High school senior Walter "Gib" Gibson and best friend Lance celebrate moving on to college, though Gib mostly laments having lost his touch with girls. Lance heads to UCLA while Gib attends an Ivy League college in New England. The two friends regularly communicate with Gib saying his luck with girls is unchanged. Gib attempts to woo the ambitious, regimented Alison Bradbury, his English classmate by tricking her into tutoring him. His clumsy seduction angers her. Lance invites Gib to come to California for Christmas break, saying he can set him up with a beautiful girl, claiming she is a "sure thing" with no strings attached. Gib arranges a cross-country ride share with Gary and Mary Ann only to discover that Alison is also a passenger. She is headed to UCLA to visit her boyfriend, Jason. The tension and bickering between Gib and Alison become too much for Gary and Mary Ann, and they abandon the two roadside in the middle of nowhere, infuriating Alison. Alison hitches a ride from a middle-aged man driving a pick-up truck. When he attempts to sexually assault her, Gib, who hid in the truck bed, quickly intervenes. The two decide to stick together, eventually making it to a bus station. However, Gib lacks enough money for the fare, so the two instead check into a motel. While Alison is talking to Jason on the phone, Gib leaves and ventures to a nearby bar. He spends his remaining cash on drinks and drunkenly sings Christmas carols with the locals. The next morning, Gib has Allison stuff her shirt with scarves to appear pregnant, hoping it increases their chances of getting a ride. The two hitchhike to a restaurant, whereupon Alison realizes she left her appointment book and cash back at the motel. That night, the two are caught outside in a rainstorm, until Alison suddenly remembers she has her father's emergency credit card. The two stay at an upscale hotel, where they treat themselves to drinks and dinner. The next morning, Alison is pleased to find Gib embracing her, but he quickly pulls away upon waking up. While hitchhiking with a truck driver through Arizona, Alison overhears Gib saying that he is on his way to meet a "sure thing". Upon arriving at the UCLA campus, Alison angrily parts ways with Gib. That night, Gib attends a Christmas mixer where Lance introduces Gib to the "sure thing" girl. Meanwhile, Alison is bored staying in Jason's dormitory and drags him to the same party. Alison and Gib see each other, but their mutual jealousy leads to a confrontation. Gib takes the "sure thing" to Lance's room but he can only think about Alison. In Jason's dormitory, Alison tells him about Gib. He asks if she loves Gib and it is implied that she does. Back on campus after Christmas break, Gib tries making amends with Alison, but she ignores him, angry about the party and believing Gib slept with the “sure thing.” In English class, Professor Taub reads Gib's essay, which describes his night with the "sure thing". The girl in the essay asks the protagonist if he loves her, but for the first time he realizes that those are not just words, and he cannot sleep with her. Alison realizes what actually happened that night and tells Gib that she and Jason broke up. The two reconcile and kiss.

In 2001, Qiao and her boyfriend Bin, a mob boss, have a lot of power in Datong, an old mining city that has become poor since the coal prices dropped. After Bin's boss is murdered, Qiao suggests they run away from everything and get married, but Bin is not interested. One night a group of motorcyclists attack Bin and his driver, claiming to dethrone him. Qiao grabs Bin's handgun and fires two warning shots into the air, scaring off the attackers. The police tell Qiao that the gun is illegally owned and asks her whose it is; she repeatedly claims it is hers. She spends five years in prison for possessing an illegal firearm but Bin does not visit her during that time. After Qiao is released, she tries to call him but can never seem to get in touch. She travels by boat to the city in Hubei province where Bin is living but is instead greeted by Bin's new girlfriend—meanwhile, Bin hides in another room. Qiao says that if he wants to break up with her, he will have to tell her himself. She has almost no money to her name so she cons a few strangers for money and food. She hires a motorcycle driver to take her to the power plant where she thinks that Bin works, and along the way the driver suggests that they have sex. She uses this opportunity to steal his bike, and when she gets to the power plant she reports to a police officer that the driver tried to rape her and that he should call her boyfriend Bin. This finally forces Bin to see her. In a hotel room, Bin says he's a changed man, no longer a " jianghu " gangster, and has no place in his life for Qiao anymore. He can never go back to Datong because he has lost all the respect he once had there. Qiao says that she saved his life and took the blame for him: he should have been waiting for her the day she got out of prison. Since he refuses to say it, she finally says that their relationship is over and he leaves. On a train back to Datong, she meets a passenger who claims to be developing a UFO -hunting tourism company and invites her to join him after she claims to have seen one herself. But after they transfer onto another train, he admits that it was all a lie. She gets off the train, sees a bright object fly swiftly overhead, and makes her way back to Datong. In 2017, Qiao gets a call from Bin, and when she picks him up, finds him using a wheelchair. She brings him back to their old gambling parlor where she now works and many of his old friends are happy to see him. He is closed-off and hot-tempered, immediately starting fights, and Qiao nearly throws him out. He tells her that he had a stroke from drinking too much and she finds a doctor to help rehabilitate him. When he can walk again, he sneaks out of Qiao's building with just a brief voicemail to say he has left. Qiao goes to the front door when she learns he has gone but she cannot see him.

