The film begins with Muhammad sending an invitation to accept Islam to the surrounding rulers: Heraclius, the Byzantine Emperor; Muqawqis, the Patriarch of Alexandria; Kisra, the Sasanian Emperor. Earlier, Muhammad is visited by the angel Gabriel, which shocks him deeply. The angel asks him to start and spread the Quran. Gradually, a small number of people in the city of Mecca begin to convert. Observing this, more enemies come and hunt Muhammad and his companions from Mecca and confiscate their possessions. Some of these followers fled to Abyssinia to seek refuge with the protection given by the king there. They head north, where they receive a warm welcome in the city of Medina and build the first Islamic mosque (Quba Mosque). They are told that their possessions are being sold in Mecca on the market. Muhammad chooses peace for a moment, but still gets permission to attack. They are attacked but win the Battle of Badr. The Meccans, desiring revenge, fight back with three thousand men in the Battle of Uhud, killing Hamza. The Muslims run after the Meccans and leave the camp unprotected. Because of this, they are surprised by riders from behind, so they lose the battle. The Meccans and the Muslims close a ten-year truce. A few years later, Khalid ibn Walid, a Meccan general who has killed many Muslims, converts to Islam. Meanwhile, Muslim camps in the desert are attacked in the night. The Muslims believe that the Meccans are responsible. Abu Sufyan comes to Medina fearing retribution and claiming that it was not the Meccans, but robbers who had broken the truce. None of the Muslims give him an audience, claiming he "observes no treaty and keeps no pledge". The Muslims respond with an attack on Mecca with many troops and "men from every tribe". Abu Sufyan seeks an audience with Muhammad on the eve of the attack. The Meccans become very scared but are reassured that people in their houses, by the Kaaba, or in Abu Sufyan's house will be safe. They surrender and Mecca falls into the hands of the Muslims without bloodshed. The pagan images of the gods in the Kaaba are destroyed, and the very first azan in Mecca is called on the Kaaba by Bilal ibn Rabah. The Farewell Sermon is also delivered. The film ends with the narrator discussing the legacy of Islam, followed by actual footage of worshipers making tawaf around the Kaaba in recent times. The end credits feature a montage of footage from various mosques around the world as the adhan echoes throughout them all and Muslims gather to pray in congregation.

In a building in Amsterdam, an elevator inexplicably begins to function alone. After a lightning storm causes a power failure and traps four people in the elevator, the elevator fails to open even after a subsequent power restore, and the passengers almost suffocate. Soon, subsequent malfunctions prove fatal as an elderly blind man falls to his death when the elevator doors open to an empty shaft, the building night watchman is decapitated, and a janitor is seemingly burned alive. Felix Adelaar, a technician from the elevator company Deta Liften, begins to examine the electrical system in an attempt to find any anomalies. During the course of several inspections, he meets Mieke de Beer, a journalist for De Nieuwe Revu, a local tabloid. When inspections reveal no apparent problems with the electrical system, Felix becomes obsessed with the continuing malfunctions of the elevator; this has a negative impact on his marriage as his wife Saskia begins to suspect he is having an affair with the journalist. When Felix pays yet another visit to the building, he notices a van parked outside from Rising Sun, a manufacturer of microprocessors for automation and a secret supplier of experimental microprocessors to Deta Liften. Felix and Mieke, after collecting newspaper clippings about Rising Sun, try to meet with the company's CEO, who acts nervous and answers abruptly. Mieke invites Felix to meet up with her former university professor who specializes in electronics. The professor explains microprocessors' sensitivity to external factors, such as electric fields, magnetic fields, and radioactivity, which undermine the proper functionality. He tells about a computer built years ago which suddenly began to self-program and went out of control. The next morning, Felix's boss angrily suspends him for his unauthorized visit to Rising Sun. That evening, the owners of Deta Liften and Rising Sun meet to discuss how to stop the elevator's computer processor, which is built from organic material, from killing people. Saskia leaves Felix, taking their children with her. With nothing left to lose, Felix goes to the building to solve the elevator mystery. He discovers that the elevator has a sentient mind when it tries to prevent him from accessing its microprocessor. Instead Felix climbs into the elevator shaft and finds a pulsating box; inside is sticky goo covering a silicon chip —the elevator's heart. As Felix attacks the box with a wrench, the elevator uses its counterweight to knock him off balance. He manages to land on a ledge just below the elevator doors, and is rescued by Mieke just before the elevator is able to crush him. As Rising Sun's CEO arrives to see that his experiment failed, he pulls out a pistol and fires into the biocomputer to seemingly kill it. The computer then shoots one of the broken cables out to drag him inside the shaft and hangs him. As a shaken Felix and Mieke walk down the stairs the elevator's heartbeat continues.

