The Soviet Union, June 1985. After contact with the Salyut 7 space station is lost, cosmonauts Vladimir Fyodorov and Viktor Alyokhin attempt to dock with the empty, frozen craft to bring it back to life.

The protagonist XXXX (otherwise unnamed) is a London cocaine distributor who abhors violence and operates with the care and professionalism of a legitimate businessman. His chief associates are his enforcer and partner Morty, and Gene, an Irish gangster who serves as his liaison to mob boss Jimmy Price. Just as XXXX is ready to retire from criminal life, he is summoned to a lunch meeting with Jimmy, who gives him two tasks. The first is to track down Charlie, the drug-addicted runaway daughter of one of Price's associates. XXXX enlists the con men Cody and Tiptoes to find her; they learn that Charlie has apparently been kidnapped, but are unable to discover who abducted her. The second task is for XXXX to oversee the purchase of one million ecstasy tablets from the "Duke", a low-level criminal who recently returned to London from Amsterdam with his girlfriend Slasher and crew of thugs led by his right-hand man Gazza. Unbeknownst to XXXX, the Duke and his crew have stolen the pills from a gang of Serbian war criminals. He meets the Duke's feckless nephew, Sidney, and finds himself attracted to his girlfriend Tammy. XXXX tries to broker the sale of the pills to Liverpool gangsters Trevor and Shanks but they refuse, informing him of their origin and that the vengeful Serbians have sent the assassin Dragan to recover the pills and kill the thieves. As the Duke had mentioned his name to the Serbians, XXXX is also a target. XXXX arranges a tryst with Tammy but is kidnapped and brought to Eddie Temple, a wealthy crime lord. Eddie explains that Charlie is his daughter, whom he has recovered; Jimmy, having recently lost a fortune due to bad investments he blames on Eddie, wanted her as a hostage until Eddie recouped his losses. Eddie gives XXXX a recording, revealing that Jimmy has been working as an informant for Scotland Yard, planning to betray XXXX to the police once the pills were sold in exchange for immunity for his own crimes and XXXX's money. Eddie demands that XXXX sell him the pills instead. XXXX assassinates Jimmy at his home, but later finds that his accountant, an associate of Jimmy's, has vanished along with XXXX's money. Confronted by Gene and Morty, he shares the evidence of Jimmy's betrayal, and the pair acknowledge him as the new acting boss. Gene shows them the corpse of the Duke, who was killed by one of his men when Slasher threatened to go to the police if Jimmy did not help them out of their situation. XXXX hires hitman Lucky, an associate of Trevor and Shanks, to ambush and kill Dragan, but Dragan kills Lucky first and makes XXXX promise to recover the pills. Sidney brings XXXX to Duke's old hideout, and, as he tries to bargain with Gazza for the pills, the police arrive. XXXX and the Duke's gang barely escape the raid, while Dragan watches from afar as the pills are confiscated. However, it turns out that XXXX arranged for the raid, with Cody and Tiptoes posing as officers to secure the pills. XXXX delivers the Duke's severed head to Dragan as a peace offering; satisfied, Dragan reports to the Serbians that the police have seized the drugs. The Serbians accept the loss, which is revealed to be a small amount in comparison to their overall manufacturing capacity. When XXXX and his crew arrive at Eddie's warehouse to sell the pills as arranged, Eddie's henchmen relieve them of the drugs at gunpoint, and Eddie welcomes him to the "layer cake" of criminal hierarchy. Having anticipated this double-cross, XXXX arranges Trevor and Shanks to gun down Eddie's men in an armed robbery, take the drugs, and sell them via Dizzy so he can settle his accounts. The gang assembles for lunch at the Stoke Park Country Club, honouring their new boss, but XXXX declines their offer of leadership and follows up on his initial plan to retire. With Tammy on his arm, he leaves the club, but is shot by a jilted yet apologetic Sidney. He collapses, bleeding out on the steps.

