After a battle with the Scots, King Henry IV meets with those who fought. Hotspur is angry and insulting towards the king. England 's Prince Henry (" Hal ") spends his days drinking, whoring, and jesting with his companion Falstaff in Eastcheap. His father King Henry IV grows tired of Hal's debauchery and announces that Hal's younger brother Prince Thomas will inherit the throne. King Henry IV sends Thomas to subdue Hotspur's rebellion. However, Hal arrives and challenges Hotspur to single combat, which Hal wins, ending the battle without further conflict. Thomas dies shortly after while campaigning against the rebels in Wales. When King Henry IV dies, Hal is anointed as King Henry V. He opts for peace and conciliation with his father's many adversaries, despite his actions being seen as weakness. At King Henry V's coronation feast, envoys from the Dauphin of France present Hal with a tennis ball as an insulting coronation gift. However, King Henry V frames this as a positive reflection of his boyhood. His sister Philippa, now the Queen of Denmark, cautions her brother that nobles in any royal court have their own interests in mind and will never fully reveal their true intentions. King Henry V interrogates a captured assassin who claims to have been sent to kill him by King Charles VI of France. French agents approach the English nobles Cambridge and Grey. The traitors plot against Hal and unsuccessfully attempt to win over the Chief Justice, Gascoigne. Gascoigne advises Hal that a show of strength is necessary to unite England, so Hal declares war on France and has Cambridge and Grey beheaded. He approaches Falstaff and appoints him as his chief military strategist, saying that Falstaff is the only man he truly trusts. The English army sets sail for France. After completing the Siege of Harfleur, they receive taunting messages from the Dauphin. The English advance parties stumble upon a vast French army gathering to face them. Dorset advises Hal to retreat, but Falstaff proposes using infantry without armor to attack the armored French cavalry, who would get weighed down and stuck in the mud. Hal challenges the Dauphin to single combat to minimize bloodshed, but the Dauphin refuses. Falstaff's plan succeeds, and the outnumbered English army defeats the French, although Falstaff is killed. The Dauphin, witnessing his men's retreat, restates Hal's challenge, but slips in the mud until Hal orders his soldiers to kill him. Hal commands the execution of all French prisoners to prevent regrouping, despite Falstaff's warning against this unchivalrous act unworthy of a king. Hal meets King Charles VI, who agrees to adopt him as his heir and offers him his daughter, Catherine of Valois. Hal returns to England with his new wife for a triumphant celebration. In private, she challenges his reasons for invading France and denies the alleged French actions against him, suggesting that the assassin was a plot from within his own court. Suspicious, Hal confronts Gascoigne, who admits that he staged the insult and acts of aggression, believing his sole duty is to protect the King, even if it requires deceiving him. In a cold fury, Hal kills the Chief Justice. Hal asks Catherine to only speak truth to him.

In 1901, recently orphaned 10-year-old Mary Lennox is sent from her home in British India to her uncle Lord Archibald Craven's mansion, Misselthwaite Manor, in Yorkshire, England. She was unloved and neglected by her parents, who were killed by an earthquake in India. As a result, Mary is cold, self-centered and so repressed that she is unable to cry. Head housekeeper Mrs. Medlock informs Mary that her uncle, who spends most of his time away, will likely not see her. Mary hears strange sounds of crying in the house and discovers a hidden door in her room that leads to uninhabited areas, including her aunt's old room. There, she discovers a large key. Mrs. Medlock continuously sends Mary to play out on the grounds to keep her occupied whenever the crying starts in the house. Mary discovers her late Aunt Lilias' walled garden, which has been locked up since her death 10 years prior. She realizes that the key she found earlier unlocks the garden but keeps it a secret. She befriends Dickon Sowerby, the younger brother of the manor's housemaid, Martha. Dickon is an outdoorsy boy who is good with animals. Mary and Dickon slowly clean up the secret garden, and Mary becomes happier. She also finally meets her uncle, who is sullen but kind. Hidden away in the mansion is Lord Craven's son and Mary's cousin, Colin Craven, who has been treated like a sickly invalid his entire life. A spoiled, short-tempered boy, he has never left his room nor ever walked and is confined to his bed or uses a wheelchair. His father barely comes to see him in fear that Colin will die soon and he will lose his son. Mary eventually discovers Colin, learning that he was the source of the crying in the house. Although taken aback by his difficult nature, she puts her foot down and refuses to give in to his whims, showing him that he is not really sick. Encouraged by Mary, Colin goes outside for the first time, and Mary and Dickon take him to the secret garden. The three children grow close and spend their free time in the garden every day, where Colin, with their help, learns to walk. The trio keep all of this a secret from the staff. Colin wants his father to be the first one to see him on his legs. Lord Craven has a dream of his late wife Lilias calling to him and returns home. In the secret garden, he sees Colin walking for the first time, leaving him speechless with joy. Mary bursts into tears for the first time in her life, certain that she is unwanted by her uncle and the garden will be locked up again as he had ordered it to be. Lord Craven reassures her that she is now part of the family. Promising never to lock it up again, he thanks her for bringing his family back to life. Dickon informs his older sister and the rest of the manor staff of the good news. The staff watch in shock and joy as Lord Craven and the children come home together.

