When an Amacore oil rig in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia proves unproductive, Captain Frank Towns and co-pilot A.J. are sent to shut down the operation and transport the crew – Amacore executive Ian, rig supervisor Kelly, Rodney, Davis, Liddle, Jeremy, Sammi, Rady, Kyle, Newman, and Dr. Gerber – out of the desert. However, en route to Beijing, a major dust storm disables one engine, forcing them to crash land their C-119 Flying Boxcar in an uncharted area of the Gobi Desert. Kyle falls to his death and the crash kills Dr. Gerber and Newman. Their cargo consists of used parts and tools from the rig, the rig's crew, and Elliott, a hitchhiker. When the dust storm ends, it becomes apparent that they are 200 miles (320 km) off course with only a month's supply of water. Jeremy thinks about walking to get help, but Rady explains that July is the hottest month in the Gobi, and that he won't make it. In the middle of the night, Davis goes out to urinate without informing anybody, trips, gets lost in a sandstorm, and dies. The group panics after a failed search for him, and Kelly argues with Frank, who says that walking out of the desert would fail and that their only option is to await rescue. The group initially agrees but reconsiders after Elliott, claiming to be an aeronautical engineer, pitches a radical idea: rebuild the wreckage of their C-119 into a functional aircraft. Frank initially refuses, which causes Liddle to wander off on his own in protest. Frank attempts to find him. He comes across a valley littered with debris, cargo from the aircraft, which dropped out when the tail was torn open. Among the debris he discovers the bullet-ridden and stripped body of Kyle. Liddle says he will only go back with him if they build the plane, and Frank agrees. They struggle for several weeks building the new aircraft, through dust storms, lack of water, and fighting amongst the group. Rady christens it Phoenix after the legendary bird. A problem evolves when a group of smugglers camp nearby; when Ian, A.J., and Rodney attempt to communicate. However, once Liddle spots Kyle's watch on a bandit's wrist, the bandits open fire, wounding Rodney. Frank kills one and captures the other, but after a short debate, Elliott unilaterally shoots the final bandit in the head, then rebukes the group for wasting water, time, and effort on a foolish mission, blaming Frank for allowing it. The two fight briefly and Elliott quits the project. Elliott refuses to continue until everyone verbally says, "please" and acknowledges that he is in charge. After finishing the Phoenix Frank discovers that Elliott's aircraft design experience has been restricted to the design of model aircraft, much to the anger of everyone. While everyone argues, Ian quietly locates the Bandit's pistol and nearly shoots Elliott before Frank intervenes. In high wind, Liddle notices the plane slowly lifting on its own, proving Elliott's design theory, and the group stops fighting. However, the following storm buries most of their supplies, the original fuselage, and most of the Phoenix itself. Frank rallies the group and inspires them to keep working to reach their loved ones and they eventually dig out the Phoenix. With only a few attempts to start the engine, Frank tries a risky procedure to clear the fuel cylinders, but it works, and the engine revs to life. The noise draws additional smugglers, who open fire on the craft and disable the rudder. Elliott manages to fix the problem during takeoff. The Phoenix plummets off the edge of a cliff at the end of their runway, but the additional airspeed from the fall allows Frank to pull up and fly away. Through a series of photos, we see what became of the survivors when they made it back to civilization. All have been revitalized by the experience and have happy lives: Frank and A.J. start their own airline (appropriately named Phoenix Aviation), Sammi and his wife start their own restaurant (Jeremy and Rady are there to celebrate), Liddle is reunited with his wife and kids, Ian enjoys golf by taking early retirement, Kelly is boss on an ocean oil rig, and Elliott is wearing a flight suit on a Flight International magazine cover with the headline: " NASA 's New Hope?"

Following the death of her mother, a young woman is framed for her sister's murder by their stepfather, who is infuriated after being excluded from the will, and is subsequently committed to a mental institute. Upon arrival, her stepfather bribes orderly Blue Jones to forge psychiatrist Vera Gorski's signature to have her lobotomized and she is given the nickname Babydoll. Babydoll slips into a fantasy world in which the asylum is a brothel owned by mobster Blue and she and the other patients are sex slaves. She befriends fellow patients Amber, Blondie, Rocket, and Rocket's sister, Sweet Pea, and imagines Dr. Gorski as their dance instructor. Blue intends to sell Babydoll's virginity to the High Roller; in reality, a doctor is scheduled to perform her lobotomy. Babydoll performs an erotic dance during which she fantasizes she is in feudal Japan, meeting the Wise Man. He tells her that she needs four items to escape: a map, fire, a knife and a key. There is a fifth unrevealed item that only she can find which requires "a deep sacrifice" and will bring a "perfect victory". She fights three samurai giants, then finds herself back in the brothel. Babydoll convinces the four other girls to join her in escaping. She dances as a distraction while the others obtain the necessary tools. During her dances, she fantasizes about adventures that mirror the escape efforts, such as infiltrating a bunker protected by World War I German soldiers to gain a map (as Sweet Pea copies a map of the building in Blue's office), storming an Orc -infested castle to retrieve fire crystals (as Amber steals a lighter from the mayor), and fighting robots on a train to disarm a bomb (as Sweet Pea steals a kitchen knife from the Cook). In the last fantasy, Rocket sacrifices herself, paralleled by the Cook fatally stabbing Rocket as she protects her sister. Blue overhears Blondie relaying Babydoll's plan to Gorski. He fatally shoots Amber and Blondie. Babydoll stabs him with the kitchen knife and steals his master key, then starts a fire to distract the orderlies as they seek an escape. Babydoll deduces that the fifth item is her own sacrifice, and that this is Sweet Pea's story. She distracts the men long enough to allow Sweet Pea to escape. In the asylum, the surgeon completes Babydoll's lobotomy. Gorski notes that during her short stay, Babydoll stabbed an orderly, started a fire, and helped another girl escape. The surgeon, who doesn't agree with the procedure, asks Gorski why she authorized it, and Gorski realizes that Blue has been forging her signature. The police apprehend Blue as he attempts to rape Babydoll. As he is being arrested, Blue incriminates Babydoll's stepfather. Sweet Pea is stopped by police as she tries to board a bus, but the driver (the Wise Man) misleads the police and lets her board.

