process reduces people to a height of approximately 5 inches (13 cm), drastically decreasing their consumption and waste. When the findings are revealed at a conference five years later, there is a global sensation. Ten years later, Paul and Audrey Safranek, a financially struggling married couple in Omaha, see Dave and Carol Johnson, who have downsized, at Paul's high school reunion. Rather than the touted environmental benefits, Dave argues the real reason to downsize is that one's money goes much further when one is small. Paul and Audrey decide to undergo the procedure and move to Leisureland, New Mexico, one of the fancier communities for small individuals. In a Leisureland recovery room after the procedure, Paul receives a call from Audrey, who says she backed out at the last minute and, because they are now different sizes, is leaving him. Because of his reduced size Paul has no choice but to take up solitary occupancy of a sprawling and luxurious mansion, previously selected by the couple using their greatly enhanced capital. Leisureland is presented as an attractive but bland consumerist enclave for the newly rich and downsized, protected by high walls and a dome. A year later, Paul signs his divorce papers. Unable to afford the mansion Audrey chose, he relocates to an apartment and takes a job as a customer service representative at Lands' End. He had let his occupational therapy license lapse, not anticipating the need to work after being shrunk. He has started dating someone, but they break up, and Paul finds himself at a wild party thrown by his shady yet charming neighbor, Dusan. The next morning, Paul recognizes one of Dusan's house cleaners as Ngoc Lan Tran, a Vietnamese political activist who was jailed and downsized against her will, escaped in a television box, barely survived being shipped to the United States, and was brought to Leisureland a year ago to have her leg amputated. Wanting to assist Ngoc Lan with her prosthetic leg, Paul goes to her apartment in the slums just outside the walls of Leisureland where those who had no money when they downsized or downsized illegally who now work as the service workers of the community live. Paul had not thought about this part of the small economy, and is shocked by conditions in the slum. At her apartment, Ngoc Lan has Paul try to help her dying friend. When she finally lets him work on her prosthetic leg, he breaks it, so, until she can get a new one, he agrees to work for her cleaning service and also help her gather food from around the city to distribute throughout the slums. Dusan, upon learning what Paul is doing, attempts to release Paul from his obligation by taking him to deliver supplies to the original colony for small people, but Ngoc Lan unexpectedly decides to tag along, as she has a standing invitation to visit Dr. Asbjørnsen, who had heard about her ordeal. In a Norwegian fjord, Dr. Asbjørnsen and his wife board the boat piloted by Dusan's friend Joris Konrad. Dr. Asbjørnsen announces it has just been determined conclusively that, due to the positive feedback of Antarctic methane emissions, the human race will soon become extinct. Paul asks if downsizing can save humanity, but Dr. Asbjørnsen says the procedure came too late, as only three percent of the world has so far chosen to downsize. That night, Paul and Ngoc Lan have sex. At the colony, the travelers discover that, the next day, Dr. Asbjørnsen is enacting a contingency plan: he and the other colonists are going to enter a large underground vault, and their descendants will emerge when the surface environment stabilizes in about eight thousand years. Dusan and Joris are skeptical of the cult-like plan and say the extinction will not happen for hundreds of years, while Paul is excited to enter the vault and help with this effort to ensure the future of mankind. He asks Ngoc Lan to join him, but she refuses, saying the people in need of help will be those left above ground. As the door of the vault is closing, Paul changes his mind and steps outside. Back in Leisureland, Paul continues to work with Ngoc Lan to serve the people of the slums, deriving contentment from things like bringing dinner to an old man.

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.

Rogue Trader tells the true story of Nick Leeson, a young employee of Barings Bank who after a successful spell working for the firm's office in Indonesia is sent to Singapore as General Manager of the Trading Floor on the SIMEX exchange. The movie follows Leeson's rise as he soon becomes one of Barings' key traders. However, everything isn't as it appears – through the 88888 error account, Nick is hiding huge losses as he gambles away Barings' money with little more than the bat of an eyelid from the powers-that-be back in London. Eventually the losses mount up to well over £800 million and Nick, along with his wife Lisa, decide to leave Singapore and escape to Malaysia. Nick doesn't realise the severity of his losses until he reads in the newspaper that Barings has gone bankrupt. They then decide to return to London but Nick is arrested en route in Frankfurt. Nick is extradited to Singapore where he is sentenced to six and a half years in jail. While in prison, Lisa divorces him and Nick is diagnosed with colon cancer. Because of this, he did not complete his sentence.

