During the American Civil War, Captain Robert Gould Shaw is injured at the Battle of Antietam and returns home to Boston on medical leave. Shaw accepts promotion to Colonel commanding the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first black regiments in the Union Army. He asks his friend, Cabot Forbes, to serve as his second in command. Their first volunteer is a mutual friend, Thomas Searles, a bookish, free African-American. Other recruits include John Rawlins, Jupiter Sharts, Trip, and a mute boy drummer. After the Emancipation Proclamation, the men of the 54th are told the Confederacy will execute any black soldiers captured in Union uniform along with their white officers. Despite this threat, the 54th's recruits turn down an offer to be honorably discharged and undergo rigorous training under Sergeant-Major Mulcahy. Trip is arrested while AWOL. After having him flogged, Shaw learns Trip left camp to replace his worn out shoes. Shaw confronts the base's racist quartermaster, who is holding back their supplies. When the men realize the Federal government pays black soldiers about three-quarters the salary of white soldiers, Trip encourages the men to refuse their pay. Shaw tears up his pay stub in solidarity. In recognition of his mentorship of the younger soldiers, and his advice to Shaw regarding the thoughts and morale of the men, Rawlins is promoted to Sergeant-Major. Once trained, the 54th comes under the command of General Charles Harker and is ordered by Colonel James Montgomery to sack and burn Darien, Georgia. Shaw initially refuses, but agrees under threat of being relieved. Tired of seeing his men used for manual labor and raids on civilians he advises Harker and Montgomery he will report their profiteering to the war department unless the 54th is given a combat assignment. The regiment goes into battle at James Island, South Carolina and repels a Confederate attack. Thomas is wounded in the action but saves Trip's life. Shaw offers Trip the honor of bearing the regimental flag in battle. He declines, not believing the war will result in a better life for slaves. General George Crockett Strong informs his regimental commanders of a major campaign to secure a foothold at Charleston Harbor, and describes the initial attack at Morris Island which requires a frontal assault on Fort Wagner, whose only landward approach is a strip of open beach. Shaw volunteers the 54th. The night before the battle, the black soldiers conduct a religious service, give thanks and seek God's help. The next morning the 54th deploys for the assault to the cheers of white Union troops who had scorned them earlier. The 54th suffers heavy losses in a daytime assault, and takes cover in the dunes until sundown. Attempting to rally his stalled men, Shaw is killed. Trip lifts the flag, and leads survivors toward the fort, brandishing the flag until he is mortally wounded. Forbes leads a party into the fort's outer defenses where Charlie Morse is killed, and Thomas is wounded. A small number of survivors, including Forbes, Rawlins, Thomas, and Jupiter, come face to face with a Confederate gun and the screen fades to black, implying their deaths. After sun up the next day, Confederate soldiers remove the bodies of Union soldiers from the beach, raise the Confederate flag over the fort, and bury the corpses in a mass grave. Shaw's body slides into the excavation and comes to rest next to Trip's. An epilogue reveals that although Fort Wagner was never captured, the courage displayed by the 54th led to the Union Army accepting thousands of Black men for combat. President Abraham Lincoln credited the move with helping to turn the tide of the war.