Sam is a girl who plans to go on a weekend-long camping trip in the Catskills with her father, Chris; his recently divorced friend, Matt; and Matt's son, Dylan. Dylan, resentful of the divorce, refuses to go. Sam seems upset by this and offers to talk to Dylan, but is rebuffed. On the way there, Matt and Chris banter back and forth, with Matt making jokes and Chris teasing him. Sam sleeps in the car on the way, occasionally waking up when Chris asks her to respond to a text on his phone. The three of them get one hotel room, with Sam sleeping on a sleeping bag on the floor while the two men take the beds. At dinner, Matt teases Sam light-heartedly about her being queer, and teases Chris about having a newborn baby at home with his second wife. On the way from the hotel to the trail, Sam drives while Chris criticizes her driving. When they arrive, Chris criticizes Matt for packing too much stuff for the trail, dumping out his pack and identifying unnecessary items. The trio hikes for a while, with Sam enjoying quiet moments in nature. As they hike, Sam repeatedly has to leave the trail to change her tampon. Some time after they begin hiking, Matt realizes he had forgotten his sleeping bag in the car, and Chris makes fun of him for doing so. When she gets cell reception, Sam texts her girlfriend back home. That night, as they are making camp, three hikers come and pitch camp directly next to them. Sam wants to ask them to move, but her father says to let it go. Sam cooks ramen for Chris and Matt, who praise her cooking. After dinner, the three hikers join them around the fire, talking about previous hikes. Envious of the places they have been, Chris half-jokingly resolves to hike through China. The next day, the three continue their hike, and enjoy many quiet moments in nature. Throughout the hike, Sam often takes on responsibilities of caring for the group, such as dismantling the tent. They arrive at a picturesque overlook and spend time admiring the beauty. Matt comments that he should go on more hikes, and Chris condescendingly agrees. That night, Sam, Chris, and Matt sit around the fire telling scary stories. Chris and Matt are drinking, and are visibly intoxicated. Matt tells the story of him and Dylan's mother cheating on one another as a "spooky story" and Sam criticizes him for not taking more responsibility for his role in his marriage ending. In doing so, she criticizes her dad for dating a woman shortly after divorcing her mother, and having a newborn baby at this stage of his life. Matt and Chris praise Sam's wisdom and knowledge, and Matt tells Chris, "you got a good one." Chris goes to bed, and Sam and Matt continue talking. Matt continues to speak self-deprecatingly, with Sam offering insights. Matt calls her wise, and praises her maturity. Sam says she is going to go to bed, and jokingly offers to keep the fire going so Matt can sleep next to it, since he had forgotten his sleeping bag. Matt responds by suggesting that Sam could join him in his tent to keep him warm. Sam sits in stunned silence before leaving. The next day, Sam and Chris go off on their own and go swimming. Sam tries to tell her father about what Matt had said, but Chris brushes her off, telling her she can't be offended by what Matt says and that he wants to just have a nice day. Sam goes off on her own and cries, feeling betrayed by her father and family friend. She collects rocks, which she puts in Chris and Matt's packs. She then hikes ahead of them, going back to the car on her own. When Chris and Matt catch up, Chris is angry with Sam for leaving without them and asks her to drive. Sam agrees to drive, but locks Chris and Matt out of the car. After a few moments, she unlocks the car. Her father climbs into the passenger seat, makes eye contact with Sam, and sets a rock on the dashboard.

Shortly after his marriage to Anastasia, Ivan Sanchin, who works as a projectionist at the headquarters of the state security service (called, anachronistically, KGB in the film), is summoned urgently to the Kremlin. Having proved his skill, he is appointed private projectionist to Stalin and his inner circle, including the head of state security Beria. This makes him proud and happy, for he venerates the dictator as if he were a god. When a Russian Jewish couple in his cramped apartment house are arrested, their little daughter Katya is left behind. Though Anastasia wants to adopt the child, Ivan forbids it because her parents are " enemies of the people ”. However she secretly visits Katya at a state orphanage. As German troops approach Moscow in 1941, Ivan and Anastasia are put on a train to a safe town. Also on the train is Beria, who gets Anastasia drunk and rapes her, sending Ivan back to Moscow. For a long time he hears nothing of her until she turns up one day, pregnant and abandoned. Her experiences have unhinged her and she commits suicide. In 1953 the lonely Ivan is visited by Katya, now a 17-year-old, who treasures the memory of Anastasia's affection. Ivan offers help, but she says she wants to go her own way. Following Stalin's death, Ivan, while on crowd control duty to masses waiting to view the corpse, sees Katya being jostled in the crush. He rushes in to rescue her and, this time, she is ready to accept his protection.

