Industrialist John Hammond has created Jurassic Park, a theme park featuring de-extinct dinosaurs, on the tropical island Isla Nublar, off the coast of Costa Rica. After a Velociraptor kills a dinosaur handler, the park's investors, represented by lawyer Donald Gennaro, threaten to pull funding unless experts certify the island's safety. Gennaro invites the chaotician Ian Malcolm, while Hammond invites the paleontologist Alan Grant and the paleobotanist Ellie Sattler. Upon arrival, the group is shocked to see living Brachiosaurus and Parasaurolophus. At the park's visitor center, the group learns that the cloning was accomplished by extracting dinosaur DNA from prehistoric mosquitoes preserved in amber. DNA from frogs and other animals was used to fill in gaps in the dinosaurs' genome. To prevent the dinosaurs from breeding, they are all made female by chromosome manipulation. The group witnesses the hatching of a baby Velociraptor and visits the raptor enclosure. During lunch, they debate the ethics of cloning and of the park in general. Malcolm warns of the implications of genetic engineering while Grant and Sattler express uncertainty over the ability of humans and dinosaurs to coexist. Hammond's grandchildren, Lex and Tim, join the others for a park tour in two self-driving electric vehicles, while Hammond observes them from the control room. Most of the dinosaurs fail to appear, and the group encounters a sick Triceratops. The tour is cut short as a tropical storm approaches. The park employees leave for the mainland on a boat while the visitors return to their vehicles; Sattler stays behind to study the Triceratops. Jurassic Park's disgruntled computer programmer, Dennis Nedry, was previously bribed to steal frozen dinosaur embryos by Lewis Dodgson, a man working for Hammond's corporate rival. To access the embryo storage room, Nedry deactivates the park's security system, cutting power to the tour vehicles. Most of the park's electric fences have been deactivated, which allows a Tyrannosaurus rex to escape and attack the touring group. The Tyrannosaurus devours Gennaro and injures Malcolm while Grant, Lex, and Tim escape. On his way to deliver the embryos to the island's docks, Nedry gets lost in the rain, crashes his vehicle, and is killed by a venom-spitting Dilophosaurus. Sattler helps the game warden Robert Muldoon search for survivors; they find Malcolm just before the Tyrannosaurus returns and chases them away. Grant, Lex and Tim take shelter in a tree and encounter a Brachiosaurus herd, then discover the broken shells of dinosaur eggs the following morning. Grant concludes that the dinosaurs are breeding, which is possible because of their amphibian DNA—animals like West African frogs can change their sex in a single-sex environment. Unable to decipher Nedry's code to reactivate the security system, Hammond and chief engineer Ray Arnold decide to reboot the park's systems. They shut down the power grid and retreat to an emergency bunker while Arnold heads to a maintenance shed to complete the rebooting process. When Arnold fails to return, Sattler and Muldoon go to the shed, and discover that the shutdown has released the Velociraptors. Sattler turns the power back on before being attacked by a raptor and discovering Arnold's severed arm. While she escapes, Muldoon is killed by another Velociraptor. Grant, Lex and Tim reach the visitor center. Grant leaves to look for Sattler, leaving Lex and Tim inside. The raptors appear and pursue the children through a kitchen, but they escape and join Grant and Sattler. The group reaches the control room, and Lex restores the park's systems, allowing them to contact Hammond, who radios for a helicopter to take them off the island. As the group tries to leave they are cornered by the two raptors, but the Tyrannosaurus appears and fights the velociraptors. It kills the first by biting it, and throws the second into a skeleton on exhibit, killing it as well. The group flees and boards the helicopter, and Grant and Hammond agree not to endorse the park.