Todd Anderson (Josh Hamilton), a salesman for a Seattle novelty products company, learns he has to travel to India when his department is outsourced. Todd is not happy but when his boss Dave informs him that quitting would mean losing his stock options, he goes to train his Indian replacement Puro (Asif Basra). When he arrives, Todd is frustrated with everything in the country where people call him "Mr. Toad". He has difficulty making the call center employees of Gharapuri understand what their American customers expect. He feels that he is never going to get the Minutes-per-Incident (MPI) under six minutes and so will never get to return to the United States. Todd experiences the festival of Holi and with it, a sense of calm. At the call center the MPI slowly improves. He recognizes a leader in an employee Asha (Ayesha Dharker) and offers her the job of assisting Puro when Todd leaves. Todd tries to improve the workplace experience for the employees; when they tell him they would like some of the products they are selling, he decides to implement a rewards program and asks Dave for a shipment. Dave initially refuses, but when Todd manages to convince him that he is opening the products to a market of a billion people, Dave agrees to ship them overnight. Asha realizes that the shipment has gone to another Gharapuri, an island. They both reach the island and get the shipment, but the boat that was supposed to ferry them back catches fire. With no resort, they check into a hotel, where Asha accuses Todd of being frivolous with Kali. They argue but end up having sex. Upon their return Asha informs Todd that she has been engaged to a family friend named Ashok since she was four years old. She says their affair could be only a "Holiday in Goa ", a term for a short time spent with a lover before marrying another. Todd is confused but accepts the situation. The call center MPI is nearing six when Dave calls to let Todd know that he needs to be picked up from the railway station. When Dave arrives, the power shuts down due to flooding, but the employees manage to set up their workstations on the roof and resume business. Dave is impressed, but when the employees go to the local bar to celebrate, Dave informs Todd the business is being shifted to China. Todd informs the employees they have been fired, and Dave is erasing all data off their hard disks. Asha tells Todd that she has been writing a novel on her work computer called Holiday in Goa that needs to be saved. Todd gets the hint and they leave for Gaurav's (another employee's) house, where they spend time together. Todd refuses to go to China but suggests Puro as a replacement. Puro is seen leaving for China with his new wife. Upon his return to the United States, Todd calls his mother to see about spending more time with her, a lesson he learned from Puro's aunt. Right afterwards, he gets a phone call from Asha just as the screen turns black and the end credits roll.

An epidemic begins to spread throughout the globe, causing humankind to lose their sensory perceptions one by one. The story focuses on two people: Susan, one of a team of epidemiologists who are trying to find the causes of the disease, and Michael, a chef who works at a busy restaurant located next to Susan's flat. The two meet and get to know each other as the epidemic progresses, a relationship which soon turns to love. Humans begin to lose their senses one at a time. Each loss is preceded by an outburst of an intense feeling or urge. First, people begin suffering uncontrollable bouts of crying and this is soon followed by the loss of their sense of smell. An outbreak of irrational panic and anxiety, closely followed by a bout of frenzied gluttony, precedes the loss of the sense of taste. The film depicts people trying to adapt to each loss and trying to carry on living as best they can, rediscovering their remaining senses as they do so. Michael and his co-workers do their best to cook food for people who cannot smell nor taste. The loss of hearing comes next and is accompanied by an outbreak of extreme anger and rage. Michael experiences it first and is verbally abusive at Susan who flees in fear, losing her own hearing shortly afterwards. Despite her knowledge that it was the disease that caused the outburst, Susan cannot face Michael again. People struggle to adjust and to go on living. One day, every person on Earth suddenly experiences a feeling of joyful euphoria. Susan realizes she both forgives and still loves Michael and rushes to his job. The two find each other and embrace just as they, and the rest of the world, become blind.

