After a spectacular and mysterious cosmic event, ants of different species undergo rapid evolution, develop a cross-species hive mind, and build seven strange towers with geometrically perfect designs in the Arizona desert. Except for one family, the local human population flees the strangely acting ants. Scientists James R. Lesko and Ernest D. Hubbs set up a computerized lab in a sealed dome located in an area of significant ant activity in Arizona. The ant colony and the scientific team fight each other, though the ants are the more effective aggressors. The narrative uses the scientific team as the main protagonists, but there are also ant protagonists going about their duties in the colony. The ants immunize themselves to the humans' chemical weapons and soon infiltrate their lab. Teams of ants penetrate the computers of the lab and short them out. After Lesko decodes an ant message, Kendra Eldridge (a young woman who has taken refuge with the scientists), becomes convinced that her actions have enraged the ants. Seeking to save the two scientists, she abandons the lab and apparently sacrifices herself. Hubbs and Lesko begin to have different plans for dealing with the ants. While Lesko thinks he can communicate with the ants by means of messages written in mathematics, Hubbs plans to wipe out a hill he believes to be the ants' central hive. Delirious from a venomous ant sting, Hubbs can barely get his boots on, but is determined to attack the hive and kill the ant queen. Instead, Hubbs literally falls into a trap – a deep pit that the ants fill with earth. Helpless to save Hubbs and convinced that the ants will soon move into desert areas where their growth will exceed man's ability to control them, Lesko chooses to follow Hubbs's plan. He sets out to the hive with a canister of insecticide. Descending into the hive, Lesko hunts for the queen, but instead finds Kendra reaching out from under the sand. The two embrace and Lesko realizes that, far from destroying the human race, the ants' plan is to adapt the human race and make them a part of the ants' world. In a voice-over, Lesko states that he and Kendra do not know what plans the ants have, but they are awaiting instructions.

After Sal loses Zoe, the love of his life, in a car crash, he falls into deep depression. His sister Ebe, who watches her brother with growing concern, wants to help him. She works at Aeternum, a company that offers the new technology "Another End" to give the bereaved the opportunity to say goodbye to deceased loved ones in a special way. The memories and consciousness of the deceased, which are stored in the company's database, are fed into a suitable host. The grieving relatives can then interact with the loved one (in someone else's body) in one or more sessions. According to the company's motto, this is intended to enable "another end" for them. The brain of the host absorbs the memories of the deceased every time they fall asleep. They forget everything, but this process cannot be repeated indefinitely. At first, neither Sal nor Zoe's parents want to try this method of coping with their pain. Sal blames himself for Zoe's death, as he was at the wheel in the car accident that claimed her life, and tries to kill himself with pills and alcohol. Ebe finds him in time and is able to prevent the attempt. She also manages to convince Zoe's mother to agree to Zoe's "resuscitation". Sal also finally agrees after a therapist and colleague of Ebe's tells him more about the process. However, he remains skeptical as to whether he will be able to feel a connection to "his Zoe" when she doesn't look like herself. He recognizes Zoe in Ava's body when he follows the therapist's advice and starts an argument with her. He falls in love with her again, is happy and doesn't want to say goodbye to her. He manages to persuade Ebe to give him more time together with Zoe-Ava, even though this jeopardizes her job. However, when the program comes to an end, he doesn't want to stand idly by and watch his newfound love disappear again. He follows the host Ava to her workplace in a strip club and meets up with her several times without revealing that he knows her through the host program. In the process, he learns that Ava has lost her child and is offering herself as a host to escape the daily grind. Since they exceeded the recommended amount of sessions, Ava seems to remember little things from Zoe's past. She finally finds out who Sal is and withdraws. Sal becomes depressed again, but then learns from Ebe that Ava has contacted her and wants to meet up with him again. Ebe is fired from the company because she was resuscitating her brother Sal the whole time, who had already died, as Ebe couldn't handle Sal's death. The Sal/Rental Body and Zoe/Ava wake up together after spending the night together and smile.

