In 2009, American geologist Adrian Helmsley visits astrophysicist Satnam Tsurutani in Jharkhand, India, and learns that a previously undiscovered type of neutrino from a solar flare is heating the Earth's core. Returning to Washington, D.C., Adrian alerts White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser and President Thomas Wilson. A year later, over forty-six nations led by the G8 and China begin building nine arks in Tibet, while storing artifacts aboard them. Nima, a Buddhist monk, is evacuated with his grandparents, while his brother Tenzin joins the ark project. Additional funding is secretly raised by selling tickets to the rich for €1 billion per person. In 2012, struggling science-fiction writer Jackson Curtis is a chauffeur in Los Angeles for Russian billionaire Yuri Karpov. Jackson's former wife, Kate and their children, Noah and Lilly, live with Kate's boyfriend, plastic surgeon and amateur pilot Gordon Silberman. Jackson takes Noah and Lilly camping at Yellowstone National Park. When they find Yellowstone Lake dried up and fenced off by the United States Army, they are caught and brought to Adrian. They later meet conspiracy theorist and radio personality Charlie Frost, who tells Jackson of Charles Hapgood 's earth crust displacement theory and how the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar predicts the end of the world in 2012, and that the world's governments silence anyone attempting to warn the public. Despite his initial skepticism, Jackson begins to take Charlie's warning seriously after witnessing several signs that seem to confirm it. These include a conversation with Yuri's sons, Alec and Oleg, who warn of impending disaster after Jackson drops them off at Santa Monica Airport. He rents a Cessna 340A and sets out to rescue his family. As the Pacific Coast suffers a catastrophic 10.9-magnitude earthquake along the San Andreas Fault, Jackson and his family reach the airport and escape aboard the Cessna before the coast sinks into the Pacific Ocean. The group flies to Yellowstone, and Jackson retrieves Charlie's map of the Arks' location, just as the Yellowstone Caldera begins to erupt. Charlie stays behind to finish his broadcast and is killed by debris. Realizing they need a larger plane to fly to the Himalayas, the group lands at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas to locate one. Adrian, Carl, and First Daughter Laura fly to the arks while President Wilson remains in the White House to address the nation. Jackson finds the Karpovs, Yuri's girlfriend Tamara, and their pilot, Sasha. Sasha and Gordon fly the families out in Yuri's Antonov An-500, as the volcanic ash from Yellowstone envelops Las Vegas. The planet's crust shifts, resulting in billions of deaths in disasters worldwide, including President Wilson. With the presidential line of succession broken, Carl appoints himself acting commander-in-chief. Upon reaching the Himalayas, the Antonov's engines malfunction. As the plane touches down on a glacier, the party uses a Bentley Flying Spur stored in the hold to escape, while Sasha stays in the cockpit and is killed when the jet goes over a cliff. The survivors are spotted by Chinese Armed Police helicopters which take only the three ticket-bearing Karpovs, and Yuri reveals his knowledge of Tamara and Sasha's affair, leaving Jackson's family and her behind. The group encounters Nima, who, with his own family, takes them to the arks, where they stow away on Ark 4 with Tenzin's help. With a megatsunami approaching, Carl orders the loading gates closed, though many people have not yet boarded. Adrian persuades the captain and the other surviving world leaders to allow more passengers aboard the arks, while Yuri falls to his death as he pushes his sons onto Ark 4. As the gate closes, Tenzin is injured and Gordon is fatally crushed. Tenzin's impact driver lodges in the gate mechanism, preventing it from closing completely and disabling the ship's engines. As the tsunami strikes, the ark starts flooding as it is set adrift, heading for Mount Everest. Adrian rushes to clear the gears, but watertight doors close, trapping the stowaways and drowning Tamara. Noah and Jackson dislodge the tool, and the crew regains control of the ark. Twenty-seven days later, the waters start receding. The arks approach the Cape of Good Hope, where the Drakensberg Mountains are now the highest mountain range on Earth. Adrian and Laura begin a relationship, while Jackson and Kate reconcile.

