On November 5, 1975, in Snowflake, Arizona, logger Travis Walton, and his five co-workers—Mike Rogers, Allan Dallis, David Whitlock, Greg Hayes and Bobby Cogdill—head to work in the White Mountains. Driving back towards town that night, the loggers see unearthly red light in the distance through the treeline. Investigating, they encounter an unidentified flying object. Curious, Walton gets out of the truck to examine more closely, but is struck by a bright beam of light and is thrown several feet backwards. Fearing Walton has been killed, the terrified loggers flee. Rogers decides to go back to retrieve Walton, but he is nowhere to be found. In reporting the incident in town, the loggers are met with skepticism by investigators Sheriff Blake Davis and Lieutenant Frank Watters. Watters, learning that there was a great deal of tension between Dallis and Walton and that Dallis has a criminal record, suspects foul play. That suspicion spreads in town and the loggers become social outcasts. After a large search party turns up no sign of Walton, the police offer the loggers the chance to take a lie detector test. They take the test in the hopes of proving their innocence. Watters says that the tests were inconclusive and that they will have to return the next day to retake it. Rogers is outraged and angrily declines, the other loggers follow suit. The test's administrator reveals to Watters and Davis that, with the exception of Dallis (whose test results were inconclusive), the loggers seem to be telling the truth. Five days later, Rogers receives a call from someone claiming to be Walton. He is found at a Heber gas station, alive but naked, dehydrated and severely traumatized. A ufologist questions Walton but is sent away and Walton is taken to a hospital. Rogers visits Walton while he's in the emergency room. He says that the team left but Rogers returned to try to retrieve Walton. Apparently enraged, Walton turns away from Rogers. He in turn chastises Walton for getting out of the truck in the first place. During a welcome home party, Walton suffers a mental breakdown and flashback to the abduction by the extraterrestrials. In his flashback, he awakens inside a slimy cocoon. Breaking out of its membrane, a bewildered Walton finds himself adrift in a zero-gravity alien environment inside a cylindrical enclosure, whose walls contain other similar cocoons. Struggling in the low gravity, he accidentally breaches a nearby cocoon, horrified to discover that it contains decomposing human remains. Exploring further, he drifts towards a neighbouring area, seeing several humanoid figures below him. Drifting uncontrollably towards them, he investigates, surmising that the immobile figures are spacesuits, one of which is still occupied by an extraterrestrial creature. Walton attempts to escape, but is apprehended by two aliens who drag him down corridors full of terrestrial detritus such as shoes and keys before arriving in an examination chamber. The aliens hold the struggling Walton to a platform in the centre of the chamber, stripping him of his clothes and covering him with an elastic material that completely restrains him. Despite Walton's terrified screams, the aliens clinically subject him to a torturous experiment in which a gelatinous substance is forced into his mouth, a tube is inserted down his throat, his jaw is locked open and a device is stabbed into his neck. Overhead equipment then begins lowering towards him. As a needle-like ocular probe extends towards his exposed eye, Walton suddenly reawakens from his flashback in a doctor's office. While interviewing Walton, Lieutenant Watters expresses his doubts about the abduction, dismissing it as a hoax. He notes that Walton's new celebrity status resulted from the tabloids' attempts to profit from his tale. He believes that Walton faked the abduction. Given that the investigation is officially closed, Watters is forced to abandon his pursuit and leaves town. Two and a half years later, Walton visits Rogers, now a hermit, and the two men reconcile. The closing titles inform that in 1993, Walton, Rogers, and Dallis were resubmitted to additional polygraph examinations, which they passed, apparently corroborating their innocence.

Paul Giamatti is an actor who becomes so impassioned with the characters and roles that he plays that he has trouble disassociating himself from the character after the scene is done. As a result, his mind and spirit are a tangled mass of emotions that he seems to have trouble separating from his own feelings. As he struggles to play Uncle Vanya, he reads an article in The New Yorker regarding "Soul Storage," a procedural clinic that physically removes one's soul from his body. While hesitant at first to go through with such a procedure, being unsure how it would affect him, Paul decides to go ahead. On visiting the clinic he discovers that most souls come out as gray matter or clouds. He decides to go ahead, declining the offer to look at his soul as it happens. He is distressed to discover that his soul comes out looking just like a chickpea. He has it stored in the clinic and returns to his life with 5% of his soul remaining. He is told this is like residue, enough to leave him with some emotional reaction, like affection for his loved ones and hobbies but not very deep or complex feeling to new things. He at first feels more relaxed, however his life begins to fall apart; he has trouble associating with or making love to his wife Claire despite wanting to. Lacking in emotional intelligence in new situations, he is easily bored and says insensitive things, such as telling a friend to just "pull the plug" on her comatose mother, and his acting for the Chekhov play lacks believability. Not wanting his soul back just yet, he instead obtains the soul of what he is told is a Russian poet, whose memories entice him to be curious about her and her life as well as obtain a curiosity of his own. This Russian soul allows him to play Uncle Vanya excellently, but the experience overwhelms him and he decides to get his own soul back. Paul's world is turned upside down when Nina, a Russian soul mule who transports people's souls to and from Russia, steals Paul's soul for the wife of her boss at the Russian soul-storage operation, who aspires to be an actress. She receives Paul's soul, believing it to be the soul of Al Pacino. Her acting and happiness improve. Nina, the mule who carried Paul's soul and has become curious about him, eventually reveals the whereabouts of his soul, helping him to get it back. As the pair investigate the soul of Olga the poet, which he had 'rented' during this period, they learn that she committed suicide after not being able to get it back after selling it. Paul and Nina get his soul back, and after looking into it through the use of special goggles to reassociate himself to it, he returns to New York a happier man. Nina's soul is found, but Paul is told that it is unrecoverable due to the residues of souls that she has carried.

