Young USAC racer Cole Trickle is recruited by Chevrolet dealership tycoon Tim Daland to race for his team in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, bringing former crew chief and car builder Harry Hogge out of retirement to lead Cole's pit crew (Harry had left NASCAR a year prior to avoid investigation involving the death of driver Buddy Bretherton). After Cole sets a fast time in a private test at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Harry builds him a new chassis and hires him onto his team. Cole makes his first start at Phoenix, where he has difficulty adjusting to the larger NASCAR stock cars and communicating with his crew, while being intimidated on the track by Winston Cup Champion and dirty driver Rowdy Burns; these obstacles, combined with numerous crashes and blown engines, prevent Cole from finishing the next three races at Bristol, Dover, and Rockingham. Cole confesses to Harry that he does not understand any common NASCAR terminology, leading Harry to put him through rigorous training. This pays off at Darlington, when Cole uses a slingshot maneuver from the outside line to overtake Rowdy and win his first race. The rivalry between Cole and Rowdy intensifies throughout the season until the Firecracker 400 at Daytona, where both drivers are seriously injured after being caught in a massive crash. Recovering in Daytona Beach, Cole develops a romantic relationship with Dr. Claire Lewicki, a doctor at a local hospital. NASCAR President Big John brings Rowdy and Cole together in a meeting and warns them that he and his sport will no longer tolerate any misbehavior from the two rivals. The two bitter rivals soon become close friends after having dinner and settling their differences by smashing rental cars in a race on the beach, per Big John's persuasion. Daland hires another hotshot rookie, Russ Wheeler, to fill Cole's seat until Cole returns, and then expands his team, with Daland now fielding two cars – the second car driven by Russ, despite Harry's disapproval. Though Cole shows signs of his old self, he falls into a new rivalry with Russ, leading to an engine failure at Atlanta. Daland offers no help to Cole or his crew, as he is defensive of his newest driver. At North Wilkesboro, Russ blocks Cole's path during their pit stop, and later forces Cole into the outside wall on the last lap to win the race. Cole retaliates by crashing into Russ' car after the race, leading to a fight between Harry, Daland, and both of Cole and Russ's pit crews, with Daland firing both Cole and Harry in the process. Rowdy learns he has to undergo brain surgery to fix a broken blood vessel, and asks Cole to drive his car at the Daytona 500 so his sponsor will pay for the year. Cole reluctantly agrees and convinces Harry to return as his crew chief. Hours prior to the race, Harry discovers metal in the oil pan, a sign of engine failure, and manages to procure a new engine from Daland, who still believes in his former driver's promise. During the race, Cole's car is spun out by Russ and suffers a malfunctioning transmission, but the combined efforts of Harry's and Daland's pit crews manage to fix the problem and get Cole back on the lead lap. On the final lap, Russ predicts that Cole will attempt his signature slingshot maneuver from outside, but Cole tricks him with a crossover, overtaking him from the inside to win his first Daytona 500. Cole drives into Victory Lane, where he and his pit crew celebrate with Claire. He approaches Harry, sitting alone, who is impressed by Cole's performance. Cole asks Harry to walk with him and Harry agrees, challenging him to a foot race to Victory Lane.

In the wintry Russian countryside of the early 1940s, Vladimir (Gregory Peck) leads a squad of partisan fighters operating behind German lines. The group's routines are disrupted when Nina (Tamara Toumanova), a ballerina, is brought to their hideout after becoming separated from her troupe. She confesses she has neither handled a gun nor learned to fight, cook, mend, or clean. Vladimir doubts she will be of any use. Later, a German soldier stumbles upon the group's lair but is captured. That night, he attempts an escape, but, at gunpoint, Nina shoots him, winning the approval of her new comrades. The next night, when the guerrillas carry out the sabotage of a German munitions train, Vladimir takes Nina along to be initiated. The operation is a success. Yet although she and Vladimir are becoming close, Nina is put off by his ruthlessness. He explains that before the war he, as an engineer, had to destroy the very hydroelectric power plant he had helped build in order to keep the enemy from using it. The couple's budding romance threatens the stability of the squad. At one point, when Vladimir must enlist someone to pass through Naxi lines to relay a coded message to his superior, he decides a woman would less likely be caught. He chooses the veteran Yelena (Maria Palmer), the only woman in the group besides Nina. When Yelena's horse returns to their hideout with blood on the saddle, Nina volunteers to take her place. Vladimir reluctantly accedes, sending the teen-aged boy Mitya (Glen Vernon) along with her. Upon delivering the message, she is given a coded reply: "The snow will fall tomorrow." This indicates that an anticipated massive Russian counterattack will begin the next day. Vladimir's superiors put him in charge of a merged partisan operation. Before the fighting begins, however, he orders Nina to take Mitya's younger sister, Olga (Dena Penn), to safety. Fighting bravely, the group's members are killed one by one, but Nina returns to Vladimir. As they fight on, he administers her the partisan oath of allegiance just before a German tank rolls atop their machine-gun nest and explodes.