Robin Wright is an aging actress whose career suffered because of her erratic behavior and reputation for being fickle and unreliable. Her son, Aaron, suffers from Usher syndrome, which is slowly destroying his sight and hearing. Aided by Dr. Barker, Robin barely manages to stave off the worst effects of Aaron's decline, although his condition is sliding into its terminal stage. Robin's longtime agent, Al, takes her to meet Jeff Green, the CEO of Miramount Studios, a film studio that offers to buy her likeness and digitize her into a computer-animated version of herself. Realizing that she may be unable to find future work with the emergence of this new technology, Robin agrees to do it for a hefty sum of money. The contract also requires that she never act again. After her body is digitally scanned, the studio can make films starring her, using only computer-generated characters. Twenty years later, Robin travels to Abrahama City, where she will speak at the "Futurological Congress", Miramount's entertainment conference. Abrahama City is an animated, surreal utopia that is created from figments of people's imaginations, where anyone can become an animated avatar of themselves but must use hallucinogenic drugs to enter a mutable illusory state. In the decades since she was scanned, Robin's virtual persona has become the star of a popular film franchise, Rebel Robot Robin, making her and Tom Cruise the only remaining movie stars. While discussing her new contract with Jeff, Robin learns that Miramount developed a new technology that will allow anyone to devour her or possibly transform themselves into her with the hallucinogen. Robin agrees to the deal, but has a crisis of conscience, believing that no one should be turned into a product. When asked to speak to the public at the Congress, Robin publicly voices her contrary views, upsetting everyone there before being taken by security guards. The Congress is then interrupted by rebels opposed to the technology industry. They seemingly assassinate the head of the Congress. During the attack, Robin is rescued by Dylan Truliner, who was Miramount's lead animator for her films. They escape, but she is soon captured by "Miramount Police". Robin is seemingly executed by Jeff as a punishment for rebelling against Miramount and the Congress. Robin is shown on a hospital bed while doctors discuss her case. One doctor reveals that Robin's execution was her hallucinating, that her rescuers were from Miramount. The doctors decide that Robin has become so intoxicated by the hallucinogen that she must be frozen until a treatment for her condition can be found. Twenty years later, Robin is revived while still hallucinating an animated world. She reunites with Dylan, who says that the hallucinogenic technology is now widespread. People can take on whatever form they wish through it and as a result many negative aspects of humanity no longer exist. Dylan and Robin fall in love and take a journey through a colorful imaginary world. However, Robin is still desperate to return to the real world and be with Aaron. The only way to do that is by using a capsule that blocks all hallucinogenic effects. It is, in the animated world, equivalent to a suicide capsule. Dylan negotiated for one as part of his forced retirement package from Miramount, and he gives it to Robin. Re-entering the real world, Robin finds herself in a dystopian environment. A tiny elite hovers over ruined cities in large airships. Most people have left for an existence in the animated world. Aaron did it only six months earlier when his condition left him virtually blind and deaf and he had given up hope of Robin's return. Because Aaron likely created a new identity for himself in the animated world, there is no way for anyone to find him. Dr. Barker gives Robin an inhalation ampoule that will allow her to return to the animated world, though as her experiences have changed, her hallucinations will as well, and she will never be able to re-enter the same world she had left. Taking the drug, Robin sees Aaron's entire life flash before her eyes. She eventually discovers Aaron in the middle of an animated desert.

Child psychologist Catherine Deane is hired to conduct an experimental virtual reality treatment for coma patients: a "Neurological Cartography and Synaptic Transfer System" device managed by doctors Henry West and Miriam Kent that allows her to enter a comatose mind and attempt to coax them into consciousness. The technology is funded by the parents of her patient, Edward Baines, a young boy left comatose by a viral infection that causes an unusual form of schizophrenia. Baines's progress has been hampered by a bogeyman -like alter ego whom Deane avoids. Despite Deane's lack of progress, West and Kent reject Deane's suggestion to reverse the feed to bring Baines into her mind, fearing the consequences of his experiencing an unfamiliar world. Serial killer Carl Rudolph Stargher traps his victims in a cell-like glass enclosure that slowly fills with water by means of an automatic timer, then uses a hoist in his basement to suspend himself above their bodies while watching the recorded video of their deaths. He succumbs to the same schizophrenic illness and falls into a coma just as the FBI identifies him, leaving them without any leads as to the location of his latest victim, Julia Hickson. After learning of this experimental technology, Agent Peter Novak persuades Deane to enter Stargher's mind and discover Hickson's location. Deane enters the dark dreamscape of Stargher's twisted psyche, filled with doll-like versions of his victims. Stargher's innocent side manifests as Young Stargher and leads Deane through his memories of abuse he suffered at the hands of his sadistic father. Deane nurtures Young Stargher in hopes of obtaining Hickson's location, but she is thwarted by another manifestation: King Stargher, a demonic idealization of his murderous side that dominates the dreamscape. King Stargher torments Deane until she forgets the world is not real. Dr. West discovers this while monitoring Deane's vitals. He warns that what happens to Deane while she is integrated into Stargher's mindscape will inflict neurological damage on her real body. Novak volunteers to enter Stargher's mind to make Deane remember herself. Inside Stargher's mind, Novak is captured and subjected to King Stargher's torture while Deane looks on as Stargher's servant. Novak reminds Deane of a painful memory of her younger brother who died after a six-month coma due to a car accident during her college years to reawaken her awareness that she is in Stargher's mind. Deane breaks free of Stargher's hold and stabs King Stargher to free Novak. During their escape, Novak sees a version of the glass enclosure with the same insignia as the hoist in Stargher's basement. Novak's team discovers that after the hoist's previous owner went bankrupt, the government hired Stargher to seal up his property in rural Bakersfield. Novak races to the property and finds Hickson treading water in the enclosure and breathing through a pipe. Novak breaks the glass wall and rescues Hickson. Deane, now sympathetic to Young Stargher, locks her colleagues out and reverses the feed of the device to pull Stargher's mind into her own. She presents a comforting paradise to Young Stargher, but he knows it is only a temporary reprieve from King Stargher. He shifts to Adult Stargher to relate a childhood story of when he drowned an injured bird as a mercy killing to prevent its torture at his father's hands. King Stargher intrudes as a serpentine humanoid, but this time, Deane is in control and she beats him to a bloody pulp before impaling him with a sword. However, Young Stargher exhibits the same injuries as King Stargher, and killing either manifestation kills Stargher. Adult Stargher reminds her of the story of the bird and implores her to "save" him. Deane, appearing as a Virgin Mary -like figure, carries Young Stargher into a pool, putting him out of his misery as Stargher dies in the real world. In the aftermath, Deane and Novak meet outside of Stargher's house. The FBI has officially excluded the mind technology from their inquiry and Deane has gained approval to use the reverse feed on Edward Baines. Inside the paradise of Deane's mindscape, Baines walks to embrace Deane.