The film's plot is centered on an engineer Jim Ripple who invents universal robots to help workers, being himself from a workers' family. He theorizes that cheap production will make all goods so cheap that Capitalism will fall. The workers do not share his view and his family considers him a traitor. A key element of his invention is a high-capacity capacitor that powers the robots. The government becomes interested in the invention because the robots can be used as a weapon as well. Ripple is given a top secret factory and funding so that he can produce robots. The robots are not autonomous or intelligent, and controlled either by radio or by sound, for which purpose Ripple uses a saxophone. When drunk he even makes the robots dance. At a day of a universal workers' strike, the administration of a factory where the Ripple's brother works, located in the same town where the robot producing plant is located, replaces workers with robots. A workers' delegation visits the factory to see that there are no strike breakers, and finds that actually it is the robots who do the work. The meeting ends with an accident when Ripple tries to show the abilities of a robot to the workers; in an accident, one of the workers dies. This sparks a conflict between workers and the plant administration assisted by the military. The military decides to use robots against the workers as a weapon. The robots are commanded by an officer sitting in a tank using a radio remote control device. Trying to prevent the hostilities Ripple tries to stop the robots with a saxophone, but he is unsuccessful and is killed. Finally the workers gain control over the robots with their own remote control device, which they had covertly assembled before, making necessary measurements on the robot assembling factory and researching the Ripple's prototype robot "Micron", whom he left damaged at his home.

Since the beginning of time, there have been " Others " – humans endowed with supernatural abilities – and for just as long, the Others have been divided between the forces of Light and Dark. In Medieval times, the armies of both sides met by chance, and a great battle began. Seeing that neither side had a clear advantage, the two faction leaders, Geser and Zavulon, called a truce and each side commissioned a police -like force to ensure it was kept; the Light side's force was called the Night Watch and the Dark side's force was called the Day Watch. In 1992 Moscow, Anton Gorodetsky (Russian: Антон Городецкий) visits a witch named Daria and asks her to cast a spell to return his wife to him, agreeing that she should miscarry her illegitimate child as part of it. Just as the spell is about to be completed, two figures burst in and restrain Daria, preventing her from completing the spell. When they notice that Anton is able to see them, they realize that he is also an Other. Twelve years later, Anton has enlisted in the Night Watch. While policing Moscow, he encounters several portents that Geser says are linked to an ancient prophecy of an immensely powerful Other that will end the stalemate between Light and Dark, but will be more likely to join the Dark. Anton's investigations lead him to a nurse, Svetlana, whom disaster seems to follow everywhere, and a young boy named Yegor. In the film's climax, Anton prevents a catastrophic storm from leveling Moscow, when he realizes that Svetlana is an Other, and begins teaching her to control her power. But in the process, Anton realizes that Yegor is his own son, and that his wife was pregnant with him when Anton tried to have a spell cast on her (believing, mistakenly, that the father of the child was his wife's lover, not himself). Learning that his own father tried to kill him before he was born turns Yegor – the Other of the prophecy – against Anton and towards Zavulon, which was the latter's plan all along. In helpless rage, Anton strikes Zavulon, while saying in voice over that, although the prophecy has come true and the Dark's victory seems inevitable, he will not give up.

