At the end of their high school senior year, noble underachiever Lloyd Dobler is smitten with valedictorian Diane Court. He plans to ask her out, although they belong to different social groups. Lloyd's parents are stationed in Germany in the U.S. Army, so he lives with his sister Constance, a single mother, and still has no plans for his future. Diane comes from a sheltered academic upbringing, living with her doting divorced father Jim, who owns the retirement home where she works. She will take up a prestigious fellowship in England at the end of the summer. Lloyd offers to take Diane to their graduation party. She agrees, to everyone's surprise. Their next "date" is a dinner at Diane's, where Lloyd fails to impress Jim, and IRS agents arrive unexpectedly to inform the latter he is under scrutiny for tax fraud. Diane introduces Lloyd to the retirement home residents and he teaches her to drive her manual transmission Ford Tempo graduation gift. They grow closer and lose their virginity together in the car, to her father's concern. Lloyd's musician best friend Corey, who has never overcome her unfaithful ex-boyfriend Joe, warns him to take care of Diane. Jim urges Diane to break up with Lloyd, feeling he is not an appropriate match, and suggests she give him a pen as a parting gift. Worried about her father, Diane tells Lloyd she wants to stop seeing him and concentrate on her studies, giving him the pen. Devastated, he seeks advice from Corey, who tells him to "be a man" because it takes more to be a "man" rather than just being a "guy". Meanwhile, Jim discovers his credit cards are declined as the investigation continues. At dawn, Lloyd stands under Diane's open bedroom window and plays " In Your Eyes " by Peter Gabriel on a boombox, which played when they were intimate. The next day, she meets with an IRS investigator, who says they have evidence incriminating Jim with embezzling funds from his retirement home residents. He suggests she accept the fellowship as matters with her father will only worsen. Diane finds the cash concealed at home and confronts Jim, who tells her he took it to give her financial independence. He feels justified in doing so, insisting he provided better care of his residents than their families. Distraught, Diane reconciles with Lloyd at his kickboxing gym. At the end of the summer, Jim is incarcerated on a nine-month sentence after accepting a plea deal. Lloyd visits him at the prison, saying he is accompanying Diane to England. Jim reacts angrily when Lloyd gives him a letter from Diane, but she arrives to say goodbye and they embrace. She gives Jim the pen he had suggested she give to Lloyd, asking him to write to her in England. Lloyd supports and comforts Diane, who is afraid of flying, on their flight.

In 2286, an enormous cylindrical probe moves through space, sending out an indecipherable signal and disabling the power of every ship it passes. As it takes up orbit around Earth, its signal disables the global power grid and generates planetary storms, creating catastrophic, sun-blocking cloud cover. Starfleet Command sends out a planetary distress call and warns all space-faring vessels not to approach Earth. On the planet Vulcan, the former officers of the late USS Enterprise are living in exile. Accompanied by the Vulcan Spock, still recovering from his resurrection, the crew take their captured Klingon Bird of Prey and return to Earth to face trial for their actions. Receiving Starfleet's warning, Spock determines that the probe's signal matches the song of extinct humpback whales and that the object will continue to wreak havoc until its call is answered. The crew uses their ship to travel back in time via a slingshot maneuver around the Sun, planning to return with a whale to answer the alien signal. Arriving in 1986, the crew finds their ship's power drained by the time travel maneuver. Hiding the ship in San Francisco 's Golden Gate Park using its cloaking device, the crew split up to accomplish several tasks: Admiral James T. Kirk and Spock attempt to locate humpback whales, while Montgomery Scott, Leonard McCoy, and Hikaru Sulu construct a tank to hold the whales they need for a return to the 23rd century. Uhura and Pavel Chekov are tasked to find a nuclear reactor, whose energy leakage can be collected and used to regenerate the decaying dilithium crystals. Kirk and Spock discover a pair of humpback whales in the care of Dr. Gillian Taylor at a Sausalito aquarium and learn they will soon be released into the wild. Kirk tells her of his mission and asks for the tracking frequency for the whales, but she refuses to cooperate. Meanwhile, Scott and McCoy trade the formula of transparent aluminum for the materials needed for the whale tank. At the same time, Sulu secures the use of a "Huey" helicopter to transport them. Uhura and Chekov locate a nuclear-powered ship, the aircraft carrier Enterprise. They collect the power they need but are discovered on board. Uhura is beamed out, but Chekov is captured, interrogated (under the assumption he is a Soviet spy), and subsequently severely injured in an escape attempt. Gillian learns the whales have been released early and goes to Kirk for assistance. Gillian, Kirk, and McCoy rescue Chekov from a nearby hospital and return to the