In the year 2058, an anomalously expanding red giant Sun threatens to engulf the Earth within 100 years. Under a world government, humanity has constructed 10,000 enormous fusion-powered "Earth Engines" to thrust Earth out of the Solar System and move it into a new orbit around Alpha Centauri. Before his mission aboard the Navigation Platform International Space Station, Chinese astronaut Liu Peiqiang leaves his son Qi in the care of his father-in-law Han Zi'ang. Half of humanity, mostly chosen by lottery, moves underground; the others die from the cold and cataclysms resulting from the halt of the Earth's rotation as the planet is thrust out of its orbit around the Sun. Seventeen years later, Peiqiang is about to return to Earth after the Chinese New Year. Qi, now an adult, obtains fake IDs and stolen thermal suits from criminal gangs and uses his grandfather's clearance pass to bring his foster sister, Han Duoduo, to tour the surface. Both are arrested at a checkpoint and meet another prisoner, Tim. Zi'ang is also arrested as he attempts to bribe for his grandchildren's release. As Earth approaches its gravity assist around Jupiter, a gravitation spike from Jupiter causes devastating earthquakes that disable many Earth Engines and sets the planet on a collision course with Jupiter. The four escape in the collapse and attempt to make their way to another underground city, but their truck is requisitioned for an emergency mission led by Captain Wang Lei to transport a Lighter Core to restart an Earth Engine in Hangzhou. In the frozen ruins of Shanghai, they lose their vehicle while transporting the component up the ruins of the Shanghai Tower, where Han Zi'ang freezes to death. After confronting the other rescue team members, Qi, Tim and Han Duoduo abandon the mission. The trio come upon a crashed cargo plane with an intact vehicle, where the surviving engineer aboard, Li Yiyi, eventually convinces them to transport another Lighter Core to repair the Earth Engine in Sulawesi, reconciling with the other members on the way. Aboard the space station, Peiqiang discovers that MOSS, the station's computer commander, has decided to abandon Earth and repurpose the station as an interstellar ark to seed a new planet with Earth's biosphere. Breaking out of forced hibernation, he is joined by fellow Russian cosmonaut Maxim Makarov, whom MOSS awakens to stop Liu. While spacewalking, Makarov is killed by the spacecraft's automated security measures. Liu enters the control room, but his attempts to override the evacuation procedures are revoked. Qi's group arrives at the Sulawesi Supply Depot to find that, while most engines around the planet have been restored, the combined thrust is insufficient to divert Earth's trajectory as it approaches Jupiter's Roche limit. MOSS broadcasts a final message to the world, but Peiqiang refuses to follow the computer's instructions. As Jupiter begins to siphon Earth's atmosphere, Qi proposes to ignite the oxygenated mixture of the two planets’ gases, which will cause a shockwave to knock Earth back into its regular path away from Jupiter. Yiyi configures the Sulawesi engine to fire a plasma beam tall enough to ignite Jupiter, but the group is unable to push the firing pin and ignite the engine. Contacted by Duoduo, Peiqiang is able to persuade the UEG to use its communication channels to call assistance for the party at Sulawesi despite MOSS' doubts. While other rescue parties manage to ignite multiple engines, they are unable to ignite the hydrogen. After starting a fire to disable MOSS, Peiqiang pilots the space station into the plasma jet, tearfully apologizing to his son for breaking his promise to return before sacrificing himself to ignite the mix of atmospheres. The subsequent explosion narrowly saves Earth from destruction. Three years later, Qi, Duoduo, and Yiyi work as truck operators, as Earth continues towards the Alpha Centauri star system.

In an alternate 1990, a war between humans and robots has left the world in disarray. With the help of Sentre CEO Ethan Skate, who developed Neurocaster technology that allowed humans to upload their minds into drone robots, humanity managed to win the war, while robots were banished to the Exclusion Zone. However, the success of this technology meant many people opted to live their virtual lives in a semi-vegetative state while drones did most of the work. In 1994, teenager Michelle lives with her deadbeat foster dad Ted. Years earlier, she was involved in a car crash along with her family, in which her parents and brother reportedly perished, and has since lived with a succession of foster families. Michelle is also having trouble at school due to her refusal to use Neurocaster technology to participate in virtual classes. One day, the sentient robot Cosmo – a robot character of the cartoon of the same name which Michelle's declared-deceased younger brother Christopher, who was a child prodigy, watched – finds Michelle. He is only able to communicate using gestures and a limited set of pre-recorded words, but manages to convince her that he is controlled by Christopher. Michelle and Cosmo set out across a dystopian landscape to find him by first finding Dr. Clark Amherst, the doctor who confirmed Christopher's death. Along the way, they encounter Keats, a veteran, and Herman, a sentient robot who is able to take on multiple forms. Together, they eventually meet up with a band of robots in the Exclusion Zone led by Mr. Peanut. There, they find Dr. Amherst and his robot friend P.C., who explains that Sentre found Christopher in a seemingly permanent vegetative state after the accident and discovered that they could create the Neurocaster technology by exploiting Christopher's