The ship's medical officer, Dr. Schumann, takes a special interest in La Condesa, a Spanish countess with an opiate addiction, being deported from Cuba to a Spanish prison in Tenerife for illegally aiding the rebel cause in the Cuban Revolution of 1933. The 600 field workers in steerage, being deported to Spain due to the low market price of Cuban sugar, cheer the Condesa as she boards the ship under police escort. She tells the doctor she was motivated by seeing the impoverished conditions in which 5,000 laborers lived, under patronage of the man with whom she lived in luxury. She manipulates the doctor for drugs, but her activism aligns with the doctor's humanitarian ideals that the laborers in steerage be treated like human beings rather than cargo. Their shared sympathies soon evolve into love, though both realize it is a hopeless situation. The doctor conceals his heart condition from her. Selected passengers, mostly Aryan Germans, are invited to dine each night at the captain's table. Some are amused and others offended by the anti-Jewish rants of a German businessman, Rieber, who begins an affair with Lizzi, a blonde woman who admires him for his vitality and mind, until she learns he is married. Austrian-born Rieber extols the virtues of German nationalism and eugenics. The captain is reassured by Rieber's rants, believing that nobody can ever take the Nazi Party seriously. Though Jews and a dwarf are excluded from the table, the Hutten's dog, Baby, is allowed. When Baby is thrown overboard by children from steerage, the dog is saved, but an animal-loving laborer drowns in the rescue, despite the doctor's ministrations. The Huttens fuss over the dog, oblivious that its rescuer has died, even when informed by the doctor. The Jewish Lowenthal is seated at a side table with a dwarf named Glocken, and the two bond over their social exclusion. Later Freytag, a German passenger, is moved to this table when Rieber learns Freytag's wife is Jewish. Eventually Freytag discloses that he is separated from his Jewish wife due to pressure from his family and his employer as result of Nazi Rassenschande rhetoric. Revealing his Iron Cross 2nd class he earned in World War I, Lowenthal discusses with Glocken what it means to be German, including the Nazi Party and its anti-Jewish sentiment, which Lowenthal hopes to be temporary saying Jews have been good for Germany. Lowenthal is ultimately positive about the future of Jews in Germany, while Glocken is diametrically opposed in his pessimism. Glocken tells Lowenthal that he may be the biggest fool on the ship. An American artist couple, David and Jenny, have a passionate but tumultuous relationship. David is disconsolate at his lack of success as a socially committed artist; the independent Jenny dislikes his "unsellable" art and does not wish to compete with it in the relationship. He is dismissive of her artistic talent, which she herself undervalues. David expresses that whoever shares his life will need to accept that his art will always supersede her. Jenny fears that their life together will be endlessly fighting, with neither willing to put the other's needs before their own. Passengers are entertained nightly by a troupe of flamenco musicians and dancers, whose leader pimps the women in the troupe. Johann, an unpaid caregiver to Herr Graf, his invalid uncle, ignores the wholesome and insecure Elsa, who is traveling with her parents. Instead, Johann is attracted to one of the dancers, who rejects him for inability to pay. Johann threatens his stingy uncle if he does not give him money which has been promised to him in his uncle's will. He loses his virginity to one of the dancers, who treats him with gentleness when he pays. Mary Treadwell, a divorced fading beauty hoping to recapture her youth in Paris, is too mature to interest the captain. She disdains the lieutenant who shows interest, dismissing him first as doing his duty to unattended women and later as insignificant. When former baseball player and fellow American Bill Tenny is seated at her table, she finds him crass and ignorant. Tenny expresses surprise at the open hostility toward the Jews on board; she sarcastically replies that maybe he was too busy "lynching Negroes" to focus on Jews. Tenny pesters one of the flamenco dancers, believing that buying a magnum of champagne entitles him to have sex with her. She gives him the cabin number of Mrs. Treadwell. In a drunken stupor, Tenny barges into the cabin and accosts Mrs. Treadwell, who momentarily responds passionately until she realizes that he has mistaken her for a prostitute; she then hits him repeatedly and expels him from the cabin. The ship arrives in Tenerife, where the deported workers from steerage disembark. The doctor briefly considers staying with the Condesa, but the captain calls him foolish, contending that she manipulated him for drugs. After an emotionally painful farewell with the doctor, the Condesa is forced to exit the ship under Civil Guard escort. When the captain tells the distraught doctor she is not worth his anguish, the doctor explodes in a fit of pique, throwing cognac in his face and rebuking him, expressing that the Condesa took action against injustice, while they just carry out the orders they are given. Apologetic, the captain advises the doctor that he looks ill and should not respond to a call from a passenger for medical attention. The doctor ignores this and dies of a heart attack. Upon arrival in Bremerhaven his body is unloaded in a coffin with his estranged wife and sons in attendance. At disembarkation the passengers are shown descending in turn, going back to their ordinary lives. The last passenger to leave the ship is Glocken, who breaks the fourth wall and says he can hear the audience saying, " What has all this to do with us?...Nothing ", he chuckles and walks off.

