FBI Special Agent Sean Archer survives an assassination attempt by Castor Troy, a terrorist-for-hire, but the bullet kills his son Michael. Archer then engages in an extended vendetta against Troy. It culminates, six years later, in his team ambushing Troy, who is with his younger brother and accomplice, Pollux, on a remote desert airstrip. Castor goads Archer by saying he knows of a bomb that is located somewhere in Los Angeles and is set to explode in a few days. Before Archer can learn more, Castor is knocked unconscious and falls into a coma. Pollux, in custody, affirms that the bomb is real but refuses to reveal its location. In secret, Archer reluctantly undergoes a highly experimental face transplant procedure by Dr. Malcolm Walsh to take on Castor's face, voice, and appearance. Archer-as-Castor is taken to the same high-security prison where Pollux is being held in order to obtain information on the bomb's location. Castor unexpectedly awakens from his coma and discovers that his face is missing. He calls his gang, and they force Dr. Walsh to transplant Archer's face onto him. Meanwhile, Archer successfully learns the bomb's location from Pollux before being informed that he has a visitor. Anticipating a reunion with his colleagues and a return to his normal life, Archer instead finds Castor wearing his face. Upon revealing he has murdered everyone else who knows about the face transplant, Castor gleefully informs Archer that he looks forward to ruining his FBI career and ravishing his wife. Pollux is freed when he willingly tells Castor-as-Archer of the bomb's location, and Castor subsequently disarms the bomb. Castor earns admiration from the FBI office and becomes close to Archer's wife Eve and daughter Jamie, whom Archer had been neglecting while seeking to avenge the death of his son. Back at the prison, Archer-as-Castor escapes after staging a riot and retreats to Castor's headquarters. There, he meets Sasha, the sister of Castor's primary drug kingpin Dietrich Hassler, and her son Adam, who reminds him of Michael. Archer discovers that Adam is Castor's son. Castor learns of Archer's escape and hastily assembles a team to raid his headquarters. The raid turns into a bloodbath, and many FBI agents and several members of Castor's gang, including Dietrich and Pollux, are killed. Archer-as-Castor, Sasha, and Adam all manage to escape. In the aftermath of the raid, Archer's supervisor, Director Victor Lazarro, angrily lambasts Castor-as-Archer for the unnecessary bloodshed he caused. Castor, still furious over Pollux's death, murders Lazarro and is subsequently promoted to acting director in his place. Meanwhile, after taking Sasha and Adam to a safe location, Archer-as-Castor approaches Eve and convinces her to test Castor-as-Archer's blood to confirm his identity. After testing the blood and being convinced that the man wearing her husband's face is in fact an imposter, Eve tells Archer that Castor will be vulnerable at Lazarro's funeral. At the ceremony, Castor-as-Archer has taken Eve hostage. Sasha arrives, and a gunfight ensues; Sasha manages to save Eve after taking a bullet. Archer-as-Castor promises a dying Sasha that he will take care of Adam and raise him away from criminal life. Castor briefly takes Jamie hostage, but she escapes by stabbing him with the butterfly knife that he lent her earlier for self-defense. Following the confrontation at the church, Castor reaches the docks and commandeers a speedboat while Archer commandeers one of his own to continue the pursuit. The chase ends when Archer forces Castor to the shore in a collision. With their boats grounded, the two proceed to fight to the death. Upon gaining the upper hand in the struggle, Archer manages to corner Castor at gunpoint with a speargun, only for the latter to prevent him from shooting by grabbing the firing mechanism. While admitting defeat, Castor tries to disfigure his face so that Archer will be doomed to wear the former's face forever. Before he can finish, Archer kicks Castor in the groin, causing him to lose his grip on the gun and allowing Archer to finally kill him. Backup agents arrive and address Archer-as-Castor by his true name, having been convinced by Eve of Archer's identity. After the face transplant surgery is reversed, Archer returns home. He and Eve adopt Adam, keeping Archer's promise to Sasha.

