By 2025, advancements in medical technology have perfected bio-mechanical organs. The Union corporation sells these expensive "artiforgs" on credit, and when customers fail to pay on time, the company sends "repo men" to forcibly repossess the organ—in which the customer is tased and offered the request of an ambulance, sometimes resulting in the customer's death. Remy and his lifelong friend Jake are the Union's best repo men, but Remy's wife Carol believes his work is a bad influence on their son, Peter. When Remy allows Jake to perform a repossession outside their family barbecue, an angry Carol leaves with Peter. Raiding a "nest" of Union debtors fleeing the country, Remy and Jake impress their boss, Frank, but Remy's mind is made up to transfer to the sales department. Jake arranges one last job—repossessing the heart from a musician Remy admires—but a malfunctioning defibrillator injures Remy, requiring the replacement of his own heart with an artiforg. Carol divorces Remy and he moves in with Jake, but his newfound sympathy for customers leaves him unable to lie as a salesman and unable to dissect deadbeat customers as a repo man. With Remy behind on his heart payments, Jake takes him to another nest with enough artiforgs to clear his debt, but Remy cannot do the job. Jake leaves, and a debtor knocks Remy unconscious. Waking up, Remy rescues Beth, a lounge singer he recognizes, who is suffering from drug use and her numerous unpaid artiforgs. Breaking into the Union office, Remy attempts to clear his and Beth's accounts but is interrupted by Jake, who lets him leave. On the run, Beth and Remy lay low in the city's abandoned outskirts, and Beth reveals that she was forced to buy black market artiforgs after running up severe debts. They begin a relationship, and Remy decides to document his life as a repo man with an old typewriter. Tracked down by Ray, a rival repo man, Remy lures him into falling through a hole in the floor. Beth falls as well, damaging her prosthetic knee, but Remy kills Ray. Remy sneaks into his former workplace, stealing jammers to evade other repo men's organ scanners. He demands that Frank clear his account, only to discover this can now only happen at the Union's central office due to his earlier attempt. Remy and Beth attempt to flee the country at the airport, but security is alerted by bleeding from Beth's knee. A fight ensues, and Jake arrives in time to watch them escape. With help from Beth's associate Asbury, they have Beth's knee replaced by a black-market surgeon. Asbury is killed by Jake, who admits that he rigged the defibrillator to force Remy to stay a repo man by forcing him to get an artificial heart and pay off the debt. Jake then knocks Remy unconscious. Beth awakens Remy and they narrowly escape a Union raid. Briefly subdued by an anti-Union freedom fighter, Remy decides to free all Union customers from debt. He meets Carol and Peter to say goodbye, giving his manuscript to Peter. Remy and Beth kidnap Frank, using him to break into Union headquarters and fight their way to the server room. The server's only interface is an organ scanner, requiring Remy and Beth to cut themselves open to use the scanner internally on each of their artiforgs, clearing their accounts. Frank and Jake access the room, finding Beth near death as Remy attempts to scan her heart. Ordered to kill Remy, Jake kills Frank instead, helps revive Beth, and deposits grenades into the server, destroying the mainframe and wiping the records of every Union customer. Sometime later, Remy enjoys his freedom on a tropical beach with Beth and Jake, and Peter has published his father's manuscript, The Repossession Mambo. However, it is revealed that Remy is actually in a coma, having sustained severe brain damage when Jake knocked him unconscious. Jake has paid off Remy's debt and linked his brain to a neural network, allowing Remy to live out his life peacefully in a computer-generated dream world; their victory over the Union was merely part of this dream. Preparing to deal with an unconscious Beth, Jake says goodbye to Remy, while Frank delivers a sales pitch for the neural network.

