In 2016, the United States is in a sustained economic depression. Industrial disasters, resource shortages, and gasoline prices at $37 per gallon have made railroads the primary mode of transportation, but even they are in disrepair. After a major accident on the Rio Norte line of the Taggart Transcontinental railroad, CEO James Taggart shirks responsibility. His sister Dagny Taggart, Vice-President in Charge of Operations, defies him by replacing the aging track with new rails made of Rearden Metal, which is claimed to be lighter yet stronger than steel. Dagny meets with its inventor, Hank Rearden, and they negotiate a deal they both admit serves their respective self-interests. Politician Wesley Mouch —nominally Rearden's lobbyist in Washington, D.C. —is part of a crowd that views heads of industry as persons who must be broken or tamed. James Taggart uses political influence to ensure that Taggart Transcontinental is designated the exclusive railroad for the state of Colorado. Dagny is confronted by Ellis Wyatt, a Colorado oil man angry to be forced to do business with Taggart Transcontinental. Dagny promises him that he will get the service he needs. Dagny encounters former lover Francisco d'Anconia, who presents a façade of a playboy grown bored with the pursuit of money. He reveals that a series of copper mines he built are worthless, costing his investors (including the Taggart railroad) millions. Rearden lives in a magnificent home with a wife and a brother who are happy to live off his effort, though they overtly disrespect it. Rearden's anniversary gift to his wife Lillian is a bracelet made from the first batch of Rearden Metal, but she considers it a garish symbol of Hank's egotism. At a dinner party, Dagny dares Lillian to exchange it for Dagny's diamond necklace, which she does. As Dagny and Rearden rebuild the Rio Norte line, talented people quit their jobs and refuse all inducements to stay. Meanwhile, Dr. Robert Stadler of the State Science Institute puts out a report implying that Rearden Metal is dangerous. Taggart Transcontinental stock plummets because of its use of Rearden Metal, and Dagny leaves Taggart Transcontinental temporarily and forms her own company to finish the Rio Norte line. She renames it the John Galt Line, in defiance of the phrase "Who is John Galt?"—which has come to stand for any question to which it is pointless to seek an answer. A new law forces Rearden to sell most of his businesses, but he retains Rearden Steel for the sake of his metal and to finish the John Galt Line. Despite strong government and union opposition to Rearden Metal, Dagny and Rearden complete the line ahead of schedule and successfully test it on a record-setting run to Wyatt's oil fields in Colorado. At the home of Wyatt, now a close friend, Dagny and Rearden celebrate the success of the line. As Dagny and Rearden continue their celebration into the night by fulfilling their growing sexual attraction, the shadowy figure responsible for the disappearances of prominent people visits Wyatt with an offer for a better society based on personal achievement. The next morning, Dagny and Rearden begin investigating an abandoned prototype of an advanced motor that could revolutionize the world. They realize the genius of the motor's creator and try to track him down. Dagny finds Dr. Hugh Akston, working as a cook at a diner, but he is not willing to reveal the identity of the inventor; Akston knows whom Dagny is seeking and says she will never find him, though he may find her. Another new law limits rail freight and levies a special tax on Colorado. It is the final straw for Ellis Wyatt. When Dagny hears that Wyatt's oil fields are on fire, she rushes to the scene of the fire where she finds a handwritten signpost that reads "I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It's yours." Wyatt declares in an answering machine message that he is "on strike".