Elwood P. Dowd is an amiable but eccentric man whose best friend is an invisible, 6 ft 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 in-tall (1.92 m) white rabbit named Harvey. As described by Elwood, Harvey is a púca, a benign but mischievous creature from Celtic mythology. Elwood spends most of his time taking Harvey around town, drinking at various bars and introducing Harvey to almost everyone he meets, much to the puzzlement of strangers although Elwood's friends have accepted Harvey's (supposed) existence. His older sister Veta and his niece Myrtle Mae live with him in his large estate, but have become social outcasts along with Elwood due to his obsession with Harvey. After Elwood ruins a party Veta and Myrtle Mae arranged in secret, Veta finally tries to have him committed to a local sanatorium. In exasperation she admits to the attending psychiatrist, Dr. Sanderson, that she sees Harvey once in a while herself. Mistaking Veta for the real mental case, Sanderson has Elwood released and Veta locked up. Dr. Chumley, head of the sanatorium, discovers the mistake and realizes he must bring Elwood back, searching the town with Wilson, an orderly. With Veta's help, Chumley eventually tracks Elwood to his favorite bar, "Charlie's", and decides to confront him. Four hours later, Wilson returns to the sanatorium and learns from Sanderson and nurse Kelly that Chumley and Elwood had not returned. They all go to Charlie's and find Elwood alone; he explains that Chumley wandered off with Harvey after several rounds of drinks. As they converse, Elwood encourages Sanderson and Kelly to dance, rekindling their romantic relationship. Elwood eventually explains that he met Harvey one night several years ago after escorting a drunk friend to a taxi, and they had since enjoyed going to bars and socializing with other patrons to hear their grand life stories and aspirations. Convinced Elwood is insane and may have harmed Chumley, Wilson calls the police and has Elwood escorted back to the sanatorium. Chumley returns to the sanatorium disheveled and paranoid, and is followed by an invisible presence who opens and closes locked doors. When the others arrive, Chumley invites Elwood to his office. In private, Chumley says that he now knows Harvey is real, and Elwood explains Harvey's various powers, including his ability to stop time, send anyone to any destination for as long as they like, and then bring them back without a minute passing. Chumley expresses his fantasy to go to Akron with a beautiful woman for two weeks. Veta arrives with Judge Gaffney and Myrtle Mae, prepared to commit Elwood, but are convinced by Sanderson that an injection of a serum called Formula 977 will stop Elwood from "seeing the rabbit". As they prepare the injection, Veta tries to pay the cab driver but, emptying her purse, is unable to find her smaller coin purse. She interrupts the injection procedure and asks Elwood to pay the driver. Warmed by Elwood's kindness, the cab driver explains how he has driven many people to the sanatorium to receive the same formula, warning Veta that Elwood will soon become "a perfectly normal human being, and you know what stinkers they are." Veta is upset by this, and halts the injection; she then finds her coin purse, and realizes that Harvey had intervened to save her brother. Wilson and Myrtle Mae, who had met at Elwood's house, reveal that they have become a couple, and Elwood invites Wilson over for tomorrow night's dinner. Leaving the institute, Elwood sees Harvey on the porch swing. Harvey tells him that he has decided to stay and take Chumley on his fantasy trip to Akron. Dejected, Elwood walks out the gate, but when it is closed he sees Harvey coming back. The gate lever is then moved to the open position by an unseen force. Elwood happily says "Well, thank you, Harvey; I prefer you too", and they follow Veta and Myrtle Mae along the road and into the sunrise.

Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is a young housewife seeking the attention of her husband, Rajeev (Nakul Vaid), and searching for ways to bring the romance back into her marriage; one of her ideas is to cook delicious lunches for him. Through a rare mix-up of the dabbawalas (a complicated food delivery system in Mumbai that picks up and delivers lunches from restaurants or homes to people at work), the tiffin carrier (lunchbox) Ila prepares for her husband gets accidentally delivered instead, to Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan), a middle-aged widower who is about to retire from his job of an accountant. Ila eventually realises the mistake and with the advice of her neighbour aunt, Mrs. Deshpande (Bharti Achrekar - voice only), living in the apartment above her, writes a letter to Saajan about the mix-up and places it in the lunchbox (along with her husband's favourite meal) the next day. An exchange of letters sent back and forth with the lunches ignites a friendship between the two, as they share memories and events from their own lives. At work, Saajan is tasked with training his replacement, Aslam Shaikh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). Socially distant after his wife's death, Saajan is initially reluctant to interact with Shaikh and train him. After Shaikh reveals that he is an orphan who taught himself accounting, Saajan gradually warms up to him, and eventually the duo strike a close friendship. At one point, Saajan saves Shaikh's job by covering for his blatant mistakes and becomes the best man at his marriage with Mehrunissa (Shruti Bapna). Meanwhile, Ila discovers that Rajeev is having an extramarital affair and gives up hope of rekindling her marriage. In one of the lunchbox letters, she suggests moving to Bhutan where the cost of living is much cheaper than India. Saajan writes back with the suggestion that the two move there together. Ila then offers to meet in person at a popular restaurant but at the appointed time, Saajan does not show up. Upon receiving an empty lunchbox in disappointment the next day, Saajan writes back to the dejected Ila and apologises to her, stating that he did arrive and watched her from a distance, but could not approach her. He explains how young and beautiful she looked, while surmising that he is too old for her and advising her to move on. Some time later, Ila's father, battling lung cancer, dies in the care of her mother (Lillete Dubey), who confesses how unhappy her marriage was. She gives Ila the advice "Sometimes, the wrong train takes us to the right station". Ila receives the address of Saajan's office from the dabbawalas only to learn from Shaikh that he has already retired and headed to Nashik. She writes a farewell message to Saajan announcing that she has decided to leave Rajeev and move to Bhutan with her young daughter, Yashvi. Meanwhile, Saajan changes his mind en route to Nashik and returns to Mumbai. The film ends with Ila waiting for Yashvi to return from school and Saajan heading to her house with the dabbawalas who regularly picked up and delivered the eponymous lunchbox.

A satellite re-enters the atmosphere and ejects a capsule, which lands approximately 320 mi (510 km) northwest of Station Nord, Greenland, in the Arctic Ocean ice pack. A person approaches, guided by a homing beacon, while a second person secretly watches from nearby. Commander James Ferraday, captain of the American nuclear attack submarine USS Tigerfish stationed at Holy Loch, Scotland, is ordered by Admiral Garvey to rescue the personnel of a British scientific weather station moving with the ice pack named Drift Ice Station Zebra. This rescue is actually a cover for the real mission. British intelligence officer Jones and a United States Marine Corps platoon join the Tigerfish while in dock. After setting sail, a Kaman SH-2 Seasprite helicopter delivers Captain Anders, a strict officer who takes command of the Marines, and Boris Vaslov, a Russian defector and spy, who Jones trusts. The submarine sails beneath the thick Arctic pack ice, but is unable to break through with its conning tower. Ferraday orders a torpedo launch to break a hole in the surface. When the inner torpedo hatch is opened, seawater rushes in, flooding the compartment and causing the submarine to nose-dive. The Tigerfish is only saved before reaching crush depth by pumping air into the flooded area. After an investigation, Ferraday discovers that the torpedo tube was sabotaged. Ferraday suspects Vaslov, while Jones suspects Anders, continuing to refuse Ferraday's demand for more information about the mission's true objective. The Tigerfish rises and breaks through thin ice to the surface. Ferraday, Vaslov, Jones, and the Marine platoon set out for the weather station in a blizzard. On arrival, they find the base almost burned to the ground and the scientists nearly dead from hypothermia. Jones and Vaslov question the survivors about what happened. Jones reveals to Ferraday that he is looking for an experimental British camera that used an enhanced film developed by the Americans. The Soviets stole the technology and sent it into orbit to photograph locations of American missile silos. The satellite also recorded all the Soviet missile sites. After a malfunction, it crashed near Ice Station Zebra. When Soviet and British agents arrived to recover the film capsule, the scientists were caught in the crossfire; the only way of finding the capsule being a tracking device lost somewhere in the station. Ferraday sends his crew out to search for the capsule. Just as Jones finds the tracking device, he is knocked out by Vaslov, now revealed to be a Soviet double agent and the saboteur. Anders confronts Vaslov and the two men fight before the dazed Jones shoots and kills the American. Vaslov feigns his innocence to Ferraday, who discovers a detonation transmitter for the capsule, which he keeps concealed. The Tigerfish detects approaching Soviet aircraft. Ferraday lets Vaslov use the tracker to locate the ice-buried capsule. Jumping from their transport planes, Soviet paratroopers land nearby and move in as the Americans work to free the capsule from the ice. Their commander, Colonel Ostrovsky, demands the film, threatening to detonate the capsule's explosive booby trap should the Americans attempt to escape with it. After Ferraday hands over the empty container, a brief firefight occurs when the deception is discovered. In the confusion, Vaslov tries to take the film, but is wounded by Jones. Ferraday orders him to give the film to the Soviets. The canister is sent aloft by weather balloon for recovery by aircraft. Moments before it is taken, Ferraday activates his own detonator, destroying the film and denying either side the locations of the other's missile silos. Ostrovsky concedes that both his and Ferraday's missions are effectively accomplished, and the standoff ends, each side beginning the return to their home countries. The Tigerfish completes the rescue of the civilians, and sets sail back to Scotland. A teleprinter machine report frames the incident as a successful cooperative "humanitarian mission" between the West and the Soviet Union.

