Al-Qaeda terrorists in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, detonate an explosive at an American oil company housing compound, killing both American and Saudi citizens. Before this, terrorists disguised as Saudi State Police had shot the inhabitants in the compound before they were stopped by Sergeant Haytham of the Saudi State Police; after this, another terrorist commits a suicide bombing. Francis Manner, the Federal Bureau of Investigation 's Legal Attaché in Saudi Arabia, alerts his colleague, Special Agent Ronald Fleury, to the attacks before being killed by the second bomb. At FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., Fleury briefs his rapid deployment team on the attack, believing it to have been orchestrated by local Saudi terrorist Abu Hamza. He recruits forensic examiner Janet Mayes, intelligence analyst Adam Leavitt, and bomb technician Grant Sykes to his team. Although the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. State Department hinder FBI efforts to investigate, Fleury blackmails the Saudi ambassador into allowing his team into Riyadh. On arrival, the team is met by Colonel Faris al-Ghazi, the commander of the Saudi State Police Force providing security at the compound, and General Al Abdulmalik of the Saudi Arabian National Guard. The general's inexperience in criminal investigation hinders Fleury's team. The team is invited to the palace of Saudi Prince Ahmed bin Khaled, where Fleury convinces the Prince that Colonel al-Ghazi is a better fit to lead the investigation. With this change in leadership, the Americans are allowed direct access to the crime scene. This allows Fleury to sympathize with and befriend al-Ghazi. While searching for evidence, Sergeant Haytham and Sykes discover the second bomb was detonated in an ambulance and that the brother of one of the dead terrorists had access to ambulances and police uniforms. Al-Ghazi orders a raid by the Saudi Emergency Force on a terrorist stronghold, killing several of them. Afterward, Fleury's team discovers clues, including photos of the U.S. and other Western embassies in Riyadh. The U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Damon Schmidt notifies Fleury and his team that they have been ordered to return to the United States. However, the team's convoy is attacked and Leavitt is kidnapped. Al-Ghazi commandeers a civilian vehicle, and the team chases the car holding Leavitt into the dangerous Al-Suwaidi neighborhood. As they pull up, a gunman fires rocket-propelled grenades at them and a fierce firefight starts. Leavitt is carried into a room inside a complex, where the terrorists prepare to film his execution before Mayes, separated from al-Ghazi and Fleury, saves him just in time. As al-Ghazi and the team start to leave, Fleury notices a trail of blood leading to the back of the apartment, where a family lives. After noticing several clues, al-Ghazi realizes the grandfather is Abu Hamza. Abu Hamza's teenage grandson walks out of the bedroom and shoots al-Ghazi in the neck, then points his gun at Mayes, prompting Fleury to kill him and Haytham to kill Abu Hamza. Al-Ghazi bleeds out in Fleury's arms, while Abu Hamza whispers something to his other grandchild. At Al-Ghazi's house, Fleury and Haytham meet and comfort his family. Fleury and his team return to the US, where they are commended by the FBI Director for their work. Leavitt asks Fleury what he whispered to Mayes, earlier in the film, to get her to stop crying over Manner. Simultaneously, both Fleury and Hamza's grandson responds "We are gonna kill 'em all."

In 1985 New York, Connor MacLeod encounters an old enemy, Iman Fasil, in the parking garage of Madison Square Garden. After a sword duel, Connor beheads Fasil and absorbs a powerful release of energy from his body, then hides his sword in the garage's ceiling. NYPD officers detain him on suspicion of murder but lack evidence to hold him. Connor's history is revealed through a series of flashbacks. In the Scottish Highlands in 1536, Connor fights against the rival Fraser clan as a warrior of the MacLeod clan. The Frasers are aided by an outlander knight in exchange for his right to slay Connor. In battle, the knight fatally stabs Connor but is driven off by his clansmen. After Connor makes a complete recovery, his lover Kate and his cousin Dougal accuse him of witchcraft. The clan wants to kill him, but his other cousin, chieftain Angus, mercifully exiles him. Connor quietly settles into a new life as a blacksmith and marries a woman named Heather MacDonald. Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, a wandering swordsman, seeks out Connor. He explains that they and others like them are " Immortals ". They possess a sixth sense known as the "quickening" and can be killed only by beheading. Each immortal must be ready to do battle with others, save on holy ground. Ramírez trains Connor in sword fighting and the two become friends. He informs Connor that as the number of immortals dwindles, they will gather in a distant land for a final confrontation until only one remains with the combined quickening of all. Immortals cannot conceive children, and Ramírez urges Connor to leave Heather so that he will be unburdened in the fight ahead. The knight that he encountered, the Kurgan, is a powerful and vicious immortal who would subject humanity to an eternity of darkness. One night while Connor is away, the Kurgan finds Ramírez at his home with Heather and decapitates him in a duel. Connor stays with Heather until she dies of old age, leaving him heartbroken. He adopts Ramírez's katana as his own and spends the next few centuries wandering the Earth. In 1985, the Gathering approaches, and the Kurgan comes to New York, where Connor deals antiques under the alias "Russell Nash", assisted by his confidant and adopted daughter Rachel Ellenstein. Brenda Wyatt, a metallurgy expert working for the police as a forensic scientist, finds shards of Connor's sword at Fasil's death scene and is puzzled that the sword smithing techniques do not match the age of the blade. She follows Connor for clues and witnesses the Kurgan attacking him. The police arrive, forcing them to flee. She meets with Connor twice afterward, hoping to learn about the paradoxical sword. Connor likes her but tells her to leave him alone. The Kurgan duels and beheads Sunda Kastagir, another immortal. A witness to the fight gives the NYPD a description of him. Brenda investigates Connor and finds evidence that he has lived for centuries. On Heather's birthday, Connor lights a candle for her in a church as he has done every year. The Kurgan arrives and confirms that he and Connor are now the last remaining immortals and also reveals he raped Heather after killing Ramírez. Disgusted, but prohibited from fighting on holy ground, Connor leaves. Brenda confronts Connor, who explains his true identity. After spending the night together, they part company, but the Kurgan finds out about their newfound intimacy and kidnaps Brenda to draw Connor out. Connor decides to leave behind the Russell Nash identity, says goodbye to Rachel, and confronts the Kurgan at Silvercup Studios in Queens, rescuing Brenda in the process. After a long duel, Connor outfights and decapitates the Kurgan, absorbing his power. Connor returns to Scotland with Brenda and reveals that he is now a mortal man who can age and have children. He is also able to read the thoughts and feelings of people all around the world, and remembering Ramírez's lessons, he hopes to encourage cooperation, understanding, and peace among humanity.