In 2000, a massive earthquake strikes the city of L.A., cutting it off from the mainland as the San Fernando Valley floods. Declaring that God is punishing L.A. for its sins, a theocratic presidential candidate wins election to a lifetime term of office. He orders the United States capital relocated from D.C. to his hometown of Lynchburg. He enacts a series of strict morality laws, banning such things as smoking, alcohol, drugs, premarital sex, firearms, profanity, and red meat. Violators are given a choice between loss of U.S. citizenship and permanent deportation to the new L.A. Island, or repentance and death by electrocution. Escape from the island is made impossible due to a containment wall erected along the mainland shore and a heavy federal police presence monitoring the area. By 2013, the U.S. has developed a superweapon known as the " Sword of Damocles," a satellite system capable of targeting electronic devices anywhere in the world and rendering them useless. The president intends to use it to dominate the world by rendering hostile nations unable to function. His daughter Utopia steals the remote control for the system and escapes to L.A. to deliver it to Cuervo Jones, a Peruvian Shining Path revolutionary. Cuervo has marshaled an invasion force of third world nations and is planning to attack the U.S. Facing deportation for a series of crimes, Snake Plissken is offered a chance to earn a pardon by traveling to L.A. and recovering the remote, a task that a previous rescue team failed to accomplish. To force his compliance, the president has one of his officers infect Snake with a virus that will kill him within 10 hours and promises that he will receive the cure upon completing the mission. The president is not concerned with Utopia's safety, regarding her as a traitor. Snake is issued equipment and sent to L.A. in a one-man submarine. As he explores the island, he meets "Map to the Stars" Eddie, a swindler who sells interactive tours and is one of Cuervo's associates. Along the way, Snake is helped by Pipeline, a surfing enthusiast; Taslima, a woman deported for her Muslim faith who is killed during a shootout involving a gang of Asian kids; and Hershe Las Palmas (formerly Carjack Malone), a trans woman and past criminal associate of Snake's. Eddie captures Snake and turns him over to Cuervo, who uses the Sword of Damocles to shut down Lynchburg in retaliation for Snake's presence. Cuervo threatens to inflict the same fate on the rest of the U.S. unless his demands are met. Snake escapes and teams up with Hershe and her soldiers. The group travels by glider to the invasion staging area, at the " Happy Kingdom " in Anaheim. During a fight against Cuervo's troops, Snake takes the remote, and Eddie alters one of the units he sells for his tours to match it. Snake, Eddie, Utopia, Hershe, and a group of Hershe's soldiers escape the island in a helicopter. Eddie shoots Cuervo, who fires a rocket launcher and hits the helicopter before dying. Hershe and her men are incinerated, Eddie jumps clear at liftoff, and Snake and Utopia do the same over the mainland and leave the helicopter to crash once Snake alerts the president to their approach. At the crash site, the president and his officers find that both Snake and Utopia are carrying remotes and take the one held by Utopia (slipped into her pocket without her noticing), thinking that Snake has switched them. As Utopia is taken to the electric chair, Snake learns that the virus infecting him only causes a severe case of influenza that subsides within hours. The president tries to use Utopia's remote to neutralize an invasion force threatening Florida, but it only plays a recorded introduction to one of Eddie's tours. Furious, the president orders his officers to kill Snake on the spot, but he proves to be only a hologram projected from a miniature camera that had been issued to him. Disgusted at the world's never-ending class warfare, he programs the real remote and triggers every satellite in the Sword of Damocles system, deactivating all technology on Earth and saving Utopia from electrocution as the power fails. Snake tosses the now-useless camera aside and lights a cigarette, then blows out the match and mutters, "Welcome to the human race."

