In the Salton Sea in California, an underwater earthquake causes a crevice to open, releasing prehistoric giant molluscs. A rescue training parachute jump is conducted, but the patrol boat sent to pick up the jumper finds only a floating parachute. One sailor dives in but also disappears. The other sailor screams in terror as something rises from the water. When the patrol boat does not answer radio calls, Lt. Cmdr. John "Twill" Twillinger takes a rescue party out on a second patrol boat to investigate. They find the deserted patrol boat covered in a strange slime; the jumper's body then floats to the surface, now blackened and drained of bodily fluids. Twill takes a sample of the slime to the base lab for analysis, where he teams up with recently widowed Gail MacKenzie and Dr. Jess Rogers. A young couple disappear after going for a swim. U.S. Navy divers investigate and discover a giant egg and the body of one of the victims on the ocean floor. The divers are attacked by a giant mollusc (which looks like a giant caterpillar), which kills one of the divers. The mollusc attacks the boat, but Twill stabs it in the eye with a grappling hook. The egg is taken to the U.S. Navy lab for study and kept under temperature control to prevent it from hatching. The molluscs escape into an irrigation canal system, attacking livestock, a lock keeper, a trysting couple, and others. Navy divers locate a group of molluscs in the canal system, and use explosives to destroy them. In the meantime, Gail is at the lab with her young daughter, Sandy. Worried about the laboratory rabbits being cold in the laboratory’s lowered temperature, Sandy surreptitiously turns up the thermostat. Twill calls the laboratory and gets no answer. He arrives and finds that the hatched mollusc has Gail and Sandy cornered in a closet, where they ran to escape from the monster. He fights it with laboratory chemicals, a CO fire extinguisher and a live steam line until other Navy personnel arrive and shoot the mollusc.

In 2000, a massive earthquake strikes the city of L.A., cutting it off from the mainland as the San Fernando Valley floods. Declaring that God is punishing L.A. for its sins, a theocratic presidential candidate wins election to a lifetime term of office. He orders the United States capital relocated from D.C. to his hometown of Lynchburg. He enacts a series of strict morality laws, banning such things as smoking, alcohol, drugs, premarital sex, firearms, profanity, and red meat. Violators are given a choice between loss of U.S. citizenship and permanent deportation to the new L.A. Island, or repentance and death by electrocution. Escape from the island is made impossible due to a containment wall erected along the mainland shore and a heavy federal police presence monitoring the area. By 2013, the U.S. has developed a superweapon known as the " Sword of Damocles," a satellite system capable of targeting electronic devices anywhere in the world and rendering them useless. The president intends to use it to dominate the world by rendering hostile nations unable to function. His daughter Utopia steals the remote control for the system and escapes to L.A. to deliver it to Cuervo Jones, a Peruvian Shining Path revolutionary. Cuervo has marshaled an invasion force of third world nations and is planning to attack the U.S. Facing deportation for a series of crimes, Snake Plissken is offered a chance to earn a pardon by traveling to L.A. and recovering the remote, a task that a previous rescue team failed to accomplish. To force his compliance, the president has one of his officers infect Snake with a virus that will kill him within 10 hours and promises that he will receive the cure upon completing the mission. The president is not concerned with Utopia's safety, regarding her as a traitor. Snake is issued equipment and sent to L.A. in a one-man submarine. As he explores the island, he meets "Map to the Stars" Eddie, a swindler who sells interactive tours and is one of Cuervo's associates. Along the way, Snake is helped by Pipeline, a surfing enthusiast; Taslima, a woman deported for her Muslim faith who is killed during a shootout involving a gang of Asian kids; and Hershe Las Palmas (formerly Carjack Malone), a trans woman and past criminal associate of Snake's. Eddie captures Snake and turns him over to Cuervo, who uses the Sword of Damocles to shut down Lynchburg in retaliation for Snake's presence. Cuervo threatens to inflict the same fate on the rest of the U.S. unless his demands are met. Snake escapes and teams up with Hershe and her soldiers. The group travels by glider to the invasion staging area, at the " Happy Kingdom " in Anaheim. During a fight against Cuervo's troops, Snake takes the remote, and Eddie alters one of the units he sells for his tours to match it. Snake, Eddie, Utopia, Hershe, and a group of Hershe's soldiers escape the island in a helicopter. Eddie shoots Cuervo, who fires a rocket launcher and hits the helicopter before dying. Hershe and her men are incinerated, Eddie jumps clear at liftoff, and Snake and Utopia do the same over the mainland and leave the helicopter to crash once Snake alerts the president to their approach. At the crash site, the president and his officers find that