In 1965, rebellious teenager Heather Fasulo is sent to the boarding school Falburn Academy, run by headmistress Ms. Traverse and located in the middle of the woods. Heather becomes close friends with Marcy Turner, while they are abused by their abusive classmate Samantha Wise. During the night, Heather has a nightmare about a blood-soaked student named Ann and hears voices coming from the woods; she learns the next day that Ann was institutionalized after a suicide attempt. Heather eventually learns to adjust to the school. Ms. Traverse subjects Heather to tests to see if she is "gifted". The girls tell Heather a spooky story about the history of Falburn, which includes three young redheaded sisters who arrived at the school and turned out to be witches, killing the headmistress before leaving to the woods. Heather begins to fight back against Samantha's continued torment. Ann returns from the institution; after Heather finds her rocking in her bed one night, Ann reveals that she is afraid she will be taken by the witches. Heather climbs on a trunk to try and close an open window; a low fog rushes into the room and knocks Heather down, twisting her ankle. The next day, Heather finds Ann's bed empty, her place filled with dead leaves. Heather witnesses the headmistress lying to the police about Ann's disappearance. She tries to talk to Marcy about her suspicions, but Marcy acts strangely; soon after, Heather finds Marcy's bed empty and covered in leaves. Later, she is confronted in the woods by Samantha, who tells her that the school is led by a coven of witches, and that her bullying was intended to drive Heather away to protect her. She also reveals that she has called Heather's father to help her escape and that the school's milk is poisoned. The girls are caught by a school mistress, who takes Samantha away; her body is later found hanging in the cafeteria. Heather tells a police officer about the missing students, but the headmistress claims they simply ran away. Another mistress leads the officer into the woods to find the girls, where he is killed by the living vines of a tree. Heather's parents show up to take her home. On the way home, their car is mysteriously flipped and Heather is knocked unconscious, while her mother is dragged out of the car by a vine. Heather and her father Joe wake up in a hospital. Ms. Traverse has Heather dragged away, then slits her own hand and forces her black blood down Joe's throat, rendering him catatonic. Heather returns to the school, where she drinks the milk, but later vomits it back up, finding tree bark in it. At the hospital, Joe wakes up and vomits up the blood, which also has tree bark in it. He escapes and looks for Heather. That night, Heather begins to hear voices again, and when she attempts to leave, a vine captures her. She awakens wrapped in vines in a large room next to Ann and Marcy, who are also captive. All of the teachers appear and reveal themselves to be witches. Ms. Traverse is their leader, and she explains that their spirits have been trapped in the woods all these years, and they need to inhabit the bodies of young women to escape their imprisonment, with Heather as the centerpiece of her plan since she has the strongest powers. Heather is coerced into carrying out the ritual, and the vines begin to mummify all of the girls in the school. Before the ritual is complete, Joe breaks into the room with an ax and attacks one of the witches before being seized by vines. Heather breaks free and chops all of the witches into pieces. Heather and Joe then leave with all of the girls as the school burns in the distance behind them.

In 2063, astrophysicists on a climate change –ravaged Earth find a habitable planet. A scouting mission is sent, although the roughly 86-year flight means that only some of the original crew, expanded with their children and grandchildren, will reach the planet. The 30-person launch crew are bred on Earth through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) using genius donors, and live their infancy and childhood in isolation in order to help cope with spending their remaining lives mostly in flight. To shorten the wait for news back to Earth, the 30 are launched as preadolescents on the spaceship Humanitas; they are joined by adult program commander Richard, to guide them through the journey's early stage. The plan is for IVF to be performed when the crew turns 24, to be repeated on those offspring when they turn 24. During the tenth year of the flight, Christopher and Zac discover a chemical is added to everyone's food that suppresses the sex drive and pleasure response, keeping them docile and manageable. The pair stop taking the chemical, with their surging hormones driving them to become competitive, careless, and anxious to engage in sexual relations. Their crewmate Sela, who has trained as chief medical officer, is assaulted by one of the boys, which distresses female members of the crew as well as Richard. During a repair effort outside the Humanitas to address a failed Earth communication system, Richard is killed and a fire damages more ship systems. Christopher is voted the new chief officer, which upsets Zac, who then tells the others to stop ingesting the chemical. The mission descends into madness as many of the young men and women revert to their most primal state. A power hungry Zac tells the weak minded others that an alien killed Richard, and he will protect them, letting them eat all the (closely conserved) food they want. He convinces all but five to follow him rather than Christopher. Christopher and Sela, who have become a couple, find and repair a video disk that reveals Zac killed Richard and precipitated the further systems damage by turning on the electricity to the communications array while Richard was working on it. They show the others, but Zac convinces many that an alien is inhabiting one of them, which leads his followers to murder one of their own. Christopher inadvertently leads Zac to a weapons cache for their grandchildren to use on the planet. Three of the holdouts join Zac's mob, leaving only Christopher, Sela, and Phoebe to oppose Zac. One of Zac's mob kills Phoebe, but Sela kills him in return. She and Christopher eject Zac into space, and his followers acquiesce to living peacefully. Sela is voted chief officer. The crew permanently forgoes the suppression chemical and learn to manage their emotions. They fall in love and have children naturally rather than via the planned IVF. After another 76 years, Humanitas and its multi-generational crew arrive at the planet, which appears from orbit to be as Earth-like as hoped.

