Three young astronomers are baffled once the newest team member discovers radio signals of a seemingly impossible origin on 1420.163 MHz, in the water hole. After an unexplained power surge deletes crucial recordings, the team members unite and discover that the radio signals resolve to a response to the Arecibo message, a message beamed into space via radio waves in 1974, broadcast by a spacecraft in low Earth orbit using a cloaking system that renders the craft invisible on the visual spectrum but visible in infrared. After the team race to a local radio telescope array to get a new battery when a low battery threatens to halt their investigation, it turns out that the team were the first to receive and identify the message. At the finale, SETI coordinates a global message to be beamed to the craft: "Welcome to Earth", at which point the craft decloaks.

The pharmaceutical company Aston Laboratories sends biochemist Dr. Rae Crane into the Amazon rainforest to locate researcher Robert Campbell, after his wife (and research partner) abandons him. Crane is bringing equipment and supplies but Campbell is upset the research partner is not forthcoming. He tries to send Crane home but she demurs, as she has been assigned to determine whether Campbell's research deserves continued funding. Campbell has found a " cure for cancer ", but attempts to synthesize the compound have failed. With supplies of the successful serum running low, Campbell isolates a derivative of a species of flower from which the formula can be synthesized and with Crane's help is determined to find its source. Campbell earns the title " medicine man " of the village by giving a boy with a stomach ache Alka-Seltzer, insulting the real medicine man and driving him deep into the forest. A logging company is building a road headed straight for the village, threatening to expose the native population to potentially lethal foreign pathogens, as has happened before. In fact, Campbell's wife left him because he could not forgive himself for the tragedy. Imana, a small boy appears with malignant neoplasms and Campbell, Crane, Imana and his father Jahausa set out in search of Campbell's predecessor, a medicine man from whom Campbell once acquired his knowledge of flowers. Upon encountering Campbell's entourage, the medicine man flees in fear. Though he is reluctant to pursue the man further, Crane convinces him circumstances demand that he must. Campbell rescues Crane from a fall, then locates the medicine man, whom he is compelled to fight in order to heal the medicine man's wounded pride and gain further necessary information. Unfortunately, the medicine man reveals that the flowers have no "juju"—power to heal. Jahausa and Imana agree to return another time. Back at the village, Crane initially refuses to allow Campbell to inoculate Imana with the last of the serum until more can be synthesized. But when Imana's condition worsens, she gives in and Imana is inoculated. The next morning, Imana is better but the village is in tumult. The logging road is nearly finished. Campbell appeals to the company's workers to halt construction until he can conclude his research but it refuses. In desperation and after new samples fail to contain the missing compound, Crane runs the chromatograph one more time and accidentally discovers that the source of the cure is not the flower but a species of rare ant indigenous to the rainforest. Campbell demands the construction stop. A fight results and a bulldozer catches fire, destroying the village and the research station along with many acres of rainforest. The next day, Crane promises to send Campbell new equipment and the research assistant he'd originally requested. She is about to return home when she meets the medicine man. He symbolically passes on his mantle to Campbell. Crane accepts an invitation to continue working with Campbell in exchange for recognition for co-discovering the source of the compound.

In 1968, English businessman Donald Crowhurst is inspired by Sir Francis Chichester to compete in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, a single-handed, round-the-world yacht race. Though only an amateur sailor, Crowhurst believes that technology and gumption will enable him to succeed in a custom trimaran, thus ensuring financial security for his wife and young children. As delays and costs mount, however, Crowhurst is forced to sign promissory notes pledging his company and home to his main sponsor Stanley Best, should he fail to finish. Barely ready in time for the race, Crowhurst must complete the race or lose everything he holds dear. During his trip in the Teignmouth Electron he attempts to give an optimistic version of events to both his family and press agent, but inwardly feels under pressure due to his financial situation, physical danger and loneliness. The film cuts between his voyage and scenes at home where his wife Clare is attempting to deal with the situation. To make matters worse for Crowhurst, his boat is damaged, making his journey forward extremely risky. He begins to falsify his records, greatly exaggerating how far he has sailed each day. Crowhurst decides to be vague in his communications, hinting to the newspapers that he is rounding the cape of Africa, while instead sailing slowly and attempting to go unnoticed before returning home. He surreptitiously lands in Argentina to repair the boat. At home, his apparent success is bringing significant press attention. Robin Knox-Johnston completes the race, but Crowhurst’s false accounts suggest that he will finish the fastest as all other sailors but one have dropped out of the race. Crowhurst slows down his return trip to avoid the attention that finishing fastest would bring, knowing that scrutiny would reveal he had fabricated his earlier location reports. Upon learning that the other sailor still in the race has also dropped out because of his false records, he becomes overwhelmed with guilt and fear. He starts to lose his mind and begins to hallucinate and imagines seeing his wife who he confesses to. As his mental health fails, so does his physical health and he is oblivious to harming himself as he attempts to stay occupied by maintaining the radio. Meanwhile the vessel drifts. As his family, the press and public expectantly wait for his return, he loses all control of his mind and his situation and in despair realises he cannot go home and only has one way out. His vessel is eventually found adrift without Crowhurst onboard. It is not clear if he has jumped or fallen overboard. The authorities deduce from his records that he has lied about his progress during his journey. In the closing credits it states that Crowhurst‘s body was never found and that he was at sea for 7 months and completed 13,000 miles. Robin Knox-Johnston was the only sailor to finish the race and he donated his prize money to Crowhurst‘s family.

