Teenager Alex Rogan lives in a trailer park with his younger brother Louis and their mother Jane. Aside from his girlfriend Maggie Gordon, his only diversion is an arcade game called Starfighter, in which the player is "recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada" in deep-space warfare. One evening, Alex becomes the game's highest-scoring player. The moment is spoiled, however, when he learns that his application for a college scholarship has been rejected. The inventor of Starfighter, Centauri, arrives in a futuristic car with a proposition. Centauri is a disguised alien, and his car is a spacecraft. Alex is taken to the planet Rylos while Beta, a doppelgänger android, covers his absence. Alex learns of a conflict between the peaceful Rylan Star League and the oppressive Ko-Dan Empire. The latter's armada, poised to invade Rylos, is led by Xur, a would-be-tyrant who has sabotaged the Frontier-forcefield shielding Rylos and other League-worlds from the Ko-Dan. The only hope against Xur and his allies rests with a small fleet of Gunstar spacecraft, operated by "Navigators" and by "Starfighter" gunners. Centauri's Starfighter arcade game is a recruiting tool designed to train Starfighters. Alex meets a friendly reptilian Navigator named Grig, to whom he explains his reservations about being part of the coming conflict. Xur contacts Starfighter Command as Alex watches. After publicly executing a Star League spy, Xur promises the imminent fall of Rylos. Shaken, Alex asks to be taken home; there, Centauri gives him a means to contact the League should he change his mind. Back on Rylos, a saboteur disables Starfighter Command's defenses as the Ko-Dan command ship attacks with a long-range Meteor Gun. The remaining Starfighters and their Gunstars are wiped out. The saboteur warns Xur of Alex's escape. Alex's life is saved again when he discovers Beta and contacts Centauri to retrieve the droid. Centauri arrives just as Alex and Beta are attacked by a Zando-Zan, a shape-shifting assassin in Xur's service. Centauri is mortally wounded protecting Alex. He and Beta explain that more Zando-Zans are en route to Earth; the only way for Alex to protect his world is to embrace his calling as a Starfighter. Alex agrees, and Centauri flies him back to Starfighter Command just before dying from his injury. Alex and Grig take off in a custom-modified Gunstar. While Grig mentors Alex, Beta finds it difficult to maintain his impersonation, particularly with Maggie. Then a second Zando-Zan shoots Beta in front of Maggie, revealing the ruse. Maggie tags along as Beta steals a truck and chases the Zando-Zan. Before the would-be-assassin can warn Xur, Beta sacrifices his life to destroy it. Believing Alex has been slain, Xur orders the taking of Rylos. Then Alex and Grig ambush the Ko-Dan mothership. As Ko-Dan warlord Kril relieves Xur of command, Alex knocks out the mothership's communications and weapons-targeting system. Xur overpowers his captors and escapes. Outnumbered and overwhelmed by Ko-Dan fighters, Alex activates "Death Blossom": an experimental weapon, developed by Grig, which destroys the remaining fighters. His flagship's batteries still offline, Kril attempts to ram the Gunstar, which evades him. Alex disables Kril's navigation system, and the mothership crashes into a nearby moon. Alex is proclaimed the savior of Rylos. Grig and a recovered Centauri persuade him to help rebuild the Rylan Starfighter legion. Alex and Grig stop by Earth, landing their Gunstar in the trailer park. Louis is delighted to meet Grig, who speaks of Alex's heroism, while Alex bids his family farewell and invites Maggie along to Rylos. She agrees. Louis throws himself into mastering the Starfighter game so that he too can join the legion.