In 1985, Bud Fox is a junior stockbroker at Jackson Steinem & Co. in New York City. He wants to work with his hero, Gordon Gekko, a legendary Wall Street player. After calling Gekko's office 59 days in a row trying to land an appointment, Bud visits Gekko on his birthday with a box of Gekko's favorite, contraband Cuban cigars. Impressed by his persistence, Gekko grants Bud an interview. Bud pitches him stocks, but Gekko is unimpressed. Desperate, Bud provides him with some inside information about Bluestar Airlines, which he has learned in a casual conversation with his father, Carl, leader of the company's maintenance workers' union. Intrigued, Gekko tells Bud he will think about it. A dejected Bud returns to his office. However, Gekko places an order for Bluestar stock and becomes one of Bud's clients. After making a considerable amount of money from the Bluestar tip, Gekko gives Bud some capital to manage, but the other stocks Bud selects by honest research and advice from respected senior broker Lou Mannheim lose money. Gekko offers Bud another chance and tells him to spy on British investor Sir Lawrence Wildman. They deduce that Wildman is making a bid for Anacott Steel. Gekko buys a large block of shares in Anacott, which Wildman is forced to buy back from him at a high price to complete the takeover. Bud becomes wealthy, enjoying Gekko's promised perks, which include a hooker who is sent to Bud's apartment, takes him on a limo ride, and performs fellatio on Bud in the back of the limo. He gets a penthouse on Manhattan 's East Side. He also gains a girlfriend, Gekko's art consultant and ex-mistress, Darien Taylor, an interior decorator. Bud is promoted for the large commissions he brings in and is given an office with a view. He continues to exploit inside information and use friends as straw buyers to generate additional income for himself and Gekko. Unknown to Bud, several of his trades attract the attention of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Bud pitches a new idea to Gekko: buy Bluestar Airlines and expand the company, with Bud as president, using savings achieved by union concessions and the overfunded pension. Even though Bud is unable to persuade his father to support him and Gekko, he is able to get the unions to push for the deal. Soon afterward, Bud learns that Gekko plans to dissolve the company and sell off Bluestar's assets to access cash from the company's pension plan, leaving Carl and the entire Bluestar staff unemployed. Although this would leave Bud a very rich man, he is angered by Gekko's deceit and wracked with guilt for being an accessory to Bluestar's impending destruction, especially after his father suffers a heart attack. Bud resolves to disrupt Gekko's plans and breaks up with Darien when she refuses to go against Gekko, her former lover. Bud and the union presidents secretly meet with Wildman and arrange for him to buy the stock and a controlling interest in Bluestar, at a significant discount, on the condition that he saves the company. Bud then devises a plan to leak news of Gekko's takeover to drive up the price. This forces Gekko to buy the stock at a higher price, as he tries to secure a controlling interest. Bud then convinces the unions to pull their support, ending any prospect of Gekko completing the takeover, and causing the price to plummet. This forces Gekko to offload his stock at a considerable loss. When Gekko learns on the evening news that Wildman is buying Bluestar, he realizes Bud has engineered the entire scheme. Bud triumphantly returns to work at Jackson Steinem the following day, only to be arrested by the SEC, who had been tracking Bud's insider trading. Later, Bud confronts Gekko in Central Park. Gekko punches Bud several times, berating him for his role with Bluestar, and accuses him of ingratitude for several of their illicit trades. Later, it is revealed that Bud was wearing a wire to record his encounter with Gekko for the authorities, who suggest he may get a lighter sentence in exchange for providing evidence against Gekko. Later, Bud's parents drive him down FDR Drive towards the New York County Courthouse, telling Bud he "did the right thing" by cooperating with the government and paying back his illicit earnings, and urging him to accept Wildman's offer of a job at Bluestar once he has completed his prison sentence. After suggesting Bud "create, instead of living off the buying and selling of others", Carl drops Bud off at the courthouse, where he ascends the steps, ready to face justice for his crimes.

