The small town of Garrison, New Jersey, is home to a cadre of corrupt police officers from the NYPD 's 37th Precinct, including Lieutenant Ray Donlan, Detective Leo Crasky, and officers Gary Figgis, Jack Rucker, Frank Lagonda and Joey Randone. Exploiting a loophole to live outside of the city as "auxiliary transit cops", Donlan and his men are effectively untouchable by internal affairs, and are further protected by the local sheriff, Freddy Heflin. Having lost his hearing in one ear while rescuing a woman from the Hudson River as a young man, Heflin is unable to fulfill his lifelong dream of joining the NYPD. Donlan's nephew, Officer Murray ”Superboy” Babitch, is sideswiped by two youths while driving across the George Washington Bridge; believing one of them has a weapon, a frightened Babitch fatally shoots them both. Donlan, Rucker and Crasky try to plant a gun in the teens' car but are caught by a paramedic, leading Donlan to fake Babitch's suicide before hiding him in Garrison. Heflin discovers that Randone is having an affair with Donlan's wife Rose, but he and his deputies Cindy and Bill turn a blind eye to Donlan and his men. Heflin reconnects with Randone's wife Liz—the woman whom he saved from drowning—and they confess their feelings for each other. The cocaine -addicted Figgis is kicked out of Donlan's circle, and his house soon burns down with his girlfriend inside. Letting Figgis stay at his home, Heflin refuses to help internal affairs investigator Moe Tilden build his case against Donlan. Fearing that Babitch will expose them, Donlan and his men try to drown his nephew, who escapes and goes to Heflin for help, but flees when he sees Figgis. Unwilling to hunt down Babitch, Randone is thrown off a roof during a struggle with a violent suspect, and Donlan chooses not to save him. Tired of being pushed around by Donlan and his men, Heflin goes to Tilden but learns that the mayor, under pressure from Donlan's allies in the police union, has shut down the investigation. Stealing Tilden's discarded files, Heflin realizes that Donlan's ties to organized crime allowed him to create a safe haven in Garrison while trafficking drugs through the 37th Precinct, and he had Figgis's partner killed before he could testify against him. Bill is reluctant to become involved, and Cindy leaves for her old department, having lost faith in Heflin's leadership. Rucker tries to intimidate Heflin at a carnival's pistol game, but he is surprised to find Heflin is a crack shot, as is Lagonda after Heflin is chided by Liz for digging into Donlan. Heflin realizes that Figgis set fire to his own house, and Figgis admits that he committed insurance fraud to use the payout to leave Garrison for a new life. Convincing Rose to reveal where her nephew is hiding, Heflin takes Babitch into custody and sends Bill away for his own protection, but they are ambushed by Lagonda and Rucker, who capture Babitch and fire a gun next to Heflin's good ear. Completely deafened, Heflin follows them to Donlan's residence. In the ensuing shootout, he kills Lagonda and Rucker, but is wounded by Crasky. Figgis arrives, killing Crasky and distracting Donlan before he can shoot Heflin in the back, and Heflin fatally shoots Donlan. Driving to NYPD headquarters, Heflin and Figgis deliver Babitch to Tilden. Figgis turns state's evidence, resulting in sweeping arrests and indictments across the police union, the mob and the 37th Precinct. Recovering the hearing in his good ear, Heflin continues to serve as sheriff in Garrison.

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.