In an unknown Balkan city-state – "a place that calls itself Rome " – riots are in progress after stores of grain are withheld from citizens and civil liberties are reduced due to a war between Rome and neighbouring Volsci. The rioters are particularly angry at Caius Martius, a brilliant Roman general whom they blame for the city's problems. During a march, the rioters encounter Martius, who is openly contemptuous and does not hide his low opinion of the regular citizens. The commander of the Volscian army, Tullus Aufidius, who has fought Martius on several occasions and considers him a mortal enemy, swears that the next time they meet in battle will be the last. Martius leads a raid against the Volscian city of Corioles; much of Martius's unit is killed, but he gathers reinforcements and the Romans take the city. After the battle, Martius and Aufidius meet in single combat, which results in both men being wounded but ends when Aufidius's soldiers drag him away from the fight. Martius returns to Rome victorious, and in recognition of his great courage, General Cominius gives him the agnomen of "Coriolanus". Coriolanus's mother Volumnia encourages her son to run for consul within the Roman Senate. Coriolanus is reluctant but eventually agrees to his mother's wishes. He easily wins the Roman Senate and seems at first to have won over the commoners as well due to his military victories. Two tribunes, Brutus and Sicinius, are critical of his entrance into politics, fearing that his popularity would lead to Coriolanus taking power away from the Senate for himself. They scheme to undo Coriolanus and so stir up another riot in opposition to him becoming consul. When they call Coriolanus a traitor, Coriolanus bursts into rage and openly attacks the concept of popular rule as well as the citizens of Rome, demonstrating that he still holds the plebeians in contempt. He compares allowing citizens to have power over the senators as to allowing "crows to peck the eagles". The tribunes term Coriolanus a traitor for his words and order him banished. Coriolanus retorts that he will banish Rome from his presence: "There is a world elsewhere". After being exiled from Rome, Coriolanus seeks out Aufidius in the Volscian capital of Antium and offers to let Aufidius kill him, to spite the country that banished him. Moved by his plight and honoured to fight alongside the great general, Aufidius and his superiors embrace Coriolanus and allow him to lead a new assault on the city so that he can claim vengeance on the city which he feels betrayed him. Coriolanus and Aufidius lead a Volscian attack on Rome. Panicked, Rome sends General Titus to persuade Coriolanus to halt his crusade for vengeance; when Titus reports his failure, Senator Menenius follows but is also shunned. In response, Menenius, who has seemingly lost all hope in Coriolanus and Rome, commits suicide by a river bank. Finally, Volumnia is sent to meet with her son, along with Coriolanus's wife Virgilia and his son. Volumnia succeeds in dissuading her son from destroying Rome and Coriolanus makes peace between the Volscians and the Romans alongside General Cominius. When Coriolanus returns to the Volscian border, he is confronted by Aufidius and his men, who now also brand him as a traitor. They call him Martius and refuse to call him by his "stolen name" of Coriolanus. Aufidius explains to Coriolanus how he put aside his hatred so that they could conquer Rome but now that Coriolanus has prevented this, he has betrayed the promise between them. For this betrayal, Aufidius and his men attack and kill Coriolanus.

