In the small town of West Canaan, Texas, Jonathan "Mox" Moxon is an academically gifted backup quarterback for the 3A high school Varsity football team, the West Canaan Coyotes. Despite his relative popularity at school, easy friendships with other players, and a relationship with girlfriend Jules Harbor, Mox is dissatisfied with his life. Wanting to leave Texas and attend Brown University, he constantly clashes with his football-obsessed father, Sam. He dreads playing under legendary coach Bud Kilmer, a verbally abusive and domineering authoritarian who believes in winning at all costs. Kilmer's philosophy finally takes its toll when he pushes the Coyotes' star quarterback, Lance Harbor, Mox's best friend and Jules' older brother, into taking painkilling shots into an injured knee. This leads to Lance injuring the knee further during a game, partly because Kilmer had forced offensive lineman Billy Bob to continue playing despite a concussion. At the hospital, the doctors, appalled at the massive amount of scar tissue found under his knee, explain that recovery will take at least a year and a half, costing Lance his football scholarship to Florida State. Mox, who has accompanied Lance, is shocked when Kilmer denies his role in Lance's injury, even though he ordered the trainer to provide the painkillers. Needing a new quarterback, Kilmer reluctantly names Mox to replace Lance as team captain and starting quarterback, which brings unexpected dividends for Mox. Wanting to marry someone leaving West Canaan to escape small-town life, Darcy Sears, Lance's cheerleader girlfriend, shows sexual interest in Mox and even attempts to seduce him with a whipped cream " bikini " over her otherwise naked body, but he gently rebuffs her, telling her that she can independently escape West Canaan. Disgusted with Kilmer and not strongly needing to win, Mox starts calling his own plays on the field without Kilmer's approval and also organizes an all night drinking party with his close friends on the team at a local strip club the night before a game. Fed up with the pressure from Sam, Mox chides him. Sam had been a football player at West Canaan, and although Kilmer dismissed him for lacking talent and courage, Sam still respected and obeyed him. When Kilmer discovers that Mox has won a full academic scholarship to Brown, he threatens to alter Mox's transcripts to endanger his scholarship unless he falls in line. Kilmer's disregard for the players continues, leading to Billy Bob's dramatic mental collapse. When star running back Wendell Brown, another friend of Mox's, is injured in the district title game, Kilmer persuades him to take a shot of cortisone to deaden the pain in his knee, allowing Wendell to continue at risk of more serious, and perhaps even permanent, injury. Desperate to be recruited by a good college, Wendell almost consents when Mox intervenes and tells Kilmer he will quit if the procedure continues. Undaunted, Kilmer orders wide receiver Charlie Tweeder, a friend of both Mox and Wendell, to replace Mox, but Tweeder refuses. Mox tells Kilmer that the team will only return to the field without him. Realizing that he will be forced to forfeit the game, an angered Kilmer physically assaults Mox, but the other players intercede and then refuse to take to the field. Knowing his outburst has cost him his credibility, Kilmer tries unsuccessfully to rally support and spark the team's trust in him, but none of the players follow him out of the locker room. Kilmer retreats alone to his office in defeat, abandoning the team to their fate. Using a five-receiver offense in the second half, the Coyotes proceed to win the game and the district championship without Kilmer's guidance, owing to Lance calling the plays from the sideline, and Billy Bob scoring the game-winning touchdown on a hook-and-ladder play. In a voice-over epilogue, Mox recounts several characters' aftermaths: Kilmer left town and never coached again, but his statue remained due to its weight; after the game, Tweeder drank beer and Billy Bob cried in celebration; Lance became a successful football coach, Wendell received a football scholarship to Grambling State University, and Mox went on to attend Brown on an academic scholarship.