In rural Texas, go-go dancer Cherry Darling runs into her mysterious ex-boyfriend El Wray at the Bone Shack, a restaurant owned by brothers J.T. and Sheriff Hague. Meanwhile, the demented Lt. Muldoon and his men make a transaction with chemical engineer Abby for mass quantities of DC2, a deadly biochemical agent. When Muldoon learns that Abby has an extra supply, he attempts to take Abby hostage, causing him to release the gas into the air, mutating most of the town's residents into deformed zombie -like creatures. The infected townspeople are treated at a local hospital by Dr. William Block and his bisexual anesthesiologist wife, Dakota, who is abused by him. Random attacks begin along the highway, causing El Wray and Cherry to crash. In the aftermath, several zombies tear off Cherry's right leg. At the hospital is Tammy, the former lover of Dakota, who Block recognizes. Upon realizing Dakota was about to leave him for Tammy, he stabs Dakota's hands with her anesthetic syringe needles repeatedly, rendering them useless, before locking her in a supply closet. El Wray is detained by Sheriff Hague based on past encounters between the two. As the patients mutate, El Wray leaves the station and arrives at the hospital, attaching a wooden table leg to Cherry's stump. As El Wray and Cherry fight their way out of the hospital, Dakota manages to escape in her car. Meanwhile, Block becomes infected along with others, while Cherry and El Wray take refuge at the Bone Shack. Dakota retrieves her son Tony and takes him to her estranged father, Texas Ranger Earl McGraw. Tony accidentally shoots himself while waiting in the car. (Following a "missing reel" segment) Dakota, Earl, Cherry's former boss Skip, and Tony's crazed babysitter twins arrive at the Bone Shack. With Hague badly injured, the group decides to flee to the Mexican border, before being stopped by a large mass of zombies. Muldoon's men arrive, killing the zombies before arresting the group. Abby tells them that the soldiers are stealing the gas supply because they are infected and constant inhalation of the gas delays mutation. They also learn that some of the population is immune, hinting at the possibility of a cure. As Cherry and Dakota are taken away by two soldiers, the others defeat the guards. J.T. sustains a gunshot wound in the process while the group searches for Muldoon. When he is found by El Wray and Abby, Muldoon explains that he killed Osama bin Laden before he and his men were infected and were ordered to protect the area before being killed by Abby and El Wray. Meanwhile, Cherry is held at gunpoint and forced to dance by a soldier who threatens to rape her. Eventually, she breaks her wooden leg across his face and stabs him in the eye. Dakota, after realizing that her hands have regained feeling, uses her syringe launcher to subdue another soldier. El Wray and Abby arrive to rescue Cherry and Dakota; El Wray replaces Cherry's broken wooden leg with an assault rifle and grenade launcher. J.T. decides to stay behind to detonate explosives to eliminate the remaining zombies while the others flee. The survivors make plans to escape by stealing helicopters after fighting through a large group of zombies, but Abby gets his head blown apart by a ballistic missile in the process. An infected Block attacks Dakota but is shot dead by Earl. While saving Cherry from a zombie, El Wray is fatally wounded. Cherry, now sporting a minigun leg, leads survivors to the Caribbean beach at Tulum, where they start a peaceful new society during a worldwide zombie outbreak. It is also revealed that Cherry has given birth to her and El Wray's daughter. In a post-credits scene, Tony is sitting on the beach at the survivor's "base" playing with his turtle, scorpion, and tarantula.

