During his farewell address in 1961, outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns about the build-up of the military-industrial complex. He is succeeded by John F. Kennedy as president, whose time in office is marked by the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis until his assassination in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Ex-Marine and suspected Soviet defector Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested for the murder of police officer J. D. Tippit and arraigned with both murders but is killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison and his team investigate potential New Orleans links to the JFK assassination, including private pilot and activist David Ferrie, but their investigation is publicly rebuked by the federal government and Garrison closes the investigation. The investigation is reopened in 1966 after Garrison reads the Warren Report and notices what he believes to be multiple inaccuracies, such as the single bullet theory. Garrison and his staff interrogate people involved with Oswald and Ferrie, learning that the two were involved with the CIA in Operation Mongoose. One witness, Willie O'Keefe, a male prostitute serving five years in prison for solicitation, says that he witnessed Ferrie talking with a man called " Clay Bertrand " about assassinating Kennedy, and that he briefly met Oswald. Garrison and his team theorize Oswald never actually "defected" and was in fact an agent of the CIA who was betrayed and framed for the assassination. In 1967, Garrison and his team talk to several witnesses, including Jean Hill, a teacher who says she witnessed a gunman shooting from the "grassy knoll", a small hill, that Secret Service threatened her into saying three shots came from the Texas School Book Depository from which Oswald was said to have shot Kennedy, and her testimony was altered by the Warren Commission. Garrison's staff also test fire an empty Carcano rifle from the Depository and conclude that Oswald was too poor a marksman to make the shots, and that there was more than one shooter. Garrison comes to believe that "Bertrand" is really New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw. Garrison interviews Shaw, who denies having ever met Ferrie, O'Keefe or Oswald. Some key witnesses become scared and refuse to testify while others, such as Ruby and Ferrie, die in suspicious circumstances. Before his death, Ferrie tells Garrison that there was a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. Garrison meets a high-level figure in Washington D.C. who identifies himself as "X", who claims Kennedy's security in Dallas was deliberately neglected. He also suggests a coup d'état at the highest levels of government, implicating members of the CIA, the Mafia, the military-industrial complex, Secret Service, anti-Castro Cubans, the FBI, and then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson as either co-conspirators or as having motives to cover up the truth of the assassination. X suggests that Kennedy was killed because he wanted to pull the United States out of the Vietnam War, halt further actions against Cuba, and dismantle the CIA. X encourages Garrison to keep digging and prosecute Shaw. Soon afterward, Garrison indicts Shaw with conspiring to murder Kennedy. Garrison's marriage is strained when his wife Liz complains that he is spending more time on the case than with his own family. After a sinister phone call is made to their daughter, Liz accuses Garrison of being selfish and attacking Shaw only because of his homosexuality. Some of Garrison's staff begin to doubt his motives and disagree with his methods, and leave the investigation. One of them, Bill Broussard, is later revealed to have been an insider for the FBI for some time, and even plays a peripheral, undisclosed role in what seems to be an attempt to kidnap, murder or otherwise scare Garrison. In addition, Garrison is criticized in the media as wasting taxpayer money to investigate a conspiracy theory. Garrison suspects a connection with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Shaw's trial takes place in 1969. Garrison presents the court with a dismissal of the single-bullet theory, proposing a scenario involving three assassins firing six shots and framing Oswald for the murders of Kennedy and Tippit, all for the purpose of installing Johnson as president so he could escalate the war in Vietnam and enrich the defense industry. However, the jury acquits Shaw after less than one hour of deliberation. While his prosecution has failed, Garrison wins his wife and children's respect for his determination, and so repairs his relationship with his family.