now-recharged Bird of Prey. After saving the whales from whalers and transporting them aboard, the crew returns with Gillian to their own time. On approaching Earth, the ship loses power due to the alien probe and crash-lands into the waters of San Francisco Bay. Once released from near-drowning, the whales respond to the probe's signal, causing the object to reverse its effects on Earth and return to the depths of space. Later, the Enterprise crew stand judgment before the Federation Council, which acknowledges the crew's part in saving the planet, and drops all pending charges except the one against Kirk, for disobeying a superior officer. Kirk is demoted to the rank of captain, but as a furtive reward for his heroics, he is returned to the command of a starship. Kirk and Gillian part ways, as she has been assigned to a science vessel by Starfleet. Spock's father Sarek finally accepts his son's earlier choice to enter Starfleet, further mending their broken relationship. The crew discovers they have been awarded the newly christened USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A), and leaves on a shakedown mission.

Sergeant Gerry Boyle is an officer of the Garda Síochána (police) in the Connemara district in the west of Ireland. He is crass and confrontational, regularly indulging in drugs and alcohol even while on duty. He is also shown to be well read and highly intelligent as well as having a softer side, showing concern for his ailing mother, Eileen. Boyle and his new subordinate, Aidan McBride, investigate a murder, with evidence apparently pointing to an occult serial killer. Shortly after, Boyle attends a briefing by an American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent Wendell Everett, sent to liaise with the Garda in hunting four Irish drug traffickers led by Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, who is believed to be awaiting a massive seaborne delivery of cocaine from Jamaica. Boyle recognises one of the men in Everett's presentation as the victim of the murder he and McBride had been investigating. McBride pulls over a car driven by Sheehy and his lieutenants Clive Cornell and Liam O'Leary and is shot dead. McBride's wife, Gabriela, reports McBride's disappearance to Boyle, who promises to look into it. The strait-laced Everett suggests that he and the unorthodox Boyle team up to track down Sheehy and his men. Everett makes the rounds, encountering Irish-speaking residents who pretend not to understand English rather than deal with an outsider. Boyle has a sexual encounter with a pair of sex workers at a hotel in town. On his way back from the hotel, Boyle spots McBride's Garda car at a "suicide hotspot" along the coast but does not believe that McBride killed himself. Gabriela, an immigrant from Croatia, tells Boyle that McBride is gay and that she married him to obtain an Irish visa as well as to make McBride "look respectable". Meeting Everett at a local pub, Boyle notices a closed-circuit television camera and remembers that the original suspect in the murder case claimed to be frequenting it at the time of the killing. Looking over the footage from the time of the murder, they see that the suspect's alibi is valid – and Everett also spots Sheehy and Cornell at the pub. Cornell delivers a payoff to the Garda inspectors to keep them off the case and is warned that Boyle "is too unpredictable". After Sheehy meets with Boyle to half-heartedly attempt blackmail and then to offer a bribe, both are refused. Tipped off by a young boy named Eugene, Boyle discovers a cache of weapons hidden in the bog by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and says he will arrange its return. (It is later revealed that Boyle kept a few of the guns.) Shortly after having her last wish to hear a live pub band fulfilled, Boyle's mother kills herself by overdosing on pills. Meeting at the bar again, Everett tells Boyle that Garda sources indicate Sheehy's shipment will be coming into County Cork and that he is leaving to investigate. Returning home, Boyle is confronted in his living room by O'Leary, who has been ordered by Sheehy to murder him. Instead, Boyle pulls a Derringer (from the IRA cache) and kills O'Leary, then calls Everett to tell him that the Cork lead is a decoy arranged by corrupt Garda officers. Boyle drives to the local dock where Sheehy's vessel is berthed and Sheehy's men are unloading the cocaine. Everett arrives and Boyle hands him an automatic rifle and persuades him to provide covering fire as he moves to arrest Sheehy and Cornell. Boyle kills Cornell before leaping onto the boat to deal with Sheehy. Everett's gunfire sets the boat alight. Boyle shoots Sheehy and leaves him wounded in the main cabin as the boiler explodes. The next day, a shattered Everett looks out on the water where the boat sank, believing Boyle to be dead. Eugene, standing nearby, mentions that Boyle was a good swimmer, having placed fourth at the 1988 Summer Olympics, a claim that Everett had dismissed. A young photographer comments that it would be easy enough to look it up to check whether or not it was true. Everett remembers Boyle's remark that Sheehy's corrupt backers would not forget Boyle's actions and that Boyle would have to disappear were he to continue living, and smiles.