CBS producer Lowell Bergman convinces the founder of Hezbollah, Sheikh Fadlallah, to grant an interview to Mike Wallace for 60 Minutes. Wallace and Bergman firmly stand their ground against the Sheikh's armed and hostile bodyguards, who attempt to intimidate and disrupt their interview preparations. Later, Bergman approaches Jeffrey Wigand—a former executive at the Brown & Williamson tobacco company—for help explaining technical documents. Wigand agrees but intrigues Bergman when he insists that he will not discuss anything else, citing a confidentiality agreement. Brown & Williamson coerces Wigand into a more restrictive agreement, leading Wigand to accuse Bergman of betraying him. Bergman subsequently visits Wigand to defend himself and investigate the potential story. Although Wigand apparently possesses very damaging information, he hesitates to reveal anything, fearing that it will jeopardize his severance package from Brown & Williamson. Wigand's family moves into a more modest house, and Wigand begins working as a teacher. One night, Wigand finds evidence of trespass and receives a sinister phone call. Meanwhile, Bergman contacts Richard Scruggs, an attorney representing Mississippi in a lawsuit against the tobacco industry. Bergman suggests that if they depose Wigand, making his information public, it can give CBS cover to broadcast the information; Scruggs expresses interest. Wigand receives an emailed death threat and finds a bullet in his mailbox. He contacts the FBI, but the agents who visit him are hostile and confiscate his computer. Furious, Wigand demands that Bergman arrange an interview, during which Wigand states that he was fired after objecting to Brown & Williamson intentionally making their cigarettes more addictive. Bergman arranges a security detail for Wigand's home, and the Wigands experience marital stress. Wigand testifies in Mississippi, despite attempts of intimidation and legal suppression by Brown & Williamson attorneys. After returning home, he discovers that his wife Liane has left him and taken their daughters. Eric Kluster, the president of CBS News, decides not to broadcast Wigand's interview after CBS legal counsel Helen Caperelli warns that the network is at risk of legal action from Brown & Williamson. Bergman confronts Kluster, accusing him of sacrificing journalistic integrity to protect the impending sale of CBS to Westinghouse, which would enrich both Kluster and Caperelli. Wallace and their executive producer Don Hewitt both side with Kluster. Wigand, learning of this, is appalled and terminates contact with Bergman. Investigators probe Wigand's personal history and publish their findings in a 500-page dossier. Bergman learns that The Wall Street Journal intends to use it in a piece questioning Wigand's credibility. He convinces the Journal 's editor to delay publication and assign journalists to investigate the dossier, claiming that it falsely quotes its sources. After infighting at CBS over the Wigand segment, Bergman is ordered to take a "vacation" as the abridged 60 Minutes segment airs. Bergman contacts Wigand, who is both dejected and furious, accusing Bergman of manipulating him. Bergman defends himself and praises Wigand and his testimony. Scruggs urges Bergman to air the full segment to draw public support for their lawsuit, which is under threat from a lawsuit by Mississippi's governor. Bergman, frozen out, is unable to assist and privately questions his own motives pursuing the story. Bergman contacts an editor at The New York Times, disclosing the full story and events at CBS. The Times prints the story on the front page and condemns CBS in a scathing editorial. The Journal dismisses the dossier as character assassination and prints Wigand's deposition. Hewitt accuses Bergman of betraying CBS, but finds that Wallace now agrees that bowing to corporate pressure was a mistake. 60 Minutes finally airs the original segment, including the full interview with Wigand. Bergman tells Wallace that he has resigned, believing that 60 Minutes 's credibility and integrity are now permanently tarnished.

Katherine Goble works at the West Area of Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, in 1958 through 1961, alongside her colleagues Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan, as lowly " computers ", performing mathematical calculations without being told what they are for. All of them are African-American women; the unit is segregated by race and sex. White supervisor Vivian Mitchell assigns Katherine to assist Al Harrison's Space Task Group, given her skills in analytic geometry. She becomes the first Black woman on the team; head engineer Paul Stafford is especially dismissive. Mary is assigned to the space capsule heat shield team, where she immediately identifies a design flaw. Encouraged by her team leader, Karl Zielinski, a Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor, Mary applies for a NASA engineer position. She is told by Mitchell that, regardless of her degree in mathematics and physical science, the position requires additional courses. Mary files a petition for permission to attend all-white Hampton High School, despite her husband's opposition. Pleading her case in court, she wins over the local judge by appealing to his sense of history, allowing her to attend night classes. Katherine meets African-American