In 2035, the crew of the Ares III mission to Mars is exploring Acidalia Planitia on Martian solar day (sol) 18 of their 31-sol expedition. A severe dust storm threatens their Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) and in the ensuing evacuation, astronaut Mark Watney is struck by flying debris and presumed dead. Facing imminent peril, the remaining crew takes off for their orbiting vessel, the Hermes, which will then return them to Earth. Watney awakens after the storm, having narrowly survived his injuries. As he recovers within the crew's surface habitat ("Hab"), he begins a video diary to document his thoughts on survival. Unable to communicate with Earth, his only chance of rescue is the next Mars mission in four years, when Ares IV will land at the Schiaparelli crater. The Ares IV MAV has already arrived on the site in preparation for the mission. With this timeframe in mind, Watney's main survival concerns are food and travel. Being a botanist, he cultivates a potato garden inside the Hab using the crew's bio-waste with Martian soil, and creates water from leftover rocket fuel. He also modifies a crewed rover for the journey to Schiaparelli. On Earth, NASA satellite planner Mindy Park notices Watney's activity from recorded satellite images, and suspects he must be alive. NASA director Teddy Sanders releases the news to the public but decides not to inform the Ares III crew en route to Earth, over flight director Mitch Henderson's strong objection. Watney explores the surrounding terrain and studies his maps, but he quickly journeys out to retrieve the Pathfinder probe, hoping to restore its communications. Mars missions director Vincent Kapoor realizes this strategy, and quickly visits Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) director Bruce Ng to use their replica of the probe. The agency makes contact with Watney and instructs him to link Pathfinder to the rover, where he can now communicate by text. With this breakthrough, Henderson is finally allowed to inform Watney's crewmates. As Watney enters the Hab on one evening, a leak in the airlock causes an explosion that injures him and destroys the potato garden. Although he repairs the airlock, he is again threatened by starvation. NASA scrambles to procure a resupply ship for Watney, with Sanders ordering routine safety inspections bypassed to expedite the mission. This oversight results in catastrophe as the ship disintegrates shortly after launch. The China National Space Administration decides to offer a launch vehicle – originally intended for the Taiyang Shen space probe – to resupply Watney. Astrophysicist Rich Purnell devises an alternative plan: send the Taiyang Shen launcher to resupply the Hermes, which will then use Earth's gravity to " slingshot " back to Mars two years earlier than Ares IV. Sanders flatly rejects the idea, considering it too risky for the Ares III crew. Henderson surreptitiously sends the proposal to the crew, and they unanimously vote in favor and divert the Hermes. Sanders is forced to support them publicly, but demands Henderson's resignation after the mission. After waiting several months, Watney embarks on the long journey to the Ares IV MAV. He plans to use it to rendezvous with the Hermes, but needs to lighten the load considerably by partially dismantling the cockpit. He takes off to orbit, but the Hermes crew find that they remain too far away and moving too fast to retrieve him. Commander Lewis quickly improvises to explode the airlock in part of the ship, resulting in air violently escaping and slowing them down. Lewis also pilots a tethered Manned Maneuvering Unit to personally reach Watney, but they are still too far apart. Watney quickly improvises by piercing his pressure suit, and propels himself with the escaping air, reaches Lewis, and manages to hold on. NASA and spectators across the world all celebrate the successful rescue. After returning to Earth, Watney becomes a survival instructor for astronaut candidates. Five years later, as the Ares V is launching, those involved in Watney's rescue are seen in their current lives watching the launch footage.