Winfried Conradi is a divorced music teacher from Aachen with a passion for bizarre pranks involving several fake personas. Following the death of his beloved dog, he decides to reconnect with his daughter, Ines, who is pursuing a career in business consulting. Ines is working in Bucharest, Romania, on an outsourcing project in the oil industry. Consumed by her work, she seems to have little time for her family. Winfried spontaneously travels to Bucharest and waits for Ines in the lobby of an office complex. After several hours, she finally appears, accompanied by several of her client's board members and on the way to a meeting. Winfried puts on sunglasses and fake teeth as a playful disguise, and approaches the group from the side while hiding behind a newspaper. Ines ignores him, but meets with him briefly after work and invites him to a business reception at the US Embassy. In the evening, Winfried and Ines attend the reception, where they meet Henneberg, a German oil company CEO with whom Ines wishes to secure a consulting contract. Ines tries to gain Henneberg's attention, but Henneberg seems more interested in her father. Winfried tells Henneberg that he has hired a replacement daughter because Ines is always busy. To Ines's surprise, Henneberg invites Winfried and Ines for drinks, along with his entourage. At the bar, Henneberg once again brushes Ines aside and makes fun of Winfried. After several days, Ines and Winfried are struggling to get along. Stressed out from work, Ines oversleeps, missing a planned rendezvous with clients, and blames her father for not waking her up. Feeling alienated and unwanted, he leaves in a taxi for the airport. Ines continues with her work as normal, and several days later arranges to meet two female friends at a bar. While Ines and her friends are chatting, a man approaches and introduces himself as "Toni Erdmann". The man is clearly Winfried in a wig and false teeth, but Ines does not let on. Her two friends politely engage "Erdmann" in conversation; he explains that he is a "life coach" and consultant visiting Bucharest to attend the funeral of his friend's turtle. Ines is increasingly frustrated and unfulfilled in her work and personal life, but continues to encounter "Erdmann" sporadically at parties or outside her office. At first Ines is angry with her father, and accuses him of trying to "ruin" her, but as time goes on she comes to see the value of her father's interventions in her life, and plays along with the ruse. "Erdmann" accompanies her on a night out with her work friends, and eventually even accompanies her to a business meeting. In turn, "Erdmann" takes Ines to a Romanian family's Easter party, where he forces her into a reluctant performance of Whitney Houston 's " Greatest Love of All ". After singing, Ines promptly rushes off. Back at her flat, Ines is preparing to host a business team-building brunch to celebrate her birthday. She struggles to zip up her tight dress, realizes her shoes don't match, and attempts to change clothes. The doorbell rings. Instead of redressing, or changing her outfit, she opens the door wearing only her underpants. The first guest is her friend Steph, who offers to help her get dressed. Ines refuses, and when the next guest arrives she spontaneously removes her underpants and answers the door naked, telling her guests that her birthday brunch is a "naked party". Each of them reacts differently, with some leaving in disgust while others self-consciously strip. As the party becomes increasingly awkward, Winfried arrives dressed in a full-body Bulgarian kukeri costume. The costume first scares, then amuses, the partygoers, and Winfried soon leaves. Ines follows him. Outside in a public park, they hug, Winfried still in costume. She leaves the park. Winfried lies down on the grass, exhausted, and then seeks help from a hotel desk to remove the costume's head. Months later, Ines returns to Germany for her grandmother's funeral. She has quit her job in Bucharest and will shortly begin a new one in Singapore. While talking with Winfried in the garden, Ines grabs the fake teeth from his shirt pocket and puts them on. Winfried says he wants to take a photo and goes to get his camera, leaving Ines alone in the garden.

