The planet Cybertron was ravaged by a civil war between two Transformer factions — the Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, and the Decepticons, led by Megatron. Both search for a lost artifact called the AllSpark, a cube-like object that is the source of all Cybertronian life, to win the war. The Autobots want to find the AllSpark to rebuild Cybertron and end the war, while the Decepticons want to use it to conquer the universe. Megatron found the AllSpark on Earth, but crash-landed in the Arctic Circle and was frozen in the ice. Captain Archibald Witwicky and his crew of explorers stumbled upon Megatron in 1897. Captain Witwicky accidentally activates Megatron's navigational system, causing his eyeglasses to be imprinted with the coordinates of the AllSpark's location. Sector 7, a secret U.S. government organization, discovers the AllSpark in the Colorado River and builds the Hoover Dam around it to mask its energy emissions. The still-frozen Megatron is transported into the facility and is reverse engineered to advance human technology. In the present day, the Decepticons — Blackout, Scorponok, Frenzy, Barricade, Starscream, Bonecrusher and Brawl — have landed on Earth and assumed the disguise of Earth vehicles and electronics. Blackout and Scorponok attack the U.S. SOCCENT military base in Qatar and try to hack into the U.S. military network to find the location of Megatron and the AllSpark, but their mission is thwarted when the base staff severs the network cable connections. While Blackout wrecks the rest of the base, Captain William Lennox, Sergeant Robert Epps, and their small group of survivors with photographic evidence of the robots escape the destruction. They are pursued by Scorponok, but he is repelled by air strikes. In the process, Lennox's team discovers that the only effective weapons against the Transformers' armor are high-heat sabot rounds. After Blackout's failure, Frenzy infiltrates Air Force One to hack into the military network and, in doing so, plants a virus. He finds the map imprinted on Archibald's glasses, which is owned by his descendant, Sam Witwicky, leading him and Barricade to begin tracking Sam's location in Los Angeles. One of the Autobots, Bumblebee, is also on Earth, disguised as a 1976 Chevy Camaro, and is bought by Sam while shopping for his first car. Bumblebee helps him woo his crush, Mikaela Banes, and leaves at night to transmit a homing beacon to the Autobots, with Sam briefly seeing his robot form. The next day, Barricade confronts Sam and demands his grandfather's glasses, but Bumblebee rescues him and Mikaela. After Bumblebee upgrades his vehicle form by scanning a 2007 Chevrolet Camaro, they rendezvous with the arriving Autobots — Optimus, Jazz, Ironhide, and Ratchet — who also take on forms of Earth vehicles. Sam, Mikaela, and the Autobots return to Sam's home and obtain the glasses. Government agents from Sector 7, led by Seymour Simmons, arrive to arrest Sam and Mikaela, and capture Bumblebee after the Autobots try to rescue them. Frenzy, disguised as a mobile phone, secretly accompanies the group to the Hoover Dam, where he alerts the other Decepticons upon locating the AllSpark and releases Megatron, while Sam convinces the Sector 7 agents to release Bumblebee so he can get the AllSpark to Optimus. The military’s communications are shut down by Frenzy's virus, but aided by a pair of hackers, Maggie Madsen and Glen Whitmann, they manage to alert the Air Force. The Autobot-human convoy goes to Mission City to obtain a radio to guide the Air Force and secure an extraction for the AllSpark as Decepticon forces attack the convoy. Bonecrusher, Jazz, Frenzy, Brawl, and Blackout are killed in the ensuing battle, and Sam manages to ram the AllSpark into Megatron's chest as he battles Optimus, killing him and destroying the AllSpark. Optimus takes a fragment of the AllSpark from Megatron's corpse, but realizes that Cybertron cannot be restored with its destruction. The U.S. government decommissions Sector 7 and sinks the deceased Decepticons into the Laurentian Abyss, while Sam and Mikaela begin a relationship, Starscream escapes into space, and Optimus sends a signal to other surviving Autobots, directing them to Earth.