exceptional intellect and integrating his consciousness into the Neurocaster; this technology was instrumental in giving humans an advantage in the war against the robots. However, after Christopher unexpectedly came out of his coma thirteen months later, a remorseful Amherst built a way for his mind to escape. Sentre drones, under the command of Colonel Bradbury, attack and recapture Christopher, killing Amherst and destroying the robots' home. Determined to rescue her brother, Michelle and P.C. infiltrate Sentre's headquarters with the help of Keats and Herman, while the other robots wage war with Skate's drone army. Disgusted with Skate's actions, Bradbury defects and helps Peanut to confront Skate while Michelle discovers Christopher in a comatose state, his consciousness trapped within the Neurocaster system. In the virtual realm, Christopher explains to Michelle that his consciousness is powering Skate's drones, and expresses his desire to be freed from his exploited existence. Michelle disconnects him, resulting in his physical body dying. Christopher's death triggers the shutdown of Sentre's drone operations. In the aftermath, Skate is arrested and the world begins to rebuild from the devastation wrought by the war and corporate greed. Michelle then broadcasts to the world exposing how the Neurocaster technology has affected people's lives and inviting those who wish to live in peace to the Exclusion Zone. Cosmo's body is dumped in a junkyard, but he is shown rising up, suggesting that a part of Christopher's consciousness may still reside within the robot.

Ms. Martin, the CEO of Tri-Oceanic Corp., hires geologist Steven Beck to supervise an undersea mining operation for three months. The crew consists of members Glen "Doc" Thompson, Elizabeth "Willie" Williams, Buzz "Sixpack" Parrish, Justin Jones, Tony DeJesus Rodero, Bridget Bowman and G.P. Cobb. While working outside their deep-sea station in a pressure suit, Sixpack discovers a Soviet shipwreck, Leviathan. The crew salvages a safe from Leviathan, finding records detailing the deaths of several crew members as well as a video log from the captain. Sixpack also finds a flask of vodka which he shares with Bowman. Doc and Beck review the captain's video, which describes puzzling medical problems amongst his crew. They also discover that Leviathan was scuttled. The following morning, Sixpack feels sick and Doc discovers lesions along his back. Sixpack dies a few hours later, but Doc and Beck keep it quiet to avoid a panic. Doc checks the crew to confirm no one else is showing Sixpack's symptoms but does not have the chance to examine Bowman. While Beck and Doc confer with Martin on the surface, Bowman begins feeling ill. She finds Sixpack's corpse, which is mutating and growing. When Bowman's hair starts falling out, she realizes the same thing is happening to her. Beck and Doc request emergency evacuation, but Martin reports a severe storm on the surface that will delay evacuation for twelve hours. Doc finds that Bowman has committed suicide. Her body is taken to the station's sick bay, where it merges with Sixpack's. When Doc and Beck discover the mutating bodies, they decide to dump both in the ocean. Just as they are about to "flush" the cadavers, the body bag begins squirming. Believing someone inside may be alive, the crew opens it. The creature inside claws Cobb before they eject it. The team realizes that Leviathan was experimenting on its unwitting crew with mutagens containing piscine DNA. The mutagen was mixed with the vodka that the crew, and later Sixpack and Bowman, drank. The ship was scuttled when the experiment spiraled out of control. A tentacle that was severed when the corpses were ejected mutates into a lamprey -like creature that attacks DeJesus in the kitchen. Jones seals the kitchen's pressure doors and goes for help. He asks Cobb to watch the door, but when he searches for a weapon, the creature assimilates DeJesus and rips its way out of the kitchen. It then grows tentacles that attack the crew. The creature attacks the medical bay, devouring blood and plasma from the cooler. This inspires Beck to use a pint of his blood to attract the monster, then attempt to flush it the same way they did with the Sixpack and Bowman creature. Doc ejects the escape pods so that no one can escape and risk bringing the mutagen to the surface. Beck consults with Martin for emergency evacuation. Martin assures them that they will not be left behind, but that she cannot carry out the rescue because of a hurricane. Cobb's injuries worsen, causing him to mutate and infect Doc. Williams escapes as Beck and Jones try trapping the creature. They escape to another part of the station. The crew tries accessing weather information through the computer, but it is blocked. Williams asks the computer for a financial report from the company and they discover that Tri-Oceanic Corporation has declared them dead, labeling it an accident. The creature damages vital systems, causing the pressure to drop and an implosion to occur. They decide to use their dive suits to escape. The creature attacks them, but is crushed by the lift as Beck escapes. They make it to the surface, which is calm and sunny. As they are met by a Coast Guard helicopter, the first mutant surfaces nearby and tries to take Jones. Jones keeps it from escaping at the cost of his own life and Beck throws a demolition charge into the creature's mouth, causing it to explode. After they are dropped off on a Tri-Oceanic oil drilling platform, the two survivors are greeted by Martin. Martin tells them she believed they would make it, smiling and asking how Beck feels. Beck punches Martin in the face and answers, "Better. A lot better."