"Time destroys everything" (French: "Le temps détruit tout"). "Time reveals everything" (French: "Le temps révèle tout"). Alex and Marcus, a young couple, wake up together and discuss their relationship, as well as an upcoming party, while in the nude. Marcus voices concern about Alex's ex, Pierre, also being invited because he "stole his girl", to which Alex responds that he did not steal anything, because she is not an object and it was all her decision. Alex reveals she had a dream of herself standing in a red tunnel that breaks in two. The two talk about a potential pregnancy and Marcus expresses hope in one before Alex takes a pregnancy test, the result of which is never shown, but she seems particularly pleased with. On a public train, Pierre, Alex's ex who is also invited to the party, constantly bickers with Alex over his inability to satisfy her during their relationship, while Marcus shows no interest in their squabble. Alex explains to Pierre that he always focused too much on her, and a sexual partner can feel and is aroused by their partner's pleasure. At the party, Marcus gets drunk and takes cocaine, much to Alex's disapproval. She leaves the party, asking Pierre to look after Marcus. Alex descends into a red pedestrian underpass on her way back to the train when she notices a transgender prostitute getting attacked by a man. He immediately turns his attention to Alex, anally raping her before savagely beating her into unconsciousness. After Marcus and Pierre discover Alex being taken away by paramedics, they encounter street criminals Mourad and Layde, who offer to help them find the culprit. They use an ID left at the scene by the prostitute to locate her. Marcus verbally assaults Concha, the prostitute, and threatens to cut her face open in order to gather that the rapist's name is Le Ténia ("the tapeworm ") and that he frequents a gay BDSM club called Rectum. The men are chased off by other prostitutes; Marcus and Pierre jump into a taxi cab and speed off into the night. When the cab driver doesn't know where Rectum is, Marcus attacks the driver, stealing his vehicle. The two end up finding the club's location, with Pierre reluctantly following behind Marcus. Leading the charge, Marcus proceeds to get into a fight with a man he suspects of being Le Ténia, who overpowers him and breaks his arm before attempting to rape him. Pierre comes to his rescue and beats the man to death with a nearby fire extinguisher as the man's companion, the actual rapist, watches in amusement. Marcus is carried out of Rectum on a stretcher while Pierre is arrested by police as Mourad and Layde deride them. Meanwhile, in a nearby small apartment, a man named the Butcher tells a friend that he was arrested for raping his daughter before dismissing the commotion going on outside.

Eric, 19, is "starred up" from a juvenile prison to a high security adult prison, based on his age and his history of violent behaviour. His father, Neville, is serving a life sentence at this prison, and is a lieutenant for the crime boss that runs the prison. Eric soon begins attacking guards and inmates alike, but is rescued from retribution from the guards by Oliver, a volunteer prison therapist, who convinces Eric to join his therapy group. The group is composed of black men who also have violent pasts, which they are trying to confront. The sessions often degrade into angry, posturing tirades by members against others, which Oliver de-escalates but uses to help them understand their rage. Eric begins to observe this format, and also bond with the other group members. While his father has ordered him to "learn to behave" from the therapist, he is annoyed by his son "fraternising" with blacks. But when three inmates are paid with drugs to "dunk" Eric in his toilet, one of his black group-mates steps in to save him. The father and son have an explosive up and down relationship, with the father attempting to instill his dominance, and make Eric follow the prison rules so he can get out. When Eric however attempts to explain his feelings to the uncomfortable Neville, Eric intuits that his father is in a romantic relationship with his cellmate, and is disgusted by it. The boss, Dennis, appears to begin to mentor Eric, seeing his younger self in Eric. However, Eric is disinterested and ends up attacking Dennis during an argument with Neville. Dennis then orders the prison director to kill Eric. While Neville is telling Dennis that he will not abide the death of his son, prison guards in the basement begin to hang Eric, so it will look like suicide. But when Dennis goes to stab Neville, Neville overpowers him and stabs him, then runs down and rescues Eric. As Neville is being transferred out, the guards allow father and son a tender moment.

