A gang of violent young neo-Nazi skinheads from Footscray, Victoria, Australia, attack three Vietnamese Australian teenagers in a tunnel at Footscray Station, brutally beating two of them. The gang is led by Hando, a violent, reckless, and unpredictable psychopath with strong white nationalist beliefs and homicidal tendencies, with his friend and second-in-command, the quiet, reserved, but similarly violent Davey. At their local pub, Hando and Davey meet Gabrielle, who suffers from poorly controlled epilepsy, the day after her sexually abusive, affluent father, Martin, has her drug-addicted boyfriend arrested. Gabrielle begins a romantic relationship with Hando, which, despite a strong start, quickly becomes dysfunctional as he becomes increasingly abusive towards her. After the gang vandalises a shopping mall, friends of the gang visit from Canberra, one of whom has joined the Royal Australian Navy. A party at the warehouse follows. The next day, two boys go to the pub, which has just been sold to a Vietnamese businessman by the owner. Upon seeing the new owner and his sons, they inform Hando, who arrives with his gang, and they savagely beat two of the new owner's sons, while the third son escapes and calls for help. Fed up with the gang's antagonism and violence, a large mob of armed and angry Vietnamese men, led by Tiger, arrives and descends upon the skinheads. The Vietnamese outnumber the skinheads by droves, and in the ensuing brawl and chase, several skinheads are beaten by the angry mob, among them Magoo, Luke, Champ, and Brett. The rest of the gang are chased back to their rented warehouse, from which they narrowly escape as the Vietnamese mob breaks in and ransacks the building before burning it down. The skinheads soon find a new base at a nearby warehouse, after evicting a pair of squatters, and plan retaliation against the Vietnamese. When the gang agrees to acquire firearms, two female friends of the gang depart in disgust. Gabrielle suggests the gang burgle her father's mansion for the guns. After beating and tying up Martin, the gang ransacks the house, smashes one of his cars, and raids his wine collection. The youngest skinhead, Bubs, steals a deactivated revolver from the house during the burglary. Gabrielle tells Martin the burglary is revenge for his years of abuse, then reveals to Davey her plan to take Hando away from his violent life. Martin eventually frees himself and uses a handgun to scare away the gang, who flee in the trashed vehicle and leave behind most of the stolen goods. Due to this incident, Davey begins to question his violent lifestyle. Agitated by Gabrielle's criticism of the poor outcome of the robbery and their living conditions, Hando abruptly hits, berates, dumps, and then evicts her. Davey, unable to tolerate the excess violence and Hando's cruel and unpredictable nature any further, declares his departure from the gang and gives Gabrielle his German grandmother's address, where he will be staying. Gabrielle informs the police of the gang's location and spends the night with Davey, where they confess their feelings for each other. Davey also reveals his doubts about his violent lifestyle to Gabrielle, having removed the racist patches from his flight jacket out of concern for his grandmother. The morning after, the police raid the warehouse where the skinhead gang is hiding. Bubs is shot in the head after pointing the stolen deactivated gun at the police, and what remains of the gang is beaten and arrested. Hando, who was returning to the warehouse and fled when he spotted the police, successfully evades capture as the last remaining member of his gang. Arriving at Davey's granny flat, Hando finds his friend in bed with Gabrielle. Hando accuses her of informing the police, but Davey says they were together the whole time since leaving the squat. However, Hando convinces Davey and Gabrielle to come with him by claiming the police will soon raid the residence, and the trio goes on the run. They rob a service station, where Hando strangles the Asian attendant to death; and, after driving all night, they stop at Point Addis, Bells Beach, the next morning. There, Gabrielle overhears a conversation wherein Hando tries to convince Davey to abandon her. Feeling betrayed, Gabrielle sets their car on fire and admits to tipping the police off about the gang's whereabouts. A bus of Japanese tourists arrive and the passengers taking pictures and video, while the tour guide and the driver stop the fire. Hando, infuriated beyond sense, attacks Gabrielle and attempts to asphyxiate her, first by strangling her and then by drowning her in the surf. Davey attempts to fight Hando several times and successfully disrupts each attempt on Gabrielle's life, but he is quickly fought off and beaten down each time. Eventually, Hando attempts to smother Gabrielle in the sand, before Davey, desperate to save Gabrielle, stabs Hando in the neck with his Hitler Youth knife. Hando staggers away before finally collapsing. As the Japanese tourists look on, a weeping Davey attempts to comfort a petrified Gabrielle as Hando's corpse gazes lifelessly out at the ocean.