Ngoc Minh Quan, a Chinese-Vietnamese-British widower, Vietnam War veteran, and former special forces operator, runs a Chinese restaurant in London. He lost two daughters to pirates when he escaped Vietnam, and his wife died when his daughter, Fan, was born. Fan and 11 other people are killed in a terrorist bombing in Knightsbridge; an IRA splinter group dubbing itself the "Authentic IRA" claims responsibility. Quan visits Scotland Yard daily for information and offers Commander Bromley £20,000 for the names of the bombers. Though sympathetic, Bromley tells him he is hindering the investigation. Quan leaves the restaurant with his friend and partner, Lam. Later, Quan travels to Belfast to meet deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland and Sinn Féin political advisor Liam Hennessy, a former Provisional IRA leader who has renounced violence. Quan demands the names of the bombers, but Hennessy denies any knowledge, so Quan sets off a homemade bomb in Hennessy's building and leaves a fake explosive on Hennessy's car as a warning. Hennessy orders IRA weapons dumps searched for missing Semtex and tells his right-hand man, Jim Kavanagh, to get Quan out of the city. Hennessy's men track Quan, but he fights them off and escapes. Later, Quan photographs Hennessy kissing his mistress, Maggie Dunn, and threatens to blackmail him. Hennessy enlists his nephew Sean Morrison, a former Royal Irish Regiment soldier and skilled tracker, to meet with Bromley. Morrison tells Bromley that each IRA cell will change code words to identify the rogue bombers; Bromley agrees to assist on condition that the British take them out, not the IRA. Quan follows Hennessy to his farmhouse and attacks it with more bombs. As Hennessy's men search for him, Quan maims them with traps before he is wounded by Kavanagh, forcing him to flee. Hennessy's former IRA commander, Hugh McGrath, confronts him about the searches, accusing Hennessy of caring more about his position within the British government than the IRA's cause. Soon after, Quan also confronts Hennessy, threatening him and giving him 24 hours to reveal the names of the bombers. A double-decker bus is blown up in London, killing 16 more people, but no code word is given, creating distrust between Hennessy and Bromley. Bromley notifies Hennessy that they have discovered the bomber's identity and tracked McGrath to his farm. Bromley threatens to raid the farm unless Hennessy forces McGrath to reveal who and where the terrorists are. Hennessy tortures McGrath and gets the names, including his mistress Maggie, whose real name is Sara McKay. Hennessy learns that his own wife, Mary, masterminded the attacks because her brother was murdered by a UVF death squad. She hates both the British and her husband for allowing his killers to be jailed rather than executed. Hennessy kills McGrath and shares the information with Morrison. Morrison finds Quan's hideout, but Quan subdues him and gets the names of the killers and their location. After Morrison is released and returns to the farm, Hennessy reprimands him for unintentionally leaking information to Mary, with whom he is having an affair, and orders him to bury McGrath's body. Quan enters the bombers' London flat disguised as a gasman. He kills all of them except Sara, who is wounded in the scuffle. Quan escapes just before MI5 and SO15 storms the flat. They torture Sara into disclosing the location of the next bomb, which is planted in a reporter's laptop to be detonated on a plane carrying British dignitaries to a conference. Airport police locate the reporter and throw the laptop into an air bridge, which explodes without any casualties. McKay is executed to tie up loose ends. British cabinet minister Katherine Davies, who was scheduled to be on the targeted flight, calls Hennessy to tell him she knows of his involvement, but having helped prevent the attack, he can remain as deputy First Minister, albeit under her control. Meanwhile, Morrison kills Mary, effectively eliminating the terrorist cell. Quan confronts Hennessy with a picture showing him kissing Maggie. He forces Hennessy to post the photo online, publicizing his links to the terrorists. Quan returns to the restaurant and reunites with Lam. Realizing Quan's role, Bromley decides not to take further action against Quan and keeps him under surveillance for the time being.

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.

Self-made millionaire businessman Thomas Crown is a handsome, dashing, cultured adrenaline junkie. Out of boredom, he masterminds a five-man heist of $2.66 million from a Boston bank, with the getaway driver dumping the money in a quiet cemetery trash can. None of the men ever meet Crown face to face, nor know or meet each other before the robbery. Crown retrieves the money after secretly trailing the drop. He deposits it into a numbered bank account in Geneva over several trips to avoid drawing undue attention to his actions. Independent investigator Vicki Anderson is contracted by the bank's insurance company to investigate the heist; she will receive 10% of the stolen money if she recovers it. Speculating that whoever planned the robbery was familiar with the bank's routines because he had an account there, and that the stolen money has been spirited to Switzerland, Vicki and the police draw up a list of bank customers who have made several recent trips to Geneva. When she sees Crown's profile on the list, she intuitively recognizes him as capable of orchestrating the robbery, and shortly thereafter guesses the cellular method that he used to organize the robbers. Growing closer to her quarry, Vicki makes it clear to Crown that she knows he is the thief and that she intends to prove it. A game of cat and mouse ensues, which spurs both a physical and emotional attraction that soon evolves into an affair. This complicates Vicki's vow to find the money and help detective friend Eddy Malone bring the perpetrator to justice. A reward offer entices the wife of the getaway driver, Erwin Weaver, to inform on him for $25,000. Vicki finds out that he was hired by a man he never saw but whose voice he heard (via a microphone). She tries placing Erwin in the same room as Crown, but there is no hint of recognition on either's part. While Vicki is clearly closing in on Crown, even using the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as leverage against his liquid assets, he forces her to realize the extent of her conflicted emotions. When she seemingly persuades him to negotiate an end, Malone stubbornly refuses to make any deal, leaving her torn between the men, her convictions, and her heart. Crown organizes another robbery exactly like the first with different accomplices and tells Vicki where the "drop" will be, because he has to know for sure that she is on his side. The robbery goes off like clockwork. Choosing her loyalty, Vicki and the police stake out the cemetery, where they watch one of the robbers make the drop, then lie in wait to ambush Crown. However, when his Rolls-Royce arrives, he has sent a messenger in his place, with a telegram inviting her to either bring the money and join him or to keep the car as a consolation prize. Reflexively smiling at his eluding her trap, she soon realizes she had revealed her hand yet gained nothing in return. Tearing the telegram to bits, she strews the pieces to the wind, tearfully staring at the sky while Crown escapes unruffled overhead.

