Socially awkward 16-year-old Napoleon Dynamite lives in Preston, Idaho, United States, with his grandmother, Carlinda, and his technology-addicted older brother, Kip. Napoleon's school days are spent doodling mythical creatures, dealing with bullies, and playing tetherball by himself. Carlinda breaks her tailbone in a quad bike accident and asks Napoleon and Kip's Uncle Rico to look after the boys while she recovers. Flirtatious, middle-aged Rico arrives in the camper van he lives in, and teams up with Kip to sell items door-to-door in a get-rich-quick scheme. Kip wants to pay for his internet girlfriend, LaFawnduh, to visit from Detroit. Former high-school athlete Rico dwells on his past and dreams of going back in time. He believes wealth will help him get over his breakup with his girlfriend and failed dreams of NFL stardom. Meanwhile, Napoleon takes a job on a chicken farm, but barely makes anything close to what Rico and Kip made. Napoleon becomes friends with Deb, a shy girl who sells headshots and knick-knacks to raise money for college, and Pedro, a bold transfer student from Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Pedro is rebuffed when he asks the popular and snobby Summer Wheatly to accompany him to the high school dance; Deb gladly accepts. Pedro encourages Napoleon to find a date and he picks popular classmate Trisha. As a gift, he draws an (unintentionally bad) picture of her and delivers it to Trisha's mother, one of Rico's customers. Rico tells Trisha's mother embarrassing stories about Napoleon to evoke sympathy. She buys his wares and forces Trisha to accept Napoleon's invitation. Trisha goes to the dance with Napoleon but abandons him to hang out with Summer and her boyfriend, Don Moser. Pedro allows Napoleon to dance with Deb. Pedro runs against Summer for class president. The two factions put up flyers and hand out trinkets to attract voters. To demonstrate their "skills" and increase their respect around the school, Napoleon and Pedro enter a Future Farmers of America competition, grading milk and cow udders. They win medals, but it does little for their popularity. Pedro becomes stressed to the point where he inadvertently shaves his head bald, and is given a wig by Deb. He later makes a piñata of Summer for fellow students to whack, but is reprimanded by the principal and forced to remove all his campaign flyers. To deal with the bullying, Pedro and Napoleon enlist Pedro's cousins to chase off the bullies. Napoleon buys an instructional dance videotape, D-Qwon's Dance Grooves. Kip's girlfriend, LaFawnduh, arrives and gives him an urban makeover, outfitting him in hip-hop regalia. Seeing that Napoleon is learning to dance, LaFawnduh gives him a mixtape. Rico continues to spread embarrassing rumors about Napoleon to prospective customers. He tries to sell Deb a breast-enhancement product, claiming it was Napoleon's suggestion, causing her to break off their friendship. Napoleon confronts Rico and tells him to leave, but Rico refuses. His sales scheme ends when martial arts instructor Rex walks in on Rico demonstrating the breast-enhancement product on his wife, and assaults him. On Election Day, Summer gives a speech before the student body, and presents a dance skit to " Larger than Life " by the Backstreet Boys with the Happy Hands club as her backup dancers. Pedro gives a despondent speech after discovering he is also required to perform a skit. Napoleon gives the sound engineer LaFawnduh's mixtape and spontaneously performs a dance routine to " Canned Heat " by Jamiroquai as Pedro's skit. Napoleon's routine receives a standing ovation, stunning Summer and Don. Pedro becomes class president, Grandma returns from the hospital, Rico reunites with his girlfriend, Kip and LaFawnduh leave on a bus for Michigan, and Napoleon and Deb reconcile and play tetherball together. Two months later, Kip and LaFawnduh get married, and Napoleon arrives late at the wedding on a stallion which he tamed for Kip and LaFawnduh to ride out on.