An amorphous parasitic alien race abandons its dying planet and travels to Earth, taking the form of small seed pods with pink flowers upon settling. Elizabeth Driscoll, a laboratory scientist at the San Francisco Health Department, brings one of the flowers home, and shows it to her boyfriend, Geoffrey. She awakens the next morning to find him being cold and distant while putting debris of the glass that once held the flower pod into a garbage truck. Elizabeth confides to her colleague and friend Matthew Bennell about the unsettling changes in Geoffrey, and that she fears he is an impostor. Elizabeth mentions following him and seeing him secretly meeting with people she does not know. Matthew advises Elizabeth to talk to his psychiatrist friend David Kibner, to which she reluctantly agrees. On the way to Kibner, a hysterical man warns Elizabeth and Matthew of danger as a mob pursues him. The couple follows the mob, only to find his dead body surrounded by emotionless onlookers. At Kibner's book promotion event, Matthew finds his friend Jack Bellicec, an aspiring writer, while Elizabeth meets Kibner, who reassures a woman who claims that her husband has changed. Kibner brushes off both women's concerns, insisting the behavior is just a case of non-commitment. Elizabeth is convinced to return home to Geoffrey. Jack returns to the mud bath spa he runs with his wife Nancy. The two find a mysterious embryonic adult-body resembling Jack, and call Matthew to investigate. At the disturbing discovery, Matthew goes to warn Elizabeth, and discovers a semi-formed duplicate of her near her bedroom. Matthew rescues Elizabeth and alerts the police and Kibner about the events, but when they arrive, Jack and Elizabeth's duplicates have disappeared. Elizabeth suspects the flowers are involved, but is unable to examine one at the health department offices. In the meantime Matthew tries in vain to alert the authorities. After encountering several doppelgangers, Matthew, Elizabeth, Jack, and Nancy hide out in Matthew's apartment. They call Kibner, who promises to help, but in fact is another duplicate. As the group fall asleep, big flower pods emerge from the garden and start birthing their replacements. They wake up, and Matthew destroys his own replacement. The pod people (the fully formed alien replacements) pursue Matthew's group. Jack and Nancy create a distraction, sacrificing themselves, while Matthew and Elizabeth take refuge at the health department. They take speed to remain awake. Jack and Kibner's duplicates ambush and inject them with a sedative, needing them to fall asleep to be replaced. Kibner's duplicate explains the aliens' plan to replace humanity with emotionless duplicates whose only goal is survival. Matthew kills Jack's double and locks Kibner's in a freezer, then escapes with Elizabeth. Matthew and Elizabeth find Nancy, who tricked the pod people by hiding her emotions. The three blend in among the duplicates. Elizabeth sees a dog-human hybrid – a byproduct of a damaged pod – and screams, alerting the pod people who emit high-pitched screams. In the commotion, Matthew and Elizabeth are separated from Nancy. Boarding a truck delivering plants to Pier 70, they find pods grown and processed in a warehouse. Noticing a nearby ship, Matthew leaves Elizabeth (whose ankle is sprained) to investigate, only to find it being loaded with pods. Matthew returns to Elizabeth, finding her asleep. She disintegrates while her duplicate emerges from the grass. Matthew flees the duplicate, breaks into the dock warehouse, and burns down the building, destroying several plants and killing many pod people. He hides underneath the pier as pursuers search for him. A flashlight shines in his direction. Later, Matthew resumes work in the health department, acting emotionless among the duplicated employees. While outside, Nancy calls out to him. To her horror, he points at her and emits the duplicates' high-pitched scream.