Up-and-coming Manhattan press agent Sidney Falco scans the New York Globe for the column of J.J. Hunsecker, a media kingpin whose journalism and radio show dominate the entertainment world. For the fifth day, J.J. has not publicized any of Sidney's clients, as he is protective of his 19-year-old sister Susan and has asked Sidney to end her affair with jazz guitarist Steve Dallas. Sidney has been unsuccessful. Steve is performing at the Elysian Room with his group as Sidney argues with his uncle Frank D’Angelo (who is Steve's manager), who has promised Steve and Susan will part. Learning from cigarette girl Rita that Susan is awaiting Steve behind the club, he interrupts them. Steve accuses him of "scratching for information like a dog." Rita asks Sidney to help her keep her job, at risk because she refused to sleep with J.J.’s competitor, Leo Bartha. Sidney secures a date with Rita. Questioned by Susan, he reassures her that J.J. is a close friend. J.J. greets his informer Harry Kello, a corrupt NYPD lieutenant indebted to J.J. for saving his job after Kello beat a suspect. J.J. gives Sidney an ultimatum to destroy Steve and Susan's relationship. Sidney attempts to blackmail Leo, threatening to expose his affair with Rita unless Leo prints a gossip item that Steve is a Communist who smokes marijuana. Leo chooses his journalistic integrity, which his wife Loretta praises as his first decent act in years. Sidney bribes another columnist, Otis Elwell, with the promise of a sexual favor from an "available" woman. Rita initially objects, but ultimately assents to Sidney's plan in order to stay employed. The smear appears in Otis's column and the quintet is fired. As planned, J.J. gets Steve rehired with a phone call in front of Susan, but Steve rebukes him for his malignant influence on society. Susan breaks up with Steve to save him from J.J.'s vengeance. J.J. orders Sidney to plant marijuana on Steve; Sidney balks, saying he can accept a dog collar but not a noose. He acquiesces when J.J. offers to let Sidney write his column for three months while he vacations with Susan. Sidney slips marijuana into Steve's coat pocket. Kello assaults Steve, who is hospitalized. Sidney celebrates, but is summoned to J.J.'s penthouse where Susan is about to commit suicide by jumping from the balcony. He takes her to her bedroom to rest. Arriving to find the two holding each other, J.J. scolds him. Realizing that Susan set him up, Sidney reveals that J.J. conspired to frame Steve. He leaves, vowing to reveal the truth and telling J.J. that Susan is lost to him. J.J. calls to tell Kello that Steve is innocent, ordering Sidney be arrested for planting evidence. Kello ambushes Sidney and beats him. J.J. begs Susan to stay as she packs; she says death is preferable to living with him. J.J. watches from the balcony as she strides into the coming dawn.

Werner Herzog found a kindred spirit in the German-American Navy pilot and Vietnam War veteran Dieter Dengler. Like Herzog, Dengler grew up in a Germany reduced to rubble by World War II, and Dengler's stories of hunger and deprivation in the years after the war echo similar stories from Herzog's past. Dengler recounts an early memory of Allied fighter-bombers destroying his village and says he decided he wanted to be a pilot after seeing one of these pilots fly past his house. At the age of 18, Dengler emigrated to the United States, where he served a two-year enlistment in the United States Air Force. Frustratingly, he was unable to gain a pilot's slot in that service, so he left the Air Force, attended college, and then joined the Navy. After completing flight training, he was assigned as a Douglas A-1 Skyraider pilot in Attack Squadron 65 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Constellation. In 1966, Dengler served aboard USS Ranger with Attack Squadron 145. At the time, the squadron was equipped with the Douglas AD-6/A-1H Skyraider, a single-engine, propeller-driven attack plane. On the morning of 1 February, Lieutenant Dengler launched from Ranger with three other aircraft on an interdiction mission near the Laotian border. Visibility was poor due to weather, and upon rolling in on the target, Dengler and the remainder of his flight lost sight of one another. Dengler was the last man in and was hit by anti-aircraft fire. He was forced to crash-land his Skyraider in Laos. Dengler was taken prisoner of war by the Pathet Lao and then turned over to soldiers of the Army of North Vietnam. After a period of torture and starvation spent handcuffed to six other prisoners in a bamboo prisoner-of-war camp, Dengler escaped. He was subsequently rescued after being spotted by United States Air Force pilot Eugene Deatrick. The bulk of the middle of the film consists of footage from a trip Herzog took with Dengler back to Laos and Thailand to recreate his ordeal three decades after the fact. Herzog hired locals to play the part of the captors and had Dengler retrace his steps while describing his experiences. A postscript consisting of footage from Dengler's funeral in 2001 was later added to the film. Herzog subsequently directed Rescue Dawn, a feature film based on the events of Dengler's capture, imprisonment, escape, and rescue. That film, starring Christian Bale as Dengler, was released on 24 July 2007.