In a near future, many are addicted to Avalon, a virtual reality shooter. In Avalon, solo players or parties raid levels populated with AI-controlled enemies and opposing players. Winners are rewarded with experience points and in-game money, which can be exchanged for cash, allowing skilled players to make a living. As their brains interact with Avalon directly, it places mental strains on players, and sometimes rendered them catatonic. Ash, a famous player, plays solo since her party disbanded. After a Class A mission, the GM (Game Master) warns her of the next level's danger, and suggests that she join a party. The next day, a Bishop-class character breaks Ash's record time on the same mission. Ash tries but fails to learn about him or his avatar. As she leaves the game terminal, the Bishop player watches her. Ash runs into former teammate Stunner. Murphy, their former leader, went after a hidden NPC in Avalon, a young girl nicknamed "ghost," and became comatose. The girl is allegedly the only gateway into the rumored Special A, a mission where players cannot "reset" (a mechanic allowing people to abort mission without their avatars being killed). Players who went after "ghost" never woke up from the game and became "Unreturned". Ash and Stunner visit Murphy at a hospital, where someone looking similar to "ghost" watches her. At home, Ash searches for words regarding Avalon, and the ghost. The search leads her to the "Nine Sisters", another Arthurian legend reference. Upon entering Avalon, Ash receives an invitation to a meeting, and is ambushed by griefers. They lured Ash there to rob her equipment. After she overpowers a player, the griefers' leader reveals that only the real Nine Sisters – Avalon's creators – know how to access Special A. They are interrupted by an attack helicopter which kills most of the players. Due to a lag, its missiles teleport in front of Ash. She "resets" and leaves Avalon, saving her avatar. On the return home, people around Ash seem immobile, with the exception of a dog. At home, after preparing a meal for her dog, she realizes that it has disappeared. She hears the helicopter flying past. The next day, Stunner meets Ash. He relays a rumor that the ghost appears when there's a high-level Bishop present on the battlefield, so Bishop players are sought out by parties seeking to enter Special A. Before becoming an Unreturned, Murphy was a Bishop player. At her house, Ash is visited by the Bishop player. He offers to form a party with her and she accepts. Ash arrives at the game terminal and tells the receptionist that she plans to enter Special A to look for Murphy. Despite warnings from the receptionist and the GM, she enters the game. There, Ash meets the Bishop player, whom she suspects is working for the Nine Sisters. Stunner arrives, revealing that he was helping Bishop recruit Ash all along. The party confronts the Citadel, a boss. Stunner, Bishop and his summoned dummy players distract the Citadel, while Ash attacks its weak point. After the Citadel is destroyed, Stunner spots the ghost. He is then shot by an enemy. Before being forced out of Avalon, Stunner mentions the only way to kill the ghost. Ash kills the ghost, turning it into a gateway. Ash steps into the gateway and disappears. Ash "wakes up" from the game booth, which is put in her apartment, wearing civilian clothing and without equipment. Bishop contacts her, saying that she is in Class Real. The only way to exit Avalon is to complete the objective: defeat the Unreturned staying there. Ash takes a provided gun and proceeds to her destination, an Avalon-themed concert by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. En route, she moves through a bustling world, unlike the previous levels and the real world. At the concert hall, Ash sees Murphy, and they walk outside to talk. As she confronts Murphy about his decision to stay in the game, he states that he prefers the "reality" within Avalon. Ash mortally wounds Murphy, who urges her to stay, then disappears. Ash enters the now empty concert hall, and sees the ghost on the stage. Ash trains her gun on the ghost, who smiles. The words "Welcome to Avalon" appear on screen.

In 1830 Paris, private investigator Eugène Vidocq pursues the Alchemist, a man wearing a cowl and a mirrored mask. The Alchemist lures Vidocq into a furnace room at a glass factory, and during a fight, pushes him into the furnace. Hanging onto the ledge, Vidocq asks him to reveal his face. The Alchemist obliges, and Vidocq lets go, falling into the fire. Journalist Étienne Boisset goes to Vidocq's colleague, René Nimier, asking for help writing Vidocq's biography. Boisset states that he plans to find Vidocq's murderer. Lautrennes, Paris's chief of police, asked Nimier and Vidocq to investigate the deaths of Belmont and Veraldi, the owners of a cannon factory. Lautrennes believed this had been an attempt to undermine the French military in an unstable political climate. Belmont and Veraldi had died in a lightning strike, but during the investigation, Vidocq and Nimier saw the powder on a factory worker's clothes catch fire. The servant responsible for maintaining Belmont's and Veraldi's suits confessed to having received a letter, with cash, ordering him not to clean their jackets. Realizing that the lightning would need to be attracted to the men, the investigators found metallic pins inserted into the victims' hats. Lautrennes orders officer Tauzet to investigate Vidocq's death. Meanwhile, Boisset sneaks into Nimier's office and retrieves the pins. He traces the design to Preah, a dancer in a brothel, and Vidocq's lover. Vidocq also tracked down Preah, who had received a letter, with cash, asking her to put the pins in the hats. The letter included a third target – Ernest Lafitte, owner of an orphanage. Vidocq rushed to save Lafitte, but the Alchemist got there first. Vidocq pursued him, who seemed to possess magical powers. Boisset's investigation leads him to Sylvia, the brothel manager; journalist Froissard, who is investigating the masked murderer; and Marine Lafitte, wife