In February 1958, the Second Cross-Winter Expedition for the Japanese Antarctic Surveying Team rides on the icebreaker Sōya to take over from the 11-man First Cross-Winter Expedition. The First Cross-Winter Expedition retreats by helicopter, leaving 15 Sakhalin huskies chained up at the Showa Base for the next Expedition. Due to the extreme weather conditions, Sōya can not get near enough to the base and it is decided not to proceed with the handover, leaving the base unmanned. The team is worried about the dogs, as the weather is extremely cold and only one week of food for the dogs has been left. They wish to rescue them but in the end are unable to, due to a shortage of fuel and drinking water. Eight of the fifteen sled dogs manage to break loose from their chains (Riki, Anko, Shiro, Jakku, Deri, Kuma, Taro, and Jiro), while the other seven starve. As the eight journey across the frozen wilderness, they are forced to survive by hunting penguins and seals on the ice shelves and even by eating seal excrement. As the months pass, most die or disappear. Riki is fatally injured by a killer whale while trying to protect Taro and Jiro. Anko and Deri fall through the ice and drown in the freezing waters. Shiro falls off a cliff to his death, and Jakku and Kuma disappear in the wilderness. Eleven months later, on 14 January 1959, Kitagawa, one of the dog handlers in the first expedition, returns with the Third Cross-Winter Expedition, wanting to bury his beloved dogs. He, along with the two dog-handlers Ushioda and Ochi, recover the frozen corpses of the seven chained dogs, but are surprised to discover that eight others have broken loose. To everyone's surprise, they are greeted warmly at the base by Taro and Jiro, brothers who were born in Antarctica. It is still unknown how and why they survived, because an average husky can only live in such conditions for about one month. In the movie, the director used the data available, together with his imagination, to reconstruct how the dogs struggled with the elements and survived.

In the 24th century, Captain Jean-Luc Picard awakens from a nightmare in which he relives his assimilation by the cybernetic Borg six years earlier. He is contacted by Starfleet, who inform him of a new Borg threat against Earth. Concerned that Picard is too emotionally involved with the Borg, Starfleet orders the USS Enterprise to patrol the Neutral Zone in case of Romulan aggression. During their patrol, the Enterprise learns that the fleet is losing the battle against the Borg. Picard and his crew disobey orders and head for Earth, where a single Borg Cube ship holds its own against a group of Starfleet vessels. Enterprise arrives in time to assist the crew of USS Defiant and its commander, the Klingon Worf. Picard takes command of the fleet and directs the surviving ships to concentrate their firepower on a seemingly unimportant point on the Borg ship. The Cube launches a smaller spherical ship towards Earth before being destroyed. Enterprise pursues the sphere into a temporal vortex. As the sphere disappears, Enterprise discovers Earth has been altered—Borg now populate it. Realizing the Borg have used time travel to change the past, Enterprise follows the sphere through the vortex. Enterprise arrives hundreds of years in the past on April 4, 2063, the day before the historic warp drive flight that leads to humanity's first encounter with alien life. The crew surmise that the Borg are trying to prevent first contact and assimilate humanity while the planet is recovering from World War III. After destroying the Borg sphere, an away team transports down to Zefram Cochrane 's warp ship, Phoenix, in Bozeman, Montana. Beverly Crusher and Cochrane's assistant Lily Sloane return to the Enterprise to treat her radiation sickness. Picard and Data also return to the ship after suspecting the Borg have survived their sphere's destruction, leaving Commander William T. Riker on Earth to make sure Phoenix ' s flight proceeds as planned. While in the future Cochrane is seen as a hero, in reality he built the Phoenix for financial gain and is reluctant to be the historic figure the crew describes. A group of Borg invade Enterprise ' s lower decks, assimilating some of the crew and modifying the ship. Picard and a team attempt to reach engineering to disable the Borg with a corrosive gas, but are forced back; the android Data is captured in the melee. A frightened Lily corners Picard with a weapon, but he gains her trust. The two escape the Borg-infested area of the ship by creating a diversion in the holodeck. Picard, Worf, and the ship's navigator, Lieutenant Hawk, travel outside the ship in space suits