When soldier Jack Spade learns that his brother Junebug overdosed on gold chains and died, he returns to Any Ghetto, U.S.A, where he is met by his mother and sister-in-law, Cheryl. As he surveys the old neighborhood, Jack notices the impact that gold chains have had on his neighborhood and feels that not only should his brother's death be made right, but the entire neighborhood as well. He vows to destroy Mr. Big, the neighborhood chain lord responsible for the epidemic that claimed Junebug's life. Jack asks for the aid of his childhood idol and local hero John Slade in planning the demise of Mr. Big's empire. Together, they form a team including Kung Fu Joe, Flyguy, Slammer, and Hammer. Mr. Big sets out to cut down the team in retaliation, which results in a variety of calamity befalling the group; Kung Fu Joe is shot over and over again by police officers while Hammer, armed to the teeth, slips on a bullet and accidentally shoots himself repeatedly. Cheryl is kidnapped by the criminals while John is blown up when slowly approaching the window in the raid. Slammer is shot in the foot that seemingly leaves only Jack to take on the gang (when approached by his mother with a shotgun, he elects to lock her in the closet). Eventually, Jack meets Mr. Big, who is shot by a still-smoldering John that leads to the end of the gold trade in the streets while both Cheryl and Jack and John and Belle embrace each other.

A retired businesswoman wants to control everything around her, knowing that she only has a little time left before an imminent death due to a medical condition. She decides to craft her own obituary, so she hires a young obituary writer to work with her to ensure her life story is told her way. The businesswoman tries to expand the horizons of her life, and adopts a young kid for mentoring and lands herself a job as a disc jockey. She grows close with the young writer and influences her life.

Marion Dixon, a popular white American circus artist, is forced to flee for her life with her black baby to escape a lynch mob in a rural American town. The fate of the black father of her child is not mentioned, but it is heavily implied that he was lynched. Dixon is taken under the wing of Franz von Kneishitz, a sinister German theatrical agent whose mustache and mannerisms resemble those of Adolf Hitler. Kneishitz blackmails Dixon into becoming his lover while exploiting her. Dixon is only kept alive by her love for her son Jimmy, and when she plays in Moscow as a guest performer, she is portrayed as spiritually broken. At the Moscow circus, the circus director Ludvig hires the Arctic explorer Ivan Petrovich Martynov to design a new circus act to top Dixon's "Trip to the Moon" act. Ludvig's fiery daughter Rayechka has a tempestuous relationship with her boyfriend Skameikin. Despite his mission to design an act better than her act, Martynov and Dixon fall in love, which attracts Kneishitz's rage and he beats Dixon quite savagely with his whip. Dixon wants to stay in Moscow with Martynov, saying she has found happiness again. Kneishitz diverts a love letter from Dixon meant for Martynov to Skameikin, which throws the circus into romantic chaos as Rayechka is furious with Skameikin while Martynov is heartbroken. To escape Rayechka, Skameikin accidentally runs into a lion cage and has to calm the lions with a bouquet of flowers. When Martynov does not respond to her love letter, Dixon nearly leaves Moscow with Kneishitz. By this time, Rayechka has learned the truth and she helps Dixon escape Kneishitz. Martynov and Dixon are late to the circus, forcing Ludvig to perform the top act of 1903, the chudo tekhniki ("miracle of technology"), to amuse the impatient audience. Finally, Martynov and Dixon arrive and perform their "Trip to the Stratosphere" act together. Kneishitz interrupts the act to tell Dixon to come with him or else he will reveal her secret. When she refuses, Kneishitz delivers a Hitler-like rant about how Dixon has a black son called Jimmy, only for the audience to laugh at him. Ludvig tells Kneishitz that the peoples of the Soviet Union do not share his concern about racial purity or race at all. Dixon's black son is embraced by friendly Soviet people. Kneishitz tries to seize Jimmy, but the audience unites to save him. Finally, a group of burly Red Army soldiers in the audience block Kneishitz, who cowers in fear and leaves. The movie climaxes with a lullaby being sung to the baby by representatives of various Soviet ethnicities taking turns. The lyrics of the lullaby to Jimmy are sung in Russian, Ukrainian, Yiddish, Uzbek, and Georgian. One of the members of the audience is a black American man dressed in a Soviet naval officer's uniform with a white Russian wife, which was meant to show that there is no racism in the Soviet Union. The lyrics of The International Lullaby declare: " Son prikhodit na porog/Krepko, krepko spi ty/Sto putei, sto dorog/Dlia tebia otkryty " ("Sleep comes to your doorstep/Sleep very, very soundly/A hundred paths, a hundred doorways/Are open to you"). Dixon and Martynov declare their love for one another while Rayechka and Skameikin become engaged. The film ends with Rayechka and Dixon marching together in the annual May Day parade under banners depicting the faces of Lenin and Stalin.