King George III's bout of madness in 1788 touched off the Regency Crisis of 1788 and triggered a power struggle between factions of Parliament under the Tory Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger and the reform-minded Leader of the Opposition Charles James Fox. At first, the King's behaviour appears mildly eccentric. He is deeply concerned with the wellbeing and productivity of Great Britain and exhibits an encyclopaedic knowledge of the families of even the most obscure royal appointments. He is devoted to his loving wife, Queen Charlotte, and their large brood of 15 children. However, he is growing more unsettled, partly over the loss of America. His memory fails, his behaviour becomes erratic and hypersexual, he talks and talks, and his urine turns blue. George, Prince of Wales, aggravates the situation, knowing that he will be named regent if the King becomes incapacitated. George chafes under his father's relentless criticism, and yearns for greater freedom, particularly when it comes to choosing a wife. He married the woman everyone believes to be his mistress, Mrs. Fitzherbert, in a secret ceremony in 1785. Without his father's consent, the marriage is illegal. Even with consent, it would remove him from the succession, because Fitzherbert is a Catholic. He knows that he has the moral support of Fox, whose agenda includes abolition of the slave trade and friendlier relations with America. Knowing how to exacerbate the King's behaviour, the Prince arranges a concert of music by Handel. The King reacts as expected, interrupting the musicians, speaking lasciviously to Lady Pembroke, and finally assaulting his son. In a private moment, the King tells Charlotte that he knows something is wrong. They are brutally interrupted when the Prince has them separated, supposedly on the advice of physicians. Led by the Prince of Wales' personal physician, Dr. Warren, the King is treated using the medical practices of the time, which focus on the state of his urine and bowel movements and include painful cupping and purgatives. Lady Pembroke recommends Dr. Francis Willis, who cured her mother-in-law. Willis uses novel procedures. At his farm in Lincolnshire, patients work to gain "a better opinion of themselves." He observes to an equerry "To be curbed, thwarted, stood up to, exercises the character." When the King insults him, foully, he is strapped into a chair and gagged. He will be restrained whenever he "swears and indulges in meaningless discourse" and "does not strive every day and always towards his own recovery". When the Prince has the King transferred to Kew, Charlotte watches as her beloved, bearded and wearing a soiled diaper and a straitjacket, struggles against being put in the coach. "Until you can govern yourself, you're not fit to govern others. And until you do so, I shall govern you," Willis says. At Kew, the King spits soup at Willis, but gains control under the physician's intractable gaze. Later, the King, properly dressed, feeds himself to a round of applause from staff—but the delusions persist. The Whig opposition confronts Pitt's increasingly unpopular Tory government with a proposal that would give the Prince powers of regency. Baron Thurlow, the Lord Chancellor, obtains and suppresses proof of the marriage. Fox wins, and the Regency Bill is printed. Thurlow comes to see the King and joins in a moving reading of King Lear. "I have remembered how to seem..." the King muses. "What, what!" an expression he has not used in six months. His urine is yellow. Thurlow and the King arrive at Parliament in time to thwart the bill. The King forces the Prince to admit his marriage and to put away Fitzherbert. With the crisis averted, all those who have witnessed his suffering are summarily dismissed, including Captain Greville, the King's equerry. Fitzroy, another equerry, observes to the sacked Greville: "To be kind does not commend you to kings." Cheering crowds welcome the royal family to St. Paul's Cathedral. Willis stands by, but the King dismisses him. "We must be a model family," he declares; George wants "something to do." "Smile at the people, wave at them. Let them see that we're happy. That's why we're here." Saluting, Willis disappears into the crowd, where Mrs. Fitzherbert also smiles, wistfully.