to stop the Borg from using the navigational deflector to call for reinforcements, but Hawk is assimilated in the process. As the Borg assimilate more decks, Worf suggests destroying the ship, but Picard angrily calls him a coward. Lily confronts the captain and makes him realize he is acting irrationally because of his past with the Borg. Picard apologizes to Worf and orders the activation of the ship's self-destruct and evacuation of the crew to escape pods, while he stays behind to rescue Data. As Cochrane, Riker, and engineer Geordi La Forge prepare to activate the warp drive on Phoenix, Picard discovers that the Borg Queen has grafted human skin onto Data, giving him the sensation of touch he has long desired so that she can obtain the android's encryption codes to the Enterprise computer. Although Picard offers himself to the Borg in exchange for Data's freedom, Data refuses to leave, deactivates the self-destruct, and fires torpedoes at Phoenix. At the last moment, the torpedoes miss, and the Queen discovers that Data has deceived her. The android ruptures a coolant tank, and the corrosive vapor eats away the biological components of the Borg and Data's new skin. With the Borg threat neutralized, Cochrane completes his warp flight. Later that night, the crew watches from a distance as an alien Vulcan ship, attracted by the Phoenix warp test, lands on Earth. Cochrane greets the aliens. Having ensured the correction of the timeline, Picard bids Lily farewell, and the Enterprise crew slips away and returns to the 24th century.

The setting is the east shore of the Caspian Sea (modern Turkmenistan) where the Red Army soldier Fyodor Sukhov has been fighting the Civil War in Russian Asia for a number of years. The movie opens with a panoramic shot of a bucolic Russian countryside. Katerina Matveyevna, Sukhov's beloved wife, is standing in a field. Awakening from this daydream, Sukhov is walking through the Central Asian desert – a stark contrast to his homeland. He finds Sayid buried in the sand. Sukhov frees Sayid, and they strike a friendly but reticent relationship. Sayid, an austere Central Asian, comes to Sukhov's rescue in sticky situations throughout the movie. While traveling together they are caught up in a desert fight between a Red Army cavalry unit and Basmachi guerrillas. The cavalry unit commander, Rakhimov, leaves to Sukhov's temporary protection the harem of the Basmachi leader Abdullah, left behind by him. Rakhimov also leaves a young Red Army soldier, Petrukha, to assist Sukhov, and proceeds to pursue the fleeing Abdullah. Sukhov and women from Abdullah's harem return to a nearby shore village. There, Sukhov charges the local museum's curator with protecting the women, and prepares to head home. Sukhov hopes to "modernize" the wives of the harem, and make them part of the modern society. He urges them to take off their burqa and reject polygamy. The wives are loath to do this, though, and as Sukhov takes on the role of protector, the wives declare him their new husband. Soon, looking for a seaway across the border, Abdullah and his gang come to the same village and find Abdullah's wives. Sukhov is bound to stay. Hoping to obtain help and weapons, Sukhov and Petrukha visit Pavel Vereschagin, a former Tsar's customs official. Vereschagin warms to Petrukha who reminds him of his dead son, but after discussing the matter with his nagging wife, Vereschagin refuses to help Sukhov. Sukhov finds a machine gun and a case of dynamite that he plants on Abdullah's ship. Meanwhile, Abdullah has confronted his wives, and is preparing to punish them for their "dishonor", as they did not kill themselves when Abdullah left them. Sukhov manages to capture and lock Abdullah as a hostage, but after he leaves, Abdullah convinces Gyulchatai, the youngest wife of the harem, to free him and then kills Gyulchatai and Petrukha. The museum curator shows Sukhov an ancient underground passage that leads to the sea. Sukhov and the women of the harem attempt to escape through the passage, but on arriving at the seashore they are impelled to hide in a large empty oil tank. Abdullah discovers that and plans on setting the oil tank on fire. Enraged at the cold-hearted murder of Petrukha, Vereschagin decides to help Sukhov and takes Abdullah's ship. Sayid also helps Sukhov, and together they fend off Abdullah's gang. Vereschagin, unaware of the dynamite on the ship and not hearing Sukhov's shouted warnings, dies on the exploding ship. Sukhov kills Abdullah and his gang, returns the harem to Rakhimov and bids farewell to Sayid. He then begins his journey home on foot, having refused a horse since a horse is merely "a nuisance".

