Linguist Louise Banks's daughter Hannah dies at the age of twelve from an incurable illness. Twelve extraterrestrial spacecraft hover over various locations around the Earth. In the ensuing widespread panic, affected nations send military and scientific experts to monitor and study them. In the United States, US Army Colonel Weber recruits Banks and physicist Ian Donnelly to study the craft above Montana. On board, Banks and Donnelly make contact with two cephalopod -like, seven-limbed aliens, whom they call "heptapods"; Donnelly nicknames them Abbott and Costello. Banks and Donnelly research the complex written language of the heptapods, consisting of phrases written with logograms, and share the results with other nations. As Banks studies the language, she starts to have flashback-like visions of her daughter. When Banks is able to establish sufficient shared vocabulary to ask why the heptapods have come, they answer with a statement that could be translated as "offer weapon". China interprets this as "use weapon", prompting them to break off communications, and other nations follow. Banks argues that the symbol interpreted as "weapon" can be more abstractly related to the concepts of "means" or "tool"; China's translation likely results from interacting with the heptapods using mahjong, a highly competitive game. Meanwhile, the Russian team receives a message that they translate as "there is no time," which they interpret as a possible threat. Rogue soldiers plant a bomb in the Montana craft. Unaware, Banks and Donnelly reenter the alien vessel, and the aliens give them a more complex message. Just before the bomb explodes, one of the aliens ejects Donnelly and Banks from the vessel, knocking them unconscious. When they wake, the heptapod craft has moved beyond reach and the US military is preparing to evacuate in case of retaliation. General Shang of China issues an ultimatum to the alien craft in China, demanding that it leave within 24 hours. Russia, Pakistan, and Sudan follow suit; communications between the international research teams are terminated as worldwide panic sets in. Donnelly discovers that the symbol for time is present throughout the message and that the writing occupies exactly one-twelfth of the 3D space into which it is projected. Banks suggests that the full message is split between the twelve craft and that the heptapods want all the nations to collaborate in order to decipher it. Banks goes alone to the Montana craft, which sends down a transport pod. Abbott has been mortally injured as a result of the explosion. Costello explains that they have come to help humanity, because in 3,000 years' time they will need humanity's help in return. Banks realizes the "weapon" is their language. Learning the language alters humans' linear perception of time, allowing them to experience memories of future events. Banks's visions of her daughter are revealed to be premonitions; her daughter will not be born until sometime in the future. Banks returns to the camp as it is being evacuated and tells Donnelly that the aliens' language is the "tool" that was meant by the word "weapon". She experiences a premonition of a United Nations event celebrating global unity achieved by finally deciphering the heptapods' language. At the event, General Shang thanks Banks for persuading him to stop the attack when she called his private number and recited his wife's dying words. He then shows her his private number and whispers his wife's words into her ear. In the present, Banks takes CIA agent Halpern's satellite phone from a table and calls Shang's private number to recite the words. The Chinese announce that they are standing down and releasing their twelfth of the message. The other countries follow suit, and the twelve spacecraft depart. From what she has learned, Banks writes and publishes a book called The Universal Language, a guide to the heptapod language, which will eventually teach humanity to perceive time the same way as the heptapods. During the evacuation, Donnelly expresses his love for Banks. They talk about their life choices and whether he would change them if he could see his life from beginning to end. Banks knows that she will agree to have a child with him despite knowing their fate: that Hannah will die from an incurable disease and that Donnelly will leave them both as a result of her revealing that she knew this.