" For 20 years, Stalin's NKVD security forces have imposed The Great Terror. Those on Stalin's list of 'enemy' names are arrested, exiled or shot. " –Opening caption On the night of 1 March 1953, Joseph Stalin demands the director of Radio Moscow provide a recording of a live recital of Piano Concerto No. 23 after the show has concluded. The director recalls the audience and orchestra and records the recreated concert. Pianist Maria Yudina, who hates the cruel dictator, only complies after being bribed and slips a note into the recording before it is couriered to Stalin. Stalin is hosting a tense, but rowdy, gathering of Central Committee members at Kuntsevo Dacha. As Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov leaves, NKVD head Lavrentiy Beria reveals to Nikita Khrushchev and Deputy Chairman Georgy Malenkov that Molotov is to be part of the latest purge. The concert recording arrives and Maria's note, admonishing Stalin and wishing him dead, causes him to suffer a cerebral haemorrhage as he laughs at the note. Stalin's guards hear him fall in his office but fear disturbing him. Stalin's housemaid discovers him unconscious the next morning and members of the Central Committee rush to the dacha. Beria finds Maria's note but only after Malenkov, Khrushchev, Lazar Kaganovich, Anastas Mikoyan, and Nikolai Bulganin arrive, does the Committee finally decide to send for medical help. The best doctors in Moscow have been arrested after the " Doctors' plot ". When Stalin dies under the care of mediocre doctors, Beria orders the NKVD to relieve the Soviet Army of control of Moscow. Beria and Khrushchev vie for the support of Molotov and Stalin's children, Svetlana and her unstable, alcoholic brother Vasily. Beria removes Molotov's name from the impending purge and releases Polina Zhemchuzhina, Molotov's wife, from prison. The Committee names Malenkov, a puppet of Beria, as chairman. He hijacks Khrushchev's proposed reforms, such as releasing political prisoners and loosening clerical restrictions, relegating Khrushchev to planning Stalin's funeral. Beria threatens Khrushchev with Maria's note, and Krushchev reverses Beria's order to halt all transport into Moscow. When 1,500 arriving mourners are killed, the Committee wants to blame junior NKVD officers. In an effort to deflect blame, Beria threatens his colleagues with documents detailing their involvement in various purges. Angered by the NKVD's takeover of security from the Army, Marshal Georgy Zhukov supports Khrushchev in launching a coup against Beria after Stalin's funeral. Khrushchev gets support from the rest of the Committee save Malenkov, and on Zhukov's orders the Army reclaims its posts from the NKVD. Zhukov, Kiril Moskalenko and Leonid Brezhnev storm a meeting of the Committee and arrest Beria. Malenkov reluctantly signs Beria's death warrant. At Beria's emergency trial, Khrushchev finds him guilty of counter-revolutionary activities, sexual assault, and paedophilia. Beria is summarily executed and Zhukov has his body burned. Krushchev sends Svetlana to Vienna under protest, keeps Vasily in Russia, where he can be watched, and concurs with Kaganovich that Malenkov is too weak to lead. In 1956, Krushchev has defeated his rivals on the Committee to become the new leader of the Soviet Union, and is in the audience as Maria once again performs the Mozart concerto. Brezhnev, who will succeed Khrushchev in 1964, eyes Khrushchev from his seat.