In a galaxy "very, very, very, very far away", the ruthless Spaceballs, led by President Skroob, have squandered their planet's atmosphere. Desperate for oxygen, Skroob hatches a plan to steal it from the neighboring planet Druidia by obtaining the code to its air shield, destroying Druidia in the process. On Druidia, the spoiled Princess Vespa flees an arranged marriage to the narcoleptic Prince Valium, having already rejected all other suitors in her search for true love. Meanwhile, mercenary Lone Starr and his half-man, half-dog companion Barf are contacted by crime boss Pizza the Hutt, who demands repayment of a one-million space buck debt. King Roland of Druidia offers Starr the same amount to rescue Vespa and her droid servant, Dot Matrix. Aboard their Winnebago RV spaceship Eagle 5, Starr and Barf rescue the pair just before they are captured by the Spaceball ship Spaceball One, commanded by Colonel Sandurz and Skroob's enforcer, Dark Helmet, who wields the mystical power of the Schwartz. However, Eagle 5 runs out of fuel, forcing Starr to crash-land on the desert moon of Vega. The four wander through the scorching landscape, with Starr and Vespa exchanging barbed remarks and mutual attraction. They cannot act on their feelings, however, as Vespa is duty-bound to marry a prince. They collapse from the heat, but are rescued by the Dink-Dinks, a group of robed, diminutive aliens, and taken to the hidden temple of Yogurt, a wise sage who breaks the fourth wall to advertise fictitious Spaceballs tie-in merchandise. Yogurt guides Starr in using the Schwartz and a ring to channel its power. He also deciphers Starr's medallion–found with him as an abandoned baby–but withholds its meaning. Meanwhile, Helmet, having tracked Vespa's location using an instant VHS of Spaceballs, uses the Schwartz to disguise himself as Roland to lure her out of Yogurt's temple for capture. Helmet extorts the shield code from Roland by threatening to reverse the plastic surgery on Vespa's nose. Starr and Barf infiltrate the Planet Spaceball prison, rescue Vespa and Dot, and escape in Eagle 5. With the shield code in hand, Spaceball One transforms into "Mega-Maid", a giant maid robot, and begins vacuuming Druidia's atmosphere. Starr reverses the vacuum by using the Schwartz, saving the planet, then pilots Eagle 5 into Mega-Maid's head, finds the self-destruct button, and battles Helmet in a Schwartz duel using ring-projected lightsaber -like beams. Helmet steals Starr's ring and drops it down a grate, but Starr hears a telepathic message from Yogurt that the Schwartz is in him, not the ring. Starr wields the Schwartz to reflect Helmet's energy blast with a mirror, sending him flying into the self-destruct button. As Eagle 5 escapes, Skroob, Helmet, and Sandurz are left behind when all the escape pods are launched, and Mega-Maid explodes. The trio crash-land in the ship's remains on a nearby planet populated by intelligent apes, who are horrified to witness their arrival. Lone Starr and Barf discover on the news that Pizza the Hutt has eaten himself to death, absolving them from their debt. The duo return Vespa and Dot to Roland, but take only a small portion of the reward money to cover their expenses. Later, Starr and Barf discover a final message from Yogurt that reveals Starr's medallion identifies him as a prince. Upon returning to Druidia just in time to stop Vespa's wedding to Valium, Starr reveals his royal lineage and he and Vespa are joyously married.

In AD 391, Alexandria is part of the Roman Empire, and Greek philosopher Hypatia is a teacher at the Platonic school, where future leaders are educated. Hypatia is the daughter of Theon, the director of the Musaeum of Alexandria. Hypatia, her father's slave, Davus, and two of her pupils, Orestes and Synesius, are immersed in the changing political and social landscape. Orestes tries to woo Hypatia with music, but she rejects Orestes's love by showing him her menstrual rags, because she prefers to devote herself to science. Davus assists Hypatia in her classes and is interested in science. He is also secretly in love with her. Meanwhile, social unrest begins challenging the Roman rule of the city as Pagans and Christians come into conflict. When the Christians start verbally insulting the statues of the pagan gods, the pagans, including Orestes and Theon, ambush the Christians. However, in the ensuing battle, the pagans unexpectedly find themselves outnumbered by a large Christian mob. Theon is gravely injured, and Hypatia and the pagans take refuge in the Library of the Serapeum. The Christian siege of the library ends when an envoy of the Roman Emperor Theodosius I declares that the pagans are pardoned, but the Christians shall be allowed to take possession of the library. Hypatia and the pagans flee while trying to save the most important scrolls before the Christians overtake the library and destroy its contents. Davus chooses to join the Christian forces. He later returns with a gladius and sexually assaults Hypatia, but he begins to sob and offers his sword to her. However, she removes his slave collar and tells him that he is free. Several years later, Orestes, now converted to Christianity, is prefect (Roman state official serving as governor) of Egypt. Hypatia continues to investigate the motions of the Sun, the Moon, the five known "wanderers" (planets), and the stars. Some Christians ridicule the thinking that the Earth is a sphere by arguing that people far from the top would fall off the Earth. When they ask Davus what his opinion is, he avoids conflict by saying that only God knows these things. Hypatia also investigates the heliocentric model of the Solar System proposed by Aristarchus of Samos by having an object dropped from the mast of a moving ship, which demonstrates that a possible motion of the Earth would not affect the motion, relative to Earth, of a falling object on Earth. However, due to religious objections against heliocentrism, the Christians have now forbidden Hypatia to teach at the school. The Christians and the Jews come into violent conflict. The leader of the Christians, Cyril, views Hypatia as having too much influence over Orestes and stages a public ceremony intended to force Orestes to subjugate her. Hypatia's former pupil, Synesius, now the Bishop of Cyrene, comes to her rescue as a religious authority counterweight but says he cannot help her unless she accepts Christianity; she refuses. Hypatia theorizes that the Earth orbits around the Sun in an elliptical orbit, not a circular orbit, with the Sun at one of the foci. Cyril convinces a mob of Christians that Hypatia is a witch, and they vow to kill her. Davus tries to warn Hypatia, but she is captured. They strip Hypatia and are about to skin her alive until Davus persuades the mob otherwise, and they decide to stone her instead. When the mob goes outside to collect stones, Davus suffocates her to spare her the pain of being stoned and tells the mob that she fainted. Davus leaves as they begin to stone her.