In March 1975, a Sino-Soviet border conflict escalates into full-scale war in which biological warfare destroys most of the human race. U.S. Army Col. Robert Neville, M.D., is a scientist based in Los Angeles, California who tests the efficacy of various vaccines. As he begins to succumb to the plague, he desperately injects himself with an experimental vaccine, which renders him immune. By August 1977, Neville believes he is the only immune survivor of the plague. Struggling to maintain his sanity, he spends his days patrolling the now-desolate Los Angeles, hunting and killing members of "the Family", a cult of plague victims who survive, but were rendered homicidal nocturnal albino mutants. Through flashbacks, Neville remembers how martial law was imposed, and the majority of people who succumbed to the plague were killed instantly. At night, living in a fortified apartment building equipped with an arsenal of weaponry, Neville is a prisoner in his own home. He is besieged by the Family, who seek to kill him. The Family's attempts to extract Neville from his residence have failed, due in part to their insistence on using archaic weaponry and siege warfare. When not hunting Neville, the Family destroys any remnant of science, blaming technology for the war, hence their reluctance to attempt more modern means to kill Neville. One day, as Neville is in a department store helping himself to new clothing, he spots a healthy woman, who immediately flees. He pursues her outside, but later chalks it up to imagination, having earlier hallucinated about multiple telephones ringing. He finds the corpse of a Family member and remarks that the final stage of the disease will kill them all. On another day, the Family finally captures Neville. After a summary trial, he is found guilty of heresy by the Family's leader, Jonathan Matthias, a former news anchorman. Neville is sentenced to death and nearly burned at the stake tied to a large wooden wheel representing modern technology in Dodger Stadium. He is rescued by Lisa, the woman he had earlier dismissed as a hallucination, and Dutch, a former medical student. Lisa and Dutch are part of a group of survivors holed-up at a former radio transmitter in the Hollywood Hills, none of whom exceeds the age of 30. Although their youth has given them some resistance to the disease, they are still vulnerable to it and will eventually succumb to it. Neville realizes that salvaging humanity would take years, as he will need a considerable amount of time to duplicate the original vaccine. He believes extending his immunity to others may be possible by creating a serum from his own blood. Neville and Lisa return to Neville's apartment, where they begin treating Lisa's brother Richie, who is succumbing to the disease. Neville and Lisa are about to have a romantic evening together, just as the generator runs out of fuel and the lights go off. The Family then attacks, sending Matthias' second-in-command, Brother Zachary, to climb up the outside of Neville's building to the open balcony of his apartment. Neville leaves Lisa upstairs as he goes to the basement garage to restart the generator. Neville returns to the apartment to find Zachary right behind an unsuspecting Lisa. Neville shoots him, and he falls off the balcony to his death, dropping his spear on the balcony as he goes. If the serum works, Neville and Lisa plan to leave the ravaged city with the rest of the survivors and start new lives in the Sierra Nevada wilderness several hundred miles north of Los Angeles, leaving the Family behind to die. Neville successfully creates the serum and administers it to Richie. Once cured, Richie reveals to Neville that the Family's headquarters are in the Los Angeles Civic Center, but insists that the Family is also human and that Neville's cure should be administered to them, as well. Consumed by his hate for the Family, Neville disagrees with him, so Richie goes to the Family by himself to try to convince them to take the serum. Matthias refuses to believe that Neville would try to help them, accuses Richie of being sent to spy on them, and has him tortured and executed. After finding a note that Richie left, Neville rushes to rescue him, but instead finds his brutalized dead body tied to a judge's chair in a courtroom. Meanwhile, Lisa quickly and unexpectedly succumbs to the disease and becomes one of the Family. Returning home, Neville tells Lisa about Richie's death, but she already knows and has betrayed Neville by giving Matthias and his followers access to Neville's home. Matthias, who finally has the upper hand, forces Neville to watch as the Family sets his home and equipment on fire. Neville breaks free, and once outside with Lisa, he turns and raises his gun to shoot Matthias, who is looking down from the balcony. The gun jams, giving Matthias enough time to hurl Zachary's spear at Neville, mortally wounding him. The next morning, Dutch and the survivors discover Neville dying in a fountain. He hands Dutch a flask of the blood serum and then dies. Dutch takes Lisa away, weakened and compliant because of the sunlight, and the survivors leave the city forever.