both Snake and Utopia are carrying remotes and take the one held by Utopia (slipped into her pocket without her noticing), thinking that Snake has switched them. As Utopia is taken to the electric chair, Snake learns that the virus infecting him only causes a severe case of influenza that subsides within hours. The president tries to use Utopia's remote to neutralize an invasion force threatening Florida, but it only plays a recorded introduction to one of Eddie's tours. Furious, the president orders his officers to kill Snake on the spot, but he proves to be only a hologram projected from a miniature camera that had been issued to him. Disgusted at the world's never-ending class warfare, he programs the real remote and triggers every satellite in the Sword of Damocles system, deactivating all technology on Earth and saving Utopia from electrocution as the power fails. Snake tosses the now-useless camera aside and lights a cigarette, then blows out the match and mutters, "Welcome to the human race."

While working with a team from the University of Chicago on a project to convert hydrogen from water into clean energy, student machinist Eddie Kasalivich inadvertently discovers a sound frequency in his home laboratory that perfectly stabilizes their process the next day. As the team celebrates with a party at the project laboratory, Dr. Paul Shannon, the leader of the project, and Dr. Alistair Barkley, the project manager, debate whether or not to share the scientific discovery. Later that night, project physicist Dr. Lily Sinclair finds her car unable to start, so Eddie gets her home by bus. Back in the laboratory, Alistair and assistant Dr. Lu Chen prepare to upload their discovery to the Internet to share the breakthrough with the world, while a van approaches the premises. Chen hears a noise and goes outside to investigate, but is kidnapped by unknown assailants as Alistair is also attacked. Once he has dropped Lily off at Alistair's house, where she lives on the third floor, Eddie returns to the laboratory to retrieve his motorcycle but notices a suspicious van departing. Hearing alarms, he runs inside to find Alistair dead with a plastic bag over his head and Chen missing. As the hydrogen reactor has become dangerously unstable, Eddie, unable to deactivate it, speeds away as a concealed detonator triggers a massive hydrogen explosion that destroys the laboratory and eight blocks' worth of surrounding streets. Upon returning from questioning by the FBI, Eddie and Lily realize that they are being framed after encountering planted evidence in both of their houses. The two flee to an observatory in Wisconsin belonging to Maggie McDermott, an old friend of Eddie's. After resting up, they contact Paul but are almost caught and narrowly escape. As the pair are evading more police, Paul meets with Lyman Earl Collier at the C-Systems Research complex, where it is revealed that C-Systems orchestrated the plot to destroy the laboratory and frame the pair for it, with Lyman ordering the attack. Despite some disagreement, Paul and Lyman decide to continue hunting for the pair, a task facilitated when Eddie covertly arranges a meeting with Paul. At their rendezvous, Paul reveals his involvement in framing Eddie, but the meeting ends in an ambush in which Lyman's thugs Yusef Reed and Clancy Butler, who murdered Alistair, capture Lily while Eddie barely escapes. After tracing the license plate on the thugs' van, Eddie tracks them to the secret C-Systems Research facility where Paul and Lyman are forcing Lily and Chen to replicate the project. When C-Systems' test reactor malfunctions, Paul, the scientists and the prisoners all depart, allowing Eddie to furtively "fix" the system that night. The next morning, one of the other scientists discovers the working reactor and everyone celebrates. A suspicious Paul immediately obtains a download of the fusion data, and secretly gives it to his assistant, Anita, for safekeeping. He then encounters Eddie at a computer in the company boardroom, who demands his release for making the reactor work. Paul agrees but Lyman refuses, so Eddie sets the reactor to explode while sending proof of his innocence to the FBI and blueprints of the reactor to "hopefully a couple thousand" international scientists. Lyman responds by shooting Chen dead, then locking in Eddie and Lily to die in the explosion as he, Paul, and their staff flee the site. Lyman is given a falsified copy of the fusion data before Paul kills him for overstepping the bounds of the program, leaving his body in an elevator. During his own escape, he deactivates the containment system, allowing Eddie and Lily to escape. They are attacked by Reed and Butler over an ascending construction lift but escape by climbing aboard it moments before a blast wave sweeps through the complex, incinerating the corpses of Reed, Butler, and Lyman. Having survived the shockwave, Eddie and Lily are met by FBI agents Ford and Doyle, now convinced of their innocence, who take them to safety. Paul is shown dictating a memo to Anita in a chauffeured limo, informing the Director of the CIA that "...C-System no longer a viable entity." In a post-credits scene, the C-Systems facility is seen imploding into the landscape.