In 1967, a visit by the Shah of Iran to West Berlin leads to a clash between the West German student movement and German police. In the chaos, unarmed protestor Benno Ohnesorg is fatally shot by policeman Karl-Heinz Kurras, outraging the West German public, including left-wing journalist Ulrike Meinhof, who claims in a televised debate that West Germany is a fascist police state. Inspired by Meinhof's rhetoric, radical communists Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader mastermind the Frankfurt department store firebombings of 1968. While covering their trial, Meinhof is moved by the radicals' commitment and befriends Ensslin during a prison interview before leaving her husband for radical-linked journalist Peter Homann. Left-wing activist Rudi Dutschke is injured in an assassination attempt by neo-nazi Josef Bachmann, further radicalizing the Left. Ensslin and Baader are released pending an appeal and recruit youths, including Astrid Proll and Peter-Jurgen Boock, to their cause. After spending some time abroad, Baader, Ensslin, and Proll move in with Meinhof, who begins advocating violent action but does not wish to leave her two children. When Baader is arrested again, Meinhof arranges an "interview" off prison grounds, which Ensslin and the others use to break him out; though the plan called for Meinhof to appear innocent and stay behind, she flees with the radicals, incriminating herself. Meinhof sends her children to Sicily and the group receives guerilla training from Fatah in Jordan. Homann, overhearing the others asking Fatah to kill him and Meinhof planning to recruit her children as suicide bombers, leaves the group and arranges for his colleague Stefan Aust to return Meinhof's children to their father. The radicals, now calling themselves the Red Army Faction (RAF), return to Germany and begin robbing banks. In response, German Federal Police chief Horst Herold orders all municipal police to be put under federal command for one day. During that day, RAF member Petra Schelm is pursued by police and killed in a shootout; viewing her death as murder rather than resisting arrest, Baader and Ensslin overrule Meinhof's objections and launch a deadly bombing campaign against police stations and United States military bases. However, under Herold's command, the police respond in force to the RAF's activities and many members, including Baader, Ensslin, Meinhof, and Holger Meins, are arrested and imprisoned. They stage a hunger strike in separate prisons that results in Meins' death, while the authorities move Baader, Ensslin, Meinhof, and Jan-Carl Raspe to Stammheim Prison, where they work on their defense for their trial and smuggle orders outside. In 1975, a group of younger RAF recruits acting on these orders seize the West German embassy in Stockholm, where they kill two hostages and threaten to blow up the embassy if the prisoners are not released, but their bombs accidentally detonate, wounding everyone inside and killing RAF members Ulrich Wessel and Siegfried Hausner. The prisoners are appalled by the poor execution of their orders. Meinhof, suffering from depression and remorse over the deaths caused by the RAF's bombings, is subjected to sadistic emotional abuse by Baader and Ensslin, leading her to hang herself; the others falsely claim she was killed by the government. Upon completing her sentence in 1977, Brigitte Mohnhaupt takes over command of the RAF and organizes the assassination of Attorney General Siegfried Buback as revenge for Meins and Meinhof's "murders". Mohnhaupt, Christian Klar, and Susanne Albrecht also attempt to kidnap Dresdner Bank president Jürgen Ponto, but they kill him when he fights back. Aware the imprisoned RAF members ordered both murders, the authorities place them in solitary confinement, but Ensslin and Baader obtain radios to continue smuggling orders. Launching a new campaign of terror, Mohnhaupt abducts industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer while the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacks Lufthansa Flight 181, again with the goal of securing the prisoners' release, but the West German government refuses to negotiate for Schleyer, while the PFLP hijackers are defeated by GSG 9. Baader and Ensslin tauntingly warn a negotiator and a prison chaplain respectively that the violence will continue; however, the latter also confides that she fears she will be killed soon. The next morning, Baader and Raspe are found dead from gunshot wounds next to smuggled handguns, while Ensslin is found having been hung from her cell's barred window; Irmgard Möller is also found stabbed four times in the chest, but she survives. The news devastates the RAF, who insist they were murdered, but Mohnhaupt explains that they, like Meinhof, were "in control of the outcome until the very end". The RAF then murders Schleyer, signifying the continuation of RAF terrorism past the original members.