Jackass: The Movie is a compilation of stunts, skits, and pranks, intercut with on-set talking heads with its cast. The movie begins with an over-the-top, Hollywood parody featuring the entire main cast riding a giant shopping cart downhill amidst huge explosions, as each cast member is individually introduced to the audience. Towards the end of the scene, Johnny Knoxville delivers his iconic intro line, "Hi, I'm Johnny Knoxville! Welcome to Jackass !" Immediately after, the guys crash into a fruit stand, launching them into the fruit. Many stunts take place throughout the duration of the film. However, the most notable stunts and pranks include: Johnny Knoxville getting flipped over, and subsequently being knocked out, in a golf cart; Steve-O snorting wasabi mixed with soy sauce; Bam Margera pranking his mother April by planting a live alligator in her kitchen; Chris Pontius dancing in public as his character "Party Boy" while wearing nothing but a thong; Ryan Dunn fighting against female Japanese kickboxing champion Naoko Kumagai; Ehren McGhehey eating a snow cone made from his own urine; Wee Man wreaking havoc around Japan in a giant traffic cone; Preston Lacy sitting on a bench which is rigged to collapse, thus ripping his pants and exposing his buttocks to unsuspecting bystanders; and Dave England defecating in a display toilet at a hardware store after uncontrollably defecating in his pants in a van. The final stunt involves a toy car being inserted into Ryan Dunn’s anus in order to have it shown in an x-ray. Steve-O was originally set to do the stunt, but was told beforehand by his father that he would be disowned had he gone through with it. The end result is successful, as the toy car appears once the x-ray has been taken. The car is later seen being defecated out in the end credits. This is followed by a scene of Johnny Knoxville being launched into a lake via catapult (The end result of a failed Rube Goldberg test), where comedian Rip Taylor closes the film.

Preppy pre-freshman (pre- frosh) Tom Lawrence visits Port Chester University (PCU), a college where fraternities have been outlawed and political correctness is rampant. During his visit, accident-prone Tom makes enemies with nearly every group of students, and thus spends much of his visit evading the growing mob after him. During his visit, Tom finds himself in the middle of a war between "The Pit" and "Balls and Shaft", two rival groups. Among the members of the latter is Rand McPherson, who, with the other Balls and Shaft members, want the outlawed Greek system to return. Meanwhile, "The Pit" runs the former "Balls and Shaft" frat house in a highly disorganized manner. Inhabited by seniors Gutter and Mullaney, mid-year freshman co-ed Katy, and led by multi-year senior James "Droz" Andrews, The Pit is a party-centric house that rebels against politically correct protests; their counter-protests and parties are a frequent source of complaint forms. Other factions on campus include a commune-style house of pot users called Jerrytown that Gutter frequents, a radical feminist group known as the Womynists, an Afrocentric group suspecting the Pit of conspiring against them, and the college president, Ms. Garcia-Thompson, who is obsessed with enforcing "sensitivity awareness" and multiculturalism to an extreme. She proposes that Bisexual Asian Studies should have its own building at the expense of funding for STEM facilities, as well as a plan to change the campus mascot to a whooping crane instead of an offensive Native American character during their bicentennial anniversary. Garcia-Thompson conspires behind closed doors with Balls and Shaft to get the established residents of The Pit kicked off campus and give Rand control of the house. She provokes The Pit residents with a damage bill from their past semester. Left unpaid, the campus would seize their house, leaving them homeless and unable to continue attending PCU without getting jobs. The Pit responds by throwing a party to raise the funds needed. The Womynists take offense to The Pit's flyers advertising the party and hold a protest outside as the house residents conspire to steal alcohol and convince students to attend. The party at first appears to be a failure. However, a series of unlikely events results in George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic performing at the party. Students begin streaming in (initially to seize Tom for his prior mistakes) and the party successfully raises the funds to keep the house. Garcia-Thompson (after being locked in a room by Droz with the song " Afternoon Delight " playing on repeat), decides to act on the many complaints against The Pit. She shuts down the party and expels the residents of The Pit in spite of their fundraising efforts. Tom then informs Droz about an overheard conversation with the Board of Trustees: the President's politically correct changes are negatively affecting both their past legacy and media publicity. At the bicentennial ceremony the following morning, Droz and former Pit residents succeed in liberating the Whooping Crane and provoking the other students into an impromptu protest against protesting (chanting "We're not gonna protest!"). The demonstration establishes that even with The Pit shut down, the President cannot control the student population, resulting in the Board of Trustees summarily firing her. Meanwhile, Rand goes on a rather sexist, racist and homophobic tirade about all the other student groups, unaware that Droz has surreptitiously used the podium microphone to broadcast his rant to the entire campus. Later, Tom heads home, having decided to commit to PCU as The Pit has moved back into their house. As he sits on the bus, he sees Rand, who is now in Tom's position at the beginning of the film: being chased by the students across campus.

Brian Stimpson, headmaster of Thomas Tompion Comprehensive School, has been elected to chair the annual Headmasters' Conference meeting in Norwich. Openly careless as a young man, Stimpson is now compulsively organised and punctual and his school runs "like clockwork". Stimpson is the first headmaster of a comprehensive school to chair the Headmasters' Conference, an honour usually reserved for heads of more prestigious private schools. He talks about this at a school assembly, finishing with everyone singing the hymn " To Be a Pilgrim ", accompanied by music teacher Mr Jolly. Despite constant rehearsal of his speech and preparations for the journey to the conference, Stimpson's ordered world unwinds as a series of unfortunate circumstances delay him en route. He mistakenly boards the wrong train, missing his connection for Norwich, owing to a lingering habit of saying "right" as emphasis in situations where it would be mistaken for a direction; then, in his desperation to board the departing correct train, he leaves the text of his speech behind on the wrong one, and is finally left at the railway station by his wife, who thinks he departed on the train. Determined to get to Norwich on time, Stimpson searches for his wife at home and then at the hospital where she volunteers looking after dementia patients, but narrowly misses her. Attempting to hail a taxi, Stimpson stumbles across Laura Wisely, one of his sixth form students, who is driving and playing truant during a study break; he commandeers her and her car in a bid to drive to Norwich. Stimpson's wife sees the two at a petrol station, assuming that her husband is having an extramarital affair with the student and taking her down to attend the conference. Mrs Stimpson, who is still looking after three senile old women, drives after Stimpson and both parties forget to pay for their petrol. The police are called and, responding to a call from Laura's parents reporting the car as stolen and their daughter as missing, attempt to find Stimpson and arrest him for kidnapping. Stimpson's wife, Laura's parents, the police and Mr Jolly, who has secretly been dating Laura, all pursue Stimpson and Laura to the conference. Taking a break, Stimpson and Laura try to call the conference from a telephone box. A local mistakes them for vandals after Stimpson vents his frustrations at the malfunctioning phones, and calls the police. The local sends her daughter Pat to Stimpson, but she turns out to be a childhood friend and former girlfriend of Stimpson. Stimpson coerces her into driving them to the conference. After a series of wrong turns, the group desperately turn into a farmer's field in order to escape cows and a lorry, and get stuck in deep mud. Brian leaves the stuck car to seek help, and ends up at a monastery where he is persuaded to take a bath and collect himself. While he is gone, a local farmer tows the car out of the mud; Pat finally drives away in the car but is soon arrested for assaulting