In 2154, Earth is overpopulated, diseased, and heavily polluted from ecocide. The planet's citizens live in extreme poverty. In contrast, the rich and powerful live on Elysium, an orbiting space station just outside Earth's atmosphere, with luxuries including Med-Bays, medical devices that can heal any disease or condition. Spider, a hacker living in Los Angeles, runs a space shuttle operation to smuggle people into Elysium. Elysium Defense Secretary Delacourt is in charge of preventing illegal entry to Elysium. She orders hired killer Kruger to shoot down Spider's space shuttles. Elysium President Patel reprimands Delacourt for her unorthodox methods, threatening to terminate her position for any more unauthorized actions. Patel then discharges Kruger. In retaliation, Delacourt offers Armadyne Corp CEO John Carlyle defense contracts for life if he creates a program allowing Delacourt to conduct a coup and install herself as president. Carlyle writes the program and stores it inside his brain. On Earth, parolee Max Da Costa works for Armadyne Corp when he is accidentally exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. He is only given medication for the side effects and told he has five days to live after being fired by Carlyle. Max and his friend Julio approach Spider to bargain: if Max successfully steals information from an Elysium citizen, Spider will give Max a shuttle ride to Elysium to use a Med-Bay to cure his condition. Max demands that the target be his former boss, Carlyle. Due to his declining health, Spider provides Max with a powerful exoskeleton via surgery. Max and Julio shoot down Carlyle's shuttle to Elysium; Carlyle is fatally injured in a shootout against his security robots. Max and Julio successfully extract the program from his brain, but the data becomes unexpectedly scrambled, locked behind a security program. Delacourt sends Kruger and a black ops team to retrieve it. Kruger kills Julio, but an injured Max escapes with the copy of the program, while Carlyle's death destroys any possibility of further retrieval from his brain. Max seeks help from his childhood friend and nurse, Frey, whose daughter has leukemia. After she patches him up, Max goes to Spider. He realizes that the data in Max's head is a program that can reboot the entire Elysium mainframe. Delacourt locks down all flights up to Elysium, leaving Spider unable to take Max. Max angrily leaves, though not before Spider discreetly places a tracking device on him. After Kruger kidnaps Frey and her daughter, Max approaches him and offers him the data for the use of a Med-Bay. Kruger accepts, and Delacourt lifts the lockdown so the group can travel to Elysium. During the flight, Kruger and Max fight over the data, and a grenade explodes in Kruger's face, damaging the ship. The ship then crashes on Elysium; Max is arrested and taken to Delacourt, who orders a team to extract the data. Max escapes and heads to the armory to save Frey, who has been turned over to Kruger's men. Kruger is revived by a Med-Bay and confronted by Delacourt, whom he fatally wounds. He orders his men to start killing the politicians on the station while he dons a more advanced exoskeleton suit to hunt down Max, planning to initiate the protocol himself. Spider lands on Elysium and finds Max. Max wants Spider to have his men protect Frey and get her daughter to a Med-Bay to be healed. They reach the computer core, where they are confronted by Kruger. Max and Kruger engage in combat, which ends with Max managing to disable Kruger's connection to his suit; Kruger responds by attempting to kill them both with a grenade, but Max throws him over the ledge as the grenade explodes, killing Kruger. Spider connects Max to the computer, but the data transfer will kill Max if he downloads it. Max says his goodbyes to Frey and initiates the download, killing him. The Elysium computer reboots, allowing Frey to heal her daughter. The robot police arrive but cannot arrest Spider, as everyone on Earth is now considered a citizen of Elysium. Medical shuttles loaded with Med-Bays are dispatched to Earth to heal everyone who needs help.

May Canady is a young woman working as a veterinary assistant. As a child, she endured bullying and ostracism due to her lazy eye; although her optometrist has fixed it via glasses and corrective lenses, May still struggles to connect with others socially in her adulthood. When May was a child, her mother made and gifted her a glass-encased doll named Suzie, giving her the advice "if you can't find a friend, make one" and instructing her to never remove Suzie from the case. As an adult, May maintains that Suzie is her only true friend. May becomes infatuated with a local mechanic named Adam, finding his hands especially attractive. She eventually introduces herself to him, and they begin to date. May's colleague, Polly, also shows an interest in her. One day, May remarks that Polly has a beautiful neck. During their flirtation, Polly gives May a cat named Lupe. May invites Adam to her apartment, where he shows her a short film, titled Jack and Jill, that he made while in college about two young lovers who go on a picnic and end up cannibalizing each other. May becomes aroused by the film. While passionately kissing, she bites Adam's lip, drawing blood. Disturbed, Adam abruptly leaves. Humiliated, May berates Suzie and shoves her into the cupboard. May begins volunteering at a day care center for blind children, where she takes a liking to a sullen young girl named Petey, who makes her a clay ashtray with May's name pressed into it. Feeling abandoned by Adam, May responds to Polly's advances and they start a relationship. May overhears Adam expressing disgust with her to his friends. Devastated, she visits Polly, but finds her with another woman named Ambrosia. At home, May seeks comfort from Lupe; when Lupe ignores her, May angrily throws Petey's ashtray at her, killing the cat and shattering the ashtray. May soon develops delusions that Suzie is talking to her. May takes Suzie to the day care center, introducing her to the children as her best friend. The children attempt to take Suzie out of her case despite May's protests, ultimately shattering the case, injuring themselves and May, and destroying the doll, much to May's distress. The following day, May meets a young punk and invites him to her house, where she notices and compliments a tattoo of Frankenstein's monster on his arm. Upon discovering Lupe's corpse in her freezer, he calls May a "freak". May breaks down and fatally stabs him in the head with scissors. After some contemplation, May determines that she needs "more parts". On Halloween, May, dressed in a homemade costume resembling Suzie, goes to Polly's house, where she slits Polly's throat with a pair of surgical scalpels and stabs Ambrosia in the temples. She then visits Adam and his new girlfriend, Hoop, at his house, murdering both of them with the scalpels. At home, she sculpts a life-sized patchwork doll out of the punk's arms, Polly's neck, Ambrosia's legs, Adam's hands, and Hoop's ears, using Lupe's fur as the hair. Using the shards of the ashtray to form an anagram, she names the doll "Amy". Realizing that Amy lacks eyes, May gouges out her lazy eye and places it into the doll's head. Shrieking in pain and bleeding, May repeatedly begs the doll to "see" her and collapses on the bed next to it. Her creation comes to life and caresses her face affectionately with Adam's hands, at which May smiles.