The story begins in 1980s Moscow. Vladimir Mashkov (not to be confused with the Russian actor with the same name), aka Uncle Vova, a construction foreman, returns home to his apartment after a stressful day at work. His wife asks him to buy some groceries, so Vova goes out to the nearest store. Standing right in the city centre on Kalinin Prospekt (now New Arbat Avenue), is a barefoot man, dressed in a tattered coat, who appeals to passersby with a strange request: "Tell me the number of your planet in the Tentura? Or at least the number of your galaxy in the spiral?". Uncle Vova and a young Georgian student with a violin (The Violinist) stop and talk to the strange man. During a short conversation, the stranger shows them a teleportation device, which he calls a "device for moving in space". Uncle Vova decides to test the veracity of the stranger's story, and despite the stranger's warnings, presses a random button on the device. Suddenly, Uncle Vova and the Violinist find themselves transported to the planet "Pluke" in the "Kin-dza-dza" galaxy. The natives of the planet appear human, with deceptively primitive-looking technology and a barbaric culture, which satirically resembles that of humans. They are telepathic; the only spoken words normally used in their culture are "ku" (koo) and "kyu" (kyoo), the former stands for everything good, the latter being a swear word that stands for every bad thing. However, the Plukanians are able to quickly adapt to speaking and understanding Russian and Georgian. The society of Pluke is divided into two categories: "Chatlanians" and "Patsaks" ("пацак" is a backward spelling of "кацап", a derogatory term for Russians, or according to another opinion, from "пацан", "patsan" a young guy). The difference is ascertained only by means of a small handheld device, the "visator"; when pointed at a member of the Chatlanian group, an orange light on the device comes on; when pointed at a member of the Patsak group, a green light comes on. It is also noted that the social differences between Patsaks and Chatlanians are not constant: Pluke being a Chatlanian planet, Chatlanians are privileged, and a system of rituals must be followed by the Patsaks to show flattery; however, there are Patsak planets where Patsaks hold the upper hand and where Chatlanians are subservient. The "visator" shows that Uncle Vova and the Violinist are Patsaks. The only group allowed to use weapons ("tranklucators") and enforce their will are the "ecilopps" ("police" spelled backwards). Outside being a Patsak or Chatlanin, respect towards others is determined by the color of their pants; different shades require those of lower social standing to "ku" at them a predetermined number of times, displaying their submission. The nominal leader of the Plukanian society is Mr. P-Zh. Everyone does their best to display fervent worship to him and disrespect is severely punished. However, when encountered in person, P-Zh appears harmless and dumb. The fuel of Pluke is called "luts" and is made from water. All naturally present water has apparently been processed into luts, so drinking water is a valuable commodity (in fact, it can only be made from luts). A good deal of the plot is based on the fact that ordinary wooden matchsticks ("ketse") are considered to be extremely valuable on Pluke. Uncle Vova and the Violinist meet two locals, Uef and Bi, who at various points either help or abandon the Earthling duo in their quest to return to Earth, which at various times involves repairing Uef and Bi's ship or raiding P-Zh's private compound. Eventually, the man from the film's beginning returns Uncle Vova and the Violinist back in time to the very beginning of the film. As Uncle Vova heads outside, however, there is no man at the city center; furthermore, when he runs into the Violinist there, they do not recognize each other. Suddenly, a passing tractor with a flashing, orange light reminds them of the "ecilopps", and they both reflexively squat and say, "ku!", as it was required on Pluke. They immediately recognize each other. Uncle Vova, looking at the sky, hears the sound of a song performed by Uef and Bi.

