Tim Lake grows up in Cornwall with his father James, mother Mary, uncle Desmond, and younger sister Katherine ("Kit Kat"). The morning after a less-than-great New Year’s Eve party, James tells Tim that the men of their family can travel back in time to moments they have lived before. Tim tests this by going back to the previous night’s party and changing a few events. When he returns, James discourages him from using his gift to acquire money or fame, due to the boredom felt by other family members. Tim decides to use it to improve his love life. The following summer, Kit Kat's friend Charlotte visits. Although instantly smitten, Tim waits until the last day to tell her; she tells him he should have told her earlier. Tim travels back in time to tell Charlotte in the middle of the holiday, but she suggests he wait until her last day. Heartbroken, he realises that she is uninterested in him and time travel cannot change anyone's mind. Tim moves to London to pursue a career as a lawyer, initially living with his father's acquaintance Harry, a playwright. He visits a Dans le Noir restaurant, where he meets Mary, an American who works for a publisher. They flirt in the darkness, and she gives Tim her phone number. He returns home to a distraught Harry, whose play's opening night has been ruined by an actor forgetting his lines. Tim goes back in time to help the actor so the play is a triumph. However, when Tim tries to call Mary, he discovers that by going back to help Harry, the evening with her never occurred so he does not have her number. Recalling Mary's obsession with Kate Moss, he attends a Kate Moss exhibition every day until he sees Mary. Having never met Tim, she is confused but allows him to join her and her friend. During lunch, he discovers that she now has a boyfriend. Tim goes back to when they met, turning up before the potential boyfriend arrives, and persuades Mary to leave with him. Their relationship develops, and Tim moves in with Mary. One night, he encounters Charlotte, who is now interested in him, but he turns down the invitation of intimacy as he is in love with Mary. Tim returns home and proposes. They marry, and shortly afterwards have a baby daughter, Posy. Kit Kat's toxic relationship and employment struggles lead her to drunkenly crash her car on Posy's first birthday. Tim decides to intervene: he prevents the crash and, breaking the tradition of keeping the time travel ability secret, takes her back to avert the bad relationship. Returning to the present, he finds that Posy has never been born but he has a son instead. James explains that changing events prior to their children's birth may alter the exact child conceived. Tim accepts that he cannot solve his sister's problems by changing her past; he lets the crash happen, ensuring Posy's birth, and he and Mary help Kit Kat face her problems. She settles down with Tim's friend Jay. Tim and Mary have another child, a boy. Tim learns that James has terminal lung cancer and time travel cannot change it, as going back to remove his smoking would undo his and Kit Kat's conceptions. His father has known his illness would come for some time, and so has been travelling back in time to extend his life and spend more time with his family. He tells Tim to live each day twice to be truly happy: first, with all the everyday tensions and worries, but the second time noticing how sweet the world can be. Tim follows this advice; his father dies, but on the day of the funeral, Tim travels to the past to visit his father. Mary tells Tim that she wants a third child. He is reluctant as he will not be able to visit his father again. Tim tells James, so together they travel back to relive a happy memory from Tim's childhood, taking care not to change the experience to avoid causing changes to the present. Mary gives birth to another girl. Jay and Kit Kat, very happy together, have their first child. The family accepts the loss of James, and Tim realises that it is better to live each day once only. He ultimately decides to not time travel at all and comes to appreciate life with his family as if he is living it for the second time.