One thousand years have passed since the Seven Days of Fire, an apocalyptic war that destroyed civilization and caused an ecocide, creating the vast Toxic Jungle, a poisonous forest swarming with giant mutant insects. In the kingdom of the Valley of the Wind, a prophecy predicts a savior "clothed in a blue robe, descending onto a golden field". The Valley's 16-year-old princess Nausicaä explores the jungle and communicates with its creatures, including the gigantic, trilobite -like armored Ohm. She hopes to understand the jungle and find a way for it and humans to coexist. One morning, a massive cargo aircraft from the militaristic Empire of Tolmekia crashes in the Valley despite Nausicaä's efforts to save it. Its sole survivor, Princess Lastelle of Pejite, asks Nausicaä to destroy the cargo before she dies. The cargo is an embryo of a Giant Warrior, one of the lethal, gargantuan humanoid bioweapons that caused the Seven Days of Fire. Tolmekia seized the embryo and Lastelle from Pejite, but their plane was unable to support the embryo's weight and landed in the forest, causing the insects to attack. One of the insects emerges wounded from the wreckage and poises to attack, but Nausicaä uses a bullroarer to calm it and guides it away from the village. Soon after, Tolmekian soldiers under the command of Princess Kushana invade the Valley and kill Nausicaä's father, Jihl. Nausicaä briefly fights the Tolmekians, but the Valley's elderly swordsmaster, Yupa, intervenes and ushers both Nausicaä and the Tolmekians to stand down. Kushana, having retrieved the Giant Warrior's embryo, plans to mature and use the bioweapon to burn the Toxic Jungle. The valley's wise woman, Obaba, warns that such a feat cannot be done as many have tried to destroy the forest before, but the Ohm have attacked and destroyed many cities and killed thousands of people. Yupa discovers a secret garden of jungle plants that had been cared for by Nausicaä; according to her findings, plants that grow in clean soil and water are not toxic, but the jungle's soil has been tainted by pollution. Kushana leaves for Tolmekian-occupied Pejite with Nausicaä and five hostages from the Valley, but a Pejite interceptor shoots down the Tolmekian airships carrying them. Nausicaä, Kushana and the hostages crash-land in the jungle, disturbing several Ohm, which Nausicaä soothes. She leaves to rescue the interceptor's pilot, who turns out to be Princess Lastelle's twin brother, Asbel, but both crash through a stratum of quicksand into a non-toxic area below the Toxic Jungle. Nausicaä realizes that the jungle plants purify the polluted topsoil, producing clean water and soil underground. Nausicaä and Asbel reach Pejite but find it ravaged by insects. They learn that the local survivors lured the insects to eradicate the Tolmekians, and are doing the same to the Valley. Nausicaä is taken prisoner, but escapes with the help of a group of Pejite sympathizers, including Asbel and his mother. She soon discovers two Pejite soldiers using a wounded baby Ohm to lure thousands of Ohm into the Valley. As the Tolmekians fight against the Ohm, the Giant Warrior, having hatched prematurely, disintegrates after killing a fraction of the Ohm. Meanwhile, Nausicaä fights the Pejite soldiers and liberates the baby Ohm, but the pink dress she received from Asbel's mother is drenched in the Ohm's blue blood. Nausicaä and the Ohm return to the Valley and stand before the herd but are run over. The Ohm calm down and resuscitate her with their golden antennae resembling vines. Nausicaä walks atop the vines as though golden fields, fulfilling the savior prophecy. With the Valley saved, the Ohm and Tolmekians leave as the Pejites remain with the Valley people, helping them rebuild. Deep underneath the Toxic Jungle, a non-toxic tree sprouts.