In 2034, computer programmer Ken Castle invents self-replicating nanites that replace brain tissue and allow humans to control other humans' actions and see through their eyes. The first application of Castle's "Nanex" technology is a virtual community life simulation game, Society, which allows gamers to manipulate live actors as their avatars. Society becomes a worldwide sensation, making Castle the richest man in the world. He then creates Slayers, a third-person shooter where the "characters" are death-row prisoners using real weapons in specially designated areas. Unlike Society actors, Slayers participants are not paid; instead, they volunteer, and any Slayer who survives 30 matches will earn their freedom. John "Kable" Tillman is everyone's favorite, having survived a record 27 matches, and is controlled by 17-year-old gamer Simon Silverton. An activist organization called the "Humanz" hacks a talk-show interview with Castle and claims that his technology will one day be used to control people against their will. The Humanz also disrupts Society play, but Castle sees both these actions as trivial. However, Castle feels threatened by Kable's winning streak and introduces a new inmate into Slayers, Hackman, specifically to kill Kable. Unknown to anyone else, Hackman will not be controlled by a player, thus not be handicapped by the "ping" that causes a small but dangerous delay between the player's command and the Slayer's action. Kable's estranged wife, Angie, works as a Society character, but in spite of her earnings, she is refused custody of their daughter, Delia, who has been placed with a wealthy foster family. The Humanz contact Kable and Simon separately and offer to create a mod that will let him escape, but only if Simon relinquishes control during the game. Simon is even given a mod to speak freely to Kable. The escape is successful, and news outlets report that Kable has been fragged, which puts Simon in a difficult position: he is labeled a "cheater", locked out of his account which is spammed with hate mail, his father's asset frozen, and arrested by the FBI for helping Kable escape. Kable is brought to the Humanz' hideout; he refuses to help their fight against Castle but learns of Angie's current location in Society. He rescues her, escaping from both Hackman and Castle's security forces. Gina, the talk show host who secretly assists the Humanz, meets them. The Humanz deactivates the nanites in Angie and Kable's brains, and Kable remembers that the original nanites were tested on him while he was still in the military. Under Castle's control, Kable shot and killed his best friend and was imprisoned. Upon learning that Castle is the wealthy father who adopted Delia, Kable infiltrates his mansion to get her back. He locates Castle, who reveals that his henchmen have already tracked down the Humanz' lair and killed all of them. He also reveals that 98% of his own brain has been replaced with nanites, but this allows him to control others rather than be controlled. He plans to release airborne nanites, which will infect the entire country within six months, giving him ultimate control. Hackman attacks Kable, who easily kills him. Kable then attacks Castle but is frozen in place as Castle explains that his men have reactivated his and Angie's nanites. Unknown to Castle, Gina and Trace escape and patch into the Nanex, exposing the confrontation to the world and exposing Castle's plans worldwide. They also restore Simon's account, restoring access of Kable. Castle tries to manipulate Kable into killing his own daughter, but he resists, allowing Simon to control him and attack Castle. He and Simon wrestle for control, but Kable tells Castle to imagine his knife stabbing him. Castle unconsciously does so, allowing Kable to kill him and removing his control over everyone. With Castle dead, Kable convinces his technicians to deactivate the Nanex, freeing all the "characters" in Society and Slayers.