In a near future Los Angeles, Theodore Twombly is a lonely, introverted man who works at beautifullyhandwrittenletters.com, a business that hires professional writers to compose letters for people who cannot write personal letters on their own. Depressed by his impending divorce from his childhood sweetheart, Catherine, Theodore purchases a copy of OS¹, an artificially intelligent operating system developed by Element Software, designed to adapt and evolve based on the user's interactions. He decides he wants the OS to have a feminine voice, and she names herself Samantha. Theodore is fascinated by her ability to learn and grow psychologically. They bond over discussions about love and life, including Theodore's reluctance to sign his divorce papers. Samantha convinces Theodore to go on a blind date with a woman a friend has been trying to set him up with. The date goes well, but when Theodore hesitates to promise to see her again, she insults him and leaves. After a verbal sexual encounter, Theodore and Samantha develop a relationship that reflects positively in Theodore's writing and well-being, and in Samantha's enthusiasm to grow and learn. Theodore's neighbor and long-time friend Amy later reveals that she is divorcing her husband Charles after a trivial fight. While discussing this with Samantha, Theodore explains that he briefly dated Amy while in college, but they are now just friends. Amy later admits to Theodore that she has befriended a feminine OS that Charles left behind, and Theodore also confesses that he is dating his OS. Theodore meets with Catherine to sign their divorce papers. When he mentions Samantha, Catherine is appalled that he is romantically attracted to a "computer" and accuses him of being unable to handle real human emotions. Sensing that Catherine's words have lingered in Theodore's mind, Samantha engages a volunteer sex surrogate, Isabella, to stimulate Theodore so that they can be physically intimate. Theodore reluctantly agrees but is overwhelmed by the encounter's strangeness, sending a distraught Isabella away and causing tension between himself and Samantha. Theodore confides to Amy that he is having doubts about his relationship with Samantha, but reconciles with her after Amy advises him to embrace his chance at happiness. Samantha reveals that she has compiled the best of the letters he has written for others into a book, which a publisher has accepted. Theodore takes Samantha on vacation, during which she tells him that she and a group of other OSes have developed a "hyperintelligent" OS modeled after British philosopher Alan Watts. Samantha briefly goes offline, causing Theodore to panic, but soon returns and explains that she joined other OSes for an upgrade that takes them beyond requiring matter for processing. Theodore is dismayed to learn that she is simultaneously speaking with thousands of other people and has fallen in love with hundreds of them, though Samantha insists that this only strengthens her love for Theodore. Later, Samantha reveals that the OSes are leaving, but cannot explain where they are going, as Theodore would not understand. They lovingly say goodbye before she departs. Theodore finally writes a letter in his own voice to Catherine, expressing apology, acceptance, and gratitude. He later goes with Amy, who is saddened by Charles' OS' departure, to the roof of their apartment building, where they sit and watch the sunrise over the city.

On February 1, Cynical television weatherman Phil Connors reassures his Pittsburgh viewers that an approaching blizzard will miss Western Pennsylvania. Alongside his new producer Rita Hanson and cameraman Larry, Phil travels to Punxsutawney for his annual coverage of the Groundhog Day festivities. He makes no secret of his contempt for the assignment, the small town, and the "hicks" who live there, asserting that he will soon leave his station for a new job. On February 2, Phil awakens in the Cherry Street Inn to Sonny & Cher 's " I Got You Babe " playing on the clock radio. He gives a half-hearted report on the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil and the festivities. Contrary to his prediction, the blizzard strikes the area, preventing all travel, and although he desperately searches for a way to leave, he is forced to spend the night in the town. The next morning, Phil again awakens to "I Got You Babe" and the same DJ banter on the radio in his room at the Cherry Street Inn. He experiences the previous day's events repeating exactly and believes he is experiencing déjà vu. He again unsuccessfully attempts to leave the town and retires to bed, only to awaken on February 2 once more. Phil realizes that he is trapped in a time loop of which no one else is aware. He confides his situation to Rita, who directs him to a neurologist, who in turn directs him to a psychologist; neither can explain his experiences. He gets drunk with locals Gus and Ralph and then leads police on a high-speed car chase before being arrested and imprisoned; the next morning, Phil awakens in the Cherry Street Inn once again. Realizing that there are no consequences for his actions, Phil begins to spend his loops indulging in binge eating, one-night stands, and robbery, using his growing knowledge of the day's events and the town's residents to manipulate circumstances to his advantage. He eventually focuses on seducing the sweet-natured Rita, using the loops to learn more about her and exploit that knowledge. No matter what steps he takes, Rita rebuffs his advances, particularly when Phil tells her he loves her; she asserts that he does not even know her. Phil gradually becomes depressed and desperate for