Lucy is an American studying in Taipei. Her new boyfriend Richard coerces her into delivering a briefcase containing four bags of the highly valuable synthetic drug CPH4 to Mr. Jang, a South Korean drug lord, at the Regent Taipei. After witnessing Richard being shot dead, she is captured and forced to become a drug mule. One bag of the drug is sewn into her abdomen for transport to Europe. She is kicked in the belly, breaking the bag and releasing a large quantity of the drug into her system. She acquires enhanced physical and mental capabilities, such as telepathy, telekinesis, mental time travel, and negated emotions; she also ceases to feel pain. Using her new abilities, she kills her captors and escapes. Lucy travels to the nearby Tri-Service General Hospital to get the bag of drugs removed. She is told by the operating doctor that natural CPH4 is produced in tiny quantities by pregnant women during their sixth week of pregnancy to provide fetuses with the energy to develop. As her abilities continue to develop, Lucy returns to Mr. Jang's hotel, kills his bodyguards, assaults him, and telepathically extracts the locations of the drug mules who are carrying the three other bags of CPH4. Lucy contacts scientist Samuel Norman, whose research about the brain's capacity helps her understand her condition. Lucy demonstrates proof of her abilities to an amazed Norman and tells him she will die in 24 hours. When she asks what she should do with her newfound knowledge, Norman suggests she pass it on. Lucy agrees and flies to Paris to meet with him. She contacts local police captain Pierre Del Rio to help her find the other three drug mules. During the flight, she has a sip of champagne, which initiates a drug interaction that causes her cells to become unstable. To stave off this process, Lucy ingests more of the drug. With the help of Del Rio, Lucy is able to recover the rest of the drugs. Meeting Norman and his colleagues, she agrees to share with them everything she knows. In the professor's lab, Lucy discusses the nature of time and life and how people's humanity distorts their perceptions. At her urging, she is intravenously injected with the contents of all three remaining bags of CPH4. As Lucy's brain capacity begins to rapidly increase, her body changes into a black substance that begins spreading over computers and other electronic devices in the laboratory, combining with them and transforming into a single supercomputer. She mentally begins a journey through spacetime into the past, eventually reaching the oldest discovered ancestor of mankind, Lucy. She shares a quiet moment with Lucy and the two touch fingertips, before she goes all the way to the beginning of time and witnesses the Big Bang. Meanwhile, Jang enters the laboratory and points a gun at Lucy, whose body has reformed. He shoots at her head, but by that point Lucy has reached 100% of her brain capacity and promptly vanishes, moving into the space-time continuum. Only her clothes and the black supercomputer are left behind. Del Rio enters and fatally shoots Jang. Norman takes a black flash drive offered by the supercomputer, after which it, too, disintegrates. Del Rio asks Norman where Lucy is, immediately after which Del Rio's cell phone sounds and he sees a text message: "I am everywhere." Lucy's voice is heard stating "Life was given to us a billion years ago. Now you know what to do with it."