In 1943, United States Navy sailors David Herdeg and Jim Parker serve aboard destroyer escort USS Eldridge, docked in Philadelphia. Doctor James Longstreet and his team conduct an experiment to render the ship invisible to radar, but a malfunction causes the ship to disappear. David and Jim's attempts to stop the experiment fail and they jump overboard to escape. They land during the night in a small town, which also disappears, leaving them marooned in a desert. Startled by the appearance of an unfamiliar aircraft (a helicopter), they flee and Jim is nearly electrocuted by an electric fence. Eventually, they find their way to a roadside diner. An energy discharge from Jim destroys two arcade games, forcing an altercation with the owner. Fleeing to the parking lot, they take a woman named Allison Hayes hostage and force her to drive them away. Confused by their surroundings, they are shocked when Allison tells them that the year is 1984. They are tracked and apprehended by the police. Jim, who is suffering increasingly severe seizures, is hospitalized before disappearing from his hospital bed in a flash of light. David and Allison then evade military police, who have arrived to take David into custody. Learning that they are near Jim's birthplace, Santa Paula, California, David decides to try to find his family. Jim's wife Pamela, who is now a senior citizen, immediately recognizes David from 1943. She says that the Eldridge had reappeared minutes after disappearing. Jim had also returned and had been chastised and hospitalized after telling the truth about temporarily visiting 1984. David finds that he himself never returned. David sees an elderly Jim outside a window but Jim refuses to speak with him. As David and Allison leave, they see military police approaching and a high speed chase through Jim's ranch ensues. The two manage to elude them when the pursuing vehicle crashes and burns. From the burning wreck, David salvages documents mentioning Longstreet. Recognizing that Longstreet had been involved with the Philadelphia experiment in 1943, David decides to find him. As they spend time together, David and Allison fall in love. In 1984, Longstreet has attempted to use the same technologies that were used in the Eldridge experiment to create a shield as protection from an ICBM attack. When the equipment was tested, the shielded town disappeared into "hyperspace". The scientists are unable to shut down the experiment, which has created a vortex that is drawing matter into it and causes extremely unstable and severe weather. Longstreet predicts that the vortex will continue to expand until the entire world is consumed. The scientists send a probe into the vortex and discover the Eldridge inside. They theorize that the two experiments have linked together with the generators on the Eldridge powering the vortex. David captures Adjutant Andrews, an assistant at Longstreet's home and forces Andrews to take them onto the base. Longstreet explains the situation to David and tells him that, according to surviving sailors from the Eldridge, the ship returned to Philadelphia in 1943 after David shut down the generator. Longstreet says that David must go through the vortex to the Eldridge and terminate the experiment or the vortex will destroy the Earth. David is outfitted with a protective suit to allow him to shut down the experiment and catapulted into the vortex. He lands on the deck of the Eldridge, where he finds crew members badly injured. He hurries to the generator room and smashes arrays of vacuum tubes using a firefighting axe. The generator shuts down and David looks for Jim. Assured that Jim is fine, David jumps over the side of the ship and disappears. Back in 1943, Longstreet and others watch the Eldridge reappear in Philadelphia, revealing crew members with severe burns, while others have been fused alive into the ship's hull. In 1984, the missing town reappears as Allison and David are reunited.