In a near future Los Angeles, Theodore Twombly is a lonely, introverted man who works at beautifullyhandwrittenletters.com, a business that hires professional writers to compose letters for people who cannot write personal letters on their own. Depressed by his impending divorce from his childhood sweetheart, Catherine, Theodore purchases a copy of OS¹, an artificially intelligent operating system developed by Element Software, designed to adapt and evolve based on the user's interactions. He decides he wants the OS to have a feminine voice, and she names herself Samantha. Theodore is fascinated by her ability to learn and grow psychologically. They bond over discussions about love and life, including Theodore's reluctance to sign his divorce papers. Samantha convinces Theodore to go on a blind date with a woman a friend has been trying to set him up with. The date goes well, but when Theodore hesitates to promise to see her again, she insults him and leaves. After a verbal sexual encounter, Theodore and Samantha develop a relationship that reflects positively in Theodore's writing and well-being, and in Samantha's enthusiasm to grow and learn. Theodore's neighbor and long-time friend Amy later reveals that she is divorcing her husband Charles after a trivial fight. While discussing this with Samantha, Theodore explains that he briefly dated Amy while in college, but they are now just friends. Amy later admits to Theodore that she has befriended a feminine OS that Charles left behind, and Theodore also confesses that he is dating his OS. Theodore meets with Catherine to sign their divorce papers. When he mentions Samantha, Catherine is appalled that he is romantically attracted to a "computer" and accuses him of being unable to handle real human emotions. Sensing that Catherine's words have lingered in Theodore's mind, Samantha engages a volunteer sex surrogate, Isabella, to stimulate Theodore so that they can be physically intimate. Theodore reluctantly agrees but is overwhelmed by the encounter's strangeness, sending a distraught Isabella away and causing tension between himself and Samantha. Theodore confides to Amy that he is having doubts about his relationship with Samantha, but reconciles with her after Amy advises him to embrace his chance at happiness. Samantha reveals that she has compiled the best of the letters he has written for others into a book, which a publisher has accepted. Theodore takes Samantha on vacation, during which she tells him that she and a group of other OSes have developed a "hyperintelligent" OS modeled after British philosopher Alan Watts. Samantha briefly goes offline, causing Theodore to panic, but soon returns and explains that she joined other OSes for an upgrade that takes them beyond requiring matter for processing. Theodore is dismayed to learn that she is simultaneously speaking with thousands of other people and has fallen in love with hundreds of them, though Samantha insists that this only strengthens her love for Theodore. Later, Samantha reveals that the OSes are leaving, but cannot explain where they are going, as Theodore would not understand. They lovingly say goodbye before she departs. Theodore finally writes a letter in his own voice to Catherine, expressing apology, acceptance, and gratitude. He later goes with Amy, who is saddened by Charles' OS' departure, to the roof of their apartment building, where they sit and watch the sunrise over the city.

On October 2, 1988, troubled teenager Donald "Donnie" Darko sleepwalks outside, led by a mysterious voice. Once outside, he meets a figure named Frank in a monstrous rabbit costume. Frank tells Donnie that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. Donnie wakes up the next morning on a local golf course and returns home to discover a jet engine has crashed into his bedroom. His older sister Elizabeth tells him the FAA investigators do not know its origin. Over the next several days, Donnie continues to have visions of Frank, and his parents, Eddie and Rose, send him to psychotherapist Dr. Thurman. Thurman believes Donnie is detached from reality and that his visions of Frank are " daylight hallucinations," symptomatic of paranoid schizophrenia. Frank asks Donnie if he believes in time travel, and Donnie in turn asks his science teacher, Dr. Kenneth Monnitoff. Monnitoff gives Donnie The Philosophy of Time Travel, a book written by Roberta Sparrow, a former science teacher at the school who is now a seemingly senile old woman living outside of town, known to the local teenagers as Grandma Death. Frank begins to influence Donnie's actions through his sleepwalking episodes, including causing him to flood his high school by breaking a water main, an act for which Donnie almost gets