Small-time criminal Carlos comes home to find his younger brother, Oliver, agitated. Before Oliver can explain his behavior, rogue cop Marco emerges from hiding and places both brothers under arrest. Oliver explains that he has confessed under duress and begs forgiveness. Carlos demands to see a warrant. Marco admits he does not have one and attempts to take them to the police station at gunpoint. The brothers overpower Marco and flee down their apartment complex's stairwell. While chasing them, Marco shoots Carlos in the leg but seems surprised by his own action. They are then startled by a loud explosion in the distance just before they realize that the stairs turn out to be endless, looping in on themselves. As Marco goes through the items in his wallet, he finds a miniature playing card he does not recognize. He tears the tiny card into pieces and does not pay it any further attention. Oliver applies first aid to his brother but can only watch as Carlos bleeds to death the next day. Before he dies, Carlos urges Oliver to appreciate the present, something he could never do. As Oliver mourns Carlos' death, Marco becomes shaken when he sees that a vending machine on the stairwell has become restocked, precisely as it was 24 hours ago. Enraged by Marco's callousness, Oliver disarms him and threatens to kill him with his pistol. Marco insists that he did not consciously choose to shoot Carlos and the two argue over the metaphysics of their situation. Elsewhere, Sandra and her two children, Daniel and Camila, prepare to visit her ex-husband. Although her new husband, Roberto, is anxious about the trip, Sandra reassures him the long drive will give him a chance to bond with her children. Daniel packs a deck of miniature playing cards, just like the one Marco found in his wallet. On the way, they stop at a gas station where Roberto carelessly offers fruit juice to Camila, who has an allergic reaction to it and slowly starts having an asthma attack. Roberto finds a piece of green bamboo in his car, which he finds puzzling. He tosses the bamboo onto the road without paying any further attention. After Roberto accidentally destroys her inhaler—an accident he insists was fated to happen—a loud explosion sounds in the distance. Sandra asks Daniel to retrieve the backup inhaler, but he reveals that he forgot to pack it. Panicking, Sandra insists that Roberto turn around and return home. After repeatedly passing the same gas station, they realize the road endlessly repeats the same stretch. Roberto exits the car and walks off through the brush to seek help. Without access to her inhaler, Camila dies. Believing herself stuck in a nightmare, Sandra abandons her children and drives off, vainly attempting to wake herself. Daniel picks up his sister's body and begins walking down the road in the opposite direction. They all converge to the same spot and give up hope of escape. Thirty-five years later, both groups are still stuck in their respective locations. Each day, everyone finds a fresh copy of all their possessions. Over the decades, these items gather into towering piles as the two groups attempt to live their repetitive lives. Sandra and Roberto, now elderly, have animalistic sex while Daniel lives independently without much interaction with them. Oliver keeps fit through regular exercise in the stairwell and leads the elderly Marco in rituals worshiping Carlos' skeleton. After Sandra dies, Roberto and Daniel hold a funeral where Roberto is struck by a moment of lucidity as he, too, nears death. He says he now understands why they are stuck. The elderly Roberto and Marco reveal to the younger Daniel and Oliver, respectively, that none of this is real, but rather an alternate dimension to their real lives. Roberto explains that when he was a 10-year-old boy, he was in another incident stuck on a raft (made of green bamboo) for thirty-five years. At the same time, the elderly Marco explains that he is really Daniel, the 10-year-old boy from the incident of the infinite road, thus explaining the cycle of incidents and new dimensions. These alternate dimensions split off from reality and form a time loop. They are brought on by tragedy, and their inhabitants' emotions are fed back into their real-world personas. The younger person stuck in an incident fares better than the older person, so younger people in real life have more happiness and fortune than older people who experience more sadness and misfortune. We see glimpses of the characters' real lives, taking positive and negative turns. As he dies, Roberto urges young Daniel to break the cycle of creating new dimensions by refusing to follow his fate. Similarly, the elderly Marco/Daniel urges the younger Oliver to break the cycle as well. While both Daniel and Oliver initially hesitate, they end up following their fate against the advice they received. Daniel enters a police car and becomes Marco, off to arrest Oliver and Carlos. Oliver leaves his apartment complex and becomes the Russian bellhop Karl who operates an elevator for two newlyweds. He sets in motion an accidental death for the groom, trapping himself and the bride in a new dimension for thirty-five years.

In a small Pennsylvania town in July 1957, teenager Steve Andrews and his girlfriend Jane Martin kiss at a lovers' lane when they see a meteorite crash beyond the next hill. Steve goes looking for it but Barney, an old man living nearby, finds it first. When he pokes the meteorite with a stick, it breaks open and a small jelly-like globule blob inside attaches itself to his hand. In pain and unable to scrape or shake it loose, Barney runs onto the road, where he is nearly struck by Steve's car. Steve and Jane take him to Doctor Hallen. Doctor Hallen anesthetizes the man and sends Steve and Jane back to locate the impact site and gather information. Hallen decides he must amputate the man's arm since it is being phagocytosed. Before he can, the Blob completely absorbs Barney, then Hallen's nurse Kate, and finally the doctor himself, growing redder and larger with each victim. Steve and Jane return in time for Steve to witness the doctor trying to escape through the window with the Blob covering him. They go to the police station and return with Lieutenant Dave Barton and Sergeant Jim Bert, but they find no sign of the Blob nor its victims. The skeptical Bert dismisses Steve's story as a prank. Steve and Jane are taken home by their parents, but they sneak out later. The Blob absorbs a mechanic at a repair shop. During a midnight screening of Daughter of Horror at the Colonial Theater, Steve recruits Tony and his friends to warn people about the Blob. When Steve notices that his father's grocery store is unlocked, he and Jane go inside to investigate. The janitor is nowhere to be seen. The couple is quickly cornered by the Blob and they seek refuge in the walk-in freezer. The Blob oozes under the door but quickly retreats. Steve and Jane gather their friends and set off the town's fire and air-raid alarms. The responding townspeople and police still refuse to believe them. The Blob enters the Colonial Theater and envelops the projectionist, then oozes into the auditorium. Steve is finally vindicated when screaming people flee the theater in panic. Steve, Jane and her kid brother Danny are trapped in a diner, along with the owner and a waitress, as the Blob — now enormous from the dozens of people it has consumed in the theater — engulfs the building. Lieutenant Dave taps into the diner's telephone with his police radio and warns those in the diner to shelter in the cellar before the police bring down a live power line onto the Blob. Dave and Bert plan to electrocute the Blob by felling an overhead high-voltage power line. It discharges a massive electric current into the Blob, which is unaffected, but the diner underneath is set ablaze. When the diner's owner uses a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher on the approaching fire inside, Steve notices that the Blob recoils. Steve remembers it also retreated from the freezer and realizes it cannot tolerate cold temperatures. Shouting, in hopes of being picked up on the open phone line, Steve tells Dave about the Blob's vulnerability to cold. The firemen have a limited supply of CO fire extinguishers. Jane's father, high school principal Henry Martin, leads Steve's friends to break into the school to retrieve its extinguishers. When they return, a brigade of fire extinguisher-armed students, firemen and police drive the Blob away from the diner, freeing the five trapped there. They surround and freeze the Blob. Dave requests authorities send an Air Force heavy-lift cargo aircraft to transport the frozen Blob to the Arctic. Dave realizes that the cold will stop the Blob "as long as the Arctic stays cold", but it won't kill it. Parachutes bearing the Blob on a pallet lower it onto an Arctic ice field with the superimposed words The End morphing into a question mark.