Athena-1, a space station owned by nefarious gene-manipulation company Energyne, is destroyed after a laboratory rat mutates and wreaks havoc. Kerry Atkins, the lone surviving crew member, manages to escape in the escape pod when the station implodes, along with a trio of pathogen canisters that Energyne CEO Claire Wyden ordered her to retrieve, but the pod disintegrates upon re-entry, killing Atkins. One canister is swallowed by an American crocodile in the Everglades National Park and another lands in a Wyoming forest where a wolf is exposed to the pathogen. Primatologist Davis Okoye, a former Special Forces soldier and member of an anti-poaching unit, works at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. He is friends with George, a rare leucistic western lowland gorilla that he rescued from poachers who murdered his mother and communicates with him via sign language. The third Energyne canister crash-lands in George's habitat, exposing him to the pathogen. As George grows considerably larger and more aggressive, Davis is contacted by genetic engineer Doctor Kate Caldwell, who explains that the pathogen was developed by Energyne to rewrite genes on a massive scale. She had hoped to advance research on CRISPR as a potential cure for diseases, but discovered Energyne's plans to use it as a biological weapon and was falsely incarcerated, during which her terminally ill brother died. George escapes from captivity and runs amok at the preserve. George calms down, but is soon captured by a government team led by Agent Harvey Russell and put on a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III airplane. Meanwhile, Claire and her brother Brett oversee a mercenary team's attempt to capture the mutated wolf, Ralph, which goes awry as the entire team is killed. Claire, resolving to capture Ralph and use George to cover up her plot, uses a massive transmitter atop the Willis Tower to lure the animals – engineered to respond aggressively to a certain radio frequency – to Chicago, unconcerned about the massive risk to civilian lives this poses. George reacts violently to the sound and crashes the plane, though Davis, Kate and Harvey parachute to safety. George survives the crash and joins Ralph as they make their way to Chicago, while Davis and Kate are aided by Harvey in stealing a UH-60 Black Hawk military helicopter in pursuit. They arrive to find George and Ralph tearing through the city as the military struggles to stop them. The crisis worsens when the mutated crocodile, Lizzie, joins the duo. Planning to steal an antidote to turn the animals back to normal, Davis and Kate infiltrate Energyne's base of operations at the tower and take several vials of it, but are caught by the Wydens as Claire reveals that the antidote only eliminates the animals' enhanced aggressiveness rather than reversing the pathogen's effects altogether and shoots Davis, but he survives. When George climbs to the top of the tower, Claire orders Davis to distract him while she attempts to escape with Kate at gunpoint. Kate slips a vial into Claire's handbag and pushes her toward George, who swallows her whole along with the vial, returning him to his former personality. Down below, Harvey takes incriminating evidence from Brett and allows him to escape, only for Brett to be crushed to death by falling debris upon exiting the building. As the damaged tower topples, Davis and Kate survive by crash-landing a helicopter on the Federal Plaza. Davis stays to help George defeat the other animals, while Kate and Harvey rush to prevent the military from deploying a GBU-43/B MOAB against them. During their confrontation, Davis tricks Ralph into attacking Lizzie, who decapitates him before gaining the upper hand against her enemies, only to be stabbed to death in the eye by a rebar -wielding George. With the threat neutralized, the airstrike is aborted as Davis is joined by his allies in rescuing misplaced civilians.

Major Vic "Deak" Deakins and Captain Riley Hale, pilots from Whiteman Air Force Base, are flying a stealth bomber with two B83 nuclear bombs on a secret exercise. Deakins suddenly attacks Hale and ejects him from the plane. He then jettisons the unarmed bombs, reports that Hale has gone rogue, and ejects, leaving the plane to crash in a national park in rural Utah. Colonel Max Wilkins send a USAF team to find the missing warheads, and a " Broken Arrow " situation is declared and sends Agent Giles Prentice to oversee the situation. The team locates the warheads in a canyon, but is ambushed by mercenaries and betrayed by Master Sergeant Kelly, who is in league with Deakins. Deakins arrives with Pritchett, the mercenaries' financier. They plan to blackmail the United States government with the threat of detonating the warhead in a populated area. Hale is arrested by park ranger Terry Carmichael, but he convinces her to help him track down Deakins. Deakins' mercenaries commandeer a search-and-rescue helicopter to kill Hale, but Hale and Carmichael bring it down, forcing Deakins' men to continue in Humvees. Hale and Carmichael carjack the Humvee carrying the warheads, escaping to a nearby abandoned copper mine. They soon discover that Deakins was using the mine as a checkpoint. Hale starts to disable one warhead, but Deakins reveals via radio that he has programmed it so that Hale's attempts to disarm it will activate the bomb. Hale and Carmichael take the armed warhead down the shaft, where the mine is deep enough to contain the nuclear blast. Deakins's team arrives and secures the second warhead. After a gun battle deep in the mine, Deakins shortens the countdown of the armed warhead and sabotages the keypad to prevent any disarm attempts while leaving Hale and Carmichael trapped. They escape via an underground river just before the bomb detonates. The resulting nuclear electromagnetic pulse downs an approaching NEST helicopter, allowing Deakins to escape. Pritchett reveals a lack of confidence in Deakins' plans, so Deakins kills him and drives off with Kelly. Carmichael and Hale track the mercenaries to a motorboat to be used for transporting the warhead down the river. While trying to steal the boat, Carmichael is forced to hide on board, while military forces rescue Hale. The U.S. Government is now aware that Deakins betrayed them as he issued a ransom video. Hale deduces that Deakins intends to use a train to transport the warhead to Denver. Stowing away on the train, Carmichael kills one of the mercenaries and tries to sabotage the warhead, but is caught by Deakins, who arms it. Catching up on a helicopter, Hale saves Carmichael before Deakins can kill her. A gunfight ensues, causing the helicopter to crash, killing Wilkins and his pilot, with most of the mercenaries dying in the aftermath. Deakins has prepared a remote control that can either disarm or detonate the warhead and prepares to leave in his own getaway helicopter. Hale sabotages the helicopter's fuel pump, causing it to explode and leaving Deakins and Kelly stranded with the ticking bomb. Deakins shortens the countdown timer out of spite, however, this does not sit well with Kelly. Hale sneaks up on them and engages in a gun battle with Deakins, but not before sending Kelly off a bridge to his death. Carmichael detaches the section of the train with the bomb, but gets into a shootout with the engineer. The engineer is killed and falls on the train brakes, allowing the detached boxcars to catch up. Deakins still has the remote detonator, so he forces Hale to drop his gun and challenges him to a fight. Hale overpowers Deakins, acquires the remote detonator, disarms the warhead, and leaps out of the train. Carmichael also jumps from the train before the detached boxcars catch up and collide. The hurtling warhead flies towards Deakins, who stands in the way of it, launching him into a stack of oil barrels, causing the train to derail and the barrels to explode, killing him. After the explosion, Hale and Carmichael embrace and formally introduce themselves for the first time.