Dr. Bill Harford and his wife Alice live in New York City with their daughter, Helena. At a Christmas party hosted by Bill's patient, Victor Ziegler, Bill reconnects with his former medical school classmate, Nick Nightingale, now a professional pianist. Meanwhile, an older Hungarian guest attempts to seduce Alice, while two young models try to seduce Bill. Victor interrupts Bill's flirtation to handle an emergency involving Mandy, a young woman who overdosed during sex with him. Bill helps stabilize Mandy. The following night, Bill and Alice smoke marijuana and discuss their unfulfilled desires. Bill dismisses the idea of Alice being unfaithful, believing women to be naturally loyal. However, Alice shocks him by confessing to fantasizing about a naval officer she observed while on vacation, even considering leaving Bill and Helena for him. Disturbed, Bill is called to a patient's home, where the patient's daughter, Marion, confesses her love and tries to seduce him. Bill resists and leaves. Wandering the city, Bill meets a prostitute named Domino. Before anything happens, Alice calls, prompting Bill to leave after paying Domino without proceeding further. Later, Bill encounters Nick at a jazz club. Nick tells Bill about a secretive late-night gig where he will play piano blindfolded, and reveals the password to gain entry. Intrigued, Bill visits a costume store, formerly owned by one of his patients but now run by Mr. Milich, to rent an outfit. During the visit, Milich discovers his teenage daughter with two older men and locks the men in a room, threatening to call the police. Bill arrives at the mansion, provides the password, and witnesses a bizarre sexual ritual. A masked woman warns him that he is in danger. He is taken to a gathering where the master of ceremonies demands a second password. Bill claims to have forgotten the second password, at which the master of ceremonies exposes him as an outsider. Before the master of ceremonies forces Bill to remove his clothes, the masked woman intervenes, offering herself to save him. Bill is let go with a stern warning to remain silent. Shaken, Bill returns home to find Alice laughing in her sleep. She tearfully recounts a dream of having sex with the naval officer and many other men while mocking Bill. The next day, Bill visits Nick's hotel, but the clerk claims Nick was taken away by two threatening men. Returning the costume, Bill notices the mask is missing and learns that Milich now profits from prostituting his daughter, offering her services to Bill. Consumed by jealousy and doubt, Bill revisits the mansion but receives an envelope warning him to stay away. That evening, he tries calling Marion but hangs up when her fiancé answers. He then visits Domino's apartment, only to find her roommate, Sally, who informs him that Domino has tested HIV-positive. As Bill leaves, a mysterious figure follows him. Later, at the morgue, he identifies Mandy as the masked woman from the orgy after reading about her death from an overdose. Victor summons Bill and admits to being at the orgy. He explains that there was no second password and that Bill's exposure was deliberate. Victor insists the secret society only seeks to intimidate him into silence but warns they are dangerous. He claims Nick has returned safely to Seattle and attributes Mandy's death to her drug addiction, dismissing foul play. Returning home, Bill finds the missing mask placed on his pillow. Breaking down in tears, he confesses everything to Alice. The next day, the couple takes Helena shopping for Christmas. Bill apologizes to Alice, who suggests they take action to repair their relationship. When he asks what she means, Alice responds with a single word: "Fuck."

