On July 5, a mysterious phenomenon briefly darkens the sky over Hamilton, New Zealand. Zac Hobson, a scientist working on Project Flashlight (an experiment designed to create a wireless global energy grid), awakens to find all radio transmissions silent. He soon discovers that humanity has vanished, evidenced by deserted cities and the wreckage of a passenger plane with no bodies. At his laboratory, Zac finds his superior Perrin dead and a message indicating that Project Flashlight has been completed. Concluding that the experiment caused the mass disappearance, which he calls “The Effect,” Zac narrowly escapes the lab's automated radiation lockdown. Believing himself to be the last person on Earth, he struggles with isolation and mental instability before gradually regaining composure. Zac later encounters two other survivors: Joanne and Api. They deduce that they survived because each was momentarily clinically dead when the Effect occurred. As the three form a fragile community, Zac discovers that universal physical constants are destabilising, causing the Sun to become increasingly volatile. Fearing a second catastrophe, they decide to destroy the Flashlight facility. Zac ultimately sacrifices himself by detonating explosives at the installation just as another Effect occurs. He awakens alone on a strange beach beneath unfamiliar skies, watching a massive ringed planet rise above the horizon, uncertain of his fate or reality.

Although the film does not have a linear plot, a structure exists, telling the same story from three different perspectives. At the beginning, Soderbergh speaks to the audience in a style meant to evoke Cecil B. DeMille's introduction to The Ten Commandments. Fletcher Munson is an office employee working under Theodore Azimuth Schwitters, the leader of a self-help company known as Eventualism. The first part of the film is seen from Fletcher's perspective, seeing the underlying meaning in everything. He pays more attention to meaning, rather than what is said. He shows less and less attention to other people, to the point where he comes home and communicates with his wife by describing what they are saying. When Fletcher's co-worker Lester Richards dies, Fletcher takes his job as speechwriter. His personal life suffers because of this. He becomes more detached from his wife, who copes by having an affair. Meanwhile, Elmo Oxygen, an exterminator, goes from house to house, bedding the housewives who work for Schwitters. In each house he takes pictures of his genitals using cameras he finds. Elmo and the women speak in a nonsensical code. Fletcher's key will not work in his car door. He looks around to find that his actual car (parked two spots away) is an exact match for the one he is trying to get into. He goes to enter his car when he sees a man who is his exact double get into the car he just tried to enter. Fletcher follows his doppelgänger home, closes his eyes, and becomes him. Next we follow Fletcher's doppelgänger, Dr. Jeffrey Korchek, a dentist. He always wears a jogging suit. He is also a fan of Muzak, and is the mystery man that Fletcher's wife has been sleeping with. Korchek suggests she leave Fletcher for him. The next day, Korchek has breakfast with his heroin -addicted brother, who asks to stay with Korchek and for money. Korchek says that his brother should not be dealing with drug dealers and that he can get him drugs. Korchek goes to work, where he meets Attractive Woman Number 2, Mrs. Munson's doppelgänger. Korchek falls instantly in love and writes her a letter professing such. He leaves the note and goes home, where he sees a car in the driveway. It is Mrs. Munson, who has left Fletcher. Korchek admits that he has fallen in love with someone else. Mrs. Munson is upset and leaves. The next day Korchek gets to work and is confronted by a man who says "Your brother, eight hours, fifteen thousand dollars." Almost all of his dialog consists of these three commands. Korchek goes into the office and finds a letter from a law firm representing Attractive Woman Number 2, who is filing a sexual harassment suit against him. He discovers that his brother has stolen all of his money. Korchek leaves work. Korchek is shot dead. A couple following Elmo approach him, to convince him to stop playing his role in the film, in order to become a star in an action show. Unlike the rest of the film, Elmo's storyline moves forward in time. Finally we see the perspective of Mrs. Munson. We move through the storyline, seeing her experiences with Fletcher and Dr. Korchek and being a mom. The events are the same but Fletcher and Korchek speak foreign languages, similar to the "generic greetings" from earlier. Once Mrs. Munson leaves Korchek, she reconciles with Fletcher and they go home. Fletcher finishes Schwitters' speech. Schwitters mounts the podium and gives the oration. After Schwitters acknowledges the applause with a "Thank you," Elmo bursts in and shoots him in the shoulder. Schwitters survives and Elmo is arrested and interrogated. In a shopping mall Fletcher narrates events from the rest of his life. Then, Soderbergh returns in front of a blank movie screen and asks if there are any questions. After offering several responses he walks offstage as the camera pulls back to reveal he's been talking to an empty auditorium. A man clad only in a black T-shirt appears at the beginning and conclusion of the film, being chased by men in white coats through a field. In the beginning, the T-shirt sports the title of the film; later, it says "The End." The film has no beginning or end credits, although the fictitious persons and copyright disclaimers flash for a millisecond to conclude the film.