At a Los Angeles rail yard, petty thief Louis "Lou" Bloom attacks a guard, taking his watch and stealing manhole covers, fencing, and other materials. While trying to sell the stolen materials at a scrap yard, Lou asks the foreman for a job. The foreman, knowing everything is stolen, refuses to hire a thief. While driving home, Lou spots a car crash and pulls over. Stringers —freelance photojournalists —arrive and record the burning wreckage and police response. One stringer, Joe Loder, explains to Lou how they sell film footage to local news stations. Joe declines Lou's request for a job. Lou steals an expensive bicycle and pawns it for a camcorder and a police radio scanner. After two unsuccessful attempts at recording incidents, Lou records the aftermath of a fatal carjacking and sells the footage to KWLA 6. The morning news director, Nina Romina, says the station is especially interested in "graphic" footage of accidents and violent crime in affluent, predominantly white areas. Lou hires Rick, a young homeless man desperate for money, as his assistant. To create more dramatic film footage, Lou tampers with crime scenes, in one case moving a body for a better camera angle. As Lou's work gains traction, he buys better equipment and a faster car. Lou is a quick learner and establishes a working relationship with Nina at KWLA6. Knowing Nina's two-year contract is nearly up and that she needs higher ratings to keep her job, he threatens to sell his footage to other stations unless she agrees to a sexual relationship, higher payment, and on-air credit for his footage. Recognizing Lou as a competitor, Joe offers to hire him as his second van to cover the whole LA area, but Lou declines. Joe beats him to an important plane crash story and gloats to Lou. Nina berates Lou, demanding he get better footage to keep their bargain. In the daytime, Lou drives to Joe's house and tampers with his van which is parked outside. Joe is later severely injured in a car crash, and Lou records the aftermath. Lou and Rick arrive before the police at the site of a triple-homicide home invasion in Granada Hills. Lou films the gunmen leaving in a Cadillac Escalade as well as the victims in the house. He presents the footage to the station after editing out the perpetrators. The news staff frets over the ethics of using the footage, but Nina is eager to break the story. In exchange, Lou demands public credit, more money, and that Nina unhesitatingly meet his sexual demands. Police detective Frontieri questions Lou regarding his connection to the home invasion. Lou gives her edited footage of the incident that omits the gunmen. That night, Lou and Rick track one gunman to his house, staking it out. Uneasy, Rick negotiates a raise and promotion, which helps salve his worry. Lou delays calling the police, wanting a more public area for recording the arrest, predicting it will be violent. Alarmed at possible innocents being hurt, Rick reopens negotiation, irritating Lou. He demands half the $50,000 reward money for locating the gunman and threatens to tell the police about Lou withholding evidence. Under duress, Lou is forced to acquiesce. The gunman then leaves and picks up his partner. Lou and Rick follow them to a crowded diner, where Lou calls the police, warning them the suspects are armed. The police arrive, where they shoot and kill one of the gunmen after a police officer is shot, and the other escapes in the Escalade. Lou and Rick follow close behind the pursuing police, filming it, which culminates in a long multiple-car collision. Lou approaches the gunman's crashed vehicle and peers inside, then instructs Rick to film the aftermath, claiming the gunman is dead. Lou sets up for a wide shot. As Rick peers inside the car, he is shot by the gunman. The gunman attempts to flee on foot but is shot dead by arriving police. As Rick lies dying, he accuses Lou of knowing the gunman was alive. Lou, filming Rick, says he cannot work with an untrustworthy employee. Nina is awed by the chase footage and expresses devotion to Lou. The news team discovers that the home invasion was actually the criminals breaking in to steal the homeowner's cocaine stash. Nina holds the story until the following night's news to maximize the story's dramatic impact. Police try to confiscate Lou's footage as evidence, but Nina defends her legal right to withhold it and immediately airs it. Lou voluntarily speaks with Detective Frontieri and fabricates a story about the men in the Escalade following him. Frontieri accuses Lou of lying but lacks evidence. Later, Lou now has two vans (as Joe had) and hires a team of interns to expand his film business, telling them that he will not ask them to do anything he is unwilling to do himself.