of Ernest. They reveal that Lafitte, Belmont and Veraldi were narcissists, committed to preventing death by aging. The Alchemist offered an elixir of eternal youth in return for their cooperation in capturing young maidens for his experiments. The three rich men went along, but later stopped cooperating due to a sense of guilt, so the Alchemist killed them. After Boisset leaves, the Alchemist arrives, killing Froissard and Marine. Tauzet notices that the Alchemist is disposing of witnesses, and fears Boisset is next. Boisset sneaks in to retrieve Vidocq's notes, and encounters Lautrennes and Tauzet. Lautrennes attempts to arrest Boisset, who escapes. The notes reveal that Vidocq found a lab where the Alchemist was using the maidens' blood to create a substance for his mask, which grants eternal youth by sucking the souls out of his victims. The Alchemist arrived and attacked Vidocq, who took a piece from the former's mask before the killer escaped. Vidocq's final note states that the Alchemist would need someone to manufacture the mask, leading him to the glass factory. Boisset, Nimier and Preah head to the factory, ushered by an artisan, and trailed by both Tauzet and Lautrennes. The artisan eventually removes his prosthetic, revealing himself to be Vidocq. Vidocq had actually jumped into a secret hole in the furnace wall, which he saw in the mask's reflection before the Alchemist revealed himself to be Boisset. Vidocq faked his own death to let Boisset's guard down, knowing the Alchemist would destroy all clues and witnesses through any means necessary. With his cover blown, Boisset dons the Alchemist's mask. Nimier opens fire, but is killed as the Alchemist magically reflects the bullets back at him. Vidocq pursues the Alchemist into a hall of mirrors and forces him to look into a mirror shard, freeing the souls trapped inside the mask. Vidocq impales the Alchemist with a shard of mirror and throws him into a river. Although the others insist the Alchemist is dead, Vidocq is unnerved by the lack of a body. At Nimier's funeral, as everyone walks away, the Alchemist's laugh can be heard in the distance, accompanied by the glimmer of his mirror mask.

The film is set in an alternative reality in which lying does not exist and people are straightforward about what they think and feel. Mark Bellison is a screenwriter in a film industry limited to historical readings because there is no fiction. One night he has a date with the beautiful and wealthy Anna McDoogles. She tells Mark she is not attracted to him, because of his looks and failing financial situation, but is going out with him as a favor to his best friend, Greg Kleinschmidt. The next day, Mark is fired from his job because of the lack of interest in his films (which are set in the lackluster 1300s), and his landlord threatens to evict him for not paying his rent. Crestfallen, he goes to the bank to close his account. The teller informs him that the computers are down and asks him how much money he has in his account. Mark then has an epiphany that enables him to tell the world's first lie, which is that he has $800—the amount he owed his landlord—in his account. He then lies in a variety of other circumstances, initially for personal gain; he prevents a police officer from arresting Greg for drunk driving, convinces a strange woman to have casual sex with him to prevent the end of the world (but fakes a call from NASA confirming the world has been saved after deciding that this was exploitative), breaks the bank at a casino, and writes a screenplay about the world being invaded by aliens in the 14th century that ends with the claim that everyone's memories were erased. He becomes wealthy from the film's success. Mark soon realises that lying can also be used to help others, such as stopping his depressive neighbour Frank Fawcett from committing suicide. Soon after, Mark convinces Anna to go out with him again. She congratulates Mark for his financial success and admits that he would be a good husband and father, but she is still not attracted to him because his genetics and appearance are not likely to produce the kind of child she wants. Mark then gets a call that his mother, Martha, has had a heart attack and rushes to the hospital. There, the doctor tells him that Martha is going to die. She is scared of death, believing that it will bring an eternity of nothingness. Mark, through tears, tells her that death instead brings a joyful afterlife and she dies happy. Mark soon receives worldwide attention as the news of his supposed information about death spreads. After encouragement from Anna, he tells the world, through ten main points, that he talks to a "Man In The Sky" who controls everything and promises great rewards in the good place after death, as long as you do no more than three "bad things". Some time later, Anna and Mark are together in a park and Anna asks him, if they marry, if his now being rich and famous would make their children more physically attractive. Mark wants to lie, but does not because of his love for Anna, and says "No". Meanwhile, Mark's rival, Brad Kessler, pursues Anna romantically, motivated by his jealousy at Mark's success. Though Brad's selfish and cruel manner makes Anna uncomfortable, she continues dating him and they become engaged. Before the wedding, Greg appears and convinces Mark that he has not missed his chance with Anna. Mark reluctantly attends Anna and Brad's wedding, where he objects to the marriage. The officiant, however, informs him that only the Man in the Sky can stop the wedding. Brad and Anna both ask Mark to ask the Man in the Sky what Anna should do, but Mark refuses to say anything and leaves, wanting Anna to choose for herself. Anna walks out and Mark confesses his ability to lie. Anna asks why he did not lie to convince her to marry him; Mark states that it "wouldn't count". Anna confesses that she loves him. Some time later, Anna and Mark are shown happily married with a son (and another child on the way), who appears by his actions to have inherited his father's ability to lie.