Vice is narrated by Kurt, a fictitious veteran of the Afghan and Iraq wars. In 1963, Dick Cheney works as a lineman in Wyoming after dropping out of Yale University. After Cheney is caught driving while intoxicated, his wife Lynne threatens to leave him if he does not become sober. In 1969, Cheney becomes a White House intern during Richard Nixon 's presidency. Under Nixon's economic adviser, Donald Rumsfeld, Cheney becomes a savvy political operative while juggling commitments to his wife and their daughters, Liz and Mary. Cheney overhears Henry Kissinger discussing the secret bombing of Cambodia with Nixon, exposing the executive branch 's true power to Cheney. Rumsfeld's abrasive attitude leads to him and Cheney being distanced from Nixon, which works in both men's favor; after Nixon's resignation in 1974, Cheney rises to the position of White House Chief of Staff for President Gerald Ford, while Rumsfeld becomes Secretary of Defense. The media dubs the sudden shake-up in the cabinet as the Halloween Massacre. During his tenure, a young Antonin Scalia introduces Cheney to the unitary executive theory. After Ford loses the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter, Cheney runs for Congress in Wyoming. After an awkward and uncharismatic campaign speech, Cheney suffers a heart attack. While he recovers, Lynne campaigns on his behalf, earning him a seat in the House of Representatives. During the Reagan administration, Cheney supports many conservative, pro-business policies favoring the fossil fuel industries, as well as the abolition of the FCC fairness doctrine, which contributed to the rise of Fox News, conservative talk radio, and the rising party polarization in the United States. Cheney then serves as Secretary of Defense under President George H. W. Bush during the Gulf War. Outside of politics, Cheney and Lynne come to terms with their younger daughter, Mary, coming out as a lesbian. Though Cheney develops ambitions to run for president, he decides to retire due to lack of presidential polling enthusiasm for him and to spare Mary from media scrutiny. Cheney becomes the CEO of Halliburton while his wife breeds golden retrievers and writes books. A false epilogue claims that Cheney lived the rest of his life healthy and happy in the private sector, and credits begin rolling, only to end abruptly before the film continues. George W. Bush invites Cheney to become his running mate in the 2000 United States presidential election. Assuming Bush is more interested in impressing his father than attaining power for himself, Cheney agrees on the condition that Bush delegates executive responsibilities to him and does not force him to take a stance against gay rights. As vice president, Cheney works with Rumsfeld, legal counsel David Addington, Mary Matalin, and Chief of Staff Scooter Libby to exercise control of key foreign policy and defense decisions. In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Cheney and Rumsfeld maneuver to initiate and preside over the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Various other events from his vice presidency are depicted, including his endorsement of the unitary executive theory, the Plame affair, and the accidental shooting of Harry Whittington. Cheney's actions lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths and the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq, and he receives record-low approval ratings by the end of the Bush administration. While narrating Cheney's deathbed goodbye to his family after another heart attack, Kurt dies in a traffic accident. His heart is transplanted into Cheney. Liz publicly states her opposition to same-sex marriage while running for a Senate seat a few months later, and Cheney does not object. A distraught Mary distances herself from her family. Liz wins election to her father's former position in the House two years later. An irate Cheney breaks the fourth wall and delivers a monologue to the audience at the end of the film, declaring he has no regrets about anything he has done in his career. In a mid-credits scene, some members of a focus group reviewing the film passionately debate the film's effectiveness and the Trump administration, while others are uninterested and would rather discuss the latest Fast & Furious movie.

During Manhattan debutante season, middle-class Princeton student Tom Townsend attends a deb ball on a whim. A mix-up over a taxi home introduces him to a small group of young Upper East Side socialites known as the Sally Fowler Rat Pack, after the girl whose fancy apartment they use for afterparties. The Rat Pack invites him to the night's afterparty to prevent ill feelings. At the afterparty, Tom befriends several Rat Pack members, including Nick, a cynic who takes Tom under his wing; Audrey, a shy girl who enjoys Regency-era literature and develops a crush on Tom; and Charlie, a philosophical friend with an unrequited crush on Audrey. Tom learns that he and the Rat Pack have some common friends, including his ex-girlfriend Serena, with whom he remains infatuated. Under Nick's tutelage, Tom ingratiates himself with the Rat Pack. Although he initially sticks out due to his left-wing, Fourierist views, he fits into the social crowd and becomes a full-fledged member. Much of the film is composed of dialogues in which the Rat Pack discuss their nebulous social scene and uncertain futures. They worry that they are coming of age just as the culture in which they were raised is ending. One reason Tom fits in is that his social cachet trumps his wealth. He attended the Pomfret boarding school at the same time that Serena went to Farmington with several Rat Pack girls. Nick explains that the Rat Pack needs Tom because there is a shortage of socially respectable young men to escort debutantes to formal events. Although the Rat Pack welcomes him, Tom harbors a love–hate relationship with wealth and the upper class. His wealthy father abandoned the family to marry another woman, forcing Tom and his mother to move into a middle-class apartment on the Upper West Side. Tom slowly realizes that he is in denial about his distant relationship with his father. Serena has been dating Rick Von Sloneker, a young, titled aristocrat notorious for his womanizing. Nick resents Rick and accuses him of getting a girl drunk and convincing her to " pull a train " several years ago, after which she committed suicide. When Rick confronts him, Nick admits that his story is a "composite" of incidents from Rick's life. He insists that it is based on real events, but the Rat Pack is scandalized. As debutante season ends, the Rat Pack unravels. Nick leaves Manhattan. During a parlor game, Tom admits he loves Serena and not Audrey. In response, Audrey leaves to spend the rest of the vacation with Rick and their mutual friend Cynthia in the Hamptons. Charlie, who tells himself that society is out to get the elite, is surprised to hear that other young elites have achieved success in life. Tom learns that Sally is surreptitiously dating Allen, an older record producer; it is implied that Allen promised to make her a star. Realizing that he has developed feelings for Audrey, Tom recruits Charlie to help him rescue her from Rick. The two travel to Southampton, bonding en route. They are surprised to find Audrey in no peril. Tom and Charlie instigate a fight with Rick, who asks them to leave. Audrey is delighted to see that Tom and Charlie have come for her, and leaves with them. Tom and Audrey talk on the beach. Audrey says she is planning to attend college in France, and Tom contemplates visiting her there. Tom, Audrey, and Charlie begin hitchhiking to Manhattan together.