Scientists invent a brain–computer interface that records sensations from a person's brain on tape for others to experience. The team includes estranged husband and wife Michael and Karen, as well as Michael's colleague Lillian. At CEO Alex's instruction, the team demonstrates the device to investors to gain financing. Karen dons the recorder while working with Michael and Lillian. When Michael plays the tape back, the group realizes that emotional experiences are also recorded. Michael tapes his memories of times with Karen, which he shares with her, leading to their reconciliation. Alex and his investors pressure Lillian to accept Landan, who works for the federal government and has ties to the military, on the team. Karen vehemently opposes their plan to have the invention developed for military use. One team member, Gordy, has sexual intercourse while wearing the recorder, and shares the tape with colleagues, including Hal. Hal splices one section of the tape into a continuous orgasm, which results in sensory overload, leading to his forced retirement. Tensions increase as the possibilities for abuse—and not only by the military–industrial complex —become clear. A chain smoker, Lillian suffers from heart problems. She has a heart attack while working alone. Realizing she is about to die, Lillian records her experience. Michael decides to play Lillian's recording, but nearly dies when his body relives her heart attack. Michael modifies his console to filter the physical output and replays the tape. He sees "memory bubbles"—moments from Lillian's life. Michael experiences Lillian's memories of a humorous exchange with Michael as he plays with an industrial robot, a surprise birthday party, and being devastated when Alex tells her that an earlier project is canceled. Landan's men monitor the equipment while Michael plays Lillian's tape. They have Gordy plug in, but Landan ignores the staff's warning that Michael modified his terminal. Gordy dies from experiencing Lillian's heart attack. Michael's playback is cut short by Hal, but witnessing the near-death experience makes Michael eager to see the entire tape. Alex has the recording locked away and tells Michael he will not be allowed to view it. When he returns to work, Michael walks in on Landan and outside technicians going through his research records. Alex responds to his protests by firing Michael and Karen. Michael attempts to hack into the lab's computers. Hal advises him to look under "Project Brainstorm", a program the military created to use their invention for torture and brainwashing. Michael accesses a tape from his den and quickly stops viewing it because of its disturbing nature. Michael and Karen's son Chris inadvertently views the tape, causing a psychotic break that requires hospitalization. Alex visits and Michael confronts him about Project Brainstorm, blaming Alex for his son's condition. Alex denies any knowledge of the project, then informs Michael of Gordy's death. Michael vows to destroy his work and enlists the help of Karen and Hal. Michael and Karen head to the Pinehurst Resort, and realizing they are under surveillance, stage a fight that ends in Karen leaving for Hal's house. As the two feign reconciliation over the phone, Michael accesses the Brainstorm computer via another phone line while Karen hacks into the system, sabotaging the robots that manufacture the interface terminals. They run amok. Karen shuts down the security system, locking the staff outside. Michael loads Lillian's tape. With the plant in chaos, Brainstorm manager Robert orders Michael's arrest. Karen leaves to meet with Michael at a place important to them. Hal and his wife, Wendy, send the last of Karen's commands to the company computers, shutting down the plant. Karen follows Michael to a phone booth at the Wright Brothers memorial. The tape plays. Michael bears witness to the afterlife, experiencing a vision of hell, then traveling from Earth and through the universe, even after the tape ends. He ultimately has visions of angels and departed souls flying into a great cosmic Light. Then he collapses. Karen, believing him dead or dying, screams at him, over and over, demanding that he stay with her. Awakening, weeping with joy, Michael points up and whispers, “Look at the stars!” Their embrace, enclosed in a memory bubble that floats into the night.

Dr. Samantha Unger, CEO of Europa Ventures, narrates the story of the Europa One mission. Six astronauts embark on a privately funded mission to Jupiter's moon Europa in an attempt to find extraterrestrial life. The crew members are commander William Xu, pilot Rosa Dasque, chief science officer Daniel Luxembourg, marine biology science officer Katya Petrovna, junior engineer James Corrigan, and chief engineer Andrei Blok. After six months of mission time, a solar storm hits the ship, knocking out communication with mission control. Blok and Corrigan perform an extravehicular activity (EVA) to repair the system from outside, but an accident rips Blok's suit. While he is being guided back into the airlock, Blok notices that Corrigan's suit has been coated with hydrazine and he cannot enter the airlock or else he would contaminate the rest of the ship. Blok attempts to save Corrigan by taking him out of his suit, but he blacks out from a lack of oxygen. Knowing there is no hope for himself, Corrigan pushes Blok into the airlock, thus propelling himself away from the ship. Stranded, he dies in space; the crew continue with the mission, demoralized by Corrigan's death. After twenty months, the ship goes into orbit around Europa. Its lander lands safely on Europa, but misses its target zone. The crew drills through the ice and releases a probe into the underlying sea. Blok, who is sleep-deprived to the point of concerning the rest of the crew, sees a light outside the ship; he is unable to record it or otherwise convince the crew of its occurrence. The probe is struck by an unknown luminous object and contact with it is lost. Petrovna insists on collecting samples on Europa's surface; the crew votes and she is allowed to go. Analyzing the samples, Luxembourg discovers traces of a unicellular organism. Petrovna sees a blue light in the distance and decides to investigate it. As she approaches the light, the ice below her breaks and she falls through. Her head-mounted camera continues to broadcast, displaying her last moments as blue light is reflected in her eyes. The camera broadcast then cuts out. The crew agrees to leave to report their discovery to Earth, but the engines malfunction. As the lander hurtles back to Europa's surface, Xu unbuckles from his seat to dump water shielding to reduce the impact speed. The ship crashes at the originally targeted landing site. On impact, Xu is killed and the lander is damaged, leaking oxygen and losing heat. It begins to sink into the ice. Blok and Luxembourg put their EVA suits on to make repairs outside the ship. Luxembourg tries to descend but dies as he falls through the ice. Blok knows that there is no chance that he alone will be able to repair the lander before it sinks. Instead, he manages to fix the communication link to the orbiting mother ship, at the expense of turning off the life support systems. Like Petrovna, he sees a blue light and is killed as he falls through the ice. Alone now, Dasque re-establishes communication with Earth; all the collected images and data that have been saved since the solar storm are relayed to Earth via the mothership. The ice cracks and the lander begins to sink. Anticipating her death, Dasque opens the airlock to flood the lander in hopes of revealing the source of the light. As the water rises to the cockpit, she sees a tentacled, bioluminescent creature rising toward her before the camera cuts out. In the epilogue, narrator Samantha Unger confirms that the crew of Europa discovered life as footage plays from an earlier scene of the crew posing in front of the camera.

