MI6 sends James Bond into the field to scout a terrorist arms bazaar on the Russian border. Despite M 's insistence on letting 007 finish his mission, Royal Navy Rear Admiral Roebuck orders the frigate HMS Chester to fire a Harpoon missile at the bazaar. Bond discovers two nuclear torpedoes mounted on an L-39 Albatros trainer jet; with the missile out of range to be aborted, Bond is forced to pilot the L-39 away seconds before the bazaar is destroyed, dogfighting with another L-39 before being able to return to base. Media baron Elliot Carver starts his plans to use an encoder obtained at the bazaar by his associate, cyberterrorist Henry Gupta, to provoke war between China and the UK. Meaconing the GPS signal using the encoder, Gupta sends the frigate HMS Devonshire off course into Chinese-occupied waters in the South China Sea, where Carver's stealth ship, commanded by Carver's chief enforcer Stamper, ambushes and sinks it with a "sea drill" torpedo. Carver's henchmen steal one of Devonshire 's missiles and shoot down a Chinese MiG fighter jet investigating the scene. Stamper kills the Devonshire 's survivors with weaponry loaded with Chinese ammunition. The British Minister of Defence orders Roebuck to deploy the fleet to investigate the sinking of the frigate, and demands retaliation, leaving M only 48 hours to investigate its sinking and avert a war. M sends Bond to investigate Carver and his company, CMGN, after Carver released news articles about the crisis hours before MI6 had become aware of it. Bond travels to Hamburg to seduce Carver's wife, Paris (an ex-girlfriend of Bond's), to get information that would help him enter CMGN headquarters. He defeats Stamper's men and cuts Carver off the air during the inaugural broadcast of his satellite network. Carver discovers the truth about Paris and Bond and orders both of them killed. Bond and Paris reconcile in Bond's hotel room, and she provides him with information to infiltrate Carver's newspaper facility. Bond steals the GPS encoder from Gupta's office at the facility. Meanwhile, Paris is killed by Carver's assassin and Stamper's mentor, Dr. Kaufman. After Bond returns to find Paris' body, Kaufman holds him at gunpoint. Bond is able to kill Kaufman and escape his henchmen through a multistory car park in his Q-branch vehicle, a BMW 750iL with remote control via his Ericsson cell phone. At a U.S. Air Force base in Okinawa, Bond teams with his CIA contact Jack Wade and meets GPS technician Dr. Dave Greenwalt. Bond understands that the encoder had been tampered with, and goes to the South China Sea to investigate the wreck. He and Wai Lin, a Chinese Ministry of State Security agent on the same case, explore the sunken ship and discover one of its cruise missiles missing, but after reaching the surface they are captured by Stamper and taken to the CMGN tower in Saigon. They soon escape and contact the Royal Navy and the People's Liberation Army Air Force to explain Carver's scheme. Carver plans to destroy most of the Chinese government with the stolen missile, allowing a corrupt Chinese general named Chang to assume power and negotiate a truce between Britain and China, both of which will have begun a naval war. Once the conflict is over, Carver will be given exclusive broadcasting rights in China for the next century, which would then allow his broadcasting network to be completely global. Bond and Wai Lin board Carver's stealth ship to prevent him from firing the missile at Beijing. Wai Lin is captured, forcing Bond to devise a second plan. Bond captures Gupta to use as his own hostage, but Carver kills Gupta, claiming he has "outlived his contract". Bond detonates a grenade in the hull, damaging the ship, thus rendering it visible to radar and vulnerable to a subsequent Royal Navy attack. While Wai Lin disables the engines, she is recaptured by Stamper. Bond kills Carver with his own drilling machine and attempts to destroy the warhead with detonators, but Stamper attacks him, sending a chained Wai Lin into the water. Bond traps Stamper in the missile firing mechanism and saves Wai Lin as the missile explodes, destroying the ship and killing Stamper. Bond and Wai Lin kiss amidst the wreckage as HMS Bedford searches for them.

The film recounts the exploits of notorious 18th-century criminal Jack Sheppard and London "Thief-Taker General" Jonathan Wild. The ending of the film is ambiguous, and suggests that Sheppard may have survived his execution and escaped to the Americas.

