Eight men planning to rob a jewelry store for a diamond shipment eat breakfast at a diner. To pull off the heist, boss Joe Cabot assembles six experienced robbers who are strangers to each other. Joe and his son, "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot, have known some of the team for years, but to shield identities, the rest use aliases: Mr. White, a career criminal; Mr. Blonde, a trigger-happy ex-convict; Mr. Orange, a reputed drug dealer; Mr. Pink, a paranoid neurotic; Mr. Brown, a pseudo philosopher; and Mr. Blue, an even-tempered cohort. When an alarm is tripped during the heist, after Blonde started to shoot bystanders, the police arrive quickly. Running from police, Pink hijacks a car, killing a couple of police officers in a shootout. White, who shoots police officers pursuing in a prowler, flees with Orange, who is shot hijacking a car before he kills the driver. Shot in the abdomen, Orange bleeds profusely in the back seat of the car driven by White. Despite Orange's pleadings to be taken to a hospital, White insists that he is not fatally wounded. At their warehouse hideout, White and Orange rendezvous with Pink, who informs them that he has hidden the diamonds nearby. Pink believes that the job was a setup and that the police were waiting to ambush them. White informs Pink that Brown is dead, Blue and Blonde are missing, and Blonde—a loose cannon—murdered several bystanders during the heist. White is furious that Joe, his old friend, would employ Blonde, who he describes as a psychopath. Pink argues with White, who feels responsible for Orange being shot, over whether to get medical attention for Orange, and Pink is wary that Joe is not there to get a doctor. The pair draw guns on each other, but they stand down when Blonde arrives with a kidnapped policeman, Marvin Nash. In flashback, having been paroled after a four-year prison sentence, Blonde meets with the Cabots. To reward him for not giving Joe's name to the authorities, the Cabots offer Blonde a no-show job. Though grateful, Blonde insists that he wants to get back to "real work", and they recruit him for the heist. In the present, White and Pink begin to torture Nash for information. Eddie arrives and orders them to go with him to ditch the getaway vehicles, leaving Blonde in charge of prisoner Nash and the in-and-out-of-consciousness Orange. Nash denies prior knowledge of the heist, but Blonde resumes the torture by slashing his face and cutting off his ear with a straight razor while a radio plays " Stuck in the Middle with You ". When Blonde prepares to set Nash on fire, Orange shoots and kills him. Disclosing to Nash that he is an undercover police officer, Orange says that the police will arrive when Joe comes to the warehouse. Nash replies that he recognized Orange, revealing that Nash protected Orange's cover under torture. Flashbacks show scenes of Orange gaining Joe's and White's confidence and building rapport with the team. When Eddie, Pink, and White return, Orange tries to convince them that Blonde planned to kill them all and steal the diamonds for himself. Eddie shoots and kills Nash and accuses Orange of lying, since Blonde proved loyal to his father. Joe arrives with news that the police have killed Blue. Suspecting that Orange is the traitor behind the setup, Joe is about to execute him, but White intervenes, holding Joe at gunpoint and insisting that Orange is not a police officer. Eddie aims his gun at White, creating a Mexican standoff. All three fire. Both Eddie and Joe Cabot are killed, and White and Orange are wounded. Pink (the only uninjured person), takes the diamonds and flees, but is apprehended by the police outside. As White cradles the dying Orange in his arms, Orange confesses that he is in fact a police officer. White presses his gun to Orange's head. The police storm the warehouse and order White to drop his gun. Gunshots sound and White collapses.