National Guard Lt. Col. Jim Johnson, who voices skepticism about women's mathematical abilities. He later apologizes and begins to spend time with Katherine and her three daughters (from her marriage to her late husband James Goble). The Mercury 7 astronauts visit Langley, and astronaut John Glenn goes out of his way to greet the West Area women. Katherine impresses Harrison by solving a complex mathematical equation from redacted documents, as the Soviet Union 's successful launch of Yuri Gagarin increases pressure to send American astronauts into space. Harrison confronts Katherine about her "breaks," unaware that she is forced to walk half a mile (800 meters) to use the nearest restroom designated for "colored" people. She angrily explains the discrimination she faces at work, which leads Harrison to destroy the "colored" restroom signs and abolish restroom segregation. He allows Katherine to be included in high-level meetings to calculate the space capsule's re-entry point. Stafford instructs Katherine to remove her name from the reports, insisting that " computers " cannot be credited as authors, and her work is credited solely to Stafford. Informed by Mitchell that there are no plans to assign a "permanent supervisor for the colored group," Dorothy learns that NASA has installed an IBM 7090 electronic computer, which threatens to replace human computers. When a librarian scolds her for visiting the whites-only section, Dorothy sneaks out a book about Fortran and teaches herself and her West Area co-workers programming. She visits the computer room, successfully starts the machine, and is promoted to supervise the Programming Department; she agrees to do so if thirty of her co-workers are transferred as well. Mitchell finally addresses her as "Mrs. Vaughan". Making final arrangements for John Glenn's launch, the department no longer needs human computers; Katherine is reassigned to the West Area and marries Jim, becoming Katherine Johnson. On the day of the launch, discrepancies are found in the IBM 7090 calculations, and Katherine is asked to check the capsule's landing coordinates. She delivers the results to the control room, and Harrison allows her inside. After a successful launch and orbit, a warning indicates the capsule's heat shield may be loose. Mission Control decides to land Glenn after three orbits instead of seven, and Katherine supports Harrison's suggestion to leave the retro-rocket attached to help keep the heat shield in place. Friendship 7 lands successfully. An epilogue notes that Mary obtained her degree and became NASA's first female African American engineer; Dorothy continued on as NASA's first African American supervisor; and Katherine, whom Stafford accepted as a coauthor, performed calculations for the Apollo 11 and Space Shuttle missions. The epilogue also mentions that Katherine was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015, and NASA dedicated the Langley Research Center 's Katherine Johnson Computational Building in her honor the following year.

The first part focuses on the events of the early days of the French Revolution. The film opens in 1774 with a young Maximillien Robespierre reading a document in front of King Louis XV 's carriage in the College Louis le Grand. He is splashed with mud after a horse's hoof smacks the muddy ground, prompting his classmates to laugh at him. Robespierre's classmate, Camille Desmoulins, comforts and reassures Robespierre. The film jumps 15 years later at the calling of the Estates General of 1789, which proves to be a disaster as many members of the Third Estate had sworn an oath on 20 June 1789 to not stop convening as a committee until they are given more rights. In response, King Louis XVI closes the assembly. In a private lunch following the incident, Marie Antoinette gives Louis a few ideas, such as using force should the people refuse the King's demands. Meanwhile, many orators rouse the people to demand for change. The situation only worsens after King Louis XVI accepts the resignation of finance minister Jacques Necker, a friend and popular figure of the people, who then returns to Switzerland. Desmoulins arrives at the Palais-Royal and delivers the news on 12 July, along with an impassioned call to arms to the crowd to defend themselves against Swiss and German troops who would attack them. When Desmoulins' friend and colleague Georges Danton hears the news and then learns of troops already attacking citizens during efforts to get them to disperse, he delivers a fiery speech at Paris' Cordeliers Convent asking every man in the district to volunteer to fight and proclaiming that they will not allow tyranny to triumph over liberty. On 14 July 1789, revolutionaries gather at the Bastille prison, seeking weapons and gunpowder for their revolutionary cause. A battle ensues between Revolutionary forces and the prison's garrison, headed by the Marquis de Launay, where the Revolutionaries emerge victorious after a bloody struggle and tense negotiations. Launay is lynched and his head stuck on a pike, the revolutionaries dancing " La Carmagnole " around it in celebration. Louis XVI arrives at Paris while the Marquis de Lafayette reads the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen out to the National Assembly as people from all corners of France read it for themselves or hear it. At the