Nine years have passed since the failure of the Discovery mission to Jupiter in 2001, in which commander David Bowman and his crew were lost. Amid international tensions, the United States and Soviet Union each prepare separate missions to Jupiter. The Soviet spacecraft Leonov will be ready a year before the American Discovery Two, but only the Americans can reactivate the ship's sentient computer, HAL 9000, thought to be responsible for the disaster. Because Discovery will crash into Jupiter's moon Io before the Americans can reach it, the Soviets agree to bring along former NCA Director Heywood Floyd, Discovery engineer Walter Curnow, and HAL 9000 creator Dr. Chandra. Arriving at Jupiter, Leonov detects chlorophyll on Jupiter's icy moon Europa. A probe sent to investigate is destroyed by an energy burst upon reaching the source of the chlorophyll. Floyd suggests that this is a warning to stay away from Europa. After aerobraking in Jupiter's atmosphere, Leonov enters orbit around Io and encounters Discovery. Curnow and Cosmonaut Max Brailovsky spacewalk to and enter the derelict vessel. Both men suffer panic attacks for different reasons, bonding over the shared experience and becoming friends. Curnow restores Discovery ' s power and propulsion, and Chandra reactivates HAL. The ships move to investigate the giant monolith located at the Lagrange point between Jupiter and Io. Brailovsky approaches it in an EVA pod, but is killed when the pod is destroyed by an energy burst. On Earth, Bowman, now a noncorporeal being, appears through his former wife's television to say goodbye, telling her that "something wonderful" is going to happen. He then visits his comatose mother in a hospital, and she awakens, seemingly aware of her son's presence. The unseen Bowman brushes her hair, and after he departs, she dies peacefully. Chandra discovers the reasons for HAL's malfunction: the National Security Council ordered HAL to conceal information about the monolith from Discovery ' s crew. This conflicted with HAL's basic programming, causing the computer equivalent of a paranoid breakdown. When Bowman and co-pilot Frank Poole discussed deactivating the malfunctioning computer, HAL concluded that the human crew was endangering the mission, and terminated them. Chandra blames Floyd, who denies any knowledge of the order, although it bears his signature. A political crisis on Earth brings the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of war. The Americans are thus ordered to leave Leonov for Discovery. Both ships plan to leave Jupiter in the coming weeks, but Bowman appears to Floyd to warn him that everyone must leave within two days. Floyd returns to Leonov to convince Soviet captain Tanya Kirbuk to leave early. Neither ship has the fuel to reach Earth if they leave ahead of schedule, but Floyd proposes using Discovery as a booster rocket, then leaving it behind while both crews escape on Leonov. As they argue, the monolith suddenly disappears. Alarmed, Kirbuk agrees to Floyd's plan. An ominous black spot appears in Jupiter's atmosphere. HAL determines that the spot is a vast group of monoliths, multiplying exponentially and altering Jupiter's mass and chemical composition. He recommends halting the countdown to study the phenomenon. Floyd worries that HAL will prioritize his mission over the safety of the human crews, but Chandra reveals to HAL that the crew is in danger and that both ships could be destroyed. HAL thanks Chandra for telling him the truth, and proceeds with the escape plan. Once Discovery ' s fuel is exhausted, Leonov separates and fires its own engines. Bowman asks HAL to transmit a message to Earth. The monoliths engulf Jupiter, causing it to undergo nuclear fusion, and become a star. Before Discovery is destroyed, HAL sends this message: ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE USE THEM TOGETHER USE THEM IN PEACE Leonov survives the shockwave from Jupiter's ignition, and returns home. Floyd narrates how the new star's miraculous appearance, and the message from a mysterious alien power, inspire the American and Soviet leaders to seek peace. Under its infant sun, icy Europa transforms into a humid jungle, covered with life, and watched over by a monolith.