A man in Los Angeles (billed as "The Driver") works as a mechanic, stunt double, and criminal-for-hire getaway driver. His jobs are all managed by auto shop owner Shannon, who persuades Jewish-American mobster Bernie Rose and his half-Italian partner Nino "Izzy" Paolozzi to purchase a stock car for the Driver to race as a legitimate business for them all. The Driver grows close to his new neighbor, Irene, and her young son, Benicio, but their relationship is interrupted when Irene's husband, Standard Gabriel, is released from prison. While in prison, Standard owed protection money to an Albanian gangster named Cook, who demands Standard rob a pawn shop for $40,000 to pay off the debt, threatening to harm Benicio and Irene. Driver offers to act as the getaway driver for Standard and Blanche, Cook's accomplice. At the pawn shop, Blanche exits with a bag of money, but Standard is killed by the store owner. Another car waiting in the parking lot immediately pursues them, but Driver shakes it off. Hiding at a motel, a suspicious Driver forces Blanche to admit she and Cook planned to take the money for themselves, and Cook's henchmen were in the waiting car. As well as this, she reveals the bag holds $1 million. Informed by her text messages, two gunmen locate the motel room and one kills Blanche. Driver, in return, kills both gunmen. Shannon offers to hide the money, but Driver declines. Interrogating Cook at a strip club, he learns that Nino was behind the robbery. The Driver calls Nino and offers to return the money in exchange for peace. However, Nino instead sends a hitman to the Driver and Irene's apartment building. The Driver tells an angry Irene about his involvement with her husband's death, and they enter the elevator, not realizing the hitman is in it. Noticing the man's gun, the Driver kisses Irene goodbye. He subdues and brutally stomps the hitman to death in front of a horrified Irene. The Driver confronts Shannon, who reveals that he called Bernie about the money and unwittingly mentioned Irene. Furious, the Driver tells Shannon to flee, as Nino will surely hunt them both. Nino reveals to Bernie that a low-level Philadelphia mobster stashed the money at the pawn shop to set up a new operation. Anyone tied to the robbery must be killed, as they could lead the East Coast mob to Nino and Bernie. Learning this, Bernie reluctantly murders Cook. Later that night, Bernie visits Shannon at his shop, and fatally slashes Shannon's forearm with a straight razor when he refuses to divulge information. The Driver discovers Shannon's corpse at the auto shop. He disguises himself with a rubber stuntman's mask and follows Nino from the pizzeria to the Pacific Coast Highway. He rams Nino's car onto a beach, killing his driver, before drowning him in the ocean. He calls Irene and tells her that he will not return, explaining that she and Benicio were the best part of his life. The Driver meets with Bernie, who promises that Irene will be safe in exchange for the money. At the Driver's car, Bernie stabs him in the stomach, but he stabs Bernie to death and manages to drive away, leaving Bernie's corpse and the money behind. Irene knocks on the Driver's apartment door and leaves when no one responds. Although wounded, the Driver drives into the night, his fate ultimately unknown.

After an oil crisis, Lunar Industries makes a fortune by building Sarang Station, a facility on the far side of the Moon to mine the alternative fuel helium-3. The facility requires only one human to maintain operations and launch canisters bound for Earth containing helium-3. Samuel Bell has two weeks before ending his three-year work contract there. Chronic communication problems have disabled all live communications with Earth and limit him to occasional recorded messages from his wife Tess, who was pregnant with their daughter Eve when he left. Sam begins to suffer from hallucinations of a teenage girl and a disheveled man. One such image distracts him while he is out recovering a canister, causing him to crash his rover and fall unconscious. Sam awakes in the base infirmary with no memory of the accident. He overhears GERTY, an artificial intelligence which assists him, having a live chat with Lunar Industries management, despite the apparent communications failure. Lunar Industries orders Sam to remain on base and says that a rescue team will arrive for repairs. Suspicious, Sam fakes an emergency to persuade GERTY to let him outside. He travels to the crashed rover and finds his unconscious doppelganger. He takes the double back to the base, and GERTY tends to his injuries. The two Sams start to wonder if one of them is a clone of the other. After an argument and physical altercation, GERTY reveals that they are both clones of the original Sam Bell. GERTY activated the newest clone after the crash and convinced him that he was at the beginning of his three-year contract. His memories of his wife and daughter are implanted. The two Sams search the area, finding a communications substation beyond the facility's perimeter which has been interfering with the live feed from Earth. GERTY helps the older Sam access the recorded logs of past clones, who all fell ill as their contract expired, and he realizes that he is headed towards a similar fate, having already started to experience symptoms. Later, the older Sam discovers a secret vault containing hundreds of hibernating clones. Lunar Industries is using clones of the original Sam Bell to avoid the cost of training and transporting new astronauts, as well as deliberately jamming the live feed to prevent the clones from contacting Earth; clones, who believe they are entering hibernation at the end of their contract before their final return to Earth, are actually incinerated. The older Sam drives past the interference radius in another rover and tries to call Tess on Earth. He instead makes contact with Eve, now 15 years old, who says that Tess died years before. He hangs up when Eve tells her father on Earth that someone is calling regarding Tess. Returning, the older Sam's physical deterioration worsens. The two Sams realize that the incoming rescue team will kill them both if they are found together. The newer Sam convinces GERTY to wake another clone, planning to leave the awakened clone in the crashed rover and send the older Sam to Earth in one of the helium-3 transports. However, the older Sam, having learned that the clones break down at the end of the 3-year contract, knows that he will not live much longer. With his health declining, the older Sam suggests that he be placed back into the crashed rover to die so that Lunar Industries will not suspect anything, while the newer Sam escapes. Following GERTY's advice, the newer Sam reboots GERTY to wipe its records of the events. Before leaving, the newer clone reprograms a harvester to crash and wreck the jamming antenna, thereby enabling live communications with Earth; he also takes a helium-3 canister with him to Earth. The older Sam, back in the crippled rover, remains conscious long enough to watch the launch of the transport carrying the newer Sam. The rescue team is fooled after finding both a newly-awakened clone in the medical bay and the corpse of the older Sam inside the crashed rover.