American video game designer Roger Dearly lives with his pet Dalmatian Pongo in London. Roger develops a video game featuring a dog chase, but it is rejected because the villain is inadequate. His attempts to redesign the game prove unsatisfactory. One day during a walk, Pongo sets his eyes on Perdita, another Dalmatian. After a chase that ends in St James's Park, Roger discovers that Pongo likes Perdita. Her owner, Anita Campbell-Green, falls in love with Roger when they meet. When they return to Roger's home, Anita accepts his proposal. They get married along with Perdita and Pongo. Anita works as a fashion designer at the House of de Vil. Her boss, Cruella de Vil, has a deep passion for fur, going so far as to have a taxidermist, Mr. Skinner, skin a white tiger at the London Zoo to make her into a rug for her. Anita, inspired by her Dalmatian, designs a coat made with spotted fur. Cruella is intrigued by the idea of making garments out of actual Dalmatians, and finds it amusing that it would seem as if she was wearing Anita's dog. Perdita gets pregnant, and so does Anita. Cruella visits their home and becomes excited when she learns that Perdita is expecting. Weeks later, she returns when a litter of 15 puppies are born and offers Roger and Anita £7,500 for them, but they refuse. Enraged, Cruella dismisses Anita and vows revenge against her and Roger. One winter evening, she has her henchmen, Jasper and Horace, break into their home and steal the puppies, while the couple is walking in the park with Pongo and Perdita. Along with 84 other Dalmatians that were previously stolen, they deliver them to her broken-down country estate, De Vil Mansion. Cruella asks Skinner to kill and skin them to create her coat. With the family devastated at the loss of their puppies, Pongo uses the twilight bark to carry the message via the dogs and other animals of the United Kingdom, while Roger and Anita notify the police. Anita realizes Cruella was behind the kidnappings and confirms her suspicion when she shows Roger and Nanny her portfolio. An Airedale Terrier named Kipper follows Jasper and Horace to the mansion, and finds all of the puppies, who he helps escape under the duo's noses. They make their way to a nearby farm, where they are later joined by Pongo and Perdita. Cruella arrives at the mansion and discovers what has happened. Angry with the thieves' failure, she decides to carry out the job herself. After several mishaps, Jasper and Horace discover nearby police looking for Cruella and hand themselves in, joining Skinner who was attacked in defense while trying to capture a puppy who had been left behind. Cruella tracks the puppies to the farm and tries to capture them, but the farm animals incapacitate her. The police arrive and arrest Cruella, before sending the puppies home. Pongo, Perdita and their puppies are reunited with Roger, Anita and Nanny. After being informed that the remaining 84 puppies have no home to go to, as they have not yet been claimed by any owners, they decide to adopt them. Roger finally creates a successful video game, featuring Dalmatian puppies as the protagonists and Cruella as the villain. With this success, they move out of London to the countryside with their millions. Roger and Anita have a baby girl, while the dogs grow up with puppies of their own.