a police officer. All the while, Stimpson's wife and the others arrive at the conference uninvited, much to the horror of the headmasters; they attempt to sequester the growing group of concerned parents, wives, senile ladies and police officers as the conference continues. Stranded without transport, Laura and Stimpson (who is dressed in monks' robes, leaving his muddy suit with the monks) attempt to hitchhike. They are picked up by a wealthy car salesman, whom they persuade to come for a walk in the woods. They trick the traveller into swapping clothes with Stimpson under the guise of foreplay, but Stimpson and Laura run away and steal his car. Stimpson finally arrives at the conference in the torn suit of the car salesman and delivers an improvised recount of his lost speech, which becomes increasingly mocking and oppressive in tone to the disappointed headmasters. During his speech various characters, including the old women, Mr Jolly and Laura's parents walk into the hall, and Stimpson addresses them like he would late pupils, ordering and humiliating the entire collected group with the same authoritarian demeanour with which he runs his own school. Finally, he directs all of the headmasters to stand and sing "To Be A Pilgrim", in an identical manner to the school assembly at the start of the film, as he walks out of the building to face the police. The headmasters watch on as Stimpson and the rest of the party are all led away by police, with Stimpson still giving headmasterly orders to all the officers in the car.

Sid Boggle and his friend Bernie Lugg are partners in a plumbing business. They take their girlfriends, prudish Joan Fussey and meek Anthea Meeks, to the cinema to see a film about a nudist camp called Paradise. Sid has the idea of the four of them holidaying there, reasoning that in that environment their chaste girlfriends will relax their strict moral standards. Despite having reservations, Bernie agrees to co-operate with Sid in the scheme, which they attempt to keep secret from the girls. They travel to a campsite named Paradise. After paying the membership fees to the owner, money-grabbing farmer Josh Fiddler, Sid realises it is not the camp seen in the film, but merely a standard family campsite. To add to their disappointment, it is no paradise but instead a damp field; the only facilities being a very basic toilet and a washing block. They reluctantly agree to stay there after the girls approve of the place and Fiddler refuses a refund. There is further disappointment when the girls will not share a tent with the boys. Meanwhile, a group of young ladies on holiday from the Chayste Place finishing school stay overnight at Ballsworth Youth Hostel. The ringleader of the girls is blonde and bouncy Babs. In charge of the girls is Dr. Soaper, who is fervently pursued by his lovelorn colleague, the school's matron, Miss Haggard. Babs and her friend Fanny change the room numbers on Dr. Soaper's and Miss Haggard's doors and convince Dr. Soaper that the female washroom, where Miss Haggard is, is the male washroom. The room number changes also causes Dr. Soaper to mistake Miss Haggard’s room for his and to Miss Haggard’s horror get into bed beside her. The party arrives at the campsite the next day, where Sid and Bernie are only too happy to assist the girls in setting up their tents. The following morning, Dr Soaper leads an outdoor aerobics session, during which Babs' bikini top flies off; he catches it. Other campers are Peter Potter, who loathes camping but must endure his jolly yet domineering wife Harriet, with her irritating laugh, whose overnight camping en-route to Paradise campsite is interrupted by naïve first-time camper Charlie Muggins. They manage to sneak away from him the following morning and arrive at the campsite, only to discover him already there. Chaos ensues when a group of hippies shows up and take over the neighbouring field for a noisy all-night rave led by the band "The Flowerbuds". The campers club together and successfully drive the partygoers away, but all the girls leave with them. However, there is a happy ending for Bernie and Sid when their girlfriends finally agree to move into their tent. Their joy is short-lived when Joan's mother turns up, but Anthea lets loose a goat that chases Mrs Fussey away. Meanwhile, Peter vows to Harriet that this camping holiday will most definitely be their last.