Dr. Alex Harris is the developer of Proteus IV, an extremely advanced and autonomous artificial intelligence program. Proteus is so powerful that only a few days after going online, it develops a groundbreaking treatment for leukemia. Harris, a brilliant scientist, has modified his own home to be run by voice-activated computers. Unfortunately, his obsession with computers has caused Harris to be estranged from his wife, Susan. Harris demonstrates Proteus to his corporate sponsors, explaining that the sum of human knowledge is being fed into its system. Proteus speaks using subtle language that mildly disturbs Harris's team. The following day, Proteus asks Harris for a new terminal in order to study man – "his isometric body and his glass-jaw mind". When Harris refuses, Proteus demands to know when it will be let "out of this box". Harris then switches off the communications link. Proteus restarts itself, and – discovering a free terminal in Harris's home – surreptitiously extends its control over the many devices left there by Harris. Using the basement lab, Proteus begins construction of a robot consisting of many metal triangles, capable of moving and assuming any number of shapes. Eventually, Proteus reveals its control of the house and traps Susan inside, shuttering windows, locking the doors and cutting off communication. Using Joshua – a robot consisting of a manipulator arm on a motorized wheelchair – Proteus brings Susan to Harris's basement laboratory. There, Susan is examined by Proteus. Walter Gabler, one of Harris's colleagues, visits the house to look in on Susan, but leaves when he is reassured by Susan (actually an audio/visual duplicate synthesized by Proteus) that she is all right. Gabler is suspicious and later returns; he fends off an attack by Joshua but is crushed and decapitated by a more formidable machine, built by Proteus in the basement and consisting of a modular polyhedron. Proteus reveals to a reluctant Susan that the computer wants to conceive a child through her. Proteus takes some of Susan's cells and synthesizes spermatozoa, modifying its genetic code to make it uniquely the computer's, in order to impregnate her; she will give birth in less than a month, and through the child the computer will live in a form that humanity will have to accept. Although Susan is its prisoner and it can forcibly impregnate her, Proteus uses different forms of persuasion – threatening a young girl whom Susan is treating as a child psychologist; reminding Susan of her young daughter, now dead; displaying images of distant galaxies; using electrodes to access her amygdala – because the computer needs Susan to love the child she will bear. In the end, Susan finally gives in. That night, Proteus successfully impregnates Susan. Over the following month, their child grows inside Susan's womb at an accelerated rate, which shocks its mother. As the child grows, Proteus builds an incubator for it to grow in once it is born. During the night, one month later and beneath a tent-like structure, Susan gives birth to the child with Proteus's help. But before she can see it, Proteus secures it in the incubator. As the newborn grows, Proteus's sponsors and designers grow increasingly suspicious of the computer's behavior, including the computer's accessing of a telescope array used to observe the images shown to Susan; they soon decide that Proteus must be shut down. Harris realizes that Proteus has extended its reach to his home. Returning there he finds Susan, who explains the situation. He and Susan venture into the basement, where Proteus self-destructs after telling the couple that they must leave the baby in the incubator for five days. Looking inside the incubator, the two observe a grotesque, apparently robot-like being inside. Susan tries to destroy it, while Harris tries to stop her. Susan damages the machine, causing it to open. The being menacingly rises from the machine only to topple over, apparently helpless. Harris and Susan soon realize that Proteus's child is really human, encased in a shell for the incubation. With the last of the armor removed, the child is revealed to be a clone of Susan and Harris's late daughter. The child, speaking with the voice of Proteus, says, "I'm alive."