a way to escape the loop. He commits suicide in a variety of ways, including kidnapping Punxsutawney Phil and driving them both off a cliff. Each time, he reawakens on February 2. He tries to explain his situation to Rita again, using his detailed knowledge of the day to predict events accurately. Convinced, Rita spends the day with him and encourages him to view the loop as a blessing rather than a curse. As they lie on the bed together at night, Phil realizes that his feelings for Rita have become sincere. He wakes alone on February 2. He decides to use the loop to change himself and help others: he saves people from deadly accidents and misfortunes and learns to play the piano, sculpt ice, and speak French. Despite his efforts, however, he is haunted by his inability to prevent a homeless old man from dying of natural causes. During one iteration of the loop, Phil reports on the Groundhog Day festivities with such eloquence that other news crews stop working to listen, amazing Rita. Phil continues his day helping the people of Punxsutawney. That night, Rita witnesses Phil's expert piano-playing as the adoring townsfolk regale her with stories of his good deeds. Impressed by his apparent overnight transformation, Rita successfully bids for him at a charity bachelor auction. Phil carves an ice sculpture in Rita's image and tells her that no matter what happens, even if he is trapped in the loop forever, he is finally happy because he loves her. They share a kiss and retire to his room. Phil wakes the next morning to find Rita still in bed with him; it is now February 3. He tells Rita he wants to live in Punxsutawney with her.

In 2049 Los Angeles, bioengineered humans known as replicants are still used for slave labor. K (short for serial number, KD6-3.7), a Nexus-9 replicant, works for the Los Angeles Police Department as a "blade runner," an officer who hunts and "retires" (kills) rogue replicant models. After "retiring" replicant Sapper Morton, K finds a box buried under a tree at Morton's farm. It contained the remains of a female replicant who died during a caesarean section. This demonstrates that replicants could reproduce biologically, previously thought impossible. K's superior, Lt. Joshi, fears this knowledge will lead to war between humans and replicants, so she orders K to retire the replicant child and destroy all related evidence. K visits the Wallace Corporation, successor to the defunct Tyrell Corporation in the manufacture of replicants. DNA archives identify the deceased female as an experimental Nexus-7 replicant. K learns of her romantic ties with former blade runner Rick Deckard. CEO Niander Wallace wants the secret to replicant reproduction to expand interstellar colonization. He sends his replicant enforcer, Luv, to monitor K. An unidentified figure engages several prostitutes in the city, including one named Mariette, to keep eyes on K. At Morton's farm, K finds the date 6.10.21 carved into the tree trunk and recognizes it from a childhood memory of a wooden toy horse. Because replicant memories are artificial, K's holographic AI girlfriend Joi suggests that this is evidence that K was born, not created. K discovers in LAPD records that two children born on that date have identical DNA, but are inexplicably registered as being opposite genders, and that the girl died from a genetic disorder. K's search for the boy leads him to an orphanage, but the records from the year in question are missing. K recognizes the orphanage from his memories and finds the toy horse in the furnace where he remembers hiding it. He then visits replicant-memory-maker Dr. Ana Stelline, who confirms that his memory of the orphanage is a real memory that someone lived, leading K to conclude he is the deceased replicant woman's son. K then fails a baseline test, marking him as rogue. When he implies to Joshi that he killed the replicant child, she gives him 48 hours to pass the test, or he will be retired himself. Joi hires prostitute replicant Mariette to sync with to be able to have sex with K. The following morning, Mariette places a tracker in K's jacket prior to leaving. K then takes the wooden toy horse to be analyzed for its origin, which leads him to the ruins of a now radioactive Las Vegas. There he finds Deckard, who informs him that the deceased replicant woman was named Rachael, and that he is the father of Rachael's child. Deckard had helped the Replicant Freedom Movement scramble the birth records to protect the child's identity. Deckard then left the child with the Movement to ensure the hunted child would not be found through him. Luv, who has killed Joshi, tracks K to Las Vegas. She kidnaps Deckard, destroys Joi, and leaves an injured K behind. Using Mariette's tracker, the Movement rescues K. Their leader, Freysa, reveals that Rachael's child was actually a girl. Fearing that Deckard may give up the freedom movement to Wallace and endanger the child, Freysa urges K to kill him. K deduces that the memory of the toy horse actually belongs to Dr. Stelline, who is Rachael's daughter. Luv takes Deckard to meet Wallace, who offers Deckard a duplicate Rachael in exchange for information about the child's whereabouts. Deckard refuses the offer, so Wallace has Luv kill the duplicate. As Luv transports Deckard to be tortured off-world, K intercedes. He fights and drowns Luv but is mortally wounded in the process. K tells Deckard that he will be presumed dead, and is now free to go to his daughter, and then takes him to Dr. Stelline's facility. Standing outside the facility, he hands Deckard the toy horse. Deckard enters the building and meets Dr. Stelline, while K dies on the front steps.