A well-organized gang hijacks an armored car, breaking in and stealing some currency engraving plates while ignoring the actual money. One of the hijackers delivers the plates to Vince Ricardo on the roof of a disused building. Meanwhile, the daughter of mild-mannered Manhattan dentist Sheldon "Shelly" Kornpett and the son of businessman Vince Ricardo are engaged to be married. At an introductory dinner in which Shelly meets his new in-law, he finds Vince suspicious; during the dinner, Vince tells a crazy story of a nine-month "consulting" trip to 1954 Guatemala. He excuses himself to make a phone call and hides one set of engraving plates in the basement. Later that night, Shelly pleads with his daughter not to marry into the Ricardo clan, but he is talked into giving the marriage a chance. The following day, Vince appears at Shelly's office and asks for help with breaking into his office safe. Shelly reluctantly agrees. As he retrieves a black bag from Vince's office in an old Herald Square office building, he's surprised by two armed hit men. After a chase and shootout, Vince explains that he has worked for the CIA since the Eisenhower administration and robbed the United States Mint of engraving plates to crack a worldwide inflation plot hatched in Central America. He mentions he robbed the U.S. Mint on his own; the CIA had turned him down, deeming the caper too risky. Vince further upsets Shelly by mentioning he left an engraving plate in the basement of Shelly's house the previous night. During the wedding preparations, Mrs. Kornpett discovers the engraving plates and brings them to her bank, where she is informed by the U.S. Treasury Department that they were stolen. Shelly arrives home to find Treasury officials there and speeds away, leading to a car chase through suburban New Jersey. Vince tells Shelly he wants him to accompany him to Scranton, Pennsylvania, and the ordeal will be cleared up by the time they return. At a small airport near Lodi, New Jersey, Vince and Shelly board a small jet. Vince co-captains the plane, speaking fluent Chinese with the two-person crew. To Shelly's consternation, he notices they are flying over the Atlantic Ocean. Vince assures Shelly they are going to Scranton but need to stop in Tijata, a small island south of Honduras. When they arrive, Vince is supposed to meet a corrupt member of the country's legislature, General Jesus Braunschweiger. When they land, Jesus is shot and killed. Vince and Shelly fall under sniper fire, escape, and drive into town. At their hotel, Vince contacts the mastermind of the inflation plot, General Garcia. Shelly calls the United States Embassy and is told by Barry Lutz, the CIA agent-in-charge, that Vince is a madman who was mentally discharged from the agency. Leaving the hotel, Vince hails a taxi driven by one of the airport snipers. Shelly chases, leaping onto the roof of the car. Vince takes control of the car, crashing into a fruit market. Vince and Shelly reach the general's estate. The insane general gives them $20 million for the plates, awards them medals, and marches them in front of a firing squad. Vince stalls for time until hundreds of CIA agents, led by Lutz, overwhelm the army and take Garcia into custody. Lutz reveals that Vince was telling the truth. However, Vince retires, as he has had enough. He gives Lutz the $10 million he had agreed to deliver from the general. Vince and Shelly take off with five million dollars each, giving their children a wedding gift of a million dollars each.

Four radicalised British Muslim men living in Sheffield (three of whom are British Pakistani) aspire to become suicide bombers: Omar, who is deeply critical of Western society and interventionism; his dim-witted and anxious cousin Waj; Barry, a bad-tempered and rash English convert; and the naive Faisal. When Omar and Waj travel to an al-Qaeda -affiliated training camp in Pakistan, Barry recruits a fifth member, Hassan, after witnessing him pretending to commit a suicide bombing at a conference. The training in Pakistan ends in disaster when Omar accidentally destroys part of the camp attempting to shoot down a suspected drone; the pair are forced to flee. Omar later uses the experience to assert authority on the group on his return to Britain. The group disagrees about what the target should be. Barry wants to bomb a local mosque as a false flag operation to "radicalise the moderates" and Faisal suggests blowing up a Boots because it sells contraceptives. Ahmed, Omar's conservative, pacifist brother, tries to talk him out of doing anything violent; however, Omar and his wife, Sofia, mock Ahmed for his unwillingness to be in the same room as a woman, and accuse him of keeping his wife in a cupboard. Sofia instigates a water gun fight with him, prompting Ahmed to leave in a huff. After the group begins production of the explosives, Hassan is left to watch the safehouse as Barry, Waj and Faisal test detonate a small amount of TATP contained in a microwave, using a nearby fireworks show to cover the sound. When they return, they find Hassan dancing with an oblivious neighbour. The group suspects they have been compromised and transport the explosives to a new location in grocery bags. Faisal trips up while crossing a field and is killed in the explosion. This angers Omar, who berates the others and leaves. Faisal's head is found, tipping off the authorities, and Omar tells the others and they reconcile. Omar decides to target the upcoming London Marathon due to having access to mascot costumes, which they use to conceal the bombs. Meanwhile, armed police raid Omar's brother's house. At the Marathon, Waj expresses doubts about the morality of their plot, but Omar