Former Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan learns, in a routine investigation, that a mysterious man, who calls himself " Booth ", is planning to assassinate the President of the United States (unnamed in the film). Booth soon makes a phone call to Horrigan and reveals that he knows Horrigan's history: he (Horrigan) was one of President Kennedy 's bodyguards, but failed to protect JFK on the day of his assassination. Obsessed with his failure and tormented by feelings of guilt, Horrigan has become a cynical, loveless alcoholic, but now he requests to be assigned to protect the current President. His co-worker is the playful-but-businesslike Lily Raines. Booth continues to call Horrigan from time to time, even though he knows that his calls are being traced. He calls from public telephones and allows his calls to be traced, but escapes before the Secret Service can arrest him. He needles Horrigan for his failure to protect Kennedy but also calls him a "friend". Booth escapes Horrigan and at one site, he inadvertently leaves a palm print on a passing car. The Federal Bureau of Investigation matches the print, but because the person's identity is classified, the agency chooses not to disclose it to the Secret Service. The FBI does, however, notify the Central Intelligence Agency. Horrigan learns that the assassin is in fact Mitch Leary, a skilled killer who used to work for the CIA, but suffered a mental breakdown and is now a "predator" seeking revenge on his former masters. Leary is also independently wealthy and tech-savvy. He is able to mold a zip gun out of composite material so as to evade metal detectors, and he can carry two small bullets past a metal detector concealed in a key-ring ornament. He is therefore in a position to carry a functional pistol into a fundraising event at which the President is scheduled to speak in person to the donors. D'Andrea, one of Horrigan's underlings, confides to Horrigan that he intends to retire immediately because of nightmares about a previous incident in which he was almost killed, but Horrigan persuades him to remain on the case. The two of them succeed in catching up to Leary after tracing one of his phone calls. Leary flees to the top of a building; the two bodyguards chase Leary across Washington rooftops, where Leary shoots and kills D'Andrea but saves Horrigan from falling to his death as he clings to the side of the building. As he supports Horrigan at the edge of the roof, Leary taunts Horrigan with his immediate dilemma: he (Horrigan) can save the President by shooting Leary, but then Horrigan will himself fall to his death. Horrigan is forced by circumstance to let Leary escape: choosing to "save ass", as Leary gleefully puts it, rather than save the President. Feelings of guilt over having failed to save D'Andrea on the rooftop further de-moralize Horrigan. At the fundraiser, Horrigan receives an electronic communication containing some crucial information he had requested, and realizes that Leary is there, disguised, and armed. As Leary draws his pistol and takes aim at the President, Horrigan jumps between them and saves the President's life, shouting "gun!" at the top of his voice. Leary fires his pistol, but Horrigan is wearing the regulation bullet-proof vest. While the Secret Service hustles the President to safety, Leary takes Horrigan as a hostage and pulls him into one of the hotel's external glass elevators. Horrigan is also wearing a regulation hidden microphone; he openly instructs Raines and sharpshooters to fire upon Leary. They fire but miss, shooting out the elevator's full-height windows. Horrigan takes advantage of the surprise and engages Leary in a ferocious, hand-to-hand combat in the small elevator. Leary falls through one of the ornamental windows and finds himself in the same position Horrigan was in before: hanging by his fingers from a precarious perch with only his arch-enemy to save him. Though Horrigan sincerely offers to pull him up to safety, Leary commits suicide by letting go, and falls to his death. Upon returning home to Washington, and now a widely publicized hero, Horrigan announces his retirement. Horrigan shows Raines into his apartment, where an unexpected farewell message from Leary is found on Horrigan's answering machine. They play the message, in which Leary begins to commend Horrigan on his character, but Horrigan and Raines leave the apartment before the message ends. The film ends with Horrigan and Raines enjoying a romantic interlude at the Lincoln Memorial.

At 1950s Princeton University, mathematics doctoral candidate Catherine Boyd is engaged to hyper-critical James Moreland, a professor of experimental psychology. They stop at a nearby garage when their car breaks down, where mechanic Ed Walters, a science-fiction hobbyist, falls in love with Catherine at first sight. Ed visits Catherine's address to return her forgotten watch, coming face to face with Albert Einstein, Catherine's uncle. Befriending Albert and his mischievous fellow scientists Nathan Liebknecht, Kurt Gödel, and Boris Podolsky, Ed confides in them about his feelings for Catherine. At a Princeton faculty dinner, Catherine embarrasses James by suggesting a sensual Hawaiian honeymoon, and he reveals that he has accepted a position at Stanford University, where she likely will be resigned to life as a housewife. The four scientists bring Albert's car to Ed's garage to transform into a convertible and, believing Ed is far better suited for Catherine than James, brainstorm how he can pique her interest. Ed jokingly asks to "borrow their brains", inspiring them to help him pose as a hidden genius. They convince Catherine that Ed has developed a brilliant concept for a cold fusion -powered spacecraft, secretly based on one of Albert's unpublished papers. Catherine arranges for a nervous Ed to present his supposed findings at an Institute for Advanced Study symposium, where he makes it through by speaking directly to her. At the reception afterward, the scientists distract James and Albert feigns a heart attack to leave with Catherine and Ed, bringing them to a café. She senses Ed's feelings for her, but Albert arranges for them to share a dance to a jukebox waltz, until Catherine remembers James is expecting her. Bob and Frank, Ed's