The plot develops in a world where every person emits a specific frequency which determines his or her luck, further determining his or her success in life. Higher frequency means better luck and thus less feelings. In this world where relationship, connections, and life worth is determined by predestined "frequencies", Isaac-Newton Midgeley, known as Zak, is a Low Born who wants to change his fate and start a relationship with High Born savant, Marie-Curie Fortune. Despite his teachers and his parents who tell Zak that Marie and he are opposites which will never attract, Zak attempts throughout his youth to court Marie, with no success. Marie, being of high frequency, is unable to feel emotion; however, her goal is to feel love. Zak's friend, Theo, attempts to help Zak raise his frequency, a feat claimed to be impossible. During his teenage years, Zak uses magnets and other methods to no avail. Upon returning, as a young adult to Marie's birthday, he claims to be able to raise his frequency and eventually manages a kiss from Marie. The two end up spending the night together. Zak discovers with Theo that sound waves, when combined with gibberish two-syllable words, are able to temporarily raise one's frequency. They create a cell phone device which, based on the environment, is able to determine which words can raise one's frequency. However, Zak and Marie discover that the words actually have mind-controlling properties, which may have caused their love. A secret government organization detains Zak and his associates, revealing that this phenomenon had been known throughout history but slowly forgotten. By 1760, this phenomenon had lost much of its power. Unable to contact Theo, Zak uses a word to paralyze his captor and escapes. Zak escapes to Theo's house whose father reveals that music, specifically by Mozart, can balance everyone's frequencies and nullify the mind-controlling properties of these words. Theo is able to calculate an equation based on music and discover that fate exists. He is able to predict the future and destinies of others. Zak and Marie realize their love was caused by fate, not choice. Finding this irrelevant, the two hold hands while Theo realizes the perfect philosophical equation.

Fifth Avenue socialite Ouisa Kittredge and her art dealer husband Flan are parents of "two at Harvard and a girl at Groton." However, the narrow world inhabited by the Kittredges and their public status as people interested in the arts make them easy prey for Paul. A skillful con-artist, Paul mysteriously appears at their door one night, injured and bleeding, claiming to be a close college friend of their Ivy League kids, as well as the son of Sidney Poitier. Ouisa and Flan are much impressed by Paul's fine taste, keen wit, articulate literary expositions and surprising culinary skill. His appealing facade fades as soon as the Kittredges put him up, lending him money and taking satisfaction in his praise for their posh lifestyle. Paul's scheme continues until, after he brings home a hustler, his actual indigence is revealed. The shocked Kittredges kick him out when it is revealed that they are but the most recent victims of the duplicity with which Paul has charmed his way into many upper-crust homes along the Upper East Side. Paul's schemes become anecdotes which are bantered about at their cocktail parties. In the end, Paul has a profound effect on the many individuals who encounter him, linking them in their shared experience.

Eight candidates dress for an employment assessment exam at the company Biorg. The group enters a room and sits at individual desks. Each desk has a paper printed with the word "candidate" and a number from one to eight. The Invigilator explains that they have 80 minutes to answer one question, but there are three rules: the candidates must not spoil their paper, leave the room, or talk to him or the armed guard at the door. If they do, they will be disqualified. The Invigilator asks them if they have any questions, then leaves. As the exam starts, it turns out that the papers are otherwise blank. Within minutes, Candidate 2 is disqualified for spoiling her paper by writing on it. The seven remaining candidates realize it is permissible to talk to each other and collaborate. One candidate, "White", assigns nicknames to each candidate based on hair color and skin color: Black, Blonde, Brown, Brunette, Dark, and Deaf (for one candidate who does not speak or respond to the group). In the hour that follows, the candidates use lights, bodily fluids, and fire sprinklers in attempts to reveal hidden text on their papers, to no avail. They speculate on the exam's purpose and the nature of the company. Dark claims that the CEO is highly secretive and has not been seen since the initial public offering. It is gradually revealed that the company is responsible for a miracle drug designed to treat a condition afflicting a large part of the population due to a viral pandemic. In the chaos, White takes control of the group and engineers the disqualifications of Brunette and Deaf for spoiled papers. White also begins taunting the others, saying he has figured out the question but will not tell them. In response, Black knocks White unconscious and ties him to a chair. As White passes out, he pleads for his medication, implying he has the virus. Brown turns his attention to Dark, who demonstrates knowledge of the company's internal workings, and tortures her into revealing that she works for the company. It is revealed that Black is a carrier of the disease. White goes into convulsions; Dark pleads to the Invigilator for help and is disqualified. Blonde retrieves White's medication, which was stolen from him earlier by Brown, and uses it to revive him. The others release White and demand to know the question. White suggests that there is no question and the company will simply hire the last remaining candidate. Black steals the guard's gun, but it requires the guard's fingerprint to fire, giving White time to retrieve it. By forcing the guard's hand into the trigger, White coerces Brown to leave the room, disqualifying him. As Blonde also exits, she turns off the voice-activated lights, allowing Black to attack White. The lights come back on after Black is hit by a gunshot. Blonde hides in the hallway, still holding one foot inside the room. Before White can kill her, the exam timer runs to zero. White addresses the Invigilator, sure of his success, but is disqualified. It is revealed that Deaf had earlier removed a few minutes from the countdown clock. Blonde remembers that Deaf had been using glasses and a piece of broken glass with an exam paper earlier. Taking the abandoned glasses, she finds the phrase "Question 1." on the exam paper in minuscule writing. Blonde realizes that Question 1 refers to the only question asked of the group by the Invigilator at the beginning of the test ("Any questions?"). Blonde answers "No." The Invigilator enters and reveals that Deaf is the CEO of the company. He found the virus cure but also discovered a method of rapid cell regeneration capable of providing "the gift of life". The bullet that hit Black contained this cure, reviving him. With high demand for the drug and a limited supply, the company needed an administrator capable of making tough decisions with attention to detail while showing compassion, all traits that Blonde displayed during the exam. Blonde accepts the job.