Friends Felix and Leon are driving to Felix's family holiday home on the Baltic Sea not far from Ahrenshoop when their car breaks down. After walking through the forest with their luggage, they arrive at the house to find it unexpectedly inhabited by Nadja, whose presence is obvious though they do not meet her. Her romantic trysts keep them up at night, causing Leon to resent her. Over the course of their vacation forest fires are mentioned, first distantly, then approaching. Leon spends his time fussing over the manuscript of his second novel, while Felix is less hurried about completing his photography portfolio. Within a couple days, they have both met Nadja, who is kind and accommodating. Despite this, Leon continues to be frustrated by her. Meanwhile, Felix strikes up a friendship with her and her lover, Devid, a lifeguard at the nearby beach. The emotions among the four intensify as Leon broods and resists interacting with the others. Felix and Devid develop a romantic and sexual relationship. Nadja offers friendship to Leon but he struggles to accept it. After much consternation, he decides to grant her request to read his manuscript, which she finds inferior and she tells him that he knows its poor quality. Leon does not take this well and isolates himself for the rest of the evening. When Leon's publisher Helmut arrives so they can review the manuscript together, Leon grows even more despondent as Helmut connects more with Felix, Devid, and especially Nadja, who is revealed to be a doctoral candidate in literature, not the seasonal hotel employee Leon thought. After a dinner that is tense for Leon and enjoyable for the rest, the forest fires are close enough that ash begins to fall just as Devid and Felix finally leave to retrieve their abandoned car. Helmut suffers a medical emergency. Nadja is quick to act, driving Helmut's tiny rental car to the hospital. Leon follows on foot. On the way, he sees wild boar fleeing the fire. After he watches a boar die, the fire begins to crest the hill and he runs. In darkness, he reaches the hospital to join Nadja, asleep on a bench. When they wake in the morning and find Helmut, he shares private moments with both of them. Nadja asks about his health, which he has lied about so as not to trouble them, and informs him of Leon's distress. Helmut comforts Leon, advising him to abandon his work-in-progress but assuring him of eventual success. Helmut promises to help him as long as his condition allows. On the walk back to the house, Nadja offers Leon comfort which Leon angrily rejects, leading Nadja to castigate him for his self-centeredness before leaving him alone on the beach. Remorseful, he follows her back to the house where he begins to confess romantic feelings for her, just as she sees two police officers in the backyard. Nadja approaches them and they inform her that Devid and Felix were found burned to death by the fires. Nadja and Leon go to see their bodies and see their charred corpses intertwined in death. Nadja has a profound emotional reaction, but Leon cannot absorb the reality, instead thinking about other coupled corpses throughout history, such as those found at Pompeii. She leaves without him, and by the time he reaches the vacation house she has left. He goes to the beach and sobs, looking at the bioluminescence in the sea, something he had refused to do earlier. Some time later, Leon is in Helmut's hospital room as Helmut reads Leon's new manuscript back to him, a work of autofiction based on the time he shared with Felix, Nadja, and Devid. Together they look at photos Felix took that summer which Helmut wants to use as accompanying artwork for the novel. Helmut has Leon leave when a medic appears to administer a treatment. Waiting outside, Leon sees Nadja arriving, presumably to visit Helmut. He steps out from hiding and the two share a moment of mutual recognition.

In 2014, Adolf Hitler wakes up in the Berlin park where his Führerbunker once stood. Disoriented, he wanders through the city, interpreting modern situations from a wartime perspective. Mistaken for an impersonator, Hitler encounters a mime and an anxious young mother, the latter of which pepper-sprays him. He faints after reading a newspaper stating the year is 2014. Meanwhile, at the MyTV television station offices, leading executive Christoph Sensenbrink is denied a promotion. Unleashing his rage, he fires Fabian Sawatzki, a freelance filmmaker. Sitting at home, Sawatzki spots Hitler in the background of his documentary footage and his mother suggests that a film about him would be successful. As Hitler wakes up at a newspaper kiosk, he reads about a changed Germany and laments the loss of his vision. Believing destiny has a purpose for him, Hitler decides to continue his work, and eventually he is found by Sawatzki. Sawatzki proposes filming Hitler for YouTube and they embark on a journey across Germany. Hitler interacts with ordinary Germans and speaks to them about contemporary social and political issues. Sawatzki's idea for an animal-centric film clip ends abruptly when the normally animal-loving Hitler shoots a