In 1835 in Araba, during the First Carlist War, rebels are captured by government soldiers and executed. One rebel, Francisco Patxi, survives with the aid of a demon and slays the soldiers. Eight years later, government investigator Alfredo Ortiz arrives in Araba. He searches for Patxi, who now lives in a ruined forge in the woods. The nearby villagers avoid the forge due to rumours that Patxi murdered his wife and kidnaps young children. The villagers mistrust Ortiz as the government melted down all their metal during the war to make weapons, including their church bell. Benito, a boy from the village, steals a letter proving Ortiz is searching for gold that vanished during the war. Usue, an orphan girl with a burn scarred face, is bullied by Benito who throws her doll over Patxi's fence. Ortiz hires men from the village to raid the forge where he suspects Patxi has the missing gold, but are driven away by Patxi while one of the men falls into a bear trap and dies. Usue attempts to retrieve her doll while Patxi disposes of the dead man. Inside the forge, she finds a boy captive in an iron cage, who begs her to steal Patxi's ring of keys to free him. She does so successfully, but the boy retrieves a pitchfork and is revealed to be the demon Sartael. He kidnaps Usue and promises to return her for Patxi's soul, but before he can escape, he is caught in another bear trap while Usue is knocked unconscious. Patxi breaks off one of the demons horns and locks him back in the cage. Benito tells Ortiz that Patxi and a demon have kidnapped Usue. Ortiz rallies the men to save Usue. Usue wakes up and finds Patxi torturing Sartael, who reveals that he made a deal with Patxi during the late war. Sartael kept Paxti alive during the war, so he could see his wife again. On his return home, Patxi found that his wife had taken a new lover, believing Patxi to be dead. Patxi teaches Usue how to torture demons by throwing chickpeas on the floor, which demons are unable to resist trying to count, and by ringing gold bells blessed by the church. Usue asks Sartael if he can free her mother Maite from Hell after she committed suicide. Sartael reveals that humans are compelled to enter Hell by their own guilt, and once inside, they can never leave. Sartael is then knocked unconscious by Patxi. The villagers arrive and arrest Patxi while the priest reveals the truth about Patxi. Usue's mother, Maite, was Patxi's wife, but after he returned from the war he found Maite had taken a lover and given birth to Usue. Enraged, Patxi burned Usue's face and murdered her father, while Maite, grief-stricken, hanged herself. Ashamed, Patxi gave Usue to the priest as an orphan, along with a replacement bell he forged for the church. The villagers find Sartael and Ortiz orders Patxi tortured until he returns the gold. Once alone with Sartael, Ortiz that reveals he is actually Sartael's superior from Hell, the demon Alastor. Alastor reveals that Sartael has been demoted for failing to return to Hell with Patxi's soul. Alastor orders Patxi be hanged so he can collect his soul instead. The villagers, driven to religious hysteria, set fire to the forge. Sartael makes a deal with Usue to search for her mother in Hell if Usue frees him and rings the golden bell. Usue rings the bell, causing Ortiz to reveal his demon face. The two men hanging Patxi do flee, dropping Patxi to the floor. Usue frees Sartael but he is captured by the villagers. The priest slaps Usue for freeing Sartael and insults her mother, so Usue makes a deal with Alastor: her soul in exchange for being taken to her mother in Hell. Alastor agrees to this and kills her. Grief-stricken, Patxi agrees to let Sartael take him to Hell in exchange for saving Usue. Sartael agrees as he wants revenge against Alastor, but remarks that Patxi will need more than his small golden bell to survive Hell. Patxi reveals that the giant bell that he forged for the church is made from the very gold Ortiz was looking for. Sartael kills Patxi with his pitchfork, taking them both to the gates of Hell where thousands of damned souls are waiting to enter. Patxi finds Usue and fends off the demons guarding the gate. Alastor attacks Patxi but Usue throws Patxi's jar of chickpeas at Alastor who is forced to try to count them. With Alastor's defeat, the gates begin to close. Patxi sends Usue back with Sartael while he decides to remain in Hell to search for Maite. Usue wakes up back on earth. Sartael, grateful that Usue saved him from his cage, declares to the villagers that Usue was rejected from Hell because she is a true Saint and should be treated with respect. As the villagers gather around Usue, Sartael transforms into a young man and makes his way to the next town. On the way, Sartael is picked by a man travelling by cart and begins to tell him the tale of The Blacksmith, a man so ruthless and cruel that even the Devil himself came to fear and respect him. In Hell, Patxi forces the gates of Hell open as he begins to search for his wife with his hammer and the golden bell on his back.