When an unspecified global catastrophe looms, an underground city known as Ember is constructed to shelter a large group of survivors. In addition, a small metal box intended for a future generation of Emberites is timed to open after 200 years. This box is entrusted to first Mayor of the City of Ember, and each Mayor passes it on to their successor. When the seventh Mayor dies suddenly, the box is placed in a closet and forgotten about. The box opens by itself at the allotted time but goes unnoticed. Several decades later, Ember's generator begins to fail, and food, medicine, and other necessities are in dangerously short supply. At a rite of passage event for all graduating students of Ember City School, Mayor Cole stands before the students as their adult occupations are assigned by lottery. Doon Harrow, the son of inventor and repairman Loris Harrow, is assigned "Messenger" while his classmate Lina Mayfleet is assigned "Pipeworks Laborer". Shortly afterwards, the two secretly exchange assignments and Doon is apprenticed to the elderly technician Sul. At home, Lina, a descendant of the seventh Mayor, finds the opened box and enlists Doon's help to decipher its contents. Gradually, they learn that it contains a set of instructions and directions for an exit from the city in the Pipeworks, left by the city's builders. Later, after evading a gigantic star-nosed mole, they also discover that Mayor Cole has been hoarding food in a secret vault for his own benefit while the people go hungry. When Lina attempts to report this, the Mayor captures her and tries to confiscate the box, but she escapes during a blackout. Now fugitives from the Mayor's police, Lina and Doon, accompanied by Lina's baby sister, Poppy, use the instructions and assistance from Sul to flee the city via a subterranean river. When the repercussions of their actions trigger a panic in Ember, the Mayor locks himself in his vault, only to be devoured by the giant mole. Lina, Doon, and Poppy eventually reach the Earth's surface, where they witness a sunrise for the first time. They also locate Ember through a hole in the ground, too far for them to call to anyone. Before they explore, Lina and Doon write a letter with instructions on how to get out of the city, which they tie to a rock and throw down to the city. The rock lands by Loris' feet, who picks it up.

Sam Makin is a tough Brooklyn, New York City street cop and Vietnam-era Marine Corps veteran. He is unwillingly recruited as an assassin for a secret United States organization, CURE. The recruitment is through a bizarre method: his death is faked and he is given a new face and a new name. Rechristened "Remo Williams" (after the name and location of the manufacturer of the bedpan in Makin's hospital room), his face is surgically altered and he is trained to be a human killing machine by his aged, derisive and impassive Korean martial arts master Chiun. Though Remo's training is extremely rushed by Chiun's standards, Remo learns seemingly impossible skills such as dodging bullets and running on water and wet concrete. Chiun teaches Remo a Korean martial art named Sinanju (the "Sun Source" of all martial arts). Remo's instruction is interrupted when he is sent by CURE to investigate a corrupt weapons procurement program within the U.S. Army.

After living in the UK for ten years, author Bill Bryson has moved back to the US and is living in New Hampshire. Now in his 60s, he has been living there peacefully. A television interview reports that he has published several popular books and there is speculation he will be writing more. Bryson, however, has no such plans. Bryson and his wife Catherine attend a funeral. Afterwards, he takes a stroll up to the nearby Appalachian Trail, and suddenly decides he will hike its entire length. Catherine objects, presenting many accounts of accidents and murders on the trail. She relents on the condition that he not travel alone. He agrees and searches for a friend willing to join him. Everyone declines his invitation; some declare him insane. Finally, he is contacted by Stephen Katz, an old friend who offers to be a hiking companion. Despite appearances, Stephen claims to be fit enough for the challenge. Bill's wife is unhappy with his choice, but relents. Within less than a mile of their departure point, as groups of hikers overtake and pass them, they begin to grasp the difficulty of their ambition. Shortly after, a group of young children effortlessly runs by them up the trail, laughing and calling out to each other. Seeing others pass by so easily motivates them to carry on. Weeks pass, and they overcome obstacles and encounter interesting characters together, some friendlier and some more hostile. One day, having hiked miserably through pouring rain, they reach a hut. Carved into the log wall is an Appalachian Trail map showing the trail and their present location. They realize they have finished less than half of the trail after spending three months on it. The two ultimately trek into a restricted section posted "for experienced hikers only". While maneuvering their heavy and awkward backpacks alongside a precipitous drop, Bill trips and pulls Stephen with him down a steep, rocky cliff. They fall about fifteen feet onto a ledge spacious enough to be comfortable, but far enough below the trail to be unable to get back up to resume the hike. They spend the night there with no clear hope of rescue. The next day, they are awakened by early morning hikers who are able to get them off the ledge. The men decide they have had enough and end their journey. When comfortably back at home, Bill, going through his mail, finds a series of postcards from Stephen that were mailed from their various stops along the trail. The last one reads: "What's next?' Bill sits down and begins typing on his computer, " A Walk In The Woods."