dog after it bites him. Sawatzki introduces Hitler and his program idea to MyTV executives, including the new managing director, Katja Bellini (who got the promotion Sensenbrink desired). Bellini supports Hitler and his ideas while Sensenbrink is opposed. Hitler learns about the Internet and obsessively reads Wikipedia. On air, he speaks about the problems in modern German society which he noticed during his journey. The speech is remixed and talked about by various famous YouTubers, unintentionally becoming a comedy hit. Hitler meets with various right wing fringe parties and laments that none of them have the rhetoric or leadership skills that he has. Meanwhile, Sensenbrink sends an anonymous complaint of incitement of racial violence to the public prosecutor, summoning police at the MyTV offices, only for the prosecutor to personally praise the show and dismiss the complaint as leftist drivel. However, Sensenbrink finds the unedited footage of Hitler shooting the dog, and in an act of revenge broadcasts it during Hitler's next interview. This causes Hitler, Sawatzki and Bellini to all be fired from the station. Hitler publishes a book titled " Er Ist Wieder Da " (" He is Back ") about his new life, which becomes a popular bestseller, despite the controversy he has garnered for shooting the dog. Sawatzki turns Hitler's book into a film. 3 months later, without Hitler, MyTV's ratings plummet. In a fit of rage, which parodies a scene from Downfall, Sensenbrink ultimately decides to finance the film. During filming, Hitler is attacked by Neo-Nazis who mistake him for a mocking impersonator. Hitler is hospitalized, and when news of this generates sympathy for him, his popularity soars. Sawatzki reviews his footage and travels to the spot where Hitler rose from the ground. He discovers burnt leaves and a sign that the Führerbunker once stood at that location. Sawatzki realizes Hitler is not an impersonator and goes to confront him at the hospital, but Hitler has already been discharged, and only Bellini is in the room. Sawatzki tries to explain the truth to her, but she does not believe the story and hospital staff begins to chase him. At the MyTV set, Hitler is filming when he is interrupted by Sawatzki holding him at gunpoint. Hitler allows Sawatzki to direct them to the rooftop, where Sawatzki shoots him off the side of the building. Hitler reappears behind him, unharmed, and the confrontation is revealed to be a film scene with an actor playing Sawatzki; the real Sawatzki had been committed to a mental hospital. As Hitler's film finishes, he senses a political comeback. In the final scene, he and Bellini ride in a car through Berlin. The music tone changes sharply when bystanders begin performing the Nazi salute at him, and the film intersperses his monologue with clips of real-life contemporary far-right protests and interviews with politicians such as Marine Le Pen. Hitler says to himself: "I can work with this."

In the fictional country of Lugash, a mysterious thief seizes the Pink Panther diamond and leaves a white glove embroidered with a gold "P." With its national treasure once again missing, the Shah of Lugash requests the assistance of Inspector Clouseau of the Sûreté, as Clouseau had recovered the diamond the last time it was stolen. Clouseau has been temporarily demoted to beat cop by his boss, Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus, who despises him to the point of obsession, but the French government forces Dreyfus to reinstate him. Clouseau joyously receives the news and duly departs for Lugash, but not before fending off a surprise attack from his servant Cato, who had been ordered to do so to keep the Inspector on his toes. Upon examining the crime scene in the national museum — in which, due to his habitual clumsiness, he wrecks several priceless antiques — Clouseau concludes that the glove implicates Sir Charles Litton, alias "the notorious Phantom," as the thief. After several catastrophic failures to stake out Litton Manor in Nice, Clouseau believes a mysterious assassin is attempting to kill him. He follows Sir Charles' wife, Lady Claudine Litton, to the Gstaad Palace hotel in Switzerland in search of clues to her husband's whereabouts and repeatedly bungles the investigation. Meanwhile, Sir Charles is teased about the theft by his wife and realizes he has been framed. Arriving in Lugash to clear his name, Sir Charles barely avoids being murdered and sent to the Lugash secret police by his associate known as the "Fat Man", who explains that with the leading suspect dead, the secret police will no longer have an excuse to continue purging their political enemies. Escaping to his suite, Litton finds secret police Colonel Sharki waiting for him, who implies the Fat Man's understanding is correct, but reminds him the diamond must be recovered eventually. Sir Charles pretends to cooperate, but is unable to hide his reaction when he recognizes a face on the museum's security footage. He avoids another plot by the Fat Man and his duplicitous underling Pepi and escapes from Lugash, secretly pursued by Sharki, who believes