In order to cast the world into eternal night, the Lord of Darkness sends the goblin Blix to kill the unicorns in the forest near his castle and bring him their horns. Told by Darkness that the best bait is Innocence, Blix and her colleagues Pox and Blunder follow Princess Lili as she visits her forest-dwelling paramour, Jack O' the Green. Jack teaches Lili to speak to animals, then takes her blindfolded to a forest stream where the unicorns frolic. Despite Jack's fervent warnings not to do so, Lili holds out her hand to touch the stallion. This act allows Blix to shoot him with a poison dart from her blowpipe and the unicorns flee. Jack is angry, but Lili laughs off his concern and issues a challenge by throwing her ring into a pond, declaring she will marry whoever finds it. While Jack dives in after the ring, the goblins track down the poisoned stallion and sever his horn, causing winter to descend. Lili runs off in terror, and Jack is barely able to break through the surface of the now-frozen pond. Lili takes refuge in a peasant cottage, where she sees the goblins test the horn's magic powers and overhears how she was the bait in their slaying of the stallion. She follows the goblins to a rendezvous with Darkness, who tells them the world cannot be cast into eternal night as long as the surviving mare still lives. Blunder unsuccessfully tries using the horn to overthrow Darkness and is sent into the castle's dungeon. Meanwhile, Jack, accompanied by forest elf Honeythorn Gump, will-o'-the-wisp Fairy Oona, and dwarves Brown Tom and Screwball, finds the mare mourning the lifeless stallion. Jack begs forgiveness from the mare, who communicates to him that the horn must be recovered and returned to the stallion by a great hero. Deciding Jack is that hero, the group leaves Brown Tom to guard the unicorns while they retrieve a hidden cache of ancient weapons and armor. In their absence, Lili warns Brown Tom of the goblins coming back to kill the mare. He is then incapacitated by the goblins, who capture both Lili and the mare. Upon returning, Jack and his group make their way to Darkness' castle. On the way, they are attacked by a swamp hag named Meg Mucklebones, but Jack defeats her by flattering her appearance and then decapitating her. At the castle, Jack's group falls into an underground prison cell where they encounter Blunder, who is revealed to be a dwarf gone astray, before he is dragged off by an ogre to be baked into a pie, and Oona, forced to reveal she is a fairy, retrieves the keys to free the others. Darkness realizes that even he is touched by Lili's innocence and releases her to wander the castle. He leaves lavish gifts for her, including an enchanted, dancing dress that hypnotizes her. Revealing himself, he asks her to marry him. She resists, but then agrees on the condition that she will be the one to kill the mare in the upcoming ritual. Overhearing their conversation, Jack and Gump learn Darkness can be destroyed by daylight. After saving Blunder, the group takes the ogres' giant metal platters as makeshift mirrors to reflect sunlight into the sacrificial chamber. As the ritual begins, Lili frees the mare and Darkness strikes her unconscious. Jack fights Darkness, wounding him with the stallion's horn right before the redirected light of the sunset shines into the room, blasting Darkness to the edge of the void. Darkness warns them that because evil lurks in all beings, he will never truly be vanquished. Wavering in doubt, Jack finally severs the hand of Darkness, expelling him into the void. Gump then returns the stallion to life by magically reattaching its horn. With the stallion and mare reunited, winter immediately ends. Jack retrieves Lili's ring from the pond and places it on her finger, waking her from Darkness's spell.

While his girlfriend Annie is away for the weekend, 30-year-old Dave works fervently on his next big art project. Dave has a habit of not being able to finish anything, is apparently jobless and gets his income from his parents, whom he believes are tired of him. He finally has a breakthrough and begins to build something from the center and work his way out. When Annie comes home, she is surprised to find Dave's project: a small cardboard fort that is supposedly bigger on the inside. Dave, who communicates with Annie from the vents he added, tells her not to enter or destroy his project. When Annie shakes the exterior, she is confused by the abundance of noise and machinery she hears on the inside. Annie calls Gordon, who comes to the same conclusion, and he, in turn, calls several of their friends over, including Leonard, Brynn, Greg, Jane and Harry, a filmmaker, along with his boom operator and cameraman. They also randomly bring over a hobo (because he apparently "knows about cardboard") and two Flemish tourists. Leonard briefly leaves the apartment in disappointment when he learns they cannot enter. Harry tries to get a reaction out of Annie for a supposed documentary he is filming and upon realizing how much she truly cares about Dave, the whole group (minus the hobo) all enter the maze. Annie, Gordon, Harry and his crew stick together as they see first hand the true surreal and supernatural nature of the maze and travel from room to room where they realize that it houses living origami birds and other creatures. Leonard later returns to the apartment and throughout the film is seen following close behind the group, while the Flemish tourists appear to simply be having a picnic in the maze. Eventually, the main group run into Jane, who, after stepping on a lever, has her head chopped off by an ax (though instead of blood, her body squirts out red yarn and confetti). Greg and Brynn find themselves in some catacombs and Greg trips a wire and is impaled by a trap. Brynn meets up with Annie and the rest and when they return to Greg discover his body is missing. Based on the "paint can prints" Gordon deduces that a Minotaur took his body away. Annie uses a box cutter to cut through the walls and realizes that the maze is alive. As the group jump through the wall, the Minotaur kills Brynn. The group run into Dave, who leads them to safety. Dave admits that he is not sure how the maze came to be how it is, but he knows that it is growing on its own and that it might be connected to his imagination. He insists that they finish the maze so that they can escape, even though he is not sure how. Dave also reveals that his