convinces him to go through with it. A police officer approaches the group, which leads Hassan to attempt to alert the officer about their plot, but is killed when Barry remotely detonates his bomb. The remaining three panic and run away as the police search for them. Omar has a change of heart, feeling guilt about manipulating Waj into dying for a cause he does not understand and attempts to prevent the attack. Two police snipers receive Omar's description, a man dressed as the Honey Monster, but one of them mistakenly kills a bystander in a Wookiee costume. Waj is cornered by police in a kebab shop and takes the staff hostage. Omar calls Waj and convinces him to let all but one of the hostages go. Barry finds Omar, snatches his phone, and swallows the SIM card. However, as Barry begins to choke, a well-meaning passer-by attempts to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre, forcing Omar to flee before Barry's bombs are inadvertently detonated. Omar hurries to a nearby phone store to buy a new SIM card to contact Waj but leaves empty-handed. He spots a colleague and borrows his phone. Omar attempts to talk Waj down, but his call is interrupted when the police charge in and kill the remaining hostage, whom they mistake for Waj. Waj's bomb is then detonated, killing everyone in the kebab shop. Distraught, Omar walks into a nearby pharmacy and detonates his own bomb. In an epilogue, it is revealed the police later arrested Omar's innocent brother as a terrorist and abducted him to a black site; that they deflect responsibility for shooting the hostage and the bystander; and that Omar unknowingly killed Osama bin Laden when misfiring the rocket in Pakistan.

Walter Mitty is a negative assets manager at Life magazine living alone in New York City. He chronically daydreams and has a secret crush on Cheryl Melhoff, a coworker. Walter attempts to contact Cheryl via eHarmony, but eHarmony customer service agent Todd Mahar explains that Walter's account profile is not filled out completely: the "been there" and "done that" sections are blank. Walter works with legendary photojournalist Sean O'Connell, although they have never met in person. Sean is "old-school", working with analog film and later sending a telegram. At work, Walter receives a negative roll from Sean, as well as a wallet in appreciation of Walter's work. Sean relays to Walter and Life management that he believes negative #25 captures the "quintessence of life" and should be used for the cover of the magazine's final print issue before it becomes digital. However, the negative #25 is missing. When Ted Hendricks, the obnoxious manager of the magazine's transition, asks to see #25, Walter stalls, worried about being fired. He then asks Cheryl for help in contacting O'Connell. Walter looks to the other negatives for clues to Sean's location – water, a thumb, and a mysterious curved object. Walter and Hernando, his assistant, see a reflection in the water, which is the name of a ship registered in Greenland. Walter reluctantly takes a plane to Greenland. A bartender in Nuuk explains that Sean left on a ship. To reach him, Walter would need to go on the postal helicopter, whose pilot is drunk. Walter recognizes the pilot's thumb from one of the negatives and joins the pilot on a trip to bring supplies to the ship. Walter accidentally jumps into ice-cold, shark-infested waters, losing the ship's supplies and preventing radio communication when he comes aboard. There, Walter learns that Sean departed the ship a few days earlier and discovers from notes on wrapping paper for a clementine cake Sean left behind that he is heading to Iceland to photograph the volcano Eyjafjallajökull. The ship brings Walter to Iceland. He then bikes, skateboards, and runs through the Icelandic countryside to find Sean but misses him as the volcano erupts. Dejected, he returns home. Hendricks assumes that Walter misplaced the negative and fires him. He tries to visit Cheryl but spots her ex-husband and leaves. Walter visits his mother and throws away the wallet from Sean. He recognizes the curve of the piano in his mother's house while looking at the last negative. When asked, she tells Walter that she baked him the clementine cake. She had told him earlier, but he was daydreaming. Walter figures out from the notes that Sean is in the Afghan Himalayas. After an arduous journey, he finds him photographing a rare snow leopard. When asked about the negative, Sean explains that, attempting to be playful, he had placed the negative in the wallet. He decides not to tell Walter what the picture actually depicts. When Walter returns to America, the airport security in Los Angeles detains him for arriving from Afghanistan. To verify his identity, Walter calls the only person he knows in Los Angeles: Todd, from eHarmony, who has kept in contact during Walter's travels. Todd expresses admiration for how adventurous Walter appears. Walter receives the wallet from his mother, who had retrieved it from the trash, and obtains the negative but chooses not to look at it. Emboldened, he delivers it to Life ' s offices and berates Hendricks for disrespecting the staff. Walter reunites with Cheryl and thanks her for inspiring him on his journey. Cheryl asks about his adventures and tells him that her ex-husband had only been at her house to help with repairs. Walking along the street, they see the final print issue on sale at a newsstand, and on its cover, they see the photograph from #25. It shows Walter sitting outside of the Life building, examining a contact sheet; the magazine is dedicated to Life ' s staff, and Sean's note referred to "quintessence of Life ". Walter and Cheryl continue their walk holding hands.