Neil McCauley, a Los Angeles professional thief, and his crew—Chris Shiherlis, Michael Cheritto, Gilbert Trejo, and new recruit Waingro—rob $1.6 million in bearer bonds from an armored car. Waingro, who unbeknownst to McCauley is an active serial killer who targets underaged prostitutes, kills a guard without provocation, forcing the crew to kill two other guards. McCauley plans to kill Waingro for the guards' deaths, but Waingro escapes. LAPD Robbery Homicide Detective Lieutenant Vincent Hanna and his team investigate the robbery. Hanna, a dedicated lawman and former Marine, has a strained relationship with his third wife, Justine, and struggles to connect with his stepdaughter, Lauren. McCauley, who lives a solitary life, begins a relationship with Eady, a graphic designer who is new to Los Angeles and has no local connections. McCauley's fence Nate suggests selling the stolen bonds to their original owner, money launderer Roger Van Zant. Van Zant pretends to agree, but instead arranges an ambush. Anticipating a trap, McCauley and his crew counter-ambush and kill the hitmen. Afterward, McCauley threatens to kill Van Zant. An informant connects Cheritto to the robbery, and Hanna's team begins monitoring him, identifying the rest of the crew and their next target, a precious metals depository. The team stakes out the depository and subsequently breaks in, but when a careless officer makes a noise, McCauley aborts the heist. Unable to prove McCauley's crew stole anything, Hanna reluctantly lets them escape. McCauley's crew plans one final bank robbery worth $12.2 million. Hanna stops McCauley on the 105 Freeway and invites him to coffee. They discuss their dedication to their jobs and personal limitations. Hanna talks about his failing marriage, and McCauley admits he is also isolated. Both men express mutual respect, but declare they will kill the other if necessary. Waingro makes a deal with Van Zant to eliminate McCauley's crew. Trejo backs out of the heist after suspecting he is being monitored by the LAPD. McCauley hires old colleague Don Breedan as the getaway driver, and they execute the heist. Tipped by Van Zant's associate Hugh Benny, the LAPD intercepts the crew after leaving the bank, sparking a shootout. Breedan and Cheritto, along with many police, are killed, while Shiherlis is wounded. McCauley and Shiherlis manage to escape, and McCauley takes Shiherlis to a doctor before leaving him with Nate. Suspecting Trejo tipped off the police, McCauley goes to his house to find him mortally wounded and his wife dead. Before asking McCauley to kill him, Trejo reveals Waingro and Van Zant were responsible and forced him to disclose the bank heist. McCauley kills Van Zant at his home, while Hanna's team detains Benny. Discovering McCauley's connection to Waingro, who is hiding in a hotel, Hanna uses Waingro as bait to lure McCauley. As McCauley plans to retreat, Eady discovers his criminal identity but agrees to go with him. Shiherlis plans to reconcile with his estranged wife Charlene, who is being forced by the LAPD to bring him in. When Shiherlis arrives at Charlene's safe house, she warns him off with a hand gesture and he escapes. Having separated from Justine, Hanna finds Lauren in his hotel room, unconscious after attempting suicide. He rushes her to the hospital and saves her life. Hanna reconciles with Justine, although the two agree that their marriage will never work. McCauley drives with Eady to the Los Angeles International Airport to flee to New Zealand via private jet. However, when Nate gives him Waingro's location, McCauley abandons his usual caution to seek revenge. Posing as hotel security and triggering a fire alarm evacuation, McCauley infiltrates the hotel and kills Waingro in his room. However, as McCauley returns to Eady, he is spotted by Hanna and flees. Hanna chases McCauley onto the tarmac at the airport, and the two stalk each other before Hanna gets the upper hand and shoots McCauley. Hanna takes McCauley's hand as he dies of his wounds.

The boss of a black market ring (known only as "The Chief") wants to smuggle a batch of jewelry from a foreign state into the Soviet Union by hiding it inside the orthopedic cast of a courier. The Chief sends a minor henchman named Gennadiy 'Gesha' Kozodoyev (played by Mironov) to serve as the courier. Kozodoyev travels to Turkey via a tourist cruise ship. The local co-conspirators do not know what the courier looks like; they only know that he is supposed to say a code word to identify himself. The code word is a simple swear such as "Oh darn", after a slip and "fall". After Kozodoyev's fellow passenger from the cruise ship, the "ordinary Soviet citizen" Semyon Gorbunkov (played by Nikulin), accidentally falls and says the code phrase, they mistake him for the courier. They place a cast around his arm and put the contraband jewels inside the cast. Upon the cruise ship's return to the Soviet Union, Gorbunkov lets the police know what happened, and the police captain, who is working undercover as a taxi driver, uses Gorbunkov as bait to catch the criminals. Gesha and Lyolik (another of Chief's henchmen, played by Papanov) attempt to lure Gorbunkov into situations where they can quietly, without a wetwork, remove the cast and reclaim the contraband jewels. On one such occasion, Gesha invites Gorbunkov to a fancy restaurant with the intention of getting Gorbunkov drunk enough for Lyolik to subdue him. However, both Gesha and Gorbunkov become drunk and Gorbunkov is taken home by the police after he and Gesha cause a