Mikael Boghosian is an apothecary who lives in the small Armenian village of Siroun in the southeast part of Turkey, within the Ottoman Empire. In order to help pay the expenses for medical school, he promises to marry Maral, the daughter of an affluent neighbor, receiving 400 gold coins as a dowry. This allows him to travel to Constantinople and attend the Imperial School of Medicine. There, Mikael befriends Emre, the son of a high-ranking Ottoman official. Through his wealthy uncle, he also meets Ana Khesarian, an Armenian woman raised in Paris, who is involved with an American reporter for the Associated Press, Chris Myers. Mikael falls in love with Ana just as international tensions begin to rise with the outbreak of World War I. Mikael temporarily manages to avoid conscription into the Ottoman Army through a medical student exemption with the help of Emre. When he, with Emre's help, tries to save his uncle from imprisonment during the roundups of April 24, 1915, he is detained and sent to a labor camp, while Emre is conscripted as a consequence for helping Mikael a second time after his father warned him not to. Mikael eventually escapes the camp. Returning to his village, he finds that the townspeople of Turkish background have violently turned on their fellow townspeople of Armenian background. His parents, and particularly his mother, persuade him to marry Maral and seek refuge in a remote mountain cabin, where she soon becomes pregnant. A difficult pregnancy leads Mikael to bring his wife back to the care of his mother in the village. There he learns that Ana and Christopher are at a nearby Red Cross facility, so he goes to seek their help for his family to escape the imminent Turkish threat. Departing the mission with a group of orphans, they head back to Siroun to retrieve Mikael's family. Along the way, however, they encounter the site of a massacre. It soon becomes clear it's all of Siroun's inhabitants, including Mikael's family except his mother and cousin Yeva, killed by Ottoman troops. Mikael's wife is found with their unborn child cut out from her body. Chris is captured by Ottoman soldiers and sent back to Constantinople, charged with being a spy for the Allied Powers and, while held at Selimiye Barracks, slated for execution by the authorities. With the help of Emre, and through the intercession of American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Chris is released and deported to Malta. Once there, he boards the French cruiser Guichen, as it prepares to set sail along the Ottoman coast. Emre's role in helping to save Chris is discovered and he is executed by firing squad. Escaping pursuit, Mikael, Ana, and the orphans join a large group of refugees determined to fight off the Ottoman Army on Mount Musa Dagh. As they fend off repeated assaults, Mikael's mother succumbs to her wounds and is buried on the mountain. The refugees hold on long enough to escape on the back side to the coast as the Guichen comes to evacuate them. But as the lifeboats return to the ship, a Turkish artillery barrage throws Ana and Yeva, the young daughter of Mikael's uncle, overboard. Mikael jumps in after them and is able to rescue Yeva, but Ana drowns. In a voice over, Mikael recounts that he adopted Yeva and together they settled in Watertown, Massachusetts while Chris was killed reporting the Spanish Civil War in 1938. During Yeva's wedding reception in 1942, with the now grown Armenian orphans in attendance, Mikael presides over a toast, wishing good fortune to their families and future generations to come.