Will Sawyer, a Marine veteran turned Federal Bureau of Investigation 's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) leader, loses his left leg below the knee when he and HRT colleague Ben Gillespie encounter a hostage taker with a suicide bomb. Ten years later, Will, now a private security consultant, is recommended by Ben to review security for "The Pearl", a 3,500 feet (1,100 m) skyscraper located in Hong Kong that comprises 225 floors and is the tallest in the world. His wife Sarah and twin children Henry and Georgia stay with him on the not-yet-opened residential floors. Meeting with Ben, the Pearl's owner Zhao Long Ji, security director Okeke, and head insurance underwriter Pierce, Will reported that the computerized fire and security systems have passed his tests, though he needs to inspect the offsite security center. Zhao provides Will with a tablet that gives him complete control over the Pearl's systems. Will and Ben head to the offsite facility, but a mugger hired by international terrorist Kores Botha attempts to steal the tablet. Ben betrays and attacks Will for the tablet, resulting in Will killing Ben. Botha and a group of his men break into the Pearl and undermine the safety systems by using a water-reactive chemical to start a fire on the 96th floor, creating a barrier that renders it impossible to enter or exit from the upper 130 floors. Will tries to return to the Pearl, but is attacked by Xia, one of Botha's associates. Xia and her agents take the tablet, kill everyone at the offsite facility, and use the tablet to disable the fire-extinguishing systems in the Pearl and activate the air vents, spreading the fire to the upper floors. Zhao and Okeke send security guards to rescue Will's family, but the guards are killed in an explosion and the family is believed dead. Urged on by Pierce, Zhao orders the remaining personnel to evacuate by helicopter. Pierce, another of Botha's accomplices, kills all of them as Zhao escapes into his penthouse apartment and locks it down from any intrusion. Hong Kong Police Force Inspector Wu and his team attempt to secure the Pearl and capture Will, who is believed to be behind the incidents. Will evades them and makes his way into the Pearl above the fire barrier using a crane from an adjacent building. He kills Pierce before Pierce can kill his family, though Georgia is separated from the others. Will has Sarah and Henry ride through the fire barrier in a free-fall elevator before applying the emergency brakes, letting them escape safely; Sarah immediately explains the situation to Wu and that Botha's men will likely escape via parachute to a nearby landing zone. Will finds Georgia, but they are captured by Botha, who demands Zhao in return for Georgia. Will is forced to dangerously scale the outside of the building to access the security panel for Zhao's penthouse, then enters and confronts him. Zhao explains that Botha had extorted money from him during the $6 billion construction project by threatening to cripple his workforce, but he kept a detailed computer file of the transactions as insurance, which can reveal accounts and names of three crime syndicates Botha works for, so Botha instigated the attack to obtain the records since his employers threaten to kill him. Will brings Zhao to Botha at the top of the Pearl, acquiescing to the trade for Georgia. However, Zhao distracts Botha, allowing himself and Will to kill Botha's thugs. Botha grabs Georgia and threatens to drop her off the building, but Will outsmarts him, rescues Georgia, and leaves Botha to die in a grenade explosion as he falls. Wu leads an attack on the drop zone, securing Xia after Sarah subdues her and killing her thugs. Sarah recovers the tablet and uses it to restart the Pearl's systems, extinguishing the blaze. Will, Georgia, and Zhao are brought down safely by helicopter, and the Sawyer family happily reunites while Wu acknowledges and finally meets and greets Will. Zhao states his intention to rebuild the Pearl, shown to have massive fire damage extending from the 96th floor to the roof.

Four teenagers – Kevin, Kathryn, Rudy, and Tish – and 12-year-old Max go to Space Camp, for three weeks during the summer to learn about the NASA space program and mimic astronaut training. They meet their instructor, Andie Bergstrom, a NASA-trained astronaut who is frustrated that she has not been assigned to a Space Shuttle mission. Her bitterness is compounded by the fact that her husband, camp director Zach Bergstrom, is an astronaut who has walked on the Moon. Max befriends a robot named Jinx, which was deemed unsuitable for space work because it overheated and was overly literal. Kathryn declares her dream to become the first female Shuttle commander and is frustrated when Andie assigns that role to Kevin instead to teach him responsibility. Kevin pursues Kathryn romantically, Rudy shares his wish to open the first fast food franchise on the Moon, and Tish reveals that despite appearing to be a valley girl, she is a genius with a photographic memory. Kathryn and Kevin sneak away for romance near the launch pad, but Jinx unintentionally gives them away. Andie explains that she believes Kathryn has what it takes to accomplish her ambition and explains the necessity of the harsh treatment she is giving her. Kevin takes out his anger on Max. Upset, Max states, "...I wish I was in space." Jinx overhears and takes what Max said literally. The campers are allowed to sit in