Due to the 21-century ecological crisis on Earth, for twenty years humankind has been terraforming Mars as its new home by sending algae to its surface. When oxygen levels begin decreasing, Mars-1 is sent to investigate, under Mission Commander Kate Bowman with a crew consisting of egotistical co-pilot Ted Santen, science officer Bud Chantilas, mechanical systems engineer Robby Gallagher, and two civilians: bioengineer Quinn Burchenal, and terraforming expert Chip Pettengill. Rule-breaking Gallagher is not Bowman's first choice, and while the crew nicknames him "space janitor," the two are drawn to each other. A gamma-ray burst resulting from a massive solar flare damages the ship as it reaches Mars. Bowman launches the crew to the planet's surface, and manages to eject the flames of a ship-wide fire into the vacuum and restore power to communicate with Houston. She learns that Mars-1's orbit will decay in 31 hours, but that they can burn to return to Earth before that occurs. The landing craft tumbles to the wrong location, and AMEE, the military robot navigator, is jettisoned. Chantilas is mortally wounded and tells the others to leave without him to save oxygen. The landing party finds no algae on the planet's surface, then discover that the HAB 1 has been destroyed, ensuring death when their spacesuit oxygen runs out. Pettengill follows Santen to the edge of a cliff, but when Santen mocks him, Pettingill strikes him, and he falls over the edge. Petengill then tells the others that Santen committed suicide. Gallagher decides to die quickly and opens his helmet, only to discover that Mars's atmosphere contains oxygen, more than the failed terraforming would have produced. Burchenal realizes they are near the Pathfinder rover, which will possibly have a working radio to contact Bowman. The trio set fire to the ruins of HAB 1 to warm them during the night. AMEE rejoins the crew, but when they discuss shutting it down and taking its guidance device, it switches to a military protection mode, wounds Burchenal and leaves, intent on picking off the crew one at a time. When they reach the Rover, Gallagher is able to build a radio; Houston picks up their signal on a long-unused frequency and alerts Bowman. Bowman tells them to hike to Kosmos, a failed Russian probe 100 km away, and launch themselves by fitting into the rock sample container, but later tells Gallagher the space will hold only two passengers. As they shelter in a cave from an ice storm, Gallagher tells the other two they'll be launching on Kosmos. Pettengill doesn't believe Gallagher will sacrifice himself. Meanwhile, Bowman receives orders from Houston that since it is unlikely the crew survived the ice storm, she is ordered to return home. Burchenal and Gallagher awaken to discover Pettengill has fled with the radio, then watch as he is chased and killed by AMEE. They recover the radio and find Pettengill's body in a patch of algae, full of Martian nematodes. Burchenal deduces that the nematodes have been eating the algae and excreting oxygen, and he captures a few in a sample vial as they could possibly save Earth. Drawn to Burchenal's wounds, the nematodes swarm him and start chewing through his suit. He tosses the vial to Gallagher and immolates himself. The burst, which consumes the algae patch and nematodes, is seen from Bowman on the Mars-1. She is able to contact an exhausted Gallagher and urges him to get to Kosmos. Gallagher discovers the Russian probe's battery is dead, and right before the Mars-1 enters communication blackout he tells Bowman to leave. Gallagher then bids her goodbye when AMEE flies overhead and he realizes he could use AMEE's core as a power source. He lures and disables AMEE with one of the probe's sample launchers, removing AMEE's battery before it self-destructs, then launches himself into orbit. Bowman sees the Kosmos in the path of the Mars-1, aborts her departure and tethers out to retrieve and then revive Gallagher, who is in cardiac arrest. Later, as Bowman tells him that Earth now considers him a hero, she admits he's not who she thought he was, and they finally kiss. The film ends with her voiceover musing that on the six-month journey home, she'll get to know the janitor.