In Los Angeles, cashier Audrey Stockman spends her birthday upset after her boyfriend Drew dumps her. Her best friend and roommate, Morgan Freeman, convinces her to burn his things and texts him beforehand as a warning. Audrey has no idea Drew is a government agent being pursued by men trying to kill him. He promises to return and asks her to not torch anything in the meantime. At work, Audrey flirts with a man who asks her to walk him to his car. Forced into a van, the man identifies himself as Sebastian Henshaw. He reveals that Drew works for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and has gone missing. Audrey claims not to have heard from him and is let go. Drew shows up for his possessions, including a fantasy football trophy. People begin shooting at them and he tells Audrey that, if he dies, she must go to a certain café in Vienna and give the trophy to his contact. Drew is then shot by a man Morgan had taken home from a bar, whom she then pushes off the balcony. Morgan convinces Audrey to go to Vienna. At the café, Sebastian appears and demands the trophy at gunpoint. Audrey reluctantly hands it over before the entire café is attacked. The friends flee, chased by men on motorcycles. Audrey reveals that she still has Drew's trophy as she had switched it with one of several decoys they had purchased for such an event. Boarding a train to Prague, they discover Drew's trophy contains a USB card. Morgan calls her parents, who tell her they can stay in Prague with their family friend, Roger. Audrey and Morgan get to the apartment, but discover "Roger" is actually a spy who drugged them and killed the real Roger. Morgan tries to swallow the flash drive. After that fails, Audrey tells their captors that she flushed it down the toilet. The ladies wake up in an abandoned gymnastics training facility, about to be tortured by Nadejda, a Russian gymnast, model, and assassin trained by the older couple who had previously masqueraded as Drew's parents. Audrey and Morgan are rescued by Sebastian, who defied orders to save them. He brings them to his boss in Paris, where they once again tell the CIA and MI6 that the drive was flushed. The women are given tickets to go back to America, while Sebastian is suspended. Driving back to the airport, Sebastian explains that Drew's "parents" are actually notorious criminals. Drew was discreetly negotiating with them on the sale of the USB card, and Audrey was part of his cover. Audrey confesses that she had actually hidden the drive in her vagina. When Sebastian cannot decrypt the information on the card, Morgan calls her old Summer camp friend Edward Snowden for assistance; he helps them hack it. The trio travel to a hostel in Amsterdam, where they are attacked by Sebastian's CIA partner Duffer, who plans to sell the drive himself. They are rescued by their hostel roommate, who thinks they are being robbed and body slams Duffer to his death. Audrey answers Duffer's phone when it rings and agrees to sell the drive at a private party in Berlin. To get into the buyer, Audrey and Sebastian disguise themselves as the Canadian ambassador and his wife, while Morgan joins the Cirque du Soleil crew. Sebastian is attacked and Morgan is confronted by Nadejda on an acrobat swing, eventually killing her. Meanwhile, Audrey meets her mysterious contact and finds Drew, who is still alive and searches through her purse for the USB. Sebastian arrives, held hostage by Drew's "parents". After a standoff, Drew's "parents" are shot, leaving Sebastian and Drew, who accuse each other of trying to hurt Audrey. Drew then shoots Sebastian, and Audrey pretends to be glad before grabbing his gun. When he tries to attack her, she kicks him in the groin. Once he is on the ground, Morgan throws a cannonball at him. Drew is arrested, and Audrey, Morgan, and Sebastian escape. Sebastian later gives Morgan his untraceable phone to let her parents know she is alive. As she's talking, Sebastian's boss calls to lift his suspension. Morgan begs her for a job as a spy. Meanwhile, Sebastian and Audrey kiss. A year later, while celebrating Audrey's birthday in Tokyo, her party is revealed to be a ruse, as it's actually an assignment with Sebastian to stop a group of Japanese Yakuza gangsters.

Nine-year-old Jimmy Woods lives with PTSD after his twin sister, Jennifer, drowned two years earlier. Prone to randomly wandering away from home, he perpetually carries around a lunchbox while frequently repeating the word " California ". Jennifer's death caused Jimmy's family to split: he lives with his mother Christine and stepfather Mr. Bateman while his older half-brothers Nick and Corey live with their father Sam. Exasperated by Jimmy's behavior, Christine and Mr. Bateman decide to commit Jimmy to an institution. Unwilling to allow it, Corey sneaks Jimmy out and they start traveling on foot for Los Angeles. Nick and Sam resolve to bring the boys back while competing with Mr. Putnam, a greedy bounty hunter hired by Mr. Bateman and Christine to find Jimmy but not Corey. At a bus station, Jimmy and Corey meet Haley Brooks, a teenager on her way home to Reno. When they discover that Jimmy is innately talented at playing video games, Haley informs Corey of "Video Armageddon", a gaming tournament being held at Universal Studios Hollywood, with a grand prize of $50,000. Corey sees the tournament as an opportunity to avert Jimmy's institutionalization by showcasing his talent, and Haley agrees to help take Jimmy there in return for a share of the winnings. The trio hitchhike cross-country, using Jimmy's skills to win bets on games. They eventually meet popular but snobbish gamer Lucas Barton, who demonstrates his ability to play Rad Racer with a Power Glove and informs Haley he will also be competing. Corey and Haley learn that Jimmy's lunchbox contains photos and mementos of Jennifer. The trio arrive in Reno, gaining more money with help from Haley's trucker friend Spanky whom Haley coaches to success at a casino's craps table. Jimmy then begins training on arcade machines with help from the Nintendo Power Line. The children escape from Putnam to Haley's trailer where she reveals she wants her share of the prize money to help her father buy a proper house. Putnam finds Haley's trailer and captures Jimmy, but Haley summons several truckers who barricade Putnam on the road and rescue Jimmy. After Spanky drives the children to the tournament, Jimmy enters and becomes a finalist after playing Ninja Gaiden. In between rounds, Putnam unsuccessfully attempts to re-apprehend the children. Jimmy, Lucas, and third finalist Mora Grissom compete in the tournament's final round – they have 10 minutes to score as many points as possible in Super Mario Bros. 3, a brand-new game not yet released in the United States. Cheered on by his family, Haley, and even Putnam, Jimmy wins at the last second, becoming the tournament champion and earning the cash prize. As the entire family heads home, accompanied by Haley, Jimmy suddenly becomes restless upon spotting the Cabazon Dinosaurs, causing them to stop the car. They follow him inside, and Corey finds Jimmy looking at his photos of the family, one of which was taken at the tourist trap. They realize that Jimmy only sought closure where Jennifer was happy. Jimmy leaves his lunchbox at the site and the family resumes the car trip. Haley kisses Jimmy and Corey on the cheek. Jimmy then kisses Haley back on the cheek, who laughs along with Corey in the back of the truck as they ride off into the sunset.