In an alternate history, the asteroid that would have caused the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event passes harmlessly by the Earth, resulting in many animals surviving, including Dinosaurs. Millions of years later, Apatosaurus farmers Henry and Ida have three children: Libby, Buck, and Arlo. While his siblings successfully complete hard tasks and are allowed to "make their mark" (a mud-print) on the family's corn silo, Arlo struggles due to his weaker physique and timid nature. Hoping to boost Arlo's confidence, Henry tasks Arlo with guarding the silo from thieving creatures, and watching the "critter trap" set nearby. The trap captures a feral caveboy, but Arlo cannot bring himself to kill him and sets him free. Frustrated, Henry orders Arlo to follow him into a ravine to track the caveboy down, but they turn back home when a severe thunderstorm begins. Henry saves Arlo's life from a flash flood, but is killed by debris. Without his father, Arlo shoulders more of the workload. He spots the same caveboy robbing the silo; blaming the caveboy for Henry's death, Arlo chases him into the river, and both of them are washed miles downstream. Arlo is knocked unconscious, and awakens to find himself far from home with the caveboy, who ignores Arlo's initial annoyance and tries to bring him food. Arlo warms up to the caveboy after he saves him from a vicious snake-like creature; this feat impresses Forrest Woodbush, an eccentric Styracosaurus who decides he wants the caveboy for a pet. He forces Arlo to compete with him to give the boy a name he will respond to, and Arlo wins the game when he calls the boy "Spot". Arlo and Spot bond as they follow the riverbank back towards the farm. One night, Arlo laments his lost family, and Spot reveals that his own parents are both dead. Later, when a storm strikes, Arlo suffers a panic attack and flees into the wilderness, losing track of the riverbank. The next morning, Arlo and Spot are noticed by a band of viciously carnivorous pterodactyls, who attack Arlo and attempt to eat Spot. Fleeing the pterodactyls, Arlo and Spot encounter Tyrannosaurus siblings Nash and Ramsey, who drive off the predators. Nash, Ramsey and their father Butch are in the middle of a cattle drive, but have lost their herd of Bison Latifrons longhorns. Arlo suggests they make use of Spot's tracking skills; Spot successfully locates the longhorns, but Butch senses the presence of cattle rustlers. Arlo and Spot lure the four rustler Dromaeosaurids into the open, allowing Butch and his family to attack and drive them away. Arlo saves Butch's life during the battle; after sharing stories around a campfire, the Tyrannosaurs allow Arlo and Spot to travel with them. Once Arlo spots his home mountains in the distance, he and Spot thank Butch's family and separate from them. They later notice an adult feral caveman in the distance; Spot is intrigued, but Arlo insists they continue on. As another storm approaches, the pterodactyls reappear, attack Spot, and carry him away. Arlo attempts to intervene, but is pushed off a cliff by one of the pterodactyls and gets entangled in vines. While semi-conscious, Arlo has a vision of Henry, who affirms that Arlo has become braver and encourages him to go after Spot. Arlo frees himself, runs through the storm until he catches up to the pterodactyls, and, with Spot's help, he fights them off and sends them floating down a river. Spot is also knocked into the river, just as a landslide triggers a megatsunami. Arlo leaps into the water to shield Spot, and the two are washed over a waterfall. Arlo drags himself and Spot to the shore, where they rest before continuing on. As they approach Arlo's home, the caveman returns with his wife and children. They and Spot show great interest in one another, so Arlo reluctantly encourages Spot to go with this new family instead of staying with him. The two share a heartfelt goodbye, and Arlo returns home to his overjoyed family, making his mark between those of his father and mother on the silo.

John Ottway works as a sharpshooter at a remote Alaska oil facility, protecting the staff from frequent grey wolf attacks. His wife has died from a terminal illness, leaving him devastated and depressed. On Ottway's last day of work, he considers suicide. The next day, Ottway embarks on a return flight to Anchorage with his fellow workers. A malfunction causes the plane to crash in an icy wilderness. Ottway survives, and along with John Diaz, Jerome Talget, Pete Henrick, Todd Flannery, Jackson Burke, and Dwayne Hernandez, takes shelter in the plane wreckage. While keeping watch that night, Hernandez is attacked and killed by a wolf. After finding his body in the morning, Ottway states that they may be within the territory of a wolf pack. He believes the wolves feel threatened by the survivors' presence and thinks they may have a better chance of surviving in the nearby forest. Not expecting a rescue, the group decides to leave. The survivors journey south with Ottway leading the way. Flannery falls behind the group and is killed by the wolves. At nightfall, the group is attacked again, and they light several campfires to ward off the predators. Diaz, overwhelmed with stress, threatens Ottway with a knife. Ottway disarms him before the situation escalates; however, a lone wolf charges at Diaz. The group manages to kill the animal and subsequently cooks and eats it. Ottway speculates that the wolf was an omega sent by the alpha wolf to test the group's abilities. Enraged, Diaz throws the severed head of the wolf at the pack. While the group sits around the campfire that night, Diaz discusses his beliefs and declares that he's an atheist. Talget states he has faith in God and speaks lovingly of his daughter Mary who has long hair only he is allowed to cut. Ottway also expresses atheist beliefs and recites a poem his father wrote about fighting and survival. The next day, Burke dies from hypoxia during a sudden blizzard. The survivors attempt to cross a canyon with an anchor rope on a nearby tree to lower themselves off the edge. Talget, However is afraid of heights, drops his glasses, his injured hand starts to bleed again and his foot gets caught on the rope which breaks, sending him falling to the ground, grievously injured and sees a vision of Mary telling him she loves him before he is finished off by the wolf pack. In an attempt to save him, Diaz also falls and injures his knee. Eventually, Diaz, Ottway, and Henrick arrive at a river, where Diaz, injured, dispirited, and exhausted, tells his companions he can go no further. After leaving him, Ottway and Henrick continue their trek and are again pursued by the wolf pack. Henrick falls into the river and becomes trapped underwater. Ottway, powerless to rescue him, watches as Henrick drowns. Ottway stumbles into a clearing, exhausted and suffering from hypothermia. He arranges the wallets of the dead passengers in the shape of a cross and recalls the poem written by his father. Alone in the clearing, Ottway realizes he has arrived in the wolves' den and that the entire time, the group's attempts to get away from pack's territory only led them deeper into it. As the pack's alpha emerges and approaches him, Ottway gathers his last reserves of strength (while recalling his deceased wife's last words to " be afraid"), arms himself with a knife and shards of liquor bottles taped to his hand, and recites his father's poem one last time. The screen cuts to black as the alpha and Ottway charge at one another. A post-credits scene shows Ottway and the alpha wolf lying together following their battle, their fates left unclear.