Colonel Allen Faulkner, a former British Army officer turned mercenary, meets with merchant banker Sir Edward Matherson in London. Matherson proposes the rescue of President Julius Limbani, the deposed leader of a southern African nation due for execution by General Ndofa. Limbani is held in a remote prison in Zembala, guarded by a regiment of General Ndofa's troops known as the "Simbas". Faulkner accepts and begins recruiting mercenaries from his network of friends and colleagues, starting with Captain Rafer Janders, a skilled tactician and single father. They work with Matherson to save former Irish Guards lieutenant and pilot-turned-smuggler Shawn Fynn from American Mafia boss Mr. Martin. Faulkner recruits Sandy Young to act as sergeant-major and Fynn brings in Pieter Coetzee, formerly of the South African Defence Force (SADF), who plans to buy a farm with his earnings. The force of fifty mercenaries train in Swaziland under the harsh direction of Young. Faulkner promises to watch over Janders' only son Emile should he not survive. Faulkner is forced to launch the mission with only a day's notice. The group parachute into Zembala by a HALO jump on Christmas Day. One group rescues the ailing Limbani from a heavily guarded prison while another seizes a small airfield to await extraction. Matherson, in London, cancels their flight unexpectedly, having secured copper mining assets from General Ndofa in exchange for Limbani. Stranded deep in hostile territory, the mercenaries suffer many killed, including Coetzee, as they fight their way through bush country pursued by the Simbas. The mercenaries make their way to Limbani's home village, hoping to start a rebellion, but find the people too ill-equipped to fight. Father Geoghegen, an Irish missionary, informs the group of a Douglas Dakota transport aircraft they can escape in. The mercenaries suffer heavy casualties holding the Simbas off in a climactic battle while Fynn starts the Dakota's engines. Janders is shot in the leg, preventing him from boarding the departing aeroplane and Faulkner kills him to spare him from capture and torture. The thirteen surviving mercenaries land at Kariba Airport in Rhodesia but Limbani dies from a gunshot wound sustained during the escape. Months later, Faulkner returns to London, having had various contracts put out on him by Matherson. With Fynn's help, he breaks into Matherson's home and confronts him. Faulkner takes the half a million dollars in Matherson's safe to compensate the survivors and the families of those killed in Zembala. Matherson tries to bribe Faulkner to spare his life but Faulkner kills him and escapes with Fynn. Faulkner fulfils his promise to Janders by visiting Emile at his boarding school.

The film begins with a businessman, John Sullivan (Chris Kelly), in a hurry to get into his car. He appears to be severely stressed as he begins driving down the city streets. When he goes through a lighted intersection he is broadsided by another driver that is distracted by hot coffee in his lap. As he falls unconscious, he dreams of playing with his young daughter, Emma (Quinn Hunchar). Emma pretends to be kidnapped and tells John to "save" her from the "monster", although John seems exasperated and tells her to have her mother do it instead. Eventually, however, John gives in and runs to "save" his daughter, while Emma laughs and embraces him. It is revealed that dreams are controlled by beings from an alternate plane of reality. The beings are spirits of deceased people from Earth and are divided into distinct groups: Storytellers (bearers of good dreams), Incubi (cause of nightmares), and Drifters (those in a state of limbo who cause neither good nor bad dreams). As the Storytellers and Incubi perform their daily work in the night, a Drifter known as Ink goes to Emma's room and removes her soul from her body. Although a number of Storytellers try to prevent the action, Ink escapes with the girl's soul into the dreamworld, leaving Emma's body unconscious. However, in the dreamworld, Ink is unable to open a portal to the Incubi's headquarters, where he intends to take Emma's soul. He is told that he must find and barter with two other Drifters to acquire parts of a code that will enable him to achieve entry into the headquarters. Meanwhile, John, whose life has attained a sense of repetition and perfection, faces turmoil when an account he has been working to acquire is about to be swept out from under him. Soon after, Ron Evans (Steve Sealy), John's estranged father-in-law, comes to inform John that Emma is in a coma and has been placed in a hospital. Although Ron begs John to go and see the girl, John refuses and berates Ron, saying that the father-in-law turned the world against him. Shortly after, Ron is ordered out of John's office. It is revealed that Ron and his wife were given custody of Emma after the death of John's wife Shelly (Shannan Steele) in a car accident, due to John's grief-induced addiction to alcohol and drugs. At the same time in the dreamworld, the Storytellers Allel, Gabe, and Sarah (played by Jennifer Batter, Eme Ikwuakor, and Shelby Malone, respectively) work to find a way to awaken Emma. In order to do this, they receive the help of Jacob (Jeremy Make), an eccentric blind spirit known as a "Pathfinder". Meanwhile, a Storyteller named Liev (Jessica Duffy) confronts Ink and attempts to discourage him from delivering Emma to the Incubi. After Ink threatens to murder Emma if Liev continues to pursue him, Liev surrenders to Ink as a prisoner. It is revealed that Ink is taking Emma's