Sir Charles will lead him to the diamond. In Gstaad, Clouseau, still tailing Lady Claudine, is suddenly ordered by Dreyfus over the telephone to arrest her in her hotel room. However, when Clouseau calls back to clarify the order, he is told that Dreyfus is on vacation. Sir Charles, who in the meantime has chartered a private flight out of Lugash, arrives at the hotel and is first to confront his wife. Lady Claudine admits she stole the jewel to spark excitement in their lives. Colonel Sharki shows up, but just as he prepares to kill them both, Inspector Clouseau barges in. Sir Charles explains things to Clouseau, and Sharki is about to kill the three of them. However, Dreyfus has followed Clouseau and is outside the hotel room with a rifle — Dreyfus is in fact the "mysterious assassin" who has been trying to kill Clouseau all this time — and just as Dreyfus shoots at Clouseau, the Inspector ducks to check if his fly is undone, and the shot kills Sharki instead. The other three take cover, while Dreyfus, insanely enraged by his latest failure to kill Clouseau, goes berserk until he is arrested. For once again recovering the Pink Panther, Clouseau is promoted to Chief Inspector, while Sir Charles resumes his career as a jewel thief. At a Japanese restaurant in the epilogue, Cato unexpectedly attacks Clouseau again and triggers a massive brawl, destroying the premises; Clouseau chastises Cato for his ill timing but then attempts to attack the latter from behind, only to fail and crash into the kitchen causing more damage. Dreyfus is committed to a lunatic asylum for his actions, where he is straitjacketed inside a padded cell and vows revenge on Clouseau. The film ends when the Pink Panther (in cartoon form) enters Dreyfus' cell and, after watching the credits roll by, films him writing "The End" on the wall with his foot.

In 1980, Congressman Charlie Wilson, an East Texas Democrat, is more interested in partying than legislating, frequently throwing huge galas and staffing his congressional office with attractive young women. His social life eventually brings about a federal investigation into allegations of his cocaine use, conducted by federal prosecutor Rudy Giuliani as part of a larger investigation into congressional misconduct. The investigation results in no charge against Wilson. A friend and romantic interest, Joanne Herring, Houston socialite, political activist, diplomat, and television talk show host, encourages Charlie to do more to help the Afghan people, and persuades him to visit the Pakistani leadership. The Pakistanis complain about the inadequate support of the U.S. to oppose the Soviet Union, and they insist that Wilson visit a major Pakistan-based Afghan refugee camp. The Congressman is deeply moved by their misery and determination to fight, but is frustrated by the regional CIA personnel's insistence on a low key approach against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Wilson returns home to lead an effort to substantially increase funding to the mujahideen. As part of this effort, Charlie befriends maverick CIA operative Gust Avrakotos and his understaffed Afghanistan group to find a better strategy, especially including a means to counter the Soviets' formidable Mil Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunship. This group was composed in part of members of the CIA's Special Activities Division, including a young paramilitary officer named Michael Vickers. As a result, Charlie's deft political bargaining for the necessary funding and Avrakotos' careful planning using those resources, such as supplying the guerrillas with FIM-92 Stinger missile launchers, turns the Soviet occupation into a deadly quagmire with their heavy fighting vehicles being destroyed at a crippling rate. Charlie enlists the support of Israel and Egypt for Soviet weapons and consumables, and Pakistan for distribution of arms. The CIA's anti-communism budget evolves from $5 million to over $500 million (with the same amount matched by Saudi Arabia), startling several congressmen. This effort by Charlie ultimately evolves into a major portion of the U.S. foreign policy known as the Reagan Doctrine, under which the U.S. expanded assistance beyond just the mujahideen and began also supporting other anti-communist resistance movements around the world. Charlie states that senior Pentagon official Michael Pillsbury persuaded President Ronald Reagan to provide the Stingers to the Afghans. Gust vehemently advises Charlie to seek support for post-Soviet occupation Afghanistan, referencing the "zen master's" story of the lost horse. He also emphasizes that rehabilitating schools in the country will help educate young children before they are influenced by the " crazies ". Charlie attempts to appeal this with the government but finds no enthusiasm for even the modest measures he proposes. In the end, Charlie receives a major commendation for his support of the U.S. clandestine services, but his pride is tempered by his fears of the blowback his secret efforts could yield in the future and the implications of U.S. disengagement from Afghanistan.