In Manila, a terrorist assassinates the United States Ambassador to the Philippines, and also kills his son and dozens of children at an international primary school in a terrorist bombing. The mastermind, a Chechen terrorist, Abu Shabal, escapes to a training camp in Indonesia. Elsewhere in Costa Rica, two CIA officers, Walter Ross and Lisa Morales, meet to consolidate intelligence about their target, a drug smuggler named Mikhail "Christo" Troykovich. Christo's men kill Ross and capture Morales, who is imprisoned in a jungle compound and tortured. At Coronado, the members of Bandito Platoon, SEAL Team 7 are at home. Lieutenant Rorke confides to Chief Dave that his wife is pregnant and has the entire team spend time together with their families until their next deployment. A squad from the platoon consisting of Rorke, Dave, Wiemy, Mikey, Ray, Sonny, and Ajay, is then deployed to Costa Rica to exfiltrate Morales. The SEALs insert into the jungle via HALO and hold position outside the compound all night. At dawn, they raid the compound and eliminate several guards before extracting Morales and a cell phone containing the information she had gathered. Alerted by the assault, an enemy quick reaction force attempts to pursue and the SEALs commandeer a truck to exfiltrate. The pursuit forces them to revert to a tertiary extraction point where two SWCC boats extract the team, with Mikey being wounded in action. Christo and Shabal, who are revealed to have been childhood friends, meet in Kyiv. Christo knows the CIA is watching him and informs Shabal that subordinates will complete their project, which is to equip suicide bombers with specialized undetectable explosive vests. On the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard, Rorke is informed that the intelligence recovered confirms Shabal and Christo were working together. Shabal seeks to bring jihad to the U.S., while Christo provides the routes for smuggling drugs and people into the U.S. Ajay and Ray are sent to Somalia, where an arms transfer involving Shabal is taking place. The remaining SEALs, comprising Rorke, Dave, Sonny and Weimy, stay in the U.S. in case the terrorists make it in. Miller himself has been reassigned to SEAL Team Four, hunting for Christo somewhere on the oceans. Lieutenant Rorke gives Dave a letter to give to his family in case he is killed. Shabal and sixteen terrorists are found to be on an island off Baja California, where the SEALs act to secure the island, killing eight terrorists. Shabal and eight others escape. Elsewhere, in the South Pacific, SEAL Team Four captures Christo and interrogate him, learning that Shabal's plot is to outdo the September 11 attacks. The SEALs are informed that Shabal is en route to the U.S. via tunnels underneath a milk factory, and are ordered to link up with Mexican Special Forces and neutralize the remaining targets. Arriving at the factory, the SEALs and Mexican forces launch an assault there, engaging numerous Mexican cartel members and Shabal's terrorists in the process. During the gunfight, a combatant throws a grenade, and Rorke sacrifices himself by diving on it to save his team before it detonates, killing him. Dave pursues the terrorists and shoots them as they try to escape through the tunnels. He is then shot several times and gravely wounded by Shabal, who is intercepted and killed by Sonny before he can execute Dave. At home, Rorke is given a military funeral with full honors, where the SEALs pay their respects. It is then revealed that Dave's narration throughout the movie was a written letter meant for Rorke's son. The film ends with a dedication to 60 U.S. Navy SEAL and Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC) killed in action since 9/11 along with a listing of their names as well as a photo montage of fallen public servants.