In 1996, San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb interviews drug dealer Ronny Quail, who is outraged that the government used civil asset forfeiture to keep his house even after he was acquitted. Webb's ensuing article about the abuses of forfeiture garners repeated phone calls from a woman named Coral, whom he agrees to meet when she says she has documents that prove the government sponsored cocaine sales in the U.S. Coral gives Webb a transcript of grand jury testimony (normally kept secret) which was accidentally released to her boyfriend, an accused drug dealer, during discovery. After Webb reveals to the prosecutor in the case that he has the transcript, the government drops the charges against Coral's boyfriend in order to protect their main witness: Oscar Danilo Blandón. After Webb researches Blandón and comes across the pending case of "Freeway" Rick Ross, he is stunned to learn that Blandón is a paid informant. Armed with this knowledge, Ross' attorney elicits from Blandón his sworn testimony outlining the CIA 's alleged involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking—that the CIA actively supported Blandón and his partners’ smuggling of cocaine into the U.S. and used the profits to benefit the Nicaraguan Contras. Webb travels to a prison in Managua and speaks to Blandón's partner, Norwin Meneses, who confirms Oliver North 's involvement in the basic "drugs for guns" scheme to use profits from cocaine trafficking to fund the Contras. In Washington, D.C., Webb tracks down Fred Weil, a National Security Council employee who was an investigator on the Kerry Committee report, which touched on the same issues. Like many other people that Webb speaks to, Weil warns him that the subject may put him in danger. For good measure, federal agents summon Webb to a meeting where they warn him against publishing what he has learned. The paper publishes Webb's story as a three-part series with the title " Dark Alliance "; it is an immediate sensation. Humiliated by being scooped by a regional paper, the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and The New York Times all dig into Webb's reporting. Webb views their follow-up reporting as being far too deferential to the CIA. Eventually, their reporting turns to Webb himself, including an affair he had while working at The Plain Dealer. Webb is banished to the newspaper's Cupertino bureau to cover mundane local news. However, he continues to work on the story. He is awakened in his motel room one night by John Cullen, who is precisely the kind of CIA source with direct knowledge of the scheme that Webb's reporting needs. Webb's exhilaration at finding Cullen is quickly dampened when the paper reveals its plans to write an open letter calling into question aspects of its "Dark Alliance" reporting. At a Society of Professional Journalists dinner honoring Webb as the Bay Area "Journalist of the Year", he submits his resignation to his editors. An epilogue reveals that in 2004 Gary Webb was found dead in his apartment, shot twice in the head. His death was ruled a suicide.