start of October, in the middle of a severe bread shortage, Versailles holds a welcoming banquet for Flanders Regiment officers after they arrive to defend the palace as a precaution. When word reaches Paris, Danton is enraged, and on 4 October, dictates a leaflet in the presence of Desmoulins to be printed and posted on the city walls, which calls the banquet an insult to liberty and also calls for insurrection. The day after the missive is sent, thousands of women march to demand bread and then turn towards Versailles, and male revolutionaries also join after Danton exhorts them to do so as a matter of honor and to protect what they have won. The women storm the palace, overpowering the guards but stopping short of the King and Queen, protected by guards and soldiers. After the mob demands that the King appear on the balcony to prove he hasn't left and abandoned the people, Louis XVI appears on the balcony, followed by his wife, Marie Antoinette. As the mob prepares to shoot her, she kneels down, pleading forgiveness, and the mob relents, shouting "God save the Queen!". Afterward, Louis meets with inventor Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, and is presented with a model of a new execution device he names the Guillotine. At first, Guillotin proposes a crescent-shaped blade, but Louis, who claims he is experienced with mechanics, proposes a triangular blade instead, and designed like a saw, to Guillotin's delight. Meanwhile, Danton starts his own political newspaper. A few days later, a celebration is held at the Champ de Mars, known today as the Fête de la Fédération. Some of those in the masses are Danton, Maximilien Robespierre, and many other revolutionaries. Lafayette and the people swear an oath of faith and loyalty to France. Soon afterwards, a mutiny in the Nancy garrison is quickly put down, many being beaten publicly to death or hanged. In a speech before the National Assembly, Danton demands the resignation of the Interior Minister, Minister of War, the Monsieur de la Tour du Pin, and many others, to the support and agreement from many delegates present. Soon afterwards, riots against the clergy are incited due to their continued monarchist sentiment, and many attacks against clergymen, churches, cathedrals, and monasteries occur across France. Baptism is mocked, and organists are forced to play revolutionary music on the organ. Subsequently, Lafayette signs an edict demanding the arrest of all Revolutionaries in the National Assembly. Meanwhile, the royal family flees Paris, hoping to reach the Austrian Netherlands disguised as servants. However, they are identified by an innkeeper at Varennes, and returned to Paris. Speakers around France demand that Louis XVI be stripped of his royal title as King of France and be reduced to merely "Citizen Louis Capet". The Mayor of Paris, Jean Sylvain Bailly, is forced to declare martial law after Danton and his supporters gather at the Champ de Mars. Initially dispersed by the National Guard, they return on 17 July 1791, gathering souvenirs, banners and flags. However, the National Guard also returns, and after the soldiers fire a warning shot above the heads of the civilians, the crowd begins to throw stones and other objects at the soldiers. Taking this as a sign of hostility, Bailly orders his troops to open fire, despite Lafayette's efforts to maintain peace between both sides. The resulting massacre is a bloodbath, with dozens dead or wounded. The survivors quickly scatter, and this only worsens the situation. A few weeks later, Louis XVI and the National Assembly declare war on the great powers of Europe, but Robespierre knows that the campaign will be a disaster, and his prediction initially proves to be true. French troops march on the Belgian frontier, but are quickly annihilated by forces of Prussia and Austria, and a French general is killed by his own soldiers. Jean-Paul Marat demands that "ten thousand heads must fall here in France." The Duke of Brunswick issues a manifesto demanding that France surrender, or he will "burn Paris to the ground." Another call to action is given at the National Assembly, with Robespierre again certain that the next campaign will be a disaster. While French soldiers make their way to the front, they are given provisions in the towns they enter, and sing a new song: " La Marseillaise ". On 10 August, thousands of Revolutionaries surround the Tuileries Palace. Initially, the National Guard are ordered to defend the palace, but unwilling to fire upon their fellow brethren, they switch sides and point cannons at the palace. An armed standoff takes place, where Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the rest of the nobility are escorted out of the Palace for refuge in the meeting place of the National Assembly, where the children watch the proceedings. Back at the Tuileries, the insurrectionists break through the Palace gates, and an intense firefight ensues between the Swiss Guards and the revolutionaries. Despite the Swiss Guards' best efforts, and heavy losses sustained by the Revolutionaries, the Palace is taken. Louis then tells his son that "there is no longer a King in France". The second part focuses on the aftermath of the 10 August Insurrection and the Reign of Terror. On 13 August, 1792 Louis XVI and his family arrive at the Temple, a fortress and prison, where they