The characters drive to a remote location to hike at a site marked "Wilderness Trail". As they start, they see some other hikers passing by. In order to not be bothered by these hikers, they decide to go off-trail. After some walking, talking, and an impromptu foot race, they decide to head back. Before long, they realize that they are lost. That night, they build a campfire. Over the next couple of days, the two hikers wander through the wilderness without food or water. They try to split up for a while, retrace their steps and follow some animal tracks, all to no avail. They grow increasingly irritated with each other as the situation becomes dire. They eventually find themselves slowly walking mostly in silence through a desert. They finally collapse due to fatigue and dehydration. The weaker of the two (Affleck) proclaims that he is "leaving" and reaches towards Damon's character. Damon's character rolls on top of Affleck and wordlessly strangles him before collapsing again. After some time, Damon's character awakens and realizes that a highway is not far away. In the final sequence, he is badly sunburned but watches the passing landscape from the car of the father and son who have seemingly rescued him.

In a remote underwater facility, doctors Susan McCallister and Jim Whitlock are conducting research on mako sharks to help in the reactivation of dormant human brain cells like those found in Alzheimer's patients. After one of the sharks escapes the facility and attempts to attack a boat full of young adults, financial backers send corporate executive Russell Franklin to investigate the facility. Susan and Jim prove their research is working by testing a specific protein complex isolated from the brain tissue of their largest shark, which suddenly bites off Jim's arm upon awakening in the laboratory. Tower operator Brenda Kerns calls a helicopter that flies through heavy rain and strong winds to evacuate Jim. As Jim is being airlifted on a stretcher, the cable jams, and he is dropped into the shark pen. The largest shark grabs the stretcher, which is still attached to the cable, and uses it to pull the helicopter into the tower; the resulting explosions kill Brenda and the helicopter pilots while severely damaging the facility. Susan, Russell, shark wrangler Carter Blake, marine biologist Janice Higgins, and engineer Tom Scoggins witness the shark smash Jim's stretcher against the laboratory's main window and shatter it, drowning Jim and flooding the facility. They go to the facility's wet porch, where they plan to take a submersible to the surface. Susan confesses that she and Jim genetically engineered the sharks to increase their brain size as they were not naturally large enough to harvest sufficient amounts of the protein complex, breaking protocol and making the sharks much smarter and deadlier. In the flooded kitchen, cook Sherman "Preacher" Dudley hides in the oven from a stray shark that eats his pet parrot. The shark accidentally causes a gas leak from the oven while trying to break into it, and Preacher sneaks away and kills it by setting off an explosion with his lighter. When the group reaches the wet porch, they discover that the submersible has been damaged and is unsuitable for use. While delivering a monologue emphasizing the need for group unity, Russell is dragged into the submersible pool by the largest shark and devoured. The remaining crew opts to climb up the elevator shaft at the risk of destabilizing the pool. As they climb, explosive tremors cause the ladder to break. Janice loses her grip and falls into the water. Despite Carter's attempt to save her, a shark drags her under and devours her. The rest of the group moves on and encounters Preacher. Carter and Tom go to the flooded laboratory to activate a control panel that drains a stairway to the surface, while Susan heads to her room to collect her research materials. Carter and Tom reach the control panel, but the largest shark storms in, rips Tom apart, and damages the controls. In her room, Susan encounters another shark and electrocutes it with a power cable, accepting that she had to destroy her research in the process. Carter, Susan, and Preacher regroup and go to a decompression chamber. They swim to the surface while using oxygen tanks to bait the last shark into an attack. Upon reaching the surface, Preacher is grabbed by the shark and suffers injuries to his leg, but the shark releases him when he stabs it in the eye with his crucifix necklace. Carter realizes that the sharks have been manipulating them to methodically flood the facility so that they can ram their way through the fences at the surface and escape into the world. To keep the final shark from escaping, the three make a plan to blow it up by shooting it with a harpoon and connecting the harpoon's wire to a battery, sending