The nine-year-old Bernadette, known as “Benni”, is considered aggressive and wayward. If anyone but her mother touches her face, she lashes out – a consequence of a childhood trauma in which, according to the social worker, nappies were pressed into her face; this prompts other children to provoke her and set off an outburst of rage. She has been repeatedly suspended from her special school and no foster family or residential group can tolerate her for long. As a so-called “system crasher” she seems likely to fall through the framework of the German support system for children and youths. Benni just yearns to live with her mother again. However, it is also too much for Bianca, who is afraid of her own daughter. She is also mother to two more young children and is living with the abusive Jens, from whom she is unable to part. In one scene Benni runs away and hitch-hikes home to find her small siblings alone, unsupervised and watching horror films. Showing she can be caring, she switches over to a children’s channel against the wishes of her brother and prepares some food. When her mother returns with her current partner, whom she has for some time wanted to leave, Benni is at first overjoyed to see her but then explodes and with a vase attacks first Jens and then her mother who calls the police. Jens strikes Benni and shuts her in a wardrobe until the officers arrive. In another effort, the dedicated Frau Bafané from youth services hires an anger-management trainer for Benni. Michael Heller, a boxing fan who has worked with male delinquents, is engaged to accompany her to school. After further violent outbursts, at his own suggestion, he takes her away to a lodge in the woods where he has previously taken the young offenders. This may be stretching “outdoor education”, but Benni goes along with him and he is able to engage with her. Benni sees him as a father figure, at one point even calling him “Papa”, which Micha will not allow, lest he lose his professional distance. At the end of the visit, Benni clings to Micha and wants to stay with him. Micha, however, has his own family and would like to give up the case, but Frau Bafané persuades him to continue, as there are so few people on Benni’s side. Benni’s mother tells her and the social workers that she has left her belligerent partner for good and will take Benni back home, but when she arrives at one of the few case meetings she actually attends, she tells Frau Bafané that she is scared of Benni and doesn't want her at home influencing her other two children. She then runs away from the meeting without saying goodbye to Benni. Frau Bafané breaks down in tears as she has to tell Benni of yet another disappointment, and Benni, oblivious to this, comforts her. Placement with a previous foster mother also fails when Benni seriously injures a foster child already there after the child unwittingly touches her face. As a short-term measure, Benni is returned to the emergency accommodation where she had previously been. There are no specialist boarding schools for children as young as Benni and a stay abroad in Kenya is suggested as a last resort. Benni flees to Micha and his family, who are prepared to let her stay for one night. In the morning, while the parents are still sleeping, Benni goes into their bedroom and lifts the baby from his cot, takes him downstairs and carefully gives him breakfast. When the baby unwittingly touches Benni’s face, she makes no objection. On waking and coming to the kitchen, Elli, the baby’s mother, tries to take him back and Benni becomes aggressive. She refuses to let the baby go and locks herself in the bathroom. Micha breaks the door open, but Benni has fled through the window, leaving the baby unharmed. She runs in her socks and nightclothes into the nearby wood, where she collapses into confused dreams. Hours later she is found hypothermic and taken to hospital. She is to be sent to Kenya, but at the airport she runs out of security. The last shot of the film is of Benni as she leaps into the air, smiling. The frame freezes and then cracks like broken glass.

In 1918, a young Jiro Horikoshi longs to become a pilot, but his nearsightedness prevents it. Inspired by a magazine, he begins having recurring dreams of flying with his idol, Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Battista Caproni, aboard Caproni's aircraft. Caproni tells him that he has never flown a plane in his life, and that building planes is better than flying them. Five years later, following the failure of the Caproni Ca.60, Jiro is an aeronautical engineering student at Tokyo Imperial University. While travelling home from a visit with family, he meets a young girl, Nahoko Satomi, travelling with her maid Kinu. The Great Kantō earthquake suddenly hits, and Kinu's leg is broken. Jiro helps Nahoko carry her to Nahoko's family home, leaving without exchanging names. In 1925, Jiro graduates with his friend Kiro Honjo, and both are employed at aeroplane manufacturer Mitsubishi amidst the Great Depression. They are assigned to perfect a fighter plane, the Mitsubishi 1MF9, for the Imperial Army. During a test, it breaks apart in midair while attempting to pass 200 knots and is rejected. Pivoting their plans, Mitsubishi sends Jiro and Honjo to the Weimar Republic in 1929 to obtain a production licence for a Junkers G.38, intending to build a bomber. Although Hugo Junkers welcomes them, the two men are blocked from obtaining complete plans by the Sicherheitspolizei. With them and their coworkers discouraged by how far back Japan's aeronautics technology is from the rest of the world, Jiro returns to Japan, while Honjo stays and eventually develops the Mitsubishi G4M. In early 1932, Jiro is promoted to chief designer for a fighter plane competition sponsored by the Imperial Navy, but his design, the Mitsubishi 1MF10, fails testing in 1933 and is rejected. Disappointed, he takes a vacation at a summer resort in Karuizawa. There he reunites with an adult Nahoko, who has been searching for him since they first met. The two quickly develop a romance, assisted by a German tourist he calls Castorp. Critical of Nazi Germany, Castorp privately tells Jiro that Adolf Hitler has apprehended Junkers for resisting Nazism, and that Germany must be stopped from declaring another world war, this time allied with Japan. He then flees arrest from the Special Higher Police. Later, Nahoko is diagnosed with tuberculosis, so Jiro asks Nahoko's father for his blessing to marry her, and the two are engaged. However, Nahoko wishes to wait until she recovers to marry, and moves back in with her family. Wanted in connection with Castorp, Jiro hides at his supervisor Kurokawa's home while he works on a new fighter project for the Imperial Navy. Jiro briefly leaves when Nahoko suffers from a pulmonary haemorrhage. After Jiro briefly tends to her, Nahoko decides to check into a mountain sanatorium to recover, but cannot bear being apart from Jiro and returns to be with him. Kurokawa and his wife marry the two and allow the couple to stay in their home with Nahoko's father's permission. Jiro's sister Kayo, a doctor, warns Jiro that his marriage to Nahoko will end tragically as tuberculosis is incurable. Though Nahoko's health deteriorates, she and Jiro enjoy their fleeting time together. Jiro leaves for the test flight of his new prototype aeroplane, the Mitsubishi Ka-14. Knowing that she will die soon, Nahoko leaves farewell letters for Jiro, her family, and friends and discreetly leaves the house in a vain attempt to return to the sanatorium. At the test site, Jiro is distracted from his success by a gust of wind, suggesting Nahoko's passing. In 1945, after Japan has lost World War II, Jiro dreams of Caproni again, regretting that his plane was used for war. Caproni comforts him, saying that Jiro's dream of building beautiful aeroplanes was nonetheless realised, in the form of his masterpiece—the A6M 'Zero' fighter. Nahoko's spirit also appears, encouraging her husband to live on. After her spirit departs, Jiro and Caproni walk together into their shared kingdom of dreams.