In 1939, Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer leaves behind his pregnant wife to join Peter Aufschnaiter in a team attempting to summit Nanga Parbat in India (now part of Pakistan). When World War II begins in 1939, they are arrested by the British authorities for being enemy aliens, and are imprisoned in a prisoner-of-war camp in Dehradun in the Himalayan foothills, in the present-day Indian state of Uttarakhand. Harrer's wife, Ingrid, who has given birth to a son he has not seen, sends him divorce papers from Austria, by then annexed by Nazi Germany. In 1944, Harrer and Aufschnaiter escape the prison and cross into Tibet. After being initially rejected by the isolated nation, they manage to travel in disguise to the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa. They become the house guests of Tibetan diplomat Kungo Tsarong. The Tibetan senior official Ngawang Jigme also extends friendship to the two foreigners with gifts of custom-made Western suits. Aufschnaiter falls in love with the tailor, Pema Lhaki, and marries her. Harrer opts to remain single, both to focus on his new job of surveying the land and to avoid experiencing another failed relationship; much to the disappointment and dismay of his friends. In 1945, Harrer plans to return to Austria upon hearing of the war's end; but his son Rolf sends him a cold letter in which he says that he is not his father. This stops him from leaving Tibet. Soon afterwards, Harrer is invited to the Potala Palace and becomes the 14th Dalai Lama 's tutor in world geography, science, and Western culture. They end up becoming friends. Meanwhile, political relations with the new Communist government of China sour as they make plans to take control of Tibet in replacement of the former central government, now defeated and retreated to Taiwan. Ngawang Jigme leads the Tibetan army at the border town of Chamdo to halt the advancing People's Liberation Army. However, he ends up surrendering and blows up the Tibetan ammunition dump after the one-sided Battle of Chamdo. During the treaty signing, Kungo Tsarong tells Harrer that if Jigme had not destroyed the weapons supply, the Tibetan guerrillas could have held the mountain passes for months or even years; long enough to appeal to other nations for help. He also states that, for Tibetans, capitulation is like a death sentence. As the Chinese occupy Tibet, Harrer condemns Jigme for betraying his country, declaring their friendship over. Out of disgust and contempt, he further humiliates the senior official by returning the jacket that Jigme gave him as a present, a grave insult in Tibetan culture; as well as by throwing him onto the ground before storming off. Harrer tries to convince the Dalai Lama to flee, but he refuses; not wanting to abandon his people in spite of the danger. However, he encourages Harrer to return to Austria and be a father to his son. After the enthronement ceremony, in which the Dalai Lama is formally enthroned as the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, Harrer bids his friends farewell and returns to Austria in 1951. Harrer's wife and her new husband almost do not recognize him for how different he is. Harrer's son, Rolf, bitterly refuses to meet him at first; but Harrer leaves a music box that the Dalai Lama gave him, and this piques the boy's interest. Years later, Harrer and Rolf (now a teenager) are seen mountain-climbing together, suggesting they have mended their relationship.