a massive electric current to an explosive charge in the harpoon. Feeling guilty over causing the entire situation, Susan uses herself as bait without telling the others, cutting her hand before diving into the water. She distracts the shark with her blood, but is unable to get out of the water in time and is devoured, despite Carter's efforts to save her. Carter grabs onto the shark's dorsal fin, and Preacher shoots it with the harpoon, which accidentally pierces Carter's thigh and pins him to the shark. Carter nevertheless orders Preacher to connect the wire to the battery, and manages to free himself mere seconds before the shark rams through the fence, where it explodes as it tries to escape. Carter resurfaces and swims to shore, reuniting with Preacher. Moments later, as they sit on the edge, they see a rescue boat approaching the sinking facility. Preacher wryly advises Carter to stop dangling his legs in the water, which he immediately does.

A joint British–American plan is devised to steal the MiG-31 "Firefox", a highly advanced Soviet fighter jet. Capable of Mach 6 hypersonic flight, the Firefox is invisible to radar and carries weaponry controlled by human thought, threatening to give the Soviets a military advantage over the West. Retired U.S. Air Force Major Mitchell Gant —an experienced pilot, Vietnam veteran, ex-member of an aggressor squadron, and former prisoner of war—is deemed well-suited for the task, despite his affliction with " delayed stress syndrome ". Air Force Captain Buckholz makes an unannounced helicopter trip to Gant's home in Alaska and explains the mission. Gant has two further advantages: he speaks Russian, thanks to his Russian mother, and will be aided by a network of Soviet dissidents, three of whom are scientists working on the fighter plane itself. His mission, as directed by the British–American team and arranged by the S.I.S., is to infiltrate the Soviet Union, steal the Firefox, and fly it back to friendly territory for analysis. Kenneth Aubrey, the British spymaster guiding the plan, briefs Gant in London. Gant enters Moscow disguised as Leon Sprague, a businessman and heroin smuggler. Gant and the dissidents make a rendezvous with the real Sprague but, to the shock of Gant, one of them kills Sprague and plants Gant's false identification papers on the corpse. Gant assumes several identities during his mission. He is questioned by a KGB agent in a metro station, but blows his cover and kills the agent in a fight, barely escaping the station afterward. While the KGB is concerned about the Firefox, they do not yet know who Gant is. Aided by the dissidents, Gant remains one step ahead of the KGB and reaches the air base at Bilyarsk, where the Firefox prototype is under heavy guard. The dissidents working on the Firefox help Gant infiltrate the base. Pyotr Baranovich, one of the dissident scientists, briefs Gant about the aircraft and warns that there is a second prototype in the hangar. A fire will destroy the second plane and cause a diversion, allowing Gant to hijack the first plane. Gant knocks out Lt. Colonel Yuri Voskov, a Soviet pilot assigned to perform a test flight while the Soviet First Secretary visits. Alone with the unconscious Voskov, Gant decides to spare his life. The KGB finally learns Gant's identity, but it is too late. Although the scientists start the fire, the second prototype survives. Baranovich is singled out by Soviet personnel and draws a pistol, managing to shoot one of the guards before he is gunned down. As the commotion unfolds, Gant boards the Firefox and taxis out of the hangar. Colonel Kontarsky orders his men to open fire, but Gant successfully takes off. The British–American team, monitoring Soviet communications, realize that he is airborne. The Soviet First Secretary contacts Gant and tells him to return the plane. After Gant refuses, he orders the plane destroyed. Gant begins flying south to confuse his pursuers, then turns north. He narrates his actions on the cockpit voice recorder while the Soviets frantically try to stop him. General Vladimirov plans a trap for the Firefox, but Gant destroys a Soviet plane instead, and the First Secretary berates Vladimirov. Gant engages a homing device en route to a U.S. submarine, which will refuel him after he lands on the polar ice pack. A Soviet ship launches missiles, but none hit the plane. Gant reaches the submarine, whose crew refuel and rearm the Firefox. However, Gant's decision to let Voskov live has consequences—the Soviet pilot flies the second prototype, with orders to intercept him in the North Cape area. Gant is flying home when Voskov appears, engaging him in a dogfight. After a hard-fought battle, Gant fires a rearward missile with the aircraft's thought-control system, and Voskov's plane is destroyed. Gant continues his flight to safety.