The single biggest threat to man's continued dominance on the planet is the virus. — Joshua Lederberg, Ph.D., Nobel laureate, Film introduction: Outbreak (1995) In 1967, during the Stanleyville mutinies, a virus called Motaba, which causes a deadly fever, is discovered in the African jungle. To keep the virus a secret, U.S. Army officers Donald McClintock and William Ford order the bombing of the camp where soldiers were infected, killing all occupants. Twenty-eight years later, USAMRIID virologist Colonel Sam Daniels investigates an outbreak in Zaire which wiped out an entire village aside from two survivors (the shaman and a young boy). He and his crew – Lieutenant Colonel Casey Schuler and new USAMRIID officer Major Salt – gather information and return to the United States. Ford, now a brigadier general and Daniels's superior officer, dismisses Daniels's fears that the virus will spread. A white-faced capuchin monkey that is host to the virus is smuggled into the country. James "Jimbo" Scott, a worker at a California animal testing laboratory, is infected when he steals the monkey. Scott tries to sell the monkey to Rudy Alvarez, a pet-store proprietor, but Alvarez refuses to buy it. The monkey scratches Alvarez and he later becomes infected. A hospital technician in Cedar Creek is also infected after accidentally breaking a vial of Alvarez's blood. Scott releases the monkey into the woods outside Palisades. While flying to Boston, Scott develops symptoms and infects his girlfriend, Alice, at the airport. Their illness is investigated by Dr. Roberta Keough, a CDC scientist and Daniels's ex-wife. Scott, Alice, and Alvarez die, but Keough determines no one else in Boston was infected. In Cedar Creek, the virus quickly mutates into an airborne, influenza -like strain after many are infected in a superspreading event at a local movie theater. Daniels flies to Cedar Creek against Ford's orders, joining Keough's team with Schuler and Salt. As they search for the monkey, the Army quarantines the town and imposes martial law. Schuler is infected when his suit tears, and Keough accidentally sticks herself with a contaminated needle. When Ford provides an experimental serum that cures the original strain, Daniels realizes that his superiors knew about the virus before the outbreak. Daniels learns about Operation Clean Sweep, a military plan to contain the virus by bombing Cedar Creek, incinerating the entire town and its residents, ostensibly to prevent Motaba's expansion to pandemic proportions. However, McClintock, now a major general, wants to conceal the mutated virus's existence and preserve the original strain as a biological weapon. To prevent Daniels from finding a cure, McClintock orders him arrested for carrying the virus. Daniels escapes, and he and Salt fly a helicopter to the ship at sea that carried the monkey. Daniels obtains a photo of the monkey and releases it to the media; a mother in Palisades contacts the CDC upon realizing her young daughter has been playing with the monkey (which she named Betsy). Daniels and Salt arrive and Salt tranquilizes Betsy. Ford delays the bombing after Daniels informs him Betsy was captured. On their return flight, Daniels and Salt are pursued by McClintock in another helicopter. Salt fires two rockets into the trees, setting them afire to simulate a crash. Back in Cedar Creek, Salt mixes Betsy's antibodies with Ford's serum to create an antiserum; although it is not clear what happens to Schuler, they save Keough. McClintock returns to base and resumes Operation Clean Sweep, refusing to listen to Ford. Daniels and Salt fly their helicopter directly into the bomber's path to its target. With Ford's help, Daniels persuades the bomber's flight crew to detonate the thermobaric bomb over water and spare the town. Before McClintock can order another bombing, Ford relieves him of command and orders his arrest. Daniels and Keough reconcile as Cedar Creek's residents are cured.