would remain as prisoners until their sentence. With the King deposed and Danton serving as Justice Minister, Desmoulins believes that everything they have done in the Revolution is over and they can finally rest, but Robespierre overrules this by pointing out it could only be the beginning. Lafayette then is forced to step down from his position as commander of the Army of the North and is later taken prisoner by the Allies. As Prussian forces advance closer to Paris, desperate measures are taken by Danton and his associates. Death warrants are issued against purported enemies of the Revolutionary forces, with many thronging the steps pleading for Danton to spare a relative, or a friend. Meanwhile, Prussian troops ransack cities and continue to annihilate the French armies in the field. The September Massacres slaughter thousands of nobles and anyone suspected of loyalty to the monarchy. Not even Marie Antoinette's lady-in-waiting, the Princesse de Lamballe, is spared, and her head is shown to Marie Antoinette, who collapses on the floor, sobbing. On 20 September, French forces fight and emerge victorious over the Prussians at the Battle of Valmy, and celebrations ring out throughout France and the National Assembly. Louis XVI is brought before the National Assembly to stand trial for treason after Louis Antoine de Saint-Just demands his execution. Louis denies the charges brought against him, and when the topic of the Swiss Guards is brought up, Louis responds that he doubled the guards for his own safety, then denying that he caused the bloodshed on August 10 and that there were no armories in the Tuileries at the time. The next day, Louis declares before the assembly that his conscience is clear, and that the worse thing that wounded his heart were the accusations that he had shed the blood of the people. Later that night, the court votes to execute Louis. On 2 January, Louis is brought to the scaffold in a closed carriage. He attempts to make a speech to the crowd, but is drowned out mid-speech by drums ordered to sound by the commander. Louis is then beheaded by the guillotine to cheers from the previously-silent crowd. Shortly afterwards, his own son, Louis Charles, is taken by soldiers to be tutored by a man named Citizen Simon, much to the dismay of Marie Antoinette. Robespierre confers with Danton and considers a new Revolutionary Tribunal, despite them being branded as dictators. Marat is brought before the tribunal on charges of inciting public hysteria and is acquitted, as Danton knew he would be. However, Danton drives out the Girondins from his office, including Brissot. In another conference with Robespierre, Danton announces that he wants Brissot executed. Armed citizens surround the Convention and drive out Brissot and his supporters. Soon after, a young woman named Charlotte Corday hears a speech criticizing and denouncing Marat, and decides to act. She manages to get into Marat's room and stabs him whilst he is writing for a newspaper in his bathtub, killing him instantly. During Marat's funeral, Robespierre proposes new granaries for the starving populace to resounding support (Corday is afterward executed offscreen). On 15 October 1793, Marie Antoinette is escorted by her guards to the Revolutionary Tribunal for her trial. She is asked by the court on who provided the carriage for their flight to Varennes, where she replies with Count Alex von Fersen. Jacques Hébert then testifies before the court that whilst he was interrogating Citizen Simon, the latter had said he had seen the boy do "indecent and harmful acts", and then questioned him on who had taught him these things, to the young Capet admitting it was his mother and aunt, also admitting he had been forced to sleep with both of them, and that they "committed acts of debauchery", to which Marie Antoinette responds with an emotional appeal to all mothers in the room, crying out that "Nature itself reels from such an accusation". Antoinette is then convicted and condemned to death, and is executed the next day on October 16. Marie maintains great dignity and courage during her execution. Saint-Just makes a speech before the Convention and declares that "Terror is the order of the day." The next day, Saint-Just and Robespierre witness the execution of Brissot and his supporters. Danton is remarried (after the death of his old wife a few months earlier). Danton later gives a speech in front of the Convention, calling it a "den of faction, lies, and insanity", seeing churches desecrated outside, and asks, "is this the Republic we wanted to create?" He then demands that a "Committee of Clemency" be established, and receives support and applause from many in the audience and in the Convention, even from Robespierre himself, to the surprise of those near him. Hébert has great concern for the possible comeback of Danton, and expresses his need to "use every weapon against him". Hébert then denounces Danton via newspaper, and later to a crowd, accusing him of treason and having betrayed the Revolution. Robespierre then appears and asks for a Committee to investigate Danton's career and integrity, and declares the accusations false and fraudulent, saving Danton's life in the process. Hébert then incites his followers to insurrection. The Committee of Public Safety then unanimously votes for the arrest of Hébert, and he is