Star is living in Muskogee, Oklahoma. She lives a painful life, caring for two children that are not hers and living with their sexually abusive father, Nathan. While trying to hitchhike home one day, she spies a van full of young people and makes eye contact with Jake, one of the boys in the group. Star follows them to a local Kmart and sees Jake dancing to " We Found Love " on top of the registers before being escorted out by security. Star returns Jake's phone, as it had fallen out of his pocket, and he offers her a job as part of their magazine sales crew, telling her to come with him to Kansas City. Star declines but Jake nevertheless tells her to meet them in the parking lot of the local Motel 6 the next morning. Packing her belongings while Nathan is in another room, Star secretly escapes and takes the children to the club where their mother Misty dances. Star confronts Misty and tells her it's her turn to care for the kids, and though Misty refuses, Star runs away from the club to the motel and sleeps outside the crew's van until morning. Star is interviewed by the crew's leader, Krystal, who hires her after she establishes that Star is a legal adult, that no one will miss her, and that she promises to work hard. In the car on the way to Kansas, Star meets the other members of the crew. When they get there, they are to work in pairs. Star is paired with Jake, the veteran of the group, to be trained. Star upsets potential customers because she disapproves of Jake's behaviour. Jake lies, shows he has a gun, although he doesn't really know how to use it, and he steals a ring from one of the houses. But Star is attracted to Jake, flirting with and eventually kissing him. That night, Krystal calls Star in and tells her that Jake has posted his lowest sales ever. Krystal then has Jake put tanning lotion on her body as Star watches, and Star promises to improve. The following day, annoyed by Jake, Star vows to outsell him. Star is picked up by three strangers in cowboy hats, who offer to help her, thinking she is being harassed by Jake. The trio bring her to their home and offer to buy several subscriptions if she eats the worm at the bottom of a bottle of mezcal. Star does, and makes the sale. Jake, however, fearing the worst, arrives and threatens the men with a gun before stealing their car. Initially angry at Jake, Star is later touched that he came to find her, and the two have sex in the car. When they return to the hotel for the evening, Jake tells her not to mention their relationship, and he gives the money Star earned to Krystal. For a while, things between Jake and Star are tense, and Krystal threatens to drop her on the side of the road if she keeps causing trouble. The crew ends up living temporarily in a rundown house, and Jake and Star renew their relationship. Star asks him what his dreams are, and he shows her his private stash of cash and items he's stolen from the houses he visits, which he intends to use to buy a home. Krystal dumps the girls off where oil workers are about to go to work in the morning. Star climbs in the back of their truck and tries to sell to them, but one of the oil workers tells her he'll pay her five hundred dollars to go on a 'date' with him. Star asks for a thousand dollars and meets him when he gets off work, but although the encounter is sexual he barely touches her. After the guy drops her off, she hears Jake fighting. Shortly after, a bloodied Jake asks if she slept with the man. Star just asks, "what do you care?". Jake gets angry, smashing things before taking off on a stolen motorbike. The following morning, the crew get in the car and there is a new girl there, while Jake is missing. Krystal calls Star to her room and informs her she has let Jake go, that she paid him money for each girl he recruited, and that he slept with all of them. Krystal later takes them to a poor area in Rapid City, South Dakota to sell subscriptions. Star enters a house and meets several affable children whose mother is on drugs. As Star's own mother died of a meth overdose, she feels sympathetic toward them and goes out to buy them groceries. At the pickup that day, Jake is in the van, and Star is confused as to whether to be happy to see him or not. That evening, the crew light a bonfire. Dancing around the fire, Star is pulled aside by Jake, who hands her a turtle. Star takes it to the edge of the water and releases it before following the turtle into the water. She immerses herself fully, long enough for the viewer to think she may not come up, before dramatically rising up out of the water. There is no conclusion.