scene. Gorbunkov's wife, begins to suspect either that he has been recruited by foreign intelligence after finding a large amount of money and a gun loaded with blanks in Gorbunkov's possession (previously given to him by the police), or that he is having an affair. Gorbunkov explains that he is working with the Soviet police on a secret mission, but cannot divulge any details. The Chief sends Anna Sergeyevna, a female operative, to help retrieve the cast. Anna Sergeyevna invites Gorbunkov to her hotel room under the pretense of wanting to sell Gorbunkov a gown and spikes his drink with a sleeping pill. As Gorbunkov is about to pass out, his building's nosy superintendent who had followed Gorbunkov brings his wife into the hotel room before either Lyolik or the police can get to him. Gorbunkov awakens the next morning to find that his wife has assumed that his story was all a cover up for an affair, and has left with the children. The police in the meantime have deduced that Gesha is involved with the smuggling scheme surrounding the cast, and ask Gorbunkov to mention to Gesha that he is planning to travel to another city and will have his cast removed there. Gesha reports this to the Chief, who sends Lyolik disguised as a taxi driver to pick up Gorbunkov. Gorbunkov assumes that Lyolik is also an undercover policeman, and gives away the fact that he has been in contact with the police the entire time. Lyolik plays along and tells Gorbunkov that he has been authorized to remove the cast a day early at a safehouse along the way to Dubrovka. As Lyolik is about to remove the cast, Gorbunkov deduces that Lyolik is actually a criminal and attempts to escape. Lyolik and Gesha chase Gorbunkov and with the help of the Chief himself, they capture Gorbunkov. Upon removing Gorbunkov's cast, they realize that the police had removed the diamonds in the cast a long time ago. The criminals kidnap Gorbunkov and attempt to flee as the police track them down in a helicopter and capture them. Gorbunkov is reunited with his family, with the police having explained the situation to his wife. Gorbunkov goes on vacation with his family, albeit now with a broken leg as a result of the kidnapping.

In a futuristic Britain, Alex DeLarge is leader of a gang of "droogs": Georgie, Dim, and Pete. They engage in an intoxicated evening of "ultra-violence", which includes beating a vagrant and fighting a rival gang. They beat writer Frank Alexander to the point of crippling him, and Alex rapes Alexander's wife while singing " Singin' in the Rain ". The next day Alex's probation officer, P. R. Deltoid, cautions him. Alex's droogs are not content with petty crime and want more equality and high-yield thefts, but Alex asserts his authority by attacking them. Alex invades the home of a wealthy " cat-lady " and bludgeons her with a phallic sculpture while his droogs remain outside. On hearing sirens, Alex tries to flee, but Dim smashes a bottle in his face and leaves him to be arrested. The woman dies of her injuries, and Alex is sentenced to 14 years in prison for murder. Two years into the sentence, Alex accepts an offer to be a test subject for the Minister of the Interior's new Ludovico technique, an experimental aversion therapy for rehabilitating criminals within two weeks. Alex is strapped to a chair, his eyes clamped open, and injected with drugs. He is forced to watch films of sex and violence, some accompanied by his favourite composer, Ludwig van Beethoven. Alex is nauseated and, fearing he will be sick upon hearing Beethoven, begs for an end to the treatment. The Minister demonstrates Alex's rehabilitation to officials. Alex is unable to fight back against an actor who taunts and attacks him, and becomes ill upon attempting to grope a topless woman. The prison chaplain complains that Alex has been robbed of his free will; the Minister asserts that the Ludovico technique will cut crime and alleviate crowding in prisons, allowing more space for political prisoners. Released from prison, Alex finds his possessions have been sold to provide compensation for his victims and his parents have let out his room. A vagrant whom Alex attacked years earlier attacks him with his friends. Alex is saved by two policemen whom he is shocked to find are his former droogs Dim and Georgie. They beat and nearly drown him before abandoning him. Alex collapses on the doorstep of a nearby home. Alex wakes to find himself in the home of Mr Alexander, who now uses a wheelchair. Alexander does not recognise Alex from the previous attack but knows of him and the Ludovico technique from the newspapers. He prepares to present Alex to his colleagues as a political weapon. Alex breaks into "Singin' in the Rain" while bathing, and Alexander realises it was he who assaulted his wife and him. Alexander drugs Alex and locks him in a bedroom, then plays Beethoven's Ninth Symphony loudly from the floor below. Unable to withstand the pain, Alex attempts suicide by jumping from the window. Alex awakes in hospital with multiple injuries. During psychological tests, he finds he no longer has aversions to violence and sex. The Minister arrives and apologises, saying the government has had Mr Alexander institutionalised. He offers to take care of Alex and get him a job in return for his co-operation with his election campaign and public relations counter-offensive. The Minister brings in a stereo system playing Beethoven's Ninth. Alex contemplates violence and has thoughts of having sex with a woman in front of an approving crowd, thinking, "I was cured, all right!"