A Russian peasant family is eating dinner when a truck stops in the front yard. The father opens the door of the truck to find a dead woman and two crying infants in the seat next to her. Marie Jones, an American woman, is seen in a Russian hotel room making a call to her daughter; she then goes to meet a local notary, who tells her that she has inherited some property, and that she should visit it. Having been taken to the wooded island, she finds that the house is dilapidated and inhabited by zombie-like creatures, one of whom looks like her. Having attempted to escape, she meets Nikolai, who tells her that they are fraternal twins, adopted separately following the murder of their mother. The house seems to change at random between dilapidation and domestication. Threatened by the zombie-like creatures, Nikolai shoots one of them in the leg, only to find that the wound appears on his own body. He deduces that they are his and Marie's doppelgängers, and that 'what happens to them happens to us'. When Nikolai falls into a hole in the floor while the house is dilapidated, Marie is unable to rescue him because the hole suddenly seals as the house changes to a domesticated state. Marie attempts to escape by rowing across the river. After a lengthy walk on the opposite bank, she happens upon a house, only to find that it is the house she has escaped from, with Nikolai inside. He explains that their father intended to kill them along with their mother when they were babies, and that they cannot leave until he has managed to reunite the family in death. The house reverts to its state on the night of the murder, and they see their father returning home. Nikolai tells Marie that they can escape in the truck along with their mother and their younger selves. While searching for the truck, Marie finds her father's now desiccated body in the barn, and is then pushed into a pseudo-past where she realizes her father and the notary are the same person. She flees his office in the present and runs into her past self as she comes up the steps, and continues fleeing into the sunlight until she finds herself back in the house, this time between the past and the present, where the apparition of her father explains that he has always loved his children and his wife, and could not let them leave him. Marie runs from him and finds Nikolai's body being eaten by boars. When her doppelgänger comes after her, Marie flees to the truck parked outside and drives away. Marie's father's voice comes over the radio, telling her to return and join the family he has created. The bridge that brought her there has been destroyed, and she plunges into the river, drowning. The film ends with Marie's daughter, Emily, explaining that she knew her mother would never return. It has been a long time since her mother left for Russia, and Emily has never had the desire to know what happened to Marie or her parents, breaking the cycle and leaving her abandoned.