Free City is an online game developed by Soonami Studios. Its " players "—people in real life —wear sunglasses and spend their time fighting each other and causing mayhem. The non-player characters (NPCs) accept the chaos while living out their scripted lives, unaware that the world they live in is a video game. These NPCs include Guy, who works as a clerk in Free City's bank with his best friend, security guard Buddy. Unemployed software developer Millie Rusk plays Free City to find proof that Soonami stole the source code from the concept game she developed, Life Itself, which included novel artificial intelligence (AI) techniques for its NPCs. Her friend and co-developer Walter "Keys" McKey is reluctant to help, as he now works in technical support at Soonami. Millie's avatar "MolotovGirl" catches Guy's attention by singing his favorite song, " Fantasy ". Guy then begins to deviate from his programming, accidentally shooting a player robbing the bank, and leaving with the player's sunglasses. Believing Guy to be a hacker disguised as an NPC, Keys and his coworker Mouser unsuccessfully try to ban him from the game. Accessing the players' view of the game, Guy visits new areas and meets Millie at vlogger Revenjamin Buttons' stash house, where they attempt to steal evidence leading to her source code. Believing Guy to be a novice player, she advises him to level up. Guy rapidly progresses through the game by completing missions benevolently, standing out from other players and becoming a worldwide sensation known as "Blue Shirt Guy". As Keys realizes that Guy truly is an NPC, other NPCs that Guy interacts with also begin to develop self-awareness. However, Free City 2 is due to release in 48 hours and will replace Free City, terminating all of its NPCs. Millie tells Guy the truth about his existence, but he becomes distraught and breaks off contact. Guy eventually realizes that there is something more to an NPC's existence, and goes with Buddy to get the evidence Millie wanted from Buttons, who accidentally glitched through the edge of Free City ' s map and discovered an older build of Life Itself, recording a video clip in the process. Guy's popularity threatens the plans of Soonami's CEO Antwan Hovachelik to launch Free City 2, so he orders a server reboot which resets Guy's memories. Guy regains his self-awareness when Millie kisses him. Guy recalls the location of an island containing remnants of the Life Itself build and they attempt to reach it before the Free City 2 launch wipes all old content from the servers, rallying the NPCs to go on strike from the game to hinder Antwan. Antwan fires Keys, has every player removed from Free City, and sends an unfinished but extremely powerful Guy-resembling character named Dude into the game to stop Guy. Initially overwhelmed, Guy then puts his sunglasses on Dude, distracting him, and proceeds to the island. Furious, Antwan begins smashing the game's network server racks with an axe in a last-ditch attempt to stop Guy, erasing Buddy and much of the game world, while firing Mouser after he soon realized that he did steal Millie's code. Before he can destroy the final server, Guy manages to reach the island and Millie offers a deal to drop the copyright infringement lawsuit and surrender the Free City franchise's profits to him in exchange for her creation. Antwan agrees to her terms, believing she made a bad deal. Sometime later, sales for Free City 2 slip because of bugs in the code and lagging online play. An embattled Antwan is in the crosshairs, but claims he is a victim of circumstance. Millie salvages her code and along with Keys and Mouser, releases the indie game Free Life, which includes Guy, Dude, and the other NPCs from Free City. Guy reveals to Millie that his code is actually a love letter to her from Keys: during the development of Life Itself, Keys had encoded what he knew about her tastes into an AI routine in the game, which was eventually incorporated into Free City, explaining why Guy felt drawn to MolotovGirl. After Millie leaves the game, she and Keys kiss. Meanwhile, Guy and Dude reunite with Buddy, whose AI algorithm was reconstructed.

In 1988, amidst war between the United States and an alliance of China and the USSR, Manhattan has been converted into a maximum security prison to address a 400% increase in crime. In 1997, while flying President John Harker to a peace summit in Hartford, Air Force One is hijacked by a terrorist group. The President is handcuffed with a briefcase and put into an escape pod that drops into Manhattan as the aircraft crashes. Police, led by Commissioner Bob Hauk, are dispatched to rescue the President. Romero, a subordinate of the Duke of New York, warns Hauk that the President has been captured and will be killed if further rescue attempts are made. Meanwhile, decorated war hero and former Special Forces soldier Snake Plissken is about to be imprisoned in Manhattan after being convicted of robbing a Federal Reserve Depository. Snake accepts a deal from Hauk in which he will be pardoned in exchange for rescuing the President in time for the summit. To ensure his cooperation, Hauk has Snake injected with micro-explosives that will sever his carotid arteries in 23 hours. If Snake is successful, Hauk will neutralize the explosives. Snake uses a stealth glider to land atop the World Trade Center, then follows the President's tracking device to a vaudeville theater, only to find the tracker on the arm of a vagrant. Inspecting the escape pod, Snake is ambushed by starving underground raiders, and his radio is destroyed. He is rescued by "Cabbie," a fan of Snake's who drives a taxi. Cabbie takes Snake to Harold "Brain" Hellman, an adviser to the Duke and a former associate of Snake. An engineer, Brain has established a gasoline refinery fueling the city's remaining cars; he tells Snake that the Duke plans to lead a mass escape across the 69th Street Bridge, using the President as a human shield. Snake forces Brain and his girlfriend Maggie to lead him to the Duke's hideout at Grand Central Terminal. Snake finds the President but gets shot in the leg with a crossbow bolt and is overpowered by the Duke's men. While Snake is forced to fight Duke's champion, Slag, in a match to the death, Brain and Maggie kill Romero and flee with the President. Snake kills Slag and finds the trio trying to escape in the glider. Inmates drop the glider off the roof, forcing the group to street level, where the Duke and his followers confront them. Cabbie arrives and offers to take them across the bridge. He reveals that he bartered with Romero for a cassette tape that contains information about nuclear fusion, intended to be an international peace offering. The President demands the cassette, but Snake refuses to hand it over. The Duke gives chase, setting off mines as he tries to catch up. Brain guides Snake, but they hit a mine, and Cabbie is killed. As they continue on foot, Brain accidentally stumbles onto another mine. A distraught Maggie sacrifices herself to slow the Duke. Snake and the President reach the containment wall, and guards hoist the President up. The Duke opens fire, killing the guards before Snake subdues him. As the rope is lifting Snake, the Duke attempts to shoot him, but the President takes up a dead guard's rifle and kills the Duke. Snake is hoisted to safety, and Hauk's doctor neutralizes the explosives in his neck. As the President prepares for a televised speech to the leaders at the summit meeting, he off-handedly thanks Snake for saving him and offers only half-hearted regret for the deaths of Cabbie, Brain and Maggie; Snake walks away in disgust. Hauk offers Snake a job as his deputy, but he keeps walking. The President's speech commences, and he plays the cassette. To his embarrassment, it only plays Cabbie's favorite song, " Bandstand Boogie ". As Snake walks away free, he pulls the real cassette from his pocket and destroys it.