Walter Mitty is a negative assets manager at Life magazine living alone in New York City. He chronically daydreams and has a secret crush on Cheryl Melhoff, a coworker. Walter attempts to contact Cheryl via eHarmony, but eHarmony customer service agent Todd Mahar explains that Walter's account profile is not filled out completely: the "been there" and "done that" sections are blank. Walter works with legendary photojournalist Sean O'Connell, although they have never met in person. Sean is "old-school", working with analog film and later sending a telegram. At work, Walter receives a negative roll from Sean, as well as a wallet in appreciation of Walter's work. Sean relays to Walter and Life management that he believes negative #25 captures the "quintessence of life" and should be used for the cover of the magazine's final print issue before it becomes digital. However, the negative #25 is missing. When Ted Hendricks, the obnoxious manager of the magazine's transition, asks to see #25, Walter stalls, worried about being fired. He then asks Cheryl for help in contacting O'Connell. Walter looks to the other negatives for clues to Sean's location – water, a thumb, and a mysterious curved object. Walter and Hernando, his assistant, see a reflection in the water, which is the name of a ship registered in Greenland. Walter reluctantly takes a plane to Greenland. A bartender in Nuuk explains that Sean left on a ship. To reach him, Walter would need to go on the postal helicopter, whose pilot is drunk. Walter recognizes the pilot's thumb from one of the negatives and joins the pilot on a trip to bring supplies to the ship. Walter accidentally jumps into ice-cold, shark-infested waters, losing the ship's supplies and preventing radio communication when he comes aboard. There, Walter learns that Sean departed the ship a few days earlier and discovers from notes on wrapping paper for a clementine cake Sean left behind that he is heading to Iceland to photograph the volcano Eyjafjallajökull. The ship brings Walter to Iceland. He then bikes, skateboards, and runs through the Icelandic countryside to find Sean but misses him as the volcano erupts. Dejected, he returns home. Hendricks assumes that Walter misplaced the negative and fires him. He tries to visit Cheryl but spots her ex-husband and leaves. Walter visits his mother and throws away the wallet from Sean. He recognizes the curve of the piano in his mother's house while looking at the last negative. When asked, she tells Walter that she baked him the clementine cake. She had told him earlier, but he was daydreaming. Walter figures out from the notes that Sean is in the Afghan Himalayas. After an arduous journey, he finds him photographing a rare snow leopard. When asked about the negative, Sean explains that, attempting to be playful, he had placed the negative in the wallet. He decides not to tell Walter what the picture actually depicts. When Walter returns to America, the airport security in Los Angeles detains him for arriving from Afghanistan. To verify his identity, Walter calls the only person he knows in Los Angeles: Todd, from eHarmony, who has kept in contact during Walter's travels. Todd expresses admiration for how adventurous Walter appears. Walter receives the wallet from his mother, who had retrieved it from the trash, and obtains the negative but chooses not to look at it. Emboldened, he delivers it to Life ' s offices and berates Hendricks for disrespecting the staff. Walter reunites with Cheryl and thanks her for inspiring him on his journey. Cheryl asks about his adventures and tells him that her ex-husband had only been at her house to help with repairs. Walking along the street, they see the final print issue on sale at a newsstand, and on its cover, they see the photograph from #25. It shows Walter sitting outside of the Life building, examining a contact sheet; the magazine is dedicated to Life ' s staff, and Sean's note referred to "quintessence of Life ". Walter and Cheryl continue their walk holding hands.