In 1914, aliens known as Mondoshawans meet their contact on Earth, a priest of a secret order, at an ancient Egyptian temple. They take the only weapon capable of defeating a great evil that appears every 5,000 years, promising to protect it and return it before the great evil's re-emergence. The weapon consists of the four classical elements, as four engraved stones, plus a sarcophagus containing a "fifth element". In the 23rd century, the great evil appears in deep space as a giant living fireball. It destroys an armed Earth spaceship as it heads to Earth. The Mondoshawans' human contact on Earth, priest Vito Cornelius, informs the president of the Federated Territories of the great evil's history and the weapon that can stop it. On their way to Earth, a Mondoshawan spacecraft carrying the weapon is ambushed and destroyed by a crew of Mangalores, alien mercenaries hired by Earth industrialist Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, who is working for the great evil. A severed hand in metal armour from the wreckage of the spacecraft is brought to New York City. From this, the government uses biotechnology to recreate the original occupant of the sarcophagus, a humanoid woman named Leeloo, who remembers her previous life. Alarmed by the unfamiliar surroundings and high security, she escapes and jumps off a ledge, crashing into the flying taxicab of Korben Dallas, a former major in Earth's special forces. Dallas delivers Leeloo to Cornelius and his apprentice, David, who recognises her as the fifth element. As Leeloo recuperates, she tells Cornelius that the stones were not on board the Mondoshawan ship. Simultaneously, the Mondoshawans inform Earth's government that the stones were entrusted to an alien opera singer, the diva Plavalaguna. Zorg reneges on his deal with the Mangalores for failing to obtain the stones, and kills some of them. Earth's military sends Dallas to meet Plavalaguna; a rigged radio contest provides a cover, awarding Dallas a luxury vacation aboard a flying hotel on planet Fhloston, accompanied by flamboyant talk-show host Ruby Rhod. It includes a concert by Plavalaguna, and learning that Leeloo shares his mission, Dallas lets her accompany him. Cornelius instructs David to prepare the temple, then stows away on the luxury spaceship. The Mangalore crew, pursuing the stones for themselves, also illegally board the ship. During the concert, the Mangalores attack, and Plavalaguna is killed. Dallas extracts the stones from her body and kills the Mangalore leader, causing the others to surrender. Zorg arrives, shoots Leeloo, and activates a time bomb. He flees with a carrying case which he presumes contains the stones, but returns when he discovers that it is empty. As Zorg's bomb causes the hotel's evacuation, Dallas finds Leeloo traumatised and escapes with her, Cornelius, Rhod, and the stones in Zorg's private spaceship. Zorg deactivates his bomb, but a dying Mangalore sets off his own, destroying the hotel and killing Zorg. As the great evil approaches Earth, the four meet David at the temple. They deploy the stones, but Leeloo, having learned of humanity's history of cruelty, has given up on life. Dallas declares his love for her and kisses her. Leeloo combines the power of the stones, emitting divine light onto the great evil and defeating it. Dallas and Leeloo are hailed as heroes, and as dignitaries wait to greet them, the two passionately embrace in a recovery chamber.