In Antarctica, a Norwegian helicopter pursues a sled dog to an American research station and lands. The passenger fumbles a grenade and destroys the helicopter as the pilot continues the chase on foot with a rifle. The pilot shouts in Norwegian and fires at the dog, hitting one of the Americans, before he is shot dead in self-defense by station commander Garry. The American helicopter pilot, R. J. MacReady, and Dr. Copper leave to investigate the Norwegian base. Among the charred ruins and frozen corpses, they find the burnt corpse of a malformed humanoid, which they transfer to the American station. Their biologist, Blair, autopsies the remains and finds a normal set of human organs. Clark kennels the sled dog, and it soon metamorphoses and absorbs several of the station dogs. This disturbance alerts the team, and Childs uses a flamethrower to incinerate the creature. Blair autopsies the Dog-Thing and surmises it is an organism that can perfectly imitate other life forms. Data recovered from the Norwegian base leads the Americans to a large excavation site containing a partially buried alien spacecraft, which Norris estimates has been buried for over a hundred thousand years and a smaller, human-sized dig site. Blair grows paranoid after running a computer simulation that indicates the creature could assimilate all life on Earth in a matter of years. The group implements controls to reduce the risk of assimilation. The remains of the malformed humanoid assimilate an isolated Bennings, but Windows interrupts the process and MacReady burns the Bennings-Thing. The team also imprisons Blair in a tool shed after he sabotages all the vehicles, kills the remaining sled dogs, and destroys the radio to prevent escape. Copper suggests testing for infection by comparing the crew's blood against uncontaminated blood held in storage, but after learning the blood stores have been destroyed, the men lose faith in Garry's leadership, and MacReady takes command. He, Windows, and Nauls find Fuchs' burnt corpse and speculate that he committed suicide to avoid assimilation. Windows returns to base while MacReady and Nauls investigate MacReady's shack. During their return, Nauls abandons MacReady in a snowstorm, believing he has been assimilated after finding his torn clothes in the shack. The team debates whether to allow MacReady inside, but he breaks in and holds the group at bay with dynamite. During the encounter, Norris appears to suffer a heart attack. As Copper attempts to defibrillate Norris, his chest transforms into a large mouth and bites off Copper's arms, killing him. MacReady incinerates the Norris-Thing, but its head detaches and attempts to escape before also being burnt. MacReady thinks that the Norris-Thing demonstrated that every part of the Thing is an individual life-form with its own survival instinct. He proposes testing blood samples from each survivor with a heated piece of wire and has each man restrained, but is forced to kill Clark after he lunges at MacReady with a scalpel. Everyone passes the test except Palmer, whose blood recoils from the heat. Exposed, the Palmer-Thing transforms, breaks free of its bonds, and infects Windows, forcing MacReady to incinerate them both. Childs is left on guard in the main building while MacReady, Garry and Nauls go to test Blair. They find that he has escaped and has been using vehicle components to assemble a small flying saucer, which they destroy. Upon their return, Childs is missing, and the power generator has been destroyed, leaving the men without heat. MacReady surmises that, with no escape left, the Thing intends to return to hibernation until a rescue team arrives. The three men agree that the Thing cannot be allowed to escape and set explosives to destroy the station but the Blair-Thing kills Garry, and Nauls disappears. The Blair-Thing transforms into an enormous creature and breaks the detonator but MacReady triggers the explosives with a stick of dynamite, destroying the station and the Blair-Thing. While MacReady sits by the burning remnants, Childs returns, claiming he got lost in the storm while pursuing Blair. Exhausted and slowly freezing to death, they acknowledge the futility of their distrust and share a bottle of J&B Scotch whisky.

In the future, wealthy industrialists and business magnates and their top employees reign over the city of Metropolis from colossal skyscrapers, while underground-dwelling workers toil to operate the great machines that power it. Joh Fredersen is the city's master. His son, Freder, idles away his time at sports and in a pleasure garden, but is interrupted by the arrival of a young woman named Maria, who has brought a group of workers' children to witness the lifestyle of their rich "brothers". Maria and the children are ushered away, but Freder becomes fascinated by her. Against the strict rules of the city, he enters the lower levels to search for her. In the machine halls, he witnesses the explosion of a huge machine that kills and injures numerous workers. Freder has a hallucination that the machine is a temple of Moloch and the workers are being fed to it. When the hallucination ends, and he sees the dead workers being carried away on stretchers, he rushes to tell his father about the accident. Grot, foreman of the Heart Machine, brings Fredersen two maps found in the dead workers' pockets. Fredersen fires his assistant Josaphat for not being the first to bring him details about the explosion or the maps. After seeing his father's cold indifference towards the harsh conditions faced by the workers, Freder secretly rebels by deciding to help them. He enlists Josaphat's assistance and returns to the machine halls, taking the place of a worker who has collapsed from exhaustion. Fredersen takes the maps to the city's greatest inventor, Rotwang, to learn their meaning. Rotwang had been in love with a woman named Hel, who left him to marry Fredersen and later died giving birth to Freder. Rotwang shows Fredersen a robot he has built to " resurrect " Hel. The maps show a network of catacombs beneath Metropolis, and the two men go to investigate. They eavesdrop on a gathering of workers, including Freder. Maria addresses them, prophesying the arrival of a mediator who can bring the working and ruling classes together. Freder believes he can fill the role and declares his love for Maria. Fredersen orders Rotwang to give Maria's likeness to the robot so that it can discredit her among the workers, but is unaware of Rotwang's true plan to destroy Metropolis and kill Freder in revenge. Rotwang kidnaps Maria, fashions the robot in her image, and presents her to Fredersen. Freder finds the two embracing and, believing his father to have betrayed him, falls into a prolonged delirium. The false Maria dances sensuously at Rotwang's house and the Yoshiwara club, causing mayhem—the wealthy men do not recognize she is a machine. Intercut with Freder's hallucinations, the false Maria preaches to the workers that they must rise up against the surface world, resulting in chaos and dissent. Freder recovers and returns to the catacombs, accompanied by Josaphat. Finding the false Maria urging the workers to destroy the machines, he accuses her of not being the real Maria. The workers ignore him and carry out her wishes, smashing the machines and triggering a great flood in their underground city that threatens to drown their children. Fredersen and Rotwang struggle, and the real Maria, having escaped from Rotwang's house, rescues the children with help from Freder and Josaphat. Grot berates the celebrating workers for abandoning their children in the flood. The workers become hysterical and condemn the false Maria, burning her at the stake. A horrified Freder watches until the fire reveals her to be a robot. Rotwang, now suffering from a delusion that Maria is Hel, chases her to the roof of the cathedral, pursued by Freder. The two men fight as Fredersen and the workers watch from the street, and Rotwang falls to his death. Freder fulfills his destiny to unite the two halves of Metropolis' society by linking the hands of Fredersen and Grot to bring them together.