In May 1996, several commercial expeditions at the base camp of Mount Everest prepare to climb to the summit. Rob Hall, who popularized commercial Everest missions, leads Adventure Consultants; Scott Fischer is the chief guide for its rival, Mountain Madness. Rob's clients include Beck Weathers, an experienced climber; Doug Hansen, a former mailman pursuing his dream; climbing veteran Yasuko Namba, who hopes to complete her final Seven Summits ascent; and Outside magazine journalist Jon Krakauer. Helen Wilton manages Rob's base camp. A month earlier in New Zealand, Rob says goodbye to his pregnant wife Jan, promising he will be home for the birth. At the base camp, Rob receives a fax from her, informing him that their unborn baby is a girl. He wants to name her Sarah, but she disagrees. Worried about climbers overcrowding, Rob persuades Scott to cooperate to reduce delays. On the summit attempt, Rob's group departs from Camp IV before dawn, planning to complete the ascent and begin descending by 2:00 PM., the latest safe time to ensure return before nightfall. The group is delayed by over an hour after discovering that guide ropes are not installed on the upper reaches of the climb. Beck has eyesight problems and stops. Rob tells him to return to base camp if his condition does not improve in a half-hour. Scott hurries down to camp to help another climber but plans to re-ascend, and Rob warns him about overexertion. Rob reaches the summit on time and is joined by other climbers including Yasuko, who jubilantly plants her Japanese flag. Descending, Rob encounters Doug struggling to ascend just above the Hillary Step and orders him to descend. Doug insists on continuing, saying that he will not get the chance again. Rob reluctantly agrees and they reach the summit two hours later, well past the safe return time. Doug is exhausted and suffering from altitude sickness. With them is Scott, exhausted and ill from high-altitude pulmonary edema. As Rob helps Doug descend, a blizzard strikes while Doug's oxygen tank is empty, causing him to suffer hypoxia. No extra bottles are stored on the route as Rob asked and he radios Helen to send more oxygen. Doug, left briefly by Rob, semi-consciously detaches himself from the guide rope and walks unsteadily along the narrow path, then silently topples to his death. Scott's condition worsens. He tells his fellow climbers to continue descending without him. He lies down and later dies. Descending climbers reach Beck, whose vision remains impaired, but they all become lost as the blizzard obliterates the trail. Three climbers go for help, leaving Beck and Yasuko. Guide Andy 'Harold' Harris reaches Rob with spare oxygen, but the cylinder aperture is frozen shut. They huddle together in the storm. While Rob sleeps, Andy begins to have hallucinations. He then strips off his outer clothing and slides to his death. In the morning, Rob radios Helen that Doug and Andy are gone and that his extremities are frozen. Helen calls Jan, hoping that Rob will respond to her voice. Jan tells him that he must start moving. Rob tells her that he is cold but otherwise comfortable, and asks her to name their baby Sarah, dying soon afterward. Returning climbers tell the camp that Beck and Yasuko are stranded. The weather, however, makes a rescue impossible. Helen calls Beck's wife Peach, informing her of the situation. In the morning, Beck miraculously awakens, sees that Yasuko is dead, and stumbles down to camp alone, severely frostbitten and in need of medical help. Peach calls the American Embassy and organizes a helicopter rescue. Nepal Army pilot Lt. Col. Madan Khatri Chhetri flies a high-altitude mission to take Beck to the hospital. Meanwhile, one of Scott's guides, Anatoli Boukreev, finds his body and moves it off the trail. Returning home, Helen has an emotional reunion with Jan, who later gives birth and names her daughter Sarah. Beck returns to his family, heavily bandaged. Closing titles reveal that he eventually lost both hands and nose to frostbite and that Rob's body (as well as those of the other climbers who died) remains on Everest.