arrested (later executed, also offscreen). The Committee of Public Safety debates on Danton's situation, and decide on his immediate arrest. Danton later tells one of his associates that even if there were a trial, he would win. Danton and Camille are both arrested. Danton's trial is chaotic, with the stands and seats full of his supporters, as well as the jury being hand-picked to ensure he is convicted. At a local play, Robespierre is discovered by the actors and the audience quickly shouts for his downfall. Saint-Just finds a letter uncovering a conspiracy between Desmoulins' wife Lucile with some aristocrats to free Camille and Danton. The Committee decides to present it as a testimony of Desmoulins and Danton's treachery, and Camille's wife is arrested. The next day, the evidence is presented, and Danton and his supporters are condemned to death and executed. As they are led out of the courtroom, the audience, who is supportive of Danton, sings La Marseillaise. Desmoulins' wife is also executed a few days later. Robespierre holds the Festival of the Supreme Being on 8 June 1794. Initially, the festival is triumphant and majestic, but it proves to be a disaster. Robespierre speaks for so long that some in the crowd start sleeping. Some even murmur that Robespierre thinks he's either the Pope or God Himself. When Robespierre declares that the Supreme Being's religion is Virtue, someone in the crowd yells that Robespierre's is Murder. As Robespierre's speech goes on, the crowd starts to be more aggressive to him and many begin to leave, either discontented with the contents of Robespierre's speech or simply bored of the entire thing. The Committee starts denouncing Robespierre, saying that he has "executed more people in the last two months than in the last two years", although he is defended by ardent supporters such as Saint-Just. The Committee decides that things have gone too far and plot to bring an end to Robespierre. At the Convention, Robespierre makes a speech detailing his situation, from his perspective, to his hearers, whilst his political enemies decide to stop him in his tracks on that day. Robespierre's opponents then demand that he read out the names of those he accused as Robespierre finishes his speech. When Robespierre refuses, the Convention denounces him a tyrant and unanimously votes for his execution. Robespierre and his supporters take refuge in the Hôtel de Ville, Paris and organize a defense of the building. The Convention musters a large force to storm the building and take Robespierre prisoner, whilst Robespierre's followers, led by a drunken general, barricade themselves in the building. A cannon brings down the barricaded door, and a brief skirmish ensues between forces of the National Guard and Robespierre. The doors to the main room are broken down and a large scuffle ensues, with Robespierre himself accidentally shooting himself in the jaw after being tackled to the floor, following an attempt to shoot a soldier targeting him. Robespierre and his supporters are all arrested and await execution. The next day, Robespierre, Saint-Just, and other prominent Robespierrists are taken to the Place de la Révolution and guillotined, effectively marking the end of the Reign of Terror. In the closing scene, family members of some of the leading revolutionaries light candles in a church, before leaving.

The central character of the film is Harry Melchior, based on the real tunneler, Hasso Herschel. Despite being imprisoned for several years for his role in the June 1953 uprising in East Germany, Melchior competes for and wins the national swimming championship in 1961. With the aid of a false passport and disguise, Harry succeeds in fleeing to West Berlin. His best friend, Matthis, manages to escape through the underground sewer, but Matthis's pregnant wife Carola is caught and remains in East Berlin. Harry's beloved sister, Lotte, and her husband and daughter are ambivalent about leaving the confines of the GDR. Committed to getting their loved ones out of the GDR but knowing that ground routes are heavily guarded, Harry and Matthis have the idea of going underground. Matthis is an engineer by training. They link up with a small circle of others, initially Vittorio 'Vic' Constanza and Fred von Klausnitz. They find an unused factory building close to the Wall that has ample underground space. They are eventually joined by Fritzi Scholz, whose fiancé, Heiner, is also trapped in the east. The work is slow, hard and sometimes dangerous, and the group reluctantly agrees to take in several more helpers. Over a span of months, the tunnel takes shape following Matthis' design, with the necessary shoring, lights and even a railbed. Discovering a film crew from NBC in the city one day, the leaders convince the network to fund their efforts in exchange for exclusive footage of the digging and eventual escape. In the meantime, communication with the would-be rescuees in the east is necessary but hazardous. Vic, an American citizen, can pass through the border freely. He is in contact with Lotte and with Carola. The latter, however, has been blackmailed by the Stasi to inform; if she does not cooperate, the state will take her soon-to-be-born baby. Carola informs on Vic and he is detained when trying to cross back to West Berlin. He is released after a while but cannot go back to the