In 2018, an American crewed mission lands on the Moon. The lander carries two astronauts, one of them an African-American model, James Washington, specifically chosen to aid the U.S. President's re-election (various "Black to the Moon" posters are seen, extolling the new landing). Upon landing on the far side of the Moon, they encounter the descendants of Nazis who escaped to the Moon. Washington is taken captive after the other astronaut is killed. Nazi mad scientist Doktor Richter examines Washington and obtains his smartphone, which he later recognizes as having more computing power than their 1940s-style computers, enabling its use as a control unit to complete their space battleship Götterdämmerung. When Richter strives to demonstrate his Wunderwaffe to the current Führer, Wolfgang Kortzfleisch, the phone's battery is quickly exhausted. Nazi commander Klaus Adler, seeking to marry Richter's daughter Renate, an Earth specialist, embarks in a flying saucer to collect more such computers on Earth. He takes with him Washington, who has been " Aryanized " by Doktor Richter using an " albinizing " drug. Upon landing in New York City, they discover that Renate has stowed away with them. They abandon Washington after he connects them with the President's campaign adviser, Vivian Wagner, who, in a parody of a scene from Downfall had raged at her staff for their inability to create effective marketing to improve The President's ratings. Adler and Renate energize the President's re-election campaign using Nazi-style rhetoric. Renate is unaware of Adler's ambition to rule the world. Later, Kortzfleisch interprets Adler's lack of communication as treachery. He commands a much larger fleet of flying saucers and giant Zeppelin -like spacecraft called Siegfrieds which tow asteroids as missiles. Renate finds a now homeless Washington on the street, and together they watch The Great Dictator. From this, Renate realizes the Nazis' true intentions and that Adler intends global genocide. Kortzfleisch lands on Earth and confronts Adler, but is killed by Adler and Vivian, who were beginning an intimate relationship. Adler declares himself the new Führer before returning to orbit in Kortzfleisch's flying saucer, deserting Vivian but taking her iPad. Afterwards, the Moon Nazis launch a blitzkrieg on New York City. The U.S. Air Force engage the flying saucers with some success. The United Nations assembles to discuss the Moon Nazi threat. The President appoints Vivian as commander of the secretly militarised spacecraft USS George W. Bush, which carries nuclear and directed-energy weapons, in blatant violation of the Outer Space Treaty. Vivian intends to get revenge on Adler, but is quickly outgunned, only to discover that every other nation (except Finland) has also broken the treaty and secretly armed their spacecraft. They dispatch them against the Nazi fleet and wipe out the Siegfrieds. Adler arrives in Kortzfleisch's flying saucer with the iPad to activate the Götterdämmerung. Renate and Washington travel in Adler's flying saucer, where Washington goes to disable the engines while Renate seeks out Adler. Meanwhile, the international space fleet damage the Nazis' Moon base and approach the Götterdämmerung which dwarfs them all. Commanding the Götterdämmerung, Adler destroys parts of the Moon to expose Earth to his line-of-fire. During the battle, Washington disconnects Vivian's iPad from the control panel of the Götterdämmerung, while Renate kills Adler before he can fire at Earth. Renate and Washington separately escape as the Götterdämmerung crashes into the Moon. The U.S. president congratulates Vivian from the UN session; whereupon Vivian discloses the presence of large tanks of helium-3 on the Moon, of which the President immediately claims on grounds that it ensures a millennium-long supply of energy. This enrages the other UN members, one of whom throws his shoes at her, inciting a large brawl. Meanwhile, the international space fleet turns on each other and every ship is destroyed in the process. At the damaged Moon base, Renate reunites with Washington, who has reverted his pigmentation back to normal. They kiss before a confused group of Nazi survivors. The final moments of the film show the Earth apparently during an international nuclear war. At the very end of the credits, the planet Mars is revealed with an artificial satellite in orbit.