On the blighted planet Thra 1,000 years earlier, a powerful crystal cracked and two new races appeared: the cruel Skeksis, who use the crystal's power to extend their lives, and gentle Mystics, the urRu, who dwell in a secluded valley. Among the Mystics is Jen, a young Gelfling adopted after the Skeksis slaughtered his clan. As the Great Conjunction of the world's three suns draws near, the dying Mystic Master instructs Jen to fulfill a prophecy to heal the crystal by first retrieving a missing shard from the oracle Aughra. If Jen fails to complete his quest before the three suns meet, the Skeksis will rule forever. The Master then dies, and the Skeksis Emperor dies simultaneously. The Skeksis General successfully challenges the Chamberlain for succession in a "trial by stone" and banishes him from the castle. When the Skeksis learn of Jen's existence, they send their army of giant crab -like Garthim to capture him, with the cunning Chamberlain following. Jen meets Aughra and enters her orrery. Offered several shards, he chooses one that responds when he plays the Mystics' chord on his flute. Before Aughra can explain Jen's mission, the Garthim arrive and destroy the orrery, taking Aughra prisoner as Jen flees. Hearing the crystal's call, the Mystics leave their valley and journey to the castle. On his journey through a forest swamp, Jen meets Kira, a female Gelfling. The two learn more about each other when they accidentally "dreamfast", sharing each other's memories. They stay for a night with the Podlings who raised Kira, only for them and Kira's pet Fizzgig to flee when the Garthim raid the village. They are nearly caught, but the Chamberlain orders the Garthim back. Jen and Kira discover a ruined Gelfling city where a prophecy is inscribed: "When single shines the triple sun, What was sundered and undone Shall be whole, the two made one By Gelfling hand or else by none." Jen realizes that he must take the shard to the castle. The Chamberlain approaches and begs them to come to the castle with him. The Gelflings flee and reach the castle on Landstriders, intercepting the Garthim that raided Kira's village. They attack to free the Podlings but are cornered. Kira grabs Jen and Fizzgig and reveals wings, an attribute possessed only by female Gelfling, that she uses to glide into the castle's dry moat. They enter the castle through the catacombs while, above, the Skeksis Scientist uses the crystal's rays to extract vital essence from Podlings. The Emperor drinks the essence and finds that it has only temporary restorative effects, unlike Gelfling essence which was more potent. The Chamberlain tries again to seize the Gelflings, and Jen stabs his hand with the shard; elsewhere the Mystic Chanter notices a wound on his hand. Enraged, the Chamberlain buries Jen in a cave-in and takes Kira as a gift to the Emperor. The Emperor reinstates him and orders Kira drained of essence. Aughra, imprisoned in the laboratory, tells Kira to call the captive animals for help. They break free and attack the Scientist, who deflects the draining prism before falling into the fiery crystal shaft; on a rocky plain, the Mystic Alchemist vanishes in flames. Aughra frees herself while Jen, awakened by Kira's call, climbs up the shaft to the laboratory. The Gelflings make their way to a hall overlooking the crystal chamber, where the Skeksis gather for the conjunction ceremony. When the Skeksis spot them and order the Garthim to attack, Jen leaps onto the crystal but drops the shard. Kira glides down to the chamber, grabs the shard and throws it to Jen before the High Priest stabs her fatally. As the suns align Jen plunges the shard into the crystal, producing a force that throws him aside. The Garthim disintegrate and the drained Podlings regain their vitality while the dark stone covering the castle crumbles to reveal a crystalline structure. The Mystics arrive and use the crystal's light to draw the Skeksis to themselves, merging into angelic urSkeks. The urSkek leader tells Jen that they sundered themselves and damaged the crystal a thousand years ago, upsetting the world's balance. They revive Kira in gratitude and ascend toward the suns, leaving the crystal to light the rejuvenated world.