soul to the Incubi in order to become one of them and cease to be a Drifter. Soon after, Ink successfully barters with two Drifters for parts of the code. As Ink's prisoner, Liev tries to bolster Emma's bravery in order to thwart Ink. During this time, the Pathfinder Jacob unveils his abilities to the Storytellers: tapping into the "beat of the world" in order to cause physical changes that affect the course of time. Through a chain of events, Jacob causes several small accidents that culminate in a truck running a red light and crashing into John's car, revisiting an opening scene of the film. Due to his injuries, John is taken to a hospital, which turns out to be the same hospital where Emma is checked in. After recalling his happiness before his wife died, John walks to Emma's room, guarded by Allel as an unseen battle ensues between the Storytellers and Incubi. In the dreamworld, Liev discovers that Ink arrived after his human counterpart committed suicide. Ink, being ashamed of his hideous and scarred appearance, believes the Incubi will help him, the Incubi having been revealed to all wear apparati that project facades of bliss and happiness to hide their misery. After making their way to the stronghold of the Incubi, Ink offers Emma and Liev as his payment to the leader. As Liev attempts to stand up to the leader of the Incubi, she is mortally wounded. While dying, Liev pleads with Ink to "remember". Suddenly, Ink has a revelation: he recalls that Emma died in the hospital without her father's presence; and John, driven to further depression and regret, shot himself in despair, at which time his soul entered the dreamworld and became the Drifter known as Ink. Ink understands that he is, in fact, John Sullivan's soul from a future in which Emma dies and he does not visit her at the hospital due to time flowing differently in the dreamworld. In this realization, Ink rushes at the Incubi and kills them to rescue his daughter, mirroring the dream scene in the beginning of the film. After the fight is over, Emma's soul embraces Ink, realizing that it is her father. In the normal world, Pathfinder Jacob activates a device that calls the other Storytellers as reinforcement, with the onslaught of Storytellers defeating the Incubi. John finally makes his way to Emma's room. The film closes as Emma awakes to find her father at her bedside.

Architect Sam Baldwin moves from Chicago to Seattle with his eight-year-old son, Jonah, to start a new life following the death of his beloved wife, Maggie. Over a year later, on Christmas Eve, Jonah calls a nationally syndicated radio talk show seeking advice on how to help his father find happiness again. He persuades a reluctant Sam to go on the air and talk about how much he misses Maggie. Sam describes her as his soulmate, explaining that he knew she was the one when he first took her hand and believes he could never find true love twice. Touched by his story, thousands of women across the country write to him. One listener is Annie Reed, a Baltimore Sun reporter. She is engaged to the sensible and supportive Walter, but feels something is missing from their relationship. Her friend and editor, Becky, suggests Annie longs for the kind of destined romance found "in a movie", although Annie dismisses the idea of magical love or fate. Inspired by the romance film An Affair to Remember, Annie writes Sam a letter proposing they meet atop the Empire State Building in New York City on Valentine's Day. She decides against sending it, but Becky secretly mails it. Encouraged by the response to his radio appearance and by his friends, Sam begins dating a co-worker, Victoria, whom Jonah vehemently dislikes. When Jonah reads Annie's letter, he instinctively believes she could be the one for his father, but Sam dismisses the idea because of the distance between Seattle and Baltimore. Jonah's friend Jessica urges him to reply on Sam's behalf, agreeing to the meeting. After Jonah calls the radio show again and reveals that Sam is dating, Annie travels to Seattle on a work assignment arranged by Becky as a pretext to learn more about him. While dropping Victoria off at the airport, Sam notices Annie leaving her flight and is immediately captivated by her, unaware of who she is. Later, Annie secretly watches Sam and Jonah playing together on the beach. The following day, she visits Sam's houseboat but mistakes his sister, Suzy, for Victoria. A passing vehicle nearly strikes Annie and sounds its horn, alerting Sam to her presence. They briefly stare at one another before Annie, embarrassed, leaves. Back in Baltimore, Annie reads Jonah's immature reply and concludes she has made a mistake pursuing Sam. She decides to commit to Walter and travel to New York to meet him on Valentine's Day. Meanwhile, Jessica uses her travel agent mother's computer to book Jonah a flight to New York to find Annie. When Sam learns where Jonah has gone, he flies after him, and they reunite on the Empire State Building's observation deck. During dinner with Walter, Annie confesses her doubts about their relationship, everything that has happened since hearing Sam's radio broadcast, and they amicably end their engagement. Seeing the Empire State Building illuminated in the shape of a heart, Annie takes it as a sign. She rushes there, arriving on the observation deck moments after Sam and Jonah have left in the elevator. When Sam and Jonah return to retrieve Jonah's misplaced backpack, Sam and Annie recognize each other. After introducing themselves, Annie takes Sam's hand, and the three leave together.