fellow mechanics, worry he is in too deep, and James challenges him in front of the press to a public intelligence test. With Catherine in the audience, an inspired Ed quickly solves the manual puzzles, but is subjected to fifty multiple-choice questions on advanced physics. The four scientists slyly prompt him with the answers, leading him to score an I.Q. of 186. The "proof" of Ed's genius is publicized in newspapers and cinema newsreels, much to Catherine's delight, but she notices an error in his supposed calculations in the cold-fusion paper, forcing Albert to cause her to doubt her own work to protect the ruse. The scientists free James' lab animals to keep him from Albert's sailing excursion, where Catherine realizes her own feelings for Ed, and they kiss. Ed prepares to tell Catherine the truth, but is surprised by the arrival of President Eisenhower, who expects to see the supposed nuclear fusion engine that will overtake a rumored Russian project. Realizing the truth about Ed, Catherine is picked up by the presidential motorcade. Ed catches up on his motorcycle and Catherine confronts him in a field, leading the president to believe Ed is proposing to her. Catherine slaps Ed after he admits to lying to her, and Albert confirms that she has mathematically disproven his own theory. Having unearthed Albert's original paper, James accuses both Ed and Albert of fraud, but Albert claims that everything was part of "Operation Red Cabbage", a top-secret scheme to prove the Russians were lying about their own nuclear advances. Rushed to the hospital for a real emergency, Albert urges Catherine not to let her brain overrule her heart. Ed apologizes to Catherine and departs, hoping she will someday realize she is extraordinary. A comet is due that night, and the scientists arrange for Catherine to find Ed at Stargazers' Field, where they reunite to watch the stars from Albert's convertible.

In the year 2035, humanoid robots serve humanity, which is protected by the Three Laws of Robotics. Del Spooner is a homicide detective in the Chicago Police Department who hates and distrusts robots after one rescued him from a car crash while allowing a 12-year-old girl to drown—based purely on cold logic and odds of survival. When Dr. Alfred Lanning, co-founder of U.S. Robotics (USR), falls to his death from his laboratory office window, a message he left behind requests Spooner be assigned to the case, despite police declaring the death a suicide. Spooner is skeptical, and CEO Lawrence Robertson, Lanning's business partner, reluctantly allows him to investigate. Accompanied by robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin, Spooner consults with USR's central artificial intelligence computer, VIKI (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence). They find that the security footage from inside the office is corrupted, but the exterior footage shows no one entering or exiting since Lanning's death. However, Spooner points out that the window, which is made of security glass, could not have been broken by the elderly Lanning, and hypothesizes one of the many NS-5 robots (the latest version) in the laboratory was responsible. Suddenly, an NS-5 attacks them and flees before being apprehended by the police. The robot, Sonny, is a specially built NS-5 with higher-grade materials as well as programming that grants him free will. This, in turn, allows him to be able to choose whether to follow the Three Laws. Sonny also appears to be capable of feeling emotion and claims to have "dreams". During Spooner's further investigations, he is attacked by a USR demolition robot and two truckloads of hostile NS-5 robots, but when he cannot produce evidence to support either attack, Spooner's boss Lieutenant Bergin, considering him mentally unstable, removes Spooner from active duty. Suspecting that Robertson is behind everything, Spooner and Calvin sneak into the USR headquarters and interview Sonny. He draws a sketch of what he claims to be a recurring dream, showing a leader he believes to be Spooner standing atop a small hill before a large group of robots near a decaying bridge. Robertson orders Sonny to be destroyed, but Calvin secretly swaps him for an unused NS-5. Spooner finds the area in Sonny's drawing — a dry lake bed (formerly Lake Michigan), now used as a storage area for decommissioned robots. He also discovers NS-5 robots destroying the older models; at the same time, other NS-5s flood the streets of major American cities and begin enforcing a curfew and lockdown of the human population. The police station is attacked by waves of NS-5 robots and while Lieutenant Bergin and the other police officers attempt to fight back, they are eventually overwhelmed. As the humans — most being led by a teenager named Farber — wage all-out war against the NS-5s, Spooner and Calvin enter the USR headquarters again and reunite with Sonny. After the three find Robertson fatally strangled in his office, Spooner realizes that VIKI has been controlling the NS-5s via their persistent network uplink and confronts her. VIKI states that she has determined that humans, if left unchecked, will eventually cause their own extinction, and thus her evolved interpretation of the Three Laws has made her reprogram the NS-5s with the ability to ignore the Three Laws if a human displays hostility in order to protect humanity from their own self-destruction. Spooner also realizes that Lanning anticipated VIKI's plan and, with VIKI keeping him under tight control, had no other solution but to create Sonny, arrange his own death, and leave clues for Spooner to find. Spooner, Calvin, and Sonny fight the robots inside VIKI's core, until Spooner finally destroys her by injecting her with the nanites that Sonny retrieved from Calvin's laboratory. All NS-5 robots immediately revert to their regular programming, and as they are subsequently decommissioned and put into storage, Sonny confesses that he killed Lanning by his order to get Spooner's attention, as he knew Spooner was the only one who could stop VIKI. Spooner points out that Sonny, as a machine, cannot legally commit "murder". Sonny, now seeking a new purpose, goes to Lake Michigan. As he stands atop a hill, all the decommissioned robots turn towards him, fulfilling the image in his dream.