In San Francisco in 1998, 19-year-old Greg Sestero befriends Tommy Wiseau in Jean Shelton 's acting class after Tommy gives a bizarre interpretation of a scene from A Streetcar Named Desire. Greg is impressed by Tommy's fearlessness, though Tommy also exhibits unusual habits and mannerisms; for instance, he can afford apartments in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, but refuses to discuss his personal life or the source of his wealth, and insists that he is from New Orleans despite his pronounced European accent. At Tommy's suggestion, the two move to Los Angeles to pursue acting careers. Greg signs with talent agent Iris Burton, regularly attends auditions, and starts dating a girl named Amber. Meanwhile, Tommy is constantly rejected by agencies, acting teachers, casting directors, and producers, and believes Amber is sabotaging his and Greg's friendship. As Greg's auditions begin to dry up, Tommy decides to make a film for them to star in. He writes the screenplay for The Room, a melodrama about a love triangle between banker Johnny (played by Tommy), his fiancée Lisa, and his best friend Mark (played by Greg, who is also given a line producer credit). Tommy insists on buying, rather than renting, all of the production equipment they need, and decides to shoot the film on 35 mm film and HD Digital simultaneously, another costly and unnecessary measure. Tommy hires Raphael Smadja as the cinematographer and Sandy Schklair as the director and script supervisor, and casts actress Juliette Danielle as Lisa. While production starts smoothly, Tommy's controlling behavior and lack of experience soon begin to cause problems. He forgets his lines, arrives late, and refuses to supply his crew with basic needs like drinking water and air conditioning, even when one of the actors suffers a heatstroke on set. The cast and crew are baffled by the film's nonsensical plot and Tommy's inexplicable directorial and acting choices. Tensions mount between the crew and Tommy when he refuses to film on a closed set and insults Juliette during a sex scene, during which he almost gets into a fight with Smadja. Tommy then angrily reveals that he has been watching the behind-the-scenes footage of the production and thus knows what the cast and crew have been saying about him behind his back, and that he has spent $5 million on the production, though he does not disclose where these funds came from. While The Room is still filming, Greg and Amber run into Bryan Cranston at a café. Cranston reveals that he is directing an upcoming episode of Malcolm in the Middle, the TV show he is on, and invites Greg to play a lumberjack character, noting his lumberjack-like facial hair. Greg begs Tommy to delay shooting of an upcoming scene in The Room where Mark shaves his beard (for no apparent purpose), but Tommy refuses. Greg begrudgingly finishes the film, relinquishing his opportunity to be on the show. On the last day of shooting, which is on location back in San Francisco, Greg lashes out at Tommy for his selfishness throughout their friendship and demands that Tommy finally reveal his age, birthplace, and source of income. Tommy refuses and Greg storms off, while a disheartened Tommy declares that filming is wrapped. By June 2003, Greg has broken up with Amber and started working in theater, and Tommy has finished work on The Room, which he invites Greg to the premiere of. Greg reluctantly agrees; the entire cast and crew also attend. As the film plays on the screen, the capacity audience at first reacts with bemused silence, then increasingly with laughter at Tommy's poor performance, script, and filmmaking techniques. A humiliated Tommy storms out of the theater, but Greg follows him and asserts that the audience's enthusiastic response is something to be proud of, reconciling their friendship. With renewed optimism, Tommy takes the stage as the film ends and expresses his appreciation of the warm reception for his "comedic" film. He invites Greg to join him, and the pair receive a standing ovation. In a post-credits scene, a man named Henry approaches Tommy at a party and invites him to hang out. Tommy declines, but recognizes Henry's familiar "New Orleans" accent.