Force Recon Scout Snipers Gunnery Sergeant Bob Lee Swagger and his spotter Donnie Fenn provide overwatch for a black ops mission in Ethiopia. The mission is successful, but while covering the retreat of friendly forces, an enemy attack helicopter assaults their position, resulting in Fenn's death. The CIA officer supervising the operation disavows the mission and strands them in enemy territory without any backup, though Swagger survives. Three years later, a retired Swagger is approached by Colonel Isaac Johnson to seek his help in preventing a possible assassination attempt on the President during a public event. Swagger identifies Philadelphia as the best location for the act, and pinpoints likely sniper spots. Swagger joins Johnson at an overwatch position during the event, where a sniper kills Ethiopian Archbishop Desmond Mutumbo. Officer Stanley Timmons, a Philadelphia Police Department officer bribed by Johnson, shoots Swagger, who falls through a window. Swagger disarms rookie FBI Agent Nick Memphis and warns him about Timmons, before jumping into the Delaware River and escaping under a ferry. Soon, news reports are released naming Swagger as the assassin and that he used his CheyTac M200 sniper rifle to kill Mutumbo. Evading authorities, Swagger travels to Kentucky and meets Fenn's widow, Sarah, who treats his injuries. Memphis grows suspicious of the unusually rapid conclusions, exacerbated by Timmons' odd death off-duty during an alleged mugging, begins his own investigation and realizes that the assassination was conducted with a remotely controlled gun. Sarah and Swagger discreetly feed Memphis information, furthering his investigation until he catches Johnson's attention, who orders his men to kidnap and kill Memphis. In captivity, Memphis is strapped with a brace that could force him to shoot himself, while his abductors force-feed him water in order to get him to urinate the ruphylin from his system. Before they can stage Memphis' suicide, Swagger kills them, releases Memphis and requests his help bringing down Johnson. The two travel to Tennessee and meet with firearms expert Mr. Rate, who explains paper-patching can be used to confuse ballistic fingerprinting and deduces that the only other person alive capable of making such a long-range shot is the crippled Serbian sniper Mikhaylo Sczerbiak, whom Swagger has unawarely met when working for Johnson. Swagger concludes that he was used to conduct reconnaissance for the wheelchair-using Sczerbiak, who performed the actual assassination remotely. At the same time, Sarah's connection to Swagger is uncovered, and she is abducted by Payne. In Virginia, Swagger and Memphis infiltrate Sczerbiak's estate, who reveals Johnson works for U.S. Senator Charles Meachum on behalf of oil conglomerates exploiting developing nations for profit. Swagger and Fenn had unknowingly covered PMCs who massacred an entire village on the Eritrea–Ethiopia border to make way for pipelines, and were deliberately abandoned as part of the cover-up. Johnson then ordered Sczerbiak to assassinate Mutumbo, who was going to discuss the massacre during his speech, to prevent Johnson's crimes against humanity from being revealed to the public. Sczerbiak also informs Swagger about Sarah's abduction, and then commits suicide as mercenaries close in on the estate. With Sczerbiak's confession recorded, Swagger and Memphis fight their way out and escape to Montana, tip off the FBI, and arrange a private meeting with Meachum and Johnson. Johnson, Meachum, and their men arrive at the meeting point on a snowy mountaintop, with Sarah held hostage. Memphis acts as a decoy, allowing Swagger to eliminate Johnson's sharpshooters and rescue Sarah, in which Sarah guns down Payne after the hell he put her through. Meachum cryptically implies he is not the only politician involved and arrogantly tells Swagger to give up. Deducing that the proof will get them murdered as witnesses, Swagger destroys the recording as the FBI arrests him. Swagger requests a plea hearing with United States Attorney General Russert. With Memphis's assistance, Swagger reveals that his personal rifles, including the supposed murder weapon, have all had their firing pins replaced, making them unusable. Johnson's men had stolen the rifle, retrieved a previous fired practice bullet and paper-patched it for Mutumbo's assassination, and planned to frame Swagger. Swagger's name is cleared, and Memphis also provides Russert with evidence cataloging Johnson's involvement in the village massacre and other crimes, but no legal action may be taken against him as the crimes fall outside U.S. jurisdiction. Afterwards, Russert casually hints that extrajudicial measures may be necessary to address the corruption before ordering Swagger's release. Boasting impunity at a private gathering, Meachum, Johnson and their associates discuss their next operation, but Swagger attacks the villa and kills them all. He frames the dead Johnson as the assailant, and ruptures the gas line causing a gas explosion before leaving the area with Sarah.