Katherine Goble works at the West Area of Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, in 1958 through 1961, alongside her colleagues Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan, as lowly " computers ", performing mathematical calculations without being told what they are for. All of them are African-American women; the unit is segregated by race and sex. White supervisor Vivian Mitchell assigns Katherine to assist Al Harrison's Space Task Group, given her skills in analytic geometry. She becomes the first Black woman on the team; head engineer Paul Stafford is especially dismissive. Mary is assigned to the space capsule heat shield team, where she immediately identifies a design flaw. Encouraged by her team leader, Karl Zielinski, a Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor, Mary applies for a NASA engineer position. She is told by Mitchell that, regardless of her degree in mathematics and physical science, the position requires additional courses. Mary files a petition for permission to attend all-white Hampton High School, despite her husband's opposition. Pleading her case in court, she wins over the local judge by appealing to his sense of history, allowing her to attend night classes. Katherine meets African-American National Guard Lt. Col. Jim Johnson, who voices skepticism about women's mathematical abilities. He later apologizes and begins to spend time with Katherine and her three daughters (from her marriage to her late husband James Goble). The Mercury 7 astronauts visit Langley, and astronaut John Glenn goes out of his way to greet the West Area women. Katherine impresses Harrison by solving a complex mathematical equation from redacted documents, as the Soviet Union 's successful launch of Yuri Gagarin increases pressure to send American astronauts into space. Harrison confronts Katherine about her "breaks," unaware that she is forced to walk half a mile (800 meters) to use the nearest restroom designated for "colored" people. She angrily explains the discrimination she faces at work, which leads Harrison to destroy the "colored" restroom signs and abolish restroom segregation. He allows Katherine to be included in high-level meetings to calculate the space capsule's re-entry point. Stafford instructs Katherine to remove her name from the reports, insisting that " computers " cannot be credited as authors, and her work is credited solely to Stafford. Informed by Mitchell that there are no plans to assign a "permanent supervisor for the colored group," Dorothy learns that NASA has installed an IBM 7090 electronic computer, which threatens to replace human computers. When a librarian scolds her for visiting the whites-only section, Dorothy sneaks out a book about Fortran and teaches herself and her West Area co-workers programming. She visits the computer room, successfully starts the machine, and is promoted to supervise the Programming Department; she agrees to do so if thirty of her co-workers are transferred as well. Mitchell finally addresses her as "Mrs. Vaughan". Making final arrangements for John Glenn's launch, the department no longer needs human computers; Katherine is reassigned to the West Area and marries Jim, becoming Katherine Johnson. On the day of the launch, discrepancies are found in the IBM 7090 calculations, and Katherine is asked to check the capsule's landing coordinates. She delivers the results to the control room, and Harrison allows her inside. After a successful launch and orbit, a warning indicates the capsule's heat shield may be loose. Mission Control decides to land Glenn after three orbits instead of seven, and Katherine supports Harrison's suggestion to leave the retro-rocket attached to help keep the heat shield in place. Friendship 7 lands successfully. An epilogue notes that Mary obtained her degree and became NASA's first female African American engineer; Dorothy continued on as NASA's first African American supervisor; and Katherine, whom Stafford accepted as a coauthor, performed calculations for the Apollo 11 and Space Shuttle missions. The epilogue also mentions that Katherine was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015, and NASA dedicated the Langley Research Center 's Katherine Johnson Computational Building in her honor the following year.

At Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, United States Marine Private William Santiago dies after being tied up and beaten in the middle of the night. Lance Corporal Harold Dawson and Private First Class Louden Downey face court-martial, accused of murder. Their defense is assigned to United States Navy JAG Corps Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, who has a record of expedient plea bargains but no courtroom experience. Santiago died after breaking the chain of command to ask for a transfer. The base's second-in-command, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Markinson advocated for it, but the base commander, Colonel Nathan Jessep, ordered Santiago's platoon commander, First Lieutenant Jonathan Kendrick, to "train" Santiago on the grounds that the entire platoon is at fault for Santiago's substandard performance. Kaffee's co-counsel, Lieutenant Commander Joanne Galloway, suspects Dawson and Downey carried out a "code red": a violent extrajudicial punishment. Galloway is bothered by Kaffee's blasé approach, and Kaffee resents Galloway's interference. Kaffee and Galloway question Jessep and others at Guantanamo Bay and are met with contempt. Kaffee negotiates a plea bargain with the prosecutor, US Marine Judge Advocate Captain Jack Ross. Dawson and Downey would be sentenced to two years for involuntary manslaughter, including six months of confinement, enabling them to avoid a possible life sentence if convicted at trial. Dawson is openly disrespectful of Kaffee, and Dawson and Downey refuse the "dishonorable" deal, insisting Kendrick gave them the "code red" order and that they never intended to kill Santiago. Initially intending to be removed as defense counsel, Kaffee unexpectedly enters not guilty pleas at the arraignment. Markinson secretly meets Kaffee and says Jessep never ordered Santiago's transfer. The defense establishes that Dawson had a motive to implement the order; he previously received a negative performance review from Kendrick and was denied promotion after disobeying an order and smuggling food to a confined marine who was restricted to water and vitamins. Through Downey, Kaffee proves that illegal "code reds" had previously been ordered. Under cross-examination, Downey admits he was not present when Kendrick gave the supposed "code red" order, so he cannot verify Dawson's account. Ashamed that he failed to protect Santiago and unwilling to testify against Jessep, Markinson commits suicide. Kaffee laments the loss of Markinson's testimony and his decision to risk long sentences for Dawson and Downey. Co-counsel Lieutenant (junior grade) Sam Weinberg recommends not calling Jessep as a witness but Galloway encourages Kaffee to put him on the stand, despite the possibility of a court-martial if he challenges a high-ranking officer without evidence. After Weinberg and Galloway leave, Kaffee has an epiphany while looking into his closet. He runs outside to tell them he will call Jessep as a witness. In court at the Washington Navy Yard, Jessep is unnerved when Kaffee points out an inconsistency in his testimony – that Guantanamo marines would never disobey his order to "not touch Santiago" yet he ordered Santiago off the base because he feared for Santiago's safety. Kaffee also questions Jessep's claim that Santiago was to be put on a flight to the US because Kaffee's realization was that the uniforms and personal effects in Santiago's wall locker were not packed on the night he died despite Santiago supposedly being scheduled to depart at six o'clock in the morning. Frustrated by the exposure of his lies and the intensity of Kaffee's questions, Jessep extols the military's – and his – importance to national security, angrily exclaiming, "You can't handle the truth!" Kaffee pointedly asks if Jessep ordered the "code red", which Jessep heatedly admits. Jessep is arrested, then tries to assault Kaffee. He is restrained by military police and is read his rights. Dawson and Downey are cleared of murder and conspiracy but convicted of " conduct unbecoming " and will be dishonorably discharged. Downey does not understand what they did wrong; Dawson says they failed to defend those who were unable to fight for themselves. Kaffee tells Dawson it is not necessary to wear rank insignia on one's arm to have honor. Dawson demonstrates newfound respect for Kaffee and acknowledges his status as an officer by rendering a salute. Kaffee and Ross exchange pleasantries before Ross departs to arrest Kendrick for perjury and conspiracy.