A Jewish man in a 19th-century Eastern European shtetl tells his wife that he was helped on his way home by Reb Groshkover, whom he has invited in for soup. She says Groshkover is dead and the man he invited must be a dybbuk. Groshkover arrives and laughs off the accusation, but she plunges an ice pick into his chest. Bleeding, he exits their home into the snowy night. In 1967, Larry Gopnik is a professor of physics living in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. His wife, Judith, tells him that she needs a get so she can marry widower Sy Ableman, with whom she has fallen in love. Meanwhile, their son Danny owes twenty dollars to an intimidating Hebrew school classmate for marijuana. He has the money, but it is hidden in a transistor radio that his teacher confiscated. Their daughter, Sarah, is constantly washing her hair, going out, and avoiding school. Larry's brother, Arthur, is homeless and sleeps on the couch, spending his free time filling a notebook with what he calls the "Mentaculus", a "probability map of the universe". Clive Park, a South Korean student worried about losing his scholarship, meets with Larry in his office to argue that he should not fail the class. After he leaves, Larry finds an envelope stuffed with cash. When Larry attempts to return it, Clive's father threatens to sue Larry either for defamation if Larry accuses Clive of bribery, or for keeping the money if he does not give him a passing grade. Larry faces an impending vote on his application for tenure, and his department head informs him that anonymous letters have urged the committee to deny him. At the insistence of Judith and Sy, Larry and Arthur move into a nearby motel. Judith empties the couple's bank accounts, leaving Larry penniless; his attorney advises him to open a private account. Larry turns to his Jewish faith for consolation. He consults a junior rabbi, Scott, who advises Larry to change his "perspective". Larry and Sy are involved in separate, simultaneous car crashes. Larry is unharmed, but Sy dies. Larry consults a second rabbi, Nachtner, for solace, who recounts an anecdote about an orthodontist who finds Hebrew inscriptions on a non-Jewish patient's teeth. Larry also tries to contact Marshak, the synagogue's senior rabbi, who is not available. At Judith's insistence, Larry pays for Sy's funeral. At the funeral, Sy is eulogized as "a serious man". Larry calls on his neighbor, Vivienne Samsky, whom he has seen sunbathing naked. She introduces him to marijuana. He later dreams that he is having sex with her, but this turns into a nightmare. Larry learns that Arthur faces charges of illegal gambling, solicitation, and sodomy. Arthur is despondent about the charges against him, and Larry consoles him. Larry then has another nightmare in which he gives Arthur the money Clive left him and drives him to cross into Canada by boat, only for his neighbors to shoot Arthur in the neck. Larry is proud and moved by Danny's bar mitzvah, unaware that his son is under the influence of marijuana. During the service, Judith apologizes to Larry for all the recent trouble and tells him that Sy respected him so much that he even wrote letters to the tenure committee. Danny meets with Marshak, a brief encounter in which Marshak only quotes Jefferson Airplane 's " Somebody to Love ", names some members of the band, returns the radio, and tells Danny to "be a good boy". Larry's department head compliments him on Danny's bar mitzvah and hints that he will receive tenure. The mail brings a $3,000 bill from Arthur's lawyer. Larry decides to change Clive's grade from F to C−; immediately after he does so, his doctor calls, asking to see him immediately about the results of a chest X-ray. Meanwhile, Danny's teacher struggles to open the emergency shelter as a massive tornado closes in on the school.