Setsuko Kawashima is a lonely, middle-aged office worker in Tokyo who is aloof from her co-workers, lives in a cluttered studio apartment and is estranged from her sister, Ayako. One day, she meets with her niece Mika, who tells Setsuko that she signed up for a year of English classes but can no longer afford to attend, as she needs to save money and keep working. Mika persuades Setsuko to buy her out and sends her to the school for a free first class. At the school, Setsuko meets John, an American teacher who hugs her warmly, gives her the American name of Lucy and a bright blonde wig so she can adopt an American persona. She meets Takeshi Komori, a classmate in the English class who goes by the name Tom. Setsuko is quickly charmed by John and decides to continue attending classes. At their next session, she learns that John has abruptly quit to return to the United States. Outside the school, she spots John and Mika kissing and getting into a cab. Ayako informs her that Mika has moved to the US. Setsuko returns to English class, but finds the new teacher too conventional and leaves the school. When she receives a postcard from Mika containing her address in Los Angeles, Setsuko impulsively decides to follow her, with Ayako insisting on joining her, despite her strained relationship with her daughter Mika. It is revealed that Setsuko harbors resentment towards Ayako for stealing and marrying her boyfriend. Arriving in Los Angeles, the two are surprised to find only John at home, who claims that Mika has left him and he has no idea where she is. After raiding his room, however, Ayako discovers a postcard sent by Mika from a motel in San Diego. The sisters have John rent a car and drive them to the motel where Mika was last heard from. While waiting for Mika to reappear, John offers to teach Setsuko how to drive and the two end up having sex. Later that night, Setsuko goes to a tattoo parlor to get the same tattoo as John, but when she shows it to him, he rebuffs her. The next morning, Ayako confronts John and tells him to take her to Mika. He goes to his house where he introduces Ayako to his estranged wife and daughter, who know where Mika is but will not tell him. Setsuko, left alone at the motel, runs into Mika who tells her that she broke up with John after discovering his family. They have a picnic near the beach where Mika teases Setsuko about having a crush on John, and Setsuko responds by revealing that she had sex with John. The two women engage in a physical altercation, culminating in Mika jumping off a cliff in a suicide attempt, but she survives. At the hospital, an enraged John asks Setsuko if she told Mika about them. She insists that she loves John, but he rejects her and drives off. Ayako tells her to stay out of their lives. Back in Tokyo, Setsuko learns she is being transferred to another department, prompting her to quit. Shortly after leaving the office, she overhears her co-workers laughing and cheering. Distraught over losing John, her job, and her family, she attempts suicide by overdosing on pills at home. She is found by Takeshi, who makes her vomit the pills. She tries to seduce him, but he kindly rejects her advances. As they head to a subway station, Takeshi reveals that his son killed himself and that he blames himself for being too strict, which is why he enjoys slipping into his Tom persona. He asks Setsuko for a hug, and she agrees.