In 1984, young guitarist Euronymous forms black metal band Mayhem, the first of the genre in their country of Norway, with Necrobutcher on bass and Manheim on drums. Manheim leaves and is soon replaced by new drummer Hellhammer, and they recruit a vocalist from Sweden called Dead. Dead exhibits self-destructive behavior; during their live shows, he cuts himself, bleeds on the audience, and throws pig heads at the " posers ". At a show filmed by their friend Metalion, the band meets a timid fan named Kristian, whom Euronymous initially undermines and patronizes. Euronymous also meets Ann-Marit, a girl from the metal community, and is instantly attracted to her. While home alone, Dead slits his wrists and throat with a knife, then uses Euronymous' shotgun to shoot himself in the forehead, leaving behind a suicide note. Euronymous returns to find Dead's body; instead of calling the police, he repositions and takes photos of the corpse. After Dead's body is taken to the morgue, Euronymous makes necklaces out of pieces of Dead's skull and gives them to the other members. Horrified and disgusted at Euronymous' flippant response to their friend's death, Necrobutcher leaves the band. Soon after, Euronymous starts his own black metal record label and opens a record shop called Helvete ("Hell"), which becomes a social hub for black metal fans, including Kristian, who is now calling himself Varg Vikernes. They become known as the "Black Circle". After being mocked by Euronymous, Varg burns down a local church. When challenged by Varg regarding his status as the leader of the Black Circle, Euronymous burns down a church with Faust and Varg accompanying. Not long after, Ann-Marit and Euronymous enter a relationship. Euronymous recruits Varg as bassist, along with a guitarist called Blackthorn and Hungarian vocalist Attila Csihar, to record Mayhem's first album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. A power struggle between Varg and Euronymous soon arises. After a wave of church burnings and the murder of a gay man by Faust, police begin to link members of the local black metal scene to the crimes, sending Euronymous into paranoia. Helvete is shut down, and Varg is arrested as prime suspect after an interview with a Bergen newspaper in which he boasts about his responsibility for the crimes, though he is soon released due to a lack of evidence. Afterwards, Varg tells Euronymous that he is leaving Mayhem with plans to start his own record label. In the ensuing conversation, Euronymous admits that the skull piece necklaces were fake and that his violent, anti-authority mindset is merely a persona he adopted for the sake of promoting the band, which angers Varg. While packing up the shop, Euronymous angrily rants to a peer about Varg, blaming Varg for the deterioration of the black metal community and expressing a desire to kill him in retaliation. After taking advice from Ann-Marit, Euronymous calms down, sends Varg a contract releasing Burzum 's music rights to him, and decides to continue with Mayhem. When Varg hears of Euronymous' death threats, he travels to Oslo to confront him. He convinces Euronymous to let him enter the apartment by stating he wants to sign the contract. However, once inside, Varg stabs him after a brief conversation. Varg chases Euronymous to the stairwell outside, where he stabs him to death, ignoring him as he pleads for his life. News of Euronymous' murder spreads throughout Norway and Varg is soon arrested. He is convicted of both the murder of Euronymous and the burning of several churches and sentenced to a maximum of 21 years in prison. In a voice-over, Euronymous tells the audience not to mourn his death, as he lived a successful life and accomplished many things.

Medical student Nelson Wright convinces classmates Joe Hurley, David Labraccio, Rachel Manus, and Randy Steckle to help him discover what lies beyond death. Nelson flatlines for one minute before his classmates resuscitate him. While "dead", he sees a boy he bullied as a child, Billy Mahoney. He merely tells his friends that he cannot describe what he saw, but something is there. The others follow Nelson's feat. Joe flatlines next and experiences an erotic sequence linked to his promiscuous lifestyle. After arguing with Rachel and out-bidding her of the length of time that they are willing to remain “dead”, David is third to flatline on Halloween and sees a girl, Winnie Hicks, whom he bullied in grade school. The three men later start to experience hallucinations related to their visions. Nelson gets physically assaulted by Billy Mahoney twice. Joe, engaged to be married, is haunted by the women that he secretly videotaped during his sexual dalliances, who taunt him with the same false promises he used on them. On a train, David is confronted by the 8-year-old Winnie, who taunts him the way he taunted her. Rachel decides to flatline next. David rushes in, intending to stop the others from giving her their same fate, but arrives too late. Rachel nearly dies when the power goes out and the men cannot shock her with defibrillator paddles. She survives, but she too is haunted by the memory of her father dying by suicide when she was young. The three men reveal their harrowing experiences to one another, and David decides to put a stop to his visions. Meanwhile, Joe's fiancée, Anne, comes to his apartment and, having discovered his videos, ends their relationship. Joe's visions cease after Anne leaves him. David goes to visit a now adult Winnie and apologizes. She accepts his apology and thanks him, who feels a weight lifted off his shoulders. David then finds Nelson, who accompanied him to visit Winnie, beating