In a futuristic Britain, Alex DeLarge is leader of a gang of "droogs": Georgie, Dim, and Pete. They engage in an intoxicated evening of "ultra-violence", which includes beating a vagrant and fighting a rival gang. They beat writer Frank Alexander to the point of crippling him, and Alex rapes Alexander's wife while singing " Singin' in the Rain ". The next day Alex's probation officer, P. R. Deltoid, cautions him. Alex's droogs are not content with petty crime and want more equality and high-yield thefts, but Alex asserts his authority by attacking them. Alex invades the home of a wealthy " cat-lady " and bludgeons her with a phallic sculpture while his droogs remain outside. On hearing sirens, Alex tries to flee, but Dim smashes a bottle in his face and leaves him to be arrested. The woman dies of her injuries, and Alex is sentenced to 14 years in prison for murder. Two years into the sentence, Alex accepts an offer to be a test subject for the Minister of the Interior's new Ludovico technique, an experimental aversion therapy for rehabilitating criminals within two weeks. Alex is strapped to a chair, his eyes clamped open, and injected with drugs. He is forced to watch films of sex and violence, some accompanied by his favourite composer, Ludwig van Beethoven. Alex is nauseated and, fearing he will be sick upon hearing Beethoven, begs for an end to the treatment. The Minister demonstrates Alex's rehabilitation to officials. Alex is unable to fight back against an actor who taunts and attacks him, and becomes ill upon attempting to grope a topless woman. The prison chaplain complains that Alex has been robbed of his free will; the Minister asserts that the Ludovico technique will cut crime and alleviate crowding in prisons, allowing more space for political prisoners. Released from prison, Alex finds his possessions have been sold to provide compensation for his victims and his parents have let out his room. A vagrant whom Alex attacked years earlier attacks him with his friends. Alex is saved by two policemen whom he is shocked to find are his former droogs Dim and Georgie. They beat and nearly drown him before abandoning him. Alex collapses on the doorstep of a nearby home. Alex wakes to find himself in the home of Mr Alexander, who now uses a wheelchair. Alexander does not recognise Alex from the previous attack but knows of him and the Ludovico technique from the newspapers. He prepares to present Alex to his colleagues as a political weapon. Alex breaks into "Singin' in the Rain" while bathing, and Alexander realises it was he who assaulted his wife and him. Alexander drugs Alex and locks him in a bedroom, then plays Beethoven's Ninth Symphony loudly from the floor below. Unable to withstand the pain, Alex attempts suicide by jumping from the window. Alex awakes in hospital with multiple injuries. During psychological tests, he finds he no longer has aversions to violence and sex. The Minister arrives and apologises, saying the government has had Mr Alexander institutionalised. He offers to take care of Alex and get him a job in return for his co-operation with his election campaign and public relations counter-offensive. The Minister brings in a stereo system playing Beethoven's Ninth. Alex contemplates violence and has thoughts of having sex with a woman in front of an approving crowd, thinking, "I was cured, all right!"

In 2019 Los Angeles, former police officer Rick Deckard is detained by Officer Gaff, who likes to make origami figures, and is brought to his former supervisor, Bryant. Deckard, whose job as a "blade runner" was to track down bioengineered humanoids known as replicants and terminally "retire" them, is informed that four replicants are on Earth illegally. Deckard begins to leave, but Bryant makes veiled threats and Deckard stays. The two watch a video of a blade runner named Holden administering the Voight-Kampff test, which is designed to distinguish replicants from humans based on their emotional responses to questions. The test subject, Leon, shoots Holden on the second question. Bryant wants Deckard to retire Leon and three other Nexus-6 replicants: Roy Batty, Zhora, and Pris. Bryant has Deckard meet with the CEO of the company that creates the replicants, Eldon Tyrell, so he can administer the V-K test on a Nexus-6 to see if it works on them. Tyrell expresses his interest in seeing the test fail first and asks him to administer it on his assistant Rachael. After a much longer than standard test, Deckard concludes privately to Tyrell that Rachael is a replicant who believes she is human. Tyrell explains that she is an experiment who has been given false memories to provide an "emotional cushion", and that she has no knowledge of her true nature. In searching Leon's hotel room, Deckard finds photos and a scale from the skin of an animal, which is later identified as a synthetic snake scale. Deckard returns to his apartment, where Rachael is waiting. She tries to prove her humanity by showing him a family photo, but Deckard reveals that her memories are implants from Tyrell's niece, and she leaves in tears. Replicants Roy and Leon meanwhile investigate a replicant eye-manufacturing laboratory and learn of J. F. Sebastian, a gifted genetic designer who works closely with Tyrell. Pris locates Sebastian and manipulates him to gain his trust. A photograph from Leon's apartment and the snake scale lead Deckard to a strip club, where Zhora works. After a confrontation and chase, Deckard kills Zhora. Bryant also orders him to retire Rachael, who has disappeared from the Tyrell Corporation. Deckard spots Rachael in a crowd, but he is ambushed by Leon, who knocks the gun out of Deckard's hand and beats him. As Leon is about to kill Deckard, Rachael saves him