Daniel Morales is a highly talented but reckless driver living in Marseille, France, and is in a loving relationship with his girlfriend Lilly. Leaving his job as a delivery man at local pizza parlor "Pizza Joe," he becomes a taxi driver. He drives a white 1997 Peugeot 406, customized with various concealed racing modifications. Young bumbling police inspector Émilien Coutant-Kerbalec lives with his widowed mother, and has just failed his 8th driver's test. No one takes him seriously at work, including police sergeant Petra, his unrequited crush. Commissioner Gibert briefs the officers on a German gang behind a series of high-profile robberies throughout Europe, who has now arrived in Marseille. The gang is known for their efficiency, skilled driving, and their use of red Mercedes-Benz 500E cars as escape vehicles. Anticipating the gang's next move, Gibert places police officers around the targeted bank. After the robbers enter the bank, Émilien accidentally causes a multi-vehicle collision and a gun fight with the French Minister's escort convoy, allowing the robbers to escape. The next day, Émilien decides to take a taxi to work and rides with Daniel. Not knowing his fare's occupation, Daniel shows off his car and breaks several traffic laws. Émilien detains Daniel, but then asks for his help with catching the German gang in exchange for returning Daniel's license, desperate for respect and Petra's attention. Looking at photos of the getaway cars, Daniel concludes that the tires come from a garage owned by Kruger, the only German mechanic in town. Staking out the garage, they spot the German robbers. Émilien tries to interrogate Kruger, who opens fire at the duo and escapes. The police locate the gang's next target and manage to attach a tracking device to one of the cars. However, the gang stops at a secluded garage and repaints the cars silver, inadvertently sabotaging the tracking device and allowing them to escape again. Émilien then learns that he had left the stove on at his flat and burned it down, forcing him and his mother to stay at Daniel's place. Eager to get rid of Émilien, Daniel correctly deduces the gang's repaint strategy, and through a friend, he tracks the robbers to a racetrack. Daniel provokes the gang into a race and wins, later inspiring Émilien to approach Petra romantically. The duo then become friends, and devise a plan to finally catch the gang red-handed. The next day, having duplicated the control keys to twenty traffic lights throughout the city, Émilien provides Daniel with a closed radio line. Daniel recruits his old co-workers from Pizza Joe, to whom Émilien distributes the keys and walkie-talkies. After the gang drives away from another robbery, Daniel follows them and successfully taunts the Germans into another race. As the delivery men use the traffic lights to clear a path for the cars, the cars drive onto the freeway. Daniel then speeds towards a bridge that is under construction, and slams on the brake; the gang's cars jump over the gap and lands on the other side, only to discover that they are trapped on an incomplete bridge section. After the gang is arrested, Daniel and Émilien are given medals by the police commissioner, and Émilien begins dating Petra. The film ends with Daniel competing at the French Grand Prix in a Formula 3000, sponsored by (to Daniel's dismay) the Marseille Police.

During halftime at a football game, Los Angeles Stallions running back Billy Cole receives a call from Milo, a man who warns him to win the game or he will be killed. Cole ingests PCP and in a drug-induced rage, carries a gun onto the field, shooting three opposing players to reach the end zone before shooting himself in the head. Meanwhile, private investigator Joe Hallenbeck, a disgraced former Secret Service agent who was once a national hero for saving the President from an assassination attempt, discovers that his wife Sarah is having an affair with his best friend and business partner, Mike Matthews. After a confrontation, Mike gives Joe an assignment to act as bodyguard for a stripper named Cory. Mike is then killed by a car bomb outside Joe's house. That night at a strip club, Joe is approached by Cory's boyfriend, former Stallions quarterback Jimmy Dix, who was banned from the league on gambling charges and alleged drug abuse. While Cory and Jimmy exchange conversations, Joe waits outdoors and is eventually knocked unconscious by a team of hitmen. Jimmy and Cory leave the bar in separate cars while Joe overpowers the hitman left to dispatch him. When Cory is struck from behind and stops to confront the other driver, she is killed by the hitmen. Joe eliminates two of them as the other one retreats and Jimmy is saved. The pair are interrogated by lieutenant Benjamin Bessalo, and he grows dubious of Joe's behavior. Acting on a hunch at Cory's apartment, Jimmy and Joe find a taped phone conversation between Senator Calvin Baynard, who leads a congressional investigation into sports gambling, and Stallions owner Sheldon Marcone. When Joe was in the Secret Service, he witnessed Baynard torturing a woman in a hotel room and assaulted the senator to liberate her. Baynard retaliated by having Joe fired for refusing to cover up the incident. When the tape is ruined in Joe's faulty car stereo, Jimmy realizes that Cory tried using the tape against Marcone to reinstate Jimmy on the team, prompting Marcone to send the hitmen. Joe saves Jimmy from a second car bomb, and tricks two hitmen into blowing themselves up. However, the explosion destroys the remaining evidence. At Joe's house, Jimmy attempts to use cocaine in the bathroom. However, Joe catches Jimmy and kicks him out. As Jimmy leaves, Joe's daughter Darian asks him to sign a football trading card. She states that Joe was a fan of Jimmy's and never watched another game after he was excluded from the league. Learning of Mike's affair with Sarah, the police assume that Joe killed him and move to make an arrest. Milo, Marcone's top henchman, captures Joe first and shoots detective McClusky with Joe's gun. Marcone has been purchasing senate votes to legalize sports gambling, but Baynard tried to blackmail Marcone for $6 million. Aware of Joe's history with Baynard, Marcone explains it would be cheaper to kill the senator and frame Joe for the murder. Joe is taken to a wooded area and forced to hand a briefcase with money to Baynard's bodyguards, and Marcone's men surreptitiously switch it with a briefcase containing a bomb. Joe is rescued by Jimmy and Darian, and acquires both briefcases after running the bodyguards and Milo off the road. However, Milo survives and while Darian is left to wait for the police, she is abducted by Milo. Heading to the stadium to rescue Darian, Joe and Jimmy are captured and escorted to Marcone's office. Jimmy creates a diversion, allowing them to fight their way free. Realizing that Milo plans to shoot Baynard, Joe goes after Milo while sending Jimmy to warn the senator. Grabbing the game ball, Jimmy throws it at Baynard, knocking him down just as Milo starts to open fire. Joe pushes Milo to the edge of the stadium light platform, where SWAT officers shoot him before he falls into the moving rotor blades of a police helicopter. The briefcase of money is recovered and Marcone, having escaped with the rigged briefcase, is killed when he opens it at his estate. The next day, Joe and Sarah reconcile, and Joe and Jimmy decide to become partners.