himself with an axe. In Nelson's mind, Billy is again attempting to beat him to death. David stops him, and they return to town, where Rachel confronts Nelson about withholding the supernatural nature of the experiments from the rest of them, then storms off. David later instructs Joe and Randy to help Nelson find Billy. Having an idea of what Rachel has experienced, David offers to let her stay with him and they fall asleep together. Meanwhile, Nelson takes Randy and Joe to a graveyard. He killed Billy as a kid by throwing rocks until he fell out of a tree. They try to convince Nelson that what he did was accidental, but he does not listen. They are eventually stranded when Nelson storms off in Joe's Mustang. David leaves Rachel to rescue Joe and Randy at the cemetery. While alone, she goes to the bathroom and finds her father. He apologizes to Rachel, whose guilt over his death is lifted after he reveals he was addicted to morphine and his suicide was related to post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from his tour in Vietnam. Nelson calls David's house, and when Rachel answers he tells her he needs to flatline again to make amends. He apologizes for involving her and their friends in his reckless plan. The three men realize what he intends and race to stop Nelson, who has been dead for nine minutes when they arrive. Together with Rachel, the four friends work to save him. In the afterlife, the boy Nelson is in the tree being stoned by Billy from the ground and dies from the subsequent fall. When almost all his friends are about to give up on reviving Nelson, Billy forgives him. David gives Nelson one last shock, which brings him back.

Lieutenant Commander Ewen Montagu, a Jewish barrister, remains in England during World War II while his wife Iris and their children travel to safety in the United States. Montagu is appointed to the Twenty Committee and takes his secretary, Hester Leggett, with him. Prime Minister Winston Churchill has promised the US that the Allies will invade Sicily by July of that year. Admiral John Godfrey suggests that Britain deceive Nazi Germany into believing the Allies will invade Greece to prevent a heavy Wehrmacht presence on Sicily. Charles Cholmondeley proposes an operation from the Trout Memo, which would entail planting false documents on a corpse where German intelligence could find them. Montagu and Cholmondeley plan the operation with Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming. The body of a vagrant named Glyndwr Michael, who died by possible suicidal poisoning, is obtained and given the false identity of Major William Martin, Royal Marines, with identification papers revealing a detailed backstory. A widowed secretary in the office, Jean Leslie, offers a photo of herself to serve as Martin's fake fiancée, "Pam". Theatre tickets, personal bills and a love letter from "Pam" written by Hester are added for verisimilitude. Cholmondeley has a crush on Jean, but soon realises that Montagu and Jean share romantic feelings. This causes Cholmondeley to grow jealous and occasionally lash out at Montagu. Complications ensue when Michael's sister arrives to claim his body, but she is turned away. Godfrey suspects that Montagu's brother, Ivor, is a spy for the USSR. Godfrey incentivises Cholmondeley to spy on Montagu and, in return, Godfrey will locate and return the remains of Cholmondeley's brother, who was killed in action in Chittagong, Bengal. Cholmondeley reluctantly agrees. Specialist MI5 driver St John "Jock" Horsfall transports Montagu, Cholmondeley and the corpse to the submarine base at Holy Loch where it is loaded onto HMS Seraph. The submarine drops the corpse into the ocean in the Gulf of Cádiz and it is located by fishermen in Huelva, Spain. The mission is hampered by bad luck, as the Spanish have resisted Nazi influence more than expected. Captain David Ainsworth, the British naval attaché in Madrid, meets with Colonel Cerruti of the Spanish secret police in one last attempt to get the papers to the Germans. When Martin's personal items are returned to London, a specialist determines the documents have been tampered with, giving the Operation Mincemeat staff hope that Germany retrieved the false information. The team then intercept an encrypted communication from General Jodl who believes the Allies will invade Greece. Jean is threatened by Teddy, a waiter at a club the team has frequented, claiming to be a spy for a German anti-Hitler plot. She tells him that Major Martin was travelling under an alias but the classified information was genuine. After Teddy leaves, Jean informs Montagu and Cholmondeley. They come to believe that Colonel Alexis von Roenne, who controls intelligence in the German Army High Command, sent Teddy to verify information so Roenne could undermine Hitler but they have no way of being sure. Montagu takes Jean to his home for protection, but she accepts a job in SOE and leaves London. The Allied invasion of Sicily proceeds with limited casualties, and a viable beachhead is quickly formed. Cholmondeley admits he received his brother's remains in return for spying on Montagu. Feeling sympathetic and relieved that Operation Mincemeat was a success, Montagu offers to buy Cholmondeley a drink even though it is eight in the morning. The epilogue says that Montagu reunited with Iris after the war, Jean married a soldier, Hester continued as Director of the Admiralty Secretarial Unit and Cholmondeley remained with MI5 until 1952, later married and travelled widely. Major William Martin's identity was revealed to be Glyndwr Michael in 1997 when an epitaph, with his real name, was added to Martin's headstone in Spain.