The movie begins with a woman hearing a phone ring at a subway train and goes to the public phone booth to answer it. She hears nothing at first until high pitched beeping sounds slowly climb up, which makes the woman shake vibrantly and make her eyes bleed and is then thrown onto the escalator due to the explosion that sounded like thunder. Nat Bridger, an ecology professor, goes to the Thorner home after teaching his class. Thorner and his wife can't handle the fact that their daughter, Sandra, is dead (the woman from the opening scene) after her murder. Later that night, a businessman, Gordon Smith is later electrocuted by the phone he was using when it ringed and was thrown out through the large glass window and crashes onto a car and was killed. The next day, Nat goes for a ceremony and gets called for the letter of authorization to send to the caller. He goes to see Lt. Merra when he finds out that Sandra's death was caused for a heart attack. Then Nat stays over at Stanley Markowitz place and interviews a lady who had witnessed the murder. Later that night, Mrs. Andersen gets killed by the phone. Nat tries to figure out why the phone at the subway was repaired and gets rejected at first then gets to talk to the supervisor at a business industry. He met Ridley Taylor inside not so long ago after a talk with the supervisor and invites her to dinner. And another phone gone wrong happened at Connie Lawson and was killed. Later the next day, Nat gets into an argument with Meara for not helping him on the case. Nat gets followed by a tourist guy who takes pictures and thinks he's working for someone but gets pulled away. After being arrested and healed by Stanley, Nat goes to the phone control center to search for evidence that can led to the mystery and finds pairs of phones that were used for the murders. After Nat has arrived at Ridley's house, Stanley gets murdered by the phone. Nat and Meara go to the commissioner about Stanley's discussion on the phone murders and gets called out. Nat goes to Stanley's house for evidence until he realizes that from the video tape player, an address that led to Ridley's house and plays the tape at Ridley's house realizing that Noah Clayton, the tour guide, must be the phone operator, killing people by the use of a phone. After Nat leaves, Ridley gets a phone call from Noah and before he can kill her through the phone, Ridley throws it away, not getting killed. Nat and other men, along with Ridley, go to the Power company for clues and Nat gets the phone call from Clayton, revealing his innovations for killing people through phones for revenge over perceived injustices. Before he kills Nat, the deadly high-frequency sonic pulse he designed for his telephone murders is reversed and sent back through the line, causing Clayton to convulse and a shelf behind him falls on him and is killed. The movie ends with the whole mystery solved and Nat gets a call from Al Histlip, the public safety department of the city, congrates him for solving the phone murders and as Ridley leaves to go home, Nat calls out "I'll call you" before the high pitch beeping noises come again and the movie cuts out to the credits.

Doctor Dré and Ed Lover are two bumbling barbers at a Harlem barbershop. Knowing full well that cutting hair is not their calling, their boss, friend, and mentor Nick (Jim Moody) tells the two maybe they should try out for the police academy. They refuse at first, but Nick threatens them with unemployment. Crazily enough, it works out for the two, and they are accepted on the New York City police force. Things seem to be going well for them, when tragedy suddenly strikes, and they lose Nick and the barbershop. Now enforcers of the law, the team decides to investigate the incident, which they believe to be a murder. Ed and Dre find out through the streets that a crooked land developer named Demetrius (Richard Bright) might have had something to do with their friend's death, and proceed to attempt to dig up as much dirt on him as possible. This proves to be difficult, however, when they've got an angry Sergeant (Denis Leary), a moody detective (Rozwill Young), and a bunch of unwilling street hoods (Guru, Ice-T) to go through to get the information they need. Though there aren't any certain clues to be found, strange happenings are certainly going on, as the cops found out that Demetrius' company seems to be looking for oil rather than looking for property. With their superiors not believing Ed and Dre's story and getting themselves in trouble, they end up being suspended. However, they get a lead to a warehouse where they find a lot of guns. They have enough evidence to arrest Demetrius, but Demetrius didn't kill Nick. It was revealed that Nick's friend, Lionel, who was working for Demetrius had murdered him because Nick refused to sell his shop. Ed and Dre have Lionel arrested. Ed and Dre are offered their jobs back, but decided to quit, stating it's too violent for them. When they return to their old barbershop they discover oil coming from the floor. Soon after, they're back in business re-opening the place giving customers bad haircuts.