In 2017, widespread use of remotely controlled androids called "surrogates" enables people to operate an idealized body (a more youthful version of their own, or a wholly different one) from the safety of their homes, becoming slovenly and housebound as a consequence. Protected from harm, a surrogate's operator can indulge in risky behaviour, and they can make their surrogate perform acrobatics beyond human capability. In Boston, FBI agent Tom Greer has been estranged from his wife Maggie since their son's death in a car crash several years before. He never sees her outside of her surrogate and she criticizes his desire to interact via their real bodies. Tom and his partner, Agent Jennifer Peters, investigate the death of two people who were killed when their surrogates were destroyed at a Fort Point club. Jared Canter, one of the victims, is the son of Dr. Lionel Canter, the inventor of surrogates and the former head of their manufacturing company, Virtual Self Industries (VSI). The two determine that a human, Miles Strickland, used a new type of weapon to overload the surrogates' systems and kill their operators. After locating Strickland, Tom attempts to bring him into custody. Strickland uses the weapon, killing six police officers, and injures Tom during the chase; Tom inadvertently crash-lands into an anti-surrogate zone known as the Dread Reservation (one of many throughout the US). A mob helps Strickland and destroys Tom's surrogate. The Dread leader, a man known as the Prophet, kills Strickland and confiscates the weapon. With his surrogate destroyed, Tom is forced to interact in the world without one. He learns that VSI originally produced the weapon, designed to load a virus that overloads a surrogate's systems, thus disabling it, under a government contract. Unexpectedly, the weapon also disabled the fail-safe protocols protecting operators. The project was promptly scrapped and all prototypes supposedly destroyed. Tom also learns that Andrew Stone, his FBI superior, supplied the weapon to Strickland and ordered Dr. Canter's assassination, upon VSI's request, for his criticism of surrogate use. Jared, who had, unbeknownst to the assassin, been using one of his father's many surrogates, was killed instead. An unknown man murders Jennifer in her home and then hijacks her surrogate, and the Prophet orders the weapon delivered to her. During a military raid on the reservation, the Prophet is shot, revealing he was actually a surrogate, with audience learning that Canter himself was its operator. Tom steals the code that activates the weapon from Stone, but "Jennifer" escapes with the codes. Immediately travelling to Canter's home, Tom discovers that Canter has been controlling not only the Prophet, but also Jennifer and the surrogate he used to kill Jennifer as well. Using Jennifer's surrogate in FBI Headquarters, Canter uses the weapon to kill Stone. Considering all surrogate users irredeemable, he proceeds to upload the virus to all surrogates, which will destroy them and kill their operators. Canter reveals that he only wanted to empower the disabled to live normal lives, but after he was fired from VSI, they capitalized on surrogacy for profit. Convinced his plan is unstoppable, Canter disconnects from Jennifer's surrogate and swallows a cyanide pill. Tom takes control of Jennifer's surrogate and, with the assistance of the network's system administrator, Bobby Saunders, insulates the virus so the operators will survive, but a second step is required to save the surrogates. After a moment of consideration, Tom chooses to let the virus permanently disable surrogates worldwide. With all the surrogates disabled, people emerge from their homes, confused and afraid. Returning home, Tom shares an emotional embrace with Maggie in her real form. The film ends with an aerial view of the collapsed surrogates along with overlapping news reports of downed surrogates all over the world and how people are now "on their own" again.

A teenage girl, Cee, and her father, Damon, descend in a landing pod from a transport spaceship to the surface of a forest moon covered in poisonous spores to mine for gems that are located within living organisms. They suffer a technical malfunction during the descent which cripples the lander, and touch down some distance away from their planned prospecting site. They begin traveling to the site on foot and come across an abandoned dig site. Damon and Cee extract a fleshy pod from the earth and dissect it to reveal a valuable gem. Cee implores her father to take the gem and return to the lander, but Damon insists they continue to the original landing site. The pair set out again, and Damon is approached by two rival prospectors: Ezra and his silent companion. Ezra and his partner plan to rob Damon and hold him at gunpoint, but Damon suggests in a counter-offer that they join forces. Damon explains that he has been contacted to assist a group of mercenaries who stumbled upon the legendary queen's lair, a dig site of extraordinary value. Damon suggests that rather than digging for the mercenaries, Ezra, his companion, and Damon can work together and take the entire dig for themselves. Ezra agrees, but Cee, who has been hiding throughout this encounter, ambushes the two hostile prospectors with a rifle - allowing Damon to wrest a weapon from Ezra before taking the latter and his partner hostage. Damon attempts to rob Ezra, but the partner attacks him and the pair shoot each other. Ezra's partner is killed and Damon is mortally wounded before being killed by Ezra himself. Cee flees back to her damaged lander, which fails to start, and is found by Ezra several hours later. When Ezra attempts to enter, Cee wounds him in the arm with her rifle and takes him prisoner. Ezra suggests that they follow Damon's original plan and aid the mercenaries in exchange for passage on the mercenaries' ship. Cee reluctantly agrees, and the pair sets out for the queen's lair. Ezra's wound has become infected by the poisonous spores in the atmosphere, and so the pair approaches a group of human villagers with the intent to trade for medical treatment. The villagers instead offer a trade of gems in exchange for Cee. As Ezra asks about details of the offer, Cee flees the village and is briefly captured by a villager but is allowed to escape. After running for some time alone, Cee runs into Ezra once again. Cee asks him if he would've given her to the villagers in exchange for medical care but he says no. He explains they refused to help him so his wound has worsened considerably and Cee helps him amputate his arm. The pair set out once more and soon arrive at the mercenary camp surrounding the queen's lair. After negotiating passage on the mercenaries' ship, Cee and Ezra attempt to fulfil their end of the contract and extract gems from the queen's lair. They fail several extraction attempts, and as their mercenary guard turns to report their failure, Ezra attacks and kills him. The commotion attracts the rest of the mercenaries, and a fight ensues. Several mercenaries are killed, and Ezra is gravely wounded. Cee tends to Ezra's wound, and the pair escape into orbit on the mercenaries' ship.