In the first years of the 21st century a third World War broke out. Those of us who survived knew mankind could never survive a fourth; that our own volatile natures could simply no longer be risked. So we have created a new arm of the law – The Grammaton Cleric, whose sole task is to seek out and eradicate the true source of man's inhumanity to man; his ability to feel. Established by survivors of World War III, the totalitarian city-state of Libria blames human emotion as the root of all conflicts. It strictly outlaws all activities or objects that stimulate emotion, with violators labeled Sense Offenders and sentenced to death. The population has to take a daily injection of the emotion-suppressing drug called Prozium II. Libria is governed by the Tetragrammaton Council, led by "Father", who communicates propaganda through giant video screens. The police force is led by the Grammaton Clerics, elite fighters trained in the art of gun kata. Clerics frequently raid homes to search for and destroy illegal materials – art, literature and music – executing violators on the spot. A resistance movement, known as the "Underground", emerges to topple Father and the Tetragrammaton Council. In 2072, John Preston is a high-ranking Cleric whose wife, Viviana, was executed as a Sense Offender, leaving him as a single parent of two. Following a raid, Preston's partner Errol Partridge saves a book of poems by W. B. Yeats instead of turning it in for incineration. He follows Partridge to the Nether – a term for regions outside the city – and finds him reading the book. Seeing Preston, Partridge claims he gladly pays the price of feeling emotion. Preston executes Partridge. Preston accidentally breaks his last vial of Prozium and is unable to refill them before the next raid. Brief episodes of emotion set in evoking memories, stirring feelings, and making him more aware of his surroundings. He intentionally skips additional doses of Prozium, hiding them behind his bathroom mirror. Partridge is replaced with an ambitious, career-conscious Brandt, who admires Preston's work as a Cleric. On a raid, they arrest Sense Offender Mary O'Brien. Preston prevents Brandt from executing O'Brien, saying she should be interrogated. Preston feels remorse for killing Partridge, develops an emotional relationship with O'Brien, and seeks atonement. He uncovers clues that lead to meeting Jurgen, the Underground leader. Jurgen plans to disrupt Prozium production to spark an uprising and convinces Preston that Father must be assassinated. Vice-Counsel DuPont meets with Preston to reveal that there is a traitor in the upper ranks of the Clerics, and assigns Preston the task of unmasking the traitor. Relieved, Preston accepts and promises to locate the Underground's leadership. When O'Brien is set to be executed, Preston attempts to stop the execution and fails. His memory of his wife's execution triggers an emotional breakdown. Brandt, who has been suspecting Preston of being a Sense Offender, arrests and brings him before DuPont. Preston tricks DuPont into believing that Brandt is the traitor. Preston is told that his home will be searched as a formality. He rushes home to destroy the hidden vials only to discover his son, who stopped taking Prozium after his mother died, already has. Jurgen tells Preston to capture the resistance leaders to regain Father's trust, hoping it will get him close enough to assassinate Father. Preston is granted an exclusive audience with Father only to discover that Brandt was not arrested; it was part of a ruse to capture Preston and the Underground. DuPont reveals he is Father, having secretly replaced the original Father who died, and that his cabal doesn't take Prozium to suppress emotion. He taunts Preston, asking how it felt to betray the Underground. Having anticipated the trap, Preston fights his way through an army of bodyguards to DuPont's office, confronting and killing Brandt in a katana battle. DuPont and Preston engage in a gun kata showdown. Preston wins as DuPont pleads for his life, asking "Is it really worth the price?" Paying homage to Partridge's last words, he responds "I pay it gladly" and kills DuPont to satiate his need for revenge. He destroys the command center that broadcasts Father propaganda. Preston watches with satisfaction from above as the Underground destroys Prozium manufacturing plants, signaling the beginning of the revolution.