Mikael Boghosian is an apothecary who lives in the small Armenian village of Siroun in the southeast part of Turkey, within the Ottoman Empire. In order to help pay the expenses for medical school, he promises to marry Maral, the daughter of an affluent neighbor, receiving 400 gold coins as a dowry. This allows him to travel to Constantinople and attend the Imperial School of Medicine. There, Mikael befriends Emre, the son of a high-ranking Ottoman official. Through his wealthy uncle, he also meets Ana Khesarian, an Armenian woman raised in Paris, who is involved with an American reporter for the Associated Press, Chris Myers. Mikael falls in love with Ana just as international tensions begin to rise with the outbreak of World War I. Mikael temporarily manages to avoid conscription into the Ottoman Army through a medical student exemption with the help of Emre. When he, with Emre's help, tries to save his uncle from imprisonment during the roundups of April 24, 1915, he is detained and sent to a labor camp, while Emre is conscripted as a consequence for helping Mikael a second time after his father warned him not to. Mikael eventually escapes the camp. Returning to his village, he finds that the townspeople of Turkish background have violently turned on their fellow townspeople of Armenian background. His parents, and particularly his mother, persuade him to marry Maral and seek refuge in a remote mountain cabin, where she soon becomes pregnant. A difficult pregnancy leads Mikael to bring his wife back to the care of his mother in the village. There he learns that Ana and Christopher are at a nearby Red Cross facility, so he goes to seek their help for his family to escape the imminent Turkish threat. Departing the mission with a group of orphans, they head back to Siroun to retrieve Mikael's family. Along the way, however, they encounter the site of a massacre. It soon becomes clear it's all of Siroun's inhabitants, including Mikael's family except his mother and cousin Yeva, killed by Ottoman troops. Mikael's wife is found with their unborn child cut out from her body. Chris is captured by Ottoman soldiers and sent back to Constantinople, charged with being a spy for the Allied Powers and, while held at Selimiye Barracks, slated for execution by the authorities. With the help of Emre, and through the intercession of American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Chris is released and deported to Malta. Once there, he boards the French cruiser Guichen, as it prepares to set sail along the Ottoman coast. Emre's role in helping to save Chris is discovered and he is executed by firing squad. Escaping pursuit, Mikael, Ana, and the orphans join a large group of refugees determined to fight off the Ottoman Army on Mount Musa Dagh. As they fend off repeated assaults, Mikael's mother succumbs to her wounds and is buried on the mountain. The refugees hold on long enough to escape on the back side to the coast as the Guichen comes to evacuate them. But as the lifeboats return to the ship, a Turkish artillery barrage throws Ana and Yeva, the young daughter of Mikael's uncle, overboard. Mikael jumps in after them and is able to rescue Yeva, but Ana drowns. In a voice over, Mikael recounts that he adopted Yeva and together they settled in Watertown, Massachusetts while Chris was killed reporting the Spanish Civil War in 1938. During Yeva's wedding reception in 1942, with the now grown Armenian orphans in attendance, Mikael presides over a toast, wishing good fortune to their families and future generations to come.