Richard, a young American backpacker seeking adventure in Bangkok, stays in a drab travellers' hotel on Khao San Road where he meets a young French couple, Françoise and Étienne, and he immediately becomes attracted to Françoise. He also meets the mentally unstable Scottish traveller Daffy, who tells him of a pristine, uninhabited island in the Gulf of Thailand with a beautiful hidden beach. Daffy explains that he settled there in secret several years earlier, but difficulties arose and he left. The next day, Richard finds out that Daffy died by suicide and left him a map to the island. Richard persuades Françoise and Étienne to accompany him to the island, and the three travel to Ko Samui. Richard meets two American surfers, Zeph and Sammie, who have heard rumors of the island, and he gives them a copy of the map. En route to the island, Richard's infatuation with Françoise grows. After swimming to the island from a neighbouring one, they find a cannabis plantation guarded by armed Thai farmers. Avoiding detection, they make their way across the island, jumping off a large waterfall and meeting Keaty, who brings them to a community of travellers living on the island in secret. Sal, the community's English leader, explains that the farmers allow them to stay so long as they keep to themselves and do not allow any more travellers to come to the island. Richard lies about not having shown the map to anyone else, and the trio becomes integrated into the community. One night, Françoise invites Richard to the beach, where she tells him she is falling in love with him, and they start an affair. Although they hoped to keep it secret, the community finds out and, while he is angry, Étienne says he will not stand in their way if Françoise is happier with Richard. Sal selects Richard to accompany her on a supply run to Ko Pha Ngan. They encounter the American surfers who are preparing to search for the island and mention Richard's map. Sal is upset but believes Richard when he says they have no copy of the map. To ensure Sal's confidentiality, Richard has sex with her at her order. On their return to the island, Richard lies to Françoise about having sex with Sal. One day, three of the community fishermen are attacked by a shark while spearfishing. One is killed and another, Christo, is severely injured. He pleads for medical attention, but Sal will allow him to leave only if he promises not to disclose the location of the beach. However, now terrified of the water, Christo refuses to be taken to the mainland for medical treatment, but Sal refuses to allow any doctors to be brought to the island to treat him. As Christo's condition worsens, the islanders simply leave him in the jungle to die, but Étienne refuses to abandon him. When the surfers turn up on the neighbouring island, Sal orders Richard to send them away and destroy their map. Later that night, an angry and hearbroken Françoise confronts Richard after Sal tells everyone she and Richard had sex, causing her to return to Étienne. Isolated from the group, Richard begins to lose his sanity, imagining he is in a video game and conversing with the deceased Daffy. He sets booby traps in the jungle and gets teasingly close to the farmers without being caught. The surfers reach the island but are discovered and killed by the farmers. Shocked at witnessing their deaths and escaping back to camp, Richard smothers Christo to put him out of his misery and gathers Françoise and Étienne to leave the island. Richard, Françoise and Étienne are captured by the farmers. The farmers are furious with the community for breaking their deal not to allow any more newcomers. The lead farmer gives Sal a gun loaded with a single bullet and orders her to make a choice: kill Richard and the group will be allowed to stay or they all must leave immediately. Sal pulls the trigger, but the chamber is empty. Shocked by Sal's willingness to commit murder, the other members of the community abandon Sal, leave the island, and go their separate ways. Sometime later in an internet café, Richard receives an email from Françoise with a nostalgic group photograph of the beach community in happier times.