Trolls are small, colorful, perpetually happy creatures who like to sing, dance and hug all day. They are discovered by the Bergens, large, hideous and miserable creatures who believe they can only feel happy by consuming a Troll. The Bergens imprison the Trolls in a caged tree, and eat them once a year on a special occasion called "Trollstice". On the year that Bergen Prince Gristle, son of King Gristle Sr., is due to eat his first Troll, the chef in charge of the ceremony discovers that the Trolls, under the leadership of King Peppy, have managed to escape. King Gristle banishes Chef from Bergen Town, and she vows to find the Trolls, secretly plotting to overthrow the monarchy as revenge. That night, Gristle asks his father what will make him happy now that they can't celebrate Trollstice without the trolls. However, he stupidly and wrongly claims to his face that there is no other way, and any chance for happiness has been irretrievably lost. This pushed his son's into a long-term depression. Twenty years later, Peppy's daughter Princess Poppy organizes a gigantic party to celebrate the anniversary of their escape. A serious, gray Troll named Branch warns that this could expose their home, but everyone ignores him. However, his forebodings are justified; Chef notices the party fireworks, follows them to Troll Village, and kidnaps Poppy's friends, including her Boyfriend and minister, a " zen " Troll named Creek. While the rest of the Trolls take refuge in Branch's survival bunker despite his objections, Poppy sets off alone to rescue her friends. She gets herself into several potentially deadly situations and is finally rescued by Branch, who thinks her quest is hopeless and only followed her to escape his crowded bunker. After encountering further challenges, Poppy and Branch meet a mischievous Cloud Guy, who leads them to Bergen Town. The pair sneak into the castle of the new King, Gristle Jr. They witness Chef apparently feeding Creek to King Gristle, but Poppy still holds out hope that Creek is alive. They find the other captives being guarded by a young scullery maid named Bridget; after learning that Bridget is secretly in love with Gristle, Poppy and the Trolls agree to help her get a date with him in exchange for her help in ascertaining whether or not Creek is still alive. When Branch refuses to sing along with the others in the ensuing musical number, he and Poppy argue, and he reveals that, as a child, his loud singing inadvertently led Chef to his home, and she took away his grandmother Rosiepuff and ate her up. Branch's bitterness and grief caused his colors to fade into gray, and he swore never to sing again. The Trolls use their powers to disguise Bridget as "Lady Glittersparkles", and she and Gristle go on a date at a roller rink / arcade restaurant. During the date, Poppy spots Creek being held captive inside a jewel on Gristle's mantle. Afterwards, the Trolls leave Bridget and go to rescue Creek, but are all captured by Chef when Creek sells them out in exchange for his own life being spared. Creek steals a horrified Poppy's cowbell and uses it to lure the rest of the Trolls out of hiding. They are rounded up by the Bergens, and imprisoned in a large cooking pot. Blaming herself for the situation and realizing Branch was right the whole time, Poppy becomes embittered, and her colors turn to gray. Saddened, the other Trolls lose their colors as well. Branch, however, overcomes his fear by singing "True Colours" to cheer Poppy up, revealing that he was in love with her; this successfully brings back both of their colors, and those of the other Trolls. Bridget, grateful to the Trolls for helping her, secretly releases them from the pot while Chef is not looking. Poppy refuses to let Bridget be punished for their escape, so she and the Trolls return to Bergen Town, reveal Bridget's true identity to the Bergens, and explain that she and Gristle are happily in love with each other. This shows the rest of the Bergens that they can find happiness within themselves without eating the Trolls, and the two sides celebrate together in song, ending their feud. Chef refuses to accept the peace, so she and Creek are sent rolling out of Bergen Town on a flaming serving cart, while King Peppy crowns Poppy the queen of the Trolls. Meanwhile, the flaming cart rolls to a stop atop what appears to be a hill. Chef tries to eat Creek, but the "hill" reveals itself to be a huge monster, which eats them both.