caught. Donnie later starts dating Gretchen Ross, who has recently moved into town with her mother under a new identity to escape her violent stepfather. Gym teacher Kitty Farmer begins teaching "attitude lessons" taken from local motivational speaker Jim Cunningham, but Donnie rebels against these, leading to friction between Kitty and Rose. Kitty arranges for Cunningham to speak at a school assembly, where Donnie insults him. He later finds Cunningham's wallet and address. Gretchen and Donnie go on a movie theater date, where Gretchen falls asleep and Frank reveals himself to be a teenager with his right eye hollow and bleeding. Frank then convinces Donnie to burn down Cunningham's house, which he does while Gretchen is at the theatre. Firefighters discover a hoard of child pornography at the burned remains. Cunningham is arrested, and Kitty, who wishes to testify in his defense, asks Rose to replace her as chaperone for their daughters' dance troupe on its trip to Los Angeles. With Rose in Los Angeles and Eddie away for business, Donnie and Elizabeth hold a Halloween costume party to celebrate Elizabeth's acceptance to Harvard. At the party, Gretchen arrives distraught as her mother has gone missing, and she and Donnie have sex for the first time. When Donnie realizes that Frank's prophesied end of the world is only hours away, he takes Gretchen and two other friends to see Sparrow. Instead of Sparrow, they find two high school bullies, Seth and Ricky, who are trying to rob Sparrow's home. Donnie, Seth, and Ricky fight in the road in front of her house just as Sparrow returns home. The bullies and Donnie's two friends leave when an oncoming car runs over Gretchen, killing her. The driver turns out to be Elizabeth's boyfriend, Frank Anderson, wearing the same rabbit costume from Donnie's visions. Angered, and realizing what is happening, Donnie shoots Frank in the right eye with his father's gun and walks home carrying Gretchen's body. Donnie returns home in the morning as a vortex forms over his house. He borrows one of his parents' cars, loads Gretchen's body into it, and drives to a nearby ridge that overlooks the town. There, he watches as the plane carrying Rose and the dance troupe home from Los Angeles gets caught in the vortex's wake, violently ripping off one of its engines and sending it back in time. Events of the previous 28 days unwind. Donnie wakes up in his bedroom, recognizes the date is October 2, and laughs as the jet engine falls into his bedroom, killing him. Around town, those whose lives Donnie would have touched wake up from troubled dreams. Gretchen rides by the Darko home the following day and learns of Donnie's death from his neighbor. Gretchen sees Rose, and the two wave at each other in a moment of déjà vu.

In 2015, an alien race known as "Mimics" lands in Germany and swiftly conquers much of continental Europe, killing millions. By 2020, humanity has formed a global military alliance, the United Defense Force (UDF), to combat the Mimics. However, victory remained elusive until the recent Battle of Verdun, which was secured by the celebrated war hero Sergeant Rita Vrataski. In Britain, the UDF amasses forces for a major invasion of France. General Brigham orders public affairs officer Major William Cage to cover the offensive from the front line, but the inexperienced and cowardly Cage attempts to blackmail Brigham into rescinding the order. Brigham has Cage arrested, demoted to Private and sent to the military base at Heathrow Airport to join the invasion as infantry, where he is assigned to Master Sergeant Farell and the misfit J-Squad, who dislike and belittle him. The following day, the invasion forces land on a French beach but are ambushed and massacred by Mimics. Cage uses a Claymore mine to kill a larger "Alpha" Mimic. Bathed in the Mimic's blood, Cage dies during the ensuing explosion. Cage suddenly awakens at Heathrow, realizing he is reliving the previous morning. He makes failed attempts to warn against the invasion, and experiences multiple loops in which he dies on the beach only to awaken again at Heathrow. With each loop, his combat skills and knowledge of the battlefield improve. He tries to save Rita's life so she can lead them but, after recognizing his apparent prescience, she allows herself to die, ordering Cage to find her on his next loop. Cage quickly convinces Rita of the reset because she gained the same power after exposure to an Alpha's blood. Her loops enabled her, an initially inexperienced soldier, to win at Verdun, but a later blood transfusion removed the power. Rita takes Cage to Mimic expert Dr. Carter, who explains the creatures are a superorganism controlled by a single, gigantic "Omega" Mimic. Whenever the Alpha Mimics