In 2011, Fern loses her job after the closure of the US Gypsum plant in Empire, Nevada; she had worked there for years along with her husband, who recently died. Fern sells most of her belongings for a van to live in and travels the country searching for work. She takes a seasonal job at an Amazon fulfillment center through the winter. Linda, a friend and co-worker, invites Fern to visit a desert rendezvous in Arizona organized by Bob Wells, which provides a support system and community for fellow nomads. Fern initially declines, but changes her mind as the weather turns cold and she struggles to find work in the area. There, she meets fellow nomads and learns basic survival and self-sufficiency skills for the road. When Fern's van blows a tire, she visits the van of a nearby nomad, Swankie, to ask for a ride into town to buy a spare. Swankie chastises Fern for not being prepared and invites her to learn road survival skills; they become friends. Swankie tells Fern about her cancer diagnosis and shortened life expectancy and her plan to make good memories on the road rather than waste away in a hospital. They eventually part ways. Fern takes a job as a camp host at the Cedar Pass Campgrounds in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Also working there is Dave, another nomad she met and danced with at the desert community. When he falls ill with diverticulitis, she visits him at the hospital where he has had emergency surgery. They take restaurant jobs at Wall Drug in South Dakota. One night, Dave's son visits the restaurant looking for him, telling him that his wife is pregnant and asking him to meet his grandchild. He is hesitant, but Fern encourages him to go. Dave suggests that she come with him, but she declines. Fern takes a new job at a sugar beet processing plant, but her van breaks down, and she cannot afford the repairs. Unable to borrow money, she visits her sister's family at their home in California. Fern's sister lends her the money to get the van fixed. She questions why Fern was never around in their lives and why she stayed in Empire after her husband died, but she tells Fern that she is brave to be so independent. Fern later visits Dave and his son's family in Point Arena, California, learning that Dave has decided to stay with them long-term. He admits to having feelings for her and invites her to stay with him permanently in a guest house, but she decides to leave after only a few days, heading to the ocean. Fern resumes her seasonal job at Amazon and later returns to the Arizona gathering. There, she learns that Swankie has died, and she and the other nomads pay tribute to her life by tossing stones into the campfire. Fern opens up to Bob about her loving relationship with her late husband, and he shares the story of his son's suicide. Bob espouses the view that goodbyes are not final in the nomad community as its members always promise to see each other again "down the road". Fern returns to the nearly abandoned town of Empire to dispose of the belongings she has been keeping in a storage unit. She visits the factory and the home she shared with her husband before returning to the road.

British Army Colonel Katherine Powell discovers an undercover British/Kenyan agent has been murdered by the Al-Shabaab group. From Northwood Headquarters, she takes command of a mission to capture three of the ten highest-level Al-Shabaab leaders meeting in a safe house in Nairobi. A multinational team works on the capture mission, linked by video and voice systems. Aerial surveillance is provided by a USAF MQ-9 Reaper drone controlled from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada by Second Lieutenant Steve Watts. Undercover Kenyan field agents, including Jama Farah, use short-range ornithopter and insectothopter cameras to link in ground intelligence. Kenyan special forces are positioned nearby to make the arrest. Facial recognition to identify human targets is done at Joint Intelligence Center Pacific at Pearl Harbor. The mission is supervised in the United Kingdom by a COBRA meeting that includes British Lieutenant General Frank Benson, two government ministers and a ministerial under-secretary. Farah discovers three high-level targets arming two suicide bombers for a presumed attack on a civilian target, prompting Powell to change the mission objective from "capture" to "kill". She requests Watts prepare a precision Hellfire missile attack on the building and solicits the opinion of her British Army legal counsel who advises her to seek approval from superiors. Frustrated, Benson asks permission from the COBRA members, who can't find consensus and refer the question to the UK Foreign Secretary who is on a trade mission to Singapore. He in turn defers to the United States Secretary of State, who declares the American suicide bomber an enemy of the state. The Foreign Secretary then insists that COBRA take due diligence to minimise collateral damage. Alia, who lives next door, is near the target building selling her mother's bread. The senior military personnel stress the risk of letting would-be suicide bombers leave the house. The lawyers and politicians involved in the chain of command argue the personal, political, and legal merits around launching a Hellfire missile attack in a friendly country not at war with the US or UK, with the significant risk of collateral damage. Watts sees a more direct risk of little Alia selling bread outside the targeted building, and they delay firing until she moves. Farah is directed to buy all of Alia's bread so she will leave, but doing so blows his cover, and he flees without collecting it. Seeking authorisation to execute the strike, Powell orders her risk-assessment officer to find parameters that will let him quote a lower 45% risk of civilian deaths. He re-evaluates the strike point and assesses the probability of Alia's death at 45–65%. She makes him confirm only the lower figure which she reports up the chain of command. The strike is authorised, and Watts fires. The missile destroys the building and injures Alia, but one conspirator survives. Watts is ordered to fire a second missile, which strikes the site just as Alia's parents reach her. They rush Alia to a hospital, where she is pronounced dead. In the London situation room, the under-secretary berates Benson for killing from the safety of his chair. Benson counters that he has been on the ground in the aftermath of five suicide bombings and adds as he is leaving, provoking her to tears: "Never tell a soldier that he does not know the cost of war."