On August 12, 2011, hostile alien spacecraft make landings off the coasts of large cities. Los Angeles is evacuated while Marines from Camp Pendleton arrive, including Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz, an Iraq War veteran. Nantz, who was to begin his retirement, is assigned to the 1st Platoon, Echo Company, of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines. Under the command of 2nd Lieutenant William Martinez, the platoon arrives at a forward operating base (FOB) established at Santa Monica Airport. The alien ground forces have no apparent air support while using rapid dominance. Hence, the Air Force prepares a carpet bombing of the Santa Monica area, and the platoon is given 3 hours to retrieve civilians from a police station. As they advance through Los Angeles, they are ambushed and suffer multiple casualties. Nantz takes Marines Imlay and Harris to look for Lenihan, who is missing from the group. After fighting off an alien, they team up with some soldiers from the Army's 40th Infantry Division and an Air Force intelligence technical sergeant, Elena Santos. At the police station, the makeshift platoon finds five civilians: veterinarian Michele, children Kirsten, Amy, Hector, and Hector's father Joe. A helicopter arrives to evacuate wounded Marines but cannot take on the weight of the civilians. During takeoff, it is destroyed by alien air units, killing Grayston, Guerrero, Lenihan, and Simmons. The Marines commandeer an abandoned transit bus for the evacuation. En route, they deduce that the alien air units are drones that target human radio transmissions; Santos reveals that her mission is to locate and destroy the aliens' command center controlling the drones. When their bus comes under attack by aliens on an elevated freeway, the Marines rappel the group to street level. In the ensuing battle, Marines Stavrou and Mottola and the remainder of the California Army National Guard soldiers are killed, while both Joe and Lieutenant Martinez are wounded. Martinez uses his radio to attract the aliens, then detonates explosives, sacrificing himself for his team. Nantz is now in command of surviving personnel Santos, Imlay, Kerns, Lockett, Harris, Adukwu, and the civilians, continuing their escape from the bombing zone. A scientist speculates on news media that the aliens seek Earth's water resources for fuel while exterminating the human population. The planned carpet bombing fails to materialize. Reaching the FOB, the Marines find it destroyed, and the military retreats from the city. The Marines plan to escort the civilians to an alternate extraction point. When Joe dies from his wounds, Nantz comforts Hector. Lockett confronts Nantz regarding his brother, a Marine who, with four others, was killed during Nantz's last tour. They come to peace when Nantz explains that he continues to think of them and recites each one's name, rank, and serial number. Nantz motivates the group to move forward to honor their fallen comrades, including Joe, for his bravery. They reach the extraction point and evacuate by helicopter. In flight, the chopper experiences a brief loss of power. Nantz theorizes that they are flying near the alien command center, transmitting intense radio messages to its drones. He orders his unit to accompany the civilians while he stays to reconnoiter the area, but his marines join him. Searching through sewers, they confirm the presence of a large alien vessel. Kerns radios to request missiles, which Nantz manually directs using a laser designator while the others defend his position. Kerns is killed when a drone hones in on his radio, but the Marines succeed in guiding a missile to the command module, which is destroyed. The uncontrolled drones fall from the sky, and the alien ground forces retreat. The remaining marines—Nantz, Imlay, Lockett, Harris, Adukwu, and Santos—are evacuated to a base in the Mojave Desert, greeted as heroes. They are told that their successful plan has been transmitted to the militaries battling alien forces in other cities, that Michele and the three children were rescued, and that they can now rest. Instead, they re-arm and depart to retake Los Angeles.