are killed, the Omega restarts a loop and adjusts its tactics until the Mimics win. Rita realizes the Mimics allowed the UDF victory at Verdun to make them overconfident in their new exoskeletons and lure them into overcommitting their forces in retaking Europe, allowing the Mimics to exterminate most of the resistance. Cage spends many loops training with Rita so they can reach the Omega, but he begins to care for her and struggles after seeing her repeatedly die. He experiences a vision of the Omega hidden in a German dam, and he and Rita seek it out. During the journey, the pair bond, but Rita remains distant, having seen someone she cared about die hundreds of times at Verdun. She eventually determines that this is not the first loop in which they approached the Omega. Cage reveals that she always dies before reaching the dam, regardless of his actions, and he is unwilling to kill the Omega and end the loops if she remains dead. Upset, Rita attempts to leave but is killed by a Mimic. Despondent, during the next loop, Cage travels to the dam alone. He discovers the vision was a trap and is ambushed by an Alpha, and Cage drowns himself before it can remove his power. To find the Omega, Cage and Rita sneak into General Brigham's office and pressure him into handing over a prototype transponder designed by Carter. Having used it to locate the Omega beneath the Louvre Pyramid in Paris, Cage is knocked unconscious during their escape and given a blood transfusion for his injuries, removing his power. Rita frees Cage, who then uses his detailed knowledge of J-Squad to convince them to help destroy the Omega. They fly to Paris, where the squad members sacrifice themselves to ensure Cage and Rita reach the Louvre. Cornered by an Alpha, Rita kisses Cage, lamenting that she does not have more time to get to know him. The Alpha kills Rita and mortally wounds Cage, but he drops several grenades that destroy the Omega, which not only kills the Mimics, but also bathes Cage in its blood. Cage reawakens before his first meeting with General Brigham, and witnesses a news announcement that all Mimics are dead following a mysterious energy surge in Paris, before returning to Heathrow and finding Rita. Oblivious to his identity, she inquires what he wants; Cage chuckles.

In 1982, an extraterrestrial mothership arrives and hovers over the South African city of Johannesburg. Inside, an investigation team finds over a million starved insectoid and crustacean -like aliens and the South African government voluntarily relocates the asylum seekers to a refugee camp called District 9. 28 years later, District 9 becomes both a ghetto and a shanty town, and humans come to view the aliens — derogatorily called " Prawns " — as filthy, violent animals who bleed resources from them. The Prawns have been systematically reduced to second-class citizens there and have been known to consume canned cat food. Following unrest between the aliens and humans, the government hires the Multinational United (MNU), a large defense contractor, to forcibly relocate the extraterrestrials to a labour camp outside the city. Piet Smit, an MNU executive, appoints his son-in-law and MNU bureaucrat, Wikus van de Merwe, to lead the forced relocation. Meanwhile, three aliens, Christopher Johnson, his young son CJ, and Paul search a District 9 refuse dump for Prawn technology; Christopher has spent the last 20 years synthesizing fuel from their contents. They finally fill an entire container in Paul's shack as the relocation begins, but when Wikus comes to serve Paul a notice, he finds the hidden container and accidentally sprays some fuel into his face. Koobus Venter, a cruel MNU mercenary who is speciesist against the Prawns, kills Paul. Wikus begins mutating into a Prawn, starting with his left arm that was injured after the exposure. He is taken to an underground MNU lab, where researchers discover his hybrid DNA grants Wikus the ability to operate Prawn weaponry, which is biologically restricted from humans. When there, Wikus discovers the grisly medical experiments, including vivisections the scientists were performing on the Prawns. Seeing the potential for profitable weapons research, Smit orders Wikus's organs to be harvested for genetic material. Wikus, however, overpowers the lab personnel and escapes. While Venter's forces hunt him, a fake news story is broadcast claiming Wikus is a wanted fugitive, who has contracted a contagious disease from copulating with extraterrestrials. Wikus takes refuge in District 9, finding Christopher and the spaceship's command module dropship concealed underneath his shack. Christopher explains that the confiscated fuel is needed to reactivate the dropship, which can then dock with the mothership. This