On the Polynesian island of Motunui, the inhabitants worship the goddess of nature, Te Fiti; a living island who, long ago, brought life to the ocean using a pounamu stone as her heart and the source of her power. One day, Maui, the shape-shifting demigod of the wind and sea and master of wayfinding, stole Te Fiti's heart to give humanity the power of creation. This caused Te Fiti to disintegrate, and Maui was attacked by Te Kā, a volcanic demon. Maui lost both the heart and his magic fish hook to the depths of the sea. A thousand years later, the ocean chooses Moana, the daughter of Motunui's chief Tui, to return the heart to Te Fiti. Tui and Sina, Moana's parents, try to keep her away from the ocean to prepare her to become the island's chief. Sixteen years later, blight strikes the island, killing vegetation and shrinking the fish catch. Moana suggests going beyond the island's reef with her pet pig, Pua, to find more fish and discover what is happening, but Tui forbids it. Moana tries conquering the reef, but is overpowered by the tides and shipwrecked. That afternoon, Moana's grandmother Tala shows her a secret cavern of ships and reveals Motunui's people were voyagers until Maui stole Te Fiti's heart; the ocean was no longer safe without it. Tala explains Te Kā's darkness is destroying the island, but can be cured if Moana finds Maui and has him restore the heart of Te Fiti. Having been given the heart by the ocean, Tala gives it to Moana. Tala later becomes gravely ill and tells Moana to find Maui. Moana sets sail on a camakau from the cavern along with her dimwitted pet rooster, Heihei, who stowed away on it. They are caught in a typhoon and shipwrecked on an island, where she finds Maui, who boasts about his achievements. She demands Maui return the heart, but he refuses and traps her in a cave before leaving on her boat. She escapes and confronts Maui, who reluctantly lets her on the camakau. They are attacked by Kakamora, coconut pirates who seek the heart, but Moana and Maui outwit them. Moana realizes Maui is no longer a hero since he stole the heart and cursed the world, and convinces him to redeem himself by returning the heart. However, Maui first needs to retrieve his fishhook in Lalotai, the Realm of Monsters, from Tamatoa, a giant coconut crab. While Moana distracts Tamatoa, Maui retrieves his hook, only to find himself unable to control his shape-shifting. He is overpowered by Tamatoa, but Moana's quick thinking allows them to escape with the hook. Maui reveals his first tattoo was earned when his human parents abandoned him as an infant, and the gods, taking pity on him, granted him his powers. After reassurance from Moana, Maui teaches her the art of way-finding, regaining control of his powers, and the two grow closer. They arrive at Te Fiti's island, only to be attacked by Te Kā. Moana refuses to turn back, resulting in Maui's hook being badly damaged. Unwilling to lose his hook again, Maui abandons Moana, who loses hope and tearfully asks the ocean to find someone else to restore the heart. The ocean obliges and takes the heart, but Tala's spirit appears, inspiring Moana to find her true calling. Moana retrieves the heart and sails back to confront Te Kā. Maui returns, having had a change of heart, and buys Moana time to reach Te Fiti by fighting Te Kā, destroying his hook in the process. Upon being unable to find Te Fiti, Moana realizes Te Kā is Te Fiti, but corrupted without her heart. The ocean clears a path for Moana, allowing her to return the heart to Te Fiti, who heals the ocean and islands of blight. Maui apologizes to Te Fiti, who fixes his hook as well as Moana's boat before falling into a deep sleep and becoming an island. Moana bids farewell to Maui and Te Fiti, returning home and reuniting with her parents. After placing a shell on top of the stack of stones placed by all previous chiefs, Moana takes up her role as chieftess and wayfinder, leading her people as they resume voyaging, accompanied by Maui.