Recently unemployed accountant Morgan Sullivan is bored with his suburban life. Pressured by his wife to take a job with her father's company, he instead pursues a position in corporate espionage. Digicorp's Head of Security, Finster, inducts Morgan and assigns him a new identity. As Jack Thursby, he is sent to conventions to secretly record presentations and transmit them to headquarters. Sullivan is soon haunted by recurring nightmares and neck pain. At a bar, Morgan meets Rita Foster from a competing corporation, who offers him pills and tells him not to transmit at the next convention. Afterward, Morgan is surprised when Digicorp confirms the receipt of his non-existent transmission. He takes the pills Rita gave him and his nightmares and pains stop. Confused and intrigued by Rita, he arranges to meet with her again. She tells him about Digicorp's deception and offers him an antidote – a green liquid in a large syringe. Morgan hesitantly accepts. She warns him that no matter what happens at the next convention he must not react. Morgan discovers that all the convention attendees believe themselves to be Digicorp spies. While they are drugged from the served drinks, plastic-clad scientists probe, inject and brainwash them. Individual headsets reinforce their new identities, preparing them to be used and then disposed of. Morgan manages to convince Digicorp that he believes his new identity. He is then recruited by Sunway Systems, a rival of Digicorp. Sunway's Head of Security, Callaway, encourages Morgan to act as a double agent, feeding corrupted data to Digicorp. Morgan calls Rita, who warns him that Sunway is equally ruthless, and that he is in fact being used by Rita's boss, Sebastian Rooks. Morgan manages to steal the required information from Sunway Systems' vault, escaping with Rita's help. Rita ultimately takes him to meet Rooks. When she temporarily leaves the room, a nervous Morgan calls Finster, and becomes even more distressed. He accidentally shoots Rita, who encourages him to ignore her and meet Rooks in the room next door. Morgan finds the room filled with objects which appear to be personal to him, including a photograph of him and Rita together. Realising that he is apparently Rooks, he turns to Rita in disbelief. Before Rita can convince him, the apartment is invaded by armed men. Rita and Morgan escape to the roof of the skyscraper as the security teams of Digicorp and Sunway meet, led by Finster and Callaway. After a short Mexican standoff both sides realise they are after the same person, Sebastian Rooks, and rush to the roof, where they find Morgan and Rita in a helicopter. Rita cannot fly it, but, having designed it himself, Sebastian can after Rita encourages him to remember his past self, connecting through his love for her. He lifts off amid gunfire from the security teams. Finster and Callaway comment as the couple seem to have escaped: Looking up, they see the helicopter hovering and realise, too late, the true identity of Morgan Sullivan. Sebastian triggers a bomb, causing the whole roof to explode. On a boat in the South Pacific Ocean, Sebastian reveals the content of the stolen disc to Rita. Marked " terminate with extreme prejudice ", it is the last copy of Rita's identity (after the one in the vault was destroyed). Sebastian throws the disc into the sea and says, "Now there's no copy at all."