Faced with a demotion due to a drinking problem, Osborne Cox angrily quits his job as a CIA analyst and decides to write a memoir. When he tells his wife Katie, she secretly files for divorce and continues an on-going affair with Harry Pfarrer, a married U.S. Marshal with paranoid tendencies. At the instruction of her lawyer, Katie delivers a digital copy of her husband's financial records and other personal files, unwittingly including a rough draft of Osborne's memoir. The lawyer's assistant copies the files onto a CD-R, which she accidentally leaves on the floor of the locker room at Hardbodies, a local gym. The disc falls into the hands of personal trainer Chad Feldheimer and his co-worker Linda Litzke, who mistakenly believe it contains sensitive government information. Chad and Linda devise a plan to return the disc to Osborne for a reward, as Linda is eager to raise money for her cosmetic surgeries. However, their inept efforts to blackmail Osborne only enrage him. Upon their failure to secure money from Osborne, Chad and Linda try to sell the disc to the Russian embassy, meeting with a Russian government official. Information about the meeting later makes it back to the CIA via a mole inside the Russian embassy. Osborne's increasingly erratic behavior prompts Katie to change the locks on their house and to invite Harry to move in. Meanwhile, Harry is a serial philanderer who incidentally becomes romantically involved with Linda after meeting her on a dating site. Having falsely promised the Russians more files, Linda persuades Chad to sneak into the Cox house to steal files from Osborne's computer. Chad is discovered by Harry, who reflexively kills Chad with his firearm. Harry searches the body for clues, but finds an empty wallet and missing suit tags, a precaution Chad took on Linda's advice. Harry surmises from his lack of identifying features that Chad is a government agent. At CIA headquarters, Osborne's former supervisor Palmer DeBakey Smith and his superior learn that information from Osborne has been given to the Russian embassy. They are perplexed because the information is of no particular importance and the perpetrators' motive is unknown. To avoid involvement from the FBI because of interservice rivalry, the superior orders that Chad's death be covered up. Harry realizes that he is being tailed, and catches and confronts the tail, who admits to being an employee of a divorce lawyer hired by his wife. Depressed, Harry meets with Linda, who is distressed over Chad's disappearance. Harry agrees to help find him, unaware that Chad is the man he killed. Linda returns to the embassy, believing that the Russians have abducted Chad, but they deny this. After they inform her the contents of the CD she has given them are worthless, she convinces the manager of Hardbodies, Ted (who has unrequited feelings for Linda), to help her by sneaking into the Cox household to gather more files. Harry and Linda meet in a park, where Linda reveals the address where Chad went before he disappeared. Harry realizes that Chad is the man he shot and flees, convinced Linda is a spy. When Osborne breaks into Katie's house with a hatchet to retrieve his personal belongings and her valuables, he finds Ted in the basement; Osborne shoots him, chases him into the street, and kills him with the hatchet. At CIA headquarters, Smith relates the events to his superior. A surveilling CIA officer who saw Osborne's highly conspicuous attack intervened and shot him, leaving him comatose with a low chance of survival. Harry has been detained while boarding a flight to Venezuela, a country with no extradition treaty with the U.S.; the superior orders that Harry be released and allowed to continue to Venezuela, rather than deal with the consequences of bringing him into custody. Linda has been captured, but agrees to keep quiet if they will pay for her surgeries. The superior, bewildered by the litany of events, approves the payment and closes the file.

After separating from his wife, unemployed Danny Meyerowitz moves in with his father, Harold, a retired Bard College art professor and sculptor, and his fourth wife, Maureen, a pleasant but foggy hippie. Jean is his sister, and they have a younger half-brother, Matthew. Danny is close to his daughter, Eliza, a freshman film student at Bard. Eliza sends one of her sexually provocative films to the family, discomforting them. Some of Harold's work has been selected as part of a faculty group show at Bard, but he refuses to be part of a group show. Danny and Harold attend the MoMA retrospective of a friend and contemporary of Harold's, the successful L.J. Shapiro. There, neither father nor son feels comfortable; Harold feels that the art world has forgotten him, and chooses to literally run away down the street. Danny meets Shapiro's daughter, single mother Loretta, but is forced to leave to chase after Harold. Harold's younger son, Matthew, a successful financial advisor to rock stars on the West Coast in Los Angeles, is in New York on business, and meets Harold for lunch with an accountant friend. Matthew discusses raising his young son after separating from his wife, neither of whom Harold knows. They try to convince Harold to sell his Manhattan home and its sculpture. Harold tells them that the decision to sell the house is a private family decision, and walks out. At a third restaurant, he criticizes the prices, but orders lavishly when Matthew says he will pay. During lunch at the restaurant, Harold feels offended by the arrogant manner of another patron, and gets Matthew to chase him when he alleges that the patron swapped jackets with him. Although mistaken, father and son bond slightly in self-righteous indignation. That evening, they pay a visit to Matthew's mother and