An American and British research team from the firm Subzero are drilling samples atop Korvatunturi (Ear Fell) in the Finnish region of Lapland. Team leader Riley believes that the fell is an ancient burial mound built by the Sámi and plans to plunder it. Two local boys, Juuso and Pietari, spy on the team at work and learn their plans. Pietari tells Juuso that Santa Claus is real, tortures bad children, and is watching them, as the team begins to excavate the fell using explosives. Local reindeer hunters find hundreds of reindeer carcasses that they believe were killed by wolves, and head to Korvatunturi to demand reparations from the Subzero company, whom they believe are responsible for the reindeer. Instead, they find a deep pit and no trace of the Subzero personnel. On the morning of Christmas Eve, a wolf trap built by Pietari's father, Rauno, has killed a skinny, naked old man. Pietari and Rauno learn that potato sacks, heaters, and a hair dryer have gone missing from houses in the area. Pietari finds a straw effigy in Juuso's bed and no sign of Juuso. Piiparinen, a neighbor, and Rauno bring the corpse into Rauno's reindeer slaughterhouse but discover the skinny old man is still alive. Piiparinen, Rauno, and Aimo, another colleague, discuss their plans and tie the old man up, while Pietari calls around and finds that all his friends have gone missing. Piiparinen has his ear bitten off by the old man, and Pietari asks his father to spank him for his bad deeds, as he fears that sneaking up to the Fell makes him a bad boy and he will be taken by Santa. Rauno's group dresses the old man in Piiparinen's Santa costume and message Subzero that they want to sell them Santa to compensate for the loss of income from the reindeer. They take the old man to an airbase in a cage, where they meet Riley arriving by helicopter. Riley warns that the caged man is not Santa but one of his elves, and that they must be quiet and smile. Many elves appear and kill Riley and his pilot. The men and Pietari run to a hangar where they find a horned being - Santa - in an enormous block of ice being melted by the missing heaters. Next to the ice are sacks containing the stolen crying children, including Juuso. Pietari takes control and hatches a plan. Piiparinen comes out of the hangar and distracts the elves by throwing gingerbread at them to reach the helicopter. Rauno and Aimo make a net, which Pietari climbs on as the helicopter picks up the sacks of children to lure the elves to the reindeer pen. The other men place explosives all over Santa Claus' ice block and cut off his horns before leaving. Pietari jumps off the helicopter net into the reindeer pen to open the gate as the horde of elves runs toward him. Rauno and Aimo detonate the explosives, killing Santa and causing the elves to stop in the reindeer pen before they can hurt Pietari. Afterwards, the group of men and Pietari train the 198 captured elves to become mall Santas and export them to cities around the world.

In December 2022, biology teacher and former Green Beret Dan Forester fails to land a job at the United States Army Research Laboratory. While he watches the televised 2022 FIFA World Cup final, soldiers from the year 2051 arrive on the playing field through a time portal to warn that future humanity is near extinction due to alien invaders: the White Spikes. In response, the world's military forces are sent to the future, but less than 20% survive, prompting a global draft. Dan, conscripted for a seven-day tour, is fitted with an electronic vambrace that tracks him and will automatically return him to his own time following his seven days. Dan's wife, Emmy, encourages Dan to seek out his estranged engineer father, James Forester, to remove the vambrace so the family can go on the run. Dan meets with James; angry over his father having abandoned the family, he instead leaves with the vambrace intact. During orientation, one recruit, Charlie, notices the draftees are mostly older adults: Dan deduces that they were all people known to have died before 2051. Dan and the other draftees are deployed to Miami Beach, Florida in the future but are dropped at the wrong coordinates, high above the city, and most fall to their deaths. Romeo Command orders the remaining recruits to rescue staff at a nearby laboratory. The lab staff are dead, but the team recovers their research data before the area is bombed. Dan and the survivors make it to a military camp in Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, where Dan discovers that Romeo Command is headed by his now-adult daughter, Colonel Muri Forester. After a strained reunion, the two embark on a successful mission to capture a female White Spike, which are rarer than the males. Muri later reveals that Dan became disillusioned after losing the research job, which caused her parents' divorce and estrangement from his daughter, just as James did when Dan was a child. Dan also learns he died in a car crash when Muri was 16. Dan and Muri, along with the captured female, are transported to the Jumplink site on a fortified ocean oil platform. They work on a toxin that targets the female, but the arrival of an enormous White Spike swarm quickly overwhelms the base. Muri is severely injured and tells Dan to take the toxin to the past and mass produce it, believing that humanity will not survive in this timeline. Before Muri dies, the two reconcile, and Dan is successfully returned to the past with the toxin. He attempts to deliver it to the military so it can be returned to the future, but the Jumplink has been destroyed by the aliens. After Dan tells Emmy about the future, they suspect that the White Spikes may have arrived much earlier than 2048. This is supported by finding volcanic ash traces from the Changbai Mountains and the 946 AD Millennium Eruption using a claw that Dan brought back. They conclude that the aliens were already on Earth, trapped under the polar ice cap. When global warming melted the ice in the future, it released them. The military are unable to support Dan without proof, so he asks James to use his para-military connections to transport an eight-man team to Severnaya Zemlya, in northern Russia, to search for evidence. There, they find an alien spaceship that crashed into an ice sheet centuries ago. Once inside, they realize that the White Spikes are actually bio-weapons created by another alien species. The alien crew was killed in the crash, but the White Spikes have survived in suspended animation. The team inject the toxin into the dormant creatures, instantly killing them, but the remaining ones awaken. Team members Dorian and Hart sacrifice themselves by manually detonating the alien ship and eliminating the remaining males. A female escapes, but Dan and James track it down and kill it, preventing the future war from occurring. Returning home, Dan introduces a young Muri to James.