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

At the 1964 New York World’s Fair, a young inventor Frank Walker attempts to showcase his homemade jet pack, but it fails and does not impress the judges. However, a mysterious girl, Athena, sees potential in him. She gives him a lapel pin marked with a “T” and directs him onto the Disney It's a Small World ride, where the pin triggers a hidden transport to Tomorrowland—a dazzling futuristic city in another dimension. There, robots repair his jet pack, allowing him to soar through the city and join its secret community of innovators. In the present, Casey Newton is an idealistic teenager. She continually sabotages the demolition of a NASA launch platform in hopes of saving her father’s job. After she is arrested, she discovers a Tomorrowland pin among her belongings. Touching it transports her to the futuristic world, but only as a projection; when the pin’s power is expended, she abruptly returns to her normal reality. Determined to understand what she saw, Casey follows clues to a memorabilia shop in Houston, where the owners attack her for information about the pin. Athena bursts in and defeats the owners, actually Audio-Animatronics, who self-destruct, blowing apart the shop. After Casey and Athena steal a car, Athena reveals she is also an animatronic, purposed to find and recruit people who fit the ideals of Tomorrowland. Athena brings Casey to Frank Walker (now an adult) who is a bitter recluse living in upstate New York. Banished from Tomorrowland years earlier, Frank wants nothing to do with the place. Casey discovers he has built a device predicting the imminent end of the world, but her refusal to accept that future causes the probability to drop—something Frank has never seen. When robotic assassins arrive to eliminate them, Frank reluctantly joins Casey and Athena. Using a teleportation device, they travel to Paris and launch an old Plus Ultra rocket hidden beneath the Eiffel Tower. Frank explains that Tomorrowland was created by a secret society of visionaries— Gustave Eiffel, Jules Verne, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison —who sought a place free from political and commercial interference. Arriving in Tomorrowland, the trio finds the once‑ utopian city in decline. Governor David Nix greets them and leads them to a tachyon machine Frank invented which can view possible futures. It has been broadcasting visions of global catastrophe to Earth. Casey realizes the machine’s warnings have become a self-fulfilling prophecy: humanity, overwhelmed by doom, simply stopped trying to prevent disaster. Nix admits he intended the images as a wake‑up call, but when the world ignored them, he gave up and decided to let the apocalypse unfold. Casey, Frank, and Athena attempt to destroy the machine, but Nix fights to stop them. During the struggle, Athena foresees Nix killing Frank. She sacrifices herself to save him by triggering her self‑destruct sequence. The explosion destroys the tachyon device, and the falling wreckage kills Nix. In the aftermath, Casey and Frank take leadership of Tomorrowland. They recruit Casey’s father and brother, and they build a new generation of Athena‑like animatronics. Given Tomorrowland pins, these childlike robots set out across the world to find new dreamers, thinkers, and inventors—people capable of building a better future.

Structural engineer John Garrity lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his estranged wife, Allison, and their diabetic son, Nathan. He is on the way home to watch the near-earth passing of a recently discovered interstellar comet nicknamed "Clarke", along with his family and neighbors. While at the supermarket, John receives an automated DHS message announcing that he and his family have been selected for emergency sheltering. He returns home just as a comet fragment is seen entering the atmosphere on live TV. Previously expected to land in the ocean near Bermuda, the fragment instead strikes Tampa, vaporizing the city along with most of the state. John then receives a call with instructions to head to Robins Air Force Base for an evacuation flight, as Clarke is on a direct collision course to Earth and the impact will cause an extinction-level event in two days. John, Allison, and Nathan pack up and drive away. The way to the base is clogged by heavy traffic, so the Garritys abandon their car and continue on foot. Nathan's insulin is accidentally left behind in the car. As they reach the base, John realizes it is missing and goes back to retrieve it. Meanwhile, Nathan's medical condition is discovered, disqualifying him for sheltering, and Allison stays with him. John returns and boards a plane, but quickly jumps off upon realizing Allison and Nathan were left behind. As John exits the base, a panicked mob breaks in, destroying several evacuation planes when gunfire ignites spilled jet fuel. Returning to their car, John finds Allison's note saying they are going to her father's home in Lexington. After getting medical supplies, Allison and Nathan hitch a ride with Ralph and Judy Vento, only for Ralph to kidnap Nathan to use him and the wristbands to board a flight. John hitch-hikes a ride on a military truck full of people heading towards Canada, planning to get off in Lexington. A passenger named Colin tells him they are headed to Osgoode, Ontario, where private planes are flying to Greenland, believed to be the military evacuation site. Another man attempts to steal John's wristband, causing the truck to crash, killing Colin. John is forced to kill the other man in self-defense. At another air force base, the Ventos attempt to pose as Nathan's parents, but are arrested when Nathan reveals he's not their child. Allison and Nathan are reunited shortly after at a nearby FEMA camp in Knoxville. The following morning, John learns that the largest fragment will hit in approximately 24 hours. Stealing a car, John reaches his father-in-law, Dale's, house, and Nathan and Allison arrive shortly after. The family learn about a complex of underground bunkers near Thule Air Base in Greenland, confirming that is where the evacuees are being sent. Dale chooses to stay behind, bidding farewell to his daughter's family. John, Allison, and Nathan proceed in Dale's truck. While making steady progress to Osgoode, the family learns over the radio that Clarke's largest fragment, which is 9 miles (14 km) wide, will hit Western Europe and obliterate it. They arrive at the Osgoode airport just in time to board the last flight out. As they reach Greenland, a comet fragment strikes, causing the plane to crash and hit a glacier,killing the pilot. The Garritys and the rest of the passengers flag down a military truck and enter the bunker complex just as the largest fragment enters the atmosphere and hits Earth, devastating civilization along with the world. Nine months later, the bunker makes radio contact with other survivors around the world. The Garritys and other occupants exit the shelter, as reports come in that the atmosphere is finally clearing, giving the survivors the chance to bring Earth back onto its feet.