In Upper Paleolithic Europe 20,000 years ago, a small tribe of hunter-gatherers prepare for a hunting expedition to hunt for the coming winter's food. Tau, its chief, trains his teenage son Keda, allowing him and Keda's friend Kappa to join the hunting party. His wife Rho worries that Keda is not ready, but Tau believes he is and the hunters set out. Tau tests Keda by having him kill a wild boar they've caught, but Keda refuses. One night, the party's fire draws the attention of a large lion, which lunges through their circle, snatching Kappa before anyone can do anything. Hearing the fatal struggle in the darkness, the tribe gives him up for dead. Kappa is given a memorial service in the form of a cairn to symbolize the passing of one's spirit to the afterlife. After that, a wolf howl is heard, and Tau tells Keda that the wolf's name is Alpha, and he is the leader of his clan. The hunters eventually reach a herd of steppe bison, which they attempt to stampede off a cliff with relative success. Amidst the chaos, a bull rushes towards Keda and tosses him over the edge, leaving him gripping the rough cliff edge with his hand. Keda’s grip breaks and he plummets to a further ledge where he appears to break his leg and is knocked unconscious. Tau attempts to climb down to him, but he is stopped by fellow hunter Sigma who assures him in good faith that Keda is dead and there would be no way to reach him anyway. The tribe leaves and Tau performs another funeral ritual, stricken with grief. Keda is awoken by a vulture who mistakes him for dead. He kills the bird and tries to climb the rest of the way down the cliff. A sudden heavy rainfall causes the ravine below to flood. Keda sees this, but is reluctant to jump off and hope the water will break his fall. He slips off the ledge anyway, and he survives the fall. Keda splints his injured foot before returning to the top of the cliff. Seeing the memorial cairn left by his tribe, he realizes he must travel back to the village by himself. Keda is later attacked and chased by a pack of ferocious wolves, but escapes up a tree and wounds one of the pack members, which the others leave behind. Keda takes pity on it and cares for its injury. Gradually gaining the wolf's trust, he gives it food and water, establishing himself as dominant by feeding himself first. He sets out for the village without the wolf, but it follows him. Their relationship grows, and they learn to hunt animals together. One night, they are approached menacingly by a pack of wolves. Upon seeing Alpha, who steps forward to greet them, they recognize Keda's companion. The pack runs off, and with Keda's blessing, Alpha joins them. Keda continues his journey alone as the season changes into winter. On a frozen lake, he encounters a pack of wolves feeding on a carcass. Recognizing Alpha, he runs to them, but the ice breaks and he falls through. Alpha helps rescue him and they are reunited. Continuing the journey together, they find a man who has frozen to death outside his tent and scavenge a bow and a single arrow from his body. Later, in the midst of a blizzard they take refuge from a pack of cave hyenas inside a cave. However, inside another lion confronts and attacks them, causing Alpha to violently fight the animal. Keda saves Alpha by using the bow and arrow he stole from the dead man, although Alpha is now badly wounded because of the fight and travels with difficulty. Meanwhile, an equally injured Keda begins to cough up blood. When Alpha finally cannot walk, Keda carries the wolf. Keda eventually finds his village although nearly passing out from exhaustion, and he reunites with his shocked but relieved parents who are amazed and proud of him. As the village healer tends to both Keda and Alpha's wounds, Alpha delivers a litter of puppies much to Keda's surprise, as Alpha is revealed to be female. Alpha and her pups are formally welcomed into the tribe and grow up in the care of Alpha and Keda. The final image of the film shows the tribe and their domesticated wolves hunting together.