In 3028, a groundbreaking scientific project known as "The Titan Project" incurs the wrath of the Drej, a hostile race of aliens made of pure energy, who fear that it will allow humans to challenge them. Determined to wipe out humanity due to the potential of the project, the Drej initiate a massive attack on Earth, forcing the human race to evacuate the planet. During the evacuation, Professor Sam Tucker—head researcher on the Titan Project—leaves his young son Cale in the care of his Vusstran friend Tek and flees Earth in the spaceship Titan. Before he leaves, he gives Cale a gold ring, promising him that there will be hope for humanity as long as he wears it. The Drej destroy Earth, and the surviving humans flee into space. Fifteen years later, the remnants of humanity live on as refugees, but face extinction without a home planet of their own. Ex-military officer Joseph Korso, a former friend and confidant of Sam, tracks down a jaded and cynical Cale, who works in the salvage yard of space station Tau 14. Korso reveals that a holographic map leading to the location of the Titan is encoded in Cale's ring, and invites Cale to join the crew of his spaceship Valkyrie as they seek the Titan. Accepting Korso's offer, Cale escapes Tau 14 with him as the Drej pursue them. On the Valkyrie, Cale befriends pilot Akima Kunimoto, and three alien crew members: first mate Preedex "Preed" Yoa, surly weapons officer Stith, and eccentric astronomer Gune. Cale's map leads the crew of the Valkyrie to the planet Sesharrim, where an alien race called the Gaoul help them interpret the map, revealing that the Titan is hidden in the Andali Nebula. Drej fighters then attack the planet and abduct Cale and Akima in order to copy the map. Akima is rescued by the crew after being jettisoned by the Drej Queen, while Cale escapes the Drej mothership in a stolen fighter and makes his way back to the Valkyrie. The map changes to reveal that the Titan is hidden in the Ice Rings of Tigrin, a labyrinthine ice field in space. While resupplying at human space station New Bangkok, Cale and Akima discover that Korso and Preed have made a deal to sell the Titan 's location to the Drej. Cale and Akima manage to escape the Valkyrie and are left stranded on New Bangkok when Korso leaves for the Titan. Determined to beat Korso to the Titan, they fix up a dilapidated spaceship with help from the station's inhabitants. Cale and Akima navigate the ice rings of Tigrin in a race against the Valkyrie and dock with the Titan. They discover DNA of various animals onboard and a pre-recorded message left by a now-deceased Sam, explaining that the ship was designed to create planets. However, the ship's power cells were drained during the escape from Earth, and lack the energy necessary to create a planet. The Valkyrie arrives, and Preed sets off a bomb in an attempt to kill Stith and Gune. Finding Cale and Akima, Preed betrays Korso and reveals his own deal he made with the Drej, who just arrived and located the Titan. A fight ensues, and Korso kills Preed by snapping his neck. Cale and Korso fight, resulting in Korso falling over a railing. As the Drej begin their attack on the Titan, Cale realizes that he may be able to recharge the Titan by using the Drej, as they are made of pure energy, but a circuit breaker stalls before he can complete the process. As Cale attempts to repair it, Akima, Stith and Gune fight off the Drej. Korso, who survived his fall, has a change of heart and sacrifices his life to repair the circuit breaker. Cale triggers the Titan 's systems, which absorb the Drej and their mothership, killing them. The Titan creates a new world, and Cale and Akima embrace in the rain on the newly created planet as ships filled with human colonists arrive to start a new life on the planet.