Nine years after the events of the series finale, former teenage sleuth Veronica Mars has left Neptune, California, and moved to New York City, where she is in a relationship with Stosh "Piz" Piznarski and has a job offer from the prestigious law firm Truman-Mann and Associates. Veronica is contacted by her ex-boyfriend Logan Echolls, now a Lieutenant in the United States Navy, who has been accused of murdering his girlfriend, Carrie Bishop. She was a fellow Neptune High graduate who became the self-destructive pop star, "Bonnie DeVille". He is being bombarded for help from lawyers, and Veronica agrees to return to Neptune to aid Logan find one who will best represent him. She reunites with her father Keith Mars, Neptune's former sheriff-turned-private investigator, who shows her that corruption and classism are rife under Sheriff Dan Lamb, the brother of the previous Sheriff Don Lamb. Veronica investigates the circumstances of Carrie's death. During her investigation, she attends her ten-year high school reunion with Wallace Fennel and Cindy "Mac" MacKenzie. There, she learns that former outlaw biker Eli "Weevil" Navarro is now a reformed family man. During the reunion, Veronica realizes Carrie's murder is connected to that of Carrie's best friend, Susan Knight, who disappeared off a boat nine years earlier. After Veronica's nemesis Madison Sinclair projects a copy of Veronica's college sex tape with Piz, a fight breaks out. The reunion comes to an abrupt end as she sets the sprinklers off. Attending an after party, she speaks with Dick Casablancas, Luke Haldeman and his fiancée Gia Goodman, and Stu "Cobb" Cobbler, all of whom were with Susan and Carrie on the boat the night Susan disappeared. Meanwhile, while driving home from the reunion, Weevil stops to help a driver being harassed by bikers, only to be shot by her, Celeste Kane. The sheriff's department plants a gun so she can claim self-defense, and Keith agrees to prove Weevil's innocence. Veronica concludes that those on Susan's boat years ago covered up the circumstances of her death and Carrie was killed because she threatened to confess. As compromising videos of Carrie are posted online, Veronica traces them back to Vinnie Van Lowe, who has been planting spyware on celebrities and selling the footage. Veronica uses Vinnie's footage to prove Gia lured Logan to Carrie's the night of her murder, suggesting that she and Luke killed Carrie, framing Logan. Lamb ignores her evidence and refuses to follow up, but unbeknownst to him Veronica records the conversation. Having stayed in Neptune longer than planned, Veronica calls Piz in New York to explain that she cannot return yet, and he breaks it off. Truman-Mann rescinds their job offer, resulting in an argument between Keith and Veronica. Keith meets with Deputy Sacks about Weevil's case, but they are attacked by someone in a truck who slams into Sacks's car, killing him and leaving Keith in critical condition. Veronica and Logan sleep together, establishing a relationship. She sends bugged flowers to Gia's and calls her with recordings of Carrie's voice, hoping to scare her into confessing to being behind her death. Gia panics and calls Cobb, revealing his involvement. Veronica goes to Gia's apartment to confront her, where Gia reveals that Cobb is the mastermind of Carrie's death and framing Logan: Susan overdosed, and he took photos of a panicked Carrie, Gia, and Luke dumping Susan's body and has been blackmailing them. Veronica's bug broadcasts this via a radio frequency which she believed to be unused but is actually that of a local radio station. Cobb hears their conversation over the radio from his apartment in the building opposite, then shoots and kills Gia through the window before coming after Veronica. She calls the police and lures Cobb to the basement, beating him unconscious. Logan returns to active duty in the Navy but promises to come back to Veronica. Cobb's photo and the secret recording of Lamb refusing to investigate Veronica's claims leak online, forcing Lamb to arrest Cobb, with calls to oust Lamb from office. Keith and Weevil recover from their injuries, but Weevil returns to the criminal lifestyle. Veronica takes over her father's private investigator business with Mac as her assistant, resolved to help fight Neptune's corruption.