by using Deckard's gun to kill Leon. They return to Deckard's apartment and, during a discussion, he promises not to track her down. As Rachael abruptly tries to leave, Deckard restrains her and forces her to kiss him, and she ultimately relents. Deckard leaves Rachael at his apartment and departs to search for the remaining replicants. Roy arrives at Sebastian's apartment and tells Pris that the other replicants are dead. Sebastian reveals that because of a genetic premature aging disorder, his life will be cut short, like the replicants that were built with a four-year lifespan. Roy uses Sebastian to gain entrance to Tyrell's penthouse. He demands more life from his maker, which Tyrell says is impossible. Roy confesses that he has done "questionable things" but Tyrell dismisses this, praising Roy's advanced design and accomplishments in his short life. Roy kisses Tyrell and then kills him by crushing his eyes and skull. Sebastian tries to flee and is later reported dead. At Sebastian's apartment, Deckard is ambushed by Pris, but he kills her as Roy returns. Roy's body begins to fail as the end of his lifespan nears. He chases Deckard through the building and onto the roof. Deckard tries to jump onto another roof but is left hanging from the edge. Roy makes the jump with ease and, as Deckard's grip loosens, Roy hoists him onto the roof to save him. Before Roy dies, he laments that his memories " will be lost in time, like tears in rain ". Gaff arrives to congratulate Deckard, also reminding him that Rachael will not live, but "then again, who does?" Deckard returns to his apartment to retrieve Rachael. While escorting her to the elevator, he notices a small origami unicorn on the floor. He recalls Gaff's words and departs with Rachael.

In the near future, Britain is ruled by the Norsefire political party, a fascist and totalitarian regime led by High Chancellor Adam Sutler. The government controls the populace through propaganda and fear, imprisoning or executing those deemed undesirable, including immigrants, homosexuals, and people of alternative religions. Evey Hammond works for BTN, the state-run television network. Fourteen years earlier, her brother was killed in a biological terrorist attack, prompting her parents to become anti-Norsefire activists; they were later arrested and died in prison. One evening, a Guy Fawkes-masked vigilante known as " V " rescues Evey from assault by the secret police and takes her to witness his bombing of the Old Bailey. The following morning, on 5 November, V hijacks BTN to announce his role in the bombing and urges the populace to rise against Norsefire by joining him outside the Houses of Parliament on Guy Fawkes Night in one year's time. Evey is knocked unconscious while helping V escape, and he takes her with him to prevent her arrest. V subsequently kills three key figures involved in Norsefire's rise to power, beginning with chief propagandist Lewis Prothero and the corrupt Bishop of London Anthony Lilliman; Evey flees after witnessing Lilliman's murder. V next painlessly kills remorseful researcher Dr. Delia Surridge. Assigned to capture V, Chief Inspector Eric Finch uses Surridge's journal and information from former covert operative William Rookwood (V in disguise) to learn that two decades earlier, Surridge led Norsefire's biological research on political prisoners at the Larkhill Detention Facility, to create a weaponized virus. Most subjects died, but the prisoner in cell "V" developed enhanced physical attributes and amnesia. He later escaped and destroyed the facility. Head of secret police Peter Creedy then released the virus in staged terrorist attacks against Britain, using the ensuing panic to install Norsefire in power and enrich party officials—including Sutler, Prothero, and Lilliman—by selling the cure. Meanwhile, Evey takes refuge with her boss, talk show host Gordon Dietrich, who shows her his collection of illegal materials such as art, an antique Quran, and homoerotic photographs. Inspired by V and Evey's courage, Dietrich satirizes Sutler on his program, leading to his arrest and execution. Evey is also imprisoned and tortured, finding solace in a hidden note from Valerie Page, a prisoner who refused to betray her beliefs before dying. When Evey refuses to offer any information to her captors, she is released. She discovers she was held by V, who subjected her to the ordeal to free her from fear. Though initially furious, Evey realizes that he has been avenging Valerie and the other Larkhill victims, and promises to see him again on 5 November. V later meets with Creedy, offering to surrender himself if Creedy delivers Sutler. As Guy Fawkes Night approaches, V distributes thousands of Guy Fawkes masks across the nation. After the secret police kill a young masked girl, widespread masked dissent and riots break out. V meets Evey, and they share a dance before he shows her a train loaded with explosives in an abandoned tunnel beneath Parliament. Not intending to survive the night, V bequeaths the decision to start the train to Evey. She pleads with him to abandon his crusade and leave with her, but he refuses. Creedy meets with V and executes Sutler before demanding V unmask. Although mortally wounded in the ensuing fight with Creedy and his men, V kills them all, stating that his identity is unimportant compared to the idea he represents. He returns to Evey and dies in her arms after confessing his love for her. Finch arrives and, disillusioned with Norsefire, allows Evey to send V's body aboard the train. With Sutler and Creedy dead, the military forces in London stand down as countless citizens dressed as V gather to witness Parliament's destruction. Finch asks who V was, and Evey replies, "He was all of us."