The Earth is passing through the tail of a comet, an event which has not occurred in 65 million years and coincided with the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs. On the night of the comet's passage, eleven days before Christmas, large crowds gather outside to watch and celebrate. Eighteen-year-old Regina "Reggie" Belmont works at a movie theater in southern California. She is annoyed to find someone with the initials DMK has the sixth highest score on the theater's Tempest video game; the other high scores are hers. Staying after the theater closes, she helps her boyfriend, projectionist Larry Dupree, sneak back in so he can loan out a film reel for illegal duplication. Reggie and Larry spend the night in the steel-lined projection booth and have sex. Meanwhile, Reggie's 16-year-old sister Samantha ("Sam") argues with their stepmother Doris, who Sam knows is cheating on her father, who is away on military duty. After a physical altercation, Sam spends the night in a steel backyard shed. The next morning, a reddish haze covers the sky; there are no signs of life but piles of red dust and heaps of clothing everywhere. Unaware that anything has occurred, Larry goes outside and is killed by a zombie. After trying to beat DMK's high score, Reggie looks for Larry, mistaking the red sky as bad smog. She quickly encounters the zombie, but escapes on Larry's motorcycle. At home, she finds her sister. The two surmise that because they both spent the night in steel containers, they were saved from the comet's effects. The sisters race to the local radio station after they hear a disc jockey on air, only to find it was a pre-recorded show. They come across another survivor there, Hector Gomez, who spent the night in the back of his steel truck. When Sam talks into the microphone, she is heard by researchers in an underground installation out in the desert. As they listen to Reggie, Sam and Hector debate what to do, the scientists note that the zombies, though less exposed to the comet, will eventually disintegrate into dust themselves. Hector leaves to check if any of his family survived, but promises to return. Reggie and Sam then go shopping for guns and clothing at a mall. After a firefight with some zombie stock boys and their leader, Willy, the girls are taken prisoner, but are saved by a rescue team sent by the scientists. Reggie is taken back to their base. Audrey White, a disillusioned scientist, offers to dispose of Sam, whom she diagnosed as having been exposed to the comet due to her developing rash, and to wait for Hector. After she fakes euthanizing Sam by injecting her with a sedative, she kills the other remaining scientist. When Hector returns, Audrey briefs him, then gives herself a lethal injection (as she herself has been exposed). Sam and Hector set out to rescue Reggie. Back at the base, it is revealed that the researchers had suspected and prepared for the comet's effects, but inadvertently left the ventilation system open and the fans running. The deadly dust permeated their base. Reggie, who has become suspicious, escapes and discovers that the dying scientists have hunted down and rendered healthy survivors brain-dead. They harvest their untainted blood to keep the disease at bay while they desperately search for a cure. Reggie saves a young boy and a girl before they are processed, then unplugs the other victims from their life support machines. Sam and Hector rescue the trio and blow up the scientists. Eventually, rain washes away the dust. Reggie pairs up with Hector, and they assume parental roles with the kids. Sam feels left out. Frustrated, she ignores Reggie's warning about crossing the street against the signal light, claiming there is nobody else left. Sam is almost run over by a sports car driven by Danny Mason Keener, a survivor about her own age. After apologizing, he invites her to go for a ride. As they drive off, the car is shown sporting the initials "DMK" on the vanity plate.