The residents of Sunnyvale Trailer Park attend the funeral of Ricky 's father Ray, who is believed to have died in a propane explosion. Trailer park supervisor Jim Lahey and his partner Randy attend the service, despite being uninvited; the pair are forced to leave after Lahey expresses his belief that Ray is still alive. Ricky has purchased a house in a subdivision where he keeps an upscale marijuana growing operation. Lahey has recently suffered a stroke, which he blames Ricky for, and vows to get revenge. With the help of his lackey Jacob Collins who is now serving in the Canadian Army, Julian has developed a new money-making scheme in selling drug-tested urine. Bubbles has been living under J-Roc and Sarah 's trailer step for two years due to not being able to find work. J-Roc and Sarah later plan an intervention and tell Bubbles to move out. While Bubbles is packing his things, he receives a letter from Randy which he hangs on to. Bubbles is later attacked by thugs while delivering chicken and sent to the hospital. Julian warns Ricky that with the potential legalization of marijuana, his growing operation business will become obsolete. Ricky refuses to work for Julian and vows to go to Parliament Hill in Ottawa to protest the upcoming legal action. After visiting Bubbles at the hospital, Julian asks him to work for him. Bubbles accepts the offer after revealing that his letter was from a lawyer saying that his deceased parents left land and a house for him in Kingston. Julian promises to take Bubbles to the place after they finish the job. Jacob later reveals that he has been dishonorably discharged from the Army. After Jacob's father Phil rages at Julian, Bubbles, and Tyrone — who recently ran away from a halfway house — the three steal Phil's food truck, "The Dirty Burger", and make their way to the urine deal, with Julian letting Bubbles drive a separate van. Bubbles then offers Ricky a ride to Ottawa after the transmission in Ricky's car fails. Lahey and Randy secretly follow the boys on their trip, with the intent of planting cocaine in their vehicles and framing them. While on the drive, Lahey tries some of the cocaine and quickly becomes addicted, which worries Randy. While Bubbles and Ricky are driving in the van, they drive by the now burned down Dirty Burger and watch as police arrest Tyrone; they pick up Julian before the police can find him. Later, Bubbles purposely drives past the turnoff to Montreal where the deal is supposed to happen. When Julian finds out, Bubbles admits that he does not want to be a part of the scheme anymore, and just wants to go to his parents' land. Once they get there, it is revealed that the home of Bubbles's parents is a rundown bus parked next to a lake. Bubbles opts to live there, despite Ricky and Julian's protests; however, at the last minute, he decides to go back with them. Once they arrive at Montreal, Bubbles and Ricky go to a strip club while Julian waits for his customers; he is then robbed by his arch-rival Cyrus and his accomplices Dennis and Terry. Randy calls the bomb squad on Julian's van, and they discover cocaine in the wheel well. Julian is arrested, but Bubbles and Ricky manage to get away. After finding Lahey and Randy, Bubbles steals their car and drives Ricky to Ottawa. Once at Parliament Hill, Ricky sneaks his way into the building and makes an outrageous speech which gets him pulled out by security. A lawyer then offers to help get him out of jail quickly and obtain a marijuana license. While a police officer takes Ricky and Bubbles away, Lahey, highly intoxicated on liquor and cocaine, knocks the officer unconscious and fights a handcuffed Ricky. After the officer regains consciousness, he tases Lahey. Now in jail, Lahey reveals that the taser shock reversed his stroke. He is no longer using cocaine and has started a relationship with his cellmate. Bubbles has his parents' bus taken to Sunnyvale where he now resides. Julian has stopped dealing drug-tested urine and has started a relationship with an unnamed woman. Randy has revealed that he is over Lahey and has gone back to hooking. Ricky reveals that his marijuana growing operation is a success, since he is now able to sell marijuana legally. He receives a letter containing a VHS tape, which reveals that his father Ray is still alive and now living in a landfill site in Florida, having performed a life insurance scam.