east. Fritzi's love, Heiner, makes a futile attempt to cross the barbed wire and walls, but is shot by the East German border guards and left to die in a scene mirroring the true case of Peter Fechter. The American soldiers prevent Harry from climbing the wall to help Heiner. Overseeing the efforts to thwart tunnelers and other efforts at "illegal emigration" is Colonel Kröger. Finally the pieces are all in place for the planned escape of about 30 people. Word is spread by surreptitious means, though the Stasi are watching closely. They go to the home of Fred's widowed mother to take her into custody, but she takes her own life first. Carola has admitted to Lotte that she has been an informant but swears she can now be trusted. In a ruse that means leaving her baby with Lotte's family, she leads her Stasi tail to a remote location far from the actual escape site. In the meantime, Fritzi has crossed the border with a fake passport to guide the escapees through the tunnel. After the true location of the escape is discovered, Harry enters East Berlin through the tunnel and, surprising a border guard, takes his uniform, helmet and gun, and blends in with the troops swarming the area in order to send them in wrong directions. The would-be escapees gather in a café across from the building where the tunnel begins, and Fritzi gradually escorts them over. Tense moments ensue as Colonel Kröger closes in, and pursues the escapees through the tunnel. A sign has been erected in the tunnel marking the boundary of the French sector, and the pursuing guards have the political sense to know they cannot go further.

Thomas Becket is an advisor and companion of the carousing King Henry II. Henry appoints Becket as Lord Chancellor to have a close confidant in this position whom he can completely control. Henry is less interested in his royal duties than drunken forays in the royal hunting grounds and pursuing peasant women. He becomes increasingly dependent on Becket, a Saxon commoner, who arranges these debaucheries when he is not busy running Henry's court. This foments great resentment on the part of Henry's Norman noblemen, who distrust and envy this Saxon upstart, as well as Henry's wife Queen Eleanor and Henry's mother Empress Matilda, who see Becket as an unnatural and unseemly influence upon the King. Henry finds himself in continuous conflict with the elderly Archbishop of Canterbury, who opposes the taxation of Church property to support Henry's military campaigns in France. During one of his campaigns in coastal France, he receives news that the archbishop has died. In a burst of inspiration, Henry exercises his prerogative to pick the next Archbishop, and informs an astonished Becket that he is the royal choice. Shortly thereafter, Becket sides with the Church, throwing Henry into a fury. One of the main bones of contention is Thomas' excommunication of Lord Gilbert, one of Henry's most loyal stalwarts, for seizing and ordering the killing of a priest who had been accused of sexual indiscretions with a young girl, before the priest can even be handed over for ecclesiastical trial. Gilbert then refused to acknowledge his transgressions and seek absolution. The King has a dramatic secret meeting with the Bishop of London in his cathedral. He lays out his plan to remove Becket through scandal and innuendo, which the envious Bishop of London quickly agrees to. These attempts fall flat when Becket, in full ecclesiastic garb, confronts his accusers and announces that as Archbishop he will petition the Pope for an ecclesiastical trial, causing Henry to laugh and bitterly note the irony of having his friend turn into his enemy. Becket escapes to France where he encounters the conniving yet sympathetic King Louis. King Louis sees in Becket a means by which he can further his favourite pastime, tormenting the English. Louis provides refuge for Becket at the Abbey of Saint Martin while the English send emissaries to retrieve Becket. Becket then travels to the Vatican, where he begs the Pope to allow him to renounce his position and retire to a monastery as an ordinary priest. The Pope reminds Becket that he has an obligation as a matter of principle to return to England and take a stand against civil interference in Church matters. Becket yields to this decision and asks Louis to arrange a meeting with Henry on the beaches at Normandy. Henry asks Becket whether or not he loved him and Becket replied that he loved Henry to the best of his ability. A shaky truce is declared and Becket is allowed to return to England. Henry then rapidly sinks into drunken fixation over Becket and his perceived betrayal. The barons worsen his mood by pointing out that Becket has become a folk hero among the vanquished Saxons, who are ever restive and resentful of their Norman conquerors. During a drunken rage, Henry asks " Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest? " His faithful barons hear this and proceed quickly to Canterbury, where they put Thomas and his Saxon deputy, Brother John, to the sword. A badly shaken Henry then undergoes a penance by whipping at the hands of Saxon monks. Henry, fresh from his whipping, informs the barons that the ones who killed Becket will be found and justly punished. He then publicly proclaims to the crowd outside the church his arrangement for Thomas Becket to be canonised as a saint.