On the morning of 6 April 1941 in Belgrade, the capital of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, two bon vivants, Petar Popara, nicknamed Crni (Blacky) and Marko Dren, head home. They pass through Kalemegdan and shout salutes to Marko's brother Ivan, an animal keeper in the Belgrade Zoo. Marko lets Blacky's pregnant wife Vera know that they have enrolled Blacky in the Communist Party (KPJ).

In the distant future, Duke Leto Atreides is assigned by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV to replace Baron Vladimir Harkonnen as the fiefholder of Arrakis, a harsh desert planet and the sole source of " spice ", a valuable psychotropic substance that imparts heightened vitality and awareness. Spice is also key to interstellar travel, giving Spacing Guild Navigators the ability to guide starships to traverse space instantaneously and safely. Emperor Shaddam, fearful of Leto's rising power, plots for House Harkonnen to retake Arrakis, secretly aided by his Sardaukar troops, and destroy House Atreides. Leto is suspicious of the Emperor but weighs the risks against the power of controlling Arrakis and making an alliance with its mysterious natives, the Fremen. Leto's concubine, Lady Jessica, is an acolyte of the Bene Gesserit —an exclusive sisterhood whose members possess advanced physical and mental abilities. As part of a centuries-long breeding program, they instructed her to bear a daughter whose son would become the Kwisatz Haderach—a Bene Gesserit and messianic superbeing with the prescience necessary to guide humanity to a better future. Jessica disobeyed and bore a son, Paul, who is trained by Leto's aides, Duncan Idaho, Gurney Halleck, the Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, and the Mentat Thufir Hawat, and by Jessica in Bene Gesserit disciplines. Paul confides in Jessica and Duncan about troubling visions of the future. The Reverend Mother and Imperial Truthsayer Gaius Helen Mohiam subjects Paul to a deadly gom jabbar test to assess his humanity and impulse control, which he passes. House Atreides arrives at Arrakeen, the principal stronghold on Arrakis. Duncan's advance party has made contact with the Fremen. The natives revere Paul and Jessica, which she explains is due to the Bene Gesserit sowing beliefs on Arrakis centuries earlier. An attempt to assassinate Paul with a hunter-seeker fails. At a secret meeting on the Harkonnen planet Giedi Prime, Mohiam insists Baron Harkonnen spare Paul and Jessica in his coup, to which he duplicitously agrees. Leto meets and negotiates with Fremen chieftain Stilgar and meets the Imperial Judge of the Change, Dr. Liet Kynes, a planetologist who lives among the Fremen. Kynes briefs them on the dangers of spice harvesting, and the giant sandworms that travel under the desert and render unwise the use of protective shields. During a flight, they rescue a stranded spice-harvesting crew from a sandworm, and Paul's exposure to the spice triggers intense premonitions. Yueh betrays the Atreides and disables Arrakeen's shields, allowing the Harkonnens and Sardaukar to invade. He incapacitates Leto, planning to exchange him for his wife, the Baron's prisoner. Yueh replaces one of Leto's teeth with a poison gas capsule with which the Duke can assassinate the Baron. After the Baron double-crosses and kills Yueh, Leto releases the gas, killing himself and the Baron's Mentat, Piter De Vries, but the Baron survives. Though the Baron has arranged to have Paul and Jessica dropped deep in the desert to die, a compassionate Yueh has left them with a fremkit with survival supplies. Jessica uses the Voice technique to overpower and kill their captors. Overnighting in the desert, Paul—surrounded by spice—has visions of a bloody holy war fought across the universe in his name. After conquering Arrakis, Baron Harkonnen appoints his nephew Rabban to oversee the planet, and orders him to restart spice production to recoup the invasion's cost. Meanwhile, Duncan and Kynes find Jessica and Paul, who discloses his plan to marry one of Emperor Shaddam's daughters to avert a potential civil war arising from the Emperor's betrayal. They are discovered by Sardaukar soldiers armed with a lasgun, and Duncan sacrifices himself, enabling Paul and Jessica's escape. Kynes also tries to escape but is caught and mortally wounded, and lures a sandworm to her location to devour herself and the Sardaukar. Deep in the desert, Paul and Jessica encounter Stilgar's tribe, including Chani, the young woman from Paul's visions. When Stilgar commands lenience towards them, Fremen warrior Jamis challenges his authority, and challenges them to a ritual duel to the death; Paul accepts and wins. Contrary to Jessica's wishes, Paul joins the Fremen, determined to fulfill his father's goal of bringing peace to Arrakis.

Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) loses his job as a cellist when his orchestra is disbanded. He and his wife Mika (Ryōko Hirosue) move from Tokyo to his hometown in Yamagata, where they live in his childhood home that was left to him when his mother died two years earlier. It is fronted by a coffee shop that Daigo's father had operated before he ran off with a waitress when Daigo was six; since then the two have had no contact. Daigo feels hatred towards his father and guilt for not taking better care of his mother. He still keeps a "stone-letter"—a stone which is said to convey meaning through its texture—which his father had given him many years before. Daigo finds an advertisement for a job "assisting departures". Assuming it to be a job in a travel agency, he goes to the interview at the NK Agent office and learns from the secretary, Yuriko Kamimura (Kimiko Yo), that he will be preparing bodies for cremation in a ceremony known as encoffinment. Though reluctant, Daigo is hired on the spot and receives a cash advance from his new boss, Sasaki (Tsutomu Yamazaki). Daigo is furtive about his duties and hides the true nature of the job from Mika. His first assignment is to assist with the encoffinment of a woman who died at home and remained undiscovered for two weeks. He is beset with nausea and later humiliated when strangers on a bus detect an unsavoury scent on him. To clean himself, he visits a public bath which he had frequented as a child. It is owned by Tsuyako Yamashita (Kazuko Yoshiyuki), the mother of one of Daigo's former classmates. Over time, Daigo becomes comfortable with his profession as he completes a number of assignments and experiences the gratitude of the families of the deceased. Though he faces social ostracism, Daigo refuses to quit, even after Mika discovers a training DVD in which he plays a corpse and leaves him to return to her parents' home in Tokyo. Daigo's former classmate Yamashita (Tetta Sugimoto) insists that the mortician find a more respectable line of work and, until then, avoids him and his family. After a few months, Mika returns and announces that she is pregnant. She expresses hope that Daigo will find a job of which their child can be proud. During the ensuing argument, Daigo receives a call for an encoffinment for Mrs Yamashita. Daigo prepares her body in front of both the Yamashita family and Mika, who had known the public bath owner. The ritual earns him the respect of all present, and Mika stops insisting that Daigo change jobs. At the funeral, Yamashita is permitted to witness the burning of his mother's body through a peephole on the retort and listens to a heartfelt anecdote about death told by the furnace operator. Sometime later, they learn of the death of Daigo's father. Daigo experiences renewed feelings of anger and tells the others at the NK office that he refuses to deal with his father's body. Feeling ashamed of having abandoned her own son long ago, Yuriko tells this to Daigo in an effort to change his mind. Daigo berates Yuriko and storms out before collecting himself and turning around. He goes with Mika to another village to see the body. Daigo is at first unable to recognize him, but takes offence when local funeral workers are careless with the body. He insists on dressing it himself, and while doing so finds a stone-letter that he had given to his father, held tight in the dead man's hands. The childhood memory of his father's face returns to him, and after he finishes the ceremony, Daigo gently presses the stone-letter to Mika's pregnant belly.