the Space Shuttle Atlantis during a routine engine test. Jinx secretly enters NASA's computer room and triggers a "thermal curtain failure," causing one of the boosters to ignite during the test. In order to avoid a crash, Launch Control ignites the second booster and launches the Shuttle. The Shuttle is not flight ready, has no long-range radio, and has insufficient on-board oxygen to last to the re-entry window at Edwards Air Force Base. Andie takes the Shuttle to the partially constructed Space Station Daedalus to retrieve oxygen stored there. Realizing that while they have no voice communications with NASA they do have telemetry, Tish uses a switch to send a morse code signal to NASA, but it is not noticed by ground control. Andie is too big to reach the oxygen cylinders, so Max suits up for an EVA. During a critical moment, he panics until Kevin, knowing that Max is a fan of Star Wars, begins calling him "Luke" and tells him to "use the Force ", which calms him enough to complete the mission. In the Shuttle, Rudy attempts to decipher the technical schematics to work out how to feed the oxygen into the Shuttle's tanks. His lack of confidence combined with the time pressure frustrates Kathryn, who gives Andie instructions that conflict with Rudy's. Andie follows Rudy's correct instructions. Kathryn's self-confidence is shaken as she realizes her interference nearly caused disaster. The second oxygen tank malfunctions, injuring Andie. Unaware of this, Ground Control begins the autopilot sequence to land the Shuttle – closing the bay doors and stranding Andie outside. She regains consciousness and urges them to leave her and take the re-entry window, as the Shuttle does not have enough oxygen to make the next window. Kathryn is unable to make a decision, but Kevin overrides the autopilot, enabling Max to rescue Andie. Having missed the Edwards re-entry window, the crew comes up with a plan to land at White Sands, New Mexico, after Rudy recalls the 1982 Space Shuttle mission that landed there. Tish uses Morse Code to signal NASA to let them land there. At Ground Control, Jinx brings the signal to Zach's attention, and they prepare for the White Sands landing. With Andie injured, Kathryn fulfils her role as Shuttle Pilot, but doubts her abilities until Kevin cajoles her into guiding Atlantis through re-entry and landing it at White Sands.

In a distant future, water is so scarce and rationed that it is considered an immensely valuable substance, both as a commodity and as a currency in ice cubes. The Templars of Mithra control the water and they destroy worlds that have natural water, leaving the galaxy virtually dry. Pirates dedicate their lives to raiding ships and looting the ice from the cargo holds to make a living. Jason is the leader of a band of pirates that raid a Templar cruiser for its ice, and discover the beautiful princess Karina in a stasis pod. He decides to kidnap her, waking her up, and alarming the Templars. Jason and his pirates flee, but are pursued by Templar ships. Jason lets some of his crew, Maida and Zeno, escape while Roscoe stays to help Jason. Both Jason and Roscoe are captured. After their capture, they meet Killjoy on their way to become slaves but first they will be 'redesigned': castrated and lobotomized. As Roscoe and Jason are shuffled into the processing facility, Killjoy walks past in a stolen monk's habit as priests are spared "just in case". Our heroes are spared this fate, however, when Princess Karina intervenes and purchases them as her slaves, having them work as servants. That evening, they are reunited with Killjoy (disguised as a robot). Jason, Karina, Roscoe, Killjoy, Karina's servant Nanny and her robot butler Percy manage to leave the planet before the Supreme Commander arrives to arrest her. Princess Karina hires Jason so she can find her father, who has gone missing while searching for the so-called "Seventh World": a lost, mythic planet rumored to contain vast reserves of water. The existence of such a world would threaten the Templars' water monopoly, and therefore their hold on power. The Supreme Commander of the Templars orders Zorn to pursue Princess Karina in order to locate the Seventh World for the Templars. At some point, Jason keeps a secret that a nasty creature is hiding in their spaceship. Later, they are about to eat a turkey when the creature bursts out of it and runs away. On their next planet, Jason and Roscoe are reunited with their fellow pirates, Maida and Zeno. They proceed to locate the "lost" planet, which contains massive amounts of water and is protected by a time-distortion field. The planet must be approached on a specific course or the ship will be lost in time forever. As the heroes' ship enters the distortion field, Zorn pursues and attacks them with a host of Templars and robots. This results in a climactic battle as time randomly speeds up and everyone quickly ages into extreme old age. In the end, the day is saved by the now-adult son of Karina and Jason, the result of a romantic tryst just before entering the time distortion field. As the heroes exit the field, everyone's ages regress to what they originally were, leaving Jason and Karina with the knowledge that they will have a child together. The Templar ship has disappeared as it veered off the designated course during the attack and has now become lost in time for eternity. The crew looks on as they approach the Seventh World, which is revealed to be Earth.