On July 20, 1969, astronaut Jim Lovell hosts a party where guests watch Neil Armstrong 's televised first steps on the Moon from Apollo 11. Lovell, who orbited the Moon on Apollo 8, tells his wife Marilyn that he will return to the Moon to walk on its surface. Three months later, as Lovell is conducting a VIP tour of NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building, his boss Deke Slayton informs him that his crew will fly Apollo 13 instead of 14, swapping flights with Alan Shepard 's crew. Lovell, Ken Mattingly, and Fred Haise train for their mission. Days before launch in April 1970, Mattingly is exposed to German measles, and the flight surgeon demands his replacement with Mattingly's backup, Jack Swigert. Lovell resists breaking up his team, but relents when Slayton threatens to bump his crew to a later mission. As the launch date approaches, Marilyn has a nightmare about her husband dying in space, and tells Lovell she will not go to Kennedy Space Center to see him off for an unprecedented fourth launch. She later changes her mind and surprises him. On launch day, Flight Director Gene Kranz in Houston's Mission Control Center gives the go for launch. As the Saturn V rocket climbs through the atmosphere, a second stage engine cuts off prematurely, but the craft reaches its Earth parking orbit. After the third stage fires again to send Apollo 13 to the Moon, Swigert performs the maneuver to turn the Command Module Odyssey around to dock with the Lunar Module Aquarius and pull it away from the spent rocket. Three days into the mission, by order of Mission Control, Swigert turns on the liquid oxygen stirring fans. An electrical short causes a tank to explode, emptying its contents into space and sending the craft tumbling. The other tank is soon found to be leaking. Consumables manager Sy Liebergot convinces Kranz that shutting off two of Odyssey ' s three fuel cells offers the best chance to stop the leak, but this does not work. With only one fuel cell, mission rules dictate the Moon landing be aborted. Lovell and Haise power up Aquarius to use as a "lifeboat", while Swigert shuts down Odyssey to save its battery power for the return to Earth. Kranz charges his team with bringing the astronauts home, declaring " failure is not an option ". Consumables manager John Aaron recruits Mattingly to help him improvise a procedure to restart Odyssey for the landing on Earth. As the crew watches the Moon pass beneath them, Lovell laments his lost dream of walking on its surface, then turns his crew's attention to the business of getting home. With Aquarius running on minimal electrical power and rationed water supply, the crew suffers from freezing conditions, and Haise develops a urinary tract infection. Swigert suspects Mission Control is concealing the fact they are doomed; Haise angrily blames Swigert's inexperience for the accident; but Lovell quashes the argument. As Aquarius ' s carbon dioxide filters run out, concentration of the gas approaches a dangerous level. Ground control improvises a "Rube Goldberg" device to make the Command Module 's incompatible filter cartridges work in the Lunar Module. With Aquarius ' s navigation systems shut down, the crew makes a vital course correction manually by steering the Lunar Module and controlling its engine. Mattingly and Aaron struggle to find a way to power up the Command Module systems without drawing too much power, and finally read the procedure to Swigert, who restarts Odyssey by drawing the extra power from Aquarius. When the crew jettisons the Service Module, they are surprised by the extent of the damage, raising the possibility that the ablative heat shield was compromised. As they release Aquarius and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, no one is sure that Odyssey ' s heat shield is intact. The tense period of radio silence due to ionization blackout is longer than normal, but the astronauts report all is well, and the world watches Odyssey splash down and celebrates their return. As helicopters bring the crew aboard the USS Iwo Jima for a hero's welcome, Lovell's voice-over describes the cause of the explosion, and the subsequent careers of Haise, Swigert, Mattingly, Kranz, and himself. He wonders if and when mankind will return to the Moon.