Frank White, a drug lord, strives to control New York City 's criminal underground. Shortly after his release from Sing Sing Penitentiary, White and his crew, led by his trigger-happy right-hand man Jimmy Jump, consolidate power by eliminating their rivals in the Colombian drug cartel and Triad. White personally executes a Mafia boss who refuses to cooperate with him. White's exploits catch the attention of the NYPD 's narcotics squad. Detectives Bishop, Gilley and Flanigan confront White but lack any tangible evidence to arrest him. They instead turn their attention to White's henchmen, whom they arrest after a surviving member of the Colombian drug cartel agrees to cooperate with the police. White's lawyers intervene and free the men from jail. Gilley and Flanigan, extremely frustrated at White's use of the law to dodge justice, decide to simply murder White and his crew. They storm a night club where White is partying and kill many of his men. White and Jump survive the raid but are chased by Gilley and Flanigan. Jump ambushes and mortally wounds Flanigan. Gilley is unable to resuscitate his partner, and shoots Jump in the head in a fit of rage. A grief-stricken Gilley attends Flanigan's funeral, where he is abruptly assassinated by White in a drive-by shooting. White then confronts detective Bishop in his own apartment. He holds him at gunpoint while explaining that he eliminated the Colombian drug cartel and Triad in New York City because he disapproved of their involvement in human trafficking and child prostitution. White restrains Bishop to a chair and leaves. Bishop uses a gun in from nearby drawer and frees himself and chases White into the subway. Both men draw guns on each other, but White uses an innocent bystander as a human shield. The two exchange gunfire and Bishop is killed. White exits the subway and makes his way to a taxi in Times Square. He clutches a gunshot wound to his torso and watches as police surround his taxi. White goes limp as the police close in on him.

David "Dave" Lyons, a deaf man, and Wallace "Wally" Karew, a blind man, meet when Wally applies for a job in Dave's NYC concession shop. After a brief period of confusion and antagonism, they become close friends. Dave reads lips and guides Wally when they travel, and Wally tells Dave about invisible sources of sound and what people say behind his back. After being hired at the shop, Wally waits outside for the day's newspapers. Meanwhile, a bookmaker to whom Wally owes money walks into Dave's shop with a briefcase. When the man is approached by a woman named Eve, he hides a gold coin from his suitcase in a coin dish. Eve takes the briefcase and shoots the man while Dave’s back is turned. Dave does not see the shooting but notices Eve's legs as she leaves. Wally, who heard the gunshot, walks into the shop and trips over the dead body. Dave then rushes to help Wally and picks up the gun that Eve left behind. The police find them over the body with Dave holding the gun. As they are arrested, Wally picks up the day's collections from the coin dish and stashes them in his pocket. At the police station, Dave and Wally are interrogated by Detective Captain Emile Braddock and Lieutenant Gatlin, who make them the prime suspects after they are unconvincing as witnesses. When Eve and her accomplice Kirgo – hoping to recover the coin – pose as attorneys to bail them out, Wally recognizes Eve's perfume and Dave her legs, but Braddock ignores them when they insist that she is the killer. Dave and Wally escape from the police station, but the criminals soon find them. Eve takes the coin from Wally and calls her boss Mr. Sutherland for instructions, while Dave learns their plans by reading her lips. When Kirgo tries to kill them, they knock him unconscious. They then steal an unattended police car, and Eve, Kirgo, and Braddock chase them. Working together to guide the patrol car, Dave and Wally evade their pursuers but accidentally launch the car onto a waterborne garbage barge. After hiding the police car, they call Wally's sister Adele for help. The three then head for a resort mentioned in Eve's call to her boss. There, Wally impersonates a visiting professor. Meanwhile, Dave sneaks into Eve's room and steals the coin. Meanwhile, Adele distracts Kirgo by crashing her car into his. However, Kirgo and Eve discover the ruse, kidnap her, and take her to Sutherland's estate. Arriving at the Sutherland estate, Dave and Wally free Adele but end up captured. In his study, Sutherland – who is also blind – reveals that the coin is an outer disguise for a sample of an extremely valuable material called a superconductor. Kirgo and Sutherland are killed during an argument over sharing the profits, after which Dave and Wally rescue Eve. When the police arrive, Wally and Dave are cleared of the charges. Shortly thereafter, the two men reaffirm their friendship at a local park.