Russian terrorist group Anarchy 99 acquires the biochemical weapon "Silent Night", presumed missing since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Undercover NSA agent Jim McGrath is assigned to recover the weapon, but is killed by Anarchy 99 at a Rammstein concert. NSA Agent Augustus Gibbons suggests sending Xander "XXX" Cage, an extreme sports professional wanted for unlawful protesting, citing his lack of ties to the United States government. Under Gibbons' supervision, Cage passes two tests, one involving stopping a fake armed robbery, and another where he and two other potential candidates are dropped into Colombia where they're thrown into an actual conflict between the Cartel and the Colombian Army. Xander was given the options to take a job or go to prison, in which Xander reluctantly accepts the contract. In Prague, Cage meets his team, which includes his supervisor, Czech agent Milan Sova. While scouting an Anarchy 99 party, Cage identifies Sova as a police officer, earning him favor with the group and catching the attention of the leader Yorgi. Cage asks Yorgi about purchasing high end sports cars, and Yorgi's girlfriend and lieutenant Yelena, gives Cage an account number. Gibbons calls Cage about changes to the plan, but is impressed when he gives them information provided by Kolya, Yorgi's star-struck younger brother. Tech-specialist Agent Toby Shavers then provides Cage with gadgets, including a revolver with special ammunition, binoculars that can see through walls and explosives disguised as bandages. As Cage attends the car deal he made with Yorgi, Sova attempts to intercede. Using the special ammunition, Cage fakes Sova's death. Having earned Yorgi's trust, Cage joins Anarchy 99. After a dance party at one of his nightclubs, Yorgi brings Cage back to a castle that serves as Anarchy 99's headquarters. Cage, while searching for the biochemical weapon, catches Yelena investigating Yorgi's secret safe. He takes her to a nearby restaurant to discuss the matter and reveals his true identity. Sova betrays Cage to Yorgi, so he sends his trusted sniper Kirill to kill him. While watching the pair, Kirill, who is in love with Yelena, warns her. As Cage and Yelena stage a fight, the NSA suddenly appears to capture him, and Yelena is taken back to Anarchy 99. Cage meets with Gibbons, who demands he return to America, as his cover is blown and special forces are planning to assault the castle. He refuses, fearing for Yelena's life and bitter that Sova blew his cover. Cage sneaks into Yorgi's castle and follows him into a secret underground laboratory. Overhearing his plan to launch "Silent Night" from the water-borne drone Ahab; he first tests the weapon on the scientists who developed it, to Cage and Yelena's horror. Cage flees the area after killing Kolya. At his hideout, Sova is waiting for him, now with Yorgi. Yelena saves Cage, revealing herself to be an abandoned undercover Russian Federal Security Service agent. Cage relays Yorgi's plans to the NSA in return for Yelena's asylum. Against orders, Shavers heavily arms Cage's car, who then parachutes from a plane on a snowboard near Anarchy 99's communication tower. The avalanche he starts destroys the tower, but he is captured by Yorgi, who already knew Yelena's true identity. As Yorgi prepares to kill them, the special forces attack. Cage and Yelena free themselves, but Yorgi launches Ahab before Cage kills him. The Czech military prepares to destroy Ahab with airstrikes, though this will release some of the biochemical agent. Cage and Yelena take his heavily modified car, to catch up to Ahab. Cage harpoons and disables the weapon moments before it goes off. Cage and Yelena are recovered, and Gibbons follows through on his promises. Sometime later, the couple is relaxing in Bora Bora when Gibbons contacts him for another mission, but Cage ignores him.