Professional safecracker John Bridger's team has plans to steal $35 million worth of gold bars from a safe in Venice from Italian gangsters who had stolen it weeks earlier. Professional fixer Charlie Croker, computer expert Lyle or " Napster ", wheelman Handsome Rob, explosives expert Left Ear, and inside man Steve comprise the team. Although the heist is successful, Steve double-crosses them as they drive towards Austria with the bullion, with another crew he takes it for himself and kills John. Rob drives the van over the bridge into the water to protect the others, using air tanks from the heist to stay alive. Steve leaves them for dead. A year later in Philadelphia, Charlie finds Steve, under a new identity, laundering the gold through Ukrainian jeweler Yevhen to finance his lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles. Charlie gathers the team, and also recruits John's daughter Stella, a skilled private safe expert, offering her the chance to avenge her father's death. They stake out Steve's mansion, and Stella, disguised as a cable technician, maps out its interior and determines the location of Steve's safe containing the bullion. Unaware of Stella's identity, Steve asks her out on a date. The plan is to blow the safe while Steve is away on his supposed date, using three heavily modified Mini Coopers to transport the gold out of the mansion. Supplier Skinny Pete gets the explosives and mechanic Wrench modifies the cars. On Steve's last visit to Yevhen, Yevhen accidentally reveals that he knows about the Venice heist. To cover his tracks, Steve kills him. Mashkov, the leader of a Ukrainian crime family and Yevhen's cousin, traces the gold back to Skinny Pete via Yevhen's ex-employee Vance. On the night of the planned heist, the crew discovers that Steve's neighbors are having a party so they have to abort, as the explosives would draw attention. Stella still has to meet Steve, but inadvertently gives away her identity by using her dad's catchphrase. The team arrives to protect her, and Steve taunts them as he says he still has the upper hand. Aware that Charlie intends to steal it back, Steve decides to move the gold to Mexico City. His plan, which involves transporting the gold via armored car from his L.A. home to a private plane at LAX, is overheard by Napster using a phone tap. Charlie and his gang make a new plan to steal the gold en route to the airport by hijacking the city's traffic control system, forcing the armored car to a planned spot where they will execute the heist. On the day, they are surprised when three armored trucks leave Steve's mansion, but Napster determines which one carries the bullion and manipulates the traffic accordingly. As Steve is monitoring the transport by helicopter, they maneuver the truck to the target spot and detonate explosives to drop the part of the road with the truck into the subway tunnel below. Opening the truck, they find the gold in a different safe from the one that held it before. Struggling initially, Stella cracks it open and they divide the $27 million in gold among the three Minis. They race from the subway to the Los Angeles River and through the city, pursued by Steve's henchmen on motorcycles, with Napster creating a green wave to evade traffic. Stella, Handsome Rob, and Left Ear head to Union Station, while Charlie lures Steve away in his helicopter. Steve tries to kill him by having his helicopter pilot destroy Charlie's Mini, but the helicopter's tail rotor is damaged, grounding it. Steve carjacks a Ford Bronco to follow Charlie to Union Station, where the cars are loaded onto a train car with the help of Wrench. He tries to bribe Wrench to let him in, but finds Charlie and the others waiting. When Steve pulls a gun, demanding the gold back, Mashkov and his armed men disarm him. Charlie explains that he has offered Mashkov part of the gold and Steve in exchange for helping with security protection (it is implied that Skinny Pete put him in touch). Stella punches Steve in the face as revenge. Mashkov then takes him away, implying he intends to not kill him, but rather torture him for killing Yevhen. The group boards the train as it departs to New Orleans, and celebrate in John's honor. The team uses their share of the gold for their own desired purposes: Handsome Rob purchases an Aston Martin DB7 Volante, getting pulled over by a beautiful policewoman; Left Ear buys a mansion in Andalusia with a room for his shoe collection; Napster buys a powerful stereo capable of blowing a woman's clothes off; and Charlie takes John's advice about finding someone he wants to spend the rest of his life with, and he and Stella travel to Venice together.