Best friends John Beckwith and Jeremy Grey are divorce mediators in Washington, D.C. who, in their spare time, crash weddings under false identities to meet and have sex with women. At the end of a season of successful crashes, Jeremy convinces John to crash the wedding of the eldest daughter of the U.S. Treasury Secretary, William Cleary. At the nuptials, the pair set their sights on Cleary's other daughters, Gloria and Claire. During the reception, Jeremy has sex with Gloria on a nearby beach; she tells him afterward that she was a virgin. Possessive and infatuated, Gloria tells Jeremy that she loves him. Meanwhile, John becomes smitten with Claire, the maid of honor, but is interrupted by her hotheaded boyfriend, Sack Lodge, who is unfaithful and disrespectful behind her back. Gloria invites John and Jeremy to an extended weekend retreat at their family compound in Maryland. Jeremy is anxious to escape from Gloria, but John overrules him and accepts in an effort to get closer to Claire. John and Jeremy become acquainted with the Clearys. The Secretary's wife Kathleen comes on to John sexually while Gloria's brother Todd tries to seduce Jeremy during the night. Gloria continues to lavish sexual attention on Jeremy, massaging his penis at dinner and later tying his wrists and ankles to a bedframe and raping him. Sack also repeatedly injures Jeremy during a game of touch football. At dinner, John spikes Sack's wine with eye drops to make him sick and get more time to connect with Claire. John and Claire continue to bond the next day during a sailing trip. The suspicious Sack takes John and Jeremy on a hunting trip and pranks them, shooting Jeremy in the buttocks. While Jeremy recovers, John and Claire go on a bike ride to a secluded beach. Claire finally admits she is not sure how she feels about Sack and kisses John passionately. Back at the Clearys' estate, Gloria tends to Jeremy's wounds and reveals to him that she lied about being a virgin. Jeremy realizes that he may be in love with Gloria. Later in the afternoon, Sack announces that he and Claire are getting married. Jeremy prompts John to forsake his pursuit of Claire so they can go home, but John refuses, stating that he is in love with her. While John is confessing his feelings to Claire, they are interrupted by Jeremy being chased out of the house at gunpoint. Sack, who has been investigating them, reveals John and Jeremy's real identities to the family. Disappointed, the Secretary tells them to leave. Over the following months, John attempts to reach Claire, but she refuses to see him. Expecting Jeremy to aid him, he attempts to sneak into Claire and Sack's engagement party, but is caught and beaten by Sack. Confronting Jeremy about abandoning him, John learns that Jeremy has secretly continued his relationship with Gloria. Feeling betrayed and brokenhearted, John spirals into depression, crashes weddings alone, and becomes nihilistic and suicidal. As Sack and a reticent Claire plan their wedding, Jeremy proposes to Gloria and tries to ask John to be his best man, but John turns him away. John visits Jeremy's former wedding-crashing mentor, Chazz Reinhold. Chazz, who lives with his mother as a middle-aged man, convinces John to crash a funeral with him. At the funeral, John reconsiders his belief in love and marriage after seeing the grieving widow. John rushes to Jeremy's wedding and joins them mid-ceremony. Claire is upset by his presence and begins to leave, prompting John to regret his past behavior and profess his love for her in front of the congregation. Sack mocks John and orders Claire to return to the altar, but she finally tells him that she can not marry him. After the Secretary stands by his daughter and John quips about Sack's temper, Sack tries to attack John, but Jeremy intervenes and knocks him out. As Jeremy and Gloria tie the knot, John and Claire share a kiss. After the wedding, the two couples drive away from the ceremony and discuss crashing another wedding together.