Through her friend Annie, call center intern Mae Holland secures a customer support position at The Circle, a tech and social media company. Mae takes the job, hoping to support her parents, particularly her father who suffers from multiple sclerosis, while her longtime friend Mercer is less supportive. At a company meeting, CEO Eamon Bailey introduces SeeChange, which uses small cameras placed anywhere to provide real-time high-quality video. Mae rises in The Circle, embracing social networking and meeting Ty Lafitte, who displays suspicion of other, more enthusiastic employees. At an outdoor company rally emphasizing the need for accountability in politics, The Circle's Chief Operating Officer, Tom Stenton, introduces Congresswoman Olivia Santos, who has agreed to open her daily workings to the public through SeeChange. Ty subsequently shows Mae the area containing the cloud server where all information collected by SeeChange is to be stored. Ty is the creator of TrueYou, the Circle's social network. Ty says that TrueYou has grown out of his control, and its current utilization is not what he intended. Later, Mae's mother shows Mae a picture of a chandelier Mercer made from deer antlers. She photographs it and shares it on her Circle profile. The image attracts negative attention to Mercer, with people accusing him of killing the deer. Mercer confronts Mae at work and tells her to leave him alone. Distressed, Mae goes kayaking at night and the rough waters cause her kayak to capsize, requiring rescue by the Coast Guard, who were alerted to the emergency through SeeChange cameras, which recorded her acquiring the kayak and capsizing it. At the next meeting, Eamon introduces Mae to the crowd and they discuss her experience of the rescue, which moves her to become the first "Circler" to go "completely transparent," which involves wearing a small camera and exposing her life to the world twenty-four hours a day. This damages her relationships with her parents and Annie, as Mae accidentally exposes private aspects of their lives, and they distance themselves from her as a result. At a board meeting, Eamon announces support from almost all fifty states for voting through Circle accounts. Mae takes it a step further, and suggests requiring every voting citizen to have a Circle account in order to do so. Eamon and Tom approve, but the suggestion upsets Annie. At the next company-wide meeting, Mae says that The Circle believes it can find anyone on the planet in under twenty minutes and introduces a program to find wanted felons. The program identifies an escaped child murderer within ten minutes, which prompts the Circlers in the audience to erupt in applause. Mae uses this successful test to suggest transparency can be a force for good. Mae says that the program can find anyone, and someone suggests Mercer. Mae is initially hesitant to use the program to locate Mercer, but Eamon persuades her to continue. Mercer is located in an isolated cabin. Startled by Circle users descending upon his home, he flees in a car, though a Circle user places a small camera on his car window without his knowledge. They pursue him via automobile and a flying drone, which causes Mercer to swerve uncontrollably off a bridge and die. Days later, Mae calls Annie, who has left The Circle and returned to Scotland, which has improved her well-being. Mae, however, finds that connection with others helps her cope with Mercer's death. Mae returns to The Circle, despite her parents' pleas. Mae calls Ty to ask for a favor and Ty reveals something that he has discovered. At the next company-wide meeting, Mae explains how connection has helped her recover. She speaks with Eamon, and invites Tom onstage, then invites Eamon and Tom to go fully transparent. She explains that Ty has found all their email accounts and exposed them to the world, as no one should be exempt. Eamon and Tom, upset, try to save face before Tom leaves the stage. Her superiors cut power to her presentation, and the stage goes dark, but the audience activates their mobile devices, illuminating Mae, who reiterates her advocacy of transparency. She later returns to kayaking, untroubled by the drones that shadow her.

In a post-apocalyptic realm called Anmaere, an annual drive ships wild horses from a rundown city called Whithren to another, far-off city, Levithen. Many denizens of Whithren hope to board the boat with the horses and travel to Levithen, which they believe holds a more promising future for them.