In Hong Kong, Bruce Lee's father Lee Hoi-chuen awakens from a nightmare about a phantom, known as the Demon, haunting his young son. He subsequently enrolls him in Chinese martial arts training with instructor Yip Man. As a young adult, Bruce fights British sailors who are harassing a young Chinese woman. As a result, he must flee Hong Kong. His father insists he go to the US. In the US, Bruce works as a dishwasher at a Chinese restaurant until he gets in a brawl with four of the cooks. The restaurant owner Gussie Yang fires him but also lends him money and encourages him to go to college. While studying philosophy in college, Bruce begins to teach martial arts classes, where he meets Linda, a white American. Bruce marries Linda in defiance of her racist mother, Vivian. Linda suggests Bruce establish a martial arts school, but his Chinese peers demand he train only Chinese people. When Bruce refuses, they challenge him to settle the matter in combat. Bruce defeats a challenger named Johnny Sun in a secret, no-holds-barred match but Johnny attacks Bruce after he has admitted defeat, and Bruce sustains a debilitating back injury. While Bruce is temporarily paralyzed, Linda helps him write the martial arts book Tao of Jeet Kune Do. Linda gives birth to their first child, Brandon, and the couple reconcile with her mother. Some months later, during a martial arts tournament run by Ed Parker, Johnny challenges Bruce to a rematch. Bruce defeats and humiliates Johnny, earning the respect of the audience. Bruce is unaware that Johnny becomes crippled from his injuries in the fight. After the match, Bill Krieger, who later becomes Bruce's manager, offers him the role of Kato in the television series The Green Hornet. Bruce and Krieger also create the idea for the television series Kung Fu, agreeing that Bruce will feature in the lead role. At a cast party, Linda says she is pregnant with their second child, Shannon. Shortly afterwards, the cancellation of The Green Hornet is announced. Kung Fu later makes it to television but much to Bruce's frustration, it stars the white actor David Carradine. Bruce believes Krieger has betrayed him. Bruce returns to Hong Kong for his father's funeral. Philip Tan, a Hong Kong film producer, hires Bruce to star in the film The Big Boss. During the filming of the final scene, Johnny's brother Luke attacks Bruce in revenge for Johnny's humiliating defeat and subsequent disability; Bruce narrowly wins the fight. The Big Boss is a success and Bruce makes several more films, working as an actor, director, writer and editor. This causes a rift between Bruce and Linda, as Linda wishes to return to the US. Krieger offers Bruce a chance to work on a big-budget Hollywood film, to which Bruce agrees, partly because of Linda's wish to return home. On the 32nd day of filming Enter the Dragon, during the "room of mirrors" sequence, Bruce has a terrifying vision of the Demon that has haunted his and his father's dreams. This time, after being beaten and then shown his own grave, Bruce sees his son urging Bruce to save him. The Demon pursues Brandon, spurring Bruce to fight back, save Brandon and break the Demon's neck with a pair of Nunchaku. Bruce later films another scene from Enter the Dragon, the film that would make him an international star. In a voice-over, Linda tells the audience Bruce fell into a mysterious coma and died shortly before the film's release and says while many people want to talk about how he died, she prefers to remember how he lived.

Harry Washello and Julie Peters meet at the La Brea Tar Pits and immediately fall in love. They spend the afternoon together and arrange to meet again at midnight. However, due to a freak accident, a power failure results in Harry's alarm not going off until much later. Julie cannot reach Harry, so she leaves for home. When Harry awakes that night, he realizes what has happened and rushes to Julie's workplace, arriving at 4 a.m. Harry tries calling Julie on a payphone but only reaches her answering machine, where he leaves an apology. The phone rings again and Harry answers, hearing a frantic man named Chip urgently warning that nuclear war will break out in less than 70 minutes. When Harry asks who is calling, Chip realizes he has dialed the wrong area code. He pleads with Harry to call his father and apologize for some past wrong before he is interrupted and presumably shot dead. An unfamiliar voice picks up the phone and tells Harry to forget everything he heard before disconnecting. Harry, confused and not entirely convinced of the authenticity of the information, wanders back into the diner and tells the other customers what he has heard. As the patrons scoff at his story, one of them, a businesswoman named Landa places calls to politicians in Washington and finds that they are all suddenly heading for "the extreme Southern Hemisphere ". She verifies that the launch codes Chip mentioned are real and, convinced of the danger, immediately charters private jets out of Los Angeles International Airport to a compound in a region in Antarctica with no rainfall. Most customers and staff leave with her in the owner's delivery van. When the owner refuses to make any stops, Harry, unwilling to leave without Julie, arranges to meet the group at the airport and jumps from the truck. Harry is helped and hindered by various strangers, who are initially unaware of the impending apocalypse. In the process, he inadvertently causes several deaths, which leaves him deeply shaken. When he finds Julie and tells her what is happening, she notes that there has been no confirmation of the attack. Desperate to reach the airport and not having a car, Harry finds a helicopter pilot and tells him to meet them on the roof of the Mutual Benefit Life Building, where Landa orders a helicopter and a large amount of supplies to be delivered. Julie has also tried to find a pilot on her own, and in the moments it takes to find her, Los Angeles descends into violent chaos. There is still no confirmation any of this is real, and Harry wonders if he has sparked a massive false panic in the example of Chicken Little. However, when he uses a phone booth to contact Chip's father, he reaches a man who says his son is a soldier. Harry tries to pass on the message he was given, but the man hangs up before Harry finishes. When they reach the top of the Mutual Benefit building they find the pad empty, with only Landa's drunk co-worker on the roof. Any doubts about a false alarm are eliminated when a missile can be seen streaking across the sky. As they fear the end, the helicopter suddenly returns with the pilot badly wounded but fulfilling his promise to come back for them. After they lift off from the roof, several warheads hit and the nuclear E.M.P. from the detonations causes the helicopter to crash into the La Brea Tar Pits. As the helicopter sinks and the cabin fills with natural asphalt tar, Harry tries to comfort a hysterical Julie by saying someday their fossils will be found and they will probably be put in a museum, or that they might take a direct hit and be turned into diamonds. Julie, accepting her fate, calms down and takes comfort in Harry's words, and the movie fades out as the tar fills the compartment. A final explosion seems to imply a direct hit has taken place.