The film is mainly set in the summer of 1981 in Leningrad. The main storyline of the film tells the story of the relationship between the 19-year-old Viktor Tsoi (Teo Yoo), 26-year-old Mike Naumenko (Roman Bilyk), and Naumenko's girlfriend Natalia (Irina Starshenbaum), as well as the formation of the Leningrad Rock Club and the recording of Kino 's first album, 45. The film's setting, the Leningrad Rock Club, was one of the few state-permitted public performance spaces for rock musicians in its time. The Club is generally a theatrical venue for boundary-pushing music, where audiences are instructed to sit politely and listen rather than mosh. However, interjections by narrator Skeptic (Alexander Kuznetsov) occasionally recast the club as extravagant, hedonistic, reckless, and dangerous. The musicians live frugally; their indulgences are creative rather than material. Much of the narrative focuses on Mike, the frontman of one of the Club's more popular, old-guard bands, and his girlfriend Natacha, whose close, initially monogamous relationship stands in contrast to the expected behavior of rockstars. Also significant to the plot is Viktor, a quiet, slightly otherworldly young man with a knack for melody and a beguilingly peculiar turn of lyrical phrase. Natacha is the first to notice a kind of melancholic magic about Viktor, as the film gradually reorients itself around his budding stardom rather than Mike's less obviously ascending career. However, the film maintains a more general look at the musicians in the club, including the various musicians who come in and out of the lives of the protagonists. The film's musical numbers alternate between diegetic stage performances and sudden flights of music-video fancy. In one such performance, an altercation between musicians and more conservative citizens on a packed train escalates into a demented, carriage-traversing singalong of Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer," the hitherto realist imagery disrupted with early-MTV-style cartoon flourishes. There are a few sequences in which Mike and the other Leningrad rockers seize their moment, using their music to defy the bureaucrats and wow audiences. However, nearly all of these scenes all followed by a caveat to the effect of "this didn’t really happen."