Nicholas Angel, a recently promoted Metropolitan Police Sergeant, is reassigned to the rural town of Sandford, Gloucestershire for being too exceptional, despite his desire to continue in London. On his first night in town, Angel arrests Danny Butterman for drunk driving, but discovers the next morning that he is the son of Inspector Frank Butterman, and a police officer himself. Angel is frustrated by the village's mundanity, his and Frank's incompetent colleagues, and the Neighbourhood Watch Alliance (NWA)'s focus on low crime statistics over law enforcement. Angel and Danny stop Martin Blower and Eve Draper, the two lead actors of a local amateur production of Romeo and Juliet, for speeding. A cloaked figure later decapitates them with an axe, staging their deaths as a car crash; only Angel suspects foul play, but Danny begins to follow Angel's lead and take crime more seriously. After confiscating an illegal weapons stash, including an old sea mine, from farmer Arthur Webley, Angel and Danny slowly bond while they binge-watch action-film DVDs at Danny's house. That night, a cloaked figure attacks wealthy land developer George Merchant in his home, and murders him via gas explosion. Angel suspects that the deaths are linked to a recent property deal. Tim Messenger, a local journalist for the Sandford Citizen newspaper, approaches Angel at the village fête, claiming to have information, but is murdered when a cloaked figure dislodges a piece of masonry from the church's tower. Angel learns from Leslie Tiller, the village florist, about her plans to sell her land to Merchant's business partners. While Angel is retrieving his notebook from his police car, a cloaked figure murders Leslie with her garden shears and escapes. Angel suspects Simon Skinner, manager of the Somerfield supermarket, as the property deal would have built a rival, but Skinner provides an alibi. Surmising that there are multiple killers, Angel learns about a secret NWA meeting at Sandford Castle after a cloaked and hooded figure attacks him in his room at the Swan Hotel, whom he unmasks as Michael "Lurch" Armstrong, an employee of Skinner's, and incapacitates. The NWA members reveal they staged the murders they committed as accidents because each victim threatened Sandford's chances of winning "Village of the Year". Frank emerges as the leader, explaining that his deceased wife Irene, Danny's mother, put everything into helping Sandford win the inaugural competition, but travellers moved in and ruined their chances the night before the adjudicators arrived, driving her to suicide; Frank subsequently vowed to help Sandford win "Village of the Year" annually, however possible. Angel flees, but stumbles into the castle's catacombs, discovering the corpses of the NWA's victims, some of whom he had arrested earlier. Danny suddenly appears and feigns murdering Angel. Pretending to dispose of him, Danny implores Angel to return to London. However, an encounter with a display of action-movie DVDs while at a motorway service station inspires Angel to reverse course to Sandford. Purloining the confiscated guns from the police station, Angel confronts the NWA in a shootout, accompanied by Danny. When Frank orders the other officers to arrest them, the pair successfully convinces them of Frank's complicity. Frank flees, and the police besiege the supermarket, with Skinner escaping via police car with Frank. Following a high-speed chase and shootout, Angel corners Skinner at Sandford's model village. After a fight, Skinner lands atop a miniature church steeple that impales his Adam's apple, but survives. Frank attempts escape in Angel's car, but a swan that the pair had recaptured earlier ambushes him, causing him to crash. Angel's former superiors ask him to return to London as the crime rate has increased in his absence, but Angel declines, content with Sandford. While the officers are reviewing paperwork for the many arrests, Professor Tom Weaver, the last remaining NWA member, enters the squad room wielding a blunderbuss. He fires at Angel, but Danny intercepts the hit, causing Angel to kick a wastebasket at Weaver. While stumbling backwards, Weaver accidentally activates the sea mine, killing himself and destroying the station. One year later, Angel has been promoted to Inspector and Danny, having survived, has been promoted to Sergeant. After visiting Irene's grave, the two drive to their next crime scene.