Thor and Loki habitually visit Midgard (Earth), and one evening they take refuge for the night at a lonesome farmhouse, inhabited by a couple of ordinary Norse peasants and their two children, a boy named Tjalvi and his younger sister Röskva. Thor generously offers one of his goats which is dragging his chariot, as a feast dinner for all of them, but strongly warns any of the members of the household from breaking the bones. Loki, always treacherous, persuades the boy Tjalvi into doing exactly that, for the sake of the delicious marrow inside. The next morning, Thor revives his goat, but is infuriated when he discovers that the animal has become lame. Loki suggests that they take the boy Tjalvi with them to Asgard as a servant as compensation. The gods and their new servant leave the farm and go back to Asgard via the Bifröst bridge. Once they arrive, they soon discover that Røskva has stowed away in the chariot, and so she is allowed to follow the company and her brother to Thor's home Bilskirnir. The glamor of the gods soon vanishes, as Thor is frequently away from home on new adventures, leaving Tjalvi and Røskva with the same menial tasks they did at home. One day Loki shows up with a small nonverbal jötunn or "giant" boy named Quark, who almost immediately causes havoc in the thunder god's home. At first Loki claims that Quark 'followed him' home, but finally professes he 'won' Quark when he lost a bet with Utgard-Loki and now has to keep the boy until he behaves properly. Thor and Sif are driven crazy by Quark's antics and leaves. Soon, the children and Quark find they have something in common and befriend each other, while Loki just makes himself comfortably in 'his' new home. He acts as a lazy and cruel master of the house and the children and Quark finally run away to look up the mighty chief of the gods Odin, who lives in nearby Valhalla and who they suppose will help them against the unfair behaviour of Loki. Through Odin impassively listens to Røskva, the children are thrown out when Quark bothers the head of Mimir. The children run out into the forest and build their own treehouse, setting up their own life. Almost everything is pure idyll, until Tjavli is visited by the ravens of Odin, Hugin and Munin (who have appeared as the narrators of the story). They lead Tjalvi to a sacred well where they present him with visions of the future: there he sees Thor trying to hold up Jörmungandr, the sea drying up and Thor hastily aging and dying. Suddenly, Thor shows up and brings the children back to Bilskirnir by force where he demands that Loki returns the boy to Utgard. Since Loki is unwilling and unable to bring Quark, Thor forces him to accompany him to Utgard, along with Røskva and Tjalvi. The group travel Utgard, where the jötunn-king Utgard-Loki offers to take Quark back if they can overcome a series of challenges. First, Loki is set to win an eating competition against a jötunn named Loge. At first Loki seems to be victorious but he loses when Loge eats the entire trough. Thor is then challenged to drink from a giant drinking horn, but the horn does not seem to empty no matter how much he drinks. Thor demands another challenge and the jötunns asks to lift Utgard-Loki's cat instead. Despite the seemingly-small size of the cat, Thor is only able to lift a single one of the cat's paws off the floor; to regain his honor and save face, Thor demands a trial by combat. Utgard-Loki then calls for his ancient mother, Elle, whose feeble and aged appearance nonetheless frightens the other jötunns. Thor tries to wrestle her down but is unable to; instead he starts to age rapidly and the old hag wrestles him down to the floor instead. While Thor wrestles the old woman, Hugin and Munin show Tjalvi, Röskva and Quark the visions again in a mirror: they see Loge moving strangely like fire, Thor trying to lift the Midgard Serpent, and Thor aging and dying. The children realize that the jötunns are using magic to cheat: the drinking-horn is secretly connected to the sea, Loge is actually an insatiable fire-spirit, Utgard-Loki's cat is in fact the Midgard Serpent, and the old woman is old age itself! Tjalvi tries to stop the wrestling match, but Thor appears to die of old age before Tjalvi can reach him. Tjalvi weeps over Thor's body, and his tears restore Thor to life and youth. Tjalvi and Röskva call out the jötunns' tricks. Thor is angry that the jötunns' have cheated, but Loki reassures Thor not to worry: he has a plan. The next morning, the two gods and the three children leave Utgard together. Utgard-Loki laughs at them from the palisade for losing the bet, but what had appeared to be Quark suddenly turns into a chicken: Loki has used his illusions to trick everyone into thinking the chicken was Quark, who is still inside the walls of Utgard and now has to remain there with the other jötunns. This saddens both Quark and Röskva, who wave sorrowfully to each other as Thor and Loki leave Utgard behind. Back home at Bilskirnir, Thor gives Tjalvi a sword as a sign that he now sees Tjalvi as a man. Röskva, still seen as a child and feeling very alone and unwanted, walks sadly away into the forest, and returns to the treehouse which she and Tjalvi and Quark built together. Suddenly, to her great surprise and delight, Quark appears from inside the treehouse, having run away from Urgard. The two friends are happily reunited, with much embracing.