In January 1993, Jerry Shepard, guide at a National Science Foundation Antarctic research base, is asked to take UCLA professor Dr. Davis McClaren to Mount Melbourne to find a rare meteorite from Mercury. Since the ice conditions are poor, the best way to the mountain is by dog sled. Shepard and McClaren make it, but are called back to base camp due to an approaching storm. McClaren begs for more time and Shepard gives him half a day. En route back to base, McClaren slips down an embankment, breaking his leg and falling into freezing water. Shepard uses lead dog Maya to carry a rope to McClaren and pulls him out. They battle hypothermia, frostbite, and near- whiteout conditions as the dogs lead them to base. At base, the human crew is immediately evacuated, while the dogs are left behind. Shepard, promised that the pilot will return shortly for the dogs, tightens their collars to ensure they cannot get loose. Because of the harsh weather conditions a rescue cannot be attempted. Back in the United States, Shepard tries to return for the dogs, but no one is willing to finance the expedition. Five months later, Shepard makes one last attempt. McClaren realizing his ingratitude and uses the remainder of his grant money to finance the rescue. They fear there is little chance any of the dogs could have survived so long, but they decide to try anyway. The eight sled dogs – lead dog Maya, Old Jack, Shorty, Dewey, Truman, Shadow, Buck, and the young Max – have been waiting in the freezing conditions for Shepard to return. After a few days without eating, the dogs are prompted into action as a gull flies near, and they all begin to break free, one by one. Old Jack, by now too weak, remains attached. Maya tries to free him, but reluctantly leaves him behind when he shows no sign of wanting to leave. Maya joins the other dogs, and together they catch a few birds, getting their first food in weeks. After nearly two months on their own, the dogs rest on a slope one night under the southern lights. Fascinated by the display, they run about and play until Dewey falls down an incline and is mortally wounded. The team sleeps by his side and Dewey dies overnight. Max loyally stays by him while the others move on. By the time Max heads in their direction, he has lost the pack. Maya leads the team to the Russian base, which is unsecured and full of food, while Max finds his way back to the American base, which is locked up. Setting back out, Max recognizes the embankment the dogs traveled on their way back from Mount Melbourne. While exploring, Max finds a dead orca, but is driven off by a leopard seal nesting inside the body. Nearby, Maya and the team hear Max and join him. Max lures the seal away so the dogs can eat, but it doubles back and bites Maya, leaving her badly injured. In a rage, the five other dogs attack the seal. Overwhelmed, the seal quickly drags itself into the water, after which the dogs feast on the orca. The reunited team continues traveling. Starving, freezing, and exhausted, the injured Maya collapses into the snow. The dogs lie down beside their leader as the snow piles up. They have been on their own for six months. Shepard, meanwhile, has gone to New Zealand looking for a boat to take him to Antarctica. At a bar, he reunites with his friends and they make it to the base. Upon arrival, they are dismayed to find the body of Old Jack, still attached to the chain, and no sign of the other dogs. Then they hear barking and see Max, Shorty, Truman, Shadow, and Buck come over the horizon. After a joyous reunion, Shepard loads the dogs to leave, but Max runs off, leading Shepard to Maya, lying in the snow – weak, but alive. With six of his eight sled dogs, Shepard and his crew head back to civilization, with the last scene showing a memorial for the two fallen dogs, Old Jack and Dewey.

British diplomat and avid horticulturalist Justin Quayle is confronted by Amnesty International activist Tessa during a lecture in London. They strike up a romance, and marry after she accompanies him to his posting in Kenya. She befriends Belgian doctor Arnold Bluhm, leading to rumours of an affair. Tessa has no qualms confronting corruption, to the chagrin of Justin's superiors, and she loses a child late in pregnancy. Tessa and Arnold connect recent local deaths to drug trials being conducted by the Kenyan-based company Three Bees using the drug Dypraxa. They write a damaging report on the drug and Tessa gives it to Justin's colleague Sandy Woodrow, the British High Commissioner, who sends it to Sir Bernard Pellegrin, head of the Africa Desk at the Foreign Office. Pellegrin responds with an incriminating letter to Sandy, which Tessa persuades him to show her, and she steals it before departing for Lokichogio with Arnold. Sandy informs Justin that a white woman and black driver have been killed near Lake Turkana, and that Tessa and Arnold shared a room at Lodwar before hiring a car. Justin and Sandy identify Tessa's mutilated body, but Arnold's whereabouts remain unknown. Police confiscate Tessa's computer and files, but Justin finds her keepsake box, containing a letter from Sandy declaring his love for her and asking her to return Pellegrin's letter, and records of Three Bees' tests. After Tessa's burial, Justin learns from his colleague Ghita that Tessa kept Arnold's secret that he was gay, as homosexuality is illegal in Kenya. Pursuing the truth about his wife's murder, he follows the trail of her report. Justin is briefly detained by police and confronts Three Bees' CEO Kenny Curtiss, but receives no answers. Returning to London, Justin's passport is confiscated. He dines with Pellegrin, who lies that Arnold must have murdered Tessa, and believes that Justin has his incriminating letter. Justin meets with Tessa's cousin