In 2025, ENCOM and Dillinger Systems are in a race to bring digital constructs into reality. ENCOM's CEO Eve Kim and her partner Seth Flores visit a remote station near Skagway, Alaska built decades earlier by Kevin Flynn. Finding Flynn's "permanence code", enabling constructs to exist for more than 29-minute intervals, they transfer a digital orange tree into the real world. Julian Dillinger, the head of Dillinger Systems and grandson of former ENCOM executive Ed Dillinger, introduces his shareholders to Ares, a Master Control Program he describes as the "perfect, expendable soldier". Ares shows signs of self-awareness and notes Julian's indifference to his programs' survival, while Julian's mother, Elisabeth, expresses concern about their constructs' limited lifespans. Julian sends Ares and his unit to attack ENCOM's digital Grid, downloading Eve's personal data in pursuit of the permanence code. Against his programming, Ares tries to save an injured program, but Julian extracts him and disables ENCOM's Grid. Redeployed to the outside world, Ares tracks Eve's jet as she and Seth return to ENCOM with the permanence code. Learning of Julian's cyberattack from their colleague Ajay Singh, Eve flees as Ares and his second-in-command Athena chase her through the city on Light Cycles. Eve hijacks Athena's Light Cycle but is cornered by Ares, and destroys the drive containing the code. Reaching the end of his 29-minute lifespan, Ares recognizes Eve's empathy towards his plight. As Ares and Athena are "derezzed", Julian digitizes Eve onto the Dillinger Grid. Ares reveals the code can be obtained using Eve's identity disc, and Julian is willing to let her die as a result. Lying to Athena that Julian is "indisposed", Ares bargains with Eve, asking to achieve permanence in exchange for her freedom. Suspicious, Athena contacts Julian and, deciding that Ares is malfunctioning, returns with orders to de-rez him. Evading their pursuers, Ares and Eve return to the real world. En route to ENCOM, they reflect on their motivations, as Ares shows further signs of self-awareness and individuality. Eve realizes a copy of the code might be stored in Kevin Flynn's original office, preserved at ENCOM Tower, where they reunite with Seth to upload Ares onto Flynn's original Grid using a particle laser. They are ambushed by Athena, who destroys the laser to trap Ares, but experiences a moment of self-awareness before de-materializing. Ajay and his assistant Erin arrive, joining Seth and Eve in using Athena's own laser to hack the Dillinger Grid. Elisabeth retakes the position of CEO and tries to turn off the particle lasers, but Athena re-materializes and fatally stabs her, to Julian's horror, having interpreted her as an obstacle in his directive to obtain the code "by any means". On Flynn's Grid, Ares encounters a manifestation of Flynn, and they discuss Ares's desire for permanence. Intrigued by Ares's wish to live and to save Eve, Flynn grants him the permanence code and re-materializes him via backdoor at Flynn's Arcade. Athena pilots a Recognizer into the city, capturing Eve while the ENCOM staff breach the Dillinger Grid, but Ares intercepts Athena and her unit. Ajay, Seth, and Erin shut down the Dillinger mainframe, preventing Ares's fellow Dillinger programs from re-materializing, and a wounded Athena permanently de-materializes in Ares's arms. The police raid Dillinger headquarters, but Julian uses the laser to digitize himself. Eve and Ares go their separate ways, as ENCOM uses the permanence code to benefit the world. Ares sends Eve a postcard, traveling the world in search of Flynn's son, Sam, and his companion, Quorra. Eve reconstructs the Skagway facility on top of ENCOM Tower, including the orange tree. Back in the damaged Dillinger Grid, Julian is transformed by an identity disc that belonged to his grandfather's program Sark.