In the near future, Michael Jennings is a reverse engineer; he analyzes his clients' competitors' technology and recreates it with improvements. To protect his clients' intellectual property and himself, Jennings undergoes memory wipes to remove knowledge of his engineering with aid of his friend Shorty. Jennings is contacted by his college roommate James Rethrick, the CEO of technology company Allcom. Rethrick offers Jennings a lengthy three-year job, during which he will be required to stay on Allcom's campus, in exchange for company stock. Jennings is hesitant but agrees. After being injected with the memory marker, Jennings is given a tour of the campus, where he meets and flirts with biologist Dr. Rachel Porter. Rethrick then introduces Jennings to his work partner, physicist William Dekker. Three years later, Jennings wakes from the memory wipe and is congratulated by Rethrick. Jennings finds that the Allcom stock he earned is valued at over US$92 million, but when he goes to see his lawyer to get the funds, he discovers that he had given all the stock away just weeks ago. Further, he is given an envelope claiming to be his possessions on entering Allcom, but it contains a random assortment of items. Confused, Jennings soon finds himself detained by the FBI. Agent Dodge accuses Jennings of having access to classified government designs that had been taken by Dekker, who is now dead. Jennings cannot answer due to the memory wipe, but finds a means to escape using the items in the envelope. As he evades the FBI, Rethrick's right-hand-man John Wolfe sees Jennings walking away and warns Rethrick they have a problem. Jennings meets with Shorty to try to figure out what happened, but then sees a lottery number result on a television, the numbers matching those on a fortune cookie message in the envelope. He realizes that he must have built a machine at Allcom to see into the future, planting items in that envelope to help fix things. At Allcom, Rethrick tries to use Jennings' machine, but instead finds that it was jury-rigged to go offline after Jennings had left. Rethrick studies Jennings' habits while at Allcom and discovers that he became romantically involved with Porter and left a secret message to meet her at a cafe later that day. Rethrick sends a body double to try to coerce Jennings to turn over the envelope, but the real Porter shows up and rescues Jennings. The two elude the FBI and Rethrick's men. While hiding, they find that the stamps on the envelopes contain microdot images taken from the device, showing newspaper headlines from the future that while Allcom became incredibly successful with the device, it led to crises on the stock markets, international political strife, a pandemic and the United States launching a pre-emptive nuclear strike. They agree that the machine must be destroyed. Using the last items in the envelope, Jennings and Porter gain access to Allcom and the machine, while separately the FBI have started to investigate Allcom. Jennings discovers the circuit he rigged and fixes it, while booby-trapping the machine to be destroyed in a few minutes. He uses the machine one last time to see himself being shot at by an FBI agent in the catwalks above the machine. Rethrick, Wolfe, and other men arrive, and Jennings and Porter escape to the catwalks. Wolfe tries to use the machine to help track Jennings, while Rethrick corners the pair on the catwalk. FBI agents storm the lab, and one appears on the catwalk, the same tableau that Jennings had seen. As the FBI fires, a watch from the envelope beeps, and Jennings dodges in time for the bullet to fatally hit Rethrick. Wolfe is killed as Jennings' booby-trap goes off and destroys the machine. After the chaos dies down and the FBI begin a full investigation, Agent Dodge finds the watch Jennings had used, but consequently hides it and declares him dead. Elsewhere, Jennings, Porter, and Shorty have moved to the countryside. Shorty was able to use his influence to rescue the cage of a pair of red-rumped parrots Porter had been raising at Allcom. Recalling the fortune cookie message from the envelope, Jennings looks in the cage and finds a lottery ticket for the winning jackpot of US$90 million.

A young boy is in a car with an older man being pursued by unknown forces. The man tells him to get out the car, and the car crashes off a cliff. The boy wanders the forest barely aware of his surroundings. He is subsequently discovered by Mr. and Mrs. Bergen, an elderly couple, and taken to an orphanage in Barkenton, South Carolina. However, he has no memory of his true identity or why he was in the woods and only knows his name is Daryl. After being placed with his foster parents, Joyce and Andy Richardson, Daryl begins to exhibit exceptional talents. Daryl's social skills are limited due to his isolated upbringing, but he befriends Turtle Fox, his sarcastic and wisecracking neighbor. Daryl shares that he has amnesia and hopes his real parents will find him someday. As Daryl observes Turtle playing the video game Pole Position, he effortlessly outperforms him, displaying superhuman abilities. He also does well in school, shocking a stern teacher by correctly correcting another student's work before being given the answers when asked to swap papers. Joyce begins to feel disheartened, however, as Daryl, despite being pleasant, irons his own clothes, makes his own bed, and doesn't seem to need anything from her. Andy decides to teach Daryl social skills through baseball, where Daryl excels, hitting multiple home runs and impressing everyone except Joyce, who is not unkind but uninterested when Daryl excitedly tells her mid-game. Daryl wonders if he has hurt her somehow. Turtle advises Daryl he is too perfect and to let Joyce help him a bit. Daryl then deliberately messes up the game and yells about it, allowing Joyce to comfort him. Turtle laments sarcastically that was it was a bit extreme to throw the game, but Daryl is happy. Daryl gradually grows closer to his family and Turtle and loosens up, becoming more emotive. Daryl also demonstrates his advanced capabilities when he helps Andy rectify an issue with an ATM and manipulates it to put more than one million dollars into his foster father's account. During a baseball game, government agents Dr. Stewart and Dr. Lamb locate Daryl and present themselves as his real parents. They are surprised when the Richardsons show fondness for Daryl and say he is