In the year 2078, the planet Sirius 6B, once a thriving mining hub, has been reduced to a toxic wasteland by a war between the mining company the New Economic Block (N.E.B.) and "The Alliance", a group of former mining and science personnel. A fragile stalemate is in effect between the two exhausted, poorly-supplied, and undermanned armies. The vast empty areas between the two sides are patrolled by Autonomous Mobile Swords (AMS)— AI -powered robots developed by Alliance scientists. Nicknamed "Screamers" after their signature high-pitched noise, they target creatures with a heartbeat. Alliance soldiers wear "tabs" that disguise their heartbeats, rendering them invisible to the machines. An N.E.B. soldier carrying a message to the Alliance compound is killed by screamers. The message guarantees safe passage through N.E.B. territory to discuss a truce. Alliance commanding officer Joe Hendricksson reports this development to his Earth-based superiors, but is told to disregard it as peace negotiations are already underway on Earth. Private "Ace" Jefferson, the only survivor of a crash of a transport newly arrived from Earth, rebuts this claim. Hendricksson is not surprised; he has long suspected that both sides have simply written off Sirius 6B and abandoned their armies. Deciding the truce is their only chance of survival, Hendricksson, accompanied by Jefferson, sets out to meet the N.E.B. commander. While traveling through a ruined city they come upon David, a young boy clutching a teddy bear. Unwilling to abandon a defenseless civilian, they bring him along. The following night, they are attacked by a new "Type 1" screamer model immune to the tabs, alarming Hendricksson. As the group nears the N.E.B. compound, two enemy soldiers, Becker and Ross, open fire on David, who explodes in a shower of bolts and gears. Alliance men are shocked to learn he was a "Type 3" screamer. Most of the N.E.B. contingent has been wiped out by another "David" screamer that a patrol unwittingly brought into the base. Becker, Ross, and a black marketeer named Jessica are the only survivors. The group heads to the N.E.B. command center but finds it abandoned. Locating the mainframe computer, Hendricksson learns that the N.E.B. truce offer was just as false as the Alliance message from Earth. Hendricksson sees a "type 1" downloading information from the mainframe. He attempts to query the mainframe for "type 2" but approaching "Davids" force them to retreat. Back at the N.E.B. bunker, the knowledge of Screamers creating new versions that are indistinguishable from humans make everyone paranoid. Becker becomes convinced that Ross is a screamer and kills him, only to discover that he was human. The four survivors retreat to the Alliance base, only to find that it has been taken over by "Davids". As dozens of "Davids" pour out of the bunker's entrance, Hendricksson wipes them out with a micro-nuclear missile. Jefferson rushes to help Becker, who was apparently injured in the blast. However, Becker revealed himself to be a "type 2" and kills Jefferson. After Hendricksson destroys Becker, only he and Jessica remain. Worrying that Jessica could be a screamer, Hendricksson cuts her hand and is relieved to see blood. The pair locate an emergency escape shuttle, but discover it only seats one. Hendricksson offers the spot for Jessica but a second "Jessica" arrives, revealing she is another even more human-like model of screamer. Hendricksson resigns himself to death, but to his surprise, Jessica shields him, battles her lookalike, and is fatally wounded. The spacecraft's engines kick on and destroy the second "Jessica". With her last breath, the original Jessica confesses her love for Hendricksson, who departs for Earth with the teddy bear carried by the first "David". As the screen fades to black, the bear slowly begins moving.