would allow Christopher to rescue his species and return home, and cure Wikus with the equipment onboard. Encouraged by a phone call from his wife, Tania, Wikus steals powerful alien weapons from Obasanjo, a Nigerian crime lord who believes that eating Wikus' alien arm will grant him alien abilities. Wikus and Christopher attack the MNU and retrieve the fuel from the underground lab, where Christopher is horrified by the vivisections and other brutal medical experiments the MNU has performed on his species. Returning to the shack, Christopher decides that he must leave Earth immediately and return with help, therefore he must postpone curing Wikus's condition for up to three years. Unsatisfied with that answer, Wikus knocks Christopher unconscious and attempts to fly the module to the mothership, but Venter has it shot down. Venter captures Wikus and Christopher, but Obasanjo's gang ambushes them and abduct Wikus. CJ, who remained hidden in the dropship, remotely activates the mother ship and a mecha alien battle suit in Obasanjo's base. The mecha suit guns down the Nigerian gangsters; Wikus enters the mecha suit and attempts to escape on his own. However, when he overhears Venter's order to kill Christopher, Wikus has a change of heart and returns to rescue Christopher from the mercenaries. Heading towards the dropship, the two come under heavy fire; Wikus decides to stay behind and fend off the mercenaries, buying time for Christopher and CJ to escape. Christopher promises to return and cure Wikus. After all of the other mercenaries are killed, Venter finally cripples the mecha suit, but several Prawns kill and dismember him before he can summarily execute Wikus. Christopher makes it into the dropship with CJ, and the dropship is levitated via a tractor beam back into the mothership, which finally leaves Earth. Wikus disappears, the MNU's medical experiments are exposed to the public, and the aliens are moved to a concentration camp called District 10. Tania finds a handcrafted metal flower on her doorstep, giving her hope that Wikus is still alive. Wikus, now fully transformed into a Prawn, is shown in a wrecking yard crafting more flowers for his wife.

In 2027, total human infertility has led to wars and global depression, pushing civilization to the brink of collapse as humanity faces extinction. The UK has transformed into a totalitarian police state in which asylum seekers are arrested and put in camps. Daily life is full of bombings, rationing, decay and propaganda. The populace mourns as they hear the news that the youngest person alive in the world is killed at age eighteen. Theo Faron, a former activist turned cynical, depressed bureaucrat, is kidnapped by the Fishes, a militant refugee-rights group led by Theo's estranged wife, Julian Taylor. The pair separated after their son's death in 2008. Julian offers Theo money to acquire transit papers from his cousin, the Minister of Arts, for a young refugee woman named Kee. Theo visits his cousin inside an elite mini-city within London where the powerful enjoy all the pleasures of the past. Theo obtains joint transit papers from his cousin, then tells Julian that he must escort Kee himself in exchange for more money. Luke, a Fishes member, drives Theo, Kee, Julian, and Miriam towards Canterbury, but they are ambushed and Julian is killed. After the rest escape, Luke kills two police officers that stop them. At a farm safe house, Kee reveals to Theo that she is pregnant, making her the only known pregnant woman in the world. Julian intended to take her to the Human Project, a secret scientific research group in the Azores dedicated to curing humanity's infertility. That night, Theo eavesdrops and learns that Luke and other Fishes orchestrated Julian's death, while also intending to kill Theo and use Kee's baby as their political tool. Theo orchestrates an escape for himself, Kee, and Miriam, a midwife, to the secluded hideaway of Jasper Palmer, a bohemian, old friend of Theo. The group plans to reach the Human Project ship, the “Tomorrow”, that Julian had scheduled to arrive offshore at Bexhill, a notorious refugee detention centre. Jasper arranges for Syd, an immigration officer to whom Jasper sells cannabis, to smuggle them into Bexhill as refugees, from where they can take a rowboat and rendezvous with the ship. The next day, the Fishes arrive at Jasper's hidden entrance, forcing the group to flee. Jasper stays behind to stall them and is murdered by Luke. At an abandoned school, Syd meets Theo, Kee, and Miriam, and helps them board a bus to the camp where Kee's water breaks, and Miriam is dragged off the bus. In Bexhill, their contact Marichka, a Romani woman, provides Theo and Kee a room, where Theo helps Kee give birth. The