In 1984 Los Angeles, an imposing man appears naked in an alley amid electric flashes and attacks three punks for clothes. Later, a man with scars appears in an alley the same way and evades police. The first man robs a gun shop, looks up addresses of women named Sarah Connor, and begins murdering them. A waitress named Sarah Connor sees news reports about the murders and notices the second man following her. As she shelters in a nightclub, the first man kills her roommate Ginger and Ginger's boyfriend. He tracks her to the nightclub, where the second man preemptively fires on him. After a chaotic gunfight, the second man escapes with Sarah in a stolen car, while the first man gets up and pursues them on foot and in a police car. The second man identifies himself as Sgt. Reese. He tells Sarah that the other man is a Terminator, a cyborg assassin from the future, and he has also come from the future to protect her. As they hide in a parking garage, Reese explains that Skynet, a pervasive computer network built by Cyberdyne Systems, will gain intelligence and launch a nuclear war against humans. He grew up in the aftermath as machines rounded survivors into extermination camps. John Connor, Sarah's unborn son, started a resistance in the camps. On the verge of the resistance's victory in 2029, the machines sent the Terminator back in time to assassinate Sarah and prevent John's birth. The Terminator tracks Reese and Sarah, but it disappears after being shot in the eye and crashing during a car chase with the duo. The police apprehend Reese and Sarah. Sarah is notified of Ginger's murder, while Reese is interrogated by Dr. Silberman, a skeptical criminal psychologist. The Terminator returns to a hotel hideout and repairs itself. Just as Silberman leaves, the Terminator arrives at the police station searching for Sarah, slaughtering many officers in the process. Reese and Sarah escape, steal another car and sleep under an overpass, where Sarah learns Reese's first name, Kyle. The next morning, they take refuge in a motel, where they assemble several pipe bombs and plan their next move. Reese admits that he has adored Sarah since he saw her in a photograph that John gave him, and that he traveled through time out of love for her. Reciprocating his feelings, Sarah kisses him and they have sex. The Terminator locates Sarah by intercepting a call intended for her mother, tricking her into revealing her location with its voice mimicking ability. She and Reese escape the motel in a pickup truck while it pursues them on a motorcycle. In the ensuing chase, Reese is badly wounded by gunfire while throwing pipe bombs at the Terminator. Sarah knocks the Terminator off its motorcycle but loses control of the truck, which flips over. The Terminator, now bloodied and badly damaged, hijacks a tank truck and attempts to run down Sarah. Reese throws a pipe bomb into the truck's hose tube, causing it to explode and burn, reducing the Terminator to its endoskeleton. Although Sarah and Reese initially believe the Terminator has been destroyed, it soon rises. They flee into a Cyberdyne-owned factory, where Reese activates machinery to distract it, but it eventually discovers them. Reese lodges his last pipe bomb into its midsection, blowing it apart at the cost of his own life. Its still-functioning torso pursues Sarah through a hydraulic press. She clears the press, traps the Terminator and crushes it, finally destroying the cyborg. Months later, Sarah, now pregnant with John by Reese, travels through Mexico with a guard dog, recording audio tapes to pass on to her son. At a gas station, a boy takes an instant film photograph of her, the one that John will one day give to Reese, and she purchases it. She restarts her car and drives toward ominous storm clouds.

In 2029, no mutants have been born in 25 years, and an aging Logan suffers as his healing ability is failing, slowly poisoned by his adamantium skeletal grafts. Working as a limousine driver in El Paso, Texas, he and the mutant tracker Caliban take care of the elderly Charles Xavier, in an abandoned smelting plant in northern Mexico. Xavier has dementia that causes him to have destructive telepathic seizures, one of which killed several of the X-Men years prior. Logan reluctantly agrees to escort Gabriela López, a former nurse for biotechnology corporation Alkali-Transigen, and a young girl named Laura to Eden, a supposed refuge near the American-Canadian border, but finds Gabriela dead. Upon returning to the plant, Logan is confronted by Donald Pierce, Transigen's cyborg chief of security, who had killed Gabriela and was looking for Laura, who had stowed away in the back of Logan's limo and has powers similar to his. She, Logan, and Xavier escape from Pierce and his Reavers, but Caliban is captured. Pierce tortures Caliban into tracking Laura. Xavier and Logan watch a video on Gabriela's phone, revealing that Transigen created Laura and other children from mutant DNA to become weapons. The children proved challenging to control and were to be executed, but Gabriela and other nurses helped some escape. Xavier reveals to Logan that Laura was created from Logan's DNA and calls her Logan's daughter. In Oklahoma City, Logan discovers that Eden appears in Laura's X-Men comic and tells her it is fictional. The Reavers arrive, but Xavier has a seizure that incapacitates everyone except Logan and Laura, who kill the mercenaries and injects Xavier with levetiracetam. As they flee, Dr. Zander Rice, the head of Transigen, arrives to help Pierce. Logan, Laura, and Xavier help farmer Will Munson and his family after a traffic incident, accepting an offer of dinner at their home, where Logan drives off enforcers from a corporate farm. Rice unleashes X-24, a violent, mindless feral clone of Logan in his prime created as Transigen's ultimate weapon. X-24 kills Xavier and Will's family before