In 1972, Russell Stevens Jr. witnesses his drug-addicted, alcoholic father getting shot and killed while robbing a liquor store. Traumatized by his father's death, Stevens swears that he will never end up like him. Nineteen years later, Stevens is a Cincinnati police officer. He is recruited by DEA Special Agent Gerald Carver to go undercover in Los Angeles, claiming that his criminal-like character traits will serve him better in this capacity than they would as a uniformed cop. Stevens poses as drug dealer "John Hull" in order to infiltrate and work his way up the network of the West Coast 's largest drug importer, Anton Gallegos, and his uncle Hector Guzmán, a South American politician. Stevens relocates to a cheap hotel and begins dealing cocaine. One day, Stevens is arrested by the devoutly religious LAPD Narcotics Detective Taft and his corrupt partner, Hernández, as he buys a kilogram in a set-up by Eddie Dudley, Gallegos's low-level street supplier. At his arraignment, Stevens discovers that he bought baby laxative instead of cocaine and his case is dismissed. His self-appointed attorney David Jason, who is also a drug trafficker in Gallegos's network, rewards Stevens's silence with more cocaine and introduces him to Felix Barbosa, the underboss to Gallegos. Felix kills Eddie when he finds out he's working with the LAPD and enlists Stevens as his replacement. Stevens develops a romance with Betty McCutcheon, the manager of an art dealership which is a front to launder Jason's drug money. When one of Stevens's dealers is murdered by a rival dealer, he is informed by Jason that if he doesn't retaliate, other street dealers will view it as a sign of weakness and in turn murder him. Stevens follows the rival dealer to a nightclub, corners him in a bathroom and kills him. Jason then partners with Stevens in his new business: distribution of a synthetic chemical variant of cocaine. It is revealed that Felix is a confidential informant working with Hernández. After a falling out, Jason becomes more sadistic, and Stevens correctly deduces that Felix wants Jason killed to eliminate his competition. Felix immediately gives up Stevens, Jason and Betty to Hernández, and wants Jason killed during the arrest. Carver knows about this but refuses to interfere, forcing Stevens to violate orders and stop the murder himself by exposing Felix, which results in a vengeful Jason killing him. The killing results in Betty reneging on the drug business, with Stevens's protection. Gallegos comes to meet with Stevens and Jason, informing them that they have inherited Felix's debts to him. Later that day, Stevens meets with Carver to tell him about his meeting with Gallegos. Instead, Carver pulls a gun on Stevens and orders him to surrender his weapon and get in his car. Angrily, Stevens disarms Carver and forces him to admit that the State Department has decided to leave Gallegos alone because Guzmán may someday be useful as a political asset to them; Carver has decided to play along in exchange for career advancement. Disillusioned, Stevens abandons his undercover status and vows to take down Gallegos and Guzmán alone. Stevens and Jason learn that Gallegos is going to kill them anyway, so they kill him first and steal a van storing over $100 million in cash. They then invite Guzmán to a shipyard and offer to return 80% of Gallegos's money if he agrees to invest the remaining 20% in their synthetic cocaine operation. Taft, who has been tailing Stevens, interrupts the deal and has his gun taken by Guzmán’s men. Since he is unable to arrest Guzmán because of his diplomatic immunity, Guzmán leaves. Taft orders Stevens to surrender but is shot by Jason after attempting to brandish his backup weapon, forcing Stevens to reveal himself as a police officer as he tries to radio in for an ambulance to help Taft. Stevens tries to reason with Jason as the latter tries to convince him to just take the money and go rogue. Jason shoots Taft in the chest, killing him. Throwing all reason out of the window and seeing no other alternative, Stevens attempts to arrest Jason. When Jason shoots at him, a tearful Stevens returns fire and kills Jason in self-defense as the cops arrive. Afterward, Carver coerces Stevens into testifying in favor of him and the DEA in return for not charging Betty with money laundering. He produces a videotape of the incriminating conversation with Guzmán at the shipyard during his testimony to the House Judiciary Subcommittee, ruining the State Department's intentions along with Guzmán and Carver's careers. Later, he contemplates what to do with the $11 million of Gallegos's money he secretly kept.