and lawyer Ham, and they access her computer files to reveal her investigation into Dypraxa and its manufacturer, Swiss - Canadian pharmaceutical conglomerate KDH, which hired Three Bees to test the drug on unsuspecting Kenyans as a treatment for tuberculosis. Justin receives a threatening note and Ham provides him with a fake passport to travel to Germany to meet with Tessa's contact Birgit. She is part of a pharmaceutical watchdog group and is reluctant to speak due to the targeting of her group. Justin is attacked in his hotel room and warned to stop investigating. Arnold's body is found having been tortured to death, while the announcement of a safe Dypraxa causes KDH's share price to soar. Returning to Kenya, Justin confronts Sandy, who admits that Tessa's report was silenced to save KDH from spending millions redeveloping the drug. Justin is approached by Curtiss, who has been betrayed by KDH, and brought to a mass grave of Dypraxa test subjects. Curtiss points Justin to Dr Lorbeer, Dypraxa's inventor, who has fled to Sudan. Tim Donohue, a friend in British intelligence, confirms that Pellegrin had Tessa and Arnold killed. Unable to convince Justin to return home, he gives him a gun. Justin travels to confront Lorbeer, who is treating remote villagers to atone for the lives claimed by his drug. The village is attacked by raiders, but Justin and Lorbeer escape in a UN aid plane, and Lorbeer reveals that he has Pellegrin's letter. Tessa convinced him to record the truth about Dypraxa, but he changed his mind, instead informing KDH that Tessa and Arnold were en route to expose the company to the UN. Justin convinces the pilot to mail Pellegrin's letter to Ham, and to drop him off at Lake Turkana. Removing the bullets from his gun, his final thoughts are of Tessa before he is killed by KDH's henchmen. In London at Tessa and Justin's memorial service, Pellegrin lies that Justin committed suicide in the same place his wife died. Ham announces the reading of an epistle, but instead reads Pellegrin's letter, exposing the deaths caused by Dypraxa and the subsequent coverup. Pellegrin storms out as Ham implicates the British government, KDH, and public complacency regarding the human cost of medicine they take for granted.

Unemployed number theorist Max Cohen, who lives in a drab apartment in Chinatown, Manhattan, believes everything in nature can be understood through numbers. He suffers from cluster headaches, extreme paranoia, hallucinations, and schizoid personality disorder. His only social interactions are with his mathematics mentor, Sol Robeson (now disabled from a stroke), and those who live in his building: Jenna, a little girl fascinated by his ability to perform complex calculations, and Devi, a young woman living next door who sometimes speaks with him. Max tries to program his computer, named Euclid, to make stock predictions. Euclid malfunctions, printing out a seemingly random 216-digit number, as well as a single stock pick at one-tenth its current value, then crashes. Disgusted, Max throws away the printout. The next morning, he learns that Euclid's pick was accurate but cannot find the printout. When Max mentions the number, Sol becomes unnerved and asks if it contained 216 digits. He reveals that he came across the same number years ago and urges Max to take a break from his work. Max meets Lenny Meyer, a Hasidic Jew who does mathematical research on the Torah. Lenny demonstrates some simple Gematria, the correspondence of the Hebrew alphabet to numbers, and explains that some people believe the Torah is a string of numbers forming a code sent by God. Intrigued, Max notes that some of the concepts parallel other mathematical concepts, such as the Fibonacci sequence. Agents of a Wall Street firm approach Max. One of them, Marcy Dawson, offers him a classified computer chip called "Ming Mecca" in exchange for the results of his work. Using the chip, Max has Euclid analyze mathematical patterns in the Torah. Once again, Euclid displays the 216-digit number before crashing. As Max writes down the number, he realizes that he knows the pattern, undergoes an epiphany, and loses consciousness. After waking up, Max appears to become clairvoyant and visualizes the stock market patterns he sought. His headaches intensify, and he discovers a vein-like bulge protruding from his right temple. Max has a falling-out with Sol after Sol urges him to quit his work. Dawson and her agents grab Max on the street and try to force him to explain the number, having found the printout Max threw away. Attempting to use the number to manipulate the stock market, the firm instead caused the market to crash. Driving by, Lenny rescues Max, but takes him to his companions at a nearby synagogue. They ask Max to give them the 216-digit number, believing it was meant for them to bring about the Messianic Age, as the number represents the unspeakable name of God. Max refuses, insisting the number has been revealed to him alone. Max flees and visits Sol, only to learn from his daughter, Jenny, that he died from another stroke. He finds a piece of paper with the number in his study. At his own apartment, Max experiences another headache but does not take his painkillers. Believing the number and the headaches are linked, Max tries to concentrate on the number through his pain. After passing out, Max goes to the bathroom where he stares at himself in the mirror before lighting a match and burning the piece of paper with the number. Max then takes a power drill to his own head, trepanning himself in an effort to find relief. Sometime later, Jenna approaches Max in a park and asks him to do several calculations, including 748 ÷ 238 (an approximation for pi). Max smiles and says that he does not know the answer, seemingly at peace.