During World War II, MI6 officers Colonel Turner and Admiral Rolland assemble a commando team to rescue American Brigadier General George Carnaby, a chief planner for the Western Front, who is a prisoner at Schloß Adler (Castle of the Eagles), an alpine mountaintop fortress in Bavaria, accessible only by cable car. Disguised as German soldiers, the team—Major John Smith, Sergeants Harrod and MacPherson, Captains Lee Thomas, Ted Berkeley, and Olaf Christiansen, and US Army Ranger Lieutenant Morris Schaffer—parachutes near the castle. Harrod is found dead with a broken neck, and Smith deduces he was murdered. Smith secretly meets with his lover, British agent Mary Ellison, but keeps her involvement from his men. Smith and his team infiltrate the village at the base of Schloß Adler where he meets undercover agent Heidi Schmidt in a tavern, who has arranged for Mary to work inside the castle. Smith discloses to Mary that Carnaby is actually an imposter, US Corporal Cartwright Jones, and his capture was staged by the British. Later, Smith discovers MacPherson dead. When a German colonel arrives in the tavern with soldiers ostensibly searching for deserters, Smith realises he is really searching for his team, and surrenders to avoid an unwinnable fight. Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen are taken to the castle, while Smith and Schaffer escape and infiltrate the castle via cable car. Inside, they reunite with Mary and observe General Rosemeyer and Colonel Kramer interrogate Carnaby. Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen arrive, revealed to be German double agents. Smith and Schaffer intrude, weapons drawn on the men. However, Smith then forces Schaffer to surrender his weapon and identifies himself as Major Johann Schmidt of the Schutzstaffel 's (SS) intelligence branch. He exposes Carnaby's identity and claims that Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen are MI6 agents impersonating German spies. Smith conveys proof of his identity by showing the name of Germany's top spy in Whitehall to Kramer, who silently affirms it, and challenges the double agents to prove themselves as German agents by providing the list of agents they set up across Britain. With the list in his hand, Smith reveals the truth: believing German spies have extensively infiltrated British intelligence, MI6 identified Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen as suspects, and launched the mission to prove this and obtain the identities of their agents and commander. Smith's ploy is interrupted by the arrival of SS Major von Hapen, who suspects everyone, but Smith causes a distraction which allows Schaffer to fatally shoot von Hapen, Kramer, and Rosemeyer. The team, including Mary and Carnaby, make their escape, taking Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen as prisoners. As alarms sound, Schaffer sets explosives around the castle while Smith radios Rolland for extraction. The group travel to the cable car station, sacrificing Thomas as a decoy. Berkeley and Christiansen attempt to escape on a cable car, but they are killed by Smith. The team escapes on the next cable car. Reunited with Heidi in the village, they use a bus to battle their way onto an airfield and escape aboard a Ju 52 transport, with Turner waiting onboard. In the air, Smith reveals that Kramer identified Turner as Germany's top spy in Britain, confirming Rolland's suspicions. Turner chose Smith to lead the mission, believing he was a German double agent—unaware he was working undercover for Rolland. To ensure the mission's success, Smith secretly recruited Mary—his trusted ally—and Schaffer, who had no ties to the compromised MI6. To avoid a humiliating court martial and execution, Turner is permitted to jump from the aircraft to his death. As the exhausted operatives fly home, Schaffer wryly suggests that Smith keep his next mission "all-British".

In the Valley of Peace province of Ancient China, the red panda Master Shifu learns from his mentor, the tortoise Master Oogway, that the snow leopard Tai Lung will escape from imprisonment and attempt to acquire the Dragon Scroll, an artifact said to grant limitless power. In response, Shifu sends warning to the guards at Tai Lung's prison to strengthen security and announces a tournament to dub one of his five students, collectively known as the "Furious Five", Tigress, Monkey, Crane, Viper, and Mantis, as the "Dragon Warrior", the prophesied hero worthy of reading the scroll. The announcement reaches Po, a giant panda and kung fu enthusiast who dreams of becoming a kung fu master himself, despite wishes from his goose father Mr. Ping for him to run their noodle restaurant and learn the secret ingredient of his "secret ingredient soup". Eager to see the Five, Po attempts to enter the tournament arena after arriving late and is eventually successful, but unintentionally lands in front of them during the awarding ceremony, causing Oogway to unexpectedly declare him as the Dragon Warrior. Shifu believes Oogway's choice to be an accident, leading him and the Five to dismiss and deride Po after a rough first day of training, leaving Po dejected and considering quitting. However, Oogway encourages him to persevere, and Po gradually befriends the Five with his resilience and humor. Tigress reveals to Po that Tai Lung was once Shifu's student, having raised him as an infant, and how Tai Lung's betrayal and subsequent rampage was a result of Oogway rejecting him as the Dragon Warrior after sensing malice within him. Tai Lung manages to break out of prison and begins his journey back to the Valley; when Shifu learns this