In 1943, United States Navy sailors David Herdeg and Jim Parker serve aboard destroyer escort USS Eldridge, docked in Philadelphia. Doctor James Longstreet and his team conduct an experiment to render the ship invisible to radar, but a malfunction causes the ship to disappear. David and Jim's attempts to stop the experiment fail and they jump overboard to escape. They land during the night in a small town, which also disappears, leaving them marooned in a desert. Startled by the appearance of an unfamiliar aircraft (a helicopter), they flee and Jim is nearly electrocuted by an electric fence. Eventually, they find their way to a roadside diner. An energy discharge from Jim destroys two arcade games, forcing an altercation with the owner. Fleeing to the parking lot, they take a woman named Allison Hayes hostage and force her to drive them away. Confused by their surroundings, they are shocked when Allison tells them that the year is 1984. They are tracked and apprehended by the police. Jim, who is suffering increasingly severe seizures, is hospitalized before disappearing from his hospital bed in a flash of light. David and Allison then evade military police, who have arrived to take David into custody. Learning that they are near Jim's birthplace, Santa Paula, California, David decides to try to find his family. Jim's wife Pamela, who is now a senior citizen, immediately recognizes David from 1943. She says that the Eldridge had reappeared minutes after disappearing. Jim had also returned and had been chastised and hospitalized after telling the truth about temporarily visiting 1984. David finds that he himself never returned. David sees an elderly Jim outside a window but Jim refuses to speak with him. As David and Allison leave, they see military police approaching and a high speed chase through Jim's ranch ensues. The two manage to elude them when the pursuing vehicle crashes and burns. From the burning wreck, David salvages documents mentioning Longstreet. Recognizing that Longstreet had been involved with the Philadelphia experiment in 1943, David decides to find him. As they spend time together, David and Allison fall in love. In 1984, Longstreet has attempted to use the same technologies that were used in the Eldridge experiment to create a shield as protection from an ICBM attack. When the equipment was tested, the shielded town disappeared into "hyperspace". The scientists are unable to shut down the experiment, which has created a vortex that is drawing matter into it and causes extremely unstable and severe weather. Longstreet predicts that the vortex will continue to expand until the entire world is consumed. The scientists send a probe into the vortex and discover the Eldridge inside. They theorize that the two experiments have linked together with the generators on the Eldridge powering the vortex. David captures Adjutant Andrews, an assistant at Longstreet's home and forces Andrews to take them onto the base. Longstreet explains the situation to David and tells him that, according to surviving sailors from the Eldridge, the ship returned to Philadelphia in 1943 after David shut down the generator. Longstreet says that David must go through the vortex to the Eldridge and terminate the experiment or the vortex will destroy the Earth. David is outfitted with a protective suit to allow him to shut down the experiment and catapulted into the vortex. He lands on the deck of the Eldridge, where he finds crew members badly injured. He hurries to the generator room and smashes arrays of vacuum tubes using a firefighting axe. The generator shuts down and David looks for Jim. Assured that Jim is fine, David jumps over the side of the ship and disappears. Back in 1943, Longstreet and others watch the Eldridge reappear in Philadelphia, revealing crew members with severe burns, while others have been fused alive into the ship's hull. In 1984, the missing town reappears as Allison and David are reunited.

A mysterious, vengeful stranger rides into town and creates all sorts of havoc. It seems there are a number of people on his list and before he metes out justice to each one, he places a cross with that person's name on it in the middle of the street. The burning question becomes whether these people are dealing with a one-man army of flesh and blood or an avenging angel of death. The answer may lie in the betrayal and massacre of a Confederate Army unit during the Civil War...

In the future, United Kingdom is on the brink of war with China over the Taiwan issue. The British military needs soldiers with fluency in Chinese who are also ruthless killers. At an underground military base, scientists employed by Britain's Ministry of Defence produce a cybernetic implant that allows brain-damaged soldiers to regain lost functions. Their AI researcher Vincent McCarthy sets up a cognitive test for soldier Paul Dawson, a recipient of the cybernetic implant to rehabilitate his left hemispherectomy. Upset with Dawson's inability to remember anything about his past and his apparent lack of empathy, McCarthy ignores Dawson's repeated requests to see his mother. Dawson turns violent, kills McCarthy's assistant and wounds McCarthy, telling him that he's sorry just before being shot dead. Afterwards, Dawson's mother regularly stays on the road to the entrance of the base and tries to solicit information about her son's whereabouts, though McCarthy professes no knowledge of the incident. McCarthy's research leads to a series of more stable