The Battle of France rages in June 1940. It has turned against both the British and French. RAF pilots evacuate a small airfield in advance of German advance forces. The pilots, along with British and French military, leave just as Luftwaffe aircraft arrive and execute a heavy strafing attack. As the deserted beaches of Dunkirk are shown, where retreating British forces were overwhelmed and driven into the sea by the Wehrmacht, the BBC reports British Prime Minister Winston Churchill 's declaration that "what General Weygand called the 'Battle of France' is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin." In neutral Switzerland, the German ambassador, Baron von Richter, proposes new peace terms to his British counterpart, Sir David Kelly, stating that with the fall of France and U.S. still determinedly isolationist continuing to fight alone is hopeless. Kelly retorts, "Don't threaten or dictate to us until you're marching up Whitehall... and even then we won't listen." Hitler delays, hoping that Britain will accept peace terms; British commanders use the delay to build up their strength, training pilots and ground controllers. The campaign to conquer Britain by air begins with the German air force launching an early morning assault on " Eagle Day ". It seeks to destroy the RAF on the ground before it has time to launch its Spitfire and Hurricane fighters. Two British radar stations at Ventnor and Dover are put out of action and a number of RAF airfields are damaged or destroyed, but losses are relatively light. A gruelling battle of attrition ensues, with airfields in Southern England under repeated attack. Tensions develop between commanding officers of RAF 11 Group, Keith Park, and 12 Group, Trafford Leigh-Mallory. Leigh-Mallory is tasked with protecting 11 Group's airfields while Park's forces are aloft engaging the enemy, but in raid after raid 12 Group aircraft are nowhere to be seen. Called to meet Dowding, Leigh-Mallory explains that the " Big Wing " tactic he has devised to assemble an air armada to attack the Germans from above takes time to form up, while Park complains that it takes too long, and the tactic is simply not working. The turning point in the Battle occurs when a squadron of German bombers lost in bad weather at night jettison their bombs, which accidentally fall on London. In retaliation to what was seen as attacks on London, the RAF attacks Berlin. An enraged Adolf Hitler publicly orders London to be razed. This takes the pressure off the RAF Fighter airfields, which had been suffering for some time before. Hermann Göring arrives in France to personally command the assault, confident that the end of the campaign nears. Their first northbound sorties skirt the RAF, which is still defending its airfields to the south, and the Germans bomb unopposed. Night attacks follow and London burns. To supplement Commonwealth forces, the RAF has begun accepting and training foreign pilots who have escaped German-occupied countries. The main difficulty is their lack of English-language skills. While on a training flight, a Free Polish Air Force squadron accidentally runs into an unescorted flight of German bombers. Ignoring commands to avoid engagement by their British training officer, they peel off and shoot down several bombers with aggressive if unorthodox tactics. Park rewards the unit by elevating it to operational status, leading Dowding to do the same for the Canadian and Czech trainees. While discussing the day's events, Park and Dowding examine the German switch to London. Given a respite, Park notes that he will be able to repair his airfields and bring his squadrons back to near full strength. Dowding observes that although enemy bombers can reach London, their fighter escort can only provide ten minutes of cover. He concludes that "turning on London could be the Germans' biggest blunder." The next German daytime raid is met by large groups of RAF fighters attacking en masse, which overwhelm the German raiders. Luftwaffe losses are so severe an incensed Göring orders German fighters remain with the bombers. Deprived of both of altitude and speed, they are easy prey for British fighters attacking from above. For the first time German losses outweigh British. The climactic air battle of 15 September 1940 arrives, with British ground control ordering every squadron into the air, leaving no reserve. Intense combat over London leaves both sides with heavy losses. The next day the RAF anxiously await a raid that never comes. Both German air and naval forces withdraw from the coast, leaving airfields abandoned and harbors empty. Göring leaves the front, accusing his commanders of betrayal. Dowding looks out over the gardens and up to the sky where the words of Winston Churchill appear onscreen: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

In 2017, aliens known as Scavengers attack Earth and destroy the Moon, triggering global natural disasters. Although humanity wins the war using nuclear weapons, Earth is left uninhabitable. Sixty years later, the remnants of humanity have relocated to a colony on Saturn 's moon Titan, except for Unit 49—technician Jack and his communications officer Victoria—who are scheduled to join them in two weeks. The pair oversee hydro rigs that convert seawater into fusion energy for the Tet, the last remaining human colony ship in orbit. Though Jack and Victoria are romantically involved and have had their memories erased for security reasons, Jack experiences recurring dreams of an unknown woman. He also secretly visits a hidden, verdant valley where he has built a lakeside cabin and collects relics of Earth's past. While investigating a missing drone—autonomous, highly advanced, and heavily armed machines—Jack is nearly captured by Scavengers. Later, he discovers the Scavengers are transmitting a signal into space. A NASA pod crash-lands at the signal's coordinates, carrying five humans in suspended animation, including the woman from Jack's dreams. A drone arrives and destroys four of the pods, but Jack rescues the remaining one and brings the unconscious woman to Unit 49's base. After reviving her, Jack and Victoria learn that the woman, Julia, has been in stasis aboard the Odyssey spaceship since 2017. Julia insists on recovering the ship's flight recorder. She and Jack are captured by Scavengers and brought to the Raven Rock Mountain Complex. Their leader, Malcolm, reveals that the Scavengers are surviving humans. Malcolm needs Jack to reprogram a captured drone to deliver a nuclear bomb, built from Odyssey's reactor, to the Tet. Jack refuses, so Malcolm releases him and Julia, urging him to seek the truth in the radiation zone, which is supposedly deadly and off-limits. Julia helps Jack recall that she is his wife, and fragments of his memories begin to return. When they arrive back at Unit 49, a devastated Victoria informs Sally, the Tet's mission controller, that she and Jack are no longer an "effective team". A drone activates and kills Victoria. Jack and Julia destroy the drone but crash their aircraft inside the radiation zone. There, they encounter another version of Jack—"Jack-52"—who arrives to repair the drone. Jack subdues him, but Julia is seriously injured in the fight. Jack impersonates his clone to infiltrate Unit 52, meets Victoria-52, and steals medical supplies for Julia. They rest at his cabin. At Raven Rock, Malcolm reveals the truth: humanity lost the war, and the Tet is an alien machine intelligence harvesting Earth's resources. After the Moon's destruction, the Tet deployed thousands of clones of astronaut Jack Harper—brainwashed into obedience—to exterminate the remaining humans. Malcolm had assumed that these clones were inhuman until witnessing Jack show interest in a discarded book, hinting at lingering humanity. Jack reprograms the captured drone, but it is destroyed in a surprise attack by other drones, leaving Malcolm badly wounded. Jack and Julia resolve to deliver the bomb; Julia enters a stasis pod. En route, Jack listens to the Odyssey's flight recorder, which reveals the original Jack Harper and Victoria were astronauts sent to explore Titan before being confronted by the Tet. The pair were captured but not before Jack ejected the remaining crew—including Julia—in stasis pods to protect them. Jack gains access to the Tet by claiming he is delivering Julia, as previously instructed. However, the stasis pod contains a dying Malcolm. Jack and Malcolm detonate the bomb, destroying the Tet and themselves. Julia later awakens at the cabin. Three years later, Julia lives there and it is revealed she had a daughter with Jack. A group of Raven Rock survivors arrives, with Jack-52, who has begun regaining fragments of his identity.