Ben Crandall is a young teenage boy living in a fictional Maryland suburb, who experiences vivid dreams about flying through clouds and over a vast, city-like circuit board, usually after falling asleep watching old sci-fi films. Upon waking from the dream, he draws a diagram of the circuit board and shows the sketches to his friend, child prodigy Wolfgang Muller. At school, Ben develops a crush on Lori Swenson but is unsure whether it is mutual. The boys also befriend punkish-but-likable Darren Woods, with whom they share their circuit-board concepts. Wolfgang builds an actual microchip based on Ben's drawings. The chip enables the generation of an electromagnetic bubble which surrounds a pre-determined area. The boys discover that the bubble is capable of moving at near-limitless distances and speeds without ill effects from inertia. Due to Darren’s connections at a local junkyard and his mechanical skills, the three boys construct a rudimentary spacecraft out of an abandoned Tilt-A-Whirl car and name it Thunder Road, after Bruce Springsteen 's song of the same name. After Ben receives more dreams about the circuit board, Wolfgang discovers a means of producing unlimited sustainable oxygen; this means longer flights, whereas previously they were limited to whatever a typical oxygen tank could hold. They finalize their plan to explore the galaxy in search of alien life. The boys complete lift-off, despite interference from the authorities (one who silently wishes them well). Shortly after breaking Earth's orbit, something overrides the boys' personal computer -controls. Thunder Road is beamed light-years away into deep space and is tractor-beamed aboard a much larger spaceship. The boys venture out to meet their "captors", Wak and Neek: two aliens whose knowledge of Earth comes almost entirely from pop culture, particularly TV reruns. The young explorers hit it off with their alien hosts, but then the alien ship is suddenly intercepted by a larger alien ship. Wak urges the boys to leave. They are in the process of doing so when they are interrupted by a gigantic alien who admonishes Wak and Neek. It is revealed that Wak and Neek are brother and sister, and the gigantic creature is their father; they have taken his ship out for a "joy ride", sending the dreams to the boys in the hopes of meeting humans. Transmissions of old movies have kept the alien populace at a distance – except for the curious Wak and Neek – due to the way humans depict violence toward alien life. Wak and Neek's father allows "Thunder Road" and its crew to depart, after Wak and Neek give the boys a parting gift: an amulet, which, according to the aliens, is "the stuff dreams are made of." The boys make it safely back to Earth, but a malfunction results in them crashing "Thunder Road" into a lake. A week later, Ben has a dream at school in which he envisions another vast circuit board while flying through more clouds overhead. This time – thanks to Wak and Neek's amulet – Ben is joined in the dream by Wolfgang, Darren, and Lori. They note the circuitry's complexity and speculate where it may take them once completed. Lori smiles at Ben while holding his hand, and they share a kiss while flying.

Set in 1946, the plot depicts the last log driving in the Tagus from Peralejos de las Truchas to Aranjuez, focusing on the plight of Roy Shannon, an Irishman joining a group of humble gancheros (log drivers) led by El Americano.