and tells Oogway about it, Oogway makes him promise to believe in Po and names Shifu his successor before ascending to the Spirit Realm. Shifu then informs Po and the Five about Tai Lung's escape, stating Po is the only one who can stop him. Terrified, Po attempts to leave but is confronted by Shifu, who confesses that he does not know how he can turn him into the Dragon Warrior. Meanwhile, the Five depart to attempt to stop Tai Lung themselves, but are unsuccessful when he uses his paralysing nerve-strike technique on them. Shifu learns that Po can reach his full potential for physical feats when motivated by food, and so trains him in a unique kung fu style. When the wounded Five return, Shifu decides that Po is ready to read the Dragon Scroll, but upon opening it, Po discovers that it is blank. Thinking the scroll is powerless, Shifu sends Po and the Five to evacuate the Valley while he faces Tai Lung alone. A saddened Po reunites with Mr. Ping, who, in an attempt to lift his spirits up, reveals that the secret ingredient soup does not actually have a secret ingredient, stating that belief is what makes things special. Realizing that this is the Dragon Scroll's message, Po rushes back to help Shifu. Shifu battles Tai Lung and is brutally defeated, then Po arrives with the scroll and engages Tai Lung in combat. Tai Lung manages to obtain the scroll, but is similarly mystified by its contents. Enraged, he nerve-strikes Po, who is unaffected due to his body fat. Remembering his earlier training with Shifu, Po overpowers Tai Lung and vanquishes him with the "Wuxi Finger Hold" technique, which he had taught himself, and is hailed as a hero by the Valley.

Fujimoto, a misanthropic wizard who was once a human, lives underwater with his daughter Brunhilde and her numerous smaller sisters, who are goldfish-like creatures with human faces. While she and her siblings are on an outing with their father in his four-flippered submarine, Brunhilde sneaks off and floats away on the back of a jellyfish. After an encounter with a fishing trawler, she becomes trapped in a glass jar and drifts to the shore of a small fishing town where she is rescued by a five-year-old boy named Sōsuke. While shattering the jar with a rock, Sōsuke cuts his finger. Brunhilde licks his blood, healing the wound almost instantly. Sōsuke names her Ponyo and promises to protect her. Meanwhile, a distraught Fujimoto searches frantically for his lost daughter whom he believes to have been kidnapped. He calls his wave spirits to recover her, leaving Sōsuke heartbroken and confused by what happened. Ponyo refuses to let her father call her by her birth name, declaring her desire to be a human named Ponyo. She magically begins changing into a human, a power granted to her by Sōsuke's human blood that she licked. Fujimoto forces her back into her true form and leaves to summon Ponyo's mother, Gran Mamare. Meanwhile, Ponyo, with the help of her sisters, breaks away from her father and inadvertently uses his magic to make herself human. The huge amount of magic that she releases into the ocean causes an imbalance in nature, resulting in a tsunami. Ponyo goes back to Sōsuke, who is amazed and overjoyed to see her. His mother, Lisa, allows her to stay at their house. Lisa leaves after the tsunami subsides to check up on the residents of the nursing home where she works, promising Sōsuke that she will return home as soon as possible. Gran Mamare arrives at Fujimoto's submarine. Sōsuke's father, Kōichi, sees her traveling and recognizes her as the Goddess of Mercy. Fujimoto notices the moon appears to be falling out of its orbit and satellites are falling like shooting stars, symptoms of the dangerous imbalance of nature that now exists. Gran Mamare reassures him, and declares that if Sōsuke can pass a test, Ponyo can live as a human and the balance of nature will be restored. Fujimoto, still worried, reminds her that if Sōsuke fails the test, Ponyo will turn into sea foam. The next day, Sōsuke and Ponyo find that most of the land around the house has been covered by the ocean. Since it is impossible for Lisa to come home, the two decide to find her. With Ponyo's magic, they make Sōsuke's pop-pop boat bigger to traverse the waters, seeing marine life from the Late Devonian period and more people on boats. When they reach the forest, however, Ponyo tires and falls asleep, and the boat slowly reverts to its original size. Sōsuke drags Ponyo to the shore, where he finds Lisa's abandoned car. As they continue walking, Ponyo mysteriously reverts to her fish form. Meanwhile, Gran Mamare grants Lisa and the residents of the nursing home the temporary ability to breathe in water. Ponyo and Sōsuke encounter Fujimoto, who warns the boy about the imbalance of nature and begs him to return Ponyo to him. Despite their attempt to escape, Fujimoto captures them and transports them to the protected nursing home. Sōsuke reunites with Lisa and meets Gran Mamare, with whom Lisa has just had a long private conversation. Gran Mamare asks him if he can love Ponyo whether she is a fish or human; Sōsuke confirms that he does. She then informs her daughter that she must relinquish her magical powers if she decides to permanently transform into a human. Ponyo agrees, and she is encased in a bubble given to Sōsuke, who is instructed to kiss it to complete Ponyo's transformation, as the balance of nature is restored. The previously stranded ships head back to port. Fujimoto respects his daughter's choice, having decided he can trust Sōsuke. Ponyo then joyfully jumps high in the air and kisses Sōsuke, completing her transformation into a human.