Ngoc Minh Quan, a Chinese-Vietnamese-British widower, Vietnam War veteran, and former special forces operator, runs a Chinese restaurant in London. He lost two daughters to pirates when he escaped Vietnam, and his wife died when his daughter, Fan, was born. Fan and 11 other people are killed in a terrorist bombing in Knightsbridge; an IRA splinter group dubbing itself the "Authentic IRA" claims responsibility. Quan visits Scotland Yard daily for information and offers Commander Bromley £20,000 for the names of the bombers. Though sympathetic, Bromley tells him he is hindering the investigation. Quan leaves the restaurant with his friend and partner, Lam. Later, Quan travels to Belfast to meet deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland and Sinn Féin political advisor Liam Hennessy, a former Provisional IRA leader who has renounced violence. Quan demands the names of the bombers, but Hennessy denies any knowledge, so Quan sets off a homemade bomb in Hennessy's building and leaves a fake explosive on Hennessy's car as a warning. Hennessy orders IRA weapons dumps searched for missing Semtex and tells his right-hand man, Jim Kavanagh, to get Quan out of the city. Hennessy's men track Quan, but he fights them off and escapes. Later, Quan photographs Hennessy kissing his mistress, Maggie Dunn, and threatens to blackmail him. Hennessy enlists his nephew Sean Morrison, a former Royal Irish Regiment soldier and skilled tracker, to meet with Bromley. Morrison tells Bromley that each IRA cell will change code words to identify the rogue bombers; Bromley agrees to assist on condition that the British take them out, not the IRA. Quan follows Hennessy to his farmhouse and attacks it with more bombs. As Hennessy's men search for him, Quan maims them with traps before he is wounded by Kavanagh, forcing him to flee. Hennessy's former IRA commander, Hugh McGrath, confronts him about the searches, accusing Hennessy of caring more about his position within the British government than the IRA's cause. Soon after, Quan also confronts Hennessy, threatening him and giving him 24 hours to reveal the names of the bombers. A double-decker bus is blown up in London, killing 16 more people, but no code word is given, creating distrust between Hennessy and Bromley. Bromley notifies Hennessy that they have discovered the bomber's identity and tracked McGrath to his farm. Bromley threatens to raid the farm unless Hennessy forces McGrath to reveal who and where the terrorists are. Hennessy tortures McGrath and gets the names, including his mistress Maggie, whose real name is Sara McKay. Hennessy learns that his own wife, Mary, masterminded the attacks because her brother was murdered by a UVF death squad. She hates both the British and her husband for allowing his killers to be jailed rather than executed. Hennessy kills McGrath and shares the information with Morrison. Morrison finds Quan's hideout, but Quan subdues him and gets the names of the killers and their location. After Morrison is released and returns to the farm, Hennessy reprimands him for unintentionally leaking information to Mary, with whom he is having an affair, and orders him to bury McGrath's body. Quan enters the bombers' London flat disguised as a gasman. He kills all of them except Sara, who is wounded in the scuffle. Quan escapes just before MI5 and SO15 storms the flat. They torture Sara into disclosing the location of the next bomb, which is planted in a reporter's laptop to be detonated on a plane carrying British dignitaries to a conference. Airport police locate the reporter and throw the laptop into an air bridge, which explodes without any casualties. McKay is executed to tie up loose ends. British cabinet minister Katherine Davies, who was scheduled to be on the targeted flight, calls Hennessy to tell him she knows of his involvement, but having helped prevent the attack, he can remain as deputy First Minister, albeit under her control. Meanwhile, Morrison kills Mary, effectively eliminating the terrorist cell. Quan confronts Hennessy with a picture showing him kissing Maggie. He forces Hennessy to post the photo online, publicizing his links to the terrorists. Quan returns to the restaurant and reunites with Lam. Realizing Quan's role, Bromley decides not to take further action against Quan and keeps him under surveillance for the time being.