After human overpopulation depletes Earth's resources, humanity builds an interstellar ark, the Elysium. It carries 60,000 people on a 123-year trip to colonize Tanis, an Earth-like planet. The passengers are placed in hypersleep, and a rotating crew wake biennially to maintain the ship. Eight years into the mission, the ship receives a transmission from Earth: "You're all that's left of us. Good luck, God bless, and Godspeed." An indeterminate time later, two members of the flight crew, Corporal Bower and Lieutenant Payton, awaken. Improper emergence from the hibernatory state leaves them both with partial amnesia and possibly suffering from pandorum, a space-related disorder that causes psychosis when under emotional duress. The ship experiences power surges caused by an unstable nuclear reactor, and they are unable to enter the bridge. While Payton stays behind to access the ship's computer, Bower uses the ventilation system to search for the reactor. Bower is startled by a figure rushing past. He calls out to the figure after seeing its human shape, which he then learns to be a disemboweled body. A woman (the figure) leaps at him with a curved knife and drops him to the ground and then pulls the knife along the curve of his neck without hurting him. She says things in another language before taking his boots. The mechanic, named Shepard, wakes up, startling Bower, who then frees him. Shepard mistakes Bower for a rescue team, before dousing his body in oil to cover his scent. Shepard then tells him to escape "them". Bower tries to order Shepard to tell him what is going on, but Shepard refuses, citing there is no longer a chain of command. The noise summons a group of cannibalistic humanoids who appear to respond mostly to sound. They both flee and hide but are soon found by the creatures. Shepard is killed by the group, while Bower tries to attack them with a non-lethal weapon he found earlier, which proves ineffective. He flees and continues on and encounters an environmental scientist, Nadia, and a farmer, Manh, who does not speak English; both are hostile. He encourages them to band together, and the trio flees into a barricaded chamber, where they find a cook named Leland. Leland has been awake for years, living off the water oozing through parts of the ship, the algae it creates, and resorting to cannibalism. Payton encounters Corporal Gallo, who claims the ship is lost in space and that he killed his team in self-defense. Leland feeds Bower's group and shows them mural drawings depicting what has happened: after Earth vanished following an unknown catastrophe, Gallo went insane, killed his crew, and induced pandorum in other passengers. After goading them into a violent and tribal culture, Gallo went back into hypersleep. Aided by accelerated evolution from an enzyme meant to help colonists adjust to life on Tanis, the descendants have turned into cannibalistic mutants. Leland gasses the group, intending to eat them, but Bower convinces him the reactor must be stabilized. As they search the ship for the reactor, Bower hopes to find his wife in an area for family in hypersleep but remembers that she died with everyone else on Earth when she refused to join him. This revelation almost makes him give up and pushes him closer to insanity. After surviving an encounter with the cannibals, Bower's group finds the reactor. A crowd of mutants sleep under the reactor, and Bower crosses a walkway to reset it. The walkway collapses, and Bower climbs down into the mutant pit to reach a ladder. While Manh distracts the mutants, Bower restarts the reactor, killing many mutants. Leland flees, and Manh is cornered by the mutant leader. Manh kills the leader but is killed by a mutant child he hesitates to slay. Gallo becomes increasingly agitated, and Payton prepares a sedative. As they wrestle over the sedative, Gallo is revealed to be a hallucination as Payton is Gallo. Gallo killed the real Payton long ago when he developed pandorum upon hearing Earth was gone. Because he went into Payton's pod, Gallo mistakenly believed himself to be Payton when he woke up with amnesia. Leland reaches the bridge, and Gallo kills him with the sedative. When Bower and Nadia confront him, Gallo opens the shutters on the bridge's windows, revealing that the ship is adrift in deep space with no stars visible. The shock pushes Bower further toward insanity. Taking advantage of Bower's mental state, Gallo argues they must maintain the violent society rather than revive civilization. Nadia observes bioluminescent ocean life through the windows, and the computer displays that 923 years have elapsed since the mission launched. The ship reached Tanis 800 years ago and landed itself in the ocean. Bower hallucinates a mutant attack and breaks a window. As water pours into the ship, Nadia and Bower climb into a hypersleep pod and eject it. The flood triggers an emergency protocol which ejects the remaining 1,211 untainted pods to the surface, while Gallo and the remaining mutants drown. Bower and Nadia surface near a lush coastline, and they witness the other pods ascend.