Professor John Oldman is packing his belongings into his truck, preparing to move to a new home. His colleagues show up to give him an impromptu farewell party: Harry, a biologist; Edith, an art history professor and devout Christian; Dan, an anthropologist; Sandy, a historian who is in (unrequited) love with John; Art, an archaeologist; and his younger student Linda. As John's colleagues press him to explain the reason for his departure, he builds on Dan's reference to Magdalenian cultures and, slowly and somewhat reluctantly, reveals that he was born in the Paleolithic period. He states that he has lived for more than 14 millennia and that he relocates every 10 years to prevent others from realizing he does not age. He begins his tale under the guise of a possible science fiction story, but eventually stops speaking in hypotheticals and answers questions from a first-person perspective. His colleagues refuse to believe his story but accept it as a working hypothesis to glean his true intentions. John relates that he was a Sumerian for 2000 years, later a Babylonian, and eventually went east to become a disciple of the Buddha. He claims to have had a chance to sail with Columbus (admitting that at the time he still believed the earth was flat) and to have befriended Van Gogh (one of whose original paintings he apparently owns, a gift from the artist himself). During the conversation, each guest questions John's story based on their own academic specialty. Harry struggles with how biology could allow a human being to live so long. Art, arguably the most skeptical of the group, questions prehistory. He exclaims that all of John's answers, although correct, could have come from any textbook; John rejoins that, like any human, his memory is imperfect and he only sees events from his own narrow, hence not omniscient, perspective. Dr. Will Gruber, a psychiatry professor who arrives at Art's request later that afternoon, questions whether John feels guilty about outliving everyone he has ever known and loved. He then threatens John with a gun (later revealed to have been unloaded) before temporarily leaving. John then learns from Harry that Will's wife had died the previous day after a long illness. John chases after Will, expresses his condolences, and rejoins the group. The discussion veers toward religion, and John mentions that he does not follow any religion. Even though he does not necessarily believe in an omnipotent God, he does not discount the possibility of such a being's existence. Pressed by the group, John reluctantly reveals that in trying to take the Buddha's teachings to the west, into the eastern Roman Empire, he became the inspiration for the Jesus story (another possibility is that he may have been the Teacher of Righteousness). After this revelation, emotions in the room run high. Edith, the representative Christian literalist of the group, begins crying. Will, who has returned after saying he drove around and did not know where else to go, demands that John end his tale and give the group closure by admitting it was all a hoax. He threatens to have John involuntarily committed for psychiatric evaluation should he refuse to do so. John appears to ruminate over his response before finally "confessing" to everyone that his story was a prank. John's friends leave the party with various reactions: Edith is relieved, Harry is open-minded, Art never wants to see John again, Will still believes John needs professional help, Sandy and Linda clearly believe John, and Dan is implied to believe John. After everyone else but Will and Sandy has left, Will overhears their conversation, which suggests the story could be true after all. John mentions some of the pseudonyms he has used over the years, and Will realizes one in particular was his father's name. He asks John specific questions that only a very close acquaintance could answer. When John answers them all correctly, Will has an emotional breakdown, suffers a heart attack, and dies in John's arms. After the body has been taken away, Sandy realizes that (if the story is true) this is the first time John has seen one of his grown children die. John wordlessly gets into his truck and drives to an unknown destination. Having reconsidered, he then stops and waits for Sandy, who slowly walks over to the truck.

Luis "Mountain" Rivera is an aging heavyweight boxer. He is managed by Maish Rennick, and Army serves as his cutman. During his latest bout, against young up-and-comer Cassius Clay, Mountain takes a serious beating and the doctor refuses to certify Mountain for future fights. Afterward, Maish is confronted by Ma Greeny and her thugs. They threaten Maish's life if he fails to repay them for the losses they incurred after betting that Mountain would go down in the fourth round of the match - a fix that Maish had guaranteed. Maish's deal with them had been that they should deduct from their winnings the vast sums of money that Maish's betting losses had run up with them. Meanwhile, Mountain struggles to find a job and visits an employment agency, where he meets Grace Miller. Grace is initially standoffish but quickly becomes sympathetic to Mountain, and says she'll be in touch. Later, Grace meets with Mountain to tell him of an opening for a counselor position at a children's camp, which interests Mountain. The two bond over a drink and Mountain shares stories of his time in the ring. Mountain returns to his apartment - shared with Maish and Army - where Maish proposes the three get into professional wrestling. Mountain is reluctant, not liking the staged nature of wrestling. Maish, hoping that Mountain will forget about the job interview, takes him to a bar, where they both get drunk. Army arrives at the bar to remind Mountain about the appointment. However, Rivera embarrasses himself at the hotel where the interview is to take place by behaving drunkenly in plain sight of the camp owners. After this episode, Grace confronts Maish in tears, condemning him for controlling Mountain and ruining his chance to make a new life for himself. Maish responds forcefully and eloquently to Grace's accusation that he has been over-controlling of Mountain, disputing the notion that he cares nothing for the boxer, his best interests, and his future. He tells Grace that she must stop daydreaming and recognize that her idealized conception of Luis Rivera is as false and damaging to the fighter as is Maish's alleged mediocre management of the boxer's career. Further, he tells her that her so-called "vision" for Rivera's post-boxing future as a counselor at a children's summer camp is as naïve and pathetic as it is improbable. To pay off Maish's gambling debts, Mountain agrees to perform as Native American wrestling persona "Big Chief Mountain Rivera." Just prior to entering the ring for his first match, an overwhelming tide of humiliation sweeps over Mountain, causing him to change his mind. Maish blurts out that he bet against Mountain in the fight against Clay, and as Rivera attempts to leave the locker room, Ma Greeny and her thugs enter, threatening Maish. This causes Mountain to change his mind and agree to wrestle, thereby allowing Ma to be paid and saving Maish's life. In the final scene of the film, Mountain enters the ring amidst jeering ridicule to face Haystacks Calhoun, a wrestler from Arkansas billed at 601 pounds (273 kg).