Seventeen-year-old Joshua "Josh" McGuire, expedition bank-roller Carl and his girlfriend, Victoria "Vic", travel to the Esa'ala Cave, an underwater cave exploration site in Papua New Guinea. Josh's father, Frank, a master diver, has already established a forward base camp at a lower level inside the cave, where the team has been exploring for weeks. The team below prepares to dive into an unexplored area of the system. While exploring the entrance to the new system, Judes loses use of her air mask, forcing Frank to buddy breathe. Judes panics and tries to keep the mask on, but Frank forces the mask off of her knowing he will not have enough air to make it back to the team. As Judes drowns, Josh watches on a monitor at "forward camp" and presumes the worst of his father. Frank reveals that Judes had dived in an exhausted state since they had to retrieve the extra bailout tanks, a task Josh did not do. Meanwhile, their above-ground crew realises that a big storm is preparing to hit their location. They attempt to warn the team below, but are unsuccessful. Wanting to return to the surface, Josh climbs back with Luko, Liz, and J.D, but water begins rushing in from their exit. The storm has turned into a cyclone, causing flash floods that begin to fill the cave. As J.D. and Liz make their way up through "the elevator" (an area leading up to the main entrance of the cave), Josh is unable to leave his father and the dive team behind to their doom and turns back with Luko. They discover that Frank and the team have already evacuated their camp and are assisting Victoria as she climbs up out of the cavern. Josh leaps in to help, strapping a rope around a nearby boulder and forming a belay. Unfortunately, the boulder begins to give way. The water rushes through and forces Victoria and Josh to fall back down into the flooded base camp. Luko is injured when the boulder breaks loose, sealing the shaft and throwing him back down into the cavern. He is swept into an underwater tunnel. The team decides to use the unexplored tunnel as an escape route from the flooding cavern. Before the team can leave, a severely injured and mutilated Luko surfaces. Seeing that his friend is in pain and near death, Frank mercifully drowns him. The team makes it through to the other side of the system. Having refused to wear Judes' old wetsuit, Victoria suffers from the cold water. Meanwhile, George—an experienced, veteran diver—has become ill due to the dive and is dying, unbeknownst to the rest of the team. The team continues through the system, following the flow of water out toward the sea. George realises that he cannot continue and hides himself so as not to burden the rest of the team. The team arrives at a seemingly dead end. A hole in the bottom of the cave separates them from the other side of their path. Josh fishes a line across and begins to transfer their gear and each other. As Victoria begins to make her way across she catches her hair in her rope gear; she loses her grip, leaving her hair the only thing holding her weight. Using her knife, she attempts to cut away the hair, but severs her rope and falls to her death. At the sight of Victoria's death, Carl becomes emotionally unstable. In a fit of panic, he steals the last remaining rebreather and disappears into the tunnel. Josh and Frank find another way out through a crevasse in the cavern. The tunnel leads them to a sunlit cavern where an unidentified WWII Japanese tank collapsed through the surface years ago. Unfortunately, the hole in the roof where the tank fell is the only opening and they are unable to climb out. They spend the rest of the day there and proceed back into the cave by night. They discover Carl, whose state of mind has worsened, having found Victoria's corpse. Carl attempts to murder Frank for Victoria's death but Josh separates the two. Frank has been gravely injured, having fallen on a stalagmite that punctured his back. When Carl wakes, he realizes the gravity of his actions and solemnly disappears into the tunnel. In pain, Frank requests that Josh drown him. Josh reluctantly does so, and swims into the tunnel. He encounters Carl, who has already drowned looking for the exit. Just as he begins to lose hope, Josh discovers a way out through the cave to open ocean. He emerges from the water and crawls onto the beach, where he is discovered by fishermen.