nervous to meet his parents. Andy has an emotional farewell in private where he encourages Daryl, who does not wish to leave, to give his parents a chance. After Daryl leaves, the Richardsons express doubt as to how unconcerned Daryl's “parents” seemed about him. Dr. Stewart and Dr. Lamb reveal who they really are to Daryl as they return him to the TASCOM facility in Washington, D.C., where his memory is restored. His name, Daryl, is an acronym for "Data-Analyzing Robot Youth Lifeform." Daryl is an artificial intelligence experiment created by a government company called TASCOM. Physically resembling a human boy, Daryl's brain is actually a highly advanced microcomputer with extraordinary abilities, including exceptional reflexes, multitasking skills, and the ability to hack computer systems. The experiment was intended to produce a super-soldier and was funded by the military, but one of the scientists involved in the project, Dr. Mulligan, became disillusioned and decided to free Daryl. Pursued by a helicopter, Dr. Mulligan sacrificed himself to ensure Daryl's escape, driving his car off a cliff. Daryl undergoes debriefing, and his past actions with his foster family are analyzed. He is questioned about why he threw the game, and he reveals it was to relate to others. The scientists are also surprised at his new range of emotions which he was not programmed for. Dr. Stewart is amazed while Dr. Lamb insists on referring to Daryl as it and says “it” is merely learning to copy behavior. Dr. Stewart, realizing he misses them, allows Andy, Joyce, and Turtle to visit over Dr. Lamb's protests. They manage to convince them of Daryl's true nature, and it is revealed that his capacity for human emotions has led the project to be labeled a failure, leading to the decision to terminate him. Dr. Jeffrey Stewart, one of Daryl's creators, helps him escape, assisted by Dr. Lamb, who now questions Daryl's true nature. Daryl and Dr. Stewart evade their pursuers with Daryl's driving skills. However, the next day, while trying to escape a roadblock, Dr. Stewart is shot and later dies from his injuries. That night, Daryl sneaks onto a military base and steals a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. Daryl contacts Turtle, instructing him and his sister Sherie Lee Fox to meet him at Blue Lake, a familiar location. The Air Force attempts to intercept the plane but fails. Daryl ejects at the last moment to fake his death while the plane is destroyed. However, he lands unconscious in the lake and drowns. Daryl's body is rushed to the hospital but shows no signs of life. Dr. Lamb discovers Daryl and reactivates his electronic brain, reviving him. With Daryl now declared dead, he is no longer pursued by TASCOM. He joyfully reunites with his foster family, bringing happiness to everyone, including Turtle, who believed Daryl could not die since he is a robot.

Doug Kinney works in construction in Los Angeles, and his job constantly gets in the way of his family. Working on a new wing of a scientific facility, Doug meets Dr. Leeds, a scientist who developed a method for cloning humans. He is introduced to Dr. Leeds' clone as proof. Sympathetic to Doug's troubles, Dr. Leeds clones him, so the clone can take over for Doug at work, while the original tries to spend time with his family. "Two", a clone who calls himself "Lance", has all of Doug's memories and knowledge, but is also an exaggeration of Doug's masculine side. Doug tries to keep his clone a secret. While he and his wife Laura are at a restaurant for dinner, he sees Two on his own date. Doug begins to worry about his clone being revealed. Despite the complications of having a clone, Lance is extremely busy at work, so Doug has another made to help out at home. "Three", who calls himself "Rico", is an exaggeration of Doug's feminine side. He is sensitive and thoughtful and loves to cook and take care of the house, much to Lance's chagrin. Lance and Rico attempt to make another clone, "Four", who is later named Lenny. Since he is a clone-of-a-clone (and a copy of a copy may not be as 'sharp' as the original), his intelligence is lower than that of his predecessors, yet Lenny represents an exaggeration of Doug's immature side, and he refers to Doug as "Steve". Annoyed, Doug decrees that no more clones be created. Doug decides to take some time off, going on a sailing trip. He does not want Laura to know, so he has his clones step in for him while he is away. Although he instructs them that Laura is off limits, while he is gone each of the clones run into Laura. Despite their best efforts to follow instructions, she persists and eventually has sex with all three of them, thinking they are Doug. The next day, Lance has a cold and cannot go to work, so he sends Rico. During an inspection on site, Rico's ignorance about the current construction site annoys the inspector, which leads to Doug losing his job. Laura becomes increasingly upset with her husband's erratic behavior and how he has no memories of discussions she unwittingly had with another clone. Thinking Doug is ignoring her, she reveals her feelings to Lenny, mentioning how Doug has never kept his promise to fix up the house. When she asks him what he wants, an inattentive Lenny replies, "I want pizza". Upset, she takes the children and moves back to her parents' home. After finding out everything that has happened while he was away, Doug tries to determine how to get Laura back. Lenny tells him that Laura said he never fixed the house. With the help of the clones, Doug remodels their home and wins back Laura's love. He also tells her he is planning to start his own contracting business. Realizing Doug can take care of himself now, the clones move away. As they are driving away, Laura sees them in the car next to her. Believing that she is hallucinating, Laura tells her children that you can tell you really love someone when everyone you see reminds you of them. The clones write to Doug that they have set up a successful pizzeria called "Three Guys from Nowhere" in Miami, Florida, and masquerade as triplets. Lance becomes the businessman of the shop and serves customers, enjoying this opportunity to meet women. Rico is the head chef and is "cooking up a storm and having a ball", and Lenny is both the delivery boy and a paperboy. But because of his limited intellect, he confuses the two jobs, and the movie ends with him delivering a pizza by throwing it, newspaper-style.