In 1855, Edward Pierce, a member of London 's high society, is secretly a master thief. He plans to steal a monthly shipment of gold from the London-to- Folkestone train that is meant as payment for British troops fighting in the Crimean War. Two heavy safes in the baggage car guard the gold, each of which has two locks, requiring a total of four keys. Pierce recruits pickpocket and screwsman Robert Agar. Pierce's mistress Miriam and his chauffeur Barlow join the plot, and train guard Burgess is bribed into participation. To hide the robbers' intentions, wax impressions are to be made of each of the keys. Pierce ingratiates himself with Edgar Trent, the bank's president, by feigning a shared interest in ratting. He also begins courting Trent's daughter, Elizabeth, and learns from her the location of her father's key. Pierce and Agar break into Trent's home at night, locate the key and make a wax impression before making a getaway. Pierce targets Henry Fowler, the bank's manager, through his weakness for prostitutes. Miriam poses as "Madame Lucienne", a courtesan in an exclusive bordello, meets with Fowler and asks him to undress, forcing him to remove the key worn round his neck. While Miriam distracts Fowler, Agar makes an impression of his key. Pierce then stages a phony police raid to rescue Miriam, forcing Fowler to flee to avoid a scandal. The two remaining keys are locked in a cabinet at the offices of the South Eastern Railway at the London Bridge railway station. After a daytime diversionary tactic with a child pickpocket fails, Pierce decides to try again at night. The officer guarding the railway office at night leaves his post only once, for seventy-five seconds, to go to the toilet. Pierce plans to use cat burglar Clean Willy to climb the station's wall, climb down into the station, enter the office via a skylight in the ceiling, and open the key cabinet from within. Because Clean Willy is incarcerated at Newgate Prison, Pierce and Agar first have to arrange for him to break out, using a public execution as a distraction. With Willy's help, the criminals make impressions of the keys without detection. Clean Willy is subsequently arrested after being caught pick-pocketing and informs on Pierce. The police use Willy to lure Pierce into a trap, but the latter eludes capture. Clean Willy escapes from his captors, but Pierce finds him in a bar and murders him. The authorities, now aware of the upcoming robbery, increase security by having the baggage car padlocked from the outside until the train arrives at its destination and forbidding anyone but the guard to travel in the baggage van. Any container large enough to hold a man must be opened and inspected before it is loaded on the train. Pierce smuggles Agar into the baggage car disguised as a corpse in a coffin. Pierce plans to reach the car across the coach roofs while the train is under way, but he and Miriam encounter Fowler, who is riding the train to Folkestone to accompany the shipment. After arranging for Miriam to travel in the same compartment as Fowler to distract him, Pierce travels down the roof of the train and unlocks the baggage van's door from the outside. He and Agar replace the gold with lead bars and toss the bags of gold off the train at a prearranged point. However, soot from the engine's smoke has stained Pierce's skin and clothes, and he is forced to borrow Agar's suit, which is much too small for him. The jacket splits across the back when he disembarks at Folkestone. The police become suspicious and arrest him before he can rejoin his accomplices. Pierce is put on trial for the robbery. While exiting the courthouse, he receives the adulation of the crowds, who consider him a folk hero for his daring act. In the commotion, a disguised Miriam kisses him, slipping a key to his handcuffs from her mouth to his. Agar is also present, disguised as a police van driver. Before he can be put into the wagon, Pierce frees himself and escapes with Agar, to the jubilation of the crowd and the chagrin of the police.

Thieves infiltrate the Metropolitan Museum of Art inside an actual Trojan horse, preparing to steal an entire gallery of paintings, but are apprehended. In the confusion, billionaire Thomas Crown – the crime's secret mastermind – steals Claude Monet 's painting of San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk. NYPD Detective Michael McCann heads the investigation into the theft of the $100 million artwork, with the unwelcome assistance of insurance investigator Catherine Banning. Crown lends a Camille Pissarro to fill the Monet's space in the museum and falls under Banning's suspicion. She persuades McCann to begin surveillance of Crown, deducing that he is motivated not by money but by the sheer thrill of the crime. Banning later accepts Crown's invitation to dinner. At dinner, Banning has a copy of Crown's keys made; she and her team search his home and discover the Monet, which is revealed to be a taunting imitation painted over a copy of Poker Sympathy from the Dogs Playing Poker series. Banning confronts Crown, and the two give in to their mutual attraction and have passionate sex. Banning and Crown continue their cat-and-mouse game and their trysts, despite McCann's surveillance. Accompanying Crown on a trip to Martinique, Banning realizes he is preparing to run but rejects his offer to join him when the time comes. McCann presents Banning with photographs of Crown with another woman, Anna, complicating her feelings toward the case and her prime suspect. Banning and McCann discover that the fake Monet is in fact an expert forgery that could only have been painted by someone with access to the original; they visit the likeliest forger, Heinrich Knutzhorn, in prison, to no avail, although his body language suggests to them that he recognizes the work. Later, Banning finds Crown packing his belongings with Anna. He promises Banning his interest lies with her alone, stating