capturing Laura. Caliban sets off grenades, killing himself and several Reavers but only injuring Pierce. Logan is outmatched by X-24, but Will pins X-24 with his truck before dying from his injuries. Logan and Laura escape with Xavier's body. After burying Xavier, Logan passes out. Laura takes him to a doctor and persuades him to prove that the site in North Dakota is not Eden. They find Rictor and other Transigen children preparing to cross into Canada. Laura finds an adamantium bullet that Logan has kept since he escaped from the Weapon X facility, which he once considered using to commit suicide. Logan decides not to accompany them, to Laura's dismay. When the Reavers ambush the children, Logan takes an overdose of a serum given to him by Rictor that temporarily enhances his healing abilities and boosts his strength. With Laura's help, he slaughters most of the Reavers before the serum wears off. As Pierce holds Rictor at gunpoint, Rice tells Logan, who killed Rice's father years ago at the Weapon X facility, that no new mutants have been born in the USA due to genetically engineered crops created by Transigen and distributed through the food supply. Logan, having found a gun, shoots Rice dead and injures Pierce. X-24 fights Logan as the children combine their powers to kill Pierce and the remaining Reavers. Rictor uses his powers to flip a truck onto X-24, but X-24 frees himself and impales Logan on a large tree branch, mortally wounding him. Laura loads Logan's revolver with the adamantium bullet and shoots X-24 in the head, killing him. Near death, Logan tells Laura not to become the weapon she was made to be, and after she tearfully acknowledges him as her father, Logan dies peacefully in Laura's arms. She and the children bury Logan, with Laura reciting as his eulogy the closing speech from Shane, which Logan, Xavier, and she had watched in the Oklahoma City hotel. Before the children depart, Laura tilts the Cross on his grave marker to create an "X".

Max Rockatansky is captured by hydraulic despot cult leader Immortan Joe 's War Boys and taken to his fortress called the Citadel. Max, a universal donor, is forced to transfuse his blood to Nux, a sick War Boy. Meanwhile, Joe sends his lieutenant Imperator Furiosa in the armoured "War Rig" to trade produce and water for petrol and ammunition with two of his allies, the Bullet Farmer and the People Eater. When Joe realises his five "wives" are fleeing in the Rig, he leads his entire army in pursuit, calling on his allies to help. Nux joins the pursuit with Max strapped to his car, and a chasing battle ensues. After entering enemy territory and fending off a rival gang, Furiosa drives into a dust choked supercell and loses all of her pursuers except Nux, who attempts to sacrifice himself to blow up the Rig. Max frees himself and restrains Nux, and Furiosa destroys Nux's car. After the sandstorm, Max catches Furiosa repairing the Rig, accompanied by Joe's "wives": Toast, Capable, Cheedo, the Dag, and Angharad, the latter two being pregnant with Joe's children. Max fights and subdues Furiosa, but her engine kill switch prevents him from stealing the Rig. Max begrudgingly agrees to help Furiosa's group escape Joe's wrath. Nux sneaks onto the Rig and attempts to kill Furiosa, but the women overpower him and throw Nux out. Nux rejoins Joe's army when it catches up. Furiosa drives through a canyon controlled by a biker gang, having prearranged to trade petrol for safe passage. The bikers betray her when they spot Joe's army approaching, forcing her to flee. The bikers detonate the canyon walls to block Joe and pursue the Rig as Max and Furiosa fend them off. Joe drives over the blockade in a monster truck and catches up with the Rig. He sends Nux to carjack the Rig, but Nux stumbles and drops his weapon, to Joe's disgust. While helping Max, Angharad falls off the Rig, and Joe fatally runs her over. Capable finds Nux hiding in the Rig and consoles him. At night, Furiosa and Max drive through a swamp and get stuck in the mud. They slow Joe's forces with landmines, but the Bullet Farmer continues the pursuit in his ATV. Furiosa and Max work together to blind the Bullet Farmer and disable his ATV. Moved by Capable's compassion, Nux joins the group and helps get the Rig moving again. In the morning, Furiosa tells Max that her group is escaping to a "Green Place", the bountiful land where she grew up before being kidnapped and brought to the Citadel. She spots a Green Place watchtower and identifies herself to the woman at top who summons their matriarchal clan called the Vuvalini. The Vuvalini recognise Furiosa as one of their own but inform a devastated Furiosa that the Green Place was the now-uninhabitable swamp from the previous night and that only seven Vuvalini are left. The group decides to ride across an immense salt flat, hoping to find a new home on the other side. Max goes his own way. After seeing a vision of the child he was unable to save, Max catches up with the group and convinces them to return to the Citadel since they do not know what lies beyond the salt flat, but do know that the now-undefended Citadel has ample water and crops. Joe intercepts them, and in the ensuing battle, five Vuvalini are killed, Toast is captured, and Furiosa is severely wounded. Joe overtakes the Rig as they approach the canyon. While Max fights Joe's son and enforcer Rictus, Furiosa boards Joe's truck to rescue Toast, who distracts Joe, allowing Furiosa to kill him. The remnants of the group drive Joe's truck back to the Citadel, while Nux sacrifices himself by wrecking the Rig to block the canyon behind them, killing Rictus. Max transfuses his blood to Furiosa, saving her life. Back at the Citadel, the people rejoice upon learning of Joe's death. As Max's companions are lifted to Joe's cliffside fortress, Max and Furiosa glance at each other before Max disappears into the crowd.