Walter Burns, a hard-boiled newspaper editor, learns that his ex-wife and former star reporter, Hildy Johnson, is about to marry insurance man Bruce Baldwin and settle down as a housewife in Albany. Walter, determined to sabotage these plans, asks a reluctant Hildy to cover one last story: the pending execution of Earl Williams, who has been convicted of murdering a black policeman. Walter maintains that Williams is innocent and that the city fathers are only going through with the execution so as to curry favor with black voters. Hildy accepts the assignment on the condition that Walter buy a life insurance policy from Bruce. While Hildy works on the story, Walter does everything he can to keep Bruce from taking her to Albany, including framing him for theft (forcing Hildy to bail him out of jail). Exasperated, Hildy quits, but when Williams escapes, her journalistic instincts get the better of her. Walter frames Bruce again, and he is immediately sent back to jail. Williams suddenly appears at the window of the press room where Hildy is working. She hides him in a rolltop desk. Meanwhile, a messenger from the governor arrives at the mayor's office with a reprieve for Williams. The mayor, who is determined to see Williams hanged, bribes the messenger to keep the reprieve under his hat until it is too late. Mrs. Baldwin, Hildy's future mother-in-law, enters the press room, having eluded a kidnapper sent by Walter. She reveals to the assembled crowd (which includes the mayor) that Hildy is keeping Williams in the desk. Williams is taken back to his cell and Walter and Hildy are arrested for abetting his escape. At this point, the messenger returns with the reprieve, telling the mayor that he has decided not to take the bribe after all. Walter uses this information to blackmail the mayor into letting them go. Walter tells Hildy that she is free to go to Albany with Bruce. Hildy is put out by this, realizing that she still loves Walter and is not ready to give up her career as a journalist. Bruce then calls to say he has been arrested again, this time for carrying counterfeit money (that Walter gave him). Hildy is relieved to learn that Walter never had any intention of letting her go quietly. Walter proposes to Hildy for the second time and promises to take her on the honeymoon they never had in Niagara Falls. He then learns that there is a strike in Albany, which is on the way to Niagara Falls. Hildy agrees to honeymoon in Albany, accepting that Walter will never change.

During the American Civil War, Captain Robert Gould Shaw is injured at the Battle of Antietam and returns home to Boston on medical leave. Shaw accepts promotion to Colonel commanding the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first black regiments in the Union Army. He asks his friend, Cabot Forbes, to serve as his second in command. Their first volunteer is a mutual friend, Thomas Searles, a bookish, free African-American. Other recruits include John Rawlins, Jupiter Sharts, Trip, and a mute boy drummer. After the Emancipation Proclamation, the men of the 54th are told the Confederacy will execute any black soldiers captured in Union uniform along with their white officers. Despite this threat, the 54th's recruits turn down an offer to be honorably discharged and undergo rigorous training under Sergeant-Major Mulcahy. Trip is arrested while AWOL. After having him flogged, Shaw learns Trip left camp to replace his worn out shoes. Shaw confronts the base's racist quartermaster, who is holding back their supplies. When the men realize the Federal government pays black soldiers about three-quarters the salary of white soldiers, Trip encourages the men to refuse their pay. Shaw tears up his pay stub in solidarity. In recognition of his mentorship of the younger soldiers, and his advice to Shaw regarding the thoughts and morale of the men, Rawlins is promoted to Sergeant-Major. Once trained, the 54th comes under the command of General Charles Harker and is ordered by Colonel James Montgomery to sack and burn Darien, Georgia. Shaw initially refuses, but agrees under threat of being relieved. Tired of seeing his men used for manual labor and raids on civilians he advises Harker and Montgomery he will report their profiteering to the war department unless the 54th is given a combat assignment. The regiment goes into battle at James Island, South Carolina and repels a Confederate attack. Thomas is wounded in the action but saves Trip's life. Shaw offers Trip the honor of bearing the regimental flag in battle. He declines, not believing the war will result in a better life for slaves. General George Crockett Strong informs his regimental commanders of a major campaign to secure a foothold at Charleston Harbor, and describes the initial attack at Morris Island which requires a frontal assault on Fort Wagner, whose only landward approach is a strip of open beach. Shaw volunteers the 54th. The night before the battle, the black soldiers conduct a religious service, give thanks and seek God's help. The next morning the 54th deploys for the assault to the cheers of white Union troops who had scorned them earlier. The 54th suffers heavy losses in a daytime assault, and takes cover in the dunes until sundown. Attempting to rally his stalled men, Shaw is killed. Trip lifts the flag, and leads survivors toward the fort, brandishing the flag until he is mortally wounded. Forbes leads a party into the fort's outer defenses where Charlie Morse is killed, and Thomas is wounded. A small number of survivors, including Forbes, Rawlins, Thomas, and Jupiter, come face to face with a Confederate gun and the screen fades to black, implying their deaths. After sun up the next day, Confederate soldiers remove the bodies of Union soldiers from the beach, raise the Confederate flag over the fort, and bury the corpses in a mass grave. Shaw's body slides into the excavation and comes to rest next to Trip's. An epilogue reveals that although Fort Wagner was never captured, the courage displayed by the 54th led to the Union Army accepting thousands of Black men for combat. President Abraham Lincoln credited the move with helping to turn the tide of the war.