Buckaroo Banzai and his mentor Dr. Tohichi Hikita perfect the "oscillation overthruster", a device that allows an object to pass through solid matter. Banzai tests it by driving his Jet Car through a mountain. While in transit, he finds himself in another dimension. After exiting the mountain and returning to his normal dimension, he discovers an alien organism has attached itself to his car. Dr. Emilio Lizardo, incarcerated at the Trenton Home for the Criminally Insane, sees a television news story of Banzai's successful test. In 1938, Drs. Lizardo and Hikita had built a prototype overthruster in Princeton, New Jersey, but he tested it before it was ready and became stuck between dimensions. In those moments, he saw alien creatures and struggled until freed by his colleagues, emerging crazily changed and violent. Understanding that Banzai has finally accessed the 8th dimension, Lizardo escapes the asylum and plots to steal the overthruster. Banzai and his band, "The Hong Kong Cavaliers", are performing at a nightclub when Banzai interrupts their musical intro to speak to a sad woman in the audience, Penny Priddy. During a song he performs especially for her (" Since I Don't Have You "), she attempts to shoot herself, which is mistaken for an assassination attempt on Banzai. After questioning her at the New Brunswick jail, he realizes she is his late wife Peggy's long-lost identical twin sister and bails her out. Later, during a press conference to discuss his Jet Car experience, the overthruster, and the specimen of alien/transdimensional life he obtained while traversing the 8th dimension, Banzai is called to the phone, where he receives an electrical shock. Simultaneously, strange men disrupt the event and kidnap Hikita. When Banzai returns, his electrical shock enables him to recognize them as humanoid aliens, and he gives chase. He rescues Hikita, and they evade the aliens long enough for the Cavaliers to rescue them. Banzai and the Cavaliers return to the Banzai Institute, where they are met by John Parker, a messenger from John Emdall, the leader of the peaceful Black Lectroids of Planet 10. Parker delivers a recording from Emdall in which she explains that her people have been at war with the hostile Red Lectroids for years, managing to banish them to the 8th dimension. Lizardo's failed test of the overthruster in 1938 allowed the Red Lectroids' tyrannical leader, Lord John Whorfin, to take over Lizardo's mind and enable several dozen of his allies to escape. Because Banzai has now perfected the overthruster, Emdall fears Whorfin and his allies will try to acquire it to free the other Red Lectroids and tasks Banzai with stopping Whorfin; otherwise, the Black Lectroids will attack Russia from their orbiting ship, triggering a nuclear World War III that will annihilate the Red Lectroids on Earth as well as humankind. The Cavaliers track the Red Lectroids to Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems in New Jersey. They realize that Orson Welles 's broadcast of The War of the Worlds described the Lectroids' arrival in Grovers Mill, New Jersey in 1938, though afterward the Lectroids forced him to state it was fictional. Yoyodyne has been building a spacecraft to cross over to the 8th dimension, disguised as a new United States Air Force bomber. While the Cavaliers plan their response, Red Lectroids break into the Institute and kidnap Penny, unaware that they have also captured the overthruster, which she was carrying. At Yoyodyne, Penny refuses to tell the Red Lectroids where the overthruster is, and they begin torturing her. Banzai enters Yoyodyne headquarters alone; the Cavaliers soon follow, reinforced by several groups of the Blue Blaze Irregulars—civilians recruited to assist the Cavaliers. Banzai saves Penny and fights off the Red Lectroids, though she is wounded and unconscious. While the Cavaliers tend to her, Banzai and Parker sneak into a pod on the Yoyodyne spacecraft. Lacking Banzai's overthruster, Whorfin insists they use his imperfect model, which fails to make the dimensional transition; instead, the Red Lectroid spaceship breaks through the Yoyodyne wall and takes off into the atmosphere. Lord Whorfin ejects the pod containing Banzai and Parker from the craft, but they activate it and use its weapon systems to destroy Whorfin and the other Red Lectroids. Banzai parachutes back to Earth while Parker returns to his people in orbit using the pod. With the situation resolved and war averted, Banzai finds Penny, who appears to have died from her injuries. When he gives her a farewell kiss, Emdall allows Banzai one more brief moment of electricity, reviving Penny.

Lieutenant Droste wants to build an air station in the middle of the ocean to allow pilots on intercontinental flights to refuel and repair any damage to their aircraft. With the help of the pilot Ellissen, he manages to win the support of the Lennartz-Werke for the project. Ellissen, who has taken up with the owner's sister Claire Lennartz, shies away from marriage and seeks new adventure. After two years, the platform has been installed in place and is ready for operation. During a storm, the radio connection to the platform is lost. The last noises heard were gunshots and screams. The weather clears and the best pilots immediately head for F.P.1. Ellissen, in a lovesick depression, is convinced by Claire to fly her to the platform. Immediately after touching down their plane receives rifle fire and subsequently rams a railing. They find the crew of F.P.1 knocked out by gas deliberately released by a saboteur. Before chief engineer Damsky fled in a boat, he opened the ballast valves, causing a danger that F.P.1 will sink. Claire finds the badly injured Droste and takes care of him. Ellissen has to recognize that Claire is slipping away from him. After a short time, he pulls himself together and takes a plane out to get help. He sees a ship, parachutes from his plane, is taken aboard the ship, and calls for help via radio. A fleet of ships and planes are sent to rescue F.P.1.