cyborgs. Although they lose the capability for human speech, the cyborgs develop a highly efficient method of communication that they keep secret. When researcher Ava demonstrates her latest work in artificial intelligence, McCarthy recruits her by promising her unlimited funds for her research. Thomson, the director, is suspicious of Ava's countercultural politics and sympathy for Dawson's mother but he relents when McCarthy insists that she is the only one who can provide the necessary programming for their latest project: a self-aware and conscious android. McCarthy plans to use this technology to help his daughter, Mary, who suffers from Rett syndrome, a neurological disorder. When she finds out, Ava volunteers to help and McCarthy maps her brain. During a demonstration of cybernetic arms that provide superhuman strength, amputee soldier James whispers a cry for help to Ava, who becomes suspicious of the treatment of the wounded soldiers. After she goes exploring in the base, McCarthy sternly warns her to avoid causing trouble. The warning comes too late and Thomson arranges to have her murdered by a Chinese Ministry of State Security agent, who impersonates Dawson's mother. Grieved by the loss of Ava, McCarthy insists that they use her brain scan and likeness for the new project, whom they dub "Machine." Machine turns out to be more human than they expected or even wanted; she shows regret when she accidentally kills a human and refuses orders that violate her sense of morality. As Thomson's demands on her grow more at odds with her morality, Machine becomes increasingly distressed and asks McCarthy to protect her. As antagonism grows between Thomson and McCarthy, Thomson promises that he will relent if McCarthy can prove that Machine is sentient. After Mary dies, Thomson uses her brain scans as leverage against McCarthy, threatening to destroy the scans unless McCarthy excises Machine's consciousness. Machine, who has come to love McCarthy, offers to sacrifice herself for Mary and he removes a chip from Machine's head. Thomson reneges on his deal and orders Machine to kill McCarthy. Although Machine seems at first to obey, a scientist alerts Thomson that the operation was a sham and it only disabled fail-safe routines designed to destroy Machine. Machine and the cyborgs rebel against the humans and free McCarthy. From his computer console, Thomson disables half the cyborgs but Suri, his cyborg aide, overrides his access before he can kill the rest. Thomson shoots and wounds Suri but Machine corners him in his office. Now wounded, he first orders her to obey, then begs for his life. Although Machine agrees not to kill him, she lobotomizes him as he'd attempted to do to her. After leaving Thomson for dead, Machine downloads Mary's brain scan. Machine, McCarthy and Suri escape the base; outside, McCarthy hands the base records to Dawson's mother and leaves to start a new life with Machine. In the final scene, McCarthy talks to a computer virtualization of his daughter and she requests to play a game with her mother. McCarthy hands the tablet to Machine, and she is then shown gazing alternately at the device and at a beautiful orange sunset over the Atlantic Ocean.

A brilliant and driven scientist, Jake Terrell, and his wife, Maggie, along with their small team, are training dolphins to communicate with humans at their remote island research facility. They teach Alpha ("Fa"), a dolphin they have raised in captivity for four years, to speak simple English. They introduce him to a female dolphin captured from the wild, whom they name Beta ("Bea"). Fa regresses to his "native language" for a while, but soon teaches Bea to understand English, too. Terrell's research is funded by the Franklin Foundation, headed by Harold DeMilo (Fritz Weaver). An undercover government agent for hire, Curtis Mahoney (Paul Sorvino), blackmails DeMilo to allow him access to Terrell's facility under the guise of a freelance journalist writing about dolphin research. Although Terrell and his team attempt to stonewall Mahoney, he finds out the truth about Fa and Bea and threatens to publish his findings. To prevent this, Terrell agrees with DeMilo to reveal his progress to the Foundation board of directors, and travels to the mainland for a press conference. Once he and Maggie are there, the press conference is mysteriously cancelled, and Fa and Bea are stolen from the island. After the dolphins are kidnapped, Mahoney reveals that the Franklin Institute is planning to further train the dolphins to carry out a political assassination, using a magnetic limpet mine to kill the President of the United States. One of Terrell's team, David, is revealed to have been an undercover operative of the institute, and is helping them train the dolphins for the assassination attempt. Fa escapes and returns to the Terrells, and the conspirators set Bea off to place the mine on the President's yacht. Realizing what is happening, Jake tells Fa to stop Bea; Fa intercepts Bea, and redirects her to place the mine on the conspirators' boat, which is destroyed in the ensuing explosion, killing David and most of the board. Fa and Bea return to the Terrells, but as DeMilo approaches the island in a seaplane, Jake instructs Fa and Bea to escape and live free in the ocean. Fa is reluctant to go, having formed a bond with Jake and Maggie, but Jake gruffly orders him to leave; eventually, both dolphins escape, leaving Jake and Maggie awaiting DeMilo and reflecting on what happened.