On July 4, 2005, El Paso and Abilene, Texas are destroyed and hundreds of thousands are killed by twin nuclear attacks, sending the United States into a state of a Third World War, with the government re-introducing the draft. The PATRIOT Act extends authority, due to the overwhelming victory of the Republican Party, to US-IDENT, a new agency which keeps constant surveillance on citizens. In response to the recent fuel shortage in the wake of global warfare, the German company Treer designs "Fluid Karma", a generator of inexhaustible energy, which is propelled by the perpetual motion of ocean currents. Treer scientist Baron Von Westphalen seeks world domination using the leverage of his energy machine. In 2008 Los Angeles, Senator and GOP Vice-Presidential candidate Bobby Frost (who also seeks the presidency itself) presides over the opening of US-IDENT with his wife, Nana Mae Frost, installed as its director. Right-wing film star Boxer Santaros awakens on the beach with amnesia after a three-day disappearance. He does not remember his marriage to Senator Frost's daughter Madeline, and has instead begun an affair with former porn star turned-talk show host Krysta Now. Meanwhile, a group of Neo-Marxist revolutionaries composed of Cyndi Pinziki, Zora Carmichaels and Ronald Taverner hatch a plan to turn the national spotlight against US-IDENT. They have kidnapped Ronald's twin brother, police officer Roland, and plan to outfit Ronald in his uniform and car in order to stage a racially motivated double-murder. They have Boxer bring a video camera as he goes with Ronald, under the guise of preparing for a police officer role for his screenplay. Ronald responds to a staged domestic disturbance call where Neo-Marxists Dream and Dion, disguised as newlyweds, fake an argument. Unexpectedly, another cop, Bart Bookman arrives on the scene, murders Dream and Dion, and takes the camera. Bookman is revealed to be in cahoots with Zora when she later attacks Ronald with fluid karma, leaving him unconscious in the street. The next day, Krysta stops by Zora's apartment and takes the videotape of the double murder, mistaking it for her sex tape. At the Santa Monica beach, she puts it in a Neo-Marxist dropbox, leading to the contents later being made public, and Zora and Bookman are shot dead by police while attempting to steal back the tape. Boxer arrives at the beach and meets Starla, who called him earlier posing as a character from his screenplay, and threatens to kill herself if he does not allow her to perform oral sex on him. Iraq War veteran Private Pilot Abilene shoots her dead from his perch at the top of the pier and Boxer runs off, only to be confronted by supposed friend Fortunio, who knocks him unconscious and returns him to the Frosts. Nearby, Ronald awakens and sets out to find his brother. He encounters a young man named Martin Kefauver in an SUV and stops him from killing himself to avoid the draft, and the two go out in search for Roland, who earlier escaped the Neo-Marxist headquarters during a US-IDENT raid, only to be captured by Walter Mung, an ice cream truck-based arms dealer. The Frosts and the city prepare for an upper-class party on Von Westphalen's Mega- Zeppelin to celebrate its launch. Boxer leaves the main hall of the ship in search of answers, and finds a room with three of Westphalen's scientists, who explain that he was selected to travel through a time rift in the desert at the time of his disappearance, and is, in fact, his future self. The scientists show him the corpse of his past self, who they say killed himself. Boxer asserts that his suicide is impossible because he is a "pimp", and "pimps don't commit suicide." One of the scientists also states that dire consequences would unfold if two identical human souls were to make physical contact. Boxer presses Serpentine for details, revealing that Boxer was actually murdered in a car bomb and that Roland was the one who kidnapped Boxer and drove him through the rift. She also confirms that Roland and Ronald are the same person, with his past and present self coexisting. Outside where the city is, as a firefight ensues between rioters and the police, both Taverners crash into each other. Roland is shot in the eye but survives. Inside the ice cream truck, the Taverners hold hands, causing the truck to rise into the air along with Kefauver, who stands on top with a shoulder-mounted heat-seeking ground-to-air missile. US-IDENT headquarters is raided by Fortunio and rioters who kill Nana Mae Frost. Inside the Zeppelin, Boxer returns to the main hall and takes the stage for a dance number involving Krysta and his wife, Madeline. He interrupts the number to order an evacuation, or else he will kill himself. Kefauver fires a rocket at the Zeppelin, destroying it, and jumps off the truck. As the Taverners continue to hold hands, a time rift begins to grow in the sky. Roland threatens Ronald with suicide if he does not let go and tells him to "remember Fallujah". Ronald replies that it was not their fault, with Roland conceding that it was friendly fire. Abilene narrates that a new age is beginning, with Roland as its Messiah, concluding that he is a "pimp" and that "pimps don't commit suicide."