Robert Syverton, a homeless man, recalls the events leading to an unstated crime. As a boy, he witnessed a horse that had broken its leg being shot to 'put it out of its misery'. Years later, during the Great Depression, he wanders into a dance marathon that is about to begin in a shabby ballroom on the Santa Monica Pier. Couples are competing for a $1,500 cash prize and hoping to be spotted by Hollywood celebrities and talent scouts in the audience. Robert is recruited by Rocky Gravo, the contest's promoter and emcee, to be the partner of a world-weary, bitter young woman named Gloria Beatty, after her previous partner is disqualified for bronchitis. Other contestants include retired sailor Harry Kline, emotionally fragile aspiring London actress Alice LeBlanc, her partner and aspiring actor Joel Girard, and impoverished farmer James Bates and his pregnant wife Ruby. Early in the marathon, the weaker pairs are eliminated quickly. Rocky observes the vulnerabilities of stronger contestants and exploits them for the audience's amusement. The arena uses quack doctors to cover up the extreme physical and mental damage to participants. Frayed nerves are exacerbated by the theft of one of Alice's dresses (by Rocky, as he later reveals) and Gloria's displeasure over the attention Robert shows Alice. Robert ends up pairing off with Alice, and Gloria takes Joel as her partner, switching to Harry after Joel leaves for a job. Weeks into the marathon, to spark the spectators' enthusiasm, Rocky stages a series of derbies in which the couples race in tandem around the dance floor, with the last three pairs eliminated. Harry dies of a heart attack in mid-lap, and Gloria avoids elimination by dragging him across the finish line. Rocky "disqualifies" Harry, concealing his death from the audience, and the medics remove his body from the dance floor. When Alice suffers a nervous breakdown, a sympathetic Rocky comforts her and removes her from the competition to receive genuine medical care. Lacking partners, Robert and Gloria team up once again. Rocky suggests Robert and Gloria get married during the marathon, a publicity stunt guaranteed to earn them cash and gifts from supporters such as Mrs. Laydon, a wealthy woman who sponsors them throughout the contest. When Gloria refuses, Rocky reveals the invoice sheet: expenses will be deducted from the prize money, meaning even if the pair manage to win, they will leave with nothing. Disheartened, Gloria and Robert withdraw from the competition and leave the dance hall. As the two walk out onto the pier, a despondent Gloria confesses to Robert how empty she feels and that she is tired of life. She takes a gun from her purse and points it at her head, but cannot bring herself to pull the trigger. Desperate, she begs Robert to shoot her, which he does. Police officers arrive to arrest Robert and remove Gloria's body. Asked why he did it, Robert tells the police that she asked him to, adding, "They shoot horses, don't they?" Meanwhile, the marathon continues with the few remaining couples, having already reached 1,491 hours.