Annie Cameron is gifted a laptop by her parents, Will and Lynn, for her fourteenth birthday. She soon meets a boy online named Charlie, who initially claims to be 16 years old, but later confesses that he is actually 20, and eventually 25. Though disconcerted by his dishonesty at first, Annie comes to believe that the two of them are in love. After two months of communicating electronically, Charlie invites Annie to meet him at a local mall. Upon arriving, she discovers that he is actually in his late thirties. Though she is distraught, Charlie eventually convinces her to accompany him to a motel, where he makes her try on lingerie he bought her before raping her, filming the ordeal. The next day, Charlie fails to return any of Annie's calls or texts, upsetting and confusing her. Annie's best friend Brittany confronts her, having seen her with Charlie at the mall. Annie confesses that she and Charlie had sex, but dismisses Brittany's concerns. Brittany notifies the school administration. Police arrive and depart with Annie, drawing attention from other students. After Annie's parents learn what happened, an investigation begins, led by FBI agent Doug Tate. The FBI have Annie call Charlie in an attempt to identify him, but he figures out the ruse and blocks her number before they can trace his location. Will hires a private investigation firm from New Jersey to catch Charlie, but this proves fruitless when they realize Charlie masks his IP address so that his location appears as the Czech Republic. As Will grows obsessed with catching Charlie, his relationship with his family becomes strained. He begins having nightmares of Annie's assault and questioning his work at an advertising firm, which often uses provocative images of teenagers. Annie begins seeing hospital counselor Gail Friedman, to whom she confides that she loves Charlie and believes he loves her too. When Annie returns to school, Brittany tries to apologize to her, but Annie orders Brittany to never speak to her again. DNA evidence proves that Charlie has previously sexually abused several other pre-teen girls. After seeing photos of Charlie's other victims, Annie flees her home and seeks consolation from Friedman, breaking down in tears as she finally admits to herself that she was raped. Hoping to regain a sense of normalcy and fall back into a routine, Annie participates in a school volleyball game. Will sees a father in the crowd taking pictures of the girls, whom he mistakes for one of the men from a list of registered sex offenders and violently confronts. Though the man declines to press charges, a humiliated Annie lashes out at Will at home and asserts that he is ruining her life. Annie learns from Brittany that other students have been ridiculing her online, photoshopping her face onto pornographic images and publicly exposing her cellphone number and address. She rushes home and attempts suicide by overdosing on pills. After a panicked phone call from Lynn, Will finds Annie in the bathtub and forces her to vomit. Brittany spends the night to keep Annie company, mending their friendship. Annie wakes up and finds Will sitting outside. He admits that he blames himself for failing to protect her and pleads for her forgiveness, though he believes he does not deserve it. Annie tearfully embraces him. During a post-credits scene, it is revealed that "Charlie" is actually a high school physics teacher named Graham Weston, who is married and has a young son.

Black mine inspector Ralph Burton becomes trapped in a cave-in at a Pennsylvania coal mine. He can hear rescuers digging towards him, but after five days they slow down and then stop completely, along with the drainage pumps keeping the shaft from flooding. Ralph frantically digs his own way out, but upon emerging from the mine, he finds a world devoid of any people, living or dead. Discarded newspapers provide an explanation: one proclaims "UN Retaliates For Use Of Atomic Poison", another that "Millions Flee From Cities! End Of The World". Ralph later plays tapes at a radio station and learns that an unknown country had dispersed large quantities of radioactive sodium isotopes into the atmosphere. The resulting lethal dust cloud spread around the world, killing every human who came into contact with it over a five-day period before the isotopes decayed into a harmless state. Ralph travels to New York City in search of survivors, but in vain. He restores power to a building where he takes up residence. To stave off loneliness, he takes in a pair of mannequins. As the solitude starts to become intolerable, he throws a mannequin off the building, and hears a scream. Sarah Crandall, a White woman in her early twenties, had been living in the city and surreptitiously observing Ralph for some time, but was afraid to reveal herself. She screamed because she thought Ralph had committed suicide. Ralph, an engineer, gets utilities working again and raises their standard of living, but the two remain in separate apartment buildings. Even as they become friends and grow closer, vestiges of racial division become evident when Sarah casually uses the phrase that she is " free, white, and 21 " to describe her ability to make decisions. Ralph describes the phrase as "an arrow in my guts." In the same conversation, Sarah laments that "there is nobody left to marry." Resentful, Ralph refuses Sarah's suggestion that she move into his apartment building. Ralph maintains his distance when it becomes clear that Sarah is developing stronger feelings for him, unsure how she will react if they discover others alive. Despite living in a post-apocalyptic world, tensions remain that were instilled by the mores earned in a racially segregated American society. Ralph regularly broadcasts on the radio in the hope of contacting other survivors, and eventually receives a transmission in French, confirming there are others. One day, ill white man Benson Thacker arrives by boat. Ralph and Sarah nurse him back to health, but once he recovers, Ben sets his sights on Sarah and sees Ralph as a rival. Ralph is torn by conflicting emotions. He avoids Sarah as much as possible to give Ben every opportunity to win her affections, but cannot quite bring himself to leave the city. Ben finally grows tired of the whole situation, realizing he stands little chance with Sarah as long as Ralph remains nearby. He warns Ralph that the next time he sees him, he will try to kill him. The two armed men hunt each other through the empty streets. Finally, Ralph passes by the United Nations headquarters, climbs the steps in Ralph Bunche Park, and reads the inscription "They shall beat their swords into plowshares. And their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war any more", from the Book of Isaiah. He throws down his rifle and goes unarmed to confront Ben, who in turn finds himself unable to shoot his foe. Defeated, he starts walking away. Sarah appears. When Ralph starts to turn away from her, she makes him take her hand; then she calls to Ben and gives him her other hand. Together, the three walk down the street to build a new future together. The film ends not with "The End" but with "The Beginning."