hand is now made entirely of cardboard due to sticking it into an odd vulva -shaped hole. After several other near-deaths, the group realize that they need to attack the maze at its heart, which Dave neglected to make. They reach a strange cardboard puppet version of Brynn who keeps asking for high fives. They immediately realize it is a trap and Gordon, Harry and his crew keep it distracted by interviewing it while Dave and Annie go off to find the heart. After another surreal moment of clarity, Dave and Annie manage to make a heart resembling a zoetrope. They cut through the wall which causes the maze to react. Gordon, Harry and the crew attempt to catch the fake Brynn which suddenly produces a giant demonic hand. The hand retreats, but the cameraman is dragged along with it. He tosses the bag of tapes to Harry before dying. The group reunite as Gordon distracts the Minotaur by leading it away. He passes Leonard who is killed by cardboard saw blades. Dave, Annie, Harry and the boom operator set up the heart and using a wakizashi, slice the heart causing all the walls and the entire maze to fall. Everyone finds themselves back in the apartment and they proceed to clean up all the cardboard. Harry tasks Gordon with telling the families of those who died and asks Dave what they should call the documentary. Dave sarcastically suggests Dave Made a Maze, despite Gordon's belief that it was a labyrinth. As Dave and Annie toss the last of the cardboard by the dumpster, they fail to notice the Minotaur climbing out along with an origami bird.

Slacker David Wong recalls confronting a zombie skinhead he beheaded a year earlier and wonders if an axe that had its handle and head replaced over time is still the same axe. In the present day, he meets with a reporter, Arnie Blondestone, to recount the supernatural events that plagued the small, undisclosed city he lives in. Some time ago, David is at a party with his friend John, with acquaintances Fred Chu, Justin White, and Amy Sullivan, who has had a hand amputated. David learns that Amy's dog, Bark Lee, has gone missing after biting Robert Marley, a drug dealer who pretends to be Jamaican. The dealer claims to have powers and knows things about David that he shouldn't. As he leaves the party, David sees Bark next to his car. John calls Dave, demanding he come over at once. At John's apartment, David, oblivious to a bizarre creature only John can see, finds a syringe containing a black-colored drug, John tells David that the drug, "Soy Sauce", given to him by Marley, grants inhuman knowledge when taken, along with dumping the user in alternate dimensions and timestreams, as demonstrated by a past version of John calling present Dave. As they drive off, David accidentally stabs himself with the syringe, propelling him through alternate dimensions. Returning to the present, a strange man, Roger North, appears in the backseat. Roger puts a strange creature down David's shirt and tells him to drive. David uses the cigarette lighter to burn off the creature. He stops the car and threatens Roger, who disappears. Detective Lawrence Appleton questions the two at a police station. Appleton reveals that John and Justin White were the only survivors of a drug-fueled afterparty thrown by Robert Marley. Everyone else either disappeared or suffered grisly, bizarre deaths. In the present, an incredulous Arnie tries to leave, but Dave convinces him to stay after showing him a strange monster in his car that can't be easily seen. During questioning by the cops, John dies for unknown reasons. While one of the interrogators leaves to investigate John's death, John telepathically contacts Dave. John helps Dave realize the other cop in the room is a ghost and helps him escape from the police station. Dave is then guided to Marley's house. Marley's Soy Sauce knocks Dave unconscious. He wakes up to see Appleton preparing to burn down the trailer, who tells him John's body disappeared and that the Soy Sauce is letting in some kind of evil force. Appleton shoots David, who survives by time-traveling and tampering with the round he was shot with. Bark, controlled by John, drives David's car through the wall, allowing him to escape. Justin White, possessed, appears in David's apartment and subdues him. Dave tries to kill him but he's infected. Justin kidnaps David, Fred, Amy, Bark, and John and takes them to an abandoned mall, hoping to use a ghostly door inside to travel to another dimension. John manipulates White into going outside, where Appleton kills him. Appleton then explodes into a swarm of demonic insects who then possess Fred, whom David reluctantly kills. Amy opens the ghost door with her phantom limb, allowing John and Dave passage. There they meet North and Albert Marconi, celebrity psychic and exorcist. They reveal the source of the strange happenings is Korrok, an eldritch biological supercomputer who has turned into a genocidal god who wants to travel to new dimensions and conquer them. Marconi gives David and John an LSD-laced C4 explosive to incapacitate Korrok. The duo steps through a portal to an alternate Earth. Disciples of Korrok greet them as "chosen ones" and present a brutal totalitarian society, where dissenters are maimed by Korrok's monsters. The duo are brought before Korrok, who plans to devour them, absorb their knowledge of dimensional travel, and conquer their dimension. John tries to activate the bomb but fumbles. Bark Lee, who followed the two, grabs the bomb and flings himself into Korrok, sacrificing himself to destroy Korrok. Upon escaping, David and John meet Marconi and learn that Bark was meant to defeat Korrok all along. After biting a Soy Sauce-addled Marley, it linked him to Marconi and North. Amy becomes David's girlfriend. With Marconi's help, David and John become exorcists and demon hunters. In the present, Arnie decides to publish the story. Dave realizes he perceives Arnie differently than how he really looks, and the two find the real Arnie decapitated in the trunk of his car, who was killed after first contacting Dave. Dave tells Arnie that Dave's mind projected his current shape. Arnie tries to deny this but soon vanishes into thin air. Later, John and Dave play basketball and inadvertently throw their ball into a post-apocalyptic dimension. After going in after it, a paramilitary organization informs them they are chosen ones who will restore the world, but an annoyed John and Dave walk off.