Dagny Taggart pilots an airplane in pursuit of another plane. Dagny asks herself, "Who is John Galt ?" before apparently crashing into a mountainside. Nine months earlier, Dagny is trying to understand the abandoned prototype of an advanced motor she and her lover Hank Rearden have found. Scientists across the country have been disappearing under mysterious circumstances, but Dagny is able to locate Quentin Daniels, who agrees to help from an abandoned laboratory in Utah. Dagny's brother James Taggart, president of the family railroad company, meets store clerk Cherryl Brooks and brings her to see a renowned pianist, who disappears during his performance, leaving a note asking, "Who is John Galt?" Later, at James and Cherryl's wedding, Dagny's friend Francisco d'Anconia argues with other guests about whether money is evil, and secretly informs Rearden about devastating explosions at his copper mine —the next day. Rearden spends the night with Dagny. Later, he is confronted about the affair by his wife Lillian, but when he offers a divorce she declines, in order to maintain her position in society. Rearden sells his advanced Rearden Metal to Ken Danagger's coal mining company, but refuses to sell it to the federal government, in defiance of the newly enacted "Fair Share" law that forces businesses to sell to all buyers. The two are charged under the law. Dagny barges into Danagger's office, realizes that he too is about to disappear, and understands that she is close to understanding the force behind the disappearances. At trial, Rearden defends individual freedom and the pursuit of profit, and is given only a token penalty by the court, which fears turning him into a martyr. The government announces "Directive 10-289", which freezes employment and production and requires that all patents be gifted to the government. Rearden defies this decree as well, but relents when he is blackmailed with photos of himself and Dagny that would damage Dagny's reputation. When Dagny hears about Rearden's "gift" and her brother's complicity, she quits the railroad. During her absence, a Taggart Transcontinental train collides with a military train in a tunnel, due largely to political pressure by a passenger and human error by Dagny's poorly trained replacement. This impels Dagny back to her job. D'Anconia tries to dissuade her from returning, as he had earlier tried to talk Rearden into leaving his business, but she returns anyway. Dagny takes a train to Colorado to show her faith in the railway, but its engine fails. The repair technician used to work for 20th Century Motor Company, which produced the motor Dagny found. He tells Dagny how the need-based reward system in his company failed, and his coworker John Galt left the company vowing to "stop the motor of the world". Dagny calls Daniels, who tells her that he is quitting. Dagny buys a small airplane and flies to Utah to try to dissuade him, but as she is landing, she sees him get into a plane on the airstrip. After a pursuit in the air—the opening scene of the film—Dagny's plane crashes in a valley hidden by stealth technology. A wounded Dagny Taggart crawls to the edge of her crashed plane, where she is greeted by John Galt. The film ends with a quote from Ayn Rand: "Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. But when you see that in order to produce it, you need to obtain permission from those who produce nothing... You will know that your society is doomed.

Fox and X are Tokyo-based freelance industrial spies who specialize in helping R&D scientists defect from corporations who would rather see them dead than working for competitors. Fox is obsessed with Dr. Hiroshi, a paradigm-shattering super-genius who works for Maas, the German corporation that crippled Fox. Japanese firm Hosaka hires Fox and X to help Hiroshi defect, offering a fee of $50 million. Fox and X hire Sandii, a nightclub singer and call girl in Shinjuku, to help persuade Hiroshi to defect to a newly outfitted Hosaka lab in Marrakesh. While training her for the extraction, X falls in love with Sandii, who offers conflicting accounts of her past. Fox and X meet Hosaka representatives and negotiate their fee up to $100 million. Sandii meets Hiroshi in Vienna and persuades him to leave his wife and defect to Hosaka. Fox travels to Marrakesh to await Hiroshi, and X arranges to spend a night with Sandii in Berlin before her rendezvous in Marrakesh. Sandii proposes that she and X leave Fox and marry. X offers to discuss it after Sandii visits Marrakesh. That night, while Sandii sleeps, X rummages through her personal effects, finding cash, information about her aliases, and an unmarked computer chip. Hosaka transfers the agreed-upon $100 million fee. Fox returns from Marrakesh, and X informs him that he will be meeting Sandii in Shinjuku to start a new life with her, a plan that Fox begrudgingly accepts. Later, Fox and X celebrate their success and newfound wealth with prostitutes. The next day, X's contact in Marrakesh informs him that Hosaka has relocated many top scientists to the new lab in Marrakesh, a move that Fox deems unsafe but potentially lucrative for him and X, despite X's insistence that he is finished with the case. During the night, X's Marrakesh contact informs him that somebody secretly reprogrammed the lab's DNA synthesizer to spread a virus that killed everyone in the facility, including Hiroshi, and that Sandii has vanished. X discovers that the bank account holding the $100 million has been terminated. Fox deduces that Maas recruited Sandii in Vienna and ordered her to kill Hosaka's scientists in Marrakesh, and that Hosaka, presuming that Fox and X were complicit, has wiped their account and will send agents to kill them. After being surrounded by Hosaka agents in a department store, Fox leaps to his death. X flees to a shabby capsule hotel called the New Rose Hotel, where he reflects on his time with Fox and Sandii and views footage of a man removing the unmarked computer chip from the DNA synthesizer in Marrakesh. Knowing that Hosaka will hunt him wherever he goes, X contemplates suicide and masturbates to the memory of his last night with Sandii.

Two years after the Apollo 17 mission, the crew of the cancelled Apollo 18 mission consisting of Commander Nathan Walker, Lieutenant Colonel John Grey, and Captain Ben Anderson are informed that it will proceed as a top-secret Department of Defense (DoD) mission to place an early warning detector on the Moon for ICBM attacks from the USSR. Grey remains aboard Apollo command module Freedom while Walker and Anderson land in Apollo Lunar Module Liberty to plant the detector. Anderson takes back rock samples and the two return to Liberty. The samples cause small disturbances, which Houston attributes to interference from the detector. The next day, Anderson discovers footprints that lead them to an abandoned but functioning Soviet LK lander. They discover a crater with a dead cosmonaut, to which Houston dismisses Walker's queries. While sleeping, Walker is awakened by strange noises and an object bumping into the lander. Walker and Anderson complete the mission and prepare to leave, but the launch is aborted when Liberty suffers violent shaking, which they discover is a result of damaged foil. Nearby, they find non-human tracks outside the Liberty alongside damaged equipment. Walker is horrified at a spider-like creature that has entered his spacesuit and disappears before Anderson finds him unconscious near Liberty, which Walker later denies happening. Later, Anderson removes a Moon rock embedded in Walker. Walker smashes the rock, contaminating the ship. Due to interference from an unknown source, the two are unable to contact Houston or Grey. Anderson speculates that the device is meant to monitor the aliens and that it is the source of the interference. They attempt to deactivate the device but find it destroyed. Walker begins to become contentious and paranoid, and they discover that the aliens are camouflaged as Moon rocks. In an attempt to destroy the cameras inside Liberty, Walker destroys other controls, causing the ship to depressurize. While traveling to the Soviet LK lander to get oxygen, Walker intentionally crashes the rover, believing that he will spread the infection on Earth if he were to return. Anderson awakens and finds Walker getting pulled into a crater by the aliens. Anderson fails to rescue him and flees to the Soviet LK. He uses the radio to contact the USSR Mission Control, who connect him to the DoD. The Deputy Secretary informs Anderson that they cannot allow him to return to Earth, admitting that they are aware of the situation and incorrectly believe that he is also infected. Grey contacts Anderson, and they plan to return him to Freedom. As Anderson prepares to launch, Walker suddenly appears and demands to be let in before being suddenly swarmed by the aliens, who kill him. Anderson launches, but the DoD informs Grey that he is to abort the rescue, or they will not allow him to return either. The LK enters orbit and, while in free fall, the aliens attack and infect Anderson. Anderson is unable to control the ship, and he collides with Freedom. The U.S. government states that the astronauts were killed in various jet accidents that left their bodies unrecoverable. They note that many of the rock samples returned from previous Apollo missions given to dignitaries are now missing.