In 1973, sports handicapper and Mafia associate Sam "Ace" Rothstein is sent by the Chicago Outfit to Las Vegas to run the Tangiers Casino, with frontman Philip Green. He soon doubles the casino's profits, with a portion of the earned cash profits skimmed directly from the casino count room and delivered to the Midwest Mafia bosses. Chicago boss Remo Gaggi sends mob enforcer, and Ace's childhood friend, Nicky Santoro to help him protect their cash skim and the casino's workings as well as Ace himself. Nicky recruits his younger brother Dominick and right-hand man Frankie Marino after he is listed in the Black Book to gather an experienced crew, not just to safeguard the casino but also to engage in shakedowns and jewelry burglaries for their own gain. Nicky's criminal activities in Las Vegas start drawing too much media and police attention Ace meets and falls in love with beautiful con artist, showgirl, and former prostitute Ginger McKenna. They have a daughter, Amy, and marry. He entrusts Ginger with $2 million in cash and $1 million in jewelry. Still, their marriage is soon thrown into turmoil due to Ginger's relationship with Lester Diamond, a hustler and pimp who is also her longtime ex-lover. Eventually, Ace arranges for Nicky and his crew to beat up Lester when they catch him accepting $25,000 from her in a cafe. In 1976, Ace fires slot manager Don Ward for incompetence. Ward is brother-in-law to Clark County Commission chairman Pat Webb, who cannot convince Ace to re-hire him. Webb gets Ace's gaming license denied, jeopardizing the latter's position. Ace insults the board and local politicians in the license hearing, creating a spectacle for the news cameras, which brings unwanted media attention onto the casino. Since Ace is disallowed from legally running the casino, he begins hosting a local television talk show inside the casino, irritating the bosses back home for bringing more unneeded attention to their business. Ace blames Nicky's reckless lawbreaking for the ongoing pressure from police and state government, which leads to an argument between Ace and Nicky in the desert, concluding with threats by Nicky. Ace's renewed attempts to get Nicky to leave Las Vegas only strain their friendship more. In 1980, Ace contemplates divorcing Ginger as their marriage appears to collapse. She later kidnaps Amy and plans on fleeing to Europe with her and Lester. When Ace finds out about her plan, he convinces Ginger to return with Amy. Later on that night, he catches Ginger phoning a hit on him and responds by kicking her out of their home; she then returns home and Ace reluctantly decides to forgive her and give their marriage another chance. Ginger confides in Nicky about the situation, and they start an affair. Ace soon finds out, as do private investigators. Nicky ends things with Ginger once she asks him to kill Ace, while also threatening to go to the FBI about their criminal activities. She then leaves Ace, with all of her money and jewelry, only to later get arrested by the FBI not long afterwards. In 1982, the FBI discovers Artie's records which he had kept after being put in charge by the Midwest Bosses to oversee the skimming operation after it was discovered that people on the inside were skimming their skim. The FBI closes the Tangiers, and convinces Green to cooperate. They approach Ace for help, showing him photos of Nicky and Ginger together, but he turns them down. The Chicago bosses are arrested and prepare for their arraignment. Following Gaggi's directive, they arrange hits on everyone involved in the casino operation who could possibly testify against them. In 1983, Ginger, whose personal fortune has been squandered by lowlife associates, is killed with a "hot dose" in Los Angeles. That same year, Ace narrowly survives a car bomb, and suspects Nicky to be the man responsible for it as the attempt was not professional enough for the bosses to have ordered it. Ace plans to confront Nicky, but never gets the chance to do so when the bosses - finally fed up with the extent of Nicky's reckless criminality - arrange to have Nicky and Dominick killed in 1986; the two brothers are ambushed by Frank and their own crew, brutally beaten with baseball bats, and buried alive in a shallow grave in a remote Illinois cornfield. A coda depicts the Mafia pushed out of the casino industry by big corporations, which purchase and demolish nearly all the old casinos. New, even more glamorous casinos are built, which are impersonal and cold, a development lamented by the narrator. Because he remains a reliable, high-stakes earner for the outfit, Ace Rothstein is allowed to live; he moves to San Diego and resumes sports handicapping.