that Anna works for him but he would be compromising her to define the nature of their association. Crown offers to return the Monet by putting it back on the wall of the museum, and gives Banning a time and place to meet him when he's finished. Tearfully, Banning leaves and informs McCann. The following day, the police stake out the museum, waiting to arrest Crown. Banning learns from McCann that the fake Monet was painted by Anna; the imprisoned forger Knutzhorn is her father, a former business partner of Crown, who became her guardian. Crown arrives and advertises his position in the lobby. The police realize that Crown expected Banning to turn him in and that he has set up another plot. Before the police can apprehend him, Crown blends into the crowd, aided by lookalikes in bowler hats à la René Magritte 's 1964 painting The Son of Man. Evading the officers, Crown releases smoke bombs and pulls a fire alarm, setting off the museum's fire sprinklers. His donated Pissarro, hanging in the Monet's place, is washed clean by the sprinklers to reveal the real Monet. Crown's game is made clear: upon stealing the Monet, Crown had Anna forge the Pissarro over it and "returned" it to the museum. However, Crown has now vanished with another painting—one that Banning had told him she would have selected over the Monet. With the Monet recovered, Banning considers her role in the case concluded; the second missing painting is not covered by her employer. McCann briefly stops Banning to press her for anything she might know, but admits he has since stopped caring whether or not they catch Crown and bids her farewell. Banning then races to meet Crown at the rendezvous, but finds only a bowler-hatted courier who delivers to her the newly-stolen painting. Devastated, Banning has the painting sent to McCann and boards a flight back to London. In her seat after takeoff, she begins to cry when a hand from the row behind extends to her a handkerchief and offers her comfort. The passenger's thinly disguised voice, gives the game away and she turns to find Crown sitting behind her, and the two are reunited.

A United States Coast Guard vessel intercepts and boards an American yacht in the Caribbean Sea and finds evidence that the ship's owner and passengers, American businessman Peter Hardin and his family, were murdered by the piloting Colombian crew. CIA analyst Jack Ryan learns that Hardin was laundering money for the South American Cali Cartel, the leader of which, Ernesto Escobedo, ordered Hardin's murder for embezzling millions in drug profits. U.S. President Bennett, Hardin's close friend, discreetly authorizes National Security Advisor James Cutter to initiate covert operations in Colombia to destroy the cartel. Ryan is appointed acting Deputy Director of Intelligence when Admiral James Greer undergoes treatment for pancreatic cancer. Ryan requests Congress to increase funding to support Colombians fighting the drug cartels, giving his assurance there is no U.S. military involvement, unaware that Cutter will use the funds to assemble RECIPROCITY, a special forces team recruited by CIA operative John Clark and aided by Robert Ritter, the CIA Deputy Director of Operations. President Bennett sends Ryan to negotiate with the Colombian government to allow the United States to seize Escobedo's assets, including $650 million hidden in off-shore accounts, while Escobedo's intelligence officer, Colonel Félix Cortez, secretly orders the Cartel to ambush Ryan's convoy. Ryan survives the fracas, though several colleagues are killed, including Dan Murray and FBI Director Emile Jacobs. Cortez's identity is ascertained after he murders Jacobs’ secretary, Moira, who was an unwitting informant. Blamed for the attack, Escobedo organizes a meeting with the other Cartel heads. RECIPROCITY discovers this and launches an airstrike on their gathering, though Escobedo and Cortez, en route, barely escape unscathed. Cortez learns Americans were responsible and brokers a deal with Cutter: Cortez will kill Escobedo to assume leadership, then will reduce drug shipments to the U.S. and allow American law enforcement to make regular arrests to influence public opinion on the United States’ declared war on drugs. As part of the exchange, Cortez wants the location of RECIPROCITY disclosed to him and all CIA support to RECIPROCITY eliminated. Clark's team is stranded when Cutter accepts Cortez's deal, and are overwhelmed by Cortez's mercenaries in the jungle. U.S. surveillance monitored Cutter’s conversation with Cortez unbeknownst to him and Ryan accesses Ritter's computer to obtain evidence regarding the illegal Colombian operations. Ritter, however, warns Ryan that because he secured funding for the operation, Congress will hold Ryan solely responsible, revealing that he and Cutter have been granted President Bennett's pre-emptive pardons from any wrongdoing. Greer succumbs to his illness and Ryan flies to Bogota after the funeral to seek out Clark, unaware Cutter and Ritter have led Clark to believe that Ryan betrayed RECIPROCITY. Clark captures Ryan, but teams up with him when he realizes Ritter and Cutter played them both. Ryan and Clark procure a helicopter and fly to RECIPROCITY's last known position, where they find team sniper Chavez, who reports that most members were killed, and learn Captain Ramirez and one remaining squad member were captured. Ryan meets with Escobedo and informs him of Cortez's deception, while Clark simultaneously commences the rescue of his men who are being held captive in a coffee facility fronting Escobedo's cocaine operation. Escobedo confronts Cortez but is killed by Cortez's associate. Chavez kills Cortez during the escape, and Ryan narrowly escapes along with Clark and the freed prisoners. Back in the United States, Ryan refuses President Bennett's request to help cover up the conspiracy and instead testifies before the Congressional Oversight Committee about the recent events.