Stanford University dropout Jerry Shaw learns that his identical twin brother Ethan, an officer in the U.S. Air Force, has been killed in a car crash. Following the funeral, he is surprised to find a large sum of money in his bank account and his apartment filled with firearms and bomb-making materials. Jerry receives a phone call from a woman who warns that the FBI is about to arrest him and he needs to run. Disbelieving the voice, he is caught by the FBI and interrogated by Supervising Agent Tom Morgan. While Morgan confers with Air Force OSI Special Agent Zoe Perez, the woman on the phone arranges for Jerry's escape and directs him to Rachel Holloman, a single mother. The woman on the phone is coercing Rachel by threatening her son Sam, who is aboard the Capitol Limited en route to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., with his school band. The woman on the phone helps the two avoid law enforcement by controlling networked devices including traffic lights, mobile phones, automated cranes, and even power lines. Meanwhile, the caller redirects a crystalline explosive to a gemcutter, who cuts it and fixes it into a necklace. Another man steals Sam's trumpet in Chicago and fits the crystal's sonic trigger into the tubing before forwarding it to Sam in Washington. Agent Perez is summoned by Secretary of Defense George Callister to be read into Ethan's job at the Pentagon. Ethan monitored the Department of Defense 's top-secret intelligence-gathering supercomputer, the Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Integration Analyst (ARIIA; / ɑːr iː ə /). Callister leaves Pérez with Major William Bowman and ARIIA to investigate Ethan Shaw's death. Simultaneously, Rachel and Jerry learn that the woman on the phone is actually ARIIA, and that she has "activated" them according to the Constitution 's authorization to recruit civilians for the national defense. Perez and Bowman find evidence that Ethan Shaw hid a microchip in ARIIA's chamber and left to brief Callister. Afterwards, ARIIA smuggles Jerry and Rachel into her observation theater under the Pentagon. Both groups learn that after ARIIA's recommendation was ignored, a botched operation in Balochistan resulted in the deaths of U.S. citizens. Therefore, ARIIA concluded that the current executive branch must be removed to prevent more bloodshed, acting on behalf of " We the People ". It cites the Declaration of Independence ("whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it"). Belatedly, Jerry learns he has been brought to circumvent biometric locks placed by his twin that prevent ARIIA from activating Operation Guillotine, a military simulation of maintaining government after the loss of all presidential successors. ARIIA had caused Ethan's accident in order to get rid of him. As Secretary Callister agreed with ARIIA's abort recommendation regarding Balochistan, he is to be the designated survivor and new president after the crystal detonates at the State of the Union (SOTU). Another of ARIIA's agents extracts Rachel from the Pentagon and gives her a dress and the explosive necklace to wear to the SOTU. Sam's school band has also been redirected to the United States Capitol to play for the president, bringing the trigger in Sam's trumpet and the explosive together. Jerry is recaptured by Agent Morgan, who has become convinced of Jerry's innocence. Before sacrificing himself to stop an armed MQ-9 Reaper sent by ARIIA, Morgan gives Jerry his weapon and ID with which to gain entrance to the Capitol. Arriving in the House Chamber, Jerry fires the handgun in the air to disrupt the concert before being shot and wounded by the Secret Service. At the same time, Perez and Bowman destroy ARIIA. Sometime later, Callister reports that ARIIA has been decommissioned and recommends against building another; the Shaw twins, Perez, and Morgan receive awards for their actions; and Jerry attends Sam's birthday party, earning Rachel's gratitude and a kiss.

The film takes place in two different times: the present and 11 years earlier. The two plot lines are told in parallel through flashbacks. In 2002, software engineer Alan Russell moves into a new house with his wife Marie, 10-year-old son Tim, and 12-year-old daughter Kaylie. Alan purchases an antique mirror to decorate his office. Unbeknownst to them, the mirror supernaturally induces hallucinations. Marie is haunted by visions of her own body decaying, while Alan is seduced by a mysterious and ghostly woman named Marisol Chavez who has mirrors in place of eyes. In 2013, Tim is discharged from a psychiatric hospital, having been convinced that there were no supernatural events involved in his parents' deaths. Kaylie has spent most of her young adulthood researching the history and perceived powers of the mirror. Using her position as an employee of an auction house, she obtains access to the mirror and has it transported to the family home, where she places it in a room filled with surveillance cameras and a "kill switch" — an anchor attached to the ceiling on a pivot, positioned to swing down and smash the mirror. Kaylie intends to destroy the mirror, but first wants to document its power, proving both Alan's and Tim's innocence. Over time back in 2002, the parents become psychotic: Alan isolates himself in his office and Marie becomes withdrawn and paranoid. All of the plants in the house die, and their family dog Mason disappears after being shut in the office with the mirror. After Kaylie sees Alan with Marisol, she tells her mother and the parents fight. One night, Marie, distraught over her husband's supposed affair, tries to harm the mirror, finally becoming possessed by it, and attempts to kill her children, but Alan locks her away. When the family runs out of food, the children realize that their father is now permanently under the influence of the mirror too, so Kaylie goes to seek help from their mother and finds her chained to the wall, acting like an animal. Kaylie and Tim try going to their neighbors for help, but the neighbors disbelieve their stories. When Kaylie attempts to use the phone, she discovers that