In 2018, Programmer Pan Sheng is lured overseas by a supposed high-paying job and is trafficked into a Canaan slave-camp-like fraud factory, where he is threatened by violence into committing online fraud on behalf of the controlling syndicate. In the camp, Sheng encounters model Liang Anna, who was similarly recruited under false pretenses, and who works on-camera as a dealer in the online gambling section. Sheng offers to help Anna reach her sales target, after which she will supposedly be allowed to leave and can send a message on Sheng's behalf to his loved ones. Sheng uses Anna's identity to catfish Gu Tianzhi, a young man who becomes addicted to online gambling. Sheng baits Tianzhi with "tips" to encourage increased betting, which pulls Tianzhi into debt. Tianzhi's girlfriend Song Yu goes to the police, and is told by officer Zhao Dongran that Tianzhi is likely the victim of a scam. During the 2018 FIFA World Cup final, Tianzhi sits at a bar and bets a large amount of money on the winning team, and is euphoric watching the game's end on television, thinking he has made a fortune. Instead, he finds Yu has cancelled the bet at the last minute. Tianzhi obtains more money from his grandmother, who has dementia, and is tricked into performing a direct transfer of ¥ 8 million to "Anna", which is detected by but cannot be stopped by Zhao's online monitoring taskforce. The money is quickly withdrawn by the syndicate, who celebrate the success while Tianzhi tries to commit suicide by falling out his apartment window. Anna is told by the camp's manager Lu Bingkun that her sales target has increased and she cannot leave. Sheng offers to build an app for Lu to run scams efficiently, and is given new privileges for his efforts. Sheng writes "SOS", "12308 " on a bank note seeking rescue, but it is intercepted, and Sheng and Anna, voluntarily admit, are both tortured as punishment. While being transferred in a bus, Anna jumps out and runs to a police station, but the officers work for the syndicate. Cai, Lu's enforcer, stages Anna's murder but lets her escape. Zhao meets Song Yu again, and is able to connect the messages on Tianzhi's phone with Anna's real identity. Anna manages to return home, where she is picked up by the police but refuses to explain where she's been. Anna is made to attend a scam awareness seminar and is taken to see Tianzhi in the hospital in a vegetative state. This compels her to share what she knows about the syndicate. A large-scale anti-fraud operation is launched. Lu and Cai become persons of interest and multiple raids are carried out. When Zhao and the officers investigate the camp, they find it empty and the computers removed. The taskforce is about to leave the country when they receive a call from Sheng's friend who has just realized that Sheng has been sending coded messages to him asking for help. Using those messages, Zhao and the taskforce are able to locate the syndicate's hiding place in an elementary school, which they successfully raid and arrest everyone except Cai, who is killed in a shootout. Although Lu has all the computers destroyed, the app Sheng built for Lu's phone retains information of the scams and victims, which is used as evidence against the syndicate. In an epilogue, Zhao leads an anti-fraud conference with Song Yu, Sheng and Anna as speakers. In the audience, a member of the syndicate watches them.