In 2035, twenty-nine years after a virus killed 99 percent of the global human population, James Cole is a prisoner in a compound underneath the ruins of Philadelphia. He is selected by scientists for a mission to travel to 1996 and collect information on the original strain of the virus so a cure can be developed. Cole experiences recurring dreams of a childhood experience in which he saw a man being shot in an airport terminal. Upon being sent back in time, Cole arrives in Baltimore in 1990, not 1996 as planned. He is arrested and committed to a psychiatric hospital on the diagnosis of Dr. Kathryn Railly. He encounters fellow inmate Jeffrey Goines, an outspoken critic of consumerism. Cole tells the hospital doctors he is searching for the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, the group that unleashed the virus in 1996, which is the past. During an escape attempt aided by Jeffrey, Cole is abruptly returned to the future. The scientists attempt to send Cole back to 1996, but he briefly arrives on a World War I battlefield, where he encounters José, another inmate from the future, before being shot in the leg. In 1996, Railly gives a lecture on the Cassandra Complex where she briefly encounters Dr. Peters, who mentions the destruction of the environment by humanity. She is kidnapped in her car and told to drive to Philadelphia. The kidnapper turns out to be Cole. Railly offers him medical help and extracts the bullet from his leg. His investigation leads them to Jeffrey, which they discover is the leader of the Army of the Twelve Monkeys and the son of renowned virologist Dr. Leland Goines. Cole is abruptly returned to the future. Railly is told by police that the bullet from Cole's leg was from before the 1920s, which prompts her to identify Cole in a battlefield photograph from World War I that she's gathered during her research. She urges Leland to secure his lab against access by his son. Leland shares his intention to improve the lab's security with his assistant, Dr. Peters. Cole arrives in 1996 again and finds Railly. He tells her he believes himself delusional, while she says she's not sure any more. Railly leaves a voicemail on a number Cole says was given to him by the scientists. Cole tells her he has already heard her message, played to him by the scientists in the future. Cole and Railly decide to spend the following days together at the Florida Keys. On their way there, they learn that the Army of the Twelve Monkeys is an animal rights organization led by Jeffrey, and their graffiti "we did it" refers to liberating animals from the Philadelphia Zoo, not releasing the virus. At the airport, Cole records a message on the voicemail number, saying the Army of the Twelve Monkeys is a false lead and that he's not coming back. Railly comes across Dr. Peters at the airport and recognizes him through a newspaper photo alongside Leland. Cole comes across José, who tracked him down after his last message, and hands him a gun. Railly informs Cole of Peters, and Cole attempts to shoot him, but is shot dead by police. As Cole dies in Railly's arms, she makes eye contact with a young boy witnessing the scene. Peters boards his flight and takes a seat beside Jones, one of the scientists who orchestrated Cole's mission. Outside the airport, the young boy who observed the shooting, James, watches the airplane take off.

"The Zone" is a huge tract of open land where the normal laws of physics supposedly do not apply, containing supernatural hazards. At the heart of the Zone lies a "Room" that is said to grant the wishes of anyone who steps inside. The government has fenced off the Zone, subjecting "Stalkers", people who illegally guide others through the Zone, to harsh prison time if caught crossing the border. One Stalker has just returned from a long prison sentence to his wife and daughter. To his wife's horror, a disaffected writer and a physics professor immediately hire the Stalker to take them through the Zone. Needing the money, he meets the Writer and Professor in a rundown bar-café, warning them that they must do what he says to survive the dangers that lie ahead. He explains that the Zone is a living thing that visitors must respect. The trio evades the Zone's military guards by following a train through the gate, riding through the Zone's vast wilderness on a railway work car. The Zone contains such human remnants as old abandoned industrial facilities, corpses, guns, and tanks. The Stalker cautiously tests for anomalies as they painstakingly make their way toward the Room, though nothing unusual occurs. The three men discuss their reasons for wanting to visit the Room as they travel: the Writer fears losing his inspiration, the calm Professor hopes to analyze the Zone in order to win a Nobel Prize, and the Stalker insists he has no motive beyond the altruistic aim of aiding the desperate to their desires. He mentions that his mentor, another Stalker named "Porcupine", obtained great riches by entering the Room but then hanged himself when he returned home. The trio draw lots to determine that the Writer will go first through an especially long, dark, ominous passageway that the Stalker calls the "meat grinder". Nervously, the Writer passes through without harm, shocking the Stalker, who reveals that the meat grinder kills anyone the Zone deems morally unworthy. The Writer forges ahead and delivers a soliloquy directly to camera about the futility of knowledge and feeling overwhelmed and criticized by other people. He returns to the others, and