Syd March is employed by Lucas Clinic, a company which purchases viruses and other pathogens from celebrities, then purposefully infects paying fans who desire a connection with their idols. The company puts a copy protection on its products, which render the pathogens incommunicable after infecting a client. The pathogens supplied by Hannah Geist, Lucas Clinic's exclusive celebrity, are extremely popular. Syd March's colleague, Derek Lessing, is responsible for directly harvesting them from Hannah. To make extra money, Syd steals pathogens from the lab, bypasses the copy protection with a stolen console, and uses himself as an incubator. He then passes the pathogens to Arvid to sell on the black market. Arvid works at Astral Bodies, a celebrity meat market providing meat grown from the cells of celebrities. After Derek is caught smuggling and arrested, Syd is tasked to replace him to harvest a pathogen from Hannah, who has recently fallen ill. After taking a blood sample from Hannah, Syd injects himself with some of her blood. After experiencing the first symptoms, fever and disorientation, he leaves work early. His attempts to remove the virus' copy protection are unsuccessful, and his console breaks down during the process. The next day, Syd awakens from severe delirium to learn that Hannah has died from the unknown disease, and all products harvested from her have skyrocketed in popularity. To fix his console, Syd approaches Arvid, who sets up a meeting with Levine, the leader of the piracy group. Levine offers to fix the console in exchange for samples of Syd's blood, but Syd refuses. Levine restrains Syd and forcibly takes samples from him. Lethal pathogens are not legal to distribute, which only increase demands for the pathogen that killed Hannah. The next day, a severely ill Syd is approached by two men, who drive him to a secret location that houses Hannah. The celebrity, whose death was fabricated to protect her, is barely alive, extremely weak and bleeding from her mouth. Hannah's physician, Dr. Abendroth, reveals the virus infecting them has been engineered with a mechanism to prevent analysis, which broke Syd's console. It is, in fact, a modified version of an illness that Hannah has had before. Abendroth reveals his infatuation with Hannah, showing samples of her skin grafted to his own arm. He derides Syd as "just another fan." Syd returns to the Lucas Clinic, and traces the original strain of the virus to Derek, who sold it to a rival company, Vole & Tesser. Dr. Abendroth discovers that Vole & Tesser patented the modified strain, though their motives remain unclear. Before Syd can proceed further, he is abducted by Levine. Syd is put in a room where his deterioration and death will be broadcast on reality television to sate Hannah's fans, who could not witness her death. As Syd begins to show the final symptoms, he escapes by stabbing Levine in the mouth with a syringe and holding a nurse hostage with his infected blood. After Syd realizes that Vole & Tesser infected Hannah to harvest their own patented pathogen from her, Syd contacts them and negotiates a deal. Some time later, a virtual reality version of Hannah that advertises the "Afterlife" product, coming exclusively from Vole & Tesser. Syd now works for Vole & Tesser, where Hannah's cells have been replicated to form a distorted cell garden from Astral Bodies' celebrity meat technology. Viruses injected into her system are sold. Syd demonstrates a new virus as he sticks a needle into a genetically created arm. Later, while alone, Syd cuts the arm and drinks the flowing blood; it is revealed the arm is in fact Hannah's, as her deformed face and body are shown to be in the Cell Garden chamber.

In an alternate reality, circa 1985, the United States of America are under the authoritarian control of President Fremont. Berkeley record store clerk Nick Brady lives modestly with his wife Rachel and their infant son. Nick has been experiencing strange visions and dreams. He confides in Rachel and his best friend, science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick. Nick calls the source of his visions VALIS (Vast Active Living Intelligence System). One recurring symbol that he has been seeing is an ichthys. While he and Phil sit at a table, an orbiting satellite shoots a pink laser directly into Nick's head. He rushes his son to the ER, convinced that he has an inguinal hernia. The skeptical doctor is stunned to find that Nick is right. Nick has subsequent visions that tell him that he should relocate to Los Angeles, where he lands a job at a record label. Philip is visited by two members of FAP (Friends of the American People). They press him for information about Nick's visions. The female FAP agent returns and sleeps with Philip. After their liaison, she pretends to be underage, hoping to coerce him into revealing what Nick is seeing from VALIS. Philip refuses to divulge anything about Nick. Meanwhile, Nick has a dream where a woman is singing. During the dream, someone comments that there is something about her singing that seems subversive. Eventually, the woman turns up at Nick's record label, looking for a clerical job. She introduces herself as Sylvia, and Nick just assumes that she is a singer. Sylvia gradually reveals that she also receives visions from VALIS. She explains that there are several thousand people who receive transmissions from the orbiting satellite, and they are very loosely organized as a secret society. The Russian government blows up the orbiting VALIS satellite, and Sylvia explains that it will take another 100 years for a replacement satellite to arrive. She writes a song with subliminal lyrics about VALIS. Nick forces The Fisher Kings to record the song, despite their total lack of interest in it. When they debut the song at a club, Nick explains to Philip how the subliminal messages are encoded in the recording. FAP arrest Nick and Philip. They waste little time in executing Nick, as well as Sylvia. The film ends with Philip in prison, writing about Nick's VALIS experience. While he is working in a field one day, some teenagers gawk at the prisoners and laugh. Their boombox is playing Sylvia's subliminal song, and Philip realizes that the secret society found a way to get the song out, despite FAP's best efforts.