While vacationing in Switzerland, pediatrician Chris Nielsen meets artist Annie Collins. They marry and have two children, Ian and Marie. Their idyllic life ends when the children die in a car crash. Four years later, Chris is also killed in a car crash. Unaware that he is dead, and confused that no one will interact with him, Chris lingers on Earth as a ghost. Chris sees Annie's attempts to cope with his loss and attempts to communicate with her, despite advice from a presence that this will cause her only more pain. When his attempts indeed cause more sorrow, he decides to move on. Chris awakens in a Heaven that he has created with his imagination; his surroundings are mountainous landscapes that resemble a painting created by his wife and are similar to a place where the two desired to spend their old age. Chris is accompanied in Heaven by Albert Lewis, his friend and mentor from his medical residency, and Leona, a stewardess whom Chris had once admired in the presence of his daughter; he later comes to recognize Leona as his daughter Marie. Meanwhile, Annie is wracked with guilt for the deaths of Chris and their children and dies by suicide. Chris, who is initially relieved that her suffering is over, grows angry when he learns that those who die by suicide go to Hell. It is not the result of a judgment made against them, but rather their own tendency to create nightmare afterlife worlds based on their pain. Chris is adamant that he will rescue Annie from Hell, despite Albert's insistence that no one has ever succeeded in doing so with someone who died by suicide. Aided by a "tracker", Chris and Albert descend into Hell. On the journey there, Chris realizes that Albert is actually Ian and parts ways with him before his search for Annie. Chris and the tracker arrive at a dark and twisted version of Chris and Annie's house. The tracker reveals himself as the real Albert and warns Chris that if he stays with Annie for more than a few minutes, he may be permanently trapped in Hell, advising that all Chris can reasonably expect is an opportunity for a final farewell to Annie. Chris enters their horrific-looking home to find Annie suffering from amnesia, unable to remember her suicide and visibly tortured by her decrepit surroundings. Unable to stir her memories, the tracker sees Chris give up his quest to save Annie from Hell. Instead of returning to Heaven, Chris chooses to join Annie forever in Hell. As he declares to Annie his intent to stay, his words parallel something that he had said to her as he left her in an institution following the children's deaths, and she regains her memories while Chris is making her nightmare his. Annie ascends to Heaven, taking Chris with her. Chris and Annie are reunited with their children in Heaven, and all appearances are restored. Chris proposes reincarnation so that he and Annie can experience life together again. Chris and Annie meet again as young children in a situation that parallels their first meeting. In an alternate ending found on the DVD, their children explain that because Annie died by suicide, she must return to Earth and complete her next life naturally. Chris offers to go with her, and the two meet again as children.

Friends Felix and Leon are driving to Felix's family holiday home on the Baltic Sea not far from Ahrenshoop when their car breaks down. After walking through the forest with their luggage, they arrive at the house to find it unexpectedly inhabited by Nadja, whose presence is obvious though they do not meet her. Her romantic trysts keep them up at night, causing Leon to resent her. Over the course of their vacation forest fires are mentioned, first distantly, then approaching. Leon spends his time fussing over the manuscript of his second novel, while Felix is less hurried about completing his photography portfolio. Within a couple days, they have both met Nadja, who is kind and accommodating. Despite this, Leon continues to be frustrated by her. Meanwhile, Felix strikes up a friendship with her and her lover, Devid, a lifeguard at the nearby beach. The emotions among the four intensify as Leon broods and resists interacting with the others. Felix and Devid develop a romantic and sexual relationship. Nadja offers friendship to Leon but he struggles to accept it. After much consternation, he decides to grant her request to read his manuscript, which she finds inferior and she tells him that he knows its poor quality. Leon does not take this well and isolates himself for the rest of the evening. When Leon's publisher Helmut arrives so they can review the manuscript together, Leon grows even more despondent as Helmut connects more with Felix, Devid, and especially Nadja, who is revealed to be a doctoral candidate in literature, not the seasonal hotel employee Leon thought. After a dinner that is tense for Leon and enjoyable for the rest, the forest fires are close enough that ash begins to fall just as Devid and Felix finally leave to retrieve their abandoned car. Helmut suffers a medical emergency. Nadja is quick to act, driving Helmut's tiny rental car to the hospital. Leon follows on foot. On the way, he sees wild boar fleeing the fire. After he watches a boar die, the fire begins to crest the hill and he runs. In darkness, he reaches the hospital to join Nadja, asleep on a bench. When they wake in the morning and find Helmut, he shares private moments with both of them. Nadja asks about his health, which