Wealthy Texan Big Enos Burdette and his son, Little Enos, frequently bet notable truckers in Atlanta to bootleg 400 cases of Coors beer from Texarkana, Texas, to Atlanta in 28 hours, but all have failed with many being arrested. They find local legend Bo "Bandit" Darville at a truck rodeo at Lakewood Fairgrounds and offer him $80,000 (equivalent to $322,260 in 2024) to take the bet. The Bandit accepts and recruits his friend Cledus "Snowman" Snow and Fred, Cledus' Basset Hound, to drive the truck, while Bandit drives a black 1977 Pontiac Trans Am (Trigger) as a "blocker" to divert attention away from the truck and its illegal cargo. The pair arrives in Texarkana an hour early and load the truck, but as they begin their return journey, Bandit is intercepted by Carrie, a runaway bride who suddenly jumps into his car. Unbeknownst to him, this makes Bandit an indirect target of Sheriff Buford T. Justice, a seasoned Texas lawman whose dimwitted son, Junior, was supposed to marry Carrie. The Justice father and son engage in a high-speed hot pursuit, doggedly chasing Bandit all the way to Georgia to retrieve Carrie and arrest the Bandit. Successive comical mishaps cause the Justice's cruiser to experience increasing damage along the way. Bandit attracts more police attention across Dixie as Cledus barrels toward Atlanta with the contraband beer. They are helped en route by many colorful characters via CB radio. Neither Buford nor any other lawmen know of Cledus's illegal manifest, while Bandit is likewise unaware that Buford is chasing him because of Carrie, whose jumpiness inspires Bandit to give her the CB handle "Frog". Just after re-entering Georgia, Cledus is rescued by Bandit after being stopped by a Georgia State Patrol motorcycle trooper, as state and local police intensely pursue Bandit with roadblocks and a helicopter to track his movement. With 4 mi (6.4 km) remaining, Bandit, discouraged by the unexpected mounting attention, is ready to relent, but Cledus, who initially thought they would fail, takes the lead and smashes through the roadblock at the fairgrounds' main entrance. They reach their destination with ten minutes to spare. However, instead of taking the winnings, Carrie and Bandit accept a double-or-nothing offer from Little Enos: a challenge to run up to Boston and bring back clam chowder in 18 hours. They quickly escape in Big Enos's 1974 Cadillac Eldorado convertible as police flood the racetrack. Buford arrives at the fairgrounds, his cruiser now a barely functioning wreck. When Bandit passes him, he uses his CB to contact Buford, and the pair briefly exchange some mutual respect before Buford demands to know Bandit's whereabouts. Bandit initially directs him to the Burdettes, but he then respectfully gives his real location right behind Buford, who continues his chase, leaving Junior behind, and with more parts falling off his cruiser as he limps off after Bandit.

In 1967, Austin Powers is a flamboyant British spy, renowned for his charm, style, and embodiment of the era's free-spirited hedonism. Unable to defeat Austin, his nemesis Dr. Evil cryogenically freezes himself, intending to return when free love has waned, and greed and corruption dominate society once more. Austin volunteers to be frozen as well, so he can confront Dr. Evil when he returns. In 1997, Dr. Evil is revived and discovers that many of the evil schemes he planned, like damaging the ozone layer and fabricating a sexual scandal involving Prince Charles, have already occurred without his involvement. Meanwhile, his lieutenant Number Two has transformed Virtucon, the legitimate front of Dr. Evil's criminal empire, into a multibillion-dollar corporation. Uninterested in business, Dr. Evil threatens to hold the world ransom with nuclear weapons until he is paid $100 billion. He meets his teenage son, Scott, conceived with Dr. Evil's preserved sperm; Scott rejects Dr. Evil's attempts to form a relationship out of anger at his absence. The British Ministry of Defence revives Austin and assigns agent Vanessa Kensington —daughter of his former spy partner Mrs. Kensington —to help him adjust to the 1990s. Unlike her mother, who shared an unspoken love with Austin, the no-nonsense Vanessa is unimpressed by Austin's outdated attitude toward casual sex and relationships. However, she is won over by his charm and the two soon develop a romantic connection. Undercover as a married couple, Austin and Vanessa travel to Las Vegas and encounter Number Two and his secretary, Alotta Fagina. Austin infiltrates Alotta's penthouse and discovers Project Vulcan, Dr. Evil's plan to detonate a nuclear warhead in the Earth's core, which will trigger volcanic eruptions around the world. After learning that Austin had sex with Alotta, Vanessa is upset, and warns him that he will end up alone if he does not adapt to modern values. As Austin catches up on the historic events he has missed, he contemplates his isolation, his friends who have died or outgrown him, and society's disdain for his archaic behavior. Austin and Vanessa infiltrate Dr. Evil's lair at Virtucon headquarters, but are captured by his henchman, Random Task. Despite the United Nations agreeing to pay Dr. Evil, he continues with his plan. Austin and Vanessa escape, then Vanessa summons reinforcements. Austin encounters Dr. Evil's fembots—irresistibly beautiful female androids with machine guns concealed in their breasts—and destroys them by overloading their systems with a striptease. British forces storm the lair as Austin disables Project Vulcan. He confronts Dr. Evil, who mocks Austin's outdated ideals. Austin retorts that the core value of the 1960s was freedom—a principle that remains timeless. Activating the lair's self-destruct mechanism, Dr. Evil escapes in a rocket, and Austin and Vanessa evacuate before the lair explodes. Three months later, Austin and Vanessa are married. During their honeymoon, Random Task attacks, but they subdue him. In a cryogenic chamber aboard his rocket, Dr. Evil vows revenge.

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.