In December 1999, insurance investigator Virginia "Gin" Baker assesses the theft of a valuable Rembrandt painting from a New York City penthouse. Gin informs her boss, Hector Cruz, that she suspects the involvement of world-class international thief Robert "Mac" MacDougal, an elderly man who steals for the challenge. Cruz assigns her to investigate. In London, Mac quickly realizes that Gin is following him and confronts her. She claims to be a thief in need of Mac's help to steal a valuable Chinese mask from the highly-secure Bedford Palace. After Gin passes his test by obtaining the Palace floorplans, Mac brings her to his isolated Scottish castle to prepare. There, Gin confesses to stealing the Rembrandt, prompting Mac to reveal that he, in turn, intercepted it before it reached her client. The pair train for the heist, clashing over Mac's over-preparedness and resisting their mutual attraction. Later, unaware that Mac is listening in, Gin contacts Cruz to explain her plan to entrap Mac. That night, Mac and Gin break into Bedford Palace and steal the mask. Before they can escape, however, Mac threatens to drown Gin if she does not admit she is trying to arrest him. Gin claims that her insurance job is a cover identity, and she has no intention of arresting him as she needs him for another heist. In Kuala Lumpur, Gin reveals her plan to infiltrate the Malaysian branch of the International Clearance Bank (ICB) housed in the Petronas Towers. At midnight on New Year's Eve, the bank's global computer system will briefly shut down for thirty seconds to verify its integrity due to the millennium bug. During this window, Gin and Mac plan to use her custom software to siphon small amounts from thousands of corporate transactions into her account. Concerned for Gin's safety, Mac attempts to cancel the heist, but his contact, Aaron Thibadeaux, coerces him to proceed and provides Cruz with photos of Mac and Gin in an intimate moment. Cruz confronts Gin for answers, but she convinces him that it is part of her strategy to incriminate Mac. As the Millennium celebrations commence on New Year's Eve, Cruz oversees increased security forces in the Petronas Towers. Gin and Mac hack the surveillance system to conceal their presence and break into the vault housing the ICB system. At the stroke of midnight, Gin's software successfully transfers just over $8 billion to her account, but alarms are triggered when she disconnects her laptop. She and Mac evade the pursuing forces and climb to the interlinked second tower across cables of suspended lights, but when the cable snaps, Gin loses her miniature parachute. The pair reach a large ventilation shaft and Mac forces a tearful Gin to escape with his parachute while he remains behind, promising to meet her at Pudu train station. The following morning, Mac meets Gin at the station, accompanied by Thibadeaux, who reveals himself as a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent. Mac confesses that he was arrested two years earlier and given a deal to avoid jail by entrapping Gin, who has long been under FBI suspicion. As a train arrives at the station, Mac reveals that he has fallen in love with Gin, and that he only surrendered $7 billion to the FBI, before slipping her a gun and documents to escape the country. Gin feigns holding Mac at gunpoint and escapes on the train, pursued by the FBI. As Mac sits at the station alone, Gin reappears, having jumped trains mid-station. Happily reunited, Gin proposes their next heist.

In 2065, Earth is infested by alien life forms known as Phantoms. By physical contact Phantoms consume the Gaia spirit of living beings, killing them instantly, although minor contact may only result in an infection. The surviving humans live in "barrier cities" protected by energy shields that prevent Phantoms from entering, and are engaged in an ongoing struggle to free the planet. After being infected by a Phantom during one of her experiments, scientist Dr. Aki Ross (Ming-Na Wen) and her mentor, Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland), discover a means of defeating the Phantoms by gathering eight spirits: unique energy patterns contained by various lifeforms. When joined, the resulting energy wave can negate the Phantoms. Aki searches for the sixth spirit in the ruins of New York City when she is cornered by Phantoms but rescued by Captain Gray Edwards (Alec Baldwin) and his squad Deep Eyes, consisting of Master Sergeant Ryan Whittaker (Ving Rhames), Neil Fleming (Steve Buscemi) and Corporal Jane Proudfoot (Peri Gilpin). It is revealed that Gray was once romantically involved with Aki. Returning to her barrier city, Aki joins Sid and appears before the leadership council along with General Douglas Hein (James Woods). Hein is determined to use the Zeus cannon, a powerful weapon aboard a space station, to destroy the Phantoms, though Sid is concerned the cannon will damage Earth's Gaia (a spirit representing its ecosystem). Aki delays the use of the cannon by revealing that she has been infected and the collected spirits are keeping her infection stable, convincing the council that there may be another way to defeat the Phantoms. However, this revelation leads Hein to incorrectly conclude that she is being controlled by the Phantoms. Aki and the Deep Eyes squad succeed in finding the seventh spirit as Aki's infection begins to worsen and she slips into unconsciousness. Her dream reveals to her that the Phantoms are the spirits of dead aliens brought to Earth on a fragment of their destroyed planet. Sid uses the seventh spirit to bring Aki's infection back under control, reviving her. To scare the council into giving him clearance to fire the Zeus cannon, Hein lowers part of the barrier shield protecting the city. Though Hein intended that only a few Phantoms enter, his plan goes awry and legions of Phantoms invade the entire city. Aki, Sid and the Deep Eyes attempt to reach Aki's spaceship, their means of escape, but Ryan, Neil and Jane are killed by Phantoms. Hein escapes and boards the Zeus cannon's space station, where he finally receives authorization to fire the cannon. Sid finds the eighth spirit at the crater site of the alien asteroid's impact on Earth at the Caspian Mountains. He lowers a shielded vehicle, with Aki and Gray aboard, into the crater to locate the final spirit. Just before they can reach it, Hein fires the Zeus cannon into the crater, not only destroying the eighth spirit but also revealing the Phantom Gaia. Aki has a vision of the Phantom home planet, where she is able to receive the eighth spirit from the alien particles in herself. When Aki awakens, she and Gray combine it with the other seven. Hein continues to fire the Zeus cannon despite overheating warnings and unintentionally destroys the cannon and himself. Gray sacrifices himself as a medium needed to physically transmit the completed spirit into the alien Gaia. The Earth's Gaia is returned to normal as the Phantoms ascend into space, finally at peace. Aki is pulled from the crater holding Gray's body and is seen looking into the newly liberated world.