In 2004, four Mexican students arrive at the Marine Advanced Technology Education Robotics Competition at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB); born in Mexico, raised in Phoenix, Arizona, where they attend an underfunded public high school. Oscar Vazquez goes to an Armed Forces Career Center to enlist into the U.S. Army; while he is waiting for his interview, he sees a video announcement and brochures about a Marine Underwater Robotics Competition, an event sponsored by NASA and the United States Armed Forces. Although he distinguishes himself as part of the Carl Hayden High School Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, he is forbidden to join the U.S. Army because of his status as an illegal immigrant; he is recommended not to present himself to any government office to avoid being reported to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Vazquez lies to his mother about his progress in the Army; looking for another way to move ahead in life, he investigates the Underwater Robotics Competition. With no previous formal teaching experience and between jobs, Fredi Cameron interviews for a vacant substitute teacher position at Carl Hayden High School. The principal questions his job stability record, but eventually hires Cameron because of his PhD and engineer credentials. After the interview, while in the school's parking lot, Lorenzo Santillan overrides Cameron's car temperature safety sensor for $20 to avoid a more costly repair job. As part of his normal teaching responsibilities, Cameron is assigned to oversee an engineering club, where he meets Vazquez, who is looking for help to build a remotely operated underwater robot for the UCSB robotics competition. Cameron begrudgingly agrees to help, even though he doesn't feel he is going to remain at the school for long. Vazquez, looking for more kids to join the engineering club, talks to teacher Gwen Kolinsky, who recommends Cristian Arcega. After agreeing to help, Arcega takes the technical lead of the project and sketches an early design of the potential robot. Before starting to build it, Cameron suggests a prototype so they can do a proof of concept model. Cameron starts to learn about the competition rules and requirements, which demands the robot to successfully complete a series of underwater tasks. Kolinsky offers to help teaching him about the PBASIC programming language, to implement the robot's intelligence module. After catching Santillan stealing from the principal's car, Cameron forces him to join the team and the now named Robotics Academic Club, so he can help with the mechanical design and building of the prototype. They later recruit Luis Aranda, for being strong enough to help lift the machine in and out of the pool. Because of a lack of funds to see the project through, the team starts looking for spare parts and asking for donations from the local businesses, which raise $663.53, plus $134.63 given by Cameron himself. The small budget forces them to scale back the original design and to innovate in how the robot is constructed, including the glue which gives the robot its name, "Stinky". Needing to go from Phoenix to Santa Barbara creates problems because three of the four boys were illegal immigrants from Mexico. The day before the competition, they have to fix a critical electrical problem, due to a leak in the case that protected the intelligence module, by using tampons to contain the water. They face several highly funded college teams; the team from MIT is backed by a $10,000 grant from ExxonMobil. The Phoenix teenagers scraped together less than $1,000 and built their robot out of scavenged parts. Yet their robot finishes the practical segment of the competition in fourth place with 75 points after missing three tasks. They are still hopeful for a chance to make it into third place because 30% of the total score would be based on the judges' technical evaluation and interview of the teams. The night of the awards ceremony, they are given a Special Achievement award, which the team assumes is their final result. They are later surprised when they are announced as the champions of the event.