In 1966 Southern California, Richard Montañez grows up as a hard-working child with a strict father and supportive grandfather. He meets his future wife Judy in school where he sells burritos to other children. He is arrested at a young age when nobody believes that he earned his money honestly. As adults, Richard and Judy marry but live as hoodlums in a gang, hustling to survive. They make an effort to turn their lives around once Judy gets pregnant with their first child. After one last arrest, the judge tells him to change his way of life. A second child later, Richard and his family struggle to make ends meet. Richard turns to his friend, former hoodlum Tony Romero, who helps him get a job at Frito-Lay. Despite lying on his resumé, he is hired by floor head Lonny Mason. Richard pays attention to the nuances of the factory and asks engineer maintenance leader Clarence C. Baker to teach him about the machines. Baker teaches Richard how to operate all the machinery in the factory. Unfortunately, the Reagan administration severely affects low-paying jobs, and Frito-Lay's stocks go down. This results in some of the workers getting laid off. Frito-Lay CEO Roger Enrico releases a video encouraging the workers to "think like a CEO," which inspires Richard. He takes his kids out for elotes (Mexican street corn). Noticing that his youngest son Steven likes the spicy flavor, he realizes that the way to save Frito-Lay is to pitch the brand to the Latino market. He convinces Baker and the rest of his coworkers to let him take some unflavored Cheetos home, but Judy suggests that he talk to his father Vacho first about a job. Vacho belittles Richard's plans, causing Judy to support Richard even more. The Montañezes work tirelessly trying to find the perfect spicy flavor for Cheetos, eventually getting the right concoction. Richard attempts to pitch his idea to Lonny only to be turned down, forcing him to sneak in and copy Enrico's phone number. Richard gets through to Enrico, who is intrigued to learn that he saw his video and asks that he send his flavored Cheetos. He tastes them and is hooked, setting up a meeting at the factory. Richard speaks from the heart, and his pitch is accepted with the Flamin' Hot Cheetos being put into production. While this results in more jobs, the new flavor is not flying off the shelves. Richard's children point out that there are no advertisements for the flavor. Richard returns to work and implores everyone to use their skills to sell the new flavor from the street. The tactic works, and Enrico calls to ask that the factory produce an even bigger order. While Baker gets the promotion he always desired, Richard is still a janitor. Lonny asks Richard to clean upstairs, only to find Enrico, who tells him that he understands his struggles growing up before revealing that he has been promoted to Director of Multicultural Marketing. Richard is applauded by his coworkers and happily calls Judy to tell her the good news.

In 1950s New York City, Lionel Essrog works at a detective agency alongside Gilbert Coney, Danny Fantl, and Tony Vermonte. Their boss, Frank Minna, rescued them as children from an abusive orphanage. Nicknamed "Motherless Brooklyn" by Frank, Lionel has Tourette syndrome and OCD, often alienating him from people, but his strong verbal and photographic memory make him a good detective. Working a secret case, Frank asks Lionel and Gilbert to shadow him to a meeting. Lionel listens over the phone as Frank presents documents that threaten a business deal for a man named William Lieberman, who's there with his assistant Lou and an extremely large henchman. When Frank tries to negotiate a high price, the men force him to take them to the originals. Lionel and Gilbert follow in their car, arriving just as Frank is shot. They take him to the hospital, but Frank dies. Frank's widow Julia leaves Tony in charge of the office. Lionel begins wearing Frank's hat and coat, and a matchbook in Frank's pocket leads Lionel to an African-American owned jazz bar in Harlem. He realizes that Frank's findings involve Laura Rose, who works for Gabby Horowitz fighting urban renewal; poor and minority neighborhoods are being bought out and demolished, forcing out their residents. Lionel goes to a public meeting where Moses Randolph, a commissioner of several development authorities, is loudly contested by Horowitz and the audience. Stealing a reporter's credentials, Lionel talks to a man named Paul who raged against Moses at the meeting and tells him Moses is the real power in the city government, even beyond the mayor. Under the guise of reporting on the urban renewal story, Lionel gets to know Laura. She takes him to a club Frank was investigating, where her father Billy – assuming Lionel is one of Moses' men – has him beaten unconscious. Lionel is rescued by a trumpet player, and discovers that Paul is Moses' brother and an engineer. He realizes Lieberman is receiving kickbacks on many of the housing deals, and that the housing relocation programs are scams. Paul presents Moses with a huge renovation plan to improve the city. Billy calls Lionel, apologizing for the attack and offering to meet with information. However, Lionel arrives to find Billy murdered – with his death staged as a suicide. Staying the night with a distraught Laura at her house, Lionel admits his true identity and that he believes she is in danger. Finding photos of Paul meeting with Billy on his own, Lionel confronts Laura, who explains that her "Uncle" Paul is her real father. Paul denies this to Lionel, and explains that Frank and Billy planned to get more money out of Randolph's goons, against Paul's protests. He begs Lionel to find the evidence. Lionel is brought to Moses, who invites him to join his team and stop snooping, with 24 hours to decide. Inside Frank's hat, Lionel finds the key to a Pennsylvania Station storage locker, containing a property deed and Laura's birth certificate, which reveals Moses is her father. Lionel gives the key to Paul and runs into Tony, who has been working surveillance for Randolph. Tony admits he has been sleeping with Julia, and tells Lionel to take Moses’ deal since Laura will soon be killed. Lionel races to save Laura, stopping her before she enters her apartment, and they flee. Laura knocks the large henchman off the fire escape, and Lou corners them with a gun but is hit in the head with a trumpet by the trumpet player, who drives Laura out of town. Lionel meets Moses, who reveals that he raped Laura's mother, a hotel employee. Paul forged Moses' signature on the birth certificate and exposure of this secret threatened Moses. Lionel warns Moses to leave Laura alone or he will release the information. He informs Moses that Lieberman is on the take and asks that when Moses has Lieberman killed, to tell him it is for Frank. Moses tells Lionel to tell Paul that his plans for the city will proceed. The next day Paul learns that Moses denied his plans out of spite while Lionel mails the information about Lieberman to the reporter whose credentials he stole. Lionel drives to the seaside property Frank left to him where Laura is waiting for him.