In Upper Paleolithic Europe 20,000 years ago, a small tribe of hunter-gatherers prepare for a hunting expedition to hunt for the coming winter's food. Tau, its chief, trains his teenage son Keda, allowing him and Keda's friend Kappa to join the hunting party. His wife Rho worries that Keda is not ready, but Tau believes he is and the hunters set out. Tau tests Keda by having him kill a wild boar they've caught, but Keda refuses. One night, the party's fire draws the attention of a large lion, which lunges through their circle, snatching Kappa before anyone can do anything. Hearing the fatal struggle in the darkness, the tribe gives him up for dead. Kappa is given a memorial service in the form of a cairn to symbolize the passing of one's spirit to the afterlife. After that, a wolf howl is heard, and Tau tells Keda that the wolf's name is Alpha, and he is the leader of his clan. The hunters eventually reach a herd of steppe bison, which they attempt to stampede off a cliff with relative success. Amidst the chaos, a bull rushes towards Keda and tosses him over the edge, leaving him gripping the rough cliff edge with his hand. Keda’s grip breaks and he plummets to a further ledge where he appears to break his leg and is knocked unconscious. Tau attempts to climb down to him, but he is stopped by fellow hunter Sigma who assures him in good faith that Keda is dead and there would be no way to reach him anyway. The tribe leaves and Tau performs another funeral ritual, stricken with grief. Keda is awoken by a vulture who mistakes him for dead. He kills the bird and tries to climb the rest of the way down the cliff. A sudden heavy rainfall causes the ravine below to flood. Keda sees this, but is reluctant to jump off and hope the water will break his fall. He slips off the ledge anyway, and he survives the fall. Keda splints his injured foot before returning to the top of the cliff. Seeing the memorial cairn left by his tribe, he realizes he must travel back to the village by himself. Keda is later attacked and chased by a pack of ferocious wolves, but escapes up a tree and wounds one of the pack members, which the others leave behind. Keda takes pity on it and cares for its injury. Gradually gaining the wolf's trust, he gives it food and water, establishing himself as dominant by feeding himself first. He sets out for the village without the wolf, but it follows him. Their relationship grows, and they learn to hunt animals together. One night, they are approached menacingly by a pack of wolves. Upon seeing Alpha, who steps forward to greet them, they recognize Keda's companion. The pack runs off, and with Keda's blessing, Alpha joins them. Keda continues his journey alone as the season changes into winter. On a frozen lake, he encounters a pack of wolves feeding on a carcass. Recognizing Alpha, he runs to them, but the ice breaks and he falls through. Alpha helps rescue him and they are reunited. Continuing the journey together, they find a man who has frozen to death outside his tent and scavenge a bow and a single arrow from his body. Later, in the midst of a blizzard they take refuge from a pack of cave hyenas inside a cave. However, inside another lion confronts and attacks them, causing Alpha to violently fight the animal. Keda saves Alpha by using the bow and arrow he stole from the dead man, although Alpha is now badly wounded because of the fight and travels with difficulty. Meanwhile, an equally injured Keda begins to cough up blood. When Alpha finally cannot walk, Keda carries the wolf. Keda eventually finds his village although nearly passing out from exhaustion, and he reunites with his shocked but relieved parents who are amazed and proud of him. As the village healer tends to both Keda and Alpha's wounds, Alpha delivers a litter of puppies much to Keda's surprise, as Alpha is revealed to be female. Alpha and her pups are formally welcomed into the tribe and grow up in the care of Alpha and Keda. The final image of the film shows the tribe and their domesticated wolves hunting together.