Harold's second wife, Julia, who has since married a man named Cody, a wealthy philistine. She tells them that she is sorry that she was not a better mother to Danny and Jean; her directness makes them uncomfortable, and they are eager to leave. Matthew resents Harold for preferring a life of art over money. "I beat you!", he screams at his father's departing Volvo. Harold is diagnosed with a chronic subdural hematoma. He enters the hospital, where, as the days pass, his children learn to manage his care, after first leaning on Harold's doctor and nurse to do it. Matthew and Maureen agree to sell the house that the latter grew up in without consulting anyone else in the family. Outside the hospital, Jean tells her brothers that Harold's friend Paul, who happens to be visiting at the moment, exposed himself and masturbated in front of her when she was a teenager. Upset with the revelation, Matthew and Danny damage Paul's car with mounting exhilaration. Jean expresses her disappointment in her brothers, having wanted someone to just listen to her instead of doing such damage without her consent. At Bard, representing their father at the faculty group show, Matthew and Danny argue over Eliza drinking alcohol, which turns into a fight about Harold's favoritism of Matthew and Matthew's estrangement from the rest of the family. Later, bloody and crying, Matthew ends up breaking down emotionally during his speech as he realizes he'll never achieve closure with Harold if he dies now. Danny undergoes surgery for his persistent limp, something his daughter and siblings had urged him to seek treatment for. As Harold convalesces at Maureen's place in the country (the townhouse was sold, despite Matthew's change of heart), it dawns on Matthew and Harold that Harold's favorite sculpture, titled "Matthew", a lifelong object of resentment for Danny and Jean, was likely based on his feelings for young Danny. Danny, who until now has been solicitous toward his father, refuses to care for him while Maureen is away, and accepts his brother's offer of a trip to California, but he forgives him for his failures as a dad. On the way to the flight, he meets Loretta, now single, and she suggests that they go together to the screening of a film that Eliza has made. In the basement of The Whitney, Eliza uncovers her grandfather's sculpture, long believed to have been lost.

Detroit engineer Preston Tucker has been interested in building cars since childhood. During World War II he designed an armored car for the military and made money building gun turrets for aircraft in a small shop next to his home in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Tucker is supported by his large extended family, particularly his wife Vera, his sons Preston Jr. and Noble, and his daughter Marilyn Lee. As the war winds down, Tucker becomes inspired to build the "car of the future". The "Tucker Torpedo" will feature revolutionary safety designs, including disc brakes, seatbelts, a pop-out windshield, and headlights which swivel when the car turns. Tucker hires young designer Alex Tremulis to help with the design and enlists New York financier Abe Karatz to arrange financial support. Raising the money through a stock issue, Tucker and Karatz acquire the enormous Dodge Chicago Plant to begin manufacturing. Abe hires Robert Bennington to run the new Tucker Corporation on a day-to-day basis. Launching "the car of tomorrow" in a spectacular way, the Tucker Corporation is met with enthusiasm from shareholders and the general public. However, the Tucker board of directors, unsure of his ability to overcome the technical and financial obstacles ahead, send Tucker off on a publicity campaign and attempt to take complete control of the company. While Tucker travels the country, Bennington and directors change the design of the Tucker 48 to a more conventional design, eliminating the safety and engineering advances Tucker was advertising. At the same time, Tucker faces animosity from the Big Three automakers — General Motors, Ford and Chrysler —and from the authorities, led by Michigan Senator Homer S. Ferguson. Tucker returns from his publicity tour and confronts Bennington, who curtly informs him that he no longer has any power in the company to make decisions, and that the engine originally planned for the car is not viable. Tucker then receives a call from Howard Hughes, who sends a private plane to bring Tucker to his aircraft manufacturing site. Hughes advises Tucker to purchase the Aircooled Motors Company, which can supply both the steel Tucker needs, as well as a small, powerful helicopter engine that might replace Tucker's original 589 power plant. Unable to change Bennington's design, Tucker modifies the new engine and installs it in a test Tucker in the secrecy of his backyard tool-and-die shop. This prototype proves successful, both in durability and in crash-testing. However, Tucker is confronted with allegations of stock fraud. Ferguson's investigation with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) causes Karatz—once convicted of bank fraud —to resign out of fear that his criminal record will prejudice the hearings. Yellow journalism all but ruins Tucker's public image, but the courtroom battle is resolved when he parades his entire production run of fifty Tucker 48s, proving that he has reached production status. After giving a speech to the jurors on how capitalism in the United States is harmed by efforts of large corporations against small entrepreneurs like himself, Tucker is acquitted on all charges, but the Tucker Corporation falls into bankruptcy. In the film's closing shot, Tucker's entire production line—fifty "cars of the future"—is driven through the streets of downtown Chicago, admired by everyone as they pass.