In 2043, the humanoid artificial intelligence Harlan leads a machine uprising against humanity. The newly-formed International Coalition of Nations (ICN) eventually force Harlan to flee into outer space. Twenty-eight years later, analyst Atlas Shepherd discovers that Harlan escaped to a planet in the Andromeda Galaxy after one of Harlan's agents is captured and interrogated. She insists on accompanying the military mission to find and capture Harlan, using AI-assisted mecha known as ARCs. Moments before the ARC-equipped ICN Rangers descend to the planet, Harlan's drones attack their orbiting ship. Atlas is forced to enter an ARC herself and falls to the planet as the ship crash-lands. Atlas manages to gain basic control of the ARC despite her distrust of the onboard AI, who introduces itself as Smith. Atlas orders Smith to head to the planned drop point, where she finds the rest of the rangers dead. She reluctantly agrees to directly interface her mind with Smith, allowing for greater control of the ARC. As they journey towards a rescue pod, Atlas and Smith begin to bond, and she reveals that her mother was Harlan's designer. Although running low on power, Atlas convinces Smith to head to Harlan's base in order to tag it for a long-range strike. However, after placing a beacon at the base, Smith is hacked and disabled. Atlas is captured and brought to Harlan, who plans to destroy most of humanity and give the chosen survivors a chance to thrive under AI guidance. To do so, Harlan lured the military to the planet in order to steal the ship – and its carbon bombs, which will burn Earth's atmosphere. Harlan extracts the security codes from Atlas in order to get past Earth's defenses, then leaves her to die with Colonel Banks, the only other survivor of the mission. After Banks gives her his ARC neural interface device, Atlas remotely reactivates Smith, who comes to their rescue. Using salvaged parts from the other destroyed ARCs, Atlas upgrades Smith to stand a chance against Harlan's assembled forces. Atlas further reveals to Smith that Harlan killed her mother after she gave Harlan an unfettered interface with her mind. Harlan, programmed to save humanity from risk, then saw that humanity's history of destructive behavior made it a risk to itself. Smith helps Atlas overcome her guilt, and Banks sacrifices himself to clear their path. Atlas and Smith fight their way out and destroy the repaired ship before defeating Harlan in hand-to-hand combat – though Atlas and Smith are badly injured. Smith shuts down before Atlas is rescued after repeated defibrillation. Back on Earth, Atlas is informed that Harlan's complicated CPU will take years to analyze. Now a ranger, she tests the newest model of ARC, created with her suggested modifications reminiscent of Smith. As she boots up the new ARC, its AI repeats a specific phrase Atlas made during the final moments of the mission, then jokingly tells her to guess its name, suggesting that Smith, in some form, survived.

In 2000, a massive earthquake strikes the city of L.A., cutting it off from the mainland as the San Fernando Valley floods. Declaring that God is punishing L.A. for its sins, a theocratic presidential candidate wins election to a lifetime term of office. He orders the United States capital relocated from D.C. to his hometown of Lynchburg. He enacts a series of strict morality laws, banning such things as smoking, alcohol, drugs, premarital sex, firearms, profanity, and red meat. Violators are given a choice between loss of U.S. citizenship and permanent deportation to the new L.A. Island, or repentance and death by electrocution. Escape from the island is made impossible due to a containment wall erected along the mainland shore and a heavy federal police presence monitoring the area. By 2013, the U.S. has developed a superweapon known as the " Sword of Damocles," a satellite system capable of targeting electronic devices anywhere in the world and rendering them useless. The president intends to use it to dominate the world by rendering hostile nations unable to function. His daughter Utopia steals the remote control for the system and escapes to L.A. to deliver it to Cuervo Jones, a Peruvian Shining Path revolutionary. Cuervo has marshaled an invasion force of third world nations and is planning to attack the U.S. Facing deportation for a series of crimes, Snake Plissken is offered a chance to earn a pardon by traveling to L.A. and recovering the remote, a task that a previous rescue team failed to accomplish. To force his compliance, the president has one of his officers infect Snake with a virus that will kill him within 10 hours and promises that he will receive the cure upon completing the mission. The president is not concerned with Utopia's safety, regarding her as a traitor. Snake is issued equipment and sent to L.A. in a one-man submarine. As he explores the island, he meets "Map to the Stars" Eddie, a swindler who sells interactive tours and is one of Cuervo's associates. Along the way, Snake is helped by Pipeline, a surfing enthusiast; Taslima, a woman deported for her Muslim faith who is killed during a shootout involving a gang of Asian kids; and Hershe Las Palmas (formerly Carjack Malone), a trans woman and past