In 2293, retired Starfleet officers James T. Kirk, Montgomery Scott, and Pavel Chekov attend the maiden voyage of the USS Enterprise -B. During the shakedown cruise, the starship is pressed into a rescue mission to save two El-Aurian refugee ships that a massive energy ribbon has snared. Enterprise saves some of the refugees before their ships are destroyed, but becomes trapped by the ribbon, and Kirk goes to a control room to help the ship escape. While Enterprise is freed, Kirk is presumed lost in space and dead after the trailing end of the ribbon tears open the ship's hull. In 2371, the crew of the USS Enterprise -D is in a holodeck computer simulation, celebrating the promotion of shipmate Worf to lieutenant commander. Captain Jean-Luc Picard learns his brother and nephew have been killed in a fire, and is distraught that the Picard family line will end with him. Enterprise receives a distress call from a stellar observatory, where an El-Aurian, Dr. Tolian Soran, launches a probe at the nearby star. The probe causes the star to implode, creating a shockwave that destroys its planetary system. Soran kidnaps Enterprise engineer Geordi La Forge and is transported off the station by a Klingon Bird of Prey belonging to the Duras sisters. Enterprise crewmember Guinan tells Picard that she and Soran were among the El-Aurians rescued in 2293. Soran—who lost his family when their homeworld was destroyed—is obsessed with returning to the energy ribbon to reach the "Nexus", an extra-dimensional realm of wish fulfillment outside normal space-time. Picard and Data determine that Soran, unable to safely fly a ship directly into the ribbon, is altering its path by removing the gravitational effects of nearby stars. Soran plans to destroy another star to bring the ribbon to the planet Veridian III, consequently killing millions on a nearby inhabited planet. Upon entering the Veridian system, Picard offers himself to the Duras sisters in exchange for La Forge but insists on being transported to Soran directly. La Forge is returned to Enterprise, but unwittingly exposes the ship's defense details through the transmitter installed in his VISOR device. The Duras sisters attack, and Enterprise sustains critical damage before destroying the Bird of Prey by triggering its cloaking device, and firing photon torpedoes when its shields drop. When La Forge reports that the starship is about to suffer a warp-core breach as a result of the attack, Commander William Riker evacuates everyone to the forward saucer section of the starship, which separates from the engineering section just before the breach occurs. The resulting shockwave sends the saucer-section crashing onto the surface of Veridian III. Picard fails to stop Soran from launching another probe. The Veridian star's resulting destruction alters the ribbon's course, and Picard and Soran enter the Nexus before the shockwave destroys Veridian III. Picard is surrounded by an idealized family, but realizes it is an illusion. He is met by an "echo" of Guinan left behind in the Nexus. Guinan sends him to meet James T. Kirk, who is safe in the Nexus. Though Kirk is initially entranced by the opportunity the Nexus offers to atone for past regrets, he realizes it lacks danger and excitement. Having learned that they can travel whenever and wherever desired through the Nexus, Picard convinces Kirk to return with him to Veridian III, shortly before Soran launches the probe. Working together, Kirk and Picard distract Soran long enough for Picard to lock the probe in place; it explodes on the launchpad and kills Soran. Kirk is fatally injured in the effort, and Picard buries him at the site. Three Federation starships arrive to retrieve the Enterprise survivors from Veridian III. Picard muses that, given the ship's legacy, the Enterprise -D will not be the last vessel to carry the name.

In the future, humanity is preparing to launch an attack on the homeworld of an alien race, called the Formics, that had attacked Earth and killed millions. The Formic invasion was stopped by Mazer Rackham, who crashed his fighter jet into the Formic queenship at the apparent cost of his life. Over the course of 50 years, gifted children are trained by the International Fleet to become commanders of a new fleet for a counterattack. Cadet Andrew "Ender" Wiggin draws the attention of Colonel Hyrum Graff and Major Gwen Anderson because of his aptitude in simulated space combat so is recruited into Battle School. In the school he is placed with other cadets his age, but Graff treats him as extraordinary, thereby subjecting him to ostracism. The cadets are placed in squads and perform training games in a zero-gravity "Battle Room". Ender quickly adapts to the games, devising new strategies older students had not contemplated. However, Ender is also annoyed that the leaders do not let students read their emails, as they believe it will distract them. Graff reassigns Ender to Salamander Army, led by Commander Bonzo Madrid. Bonzo, disgusted that the replacement he asked for is an untrained student, forbids Ender from training with the rest of the squad. Cadet Petra Arkanian takes him under her wing and trains him privately, much to Bonzo's chagrin. In the next match, Bonzo forbids Ender from participating in a battle between the Salamander Army and another team. However, seeing the team losing and Petra in trouble, Ender comes to her aid and helps Salamander Army win, regardless of the fact that he has disobeyed orders. Ender plays a computerized "mind game" set in a fantasy world, which presents difficult choices to the player. In one situation, Ender creates an outside-the-box solution to overcome a seemingly unsolvable problem. Later, he encounters a Formic in the game, and then simulated images involving his psychotic brother, Peter, and compassionate sister, Valentine. Anderson notes these unusual additions to the game are seemingly altered by Ender's interaction with it. Graff promotes Ender to lead his own squad, which is made up of misfit students. They are put in increasingly difficult battles. In a surprise match against two other teams, including Bonzo's Salamander Army, Ender devises a novel strategy of sacrificing part of his team to achieve a goal, impressing Graff. After the match, Bonzo attacks Ender out of rage, but Ender fights back, resulting in Bonzo hitting his head and sustaining a serious injury. Bonzo is then briefly seen in the infirmary receiving emergency surgery, leaving his ultimate fate ambiguous. Distraught, Ender quits Battle School, but Graff has Valentine convince him to continue. The group's training is rigorous, and Anderson expresses concern over this, but Graff notes they have run out of time. Graff takes Ender to humanity's forward base on a former Formic planet near their homeworld to meet with Rackham, who explains that the Formics share a hive-mind mentality and how he exploited it to win the battle. Ender finds that his former squad members are also there to help him train in computerized simulations of large fleet combat; Rackham puts special emphasis on the fleet's Molecular Detachment (MD) Device that is capable of disintegrating matter. Ender's final test is monitored by several fleet commanders. As the simulation starts, Ender finds his fleet over the Formic homeworld, vastly outnumbered. He orders most of his fleet to sacrifice themselves to protect the MD long enough to fire on the homeworld. The resulting chain reaction burns the entire planet. The simulation ends, and Ender believes the test is over. The commanders restart the video screens, showing that Ender's fleet was in a live mission, destroying the Formic homeworld. Despite Graff congratulating him, Ender becomes livid, having been tricked into killing a race that had never re-attacked Earth. While asleep, Ender is awoken by the Formic Queen and is directed to a Formic structure nearby as being similar to the ruined castle from the game. She acknowledges Ender's role in the genocide and moves to kill him, but when he shows remorse, she spares his life. The dying Queen gives Ender a Queen egg that she has been protecting. With the war ended, Ender is promoted to Admiral, given a small ship, and left to his own devices. In a letter to Valentine, he confides that he is going into deep space, determined to find a suitable planet to start a new Formic colony with the Queen egg.