"August, 1962 was a stormy time for France. Many people felt that President Charles de Gaulle had betrayed the country by giving independence to Algeria. Extremists, mostly from the army, swore to kill him in revenge. They banded together in an underground movement and called themselves the OAS." The far-right Organisation armée secrète ("Secret Army Organisation") plots to assassinate President de Gaulle. The first attempt on 22 August fails, leaving de Gaulle and his entourage unharmed. Within six months, OAS leader Jean Bastien-Thiry and several members are captured, and Bastien-Thiry is executed. With their initial plot foiled, the remaining OAS leaders, now hiding in Austria, hatch a new plan. They enlist the services of an apolitical British assassin given the code name "Jackal," a figure already credited with the assassinations of Patrice Lumumba and Rafael Trujillo. Aware that targeting de Gaulle is extremely risky and demanding a final retirement in anonymity, the Jackal insists on a fee of $500,000, half to be paid upfront into his Swiss bank account. To raise the money, the OAS uses its extensive network to execute a series of bank robberies. Preparing for his mission, the Jackal travels to Genoa where he commissions a custom single-shot rifle from a skilled gunsmith and secures fake identity papers from a forger—a man he later kills when the criminal attempts to extort him. In Paris, the Jackal duplicates a key to a sixth-floor flat overlooking a historically significant square, setting the stage for the planned assassination. Meanwhile, the OAS leadership has relocated to Rome, although their activities continue to draw the attention of French security forces. French intelligence makes a breakthrough when they kidnap the OAS's chief clerk, Viktor Wolenski. Although Wolenski dies during interrogation, he reveals crucial details of the plot, including the term "Jackal". In response, the Interior Minister convenes a secret meeting with top security officials. Police Commissioner Berthier recommends his deputy, Claude Lebel, to lead the investigation under the constraints of secrecy with Lebel being granted special emergency powers despite de Gaulle's insistence on maintaining his public schedule. Complicating matters further, Colonel St Clair—de Gaulle's personal military aide and a cabinet member—divulges classified details to his new mistress, Denise, an OAS agent. At the same time, Lebel is informed by Special Branch that a British national, Charles Harold Calthrop, might be connected to the assassination plot and travelling under the alias Paul Oliver Duggan. Despite learning that his plot is compromised, and he can walk away keeping his down payment, the Jackal decides to stay in France and presses forward. While staying in a hotel in Nice, he meets and seduces the aristocratic Colette de Montpellier, but narrowly evades capture as Lebel and his team close in. After surviving a severe vehicular accident, the Jackal flees to Madame de Montpellier's country estate. There, when she reveals that the police have already questioned her and probes for more details from him, he kills her. Dyeing his blonde hair brown and donning spectacles, he assumes the identity of a Danish schoolteacher, Per Lundquist, then boards a train for Paris. The discovery of Madame de Montpellier's murder allows Lebel to drop all secrecy constraints and launch a public manhunt. The Jackal temporarily hides at the flat of a man he picks up in a Turkish bath, killing him when the man learns of Montpellier's murder. At a subsequent cabinet meeting, Lebel predicts that the Jackal will try to shoot de Gaulle during the upcoming Liberation Day ceremony marking the commemoration of Paris's liberation during World War II. Despite Lebel's efficient and successful leadership of the investigation, he is dismissed from the case as the Minister assumes command directly for the final part, only to be reinstated less than 24 hours later when the Minister draws a blank and Lebel's expertise is recognised as indispensable. On Liberation Day, the Jackal disguises himself as an elderly French veteran, André Martin, and conceals his rifle within crutches. Using the previously duplicated key, he accesses an upper story room of a building overlooking the ceremony. When de Gaulle unexpectedly leans forward while presenting a medal to a veteran, the Jackal's shot narrowly misses. While the Jackal is reloading for a second attempt, Lebel and a gendarme storm the room. The Jackal kills the policeman before being fatally shot by Lebel. Back in London, the real Charles Calthrop arrives at his flat, interrupting the policemen as they sift through his belongings. Ultimately, the assassin is interred in an unmarked grave, leaving the true identity behind his many disguises an enduring mystery.