Speed Racer is a young man passionate about automobile racing. His parents, Pops and Mom, run Racer Motors, which involves his brother Spritle, their pet chimpanzee Chim Chim, mechanic Sparky, and his girlfriend Trixie. He also idolizes his late older brother Rex, who was killed racing in the Casa Cristo 5000, a deadly cross-country rally. Now starting his own career, Speed is rapidly gaining fame with his brother's Mach 5 and his own T-180 car, the Mach 6, while focusing on racing and family. One day, E.P. Arnold Royalton, CEO of Royalton Industries, offers Speed a luxurious lifestyle in exchange for racing with him; Speed declines due to his father's distrust of corporations. Angered, Royalton reveals that key races have been fixed by corporate interests, including himself. As a show of power, Royalton has one of his drivers crash Speed's Mach 6 during a race, and also has Racer Motors sued for intellectual property infringement. Speed can retaliate through Inspector Detector, head of a corporate crimes division, since fellow racer Taejo Togokahn has evidence to indict Royalton but will only share it if Speed and the masked Racer X race for his team in the forthcoming Casa Cristo 5000, which could raise his family's racing business stock and block a Royalton buyout. Speed accepts but keeps it secret from his family, and Detector's team makes defensive modifications to the Mach 5 for the race. After driving together and working as a team, Speed begins to suspect that Racer X is Rex in disguise. His family discovers that he has entered the race and agrees to support him. With Trixie and his family aiding him, Speed defeats many brutal racers bribed by fixer Cruncher Block and overcomes obstacles to win the race, while Detector's team arrests Block. However, Taejo's plan is revealed to be a sham, as his true intention was to boost his family's company to secure a higher price for Royalton's buyout. Enraged by this news, Speed confronts Racer X, suspecting he is Rex. Racer X removes his mask, revealing an unfamiliar face and stating that Rex is dead, but advises Speed to stay true to himself and find his own reason to race. Speed returns home, planning to leave, but Pops expresses pride in him and admits his own stubbornness drove Rex away. Taejo's sister Horuko unexpectedly arrives with Taejo's rejected invitation to the Grand Prix. The Racer family unites and builds a new Mach 6 in 32 hours. Speed enters the Grand Prix with Inspector Detector against great odds; Royalton has placed a $1,000,000 bounty on him, and he faces future Hall of Famer, five-time WRL champion, and two-time Grand Prix champion Jack "Cannonball" Taylor. Speed overcomes a slow start to catch up with Taylor, who cheats using a spear hook to tie the Mach 6 to his car. Speed reveals it to the cameras, exposing Royalton's crimes, causing Taylor to crash and lose, and eventually winning the race. As Racer X watches from afar, a flashback montage reveals him to be Rex, having faked his death, secretly attended his funeral, and undergone facial plastic surgery to protect Speed. He chooses not to reveal his identity to his family, opting to live with the consequences of his choice. The Racer family celebrates Speed's victory, and Taejo testifies against Royalton and his henchmen, causing Royalton to be imprisoned for his crimes.

The entity known as the Beast and his army of Slayers travel the galaxy in a mountain-like spaceship called the Black Fortress, intent on enslaving the planet Krull, as he has done to many other worlds. Ynyr recites the prophecy that was given for him to know: " A girl of ancient name shall become queen. She shall choose a king, and together they shall rule our world, and their son shall rule the galaxy. " Prince Colwyn and Princess Lyssa plan to marry in the hope that their two kingdoms' combined forces can defeat the Beast's army. However, the Slayers attack before the wedding is completed, devastating the native Krull armies, wounding Colwyn, and kidnapping Lyssa. Colwyn is nursed back to health by Ynyr, the Old One. Ynyr tells Colwyn that the Beast can be defeated with the Glaive, an ancient, magical, five-pointed weapon resembling a large throwing star with retractable blades. Colwyn retrieves the Glaive from a mountain cave, and sets out to find the Black Fortress, which teleports to a new location every sunrise. As they travel, Colwyn and Ynyr are joined by the magician Ergo "the Magnificent" and a band of nine thieves and fighters — Torquil, Kegan, Rhun, Oswyn, Bardolph, Menno, Darro, Nennog, and Quain. The cyclops Rell later joins the group. Colwyn's group travels to the home of the Emerald Seer and his apprentice, Titch. The Emerald Seer uses a crystal to view where the Fortress will teleport next, but the Beast remotely crushes the crystal with magic. The group travels to a swamp that the Beast's magic cannot penetrate, but Darro is lost to a Slayer attack, and Menno to quicksand. A changeling agent of the Beast kills the Emerald Seer and assumes its victim's form, but the agent is discovered and killed by Rell and Colwyn. Another changeling is instructed by the Beast to seduce Colwyn. This is meant to convince Lyssa that Colwyn does not love her. However, he rejects the changeling's advances, and Lyssa – witnessing this through a vision provided by the Beast — affirms that love triumphs over might. The Beast, though, forces her to consider marrying him so that he will halt the Slayers' attacks. Ynyr