Ahmed ibn Fahdlan is a court poet of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadir of Baghdad until his amorous encounter with the wife of an influential noble gets him exiled as an "ambassador" to the Volga Bulgars. Traveling with his father's old friend, Melchisidek, his caravan is saved from Tatar raiders by the appearance of Norsemen. He takes refuge at their settlement on the Volga River, and communications are established through Melchisidek and Herger, one of the Norsemen, who happens to speak Latin. From Herger, both learn that the celebration being held by the Norsemen is in fact the precursor to a funeral for their recently deceased king. Herger also introduces them to one of the king's sons, Buliwyf. Ahmed and Melchisidek witness a fight in which Buliwyf kills his brother in self-defense, which establishes Buliwyf as heir apparent. That is followed by the funeral of the dead king, who is traditionally cremated on a Viking ship, set adrift with a female slave who offers to sacrifice herself and accompany him to Valhalla, the Norse afterlife (or " heaven "). The next day, the young Prince Wulfgar enters the camp to request Buliwyf's aid; his father, King Hrothgar, has asked for assistance, as his lands in the far north are under attack from an ancient evil so frightening that even the bravest warriors dare not name it. A völva (wisewoman) identifies this as the "angel of death" and says that the mission will be successful but only if thirteen warriors face this danger, and the thirteenth must not be a Norseman. Ahmed is automatically and unwillingly recruited. Ahmed is initially treated indifferently by the Norsemen, but they mock his smaller Arabian horse. However, he earns a measure of respect with a demonstration of horsemanship, his ability to write, and by quickly learning their language as he starts mentally translating it into Arabic. Buliwyf, already himself a polyglot, asks Ahmed to teach him the Arabic script, which cements their mutual goodwill. Buliwyf sees Ahmed's analytic ways as an asset to their quest. Reaching Hrothgar's kingdom, they confirm that their foe is indeed the ancient " Wendol ", fiends who come with the mist to kill and take human heads. While the group searches through a raided cabin, they find a Venus figurine, which is said to represent the " Mother of the Wendol ". On the first night, the warriors Hyglak and Ragnar die. After a string of clashes, Buliwyf's band determines that the Wendol are human cannibals, who are clad to appear like bears, live like bears, and think of themselves as bears. The warriors' numbers dwindling, having also lost Skeld, Halga, Roneth, and Rethel, and their positions all but indefensible, they consult another völva of the village. She tells them to track the Wendol to their lair and destroy their leaders, specifically the " Mother of the Wendol ", and their warlord, who wears "the horns of power". Buliwyf and the remaining warriors infiltrate the Wendol caves and kill the Mother but not before Buliwyf is scratched deeply across the shoulder by a claw attached to her hand, dipped in poison. Ahmed and the last of the Norse warriors escape the caves but without the injured Helfdane, who opts to stay behind and fight. They return to the village to prepare for a last stand. Buliwyf staggers outside before the battle and inspires the warriors with a Viking prayer for the honored dead who will enter Valhalla. Buliwyf succeeds in killing the Wendol warlord, defeats them, and succumbs to the poison. Ahmed witnesses Buliwyf's royal funeral alongside the four surviving members of the 13 (Herger, Weath, Edgtho, and Haltaf) before returning to his homeland, grateful to the Norsemen for helping him to "become a man and a useful servant of God".