he has lied about so as not to trouble them, and informs him of Leon's distress. Helmut comforts Leon, advising him to abandon his work-in-progress but assuring him of eventual success. Helmut promises to help him as long as his condition allows. On the walk back to the house, Nadja offers Leon comfort which Leon angrily rejects, leading Nadja to castigate him for his self-centeredness before leaving him alone on the beach. Remorseful, he follows her back to the house where he begins to confess romantic feelings for her, just as she sees two police officers in the backyard. Nadja approaches them and they inform her that Devid and Felix were found burned to death by the fires. Nadja and Leon go to see their bodies and see their charred corpses intertwined in death. Nadja has a profound emotional reaction, but Leon cannot absorb the reality, instead thinking about other coupled corpses throughout history, such as those found at Pompeii. She leaves without him, and by the time he reaches the vacation house she has left. He goes to the beach and sobs, looking at the bioluminescence in the sea, something he had refused to do earlier. Some time later, Leon is in Helmut's hospital room as Helmut reads Leon's new manuscript back to him, a work of autofiction based on the time he shared with Felix, Nadja, and Devid. Together they look at photos Felix took that summer which Helmut wants to use as accompanying artwork for the novel. Helmut has Leon leave when a medic appears to administer a treatment. Waiting outside, Leon sees Nadja arriving, presumably to visit Helmut. He steps out from hiding and the two share a moment of mutual recognition.

Harry Washello and Julie Peters meet at the La Brea Tar Pits and immediately fall in love. They spend the afternoon together and arrange to meet again at midnight. However, due to a freak accident, a power failure results in Harry's alarm not going off until much later. Julie cannot reach Harry, so she leaves for home. When Harry awakes that night, he realizes what has happened and rushes to Julie's workplace, arriving at 4 a.m. Harry tries calling Julie on a payphone but only reaches her answering machine, where he leaves an apology. The phone rings again and Harry answers, hearing a frantic man named Chip urgently warning that nuclear war will break out in less than 70 minutes. When Harry asks who is calling, Chip realizes he has dialed the wrong area code. He pleads with Harry to call his father and apologize for some past wrong before he is interrupted and presumably shot dead. An unfamiliar voice picks up the phone and tells Harry to forget everything he heard before disconnecting. Harry, confused and not entirely convinced of the authenticity of the information, wanders back into the diner and tells the other customers what he has heard. As the patrons scoff at his story, one of them, a businesswoman named Landa places calls to politicians in Washington and finds that they are all suddenly heading for "the extreme Southern Hemisphere ". She verifies that the launch codes Chip mentioned are real and, convinced of the danger, immediately charters private jets out of Los Angeles International Airport to a compound in a region in Antarctica with no rainfall. Most customers and staff leave with her in the owner's delivery van. When the owner refuses to make any stops, Harry, unwilling to leave without Julie, arranges to meet the group at the airport and jumps from the truck. Harry is helped and hindered by various strangers, who are initially unaware of the impending apocalypse. In the process, he inadvertently causes several deaths, which leaves him deeply shaken. When he finds Julie and tells her what is happening, she notes that there has been no confirmation of the attack. Desperate to reach the airport and not having a car, Harry finds a helicopter pilot and tells him to meet them on the roof of the Mutual Benefit Life Building, where Landa orders a helicopter and a large amount of supplies to be delivered. Julie has also tried to find a pilot on her own, and in the moments it takes to find her, Los Angeles descends into violent chaos. There is still no confirmation any of this is real, and Harry wonders if he has sparked a massive false panic in the example of Chicken Little. However, when he uses a phone booth to contact Chip's father, he reaches a man who says his son is a soldier. Harry tries to pass on the message he was given, but the man hangs up before Harry finishes. When they reach the top of the Mutual Benefit building they find the pad empty, with only Landa's drunk co-worker on the roof. Any doubts about a false alarm are eliminated when a missile can be seen streaking across the sky. As they fear the end, the helicopter suddenly returns with the pilot badly wounded but fulfilling his promise to come back for them. After they lift off from the roof, several warheads hit and the nuclear E.M.P. from the detonations causes the helicopter to crash into the La Brea Tar Pits. As the helicopter sinks and the cabin fills with natural asphalt tar, Harry tries to comfort a hysterical Julie by saying someday their fossils will be found and they will probably be put in a museum, or that they might take a direct hit and be turned into diamonds. Julie, accepting her fate, calms down and takes comfort in Harry's words, and the movie fades out as the tar fills the compartment. A final explosion seems to imply a direct hit has taken place.