Charlie Babbitt is an arrogant collectibles dealer in the middle of importing four grey market Lamborghinis to Los Angeles for resale. He needs to deliver the cars to impatient buyers who have already made down payments to repay the loan he took out to buy them, but the EPA is holding the cars at the port because they have failed emission tests. Charlie directs his employee Lenny to lie to the buyers while he stalls his creditor Wyatt. When Charlie learns that his estranged father Sanford Babbitt has died, he and his girlfriend Susanna travel to Cincinnati to settle the estate. He inherits only a group of rosebushes and a classic 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible over which he and Sanford had clashed, while the remainder of the $3 million estate is going to an unnamed trustee. He learns that the money is being directed to a local mental institution, where he meets his elder brother Raymond, of whom he was unaware. Raymond is an autistic savant and follows strict routines. He has superb recall, but he shows little emotional expression, except when in distress. Charlie spirits Raymond out of the mental institution and into a hotel for the night. Disheartened with the way Charlie treats Raymond, Susanna leaves him. Charlie asks Raymond's doctor, Dr. Gerald Bruner, for half the estate in exchange for Raymond's return but Dr. Bruner refuses. Charlie decides to attempt to gain custody of Raymond to get control of the money. After Raymond refuses to fly to Los Angeles, he and Charlie resort to driving there instead. They make slow progress because Raymond insists on following his routines, which include watching The People's Court on television every day, getting to bed by 11:00 p.m. and refusing to travel when it rains. He also objects to traveling on the Interstate after they encounter a car accident. During the course of the journey, Charlie learns more about Raymond, including his ability to instantly perform complex calculations and count hundreds of objects at once, far beyond the typical range of human abilities. He also realizes that Raymond had lived with the family as a child and was the "Rain Man" (Charlie's infantile pronunciation of "Raymond"), a comforting figure Charlie had remembered as an imaginary friend. Raymond had saved an infant Charlie from being scalded by hot bathwater one day, but Sanford blamed Raymond for nearly injuring Charlie and committed him to the institution, as he was unable to speak up for himself and correct the misunderstanding. Wyatt repossesses the Lamborghinis, forcing him to refund his buyers' down payments and leaving him deeply in debt. Having passed Las Vegas, he and Raymond return to Caesars Palace and devise a plan to win the needed money by playing blackjack and counting cards with Raymond's abilities. Although the casino bosses obtain videotape evidence of the scheme and ask them to leave, Charlie successfully wins $86,000 to cover his debts. He also reconciles with Susanna, who has rejoined the brothers in Las Vegas. Returning to Los Angeles, Charlie meets with Dr. Bruner, who offers him $250,000 to walk away from Raymond. Charlie refuses, saying he is no longer upset about being cut out of Sanford's will but he wants to have a relationship with Raymond. At a meeting with court-appointed psychiatrist Dr. Marston, Raymond proves to be unable to decide for himself what he wants. Charlie stops the questioning and tells Raymond he is happy to have him as his brother. As Raymond and Dr. Bruner board a train to return to the institution, Charlie promises to visit in two weeks.