In 1997, Captain Roberto Nascimento of the Battalion of Special Police Operations (BOPE) leads an operation to secure the Turano neighbourhood before Pope John Paul II 's overnight visit at the Archbishop 's home near the favela. He searches for a successor at the unit in order to switch to a desk job before his pregnant wife Rosane gives birth to his son. Rookie PMERJ officers and best friends André Matias and Neto Gouveia handle menial work as instructed to them by their corrupt seniors: Neto supervises the police auto mechanic shop, whilst Matias is responsible for registering and filing police complaints in a small archive office. André also attends law school, where he begins a relationship with Maria, and meets her friends Roberta and Edu; all three are members of a NGO that operates in an area ruled by drug lord Baiano. Baiano provides marijuana to Matias' friends, who sell it on campus. André also befriends Romerito, a boy who, like himself, suffers from myopia. Neto applies to another department, but his transfer is denied. Disgusted by corruption and led by fellow officer Fábio, Neto and André steal the police's bribe money to fix as many police cars as possible. Their superior, Captain Oliveira, finds out and demotes them to kitchen work as punishment and orders Fábio—who he believes stole from him—to meet drug traffickers at a community funk party in Morro da Babilônia to enquire about payment. Fábio believes this is a set-up to kill him and discreetly warns Neto and André, who rush to a vantage point and, presuming Fabio will be shot by another officer, accidentally fire a sniper rifle, causing a deadly gunfight between the officers and traffickers; as André and Neto attempt to flee the scene, Nascimento and his men arrive and rescue all the officers. After the shootout, André is photographed by the press. André and Neto apply for BOPE, motivated by their honesty and devotion, and eagerness for action. At the NGO office, Baiano confronts Maria and her friends with a newspaper featuring André's picture and threatens to kill them if they bring policemen inside his territory. The BOPE training proves to be gruesome, both as a way to weed out weak candidates, and also to terrorize and force out known corrupt police officers. Many candidates quit — including Fábio (who applied as a way to avoid Oliveira) — but both Neto and André successfully pass; Neto celebrates by getting a BOPE tattoo on his arm. André's relationship with Maria ends and he confronts Edu, ordering him to arrange a meet with Romerito the next day to give him a pair of glasses. Edu reveals André's plan to Baiano, who sets an ambush to kill him. Neto informs André of a job interview at a law firm that will conflict with meeting Romerito, and volunteers to deliver the glasses in his place: this results in Neto being mortally wounded. When Baiano prepares to finish him, he notices his BOPE tattoo and goes into hiding for fear of retaliation, but not before abducting and executing Roberta and Rodriguez as his payback for allowing a BOPE officer into the slum. After Neto's funeral, André, Nascimento and other BOPE officers make daily incursions into Baiano's slum, torturing several dealers into revealing his whereabouts; when one of them reveals Edu tipped Baiano, an enraged Matias storms into a peace walk, beats Edu, and insults Maria and the others. BOPE interrogates several of the locals before finally locating and cornering Baiano; due to Baiano's pleas to not hurt his face for the wake, Nascimento orders André to summarily execute him with a shotgun shot to the face, both as revenge for Neto's death and as a final rite of passage for BOPE. André cocks the gun and the screen fades to white as the shot is heard.