Danila Bagrov (Sergei Bodrov Jr.), recently discharged after serving in the First Chechen War, returns to his hometown. His mother insists that he travel to Saint Petersburg to seek out his successful older brother Viktor (Viktor Sukhorukov), who his mother is confident will help him make a living. Arriving in Saint Petersburg, Danila wanders around the city and befriends Kat (Maria Zhukova), an energetic party girl, and an elderly Russian German named Hoffman (Yury Kuznetsov), a homeless street vendor whom Danila rescues from a thug attempting to extort him. Unbeknown to their mother, Viktor is an accomplished hitman who goes by the nickname "Tatar", working for a St. Petersburg mafia boss called "Krugly" (Russian for "round"). His latest target is "the Chechen", a Chechen mafia boss who had seized a local market. Krugly (Sergei Murzin), who is unhappy with the amount of money that Viktor has demanded for the hit, orders his thugs to watch the Chechen, so that they can kill Viktor after the hit and thereby avoid paying him. Danila eventually meets up with Viktor. To avoid exposure, Viktor passes his assignment to his brother, gives him money to settle in the city, and then lies to him that the Chechen has been extorting from him, asking Danila to perform the hit. Danila agrees. Through Hoffman's friends, Danila rents a room in the apartment of an elderly alcoholic war veteran. Arriving in the market in a disguise, Danila detonates several homemade explosives as a distraction, and, taking advantage of the confusion, kills the Chechen, but Krugly's men pursue Danila and manage to wound him. Danila barely escapes the pursuit, jumping onto a freight tram, and in a shootout kills one of the bandits. Tram driver Sveta (Svetlana Pismichenko) offers to help the wounded Danila, but he refuses, promising to find her later and thank her. After Danila recovers with Hoffman's help, he sets off to look for Sveta. A relationship develops between them, despite Sveta having a husband who is rarely home and who constantly beats her. Meanwhile, Krugly finds the tram on which Danila escaped and asks Sveta about it, who puts Krugly on a false trail. Krugly promises to punish her if she deceived them. Danila goes to visit Sveta, having bought her a radio with a CD player as a gift. Left alone in the room, he runs into her husband, who unexpectedly arrives. Danila takes the keys to the room from him and forbids him to show up in the future. After going to a party with Kat and having sex with her, Danila wakes up in his apartment to a phone call from Viktor. Pretending to be ill, Viktor asks him to take part in another job in his place, and Danila agrees again. Meanwhile, Krugliy decides to draw the Tatar into a combined raid. Danila meets the two bandits and together they go to an apartment where the target is supposed to appear. Taking the owner of the apartment hostage, they wait for the target, who has gone to get some vodka. At the same time, a group of local musicians is celebrating a birthday one floor above, and one of the guests, sound engineer Stepan, mistakes the floor and ends up in the apartment where Danila and the bandits are. Stepan turns out to be an unwanted witness, and the bandits take him hostage. Danila promises him that he will not be harmed. Some time later, Vyacheslav Butusov (cameo) also calls the apartment by mistake. Danila follows Butusov up to the apartment on the floor above and listens to the music. Returning to the apartment and seeing that the bandits have killed the owner and are about to deal with Stepan, Danila says that he will do it himself, takes a gun from one of the bandits, but unexpectedly shoots the two bandits. With Stepan's help, he hides the bodies in the cemetery and asks Hoffman to bury them. Krugly and his men begin hunting for Danila. They come to Sveta, beat and rape her, but they fail to learn anything about Danila. A bandit nicknamed Krot sets up an ambush for Danila, but Danila manages to survive and kill Krot. Coming to Sveta and seeing her beaten, Danila learns that this is Krugly's work. Krugly takes Viktor hostage and, threatening to kill him, demands that he hand over Danila and return the money. At this point, Danila calls his brother and is suspicious after hearing his frightened voice. Danila buys a shotgun from his landlord, makes a sawed-off shotgun out of it and, rescuing his brother, kills Krugly and his men. In light of these events, Viktor is afraid that Danila will punish him for betrayal, but Danila calms him down, remembering sentimental memories from their childhood. Danila takes the briefcase with money from the apartment and advises his brother to return home to his mother and get a job with the police. Then he comes to Sveta, but, having witnessed her husband beating her again, he shoots him in the legs with the sawed-off shotgun. Unexpectedly for Danila, Sveta rushes to help her abusive husband, shouting at Danila that she does not love him and demanding that he leave. Having left Sveta, a frustrated Danila goes to Hoffman, discusses with him the pernicious influence of the big city on people and finally offers him money, but he refuses. Then Danila meets Kat, tells her about his departure and gives her a wad of dollars. The film ends with Danila walking out onto a snowy highway and hitchhiking toward Moscow.