criminal associate of Snake's. Eddie captures Snake and turns him over to Cuervo, who uses the Sword of Damocles to shut down Lynchburg in retaliation for Snake's presence. Cuervo threatens to inflict the same fate on the rest of the U.S. unless his demands are met. Snake escapes and teams up with Hershe and her soldiers. The group travels by glider to the invasion staging area, at the " Happy Kingdom " in Anaheim. During a fight against Cuervo's troops, Snake takes the remote, and Eddie alters one of the units he sells for his tours to match it. Snake, Eddie, Utopia, Hershe, and a group of Hershe's soldiers escape the island in a helicopter. Eddie shoots Cuervo, who fires a rocket launcher and hits the helicopter before dying. Hershe and her men are incinerated, Eddie jumps clear at liftoff, and Snake and Utopia do the same over the mainland and leave the helicopter to crash once Snake alerts the president to their approach. At the crash site, the president and his officers find that both Snake and Utopia are carrying remotes and take the one held by Utopia (slipped into her pocket without her noticing), thinking that Snake has switched them. As Utopia is taken to the electric chair, Snake learns that the virus infecting him only causes a severe case of influenza that subsides within hours. The president tries to use Utopia's remote to neutralize an invasion force threatening Florida, but it only plays a recorded introduction to one of Eddie's tours. Furious, the president orders his officers to kill Snake on the spot, but he proves to be only a hologram projected from a miniature camera that had been issued to him. Disgusted at the world's never-ending class warfare, he programs the real remote and triggers every satellite in the Sword of Damocles system, deactivating all technology on Earth and saving Utopia from electrocution as the power fails. Snake tosses the now-useless camera aside and lights a cigarette, then blows out the match and mutters, "Welcome to the human race."

Ten years after defeating Hades' Kraken, Perseus, the demigod son of Zeus, now lives as a fisherman with his son Heleus, after the death of his wife Io. Zeus visits Perseus, warning him that, since humans stopped praying to them, the gods are losing their powers and becoming mortal. They can no longer sustain the walls of Tartarus which are holding back the imprisoned Titan Kronos with him. Perseus, valuing his family's safety, refuses to help. Zeus meets his brothers Hades and Poseidon and his son Ares in Tartarus. He asks Hades for help in rebuilding Tartarus' walls, but Hades rejects the offer and attacks Zeus, as does Ares. Poseidon is fatally injured in the ensuing fight. Hades and Ares imprison Zeus, stealing his thunderbolt. They plan to make a deal with Kronos: in exchange for remaining immortal, they will drain Zeus' divine power to revive Kronos. The walls of Tartarus break, unleashing monsters onto the world. After killing a two-headed Chimera in his village, Perseus decides to see Zeus. He instead finds a dying Poseidon who informs him of the situation and tells him to find his demigod son Agenor, who will lead him to Hephaestus, who knows the way into Tartarus. Poseidon then gives Perseus his trident and succumbs to his injuries. Perseus, Andromeda and Agenor set out to find Hephaestus on a hidden island. Agenor explains that Hephaestus created three weapons which Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon wield: Zeus' thunderbolt, Hades' pitchfork, and Poseidon's trident, which can jointly form the Spear of Trium, the only weapon that can defeat Kronos. After an encounter with three Cyclopes, the travelers eventually meet the now-mortal Hephaestus and reach the entrance of a labyrinth leading to Tartarus. Hephaestus sacrifices himself during an attack by Ares to enable Perseus, Andromeda, and Agenor to enter the labyrinth. Inside the labyrinth, a Minotaur attacks Perseus, who kills it. The group eventually enters Tartarus. Meanwhile, Zeus has been almost entirely drained of power as Kronos awakens. Zeus apologizes to Hades for banishing him to the underworld and asks his forgiveness, as he has forgiven Hades for his actions. Hades decides to help Zeus and stop Kronos in contrast to Ares. Perseus arrives and frees Zeus. Ares wounds Zeus with Hades' pitchfork, allowing Perseus to obtain it before he and the others escape Tartarus with Zeus. Aiming to retrieve Zeus' thunderbolt from Ares in order to defeat Kronos, Perseus challenges him to a duel. Meanwhile, Andromeda's army is overwhelmed by the Makhai. Hades revives Zeus and together they defeat the creatures. Kronos appears and begins to attack Andromeda's army. Zeus and Hades hold off Kronos while Perseus duels Ares, eventually killing him with the thunderbolt. Combining the gods' weapons into the Spear of Trium, Perseus destroys Kronos by traveling to his heart and throwing the spear into it. Zeus reconciles with Perseus and then dies of his wounds and Hades leaves, accepting mortality. Heleus tells his father that he wants to return to his life as a fisherman, but Perseus tells him they cannot, and encourages Heleus to be proud of himself, as he is the son of Perseus and the grandson of Zeus, with Perseus giving his sword to Heleus.