Joe Bonham, a young American soldier during World War I, awakens in a hospital bed after being hit by an artillery shell. He has lost his eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and limbs, but remains conscious and able to reason, rendering him a prisoner in his own body. As he drifts between reality and fantasy, he remembers his old life with his Christian Science family and his girlfriend Kareen. He also forms a bond of sorts with a young nurse who senses his plight, although the doctors think he is in a vegetative state. Eventually, Joe communicates with his doctors by banging his head against his pillow in Morse code, spelling out "help" to show he is conscious. He is asked what he wants, and requests for the United States Army to put him in a glass coffin in a freak show as a demonstration of the horrors of war. When told that this is against regulations, he responds by repeatedly begging to be euthanized. Joe ultimately realizes that the U.S. Army will not grant either wish, and will likely leave him in a state of living death. His sympathetic nurse attempts to euthanize him by clamping his breathing tube, but her supervisor stops her before Joe can succumb. In the end, Joe is left alone in his bed in a utility room at the hospital, weakly repeating to himself, " S.O.S. Help me."

In October 1957, the Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. Witnessing Sputnik as it passes over the mining community of Coalwood, West Virginia, 17-year-old Homer Hickam is inspired to build his own rockets. His family and friends are skeptical of his ambition, especially his father John Hickam, who wants Homer to work in the coal mine that he manages. Homer recruits his friends Roy Lee Cooke and Sherman O'Dell, as well as the social outcast Quentin Wilson, to his rocketry team. Their teacher, Freida J. Riley, supports their endeavors as they launch their first small rockets. When one rocket lands near John's office and nearly injures some workers, John warns Homer not to launch rockets on company property again. The boys begin launching rockets beyond the borders of the coal company's property with the help of Ike Bykovsky, the manager of the mine's machine shop. John continues to oppose Homer's rocketry and sends Bykovsky to work in the mine as punishment for helping the boys. After several of their rockets explode, the boys finally get a rocket to fly. The rocket launches attract the interest of the community, but the boys are forced to abandon their pursuits after they are accused of starting a wildfire with a stray rocket. After a mining accident injures John and kills Bykovsky, Homer is devastated, as he feels responsible for Bykovsky's death. However, John tells Homer that Bykovsky was not forced to stay in the mine, so Homer is not to blame for his death. Homer drops out of high school to work in the mine, contributing to his family's income as his father recovers. Homer is inspired by Miss Riley to read a book on applied rocket science, which teaches him how to calculate a rocket's trajectory. He and Quentin use this knowledge to locate their missing rocket and prove it could not have started the fire. The boys present their findings to Miss Riley and the school principal, Mr. Turner, who later determines that the fire was caused by a flare from a nearby airfield. Homer leaves the mines and returns to school and rocketry. The boys win the school science fair, which allows Homer to attend the National Science Fair in Indianapolis. Homer's presentation on rocketry is well received at the National Science Fair, but someone steals a key piece of his equipment—the de Laval nozzle. Homer makes an urgent call to his mother Elsie, who enlists the new machine shop manager, Mr. Bolden, to build a replacement nozzle. The nozzle is shipped overnight to Indianapolis. Homer wins the top prize in the competition, after which he is bombarded with college scholarship offers. He returns to Coalwood triumphant and visits Miss Riley, who is dying of Hodgkin lymphoma. Many Coalwood citizens come to watch the launch of the boys' final rocket, including John, who had not attended any of the previous launches. The rocket, named Miss Riley, reaches an altitude of 30,000 feet (9,100 m). During the closing credits, it is explained that Miss Riley died soon after the launch. It is revealed that all the boys went to college, and Homer went to work for NASA.