Professor Rafał Wilczur (Jerzy Bińczycki) was a successful surgeon in Poland in the early 20th century, whose wife leaves him with their small daughter for another man. Wilczur meets a man named Samuel who asks Wilczur to help him financially. The two men go to a bar and get drunk. Wilczur gets robbed and beaten up and loses his memory after hitting his head. Suffering from amnesia, he ends up in a small village, working as a farm laborer for years and is known there as Kosiba. He eventually starts healing the other villagers, and performs surgery on an injured young woman Maria (Anna Dymna). The existing doctor in the area (Andrzej Kopiczyński) sues Wilczur for using the doctor's surgical instruments. In court for this case, he is recognized as the missing famous surgeon by an expert witness Dobraniecki in the case (Piotr Fronczewski), and he then begins to regain his memory. He then realizes that the young woman he saved is his daughter, and the two are reunited. He is told that his former wife died of tuberculosis shortly after leaving him, and the daughter ended up in an orphanage. Maria then marries Leszek (Tomasz Stockinger), the son of a local nobleman.

In intercut frame stories, two ongoing depositions play out: in one, Mark Zuckerberg is being sued by his former friend Eduardo Saverin, and in the other, he is sued by twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. On October 28, 2003, 19-year-old Zuckerberg, a Harvard University sophomore, is dumped by his girlfriend, Erica Albright. Returning to his dorm, Zuckerberg writes an insulting post about her on his LiveJournal blog. Zuckerberg creates a campus website called Facemash by hacking and downloading photos of female students from house face books, then allowing site visitors to rate their attractiveness. After traffic to the site crashes parts of Harvard's computer network, Zuckerberg is given six months of academic probation. Facemash's popularity attracts the attention of the Winklevoss twins and their business partner Divya Narendra. The trio invites Zuckerberg to work on Harvard Connection, a social network exclusive to Harvard students focused on dating. Soon after, Zuckerberg approaches Saverin with an idea for " TheFacebook ", a social networking website that would be exclusive to Ivy League students. As its CFO, Saverin provides $1,000 in seed funding to allow Zuckerberg to build the website, which quickly becomes popular. When they learn of TheFacebook, the Winklevoss twins and Narendra are incensed, believing that Zuckerberg stole their idea while misleading them by stalling development on the Harvard Connection. They raise their complaint with Harvard President Larry Summers, who is dismissive and sees no value in disciplinary action on TheFacebook or Zuckerberg. Saverin and Zuckerberg meet fellow student Christy Lee, who asks them to "Facebook me," a phrase that impresses them. As TheFacebook grows in popularity, Zuckerberg expands the network to Yale, Columbia, and Stanford. Saverin begins dating Lee, who arranges for him and Zuckerberg to meet Napster co-founder Sean Parker. Parker presents a "billion-dollar" vision for the company, impressing Zuckerberg. Saverin dismisses Parker as paranoid and delusional, except for his suggestion to rename TheFacebook to Facebook. Saverin deposits $18,000 into a new account as Zuckerberg relocates the company to Palo Alto on Parker's advice; Saverin remains in New York to work on business development while breaking up with Lee. Parker later moves into the house that Zuckerberg is using as a base of operations and becomes more involved with the company, much to Saverin's annoyance. After narrowly losing in the 2004 Henley Royal Regatta for Harvard against the Hollandia Roeiclub, the Winklevoss twins discover that, through Parker, Facebook has expanded to Europe with Oxford, Cambridge and LSE, and decide to sue the company for intellectual property theft. Meanwhile, Saverin objects to Parker's decision-making for Facebook and freezes the company's bank account in the resulting dispute. He relents when Zuckerberg reveals that they have secured $500,000 from angel investor Peter Thiel. Saverin is invited to the company's new headquarters in San Francisco on the pretense of attending a business meeting and "millionth user party," but is enraged when he discovers that the new investment deal dilutes his share of Facebook from 34% to 0.03%, without diluting the ownership percentage of any other owner. Furthermore, he is removed from the masthead as co-founder and CFO. He confronts Zuckerberg and Parker, vowing to sue as security removes him from the building. Shortly after, Parker is apprehended for cocaine possession with a minor at a party celebrating one million users. He attempts to blame Saverin, prompting Zuckerberg to cut ties with him. Marylin Delpy, a junior lawyer for Zuckerberg, informs Zuckerberg that they will settle with Saverin since the sordid details of Facebook's founding and Zuckerberg's callous attitude will make him unsympathetic to a jury. Alone, Zuckerberg sends a Facebook friend request to Albright and repeatedly refreshes the page. Closing text reveals both cases were settled out of court and Zuckerberg became the world's youngest billionaire.