Former Ohio State quarterback and rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah assists senior agent Angelo Pappas in investigating a string of bank robberies by the "Ex-Presidents": robbers who wear rubber masks of former presidents Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Rather than robbing the vault, they demand only the cash the tellers have in their drawers and are gone within ninety seconds. Pursuing Pappas's theory that the criminals are surfers, Utah infiltrates the surfing community. He fabricates a family tragedy to persuade orphaned surfer and restaurant waitress Tyler to teach him to surf after she saves him from drowning during his first attempt. Through her, he meets Bodhi, Tyler's ex-boyfriend and the leader of a gang of surfers consisting of Roach, Grommet, and Nathaniel. The group is wary of Utah, but they accept him when Bodhi recalls how a knee injury derailed Utah's football prospects. As he masters surfing, Utah finds himself drawn to the surfers' adrenaline-charged lifestyle, Bodhi's philosophies, and Tyler. Following a clue retrieved by analyzing toxins found in the hair of one of the bank robbers, Utah and Pappas lead an FBI raid on another gang of surfers, resulting in the deaths of two of them, as well as one of the agents. The raid inadvertently ruins a DEA undercover operation, as those surfers were wanted for separate charges regarding drug dealing, and they are determined not to be the Ex-Presidents. Watching Bodhi's group surfing, Utah begins to suspect that they are the Ex-Presidents, noting how close a group they are and the way one of them moons other surfers in the same manner one of the robbers does. Utah and Pappas stake out a bank, and the Ex-Presidents appear. While wearing a Reagan mask, Bodhi leads Utah on a foot chase through the neighborhood, which ends when Utah's old injury flares up after he jumps into a flood control channel. Despite having a clear shot, the injured Utah allows Bodhi to escape. At a campfire that night, it is confirmed that Bodhi and his gang are the Ex-Presidents. Tyler discovers Utah's FBI badge and angrily terminates their relationship. Shortly afterward, Bodhi coerces Utah into skydiving with the group. After the jump, Bodhi reveals that he knows Utah is an FBI agent and has arranged for his friend Rosie, a non-surfing thug, to hold Tyler hostage to blackmail him into assisting the Ex-Presidents with their last bank robbery of the summer. During the robbery, they decide to infiltrate the vault, causing them to take longer than normal. Grommet is killed when an off-duty police officer and one of the bank security guards attempt to foil the robbery. The robbers kill the officer and security guard, then abandon Utah. Utah is arrested for the robbery and castigated by FBI director Ben Harp for the murders, but Pappas punches Harp out after an angry altercation and vows to bring in Bodhi himself. Pappas and Utah head to the airport where Bodhi, Roach, and Nathaniel are about to leave for Mexico. During a shootout, Pappas and Nathaniel are killed, and Roach is seriously wounded. With Roach aboard, Bodhi forces Utah onto the plane at gunpoint. Once airborne and over their intended drop zone, Bodhi and Roach put on their parachutes and jump from the plane, leaving Utah to take the blame. With no other parachutes available, Utah jumps from the plane with Bodhi's gun and intercepts him in mid-air. Despite landing safely, Utah's knee gives out again, allowing Bodhi to escape. Bodhi meets with Rosie, who frees Tyler; with Roach dead from his wounds, the two men flee the country and go their separate ways. Nine months later, Utah tracks Bodhi to Bells Beach in Victoria, Australia, where a record-breaking storm is producing lethal waves. This is an event Bodhi had talked about experiencing, calling it the "50-year storm." Bodhi begs Utah to release him so he can ride the once-in-a-lifetime wave, and Utah, knowing Bodhi will not come back alive, agrees and bids him farewell. As Bodhi surfs to his death, Utah walks away, throwing his FBI badge into the ocean.

New York City law student and gifted poker player Mike McDermott dreams of winning the World Series of Poker. At an underground Texas hold 'em game run by Russian mobster Teddy "KGB", an overconfident Mike loses his entire $30,000 bankroll in a single hand. Shaken, he promises his girlfriend and fellow student Jo he has quit poker, and concentrates on law school. His mentor Joey Knish offers to stake him to rebuild his bankroll, but Mike declines and accepts a part-time job to make money. Months pass and Mike stays true to his promise until his childhood friend, Lester "Worm" Murphy, is released from prison. While Mike is an honest player, Worm is a hustler and unapologetic cheat. To help Worm pay off a debt, Mike sets him up with games across town and reluctantly sits in on one, interfering with his studies and his relationship with Jo. Mike allows Worm to play on his credit at the Chesterfield Club. After being lent $2,000, Worm gets up to $10,000 and cashes out for the full amount, which starts a tab in Mike's name. Worm runs into Grama, a dangerous pimp, who reveals he is working for KGB and has bought Worm's debt, now totaling $25,000 with interest. Grama takes Worm's $10,000, threatening him to pay the rest. As Mike returns to his poker lifestyle and friends, Jo ends their relationship. Mike learns from Petra at the Chesterfield that Worm has racked up a $7,000 debt in Mike's name. Worm tells Mike about Grama, but withholds the KGB connection. Mike vouches