The film opens in modern Stockholm. Orphaned by his mother's death and father's disappearance, Bosse (Nicholas Pickard) suffers neglect by his guardians Aunt Edna (Gunilla Nyroos) and Uncle Sixten, as well as abuse from bullies. His best friend is Benke (Christian Bale), whose father Bosse envies. Running away one night to seek his own father, Bosse meets the kindly shopkeeper Mrs Lundin (Linn Stokke), who gives him an apple and asks him to mail a postcard. The postcard is addressed to the Land of Faraway, informing its King of Bosse's impending journey there. After Bosse mails the postcard, his apple turns golden. Dropping the transfigured apple in shock, Bosse stumbles upon a genie (Geoffrey Staines) trapped in a bottle and frees it. It turns out that this spirit has travelled from the Land of Faraway to seek Bosse, and that the golden apple is Bosse's identifying sign. With the boy clinging to his beard, the genie transports Bosse to the Land of Faraway and sets him down on Green Meadow Island. There, Bosse discovers that his real name is Mio, and that his father is the King (Timothy Bottoms). Treated with love and generosity, Mio leads an idyllic life on Green Meadow Island. He receives the horse Miramis as a gift from his father and makes friends with the local children. The latter include the farm boy Jiri, the shepherd boy Nonno, and the royal gardener's son Jum-Jum, who turns out to be Benke's double. Together, Mio and Jum-Jum learn to play pan flute music from Nonno. Not all is well however. From a whispering well, Mio learns that an iron-clawed knight from the Land Outside, Kato (Christopher Lee), has been kidnapping children and making them his servants by ripping out their hearts and replacing them with stone. Those who refuse to serve him are transformed into birds and condemned to circle his castle in flight. Even his name induces terror when spoken. With Jum-Jum and Miramis, Mio leaves Green Meadow Island and journeys to the Forest of Mysteries, where he tears his cape on the briars. The Weaver Woman (Susannah York) receives the boys at her house, mending Mio's torn cape and sewing a new lining into it. Hearing the Bird of Grief lament for Kato's victims, and told that the Weaver Woman's daughter Millimani is among them, Mio gradually learns of his long-prophesied destiny to confront Kato in the Land Outside. Journeying to the Land Outside, Mio and Jum-Jum meet Eno (Igor Yasulovich), a hungry old man living in a cave, and offer him food. In gratitude, Eno tells them to seek a weapon against Kato from the Forger of Swords, who has been imprisoned and enslaved by Kato in the Blackest Mountain beyond the Dead Forest. Meanwhile, Kato's servants capture Miramis. The boys are forced to continue their journey on foot, pursued by Kato's servants through the Dead Forest and the Blackest Mountain. Separated in the mountain's tunnels, the boys find each other by playing their pan-flutes. They finally reach the Forger of Swords (Sverre Anker Ousdal), who tells the boys about Kato's stone heart and provides Mio a sword capable of penetrating it. Mio and Jum-Jum journey to Kato's castle, where they are captured and imprisoned. Kato throws Mio's sword into the lake outside the castle. Mio soon discovers that his newly lined cape turns him invisible when worn inside-out, and reclaims his sword with the help of Kato's birds. Armed and invisible, he escapes and makes his way to Kato's chamber, eluding the castle guards. Taking off his cloak, Mio challenges Kato to combat and eventually slays him. Turning into rock, the dead knight crumbles into pieces. Mio picks up Kato's stone heart and holds it outside a window, where it transforms into a bird and flies away. Kato's birds turn back into children, Jum-Jum and Miramis are freed, and Kato's castle collapses into ruin. The Dead Forest begins to revive. Returning to Green Meadow Island, the children rejoin their families, and Mio rejoins his father.