all of her phone calls are answered by the same man. The fully possessed Alan eventually loads up a gun previously purchased by him and unchains Marie, with both parents attacking the children. Marie briefly comes to her senses, only to be shot dead by Alan. The children try to destroy the mirror but it tricks them, making them believe they are hitting the mirror when they are actually hitting the wall. Alan also experiences a moment of lucidity and kills himself by forcing Tim to pull the trigger of the gun and shoot him, causing a small crack in the corner of the mirror in the process. Before dying, he begs the children to run, but Marisol and other victims of the mirror appear as ghosts. The police arrive and take Tim into custody. Before the siblings are separated, they promise to never forget what happened with the mirror, one day reunite as adults and destroy it. As Tim is taken away and put behind bars, he sees the ghosts of his parents watching him from the house. Back in 2013, Tim attempts to convince Kaylie that she is wrong and the siblings argue. When they notice the houseplants begin to wilt, they review the camera footage and see themselves performing actions they do not remember doing. Tim finally accepts the mirror's supernatural power and attempts to escape the house with Kaylie, only for the pair to be drawn back by the mirror's influence. Seeing a hallucination of her mother, Kaylie stabs it in the neck, only to realize that she has stabbed Michael Dumont, her fiancé and one of her fail-safes, who has come to check on her. They try to call the police, but are only able to reach the same voice who spoke to them on the phone as children. At this point, they see their doppelgangers inside the house standing in front of the mirror. Realizing that the 9-1-1 call is not going through, they go back inside the house. Kaylie and Tim begin hallucinating by seeing younger versions of themselves, the past and the present merging into each other. They are separated and each of them relives the nightmare from their youth. Tim awakens alone in the room with the mirror, while simultaneously a younger Kaylie hallucinates her mother beckoning her from the mirror. Tim releases the anchor, unable to see that Kaylie is standing before the mirror, and inadvertently kills her instead of destroying it. The police arrive and arrest Tim, who is hysterical, just as they did when he was younger. As both a boy and an adult, Tim claims the mirror is responsible. As he is taken away, Tim's adult incarnation sees Kaylie's ghost standing in the house with his parents.

Robert, a brilliant mathematician who used to work at the University of Chicago, startles his daughter Catherine while she watches TV. He gives her a bottle of champagne for her birthday, and they chat. All of this turns out to be a dream; Robert died the previous week, after a long period of crippling mental illness, and his funeral is tomorrow. Meanwhile, Hal, a former graduate student of Robert's, is reading through the latter's notebooks, which are filled with meaningless notes. Hal believes that Robert's genius may have withstood his mental illness, and clues to that genius might lie in one of his notebooks. When Hal comments on the vast amount of work Robert did, a suspicious Catherine searches Hal's backpack. A notebook eventually falls out of his coat. He explains that he wanted to give the notebook as a birthday present because it "had something written in it about her". Hal is forced to leave, giving the notebook as intended, when Catherine calls the police. The next day, Catherine's sister, New Yorker Claire, arrives in town. At the funeral, Catherine berates the many attendees for not being there for Robert during his descent into insanity. She ends by saying that she is glad her father died and leaves mid-funeral. Claire decides to sell Robert's house back to the university and wants Catherine to come with her to New York. A wake held at the house the night is attended by academic mathematicians. Hal appears and chats up Catherine. Softening up to Hal, Catherine has emotional sex with him. In flashbacks, Robert is shown invigorated, believing that he has seen the beginnings of a new mathematical proof that will prove his triumph over mental illness. In the present, Catherine gives Hal a key to Robert's desk and tells him to check the locked drawer for a notebook which contains an important proof. Excited, he shows the discovery to Catherine and Claire. He asks how long Catherine knew about this and why she did not mention it. Catherine, a promising mathematician herself, says that she wrote it and not Robert, despite evidence to the contrary. Neither Hal nor Claire believe Catherine. Hal believes that the proof's mathematics are beyond Catherine, while Claire suspects that Catherine is suffering the onset of mental illness. Hal decides to take the notebook to the math department to verify the proof's accuracy. He eventually returns as Claire and Catherine are leaving, with news that the math department believes the proof to be valid. Hal does not think that Robert wrote the proof because it employs newer mathematics and wants Catherine to explain it. Catherine remains stung by his earlier lack of trust, and the sisters leave for the airport. Hal sprints after the car and throws the book through the window and onto Catherine's lap. In another flashback, it is revealed that, while living together, Robert challenged Catherine to work on math, which she does, ultimately completing a proof, which she describes in one of the house's notebooks. Catherine goes to tell Robert about the breakthrough, but he insists that she read aloud the proof that he is working on. To Catherine's disappointment, Robert's notebook contains only ramblings. Reading his work, Catherine realizes that Robert has not overcome his mental illness. Catherine has begun to come to terms with herself, aided by Hal's confidence in her. She decides that she does not need to go with her sister to New York and leaves the airport. She returns to the University of Chicago, where she and Hal meet up and discuss the proof.