The Ulam are a tribe of cavemen who carefully guard a small flame, which they use to start larger fires for cooking and protection. After being forced out of their cave during a raid by the ape -like Wagabu, the Ulam become despondent for their future when the seed flame is accidentally extinguished while seeking refuge in a marsh. Since the tribe does not know how to create fire themselves, the tribal elder decides to send three men, Naoh, Amoukar, and Gaw, on a quest to find fire. During their journey, the trio encounters several dangers, including the Kzamm, a tribe of more primitive-looking cannibals who have a roaring cooking fire. Gaw and Amoukar lure most of the Kzamm away from their encampment, while Naoh kills the remaining warriors, though not before being bitten on the genitals, causing him agony. The trio discovers a man and women, their bodies painted with ash, bound to a tree by the Kzamm. They free the captives, but one succumbs to his injuries. The lone survivor, a woman named Ika, begins to follow the men. The three Ulam take a burning stick and prepare to return home. Ika makes a plant-based poultice to help Naoh recover from his genital injury. Later that night, the group makes a large bonfire, unaware that a Kzamm has spotted it from a distance. In the morning, the group wakes up to an ambush by a large group of Kzamm. Just as the Kzamm are about to attack, they suddenly back down as a herd of woolly mammoth appear. Naoh approaches the herd, offering a tuft of grass to the patriarch. The mammoth accepts the offering and allows Naoh and his companions to approach the herd. The herd then stampede towards the cowering Kzamm, driving them away. Later that night, Amoukar attempts to mount Ika, but she hides near Naoh, who then asserts his claim by raping her in front of the other two males. Ika realizes they are passing near her home village and tries to persuade the Ulam to go back with her. When they refuse, it appears that Ika and the Ulam will be going their separate ways, until Naoh, looking depressed, turns around — followed by the somewhat more reluctant Gaw and Amoukar — and the group reunites. After Naoh leaves the others to scout a village, he becomes trapped in quicksand, nearly sinking to his death. He is discovered and captured by the Ivaka, Ika's tribe. In the village, Naoh is physically inspected by the chief and deemed a good specimen, after which he is made to understand that he is required to mate with certain fat women of the tribe. The petite Ika is excluded, and when she attempts to lie near him later that night, she is chased away. The Ivaka demonstrate for Naoh their advanced knowledge of fire-making with a hand drill, causing him to weep with joy. Gaw and Amoukar eventually find Naoh among the Ivaka and make a rescue attempt, but Naoh appears unwilling to leave. At night, they knock Naoh unconscious and with Ika's guidance escape the camp. The next day, Naoh washes off the Ivaka body paint he had been wearing. He tries to mount Ika again, but she teaches him the more intimate missionary position. Not long before they reach the marsh where they started the journey, the three are ambushed by rivals from within the Ulam, who want to steal the fire and claim the prize themselves. However, Naoh and his group defeat them using the Ivakan atlatls, which are superior to Ulam weapons. Upon rejoining the Ulam, the group presents the fire to the delight of all. But during the ensuing celebration, the fire is accidentally extinguished again when the firekeeper falls into the marsh. Naoh attempts to create a new fire as he had seen in the Ivaka camp, but after several failed attempts, Ika takes over. Once the spark is lit, the tribe rejoices. Months later, Naoh and Ika prepare to have an interspecies child.

Kiichi Nakajima (Toshiro Mifune) is an elderly foundry owner who is convinced he and his loved ones will all be killed in an imminent nuclear war if they stay in Japan, so he resolves to move them to perceived safety in Brazil. He does not care that no one else wants to go or that it might make things awkward that he wants to bring his three illegitimate children and two surviving mistresses along with his wife and the four children they have together, saying that nothing is more important than their continued survival. Kiichi's three oldest children convince his wife to try to have him ruled incompetent in order to keep him from wasting their inheritance on his plan, and they bring him before a three-man arbitration panel that includes Dr. Harada (Takashi Shimura). Harada, a dentist who volunteers with the family court, sympathizes with Kiichi's concerns and points out that the fear of nuclear weapons is present in every citizen of Japan. He wonders aloud whether it may be wrong to rule someone incompetent simply for being more worried than the average citizen, but the panel eventually decides that Kiichi's irrational behavior justifies removing his ability to make the financial decisions for his family by himself. After this, Kiichi tries to find a way to move forward with the move anyway, but his efforts fail, and his mental state begins to deteriorate more rapidly once he no longer feels as though he is doing anything to save himself and his family from the nuclear holocaust he is sure is coming. Growing increasingly desperate, he decides that his family will be willing to go with him to South America if they no longer have jobs or a source of income tying them to Japan, and he burns down the foundry. When this is discovered, his distress reaches a breaking point after some of his employees point out that his actions indicate he is unconcerned about their lives and his son-in-law argues that there are already more than enough nuclear weapons to destroy all life on this planet and nowhere is really safe. Harada goes to visit Kiichi at the psychiatric facility to which he has been sent. While waiting to be shown to his room, Harada talks with a psychologist, who remarks that he has found Kiichi's case particularly troubling personally, since it has made him wonder whether it may be more insane to ignore the nuclear threat than it is to take it too seriously. Harada discovers that Kiichi believes he has escaped to another planet and that he has become severely withdrawn from his surroundings. During the visit, however, Kiichi becomes agitated when he sees the Sun through his window and thinks it is the Earth burning.