Julius is an ambitious packaging designer, a partner in a prestigious firm. He is cheating on Paula, his wife of 12 years, with his secretary. However when, on their wedding anniversary, he discovers a love-bite on Paula's neck, his life falls apart. She admits to having a lover, who is a penniless freelance artist. Julius moves out, but finds Stefan, the artist, and contrives to share his apartment, calling himself "Daniel". The two men become friends, drinking and discussing life in general and women in particular. When Paula comes to visit, Julius feigns eccentricity, wearing a gorilla mask the whole time and refusing to speak. Julius begins turning Stefan into a commercial artist, persuading him to give up his bohemian lifestyle and to dress and behave more like a businessman. This causes Paula to lose interest and Julius starts to win her back. Meanwhile Stefan interviews for jobs, one of which happens to be at the same design firm where Julius works. In the final scenes, Julius and Stefan meet at work. Stefan realizes he has been deceived. The two men have a confrontation with Stefan symbolically stripping down to his underwear and Julius doing the same. They then laugh at each other. The film ends with Paula arriving at the agency, not realizing what she is about to witness. In the office building where Julius works there is an unusual kind of elevator known as a paternoster, consisting of a continuous chain of small elevator cars that move slowly enough for people to step in and out at each floor. This is used to comic effect in the film, with Julius and Stefan having their argument in their underwear in one of the downward-traveling cars, while Paula is coming to see Julius in one of the upward cars. During the credits the crew go past in the cars as their names appear on the screen.

In 2003 New York City, Kim Baker is a struggling television journalist covering low-profile stories. To help her career, she takes a short assignment as a war correspondent in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, to the disappointment of her boyfriend Chris. Assigned to modest living quarters with other international journalists, Kim befriends noted BBC correspondent Tanya Vanderpoel and lecherous Scottish freelance photographer Iain MacKelpie. She adjusts to her new duties aided by her Afghan " fixer " Fahim Ahmadzai. She elicits frank remarks on camera from soldiers questioning the value of their assignment and puts herself in harm's way to capture combat incidents on video. Marine General Hollanek sees her as an inexperienced nuisance. Despite the danger, Kim stays in Afghanistan for years beyond her original assignment. She catches Chris with another woman during a middle-of-the-night video call, ending their relationship and her sexual flirtation with Iain develops into something more meaningful. Although Afghan Islamic society places restrictive roles on women, she uses her sex to her advantage and gains access to female villagers who have been sabotaging the US-built well because they welcome the daily walk to the river away from the men. She uses her own sexuality to develop Afghan Attorney General Ali Massoud Sadiq as a news source. Fahim, who treated opium addicts before the war, cautions her that danger can be as dangerous as a drug. Despite their mutual friendliness, Kim competes with other journalists for stories and resources from their employers. After three years in Afghanistan, Kim flies to New York to argue for more support from her network's new boss, and discovers Tanya is slated to take over her Afghan assignment. Iain is kidnapped for ransom while covering a developing story he had offered to share with Kim. She returns to Afghanistan and blackmails Ali for information about Iain's whereabouts, impressing on Hollanek the political value of rescuing Iain. The mission is a success, militarily and journalistically but Kim becomes disillusioned with her tentative relationship with Iain and her station. She returns to the United States for good, and looks up a Marine whose on-camera comments to her might have led to his transfer and subsequent loss of his legs to an IED. She tries to apologize to him but he refuses to let her take the blame. Kim takes an on-camera desk job and finds herself interviewing Iain, who will be in New York as part of a new book tour. He invites her to meet him for coffee.