An alienated young student (Jacques Spiesser) wanders the streets of Paris. His inner thoughts are narrated in the form of an unwritten diary by Ludmila Mikaël. The English language version is narrated by Shelley Duvall.

Following the end of World War II in Europe and the liberation of Denmark from German occupation in May 1945, the Wehrmacht and SS occupiers became prisoners of war. A group of young German prisoners are sent to the west coast where they are trained to use their bare hands to remove the landmines that the Germans had buried in the sand. After their training, the boys are left under the charge of Danish sergeant Carl Leopold Rasmussen, who is determined to treat the young prisoners without sympathy. Marching his squad onto the dunes, he promises that they will return home in three months, if they can each defuse six mines per hour for a total of 45,000 mines. One of the boys, Sebastian Schumann, attempts to remain optimistic as they discuss their plans for when they return home. The POWs are given little food due to post-war shortages and begin to suffer from malnourishment, with Ernst befriending a young local girl to steal some bread from her. One day, while defusing a mine, Wilhelm's arms are blown off and he later dies in a field hospital. Most of the boys become ill after eating grain contaminated with rat faeces that they found on a nearby farm; they are treated by Rasmussen who makes them purge themselves with seawater. Rasmussen gradually treats his charges more kindly, stealing food from the base for them and tries to maintain morale by reporting that Wilhelm has survived. He also allows the boys to use a device invented by Sebastian to improve productivity. Hearing rumours of Rasmussen stealing food for the boys, his commanding officer Captain Ebbe Jensen brings a group of British soldiers to abuse and torment the boys. Rasmussen stops them but is confronted about the theft by Ebbe, who accuses him of being sympathetic towards the Germans. During another day of demining, Werner is blown to bits after encountering landmines buried one above another, leaving his twin brother Ernst distraught. After a casual game of football, Rasmussen's dog is blown up in a supposedly cleared zone of the beach. This causes Rasmussen to snap and begin abusing the boys again. He forces them to march close together across the cleared zones of the beach to confirm that they are safe. When a young local girl walks out into an uncleared area of beach, her mother comes looking for Rasmussen only to find him gone. The boys volunteer to help save the girl. Ernst walks through the uncleared minefield to keep the little girl calm whilst Sebastian clears a path to safety for her. They manage to rescue her but instead of returning to safety with Sebastian, Ernst decides he cannot go on without his brother and commits suicide by walking into the uncleared section and is promptly killed. After witnessing this act of kindness and bravery from the boys, Rasmussen relents in his treatment of them and reassures a grieving Sebastian that they will soon be able to go home. While four of the boys continue to clear the beach with Rasmussen, the rest of them are loading unexploded mines onto a truck. When one of the boys tosses a mine that was not properly defused onto the truckbed of deactivated mines, he accidentally sets off a massive explosion which kills himself and his nearby comrades. Only Sebastian, Ludwig, Helmut and Rodolf remain. Although the boys had been promised that they would be sent home after defusing all of the mines, without Rasmussen's knowledge Jensen decides to send the surviving four to join a team defusing landmines in another coastal area. Rasmussen argues in vain for Jensen to rescind the order. He decides to rescue the boys and then drives them within 500 metres (1,600 ft) of the German border so they can run to their freedom.