In Italy in 1978, Patrizia Reggiani is the office manager of her father's small trucking company. At a party, she meets Maurizio Gucci, a law student and heir to a 50% interest in the Gucci fashion house through his father Rodolfo. Patrizia aggressively pursues the awkward Maurizio, charming him into a romantic relationship. Rodolfo warns Maurizio that Patrizia is only after his wealth, and tells Maurizio that he will disinherit him if he marries Patrizia. Maurizio chooses Patrizia over his connection to Gucci, leaving the family. Patrizia and Maurizio marry, and he is hired by her father's trucking company. When Patrizia becomes pregnant, she considers her child to be an avenue for familial reconciliation, and lets that information slip to Maurizio's uncle Aldo, who is delighted and takes the couple under his wing. Aldo introduces Patrizia to his eccentric son Paolo, who aspires to be a designer within Gucci despite his apparent lack of talent. Aldo helps Maurizio, and a terminally ill Rodolfo, reconcile shortly before the latter's death. Rodolfo returns Maurizio to his will, but, before he dies, fails to sign the document bequeathing to him the 50% interest in Gucci shares, so Patrizia forges Rodolfo's signature on Rodolfo's updated testament. Patrizia devises a plot to obtain a controlling interest in Gucci by acquiring some of Aldo's and Paolo's shares (the other 50%). She clashes with Aldo over the firm's sale of cheap "fake" Gucci products on the black market, and consults Giuseppina "Pina", a psychic, for guidance on how to manipulate Maurizio, who has little interest in Gucci, into taking a more active role within the company. Paolo acquires proof that Aldo has been evading taxes in the United States. He gives the information to Patrizia in exchange for her promise that he be allowed to design his own product line. Aldo is arrested by the IRS and sentenced to a year and a day in prison. Patrizia lies to the Italian police and tells them that Paolo is not authorized to use the Gucci trademark, so they stop his fashion show by force. Patrizia and Maurizio ask Paolo to sell his shares to them, but he rebuffs their effort and cuts ties with them. Italian police search Maurizio, attempting to arrest him for forging Rodolfo's signature. He flees to Switzerland, where Maurizio meets his old friend Paola Franchi. After an argument between Maurizio and Patrizia, he is tired of his wife's influence on him and the company. He orders his wife and daughter to return to Italy, and begins an affair with Paola, which Pina senses. When Maurizio's business plans harm the company, he seeks assistance from investment firm Investcorp, through which he hatches a scheme to acquire shares of the company from a now-impoverished Paolo. Aldo returns from prison and immediately realizes what Paolo has done. When Investcorp offers to buy out Aldo, he refuses, until Maurizio reveals himself to be the deal's instigator. Dejected, Aldo sells the shares and cuts out communication with Maurizio. Patrizia attempts a reconciliation with Maurizio, but he bluntly ignores her. He soon asks her for a divorce through his longtime assistant, Domenico De Sole, a request that she refuses. Maurizio recruits up-and-coming designer Tom Ford to revitalize the company's image through a new line. His products are successful, but Maurizio has so thoroughly mismanaged the company that, by 1995, Investcorp's leaders feel compelled to buy him out, replacing him with Tom and Domenico. Patrizia eventually grows ever more furious with Maurizio. She asks Pina for help in assassinating him. Pina puts her in contact with two hitmen. A few days later, they shoot Maurizio to death in broad daylight outside his office. Patrizia takes her husband's last name while announcing herself in court, indicating that she still considers herself to be a Gucci, even if the law does not. Patrizia, Pina and the hitmen are sentenced to long prison terms following their arrests for murder. Aldo dies of prostate cancer in 1990, and Paolo dies in poverty shortly following the sale of his shares to Maurizio. Gucci is fully acquired by Investcorp, and continues to be successfully managed. Ultimately, no Gucci family members remain with the company.

In the future, all forests on Earth have become extinct from careless environmental exploitation. As many specimens as possible have been preserved in a series of enormous greenhouse-like geodesic domes serving as closed ecological systems attached to large cargo spaceships, forming part of a fleet of eight " American Airlines Space Freighters", stationed outside the orbit of Saturn. Freeman Lowell, one of four crewmen, is the resident botanist and ecologist on one of these ships, the Valley Forge. He carefully maintains a variety of plants for their eventual return to Earth and the reforestation of the planet. He spends most of his time in the domes, cultivating the crops and attending to the animal life. The crew of each ship receives orders to jettison and destroy their domes and return the freighters to commercial service. After four of the six Valley Forge domes are jettisoned and destroyed with nuclear charges, Lowell rebels and opts to save his ship's plants and animals. He kills John Wolf, one of his crewmates who arrives to plant explosives in his favorite dome, and his right leg is seriously injured in the process. He then jettisons and triggers the destruction of the other remaining dome to trap and kill the remaining two crewmen. Enlisting the aid of the ship's three service robots, Lowell stages a fake premature explosion as a ruse and sends the Valley Forge speeding toward Saturn in an attempt to hijack the ship and flee with the last forest dome. He then reprograms the drones to perform surgery on his leg and sets the Valley Forge on a risky course through Saturn's rings. Later, as the ship endures the rough passage, Drone 3 is lost, but the ship and its remaining dome emerge relatively undamaged on the other side of the rings. Lowell gives the surviving drones the names Dewey (Drone 1) and Huey (Drone 2), while the lost Drone 3 is named Louie (a nod to Disney characters Huey, Dewey, and Louie). Lowell, Huey, and Dewey set out into deep space to maintain the forest. Lowell reprograms Huey and Dewey to plant trees and play poker. He also has them bury Wolf in the bio-dome. Lowell begins speaking to them constantly, as if they are children. Huey is damaged when Lowell accidentally collides with him while driving a buggy recklessly, and Dewey sentimentally refuses to leave Huey's side during the repairs. As time passes, Lowell is horrified when he discovers that his bio-dome is dying, but is unable to come up with a solution to the problem. When the Berkshire —another space freighter waiting to see if the Valley Forge has survived the trip around Saturn—eventually reestablishes contact, he knows that his crimes will soon be discovered. It is then that he realizes a lack of light has restricted plant growth, and he races to install lamps to correct this situation. In an effort to save the last forest before the Berkshire arrives, Lowell jettisons the bio-dome to safety. He then detonates nuclear charges, destroying the Valley Forge, the damaged Huey, and himself in the process. The final scene is of the now well-lit forest greenhouse drifting into deep space, with Dewey tenderly caring for it, holding Lowell's battered old watering can.