the Stalker reveals that Porcupine sent a brother ahead of him into the meat grinder, where the brother was killed. The Stalker then recites a poem about never being satisfied, and the Writer rages at the Stalker for assuming he was morally unworthy. Suddenly, a phone in the antechamber rings. The surprised Professor uses it to call an old enemy scientist, gloating about finding the Room. As the trio prepare to enter the Room, the Professor reveals his true intentions: he has brought a 20-kiloton bomb in his backpack to destroy the Room and therefore prevent evil men from abusing it for gain. He blames the Room, the Stalkers, and their clients for the recent rise of crime, political strife, and destructive science. After a brief scuffle over the bomb, the Stalker weeps, claiming that only the Room has given him meaning in his otherwise pitiful life and that it is the last beacon of hope for humanity. The Writer deduces that the Stalker's mentor Porcupine hanged himself because of the guilt the Room caused him when it presented him with riches rather than the return of his deceased brother, showing that Porcupine subconsciously cared more about wealth than love. Thus, the Room's ability to grant one's deepest and most secret desire additionally provides a window into the morality of one's soul. The Writer suggests that it is impossible to use the Room for selfish reasons because nobody can know their deepest subconscious desires. The Professor's fears soothed, he dismantles the bomb. The three men sit just outside the Room in silence; none attempt to enter it. The Stalker, the Writer, and the Professor are met back outside the Zone at the bar-café by the Stalker's wife and daughter. The Stalker returns home in total distress, lamenting to his wife how humanity has lost its capacity for faith, which is needed to traverse the Zone and live a good life. As the Stalker sleeps, his wife contemplates their relationship in a soliloquy delivered to the camera. She says that she would prefer an interesting life of hardship over an easy, boring one. The couple's daughter sits alone, while a love poem by Fyodor Tyutchev is recited through voice-over. The girl appears to use psychokinesis to push three drinking glasses across the table, a train shakes the room as it passes by, and Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" is heard.

The Asgardian Loki encounters the Other, the representative of an extraterrestrial race known as the Chitauri. In exchange for obtaining the Tesseract, a powerful energy source of unknown potential, the Other promises to provide Loki with an army to conquer Earth. Nick Fury, director of the covert agency S.H.I.E.L.D., arrives at a remote research facility where astrophysicist Dr. Erik Selvig is leading a team studying the Tesseract. It suddenly activates and opens a portal, allowing Loki to reach Earth. Loki steals the Tesseract and uses his scepter to enslave Selvig and other agents, including Clint Barton, to aid him. In response, Fury reactivates the " Avengers Initiative ". Agent Natasha Romanoff travels to Kolkata to recruit Dr. Bruce Banner so he can trace the Tesseract through its gamma radiation emissions. Fury approaches Steve Rogers to discuss his knowledge of the Tesseract, and Agent Phil Coulson visits Tony Stark so he can check Selvig's research. Loki is in Stuttgart, where Barton steals iridium needed to stabilize the Tesseract. This leads to a confrontation with Rogers, Stark, and Romanoff that ends with Loki's surrender. While Loki is being escorted to S.H.I.E.L.D., his adoptive brother Thor arrives and frees him, hoping to convince him to abandon his plan and return to Asgard. Stark and Rogers intervene, and Loki is imprisoned in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s flying base, the Helicarrier. The Avengers disagree on how to approach Loki and become argumentative once they realize S.H.I.E.L.D. plans to use the Tesseract to create weapons of mass destruction to use against extraterrestrial threats. During the argument, Loki's agents attack the Helicarrier, and Banner transforms into the Hulk in the chaos. Stark and Rogers restart the damaged engine while Thor attempts to stop the Hulk's rampage. Romanoff subdues Barton, freeing him from Loki's control. Loki escapes after mortally wounding Coulson. Fury uses Coulson's subsequent death to motivate the Avengers to work together as a team. Loki uses the Tesseract and a generator Selvig built to open a portal above Stark Tower in New York City, allowing his Chitauri fleet to invade. Rogers, Stark, Romanoff, Barton, Thor, and the Hulk work together to protect New York from the Chitauri. The Hulk incapacitates Loki while Romanoff learns from Selvig, now freed from Loki's mind control, that Loki's scepter can shut down the generator. Fury's superiors from the World Security Council attempt to end the invasion by launching a nuclear missile at Midtown Manhattan. Stark intercepts the missile and flies it toward the Chitauri fleet through the wormhole. The missile destroys the Chitauri mothership and disables their forces on Earth. Stark becomes unconscious, and his suit loses power, leaving him free falling towards Earth. The Hulk manages to catch him and the Avengers resuscitate him, while Romanoff uses Loki's scepter to close the wormhole. In the aftermath, Thor transports an imprisoned Loki and the Tesseract to Asgard, where Loki will face justice for his crimes. In a mid-credits scene, the Other confers with his master about the failed attack on Earth.