Jane, an operative for private intelligence firm Hiller Brood, is assigned by her boss, Sharon, to infiltrate The East, an underground activist, anarchist and environmentalist organization that has launched a vandalistic attack against a corporate leader and threatens two more as retribution for ecological crimes. Calling herself Sarah, she joins drifters in hitching train rides. When one drifter, Luca, helps her escape from the police, she identifies the symbol of The East hanging from Luca's car mirror. Sarah self-inflicts an arm injury that she tells Luca was caused in the escape so he can get her medical attention. He takes her to a seemingly abandoned house in the woods where members of The East live and one of them, Doc, treats her. Sarah is given two nights to recover before she must leave. At an elaborate dinner involving straitjackets, Sarah is tested and fails, exposing how selfishly she and many others live their lives. Sarah is caught spying one night by Eve (a group member who is deaf) and signs to her she is an undercover agent, threatening Eve with jail if she stays; Eve leaves the next morning. Sarah is recruited to fill the missing member's role on a " jam ", a term for protest by subversive means. Sarah reluctantly participates in The East's next jam and learns that the group's members have all been damaged by corporate activities. For example, Doc was poisoned by a fluoroquinolone antibiotic and his neurosystem is degenerating. The East infiltrates a party for the antibiotic company's senior executives and adds the antibiotic to the champagne. The East announce this via YouTube: one executive's health begins to fail, revealing the drug's side effects. After seeing the jam's effectiveness, compounded by her attraction to charismatic Benji, Sarah questions the morality of her job. Another member, Izzy, is the daughter of a petrochemical CEO. The group uses this connection to gain access to him and forces him to bathe in the waterway he has been using as a toxic dumping ground. This goes wrong when security arrives and shoots the fleeing Izzy. At the squat, Doc's hands tremble too much for him to perform surgery. Working under his guidance, Sarah manages to remove the bullet but Izzy dies. This is the catalyst for Sarah and Benji's romance and they have sex. Sarah implores Benji to leave, but he insists they participate in a fourth and final jam. Sarah initially refuses but gives in. When she awakens after sleeping in the car, she realizes that Benji is driving her to Hiller Brood's headquarters. He reveals that he has always suspected her of being a spy, as did Luca, who brought her in as a test. Benji wants Sarah to obtain a non-official cover (NOC: unofficial espionage agents) global list of Hiller Brood agents, to "watch" them. Having copied the list onto her cell phone's memory card, Sarah runs into Sharon and confronts her about the firm's activities, revealing her new allegiances. Sharon has Sarah's cellphone confiscated as she leaves. As Hiller Brood had been sharing information with the FBI, The East's hideout is raided and Doc is arrested but sacrifices himself to ensure that the remaining members can escape. Sarah tells Benji she has failed to get the NOC list, which Benji reveals he meant to use to expose the undercover agents, even though that meant they could be killed. Sarah chooses not to go on the run and they part as Benji heads out of the country. In truth, Sarah still has the list because she had swallowed the memory card. The film ends with an epilogue of her contacting her undercover former coworkers and informing them of the corporate crimes Hiller Brood's clients want to protect, peacefully furthering The East's goals.