In 1980, FBI agent Will Graham visits forensic psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter to discuss a case. Graham has been working with Lecter on a psychological profile of a serial killer; Graham is certain the killer is a cannibal, based on the fact that organs taken from the victims are often used in cooking. He accidentally discovers a bookmarked sweetbreads recipe in Lecter's study that includes those organs, revealing Lecter as the killer. Lecter stabs him, but Graham stabs him back with arrowheads and shoots him before falling unconscious. Lecter is tried, found not guilty by reason of insanity, and is institutionalized at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Graham, traumatized, retires to Florida with his family. Several years later, another serial killer nicknamed the "Tooth Fairy" has murdered two families in different cities – the Jacobis and the Leedses – during full moons. With another full moon approaching, special agent Jack Crawford persuades Graham to review evidence and provide leads. Graham decides to consult Lecter for further insight after telling Crawford that the Tooth Fairy has "no face" to him, and he cannot determine how he was choosing the victim families. The Tooth Fairy is Francis Dolarhyde, who kills as directed by his alternate personality, which he calls the Great Red Dragon, after the William Blake painting The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, which is tattooed on his back. He believes that each victim brings him closer to becoming the Dragon. His psychopathology originates from childhood abuse by his grandmother. A letter from the Tooth Fairy, written on toilet paper, is discovered in Lecter's cell, expressing admiration for Lecter and suggesting that Lecter reply through the personals section of the National Tattler. Lloyd Bowman deciphers Lecter's reply, which is Will Graham's home address, sending his family into hiding. To lure out the Tooth Fairy, Graham gives an interview to Freddy Lounds, a National Tattler reporter, disparaging the killer as an impotent homosexual and that Lecter was only feigning interest in him. However, an enraged Dolarhyde kidnaps Lounds, glues him to a wheelchair, forces him to recant his allegations on tape, and sets him on fire, killing him. At his job at Chromalux, a St. Louis based home video conversion business, Dolarhyde reluctantly begins a relationship with blind co-worker Reba McClane. He struggles with genuine affection for her and his alter ego's demands that he kill her. Desperate to stop the Dragon's control over him, Dolarhyde goes to the Brooklyn Museum, tears apart the Blake painting, and eats it. Graham realizes that the Tooth Fairy knew the layout of his victims' houses from their home videos and concludes that the killer must be a Chromalux employee. He immediately goes there and is spotted by Dolarhyde. Panicked, Dolarhyde goes to Reba's house, suspecting that she may have betrayed him. He kills co-worker Ralph Mandy, takes a drugged Reba to his house, and sets it ablaze. Unable to kill her, he apparently shoots himself and Reba escapes. Graham is able to read Dolarhyde's journal and realizes he was made into a monster by systematic abuse. After an autopsy, it is revealed that Dolarhyde used Ralph's body to stage his own death. Dolarhyde infiltrates the Graham home in Florida and takes Will's son Josh hostage. To save Josh, Graham provokes Dolarhyde with his grandmother's abusive words and he attacks him. Both are wounded in a shootout, which ends when Will's wife Molly finally kills Dolarhyde. Graham, now on a sailboat with Molly and Josh, receives a letter from Lecter praising his work and bidding him well. Lecter's jailer, Dr. Frederick Chilton, tells him that he has a visitor, a young woman from the FBI.

Calvin Weir-Fields is a novelist who found incredible success at an early age, but struggles to form relationships and to write his next book. His therapist tasks him to write about someone who likes his dog, Scotty. After a dream in which he meets a woman, Calvin is inspired to write about her, admitting that he is falling in love with his character, "Ruby Sparks". Calvin discovers a woman's belongings throughout his house, to the surprise of his brother Harry and sister-in-law Susie. Harry criticizes Calvin's writing about Ruby as overly idealized and unrealistic, but Calvin writes a passage about Ruby falling in love with him before falling asleep at his typewriter. The next day, Calvin is stunned to find Ruby in his kitchen, a living person, who believes they are dating. He calls Harry, who does not believe him and advises him to find someone to confirm she is not real. Ruby insists on coming along as Calvin meets with Mabel, a fan of his book who gave him her number. Believing Calvin is cheating on her, Ruby confronts them, proving she is not a figment of his imagination. Calvin throws himself into their relationship, with Ruby unaware that he wrote her into existence. He introduces her to an incredulous Harry, demonstrating that his writing directly affects her, and asks Harry not to tell anyone of Ruby's origins, declaring that he will never write about her again. Months later, Calvin reluctantly takes Ruby to meet his free-spirited mother Gertrude and her boyfriend Mort. While the outgoing Ruby enjoys herself, the introverted Calvin grows jealous of her time with other people, and her happiness fades with his increased gloominess. Returning home, their relationship becomes tense and a depressed Ruby explains how lonely she is, suggesting they spend less time together. Fearful of Ruby's desertion, Calvin writes that she is miserable without him and she returns, now incredibly clingy. Tiring of this, he writes that she is constantly happy, but he becomes morose, knowing her happiness is artificial. Confiding in Harry, Calvin tries to write Ruby back to her original self, but his wording leaves her confused. They argue once more, and he attempts to cheer her up by taking her to a party hosted by his mentor, author Langdon Tharp. Leaving Ruby on her own, Calvin runs into his ex-girlfriend Lila, also a novelist, who accuses him of being uninterested in anyone outside of himself; Calvin deflects the blame and they part ways bitterly. Meanwhile, Langdon flirts with Ruby, eventually convincing her to join him in the pool in her underwear. A furious Calvin catches them in the act. A fight ensues upon arriving home, with Ruby declaring that Calvin cannot control her. As she prepares to leave him, Calvin reveals that she is a product of his imagination and that he can make her do anything he writes. Ruby dismisses this until Calvin forces her to perform increasingly frenzied and humiliating acts as he writes on his typewriter. Afterward, Ruby locks herself away from Calvin. Ashamed of his actions, Calvin writes a final page stating that as soon as Ruby leaves the house, she is free and no longer his creation and subject to his will. He leaves the manuscript for her to read, including a note that says he loves her. The next morning, Calvin finds the note and Ruby gone. Time passes and Calvin, miserable without Ruby, is unable to find the drive to write again. Harry suggests he write a new book about his experiences with Ruby. The novel, The Girlfriend, is a success, with the story moving several readers, including his family and therapist. While walking Scotty in the park, Calvin encounters a woman who resembles Ruby, reading his new book. When she notes that Calvin seems familiar, he responds by showing her his author's photo. The woman suggests that they start over, urging him not to tell her how the book ends. Calvin promises not to, and smiles.