for Worm to Grama, but Worm and Grama insult each other and nearly come to blows. Grama gives them five days to pay the remaining $15,000. Mike decides to help Worm win the money by playing in several games in and around the city. Mike wins $7,200 in three days, but still needs to more than double it in 48 hours. Worm drives Mike to Binghamton for a game hosted by New York state troopers, where he comes close to winning the $7,800 needed before Worm unexpectedly joins the game. Soon after, a trooper catches Worm base-dealing to help Mike; they are beaten up and relieved of their entire bankroll. Worm confesses that Grama is working for KGB and decides to flee; Mike returns to the city alone. Mike asks Grama for more time, to no avail. He asks Knish for the money, but is refused out of principle. Knish chastises him for poor decisions, and Mike finally reveals why he took the ill-fated risk at KGB's club; he once beat poker legend Johnny Chan at a single hand in Atlantic City and thinks he can compete and possibly win the World Series of Poker. Desperate, Mike goes to his law professor, Petrovsky, who lends him $10,000. Mike challenges KGB to a second heads-up no-limit Texas hold 'em game for the remaining debt, with winner-take-all stakes, which KGB accepts. Mike beats KGB in the first session, winning $20,000. KGB offers to let Mike's winnings "ride" and continue the game, but Mike – with enough to pay off most of his debts – declines. As he is about to leave, KGB taunts that he is paying Mike with the money that he won from their previous game. Mike changes his mind and decides to continue playing. Mike doubles the blinds at the risk of losing everything, and possibly his life, to KGB. As the night wears on, he spots KGB's tell and folds a crucial hand. Irate at missing a chance to bust Mike, KGB begins to play on " tilt ". In the final hand, Mike baits a boastful KGB into going all-in and defeats him with a nut straight. KGB throws a tantrum at having been lured into a mistake. The rattled KGB calls off his goons and admits that Mike won fairly, allowing him to leave with his winnings. With over $60,000, Mike settles Worm's $15,000 debt to Grama, the Chesterfield's $6,000 credit, and his professor's $10,000 loan, and restores his original bankroll of "three stacks of high society". He drops out of law school, bids Jo goodbye, and leaves for Las Vegas to play in the World Series of Poker.

In early 2003, GCHQ analyst Katharine Gun obtains a memo detailing a joint United States and British operation to spy on diplomats from several non – permanent United Nations Security Council member states (Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria and Guinea), to "dig dirt" on them. This was to influence the Security Council into passing a resolution supporting an invasion of Iraq. Angered that the UK is being led into a war on false pretences, Katharine leaks the memo to a friend involved in the anti-war movement, who passes it to anti-war activist Yvonne Ridley. She gets it to The Observer journalist Martin Bright. The Observer foreign editor Peter Beaumont allows Martin to investigate the story. To verify the memo's authenticity, Martin enlists the help of the Observer ' s Washington correspondent Ed Vulliamy to contact the memo's author Frank Koza, Chief of Staff at the "regional targets" section of the NSA. Despite the Observer ' s pro-war stance, Peter convinces the chief editor Roger Alton that the leaked memo is worth publishing. The leaked memo's publication in March 2003 generates public and media interest. The Drudge Report attempts to discredit the document as a fake, as staffer Nicole Mowbray had inadvertently changed the text from American to British English with a spellchecker. However, Martin is able to produce the original memo, confirming its authenticity. Katharine's actions prompt GCHQ to launch an internal investigation. Seeking to prevent an invasion of Iraq and to protect her colleagues from suspicion, Katharine confesses to the leak. She is arrested, questioned, then released on bail. Following the outbreak of the Iraq War, Katharine seeks the services of the Liberty lawyers Ben Emmerson and Shami Chakrabarti. The British Government decides to charge her with violating the Official Secrets Act, tasking the Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, with the prosecution. To exert pressure, the British authorities attempt to deport her husband Yasar Gun, a Turkish Kurd. However, Katharine is able to halt the deportation with the help of her MP, Nigel Jones. Katharine's defence strategy is that she acted from loyalty to her country, seeking to prevent it from being led into an unlawful war. With the help of Martin, Ed, and former Foreign Office deputy legal adviser Elizabeth Wilmshurst, Ben discovers that the Attorney General Peter Goldsmith changed his position on the legality of the war after meeting lawyers from the Bush Administration. Despite the odds against her, Katharine refuses to plead guilty in exchange for a reduced charge. In court, the Crown prosecutor offers no evidence against Katharine. Ben responds that this is because doing so would have shown that the Blair government led the UK into war on false pretences. The film then mentions the human toll of the Iraq War and that Lord Goldsmith's advice on the illegality of the Iraq War was made public in 2010. It ends with footage of the real Katharine addressing the media following the dismissal of her case, and Ben shunning Ken for putting Katharine through the ordeal "to make an example of her".