Starman is a love story. It's It Happened One Night — John Carpenter The Voyager 2 space probe, launched in 1977, carries a phonographic disc with a message of peace, inviting alien civilizations to visit Earth. The probe is intercepted by an alien ship traveling through space which then sends a scout vessel to establish first contact with Earth. Instead of greeting the vessel, the U.S. government shoots it down. Crashing in Chequamegon Bay, Wisconsin, the lone alien occupant, looking like a floating ball of energy, finds the home of recently widowed Jenny Hayden. He uses a lock of hair from her deceased husband Scott, to clone a body for himself. The alien "Starman" has seven spheres with him which provide energy to perform miraculous feats. The alien uses the first sphere to send a message to his people stating that Earth is hostile and his spacecraft was destroyed. He arranges to rendezvous with them in three days' time. He then uses the second sphere in self-defense and the third to create a holographic map of the United States, coercing Jenny into taking him to the rendezvous in Arizona. Jenny, however, attempts to escape. Having a very basic understanding of the English language from the phonographic disk, the Starman learns to communicate with Jenny and assures her that he means no harm. He explains that if he does not reach the rendezvous point, Arizona's Barringer Crater, in three days, he will die. Jenny teaches the Starman how to drive a car and use credit cards, so he can continue the journey alone. When he resurrects a dead deer, she is moved and decides to stay with him. The authorities pursue the pair across the country. A police officer shoots and critically wounds Jenny. To escape, the Starman crashes their car into a gas tanker and uses another sphere to protect them from the explosion. They take refuge in a mobile home that is being towed. He uses another sphere to heal Jenny. After being assured that she will recover, he proceeds to hitchhike toward Arizona without her, but Jenny reaches him while he and his driver are stopped at a roadblock. Reunited, they hitchhike together, resuming their journey towards the crater. Later, while stowing away on a railroad boxcar, the two have sex. The Starman tells Jenny, "I gave you a baby tonight." She reveals that she is infertile, but he assures her that she is pregnant. He explains that Scott is the posthumous father, as Starman used Scott's DNA to clone himself. As a child also of Starman, their son will possess all the Starman's knowledge and will grow up to be a teacher. Starman offers to stop the pregnancy if she wishes, but Jenny embraces him, accepting the gift. They accidentally travel too far on the train and arrive in Las Vegas. Jenny loses her wallet. The Starman uses one of their last quarters in a slot machine, which he manipulates to win the $500,000 jackpot. They buy a Cadillac to complete their journey to Arizona. National Security Agency director George Fox learns that the Starman's flight trajectory, prior to being shot down, was to the Barringer Crater. So, he arranges to have the Army capture the Starman, dead or alive. SETI scientist Mark Shermin, another government official involved in the case, criticizes Fox's heavy-handed approach and reminds him that the Starman was invited to Earth. Appalled to learn that Fox is planning to vivisect the alien, Shermin then resolves to help the Starman escape rather than let Fox capture him. Jenny and the dying Starman reach the crater as Army helicopters pursue them. Just as they are surrounded, a large spaceship appears and descends into the crater. Light surrounds the couple and the Starman is fully healed. While preparing to leave, he tells Jenny he will never see her again. Jenny asks him to take her with him, but he says she would die on his world. He then gives her his last sphere, saying that their son will know what to do with it. Jenny watches as the ship departs.