Not long after the Pearl Harbor attack, United States Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle assembles two dozen North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers with volunteer crews at Eglin Field, Florida, for a secret mission. Among them is Ted Lawson and his crew, co-pilot Lieutenant Dean Davenport, navigator Lieutenant Charles McClure, bombardier Lietuenant Bob Clever and gunner-mechanic Corporal David Thatcher. Given the opportunity to decline the mission, the crews opt to stay on, including Lawson whose pregnant wife Ellen joins him at Eglin Field. The crews are taught to take off from a runway only 500 feet long by a naval aviator from nearby Pensacola Naval Air Station. Lawson's plane acquires the nickname Ruptured Duck with nose art to match. Doolittle leads the group on a low-level flight at hedge-top height to Naval Air Station Alameda, California where their planes are loaded aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. He informs the men their mission is to bomb Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kobe, and Nagoya. They will launch from the carrier 400 miles from Japan and after dropping their payloads continue to designated landing spots in parts of China controlled by Nationalist forces and regroup in Chungking. When an enemy surface vessel discovers the convoy, the crews are forced to take off twelve hours earlier than planned, to attack in broad daylight over Japan and land after nightfall in China. Doolittle leads the raid, dropping incendiary bombs to mark key targets for the others. The Ruptured Duck arrives over Tokyo to find some targets already burning, and attacks its targets as planned. Anti-aircraft fire bursts harmlessly around them, and confused enemy fighters ignore them. Ruptured Duck continues toward China and runs low on fuel approaching the coast in darkness and heavy rain. Lawson attempts a belly landing on the beach and crashes in the surf. With the exception of Thatcher, the entire crew is badly injured: Lawson's left leg is laid open to the bone, and McClure's shoulders are broken. Friendly Chinese soldiers help them, and the Americans face hardships and danger while being escorted through Japanese-held territory. In the absence of medical supplies, the injured men endure terrible pain, and Lawson's leg becomes infected. Delirious, he dreams of Ellen. A Red Cross banner hangs in the village of Xing Ming where Doctor Chung offers to take them to his father's hospital, 19 miles farther. He informs the men the Japanese have captured one of the other crews, and they hurry into the hills just before Japanese search parties arrive to burn the village down. No surgeon is at the elder Dr. Chung's hospital, but Lieutenant Smith's crew is on its way with Lieutenant "Doc" White, who volunteered as gunner. The Japanese approach, and the able-bodied Americans leave, except for Doc. He amputates Lawson's leg well above the knee, using the single dose of spinal anesthesia in their possession. It wears off too soon. Lawson passes out and dreams of Ellen. A chorus of Scouts singing " The Star-Spangled Banner ", in Mandarin, celebrates Lawson's first day out of bed. When the elder Dr. Chung gives Lawson an heirloom bracelet for his wife, Lawson is puzzled. He does not remember talking about her. When he totters on his crutches, he becomes distraught at the idea of Ellen seeing him without a leg. They hurry to Ch'ang Chou to rendezvous with an American plane that takes them home. General Doolittle visits Lawson in the hospital and tells him he has work for him to do. Lawson does not want to see Ellen until he obtains a prosthetic leg and learns to walk properly. Ellen arrives unannounced. Lawson forgets his missing leg and stands; he falls and Ellen rushes to him and the two embrace on the floor.