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.

Chicago Police Lieutenant Danny Roman is a top hostage negotiator for the east precinct. His partner, Nate Roenick, warns him that an informant inside the department suspects members of their own unit have embezzled millions from the police disability fund. Before they can meet again, Nate is shot dead, and Danny is lured to the scene and discovered by the police, but is unable to corroborate Nate's story or identify the informant. Danny is targeted by Internal Affairs Inspector Terence Niebaum, whom Nate's informant believed was involved in the embezzlement. The gun is recovered from a pond and linked to one of Danny's cases, and a search of his home produces evidence of an incriminating offshore bank account, making him the prime suspect in the embezzlement and Nate's murder. Forced to surrender his duty weapon and badge, ostracized by his colleagues, and with charges against him pending, Danny storms into Niebaum's office for a confrontation. When the investigatior refuses to cooperate, Danny takes Niebaum, his administrative assistant Maggie, Danny's commander and friend Grant Frost, and con man Rudy Timmons as hostages. With the building evacuated and placed under siege by his own unit and the FBI, Danny will only speak to fellow negotiator Lieutenant Chris Sabian of the west precinct. He also issues his demands: the render of his badge, a department funeral if he gets killed, and the identities of Nate's informant and killer. Chris, who sees tactical action as a last resort, clashes with Danny's unit, particularly chief Allen Travis and commander Adam Beck. A breach of Niebaum's office backfires when a SWAT marksman refuses to shoot Danny, who captures officers Scott and Markus. Chris takes command of the scene, but Danny seemingly executes Scott to reestablish control. Danny releases Frost to Chris in exchange for restoring the building's electricity, allowing him to search the files of Niebaum's computer, discovering that Internal Affairs had wiretap recordings of Nate. Believing Niebaum gave fabricated information when he claimed of not having any connections to Nate while he was investigating the fund, Danny lashes out and slaps him in the face. With the help of Rudy and Maggie, Danny discovers the embezzlement scheme: Corrupt officers submitted false disability claims that were processed by an unknown insider on the disability fund's board. Chris claims to have located the informant in an attempt to end the standoff, but Danny realizes he is bluffing when Niebaum's files reveal that Nate himself was the informant. When Danny threatens to expose Niebaum to sniper fire in his office window, Niebaum admits that Nate gave him wiretaps implicating three of his squadmates in the scheme; Allen, Hellman and Argento. Niebaum was bribed by the guilty officers to cover up their crimes, while Nate refused and was killed afterwards. Niebaum has safely hidden the wiretaps, but the corrupt officers enter through the air vents and open fire, killing Niebaum in the process. Danny fends them off with flashbangs taken from the captured officers, and Niebaum's murder convinces the remaining hostages that Danny is being set up. Convinced that the police are ineffectual, the FBI assume jurisdiction over the operation, cease negotiations, relieving Chris of his command and ordering a full breach. While Danny prepares for his eventual arrest, Maggie tells him that Niebaum likely kept Nate's wiretaps at home, while Chris reenters the building to warn Danny, who reveals that Scott is unharmed. Chris agrees to help Danny clear his name, and as the building is raided and the other hostages are rescued, Danny disguises himself in Scott's uniform and escapes. He and Chris are unable to locate the wiretaps at Niebaum's home, where the corrupt officers are about to kill Danny, but Frost arrives to negotiate with him alone. Chris shoots Danny, offering to destroy Roenick's evidence in exchange for a cut of the embezzled funds. Frost agrees, effectively revealing himself as the ringleader of the conspiracy, the insider on the disability fund's board, and Nate's killer. Crushing the floppy disks, Chris gives him and shooting Niebaum's computer, Frost exits the house. Outside, Frost discovers that Chris deliberately wounded Danny, who broadcasts Frost's entire confession to the awaiting police officers with a walkie talkie radio. Humiliated, Frost attempts to commit suicide, but is shot in the shoulder by Beck and arrested with the other corrupt officers, and Danny narrowly refrains from shooting Frost to avenge Nate. As Danny is loaded into an ambulance with his wife Karen, Chris returns his badge to him and departs.