After his latest mission, James Bond relaxes at a hotel in Miami Beach. Bond's superior, M, through CIA agent Felix Leiter, directs him to observe bullion dealer Auric Goldfinger, also staying at the hotel. Bond discovers Goldfinger cheating at a high-stakes gin rummy game, aided by his employee Jill Masterson. Bond interrupts Jill and blackmails Goldfinger into losing. After an evening with Jill, Bond is knocked out by Goldfinger's Korean manservant, Oddjob. Bond awakens to find Jill covered in gold paint, dead from skin suffocation. In London, M tasks Bond with determining how Goldfinger smuggles gold internationally. Q supplies Bond with a modified Aston Martin DB5 and two tracking devices. Bond plays a round of golf with Goldfinger at his country club in Kent, using a bar of recovered Nazi gold supplied to him by the Bank of England to distract him. Goldfinger attempts to cheat, but Bond tricks him into losing the match. Goldfinger warns Bond against interfering in his affairs, and Oddjob demonstrates his formidable strength, along with a steel-brimmed hat. Planting a tracker in Goldfinger's car, Bond follows him to Switzerland and meets a woman named Tilly, who tries to assassinate Goldfinger but is stopped by Bond. Bond sneaks into Goldfinger's refinery in Switzerland and overhears him telling Chinese nuclear physicist Ling that he incorporates gold into the bodywork of his Rolls-Royce Phantom III to smuggle out of England. Bond also overhears Goldfinger mention "Operation Grand Slam" and encounters Tilly, who reveals herself as Jill's sister, out for revenge. An alarm is tripped, and Oddjob kills Tilly with his hat while Bond is captured, strapped to a table and menaced with an overhead industrial laser. Bond lies to Goldfinger that MI6 knows about Operation Grand Slam and, if Bond is killed, will promptly shut it down, instead of holding off, so Bond can identify all parties aiding Goldfinger. To prevent that, Goldfinger spares his life. He has Bond tranquilized, and put on his private jet, operated by his pilot Pussy Galore, who flies the captive Bond to Goldfinger's stud farm near Lexington, Kentucky. Bond escapes his cell and witnesses Goldfinger's meeting with several American Mafia bosses, who have supplied materials to Goldfinger for Operation Grand Slam and have been promised $1 million each. The plan involves breaking into the US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox after incapacitating the troops stationed there. He promises to pay the criminals $10 million each if the scheme succeeds, but they ridicule his plan. One of them, Mr. Solo, demands to be paid immediately and leaves before the others are killed with a nerve gas. Bond is caught by Pussy but attempts to alert the CIA by planting his other tracker in Solo's pocket as he leaves. Oddjob kills Solo and destroys the tracker. Bond confronts Goldfinger over the implausibility of his scheme, only later deducing from Ling's presence that the Chinese government has provided a dirty bomb to irradiate the gold, making it unusable for decades. Goldfinger's bullion will skyrocket in value and the Chinese will create economic chaos in the West. Operation Grand Slam begins with Pussy's pilot troupe spraying gas over Fort Knox, seemingly knocking out the troops. Goldfinger's private army breaks into Fort Knox and enters the vault as Goldfinger arrives in a helicopter with the bomb. In the vault, Bond is handcuffed to the bomb. Unknown to Goldfinger, Bond persuaded Pussy to alert the authorities and replace the gas with a harmless substance. Goldfinger locks the vault with Bond and Oddjob inside. When the US Army attacks, Goldfinger kills Ling and escapes. Bond manages to free himself and fight Oddjob, eventually electrocuting him by use of his steel-rimmed hat between two electrified poles. Although Bond forces open the casing of the bomb, he is unsure of how to disarm it. After killing Goldfinger's men, US troops open the vault, and a specialist shuts off the bomb, 7 seconds before it can detonate. Bond boards a jet to have lunch at the White House, but Goldfinger hijacks the plane at gunpoint, tying up the crew in the hangar and putting Pussy in the cockpit. Bond and Goldfinger fight for the gun, which fires, shattering a window and creating an explosive decompression that sucks Goldfinger out of the plane, killing him. Bond and Pussy parachute to safety. Leiter's search helicopter passes over the pair. Pussy tries to alert him, but Bond playfully declares, "This is no time to be rescued," and draws the parachute over them as they kiss.