In 2084, Mars is a colonized world under the tyrannical regime of Vilos Cohaagen, who controls the mining of valuable turbinium ore. On Earth, construction worker Douglas Quaid experiences recurring dreams about Mars and a mysterious woman. Intrigued, Quaid visits Rekall, a company that implants realistic false memories, and chooses one set on Mars (with a blue sky) where he is a Martian secret agent. However, before the implant is completed he lashes out, already thinking he is a secret agent. Believing Cohaagen's "Agency" has suppressed Quaid's memories, the Rekall employees erase evidence of Quaid's visit and send him home. En route, Quaid is attacked by men led by his colleague Harry because he unknowingly revealed his past; Quaid's instincts take over and he kills his assailants. At home, he is assaulted by his wife Lori, who claims she was assigned to monitor Quaid by the Agency and that their marriage is a false memory implant. He flees but is pursued by armed men led by Richter, Cohaagen's operative and Lori's real husband. A man who says he is Quaid's former acquaintance gives him a suitcase containing supplies and a video recording in which Quaid identifies himself as Hauser, a Cohaagen ally who defected after falling in love. According to the recording, Cohaagen brainwashed Hauser to become Quaid and conceal his secrets before securing him on Earth. Hauser instructs Quaid to return to Mars and stop Cohaagen. On Mars, Quaid evades Richter and, following a note from Hauser, travels to Venusville, a district populated by humans and those mutated by air pollution and solar radiation within the cheaply built domes protecting the colony. He meets Melina, the woman from his dreams, who knows him as Hauser and believes he is still working for Cohaagen. In his hotel room, Quaid is confronted by Lori and Dr. Edgemar from Rekall, who tell Quaid he is still at Rekall on Earth, trapped in his fantasy memory and on the verge of permanent brain damage. Quaid notices Edgemar is sweating and, believing he is real, kills him. Quaid is captured by Richter's men, but Melina rescues him and Quaid kills Lori. The pair escape with taxi driver Benny to Venusville. The mutants lead them to a hidden rebel base, where Quaid meets their leader Kuato, a mutant growing out of the abdomen of his brother George. Kuato psychically reads Quaid's mind, learning that Cohaagen is hiding a 500,000-year-old alien reactor built into a mountain that, once activated, produces breathable air but could also destroy all turbinium, ending Cohaagen's monopoly over both resources. Benny shoots George, revealing himself to be in Cohaagen's employ, and Cohaagen's forces attack the base, killing the rebels. Before he is shot by Richter, Kuato implores Quaid to start the reactor. Cohaagen disables Venusville's air supply to slowly suffocate the remaining inhabitants. Quaid and Melina are brought to Cohaagen, who explains that Hauser was his close friend who volunteered to become Quaid as an elaborate ruse to bypass the mutants' psychic abilities, infiltrate the rebellion, and destroy it. Quaid's Rekall visit had activated him earlier than planned and Cohaagen has been helping him to survive the oblivious Richter's pursuit. Cohaagen orders Hauser's memories to be restored in Quaid and Melina to be reprogrammed as his subservient lover, but they manage to escape to the mines below the reactor. Benny, Richter, and his men attack them, but the pair outwits and kills them all. Cohaagen awaits them in the reactor control room, claiming that activating it will destroy the planet. He activates an explosive to destroy the controls, but Quaid throws the explosive into a nearby tunnel, where it detonates and creates a breach to the Martian surface. The explosive decompression blows Cohaagen out to the surface where he suffocates and dies. Quaid activates the reactor before he and Melina are also blown out. The reactor melts the planet's ice core into gas that bursts to the surface, forming a breathable atmosphere and saving Quaid, Melina, and the rest of Mars's population. As everyone beholds the now-blue sky, Quaid momentarily wonders if everything was a dream, before he and Melina kiss.