leaves the group to seek the Widow of the Web, an enchantress who loved Ynyr long ago and was exiled to the lair of the Crystal Spider for murdering their only child. The Widow reveals where the Black Fortress will be at sunrise. She also gives Ynyr the sand of an enchanted hourglass to keep the Crystal Spider at bay and the injured Ynyr alive. As the Crystal Spider attacks the Widow, Ynyr returns to the group to reveal the location of the Black Fortress. As he speaks, he loses the last of the sand and dies. The group captures and rides magical Fire Mares to reach the Black Fortress. The Slayers at the Fortress kill Rhun, while Rell sacrifices himself to hold open the crushing spaceship doors long enough to allow the others to enter. Quain, Nennog, and Kegan are killed as they make their way through the fortress. Ergo transforms into a tiger to save Titch from a Slayers' attack. Colwyn, Torquil, Bardolph, and Oswyn are trapped inside a large dome. The latter three fall through an opening and are trapped between walls studded with huge spikes, which kill Bardolph. Colwyn breaches the dome and finds Lyssa. He attacks the Beast with the Glaive, which becomes embedded in the Beast's body. With nothing to defend themselves, Lyssa and Colwyn quickly finish their wedding ritual. This gives them the power to manipulate fire, with which Colwyn slays the Beast. The Beast's death frees Torquil and Oswyn, and they rejoin Colwyn, Lyssa, Ergo and Titch. The survivors make their way out of the crumbling fortress, which is pulled into space. As the heroes return home, Ynyr repeats the prophecy that the son of the queen and king shall rule the galaxy.

In 1865, at the conclusion of the American Civil War, Richmond, Virginia is in ruins. The CSS Texas, captained by Mason Tombs is loaded with the last of the Confederacy 's gold to keep it from Union forces before disappearing. In present day Mali, there is a civil war between dictator General Kazim and the Tuareg people. In Nigeria, WHO doctors Eva Rojas and Frank Hopper investigate a disease affecting people who have been in Mali. Zakara, a corrupt Tuareg, tries to murder Eva, but she is rescued by Dirk Pitt, from the National Underwater and Marine Agency, who was diving nearby. Dirk gets a gold Confederate coin found in the Niger, a clue to the location of the long-lost Texas. He borrows his boss Sandecker's yacht to search for it. His partners Al Giordino and Rudi Gunn from NUMA accompany him. They first transport Eva and Hopper to Mali so they can continue investigating the disease, then continue up the Niger. While taking water samples, they discover red algae, which puzzles them as it is not usually found in fresh water. Kazim, with businessman Yves Massarde, try to stop the doctors from discovering the source of the disease. Kazim sends men to attack the yacht. Dirk, Al and Rudi survive, but the yacht is destroyed. Rudi leaves to get help while Dirk and Al go to rescue the doctors. Kazim's men track down the doctors and kill Hopper. Dirk and Al rescue Eva. As they are trying to leave Mali, they are captured by the Tuareg insurgents. Convincing the group that they are hunted by Kazim, their leader, Modibo, shows Eva his people dying from the disease she is following, which she determines is a waterborne toxin with no available treatment or cure. Al stumbles into a cave with a painting showing the ironclad Texas. Dirk believes that the Texas became stranded when the river dried up and the same river that carried the ship now runs underground. Following the river bed, they stumble upon Massarde's solar plant, which they discover is the source of the contamination. Meanwhile, Rudi and Sandecker have deduced that chemicals are creating the red algae and seeping slowly towards the Atlantic Ocean, where they will expand rapidly upon entering salt water and kill ocean life worldwide. Despite this, the US government is reluctant to intervene. Dirk, Al and Eva infiltrate the solar power plant on an inbound train. However, Massarde and Zakara capture them, keep Eva, and send Dirk and Al in a truck to Kazim. Dirk and Al escape in the middle of the desert and rebuild a plane wreck into a land yacht; make contact with Sandecker by telephone, they learn of the impending disaster. Dirk and Al return to the solar plant, with Modibo's help. To cover up the existence of the waste, Massarde plans to destroy it with explosives. Fearing the plant's destruction would guarantee worldwide water contamination, Al goes to remove the explosives while Dirk tries to rescue Eva. Dirk kills Zakara after a fight, but Massarde escapes via helicopter. Al successfully neutralizes the explosives. The three leave the plant in an Avions Voisin C-28 stolen from Kazim by Modibo; the general pursues them in an attack helicopter, with his army following. A series of explosions along the dry river bed reveals the wreckage of the Texas. The trio hides in the armored ship, but Kazim's helicopter uses armour-piercing ammunition. Using one of the Texas ' s cannons, they manage to destroy the helicopter, killing Kazim. Modibo arrives with Tuareg reinforcements, forcing Kazim's army to surrender. The plant is shut down, stopping the source of toxic waste. Sandecker agrees to work covertly for the US government in exchange for NUMA funding. The Texas gold is left with Modibo's people. It is implied that Massarde is poisoned by Carl, an undercover CIA agent, while Dirk and Eva start a relationship.