Michael Baskin is an average 11-year-old boy. His father, Billy Baskin, is a struggling artist and temporary sole caretaker of the children, while his wife attends to the estate of her recently deceased father in Australia. Upon hearing that an abandoned mansion has recently burned down, Michael and his friend Connie decide to explore the remains. Outside the mansion, Connie dares Michael to take a look inside, leading to a frightening encounter with the ghosts of its homeless inhabitants who had died in the fire. Michael does not know this yet, but his fearsome run-in with the ghosts has given him a mysterious illness, "The Fright." Michael wakes up the next morning to find that "The Fright" has made him lose his hair. After a failed attempt with a wig, the ghosts visit Michael in his sleep and give him the recipe of a magical formula for hair growth, the main ingredient of which is peanut butter. Michael's first attempt to make the formula is thwarted when his father and sister dispose of it, thinking he was creating something to ingest. The ghosts return the following night, giving themselves a second chance to repay him for giving his money to some homeless people. They also give Michael special instructions on not adding too much peanut butter, which will result in dreadful results. Michael successfully makes the formula but ignores their instructions and wakes up the next morning to find that his new hair has begun to grow super fast. After only a few minutes, he has grown a full head of hair. Suspicious, Connie confronts Michael about his unusual ability. When Michael reveals his concoction, Connie decides to apply some to his pubic area in an attempt to create the illusion that he is going through puberty. Connie soon discovers that the joke is on him. Soon, Michael and Connie's hair grows to such lengths that it becomes a nuisance for the school and their classmates, resulting in their suspensions. While Michael searches for a solution, Connie discovers that the hair will stop growing by yelling at it. The art teacher at Michael's school, the Signor, frightens children and forbids them from using their imagination. After getting fired from the school, the Signor finds out about Michael's condition and kidnaps him (and many other neighborhood children) to make magic paint brushes from Michael's ever-growing hair, in which he subdues Michael with a knockout drug. The kidnapped children are put to work under harsh conditions. The paintbrushes are so powerful that they paint whatever their user imagines without need for detail or neatness. Michael's sister, Suzie, and Connie discover the Signor's magical paintbrush factory and try to rescue Michael and the other kids. Connie tries to use force, but Signor and his dog James overpower him. Instead, Connie tricks the Signor into painting a picture of the abandoned mansion. Connie then dares him to investigate inside, leading "The Fright" to be passed on from Michael to the Signor. The Signor, now bald, escapes from the haunted house and chases the children, locking them up. Just as Connie is about to escape with Michael, Susan and their dad find the factory, and the local police arrest the Signor. The film ends with the family reunited, the mother returning home, and Michael's hair no longer growing out of control.

In an unspecified future, space adventurer Barbarella is sent by the Earth's president to retrieve Durand Durand from the Tau Ceti planetary system. Durand is the inventor of a laser-powered weapon, the positronic ray, which Earth's leaders fear will cause mass destruction. Barbarella crash-lands on Tau Ceti's 16th planet and is knocked unconscious by two children. They bring her to the wreckage of a spaceship, where they bind and attack her using mechanical dolls with razor-sharp teeth. Barbarella is rescued by Mark Hand, the Catchman who patrols the ice looking for errant children. Hand tells her that Durand is in the city of Sogo and offers her a ride to her ship in his ice boat. When Barbarella offers to repay him, Hand asks her to have sex with him. Barbarella is confused since Earthlings no longer have intimate physical contact; instead, they take pills "until full rapport is achieved." Hand suggests having sex in his bed instead. Barbarella relents and enjoys it but admits that she understands why sex is considered primitive and distracting on Earth. Barbarella leaves the planet and crashes into a labyrinth inhabited by outcasts exiled from Sogo. She is found by Pygar, a blind angel who has lost the will to fly. Pygar introduces her to Professor Ping, who offers to repair her ship. Pygar flies Barbarella to Sogo, a den of violence and debauchery, after she restores his will to fly by having sex with him. Pygar and Barbarella are captured by Sogo's Black Queen and her concierge. The concierge describes the Mathmos: living energy in liquid form, powered by evil thoughts and used as an energy source in Sogo, which sits atop it. Pygar endures a mock crucifixion and Barbarella is placed in a cage, where hundreds of birds prepare to attack her. She is rescued by Dildano, leader of the local underground, who joins in her pursuit of Durand. Dildano gives her an invisible key to the Black Queen's chamber of dreams, where she sleeps. After returning to Sogo, Barbarella is promptly recaptured by the concierge. He places her in the "Excessive Machine" which induces fatal sexual pleasure. She outlasts the machine and makes it go haywire. The concierge, shocked at its destruction, reveals himself as Durand Durand. Barbarella is surprised since he is only 25 years old but has aged tremendously—a side effect of the Mathmos. Durand wants to overthrow the Black Queen and become Sogo's new leader, which requires using his positronic ray and gaining access to the Queen's chamber of dreams. Durand takes Barbarella to the chamber and locks her inside with the invisible key. She sees the Queen, who warns that if two people are in the chamber, the Mathmos will devour them. Durand seizes control of Sogo as Dildano and his rebels begin their attack on the city. The Black Queen retaliates by releasing the Mathmos to destroy Sogo. Because of Barbarella's innocence, the Mathmos forms a protective bubble around her and the Black Queen and safely expels them. They find Pygar, who clutches them in his arms and flies off. When Barbarella asks Pygar why he saved a tyrant, he tells her that an angel has no memory of the past.