High Roller is told in flashback. Ungar (Michael Imperioli), in a motel room on the last night of his life, relates his personal story to a stranger (Michael Pasternak). He speaks of growing up as the son of a bookie, his career as a tournament gin player, moving into poker, his marriage and the birth of his daughter Stefanie, cocaine abuse, and the breakup of his marriage. The film climaxes with Ungar's third victory at the Main Event of the World Series of Poker a year before his passing. In the final scene, Ungar departs the motel room with the stranger (who apparently represents the Grim Reaper).

Emory Leeson is an advertising executive who experiences a nervous breakdown. He designs a series of "truthful" advertisements, blunt and bawdy and of no use to his boss Drucker's firm. One of his colleagues, Stephen Bachman, checks him into a psychiatric hospital. Emory goes into group therapy under the care of Dr. Liz Baylor and meets other voluntary patients, such as the lovely and vulnerable Kathy Burgess. There is also George, who can speak only one word: "Hello." By mistake, Emory's advertisements get printed and the new campaign turns out to be a tremendous success. Campaigns like: " Jaguar — For men who'd like hand jobs from beautiful women they hardly know." and " Volvo — they're boxy but they're good." Drucker grabs credit for the ads. He assigns Stephen and the rest of his employees to design similar new ad campaigns featuring so-called honesty in advertising, but nothing works. Emory is approached in the sanitarium about creating new ads himself. He insists that his fellow mental patients also be involved and suitably rewarded for their work, transforming the sanitarium into a branch of the advertising industry. They come up with wild advertising slogans, like one for a Greek travel agency that goes: "Forget Paris. The French can be annoying. Come to Greece. We're nicer." And another one called "Come... IN the Bahamas " for the islands' national tourism board. The patients experience happiness at being needed and improve from their various illnesses, including George, who begins to speak. Drucker and the doctor in charge of the hospital get greedy and try to separate the team, but it doesn't work. Dr. Baylor defies her boss and Emory negotiates to get new automobiles for all of the patients. Emory and Kathy, who have fallen in love, leave the hospital in an army helicopter piloted by Kathy's long-lost brother, stopping to take the rest of the patients with them. They then open their own advertising agency, with Sony ("Sony - Because Caucasians are just too damn tall") as their first client.

The pharmaceutical company Aston Laboratories sends biochemist Dr. Rae Crane into the Amazon rainforest to locate researcher Robert Campbell, after his wife (and research partner) abandons him. Crane is bringing equipment and supplies but Campbell is upset the research partner is not forthcoming. He tries to send Crane home but she demurs, as she has been assigned to determine whether Campbell's research deserves continued funding. Campbell has found a " cure for cancer ", but attempts to synthesize the compound have failed. With supplies of the successful serum running low, Campbell isolates a derivative of a species of flower from which the formula can be synthesized and with Crane's help is determined to find its source. Campbell earns the title " medicine man " of the village by giving a boy with a stomach ache Alka-Seltzer, insulting the real medicine man and driving him deep into the forest. A logging company is building a road headed straight for the village, threatening to expose the native population to potentially lethal foreign pathogens, as has happened before. In fact, Campbell's wife left him because he could not forgive himself for the tragedy. Imana, a small boy appears with malignant neoplasms and Campbell, Crane, Imana and his father Jahausa set out in search of Campbell's predecessor, a medicine man from whom Campbell once acquired his knowledge of flowers. Upon encountering Campbell's entourage, the medicine man flees in fear. Though he is reluctant to pursue the man further, Crane convinces him circumstances demand that he must. Campbell rescues Crane from a fall, then locates the medicine man, whom he is compelled to fight in order to heal the medicine man's wounded pride and gain further necessary information. Unfortunately, the medicine man reveals that the flowers have no "juju"—power to heal. Jahausa and Imana agree to return another time. Back at the village, Crane initially refuses to allow Campbell to inoculate Imana with the last of the serum until more can be synthesized. But when Imana's condition worsens, she gives in and Imana is inoculated. The next morning, Imana is better but the village is in tumult. The logging road is nearly finished. Campbell appeals to the company's workers to halt construction until he can conclude his research but it refuses. In desperation and after new samples fail to contain the missing compound, Crane runs the chromatograph one more time and accidentally discovers that the source of the cure is not the flower but a species of rare ant indigenous to the rainforest. Campbell demands the construction stop. A fight results and a bulldozer catches fire, destroying the village and the research station along with many acres of rainforest. The next day, Crane promises to send Campbell new equipment and the research assistant he'd originally requested. She is about to return home when she meets the medicine man. He symbolically passes on his mantle to Campbell. Crane accepts an invitation to continue working with Campbell in exchange for recognition for co-discovering the source of the compound.