William Blake, an accountant from Cleveland, Ohio, rides by train to the frontier company town of Machine to take up a promised accounting job in the town's metal works. During the trip, the train fireman warns Blake against the enterprise. Arriving in town, Blake notes the hostility of the townsfolk towards him. He then discovers that the position has already been filled, and John Dickinson, the ferocious owner of the company, drives Blake from the workplace at gunpoint. Jobless and without money or prospects, Blake meets Thel Russell, a former prostitute who sells paper flowers. He lets her take him home. Thel's ex-boyfriend Charlie surprises them in bed, shoots at Blake, and accidentally kills Thel when she shields Blake with her body. The bullet passes through Thel and wounds Blake, who kills Charlie with Thel's gun before climbing out the window and fleeing the town on Charlie's horse. Company owner Dickinson is Charlie's father and hires three killers — Cole Wilson, Conway Twill, and Johnny "The Kid" Pickett — to bring Blake back "dead or alive". Blake awakens to find a large Native American man trying to dislodge the bullet from his chest. The man, calling himself Nobody, reveals that the bullet is too close to Blake's heart to remove, rendering Blake effectively a walking dead man. When he learns Blake's full name, Nobody decides Blake is a reincarnation of William Blake, the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English poet, whom he idolizes, but of whom Blake is admittedly ignorant. He decides to care for Blake and to use Native methods to help ease him into death. Blake learns of Nobody's past, marked by prejudice from Euro-Americans who objected to his Indigenous ancestry, and equally from Native Americans who objected that his mother and father were from two opposing tribes, Piikáni and Apsáalooke, respectively. As a child, English soldiers abducted and brought him to Europe as a model savage. He was briefly educated before returning home, where his stories of the white man and his culture were laughed off by fellow Native Americans. They thus dub him Xebeche: "He who talks loud, saying nothing". Nobody resolves to escort Blake to the Pacific Ocean to return him to his proper place in the spirit world. Blake and Nobody travel west, leaving a trail of dead and encountering wanted posters announcing growing bounties for Blake's death or capture. Nobody leaves Blake alone in the wild when he decides Blake must undergo a vision quest. On his quest, Blake kills two U.S. Marshals, experiences visions of nature spirits, and grieves over the remains of a dead fawn his pursuers accidentally kill. He paints his face with the fawn's blood and rejoins Nobody. Meanwhile, the most ferocious member of the bounty hunter posse, Cole Wilson, has killed his comrades (eating one of them) and continued his hunt alone. At a trading post, a bigoted missionary identifies Blake and attempts to kill him but instead dies at Blake's hands. Shortly after, Blake is shot again, and his condition rapidly deteriorates. Nobody hurries to take him by the river to a Makah village and persuades the tribe to give him a canoe for Blake's ship burial. Delirious, Blake trudges through the village, where the people pity him, before he collapses from his injuries. He awakens in a canoe on a beach wearing a Native American funeral dress. Nobody bids Blake farewell and then pushes the canoe out to sea. As he floats away, Blake sees Cole approaching Nobody. Too weak to cry out, he can only watch as the two shoot and kill each other. Looking up at the sky one last time, Blake dies as his canoe drifts out to sea.