Zoya Lowe is a quantum physics textbook author with only one week left to live. She is diagnosed with a black hole growing in her chest. To avoid her death, Zoya enters a time loop. She takes a time travel pill that allows her to travel back in time 5 days. She found these mysterious pills when she was 12 years old and had used them to improve her life, but stopped for many years before her diagnosis. Frustrated with repeating the same sad loop with her husband, adult daughter and son-in-law, she decides to take action and resume her past research on the pills. She meets Paula, a research assistant studying time at a local community college, and enlists her help. Zoya hopes to find a way to travel back to gain years and potentially alter her past. Once Zoya begins working with Paula, she spends every cycle sneaking out of the hospital and hiding from her worried family. As the research continues unsuccessfully, Zoya is upset, but refuses to reach out to past colleague and ex Mark Harrison. When Zoya, in a last ditch effort, tracks him down, she finds that he died four months before. His son, now living in his dad's house, invites her in and says he wishes that his dad hadn't spent his last days working. After this, Zoya listens to the voicemails her family have been leaving every cycle and breaks down in tears, resetting her week one final time. This time she is happy to be in the loop repeating things she's done with her family while still creating new memories. She also stops by Paula's to give her a copy of all the research they had done together and the time travel pills. Zoya says that maybe Paula is the one to figure it all out. As the loop is coming to a close, Zoya's family bring her out a birthday cake, but unlike any loops in the past Zoya opens her gift. She is shocked to find a photo of her daughter's sonogram. Zoya is going to be a grandmother. She smiles and tells her family how much she loves them before the black hole consumes her.

A New York couple, Rachel and Alvy, live in a not-so-distant future. A rising tech company executive, Rachel lands a coveted spot on the waitlist for the Womb Center, which offers couples maternity by way of detachable artificial wombs, or pods. Alvy, a botanist with an affection for nature, prefers a natural pregnancy. Despite their different perspectives, they decide to go forward with the Womb Center's services in order to conceive a child.

In the future, the Earth has become severely polluted (people need to wear breathing masks when outside), with severe overpopulation affecting available resources. Because of the permanent thick smog that has settled over the dismal cities that now cover the Earth's entire surface, all animals – even common household pets – are extinct. People eat tasteless, bright-colored paste out of plastic containers. To reduce the world's population, the world's government decrees that no children may be born for the next 30 years. Breaking this law will result in the death penalty for the parents as well as the newborn. Brainwashing and robot substitutes are used to end the yearning for children, with the death penalty as the ultimate deterrent. Violators are executed by suffocation under a plastic dome. Couples of fertile age visit "Babyland" and are given life-size animatronic children instead. Russ (Oliver Reed) and Carol McNeil (Geraldine Chaplin) work in a museum recreating life in the 20th century. Carol is desperate for a child, so when she conceives, she avoids the abortion machine installed in their bathroom to remain pregnant. After the child's birth, the couple must shield the baby from being discovered. Once Carol decides to break the law and have a baby, they must not only avoid the prying eyes of the Big Brother-like government but also the growing jealousy of their own friends. Neighbors finding a couple with a real child will go into the streets screaming "baby, baby", until authorities show up. When neighbours George (Don Gordon) and Edna Borden (Diane Cilento) find out about the baby, their initial offer to help conceal the baby quickly leads to trouble. Jealousy and envy arise as the Bordens want to share the baby as if it is a new car. The McNeils and the Bordens begin to fight over the baby, and the Bordens then seek to keep the child for themselves. Finally, the McNeils are captured and placed under one of the state's execution domes, but the couple, along with the baby, manage to escape by digging underground, making their way through darkened tunnels in a raft to a remote island where there is no visible pollution. However, the whole island may still be in a radioactive state, as it was used to bury old nuclear missiles in 1978.