South Florida high school dropouts Ali Willis and Lisa Connelly befriend local deli employees Bobby Kent and Marty Puccio, going out on a double date. Later that evening, in Bobby's parked car, Ali performs oral sex on Bobby, while Lisa and Marty have sex in the back seat. Lisa later learns she is pregnant, but thinks the child is Bobby's instead of Marty's, since Bobby beat Marty unconscious and raped her after. Bobby emotionally and physically abuses Marty, who puts up with his violent tendencies. On one occasion, Bobby rapes Ali while forcing her to watch gay pornography with him. Lisa later tells Marty that everyone suspects Bobby is attracted to him. Marty reveals that the abuse started when they were boys, starting with Marty taking drugs at an early age, which Marty thinks Bobby has been using to take advantage of him. Marty and Bobby later go to a gay bar, where Marty is told to strip down and dance for money, while Bobby takes pleasure in his humiliation. Lisa eventually proposes that the group murder Bobby. Ali recruits her new boyfriend, the pot -smoking and acid -dropping Donny Semenec, and a troubled friend, Heather Swallers, who has recently been released from rehab. Lisa recruits her cousin, the shy and nerdy Derek Dzvirko. They initially plan to kill Bobby with a gun stolen from Lisa's mother. Ali and Lisa lure Bobby to the Everglades, the plan being that Lisa will shoot him while he has sex with Ali, but Lisa finds herself unable to do it. Realizing they need help, the group hires a supposed "hitman" and a friend of Ali's, Derek Kaufman. The group orchestrates a new plan: they drive with Bobby to the Everglades again, and Ali again lures Bobby to the bank of a canal with the promise of sex. Heather haphazardly gives a signal to Donny, who sneaks up behind Bobby and stabs him in the back of the neck. Horrified by the violence, Ali, Heather, and Dzvirko run back to Ali's car. Lisa watches as Marty and Donny repeatedly stab Bobby and slit his throat, before Kaufman bludgeons Bobby with a baseball bat. Kaufman forces Dzvirko to help carry the dying Bobby into the swamp, presuming alligators will consume the corpse. Marty later realizes that he left the sheath to his diving knife at the canal. The group returns to retrieve the sheath and finds Bobby's corpse being devoured by crabs. Lisa, Dzvirko, Ali, and Heather do not believe they did anything wrong, since they did not directly participate in Bobby's actual murder. Lisa decides to dispose of the knife, which is the only evidence linking them to the crime. Unable to maintain the secret, Dzvirko and Lisa reveal to their other friends what they've done, while Ali phones in an anonymous tip to the media, alerting them to Bobby's death. Lisa calls Kaufman and speaks to his younger brother, who says that Kaufman has already been arrested for the murder. Eventually, all the teenagers turn themselves in, except for Marty, who is subsequently arrested. Some time later, the group appears in court, wearing prison jumpsuits, with Lisa visibly pregnant by this time. Marty and Donny begin to argue, leading the others to join in as they each respectively deny their culpability in front of an onlooking courtroom. Title cards reveal the convictions the perpetrators received in real life: Derek Kaufman, Donny Semenec, and Lisa Connelly received life sentences; Ali Willis, 40 years; Derek Dzvirko, 11 years; Heather Swallers, seven years; and Marty Puccio, the death penalty, which was vacated in 1997.