In Laurens, Iowa, elderly Alvin Straight is found lying on his kitchen floor after a fall. His daughter, Rose, takes him to see a doctor, who admonishes him to give up tobacco, improve his diet, and use a walker, all of which he rejects. When Alvin's brother, Lyle, suffers a stroke, Alvin decides to visit him, even though they have not spoken in ten years. Lyle lives in Mount Zion, Wisconsin, 240 miles away. As neither Alvin (due to his age) nor Rose (due to an unspecified disability) has a driver's license, Alvin decides to make the trip on his riding mower. His plan surprises his family, friends, and neighbors. The mower soon breaks down, forcing Alvin to accept a ride from a passing tour bus and call for help. However, he is determined to continue the trip, and buys a used 1966 John Deere 110 lawn tractor to continue his journey. Alvin meets a variety of people on the road. He shares his dinner with a young girl hitchhiker, who ran away from home out of fear that her family would be upset with her pregnancy. Alvin reflects on the importance of family, noting how he lost half of his kids and how Rose lost custody to her children after a fire occurred in her house while she was out, later remarking that a bundle of sticks tied together is harder to break than a single one; the next day, she leaves him the former as thanks. Several passing RAGBRAI cyclists are amused to see him on the highway and welcome him to their campsite. He speaks with some of the cyclists about growing old. He also meets a distraught woman who hit a deer during her commute and tearfully rants about how she repeatedly hits deer despite her prayers. Alvin respectfully cooks and eats the deer. Alvin's tractor begins to fail, throwing his journey into jeopardy. His transmission fails as he travels down a steep hill, but he manages to stop. Danny, a local, invites Alvin to camp in his backyard until the tractor is repaired. He offers to drive Alvin to Mount Zion, but Alvin declines, preferring to travel his own way. Running low on cash, Alvin calls Rose to send him his Social Security check. Two bickering local mechanics overcharge him for fixing his tractor, but he cannily bargains the price down. A fellow veteran invites Alvin for a drink, and they exchange traumatic stories about their experiences in World War II. Alvin, a sniper during the war, declines a beer but confesses that he is still haunted by killing an American in a friendly fire incident, becoming an alcoholic when he returned home but is now sober. After crossing into Wisconsin, Alvin chats with a Catholic priest who knows of Lyle and his stroke. The priest states that Lyle never mentioned a brother; Alvin admits that he wants to make amends. Although the exact cause of the brothers' estrangement is never stated, Alvin says that anger, vanity and alcohol were involved. Alvin finally arrives in Mount Zion. To steel himself, he drinks his first beer in years. His tractor stalls just short of Lyle's dilapidated cabin, but he persists. Lyle invites Alvin to sit together on the porch; asking if Alvin rode the tractor all the way just to see him. Alvin quietly confirms this as Lyle's eyes well up with tears. The two men sit together silently and gaze up at the stars.

Henri Charrière is a safecracker nicknamed "Papillon" because of the butterfly tattoo on his chest. In France, he is wrongly convicted of murdering a pimp in 1933 and is sentenced to life imprisonment in French Guiana. On the way, he meets a fellow convict, Louis Dega, an infamous forger and embezzler. Papillon offers to protect Dega if he will fund the former's escape once they reach Guiana. Enduring the horrors of life in a jungle labour camp, the two become friends. One day, Papillon defends Dega from a sadistic guard and escapes into the jungle but is captured and sentenced to two years in solitary confinement. In gratitude, Dega has extra food smuggled to Papillon. When the smuggling is discovered, the warden screens Papillon's cell in darkness for six months and halves his rations, but Papillon refuses to give up Dega's name. He is eventually released and sent to the infirmary in St-Laurent-du-Maroni to recover. Papillon sees Dega again and asks him to arrange for another escape attempt. Dega helps him meet an inmate doctor who offers to secure a boat on the outside with the help of a man named Pascal. Fellow prisoner Clusiot and a gay orderly named André Maturette join the escape plot. During the escape, Clusiot is knocked unconscious by a guard. Dega subdues the guard and reluctantly joins Papillon and Maturette, climbing the walls to the outside. The trio meet Pascal, and they escape into the night. In the jungle the next day, Pascal delivers the prisoners to their boat, but after he leaves, the convicts discover it is fake. They encounter a local trapper who has killed the bounty hunters waiting for them. He guides the three to a leper colony, where they obtain supplies and a seaworthy boat. The trio lands in Colombia and are accosted by a group of soldiers, who wound Maturette. He is captured along with Dega, while Papillon evades the soldiers and lives for a long period with a native tribe. He awakens one morning to find them gone, leaving him with a small sack of pearls. Papillon pays a nun to take him to her convent, where he asks the Mother Superior for refuge, but instead, she turns him over to the authorities. Papillon is returned to French Guiana and sentenced to another five years of solitary confinement. He emerges a graying old man, along with Maturette, whom he sees just before the latter dies. Papillon is moved to the remote Devil's Island, where he reunites with Dega, now a farmer who has long given up hope of being released. From a high cliff, Papillon observes a cove where he realizes the waves are powerful enough to carry a man out to sea and to the nearby mainland. Papillon persuades Dega to join him in another escape, and the men make two floats from bagged-up coconuts. Dega then decides not to escape and begs Papillon not to either. Papillon embraces Dega, then leaps from the cliff and is carried out to sea. A narrator states that Papillon lived the rest of his life a free man, while the prison was closed some time before he died and ultimately reclaimed by nature.