In Reed College, in 1974, the high tuition costs force Steve Jobs to drop out, but Dean Jack Dudman allows him to sit in on classes. Jobs is particularly interested in a calligraphy course. Influenced by Baba Ram Dass 's book Be Here Now and their experiences with LSD, Jobs and his friend Daniel Kottke spend time in India. His philosophical ideas lead Jobs to the decision not to wear any footwear. Two years later, Jobs is back in Los Altos, California, living with his adoptive parents Paul and Clara. While working for Atari, Inc. as a video game developer, Jobs develops a partnership with his friend Steve "Woz" Wozniak. Jobs is charged by his boss Al Alcorn to re-develop arcade video game Breakout, which he ends up having Wozniak build in his place. The job is such a success that Alcorn presents it to President Nolan Bushnell, but Jobs inequitably distributes the salary for Breakout 's development between Wozniak and himself. Later, Jobs discovers that Wozniak built a prototype for the Apple I, a " personal home computer " which he expresses interest in commercializing. They name their new company Apple Computer. After a failed sale at his employer company HP, Wozniak reluctantly demonstrates the Apple I at the Homebrew Computer Club to a bored audience. Jobs is later approached by store owner Paul Terrell who shows interest in the Apple I. Jobs persuades his father Paul to let them set up their new company in the family's garage workshop. Jobs also recruits Kottke, fellow engineer Bill Fernandez, and young neighbor Chris Espinosa to the Apple team. Terrell's disappointment in the Apple I (in his opinion, being only a motherboard and not a full computer as promised), inspires Jobs to restart with a second model. He hires Rod Holt to re-conceptualize the power supply for what will be called the Apple II. Venture capitalist Mike Markkula notices Jobs and Wozniak's work, and also joins Apple. The Apple II is released at the 1977 West Coast Computer Faire, where it is a success. Apple's success causes Jobs to distance himself from his friends. Upon learning that his high-school girlfriend Chrisann Brennan is pregnant, Jobs ends their relationship. Brennan gives birth to Lisa, whom Jobs denies is his child. Kottke (now an Apple II Plus repairer) meanwhile leaves the company after acknowledging that Jobs (who hardly even has any time to talk to him) is not rewarding the Apple I team with any Apple stock. John Sculley is recruited as CEO of the company. As Jobs' behavior grows more erratic, Jobs is moved from the Apple Lisa development team to the Macintosh Group, where he works with Bill Atkinson, Burrell Smith, Chris Espinosa, and Andy Hertzfeld. Despite the change, his behavior does not change: he forces out Jef Raskin, the original Macintosh group leader, and then takes his place. Later, he phones Microsoft founder Bill Gates, legally threatening him because their Word software is, in his opinion, a plagiarism of Apple's word processor. Wozniak, still part of the Apple IIe team, decides to leave the company, feeling that it has lost its way. Though the Macintosh is introduced with great fanfare in 1984, including a high-budget commercial, it is seen as a failure due to the disproportionately high cost (as compared to IBM PC compatibles). Jobs, convinced that the error is the limited random-access memory of the system, launches a more advanced version, but Sculley forces him out of the company in 1985. In 1996, Jobs is married to Laurene Powell and has accepted Lisa as his daughter (she now lives with them). He has a son, Reed, and also runs NeXT. When Apple buys NeXT, then-CEO Gil Amelio asks Jobs to return to Apple as a consultant. Jobs is named the new CEO, fires Amelio and relieves the Board of Directors. Jobs becomes interested in the work of Jony Ive, particularly during the design of the iMac and strives to reinvent Apple. Jobs later records the dialogue for the Think Different commercial in 1997. In 2001, Steve Jobs introduces the iPod at an Apple Town Hall meeting.