In September 1936, amid the Great Depression, grifter Johnny Hooker and his partners, Luther Coleman and Joe Erie, con $11,000 in cash from an unsuspecting victim in Joliet, Illinois. Hooker loses his share of the con on a rigged roulette game, while Luther, buoyed by the windfall, decides to retire. He tells Hooker to seek out his old friend, Henry Gondorff, in Chicago, to learn "the big con". Corrupt Joliet police lieutenant William Snyder confronts Hooker, revealing that their mark was a courier for vicious Irish-American crime boss Doyle Lonnegan. Lonnegan's men murder Luther and the courier. After finding Luther dead, Hooker flees to Chicago. Hooker finds Gondorff drunk and in hiding from the FBI, running a carousel that is a front for a brothel, and asks for help taking down Lonnegan. Initially reluctant, Gondorff relents and recruits a team of experienced con men. They decide to resurrect an elaborate, obsolete scam known as "the wire", using a large crew to create a phony off-track betting parlor. Snyder and Lonnegan's men track Hooker to Chicago; Gondorff warns Hooker that if either of them finds him, the con will have to be called off. Aboard the opulent 20th Century Limited, Gondorff, posing as the boorish Chicago bookie "Shaw", buys into Lonnegan's private, high-stakes poker game, being facilitated by the train's conductor. "Shaw" infuriates Lonnegan with his obnoxious behavior, then cheats him out of $15,000 ($ 348,022 in 2025). Hooker, posing as "Shaw's" disgruntled employee "Kelly", is sent to collect the winnings and convince Lonnegan to help him take over "Shaw's" operation – a tactic Lonnegan has used repeatedly to build his crime empire. Hooker returns home to find Lonnegan's men waiting to assassinate him, but he avoids their efforts. Their attempt spooks Gondorff, but Hooker convinces him to keep the con alive. Lonnegan, frustrated with his men's inability to kill Hooker for the Joliet con – and unaware that "Kelly" is Hooker – orders the job to be given to Salino, his best assassin. A mysterious figure, wearing black leather gloves, begins to follow and observe Hooker. Meanwhile, Snyder's pursuit of Hooker attracts the attention of undercover FBI agents led by Agent Polk, who orders Snyder to bring Hooker in to entrap Gondorff. "Kelly" gives Lonnegan a tip on a 7-to-1 long shot in a horse race that pays off. When Lonnegan presses him for details, he reveals that he has a partner, "Les Harmon" (actually con man Kid Twist), in the Chicago Western Union office, who will help them topple "Shaw" by winning bets he books on horse races through past-posting. Lonnegan is convinced after being provided the trifecta of another race, and agrees to finance a $500,000 bet ($ 11.6 million in 2025) to break "Shaw" and get revenge. Shortly thereafter, Snyder captures Hooker and brings him before Polk, who forces Hooker to betray Gondorff by threatening to jail Luther Coleman's widow. Feeling despondent the night before the sting, Hooker sleeps with a diner waitress named Loretta. The next morning, as she walks toward him in an alley, the black-gloved man appears and shoots her dead before she can shoot Hooker. The man reveals to Hooker that Gondorff hired him to protect him, and that the waitress was, in fact, Salino. After "Harmon" telephones directions to "Place it on Lucky Dan", Lonnegan bets $500,000 at "Shaw's" parlor on the horse named Lucky Dan to win. As the race begins, "Harmon" arrives and expresses shock at Lonnegan's bet: when he said "place it", he meant that the horse would "place" (i.e., finish second). In a panic, Lonnegan rushes to the teller window and demands his money back, at which point Polk, Snyder, and a half-dozen FBI agents storm the parlor. Polk tells Hooker he is free to go. Shocked at the betrayal, Gondorff shoots Hooker. Polk shoots Gondorff and orders Snyder to get the ostensibly respectable Lonnegan away from the crime scene. With Lonnegan and Snyder safely away, Hooker and Gondorff rise ("bleeding" only from fake bullets) amid cheers and laughter. "Polk" is actually Hickey, a fellow con man, who has been running a con atop Gondorff's con with his "FBI agents" to divert Snyder and ensure that Lonnegan abandoned the money without ever realizing he was taken. As the con men strip the room of its contents, Hooker refuses his share of the money, claiming he would lose it anyway, and walks away with Gondorff.