Richard, a young American backpacker seeking adventure in Bangkok, stays in a drab travellers' hotel on Khao San Road where he meets a young French couple, Françoise and Étienne, and he immediately becomes attracted to Françoise. He also meets the mentally unstable Scottish traveller Daffy, who tells him of a pristine, uninhabited island in the Gulf of Thailand with a beautiful hidden beach. Daffy explains that he settled there in secret several years earlier, but difficulties arose and he left. The next day, Richard finds out that Daffy died by suicide and left him a map to the island. Richard persuades Françoise and Étienne to accompany him to the island, and the three travel to Ko Samui. Richard meets two American surfers, Zeph and Sammie, who have heard rumors of the island, and he gives them a copy of the map. En route to the island, Richard's infatuation with Françoise grows. After swimming to the island from a neighbouring one, they find a cannabis plantation guarded by armed Thai farmers. Avoiding detection, they make their way across the island, jumping off a large waterfall and meeting Keaty, who brings them to a community of travellers living on the island in secret. Sal, the community's English leader, explains that the farmers allow them to stay so long as they keep to themselves and do not allow any more travellers to come to the island. Richard lies about not having shown the map to anyone else, and the trio becomes integrated into the community. One night, Françoise invites Richard to the beach, where she tells him she is falling in love with him, and they start an affair. Although they hoped to keep it secret, the community finds out and, while he is angry, Étienne says he will not stand in their way if Françoise is happier with Richard. Sal selects Richard to accompany her on a supply run to Ko Pha Ngan. They encounter the American surfers who are preparing to search for the island and mention Richard's map. Sal is upset but believes Richard when he says they have no copy of the map. To ensure Sal's confidentiality, Richard has sex with her at her order. On their return to the island, Richard lies to Françoise about having sex with Sal. One day, three of the community fishermen are attacked by a shark while spearfishing. One is killed and another, Christo, is severely injured. He pleads for medical attention, but Sal will allow him to leave only if he promises not to disclose the location of the beach. However, now terrified of the water, Christo refuses to be taken to the mainland for medical treatment, but Sal refuses to allow any doctors to be brought to the island to treat him. As Christo's condition worsens, the islanders simply leave him in the jungle to die, but Étienne refuses to abandon him. When the surfers turn up on the neighbouring island, Sal orders Richard to send them away and destroy their map. Later that night, an angry and hearbroken Françoise confronts Richard after Sal tells everyone she and Richard had sex, causing her to return to Étienne. Isolated from the group, Richard begins to lose his sanity, imagining he is in a video game and conversing with the deceased Daffy. He sets booby traps in the jungle and gets teasingly close to the farmers without being caught. The surfers reach the island but are discovered and killed by the farmers. Shocked at witnessing their deaths and escaping back to camp, Richard smothers Christo to put him out of his misery and gathers Françoise and Étienne to leave the island. Richard, Françoise and Étienne are captured by the farmers. The farmers are furious with the community for breaking their deal not to allow any more newcomers. The lead farmer gives Sal a gun loaded with a single bullet and orders her to make a choice: kill Richard and the group will be allowed to stay or they all must leave immediately. Sal pulls the trigger, but the chamber is empty. Shocked by Sal's willingness to commit murder, the other members of the community abandon Sal, leave the island, and go their separate ways. Sometime later in an internet café, Richard receives an email from Françoise with a nostalgic group photograph of the beach community in happier times.