In 2013, Edward Snowden arranges a clandestine meeting in Hong Kong with documentarian Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald. They discuss releasing the classified information in the former's possession regarding illegal mass surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA). Poitras later released a documentary about this meeting titled Citizenfour, which was used in a scene within the film. In 2004, Snowden is undergoing basic training, having enlisted in the U.S. Army with intentions of matriculating to the Special Forces. He eventually fractures his tibia and is informed that he will be receiving an administrative discharge in the process but is encouraged to serve his country in other ways. Snowden applies for a position at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and subsequently undergoes the screening process. Initially, his answers to the screening questions are insufficient, but Deputy Director Corbin O'Brian decides to take a chance on him, in the wake of extraordinary times. Snowden is then brought to "The Hill" where he is educated and tested on cyberwarfare. He learns about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which circumvents the Fourth Amendment rights of U.S. citizens by allowing warrant requests to be approved by a panel of judges that were appointed by the Chief Justice. Snowden and his peers are each tasked with building a covert communications network in their hometown, deleting it, and then rebuilding it in eight hours or less, with five hours being the average time taken. Snowden impresses O'Brian when he completes the exercise in 38 minutes. Meanwhile, Snowden meets Lindsay Mills via a dating website. The two bond, despite sharply contrasting political ideologies. Snowden acquires his first post abroad working with diplomatic cover in Geneva in 2007, taking Mills with him. He meets Gabriel Sol, who has ample experience in electronic surveillance. Snowden begins questioning the ethical implications of their assignment. After his superior decides to set up their target on a DUI charge in order to coerce information from him, Snowden resigns from the CIA. Snowden later takes a position with the NSA in Japan, initially under the pretense of building a program that would allow the government to back up all critical data from the Middle East in an emergency, a program which he names "Epic Shelter". Snowden learns of the practices the NSA and other U.S. government agencies are using not just in Japan, but in most countries which the U.S. is currently allied with. These plans include planting malware in different computers that manage government, infrastructure and financial sectors so that, in the event that any allies turn against the US, that country can effectively be shut down in retaliation. The stress associated with the job results in the end of his relationship with Mills, who moves back with her family in Maryland. Three months later, Snowden has left his post with the NSA and returned to Maryland where he and Mills resume their relationship and he takes a position consulting for the CIA. During a hunting trip, O'Brian reveals an operation in Oahu that revolves around counterattacking Chinese hackers. After Snowden is diagnosed with epilepsy, Mills agrees that he should join the operation, believing the environment in Hawaii may be beneficial for his health. Upon beginning his new job in " The Tunnel ", Snowden learns that Epic Shelter is actually providing real-time data that assists U.S. drone pilots in launching lethal strikes against terror suspects in Pakistan. Snowden ultimately becomes disillusioned with what he is a part of. It culminates in Snowden smuggling a microSD card into his office by way of a Rubik's Cube, and loading all relevant data. He then tells his colleagues he is feeling ill and departs. He advises Mills to fly home to Maryland, after which he contacts Poitras and Greenwald to schedule the meeting. With the help of journalist Ewen MacAskill, the information is disseminated to the press on June 5, 2013, with additional leaks published in the following days. In the aftermath, with the help of MacAskill, Greenwald and Poitras, Snowden is smuggled out of Hong Kong on a flight bound for Latin America via Russia. However, the U.S. government revokes his passport, forcing him to remain in Moscow indefinitely. He is eventually granted asylum for three years, with Mills joining him at a later date. In a remote interview expressing his activism, Snowden states that he is willing to face a court in the US if he is guaranteed a fair trial. Credit sequences showcase news headlines and interviews detailing the consequences of Snowden's actions in Congress, leading to broad reform in the NSA.