On May 10, 1998, in Richmond, Virginia, high school student Leo Biederman observes an unidentified object in the night sky at his astronomy club's star party. His picture is sent to Marcus Wolf, who realizes it is a comet on a collision course with Earth. Wolf dies in a car crash while racing to raise the alarm. In 1999, MSNBC reporter Jenny Lerner investigates Secretary of the Treasury, Alan Rittenhouse, over his connection with a woman named "Ellie," whom she assumes to be a mistress; she is confused when she finds him and his daughter, Lilly, loading a boat with large amounts of food and survival gear. The FBI apprehends Lerner and takes her to meet President Tom Beck, who persuades her not to share the story in return for a prominent role in the press conference he will arrange. She subsequently discovers that "Ellie" is actually an acronym — E.L.E. — which stands for, " extinction-level event." Two days later, Beck announces that the Wolf–Biederman comet is on course to impact the Earth in roughly one year, and could cause humanity's extinction. He reveals that the United States and Russia have been constructing the Messiah in orbit, a spacecraft to transport a team to alter the comet's path with nuclear bombs. The Messiah later launches, with a crew of five American astronauts, and one Russian cosmonaut. They land on the outer-most layer of the comet, and drill the nuclear bombs deep beneath its surface, but it shifts into the sunlight. Consequently, Mission Commander Oren Monash is blinded, and an explosive release of gas propels medical officer Gus Partenza into space. The remaining crew escape, and detonate the bombs. However, rather than deflect the comet, the bombs split it in two. Beck announces the mission's failure, and that both pieces—the larger now named Wolf and the smaller named Biederman—are still headed for Earth. Wolf is on a collision course with western Canada, and its impact is expected to fill the atmosphere with dust, blocking all sunlight for two years and creating an impact winter that will kill all life on the planet's surface. Martial law is imposed and a lottery selects 800,000 Americans to join 200,000 pre-selected individuals in underground shelters in Missouri 's limestone bluffs. Lerner, who has become an MSNBC anchor during the crisis, is pre-selected, as are the Biedermans, as gratitude for Leo discovering the comet. Lerner's mother, Robin, upon learning most senior citizens are ineligible for the lottery, commits suicide. To save his girlfriend Sarah and her family, Leo marries her, but Sarah's parents are not allowed to accompany her and she refuses to go without them. A last-ditch effort to deflect the comets with ICBMs fails. Upon arrival at the shelter, Leo decides to return to Virginia to find Sarah. On a motorcycle, he reaches Sarah's family on the freeway, which is heavily filled with traffic. Her parents force her to leave with Leo and her baby brother, while they remain behind. The MSNBC crew draws straws to decide who will board an evacuation helicopter with Lerner. At the last minute, Lerner gives up her seat to her colleague, Beth, and her young daughter. She instead travels to her childhood beach home and reconciles with her estranged father. Biederman hits the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and creates a megatsunami that destroys several countries and much of the East Coast of the United States, reaching the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys plus Europe and Africa. Millions including Lerner, her father, and Sarah's parents perish while countless more are left homeless. Leo, Sarah, Sarah's brother and other survivors make it to safety in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The Messiah crew, now dangerously low on life-support and propellant fuel, decide to sacrifice themselves by flying deep inside Wolf, and detonating their remaining nuclear bombs. They all say goodbye to their loved ones before executing their plan. Millions of pieces of ice and rock burn harmlessly in the atmosphere and light up the sky for an hour, averting further catastrophe. Beck addresses thousands at an under-construction replacement United States Capitol, and announces the start of rebuilding their home that the Messiah has saved.

In 2500, sea level rises have put every continent on Earth underwater. The remains of human civilization live on makeshift floating communities built out of scavenged materials known as atolls, having long forgotten about living on land. Rumors of a "Dryland" still exist, but it is considered a myth by most. The Mariner, a lone drifter, arrives at an atoll on his trimaran to trade dirt, a rare commodity, for supplies. When the locals see that the Mariner is a mutant, with gills and webbed feet, several accost him and he kills one in self-defense. As a result, the Mariner is sentenced to be drowned in a tank of organic sludge. While the Mariner is trapped in the tank, the atoll is attacked by the Smokers, a formidable pirate gang that has been systematically raiding and destroying atolls. Helen, a strong-willed atoll resident, tries to escape on a gas balloon dirigible with her young ward Enola and inventor Gregor. However, Gregor accidentally departs with only himself on board, stranding the two. She frees the Mariner on the condition he takes them with him. The Mariner skillfully fights his way out, damaging the Smokers' forces and causing an explosion that blinds its leader, Deacon, in one eye. The Mariner, Helen and Enola board the trimaran and escape. Following a brief skirmish with the Smoker's scout seaplane, the trio encounters a drifter suffering from cabin fever whom the Mariner kills after a trade gone awry, and a mutated shark the Mariner kills for food. Despite his initial reluctance and gruff attitude, the Mariner slowly warms up to his companions and has a bonding moment with Enola teaching her to swim. After evading a trap set by the Smokers, the Mariner confronts Helen about their unusual persistence. She admits they are after Enola for the supposed directions to Dryland tattooed on Enola's back. Helen then demands to know where the Mariner collected his dirt. He takes her in a jury-rigged diving bell and shows her the underwater remains of Denver, Colorado, and the soil on the ocean's floor, crushing her belief in Dryland. When they surface, the pair find that the Smokers have caught up. They capture Enola and try to kill Helen and the Mariner before the two dive underwater. The Smokers set the trimaran on fire and leave. Sorting through the wreckage of his boat, the Mariner sees a collection of National Geographic magazines and compares their images to Enola's doodles, realizing she was drawing Dryland objects. Gregor, having spotted the smoke from his dirigible, finds Helen and the Mariner and takes them to a new makeshift atoll. The Mariner takes a captured Smoker's jet ski to chase down the Smokers' base of operations, the remains of the Exxon Valdez, where they manage to manufacture fuel, ammunition and cigarettes. Deacon's advisors struggle to decipher the tattoo. To keep his followers' minds off their dwindling resources, he bluffs that he has decoded the map on Enola's back and orders them back to their stations to row. The Mariner infiltrates the "'Dez" and confronts the Deacon, threatening to ignite the oil reserves in the hold unless Enola is returned. The Deacon calls the Mariner's bluff, knowing that it would destroy the ship, but to his shock, the Mariner drops a flare into the oil reservoir. The ship is engulfed in flames, and begins to sink. The Mariner rescues Enola, escaping via a rope from Gregor's balloon with Helen and the Atoll Enforcer aboard. The Deacon fires on the balloon, shaking Enola into the ocean. As the Deacon and some of his men converge on her, the Mariner makes an impromptu bungee jump from the balloon to grab Enola before the Deacon and his men collide on their jet-skis, inducing an explosion that kills the trio. Gregor later identifies Enola's tattoo as coordinates with reversed directions. Following the map, the balloon party discover Dryland, covered with vegetation and wildlife. They also find a hut with the remains of Enola's parents. The Mariner, feeling that he does not belong on Dryland, takes an old wooden catamaran from the island and departs, as Helen and Enola bid him farewell.