In 1991, slacker and bowler Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, is attacked in his Los Angeles home by two enforcers for porn kingpin Jackie Treehorn, to whom a different Jeffrey Lebowski's wife owes money. One enforcer urinates on the Dude's rug before they realize they have the wrong man, and leave. After consulting his bowling partners, Walter Sobchak, a Vietnam veteran with PTSD, and Donny Kerabatsos, the Dude visits philanthropist Jeffrey Lebowski ("the big Lebowski"), requesting compensation for the rug. Lebowski refuses, but the Dude tricks his assistant Brandt into letting him take a similar rug from the mansion. Outside, he meets Lebowski's much younger trophy wife, Bunny, and her German nihilist friend, Uli. Soon afterward, Bunny is apparently kidnapped, and Lebowski hires the Dude to deliver a ransom. That night, another group of thugs ambushes the Dude, taking his replacement rug on behalf of Lebowski's daughter, Maude. Convinced the kidnap was a ruse by Bunny, Walter fakes the ransom drop. He and the Dude return to the bowling alley, leaving the briefcase of money in the Dude's car. While they are bowling, the car is stolen. The Dude is confronted by Lebowski, who has an envelope from the kidnappers containing a severed toe, supposedly Bunny's. Maude asks the Dude to help recover the money her father illegally withdrew from the family's charity foundation. The police recover the Dude's car. The briefcase is missing, but the Dude finds a sheet of homework, signed by a teenager named Larry Sellers. Walter learns that Larry is the son of Arthur Digby Sellers, a writer for the television show Branded, which Walter reveres. The Dude and Walter visit Larry but get no information from him. An enraged Walter destroys a Corvette he thinks is Larry's, only to find out it belongs to a neighbor, who vandalizes the Dude's car in retaliation. Treehorn's thugs abduct the Dude and bring him to the porn kingpin, who demands to know where Bunny is. The Dude says Bunny faked her kidnapping and Larry has the money, then passes out from a spiked drink Treehorn gave him. He is briefly arrested while wandering intoxicated in Malibu. On his way home, Bunny, with all her toes, drives by, unnoticed by the Dude. Maude is waiting for the Dude at his home and has sex with him, wishing to become pregnant by a father with whom she will not have to interact. She tells the Dude that her father has no money of his own; he is dependent on an allowance that Maude gives him out of her inheritance from her late mother. The Dude and Walter confront Lebowski and find that Bunny has returned, having simply gone out of town. Bunny's nihilist friends took the opportunity to blackmail her husband, who in turn had tried to embezzle money from the family charity, blaming its disappearance on the blackmailers. The Dude believes the briefcase never contained any money. Walter suspects that Lebowski is faking his paralysis and lifts him out of his wheelchair, but his condition is real. Walter and the Dude are bowling when a rival bowler, Jesus Quintana, interrupts them. Walter had previously stated that he could not bowl on Saturdays since he is shomer Shabbos. Quintana implies that he does not believe Walter's excuse for not bowling on Saturday, threatens Walter and the Dude, and storms out. Outside the bowling alley, the nihilists set fire to the Dude's car and demand the ransom money. Walter fights them off, but Donny dies from a heart attack in the commotion. Unwilling to rent out an expensive receptacle at the funeral home, the Dude and Walter opt to put Donny's ashes in a coffee can instead. On a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Walter eulogizes Donny's death but ruins the moment by referring to his fallen comrades in Vietnam. As he scatters Donny's ashes, they are blown back onto the Dude by an updraft. As Walter tries to brush off the ashes, the Dude loses his temper and yells at him for everything that has happened. After Walter apologizes and consoles the Dude, the two go bowling. At the bowling alley, the Dude encounters the Stranger, the movie's narrator. Addressing the audience, the Stranger sums up the story, states that he remains inspired by the Dude, and reveals that Maude is pregnant with "a little Lebowski on the way."