Sometime in the future, Earth has been ravaged by pollution, natural disasters and rising sea levels, making it largely uninhabitable. A woman (Emelie Garbers) works on board the Aniara, a luxurious spaceship that takes passengers from Earth to Mars in three weeks. Her job involves working as a "Mimarobe" within the Mima, an artificial intelligence designed to evoke the viewers' experiences of Earth's lush, verdant past through a totally immersive virtual-reality experience that taps into the participants' memories and emotions. In the first week of the Aniara ' s voyage, the ship suddenly veers off course to avoid a collision with space debris. Some of the debris pierces the hull and hits the ship's nuclear reactor, setting off an imminent meltdown and forcing the crew to eject all of the ship's fuel. This results in the ship having no navigational control, no propulsion, thus no ability to resume its original course. Captain Chefone promises the passengers and crew that they will be able to resume the trip to Mars once the ship passes a celestial body, which should happen in no more than two years. The Mimarobe's roommate, the ship's astronomer, later reveals to her that this is a lie and that there is no possibility of resuming their course. Soon, the Mimarobe finds her usually unimportant job becoming more popular and necessary than ever, as passengers use the Mima as an escape from their current situation. After three years, the Mima becomes one of the most important functions necessary to keep calm on board the ship. With so many people bringing their memories of Earth's decline to the Mima, as well as their anxieties surrounding the current situation onboard the Aniara, the Mima becomes overwhelmed and self-destructs, dying by suicide. Though the Mimarobe had asked the captain for a month of rest for the Mima, she is blamed for the machine's malfunction and is imprisoned. Isagel, a pilot and the Mimarobe's lover, is also imprisoned following a physical conflict with Captain Chefone regarding the punishment of the Mimarobe. By the fourth year, mass suicides and developing cults lead the Mimarobe and Isagel to be granted release and reassigned to work. They join a fertility cult dedicated to the Mima, and soon Isagel becomes pregnant after an orgy. She has depression during her pregnancy and is tempted to end the child's life after he is born. The Mimarobe wants to build a "beam-screen", a projection device acting as a mimic of Mima to alleviate Isagel's and the other passengers' depression, but Captain Chefone forbids her from doing so. He instead orders her to focus on educating the children, in hopes that one or more of them may discover a way to return them to Mars. In the fifth year, Isagel and the astronomer discover that a probe large enough to feasibly contain fuel is travelling towards the Aniara, meaning that a rescue is possibly being attempted. The probe takes over a year to reach the ship, and upon being brought onto the ship in the sixth year, the crew quickly realize that they are unable to identify it, its origins or whether it contains fuel. The captain orders the crew to keep working on the probe, but they eventually lose hope of it being a means of rescue. The Astronomer laments that their ship is a sarcophagus, defying Captain Chefone's orders for the crew to keep a united front to prevent the passengers from losing hope. In a fit of rage, Captain Chefone shoots a taser at the Astronomer, killing her. The Mimarobe begins work on her projection device, eventually succeeding in projecting a waterfall onto the dark windows of the spaceship. Having succeeded, she returns to her quarters only to discover that Isagel has killed herself and their son. Four years later, the few remaining crew celebrate the 10th anniversary of their voyage into space. While listlessly accepting an honorary medal from Captain Chefone for her creation of the beam-screen, the Mimarobe notices that his wrists are bandaged from a presumed suicide attempt. The algae tanks that the passengers rely on for food and oxygen have become contaminated. In year 24 of the voyage, the Mimarobe and a few remaining survivors sit cross-legged in a dimly lit room. An unidentified woman in the group rhapsodizes about the divine power of sunlight on Earth, as the ship descends into a final darkness. In year 5,981,407 of its voyage, the Aniara – derelict, frozen, and devoid of human life – reaches the Lyra constellation and drifts right past a planet as verdant and welcoming as Earth once was.