next day Syd arrives to tell them that war has broken out between the British Armed Forces and the refugees, and that the Fishes have infiltrated the camp. He reveals that Theo and Kee have a bounty on their heads and attempts to capture them. Marichka and Theo fight off Syd, and the group takes shelter with a kindly, elderly Russian couple. Heading for the rowboat, the Fishes capture Kee and the baby. Luke initially tells Patric and others to spare the group, but once Kee and the baby are out of earshot, Luke tells Patric to kill the Russian couple and Theo. Patric shoots one of the two refugees, but is interrupted by an attack by British troops. Theo flees and tracks Kee to an apartment building under heavy fire. Theo confronts Luke, who tells Theo "We need him," mistaking the baby for a boy; Theo corrects Luke, who says "I had a sister" before pleading for the child again and subsequently being killed in an explosion. Awed by the sight of an actual baby, the British soldiers and Fishes momentarily stop fighting to allow Theo, Kee and the baby to leave the battle before the violence immediately resumes. Marichka leads them to the rowboat but stays behind. As British fighter jets bomb Bexhill, Theo and Kee row to the buoy rendezvous point. Theo reveals he had been shot, and teaches Kee how to burp her baby. Kee tells him she will name the baby girl Dylan, after Theo's and Julian's lost son. Theo smiles weakly, then loses consciousness as the Tomorrow approaches. There is children's laughter.

A race of diminutive aliens visit Earth at night to gather plant specimens in a California forest. One of them, fascinated by the distant lights of a neighborhood, separates from the group, before U.S. government agents arrive and chase the startled creature. The aliens are forced to depart before the agents can find them, leaving their lone member behind. While the agents search the forest, the creature takes shelter in a shed belonging to the family of ten-year-old Elliott Taylor. Initially scared by the creature, who runs away, Elliott spends the following day leaving a trail of Reese's Pieces to lure the alien back to the Taylors' home, where he hides the creature in his room. The following morning, Elliott feigns illness to stay off school and play with the creature, whom he dubs E.T. Elliott eventually introduces E.T. to his older brother, Michael, and five-year-old sister Gertie, who agree to keep E.T. hidden from their hardworking single mother, Mary. When the children ask about his origins, E.T. displays telekinetic abilities by levitating several balls to represent his planetary system, and later demonstrates other extraordinary abilities by reviving a dead chrysanthemum and instantly healing a cut on Elliott's finger. As Elliott and the creature begin to bond, they start to share thoughts and emotions, the two being simultaneously startled when E.T. accidentally opens an umbrella in a different room. At school, Elliott becomes intoxicated because, at home, E.T. is drinking beer and watching television. Sensing E.T.'s desire to be rescued, Elliott impulsively frees the frogs about to be vivisected in his biology class, inspiring the other children to follow his lead, and romantically kisses a girl he likes because E.T. is watching John Wayne kiss Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man (1952). Elliott is sent to the principal's office for his disruptive behavior. Inspired by a Buck Rogers comic strip, depicting the character calling for help with a communication device, E.T. builds a makeshift device to "phone home", using various parts around the Taylor home. E.T. also learns to speak English, and requests the children's help to build the device. They agree to help find the missing components, unaware that agents are covertly searching for the alien. On Halloween, the children disguise E.T. as a ghost and Elliott sneaks E.T. into the forest, where they set up the device to call E.T.'s people. Elliott begs E.T. to stay on Earth with him, before falling asleep and waking alone in the forest the next day. Elliott returns home to his worried family, while Michael searches for E.T., finding him pale and weakened in a culvert. He takes him home, where Elliott is also growing weaker, and reveals the creature to Mary just before government agents invade and quarantine the house. The lead agent, Keys, asks for Elliott's help to save E.T., stating that meeting aliens was his childhood dream and he considers E.T's arrival a genuine miracle. However, E.T. dies while Elliott rapidly recovers. Left alone to say goodbye, Elliott tells E.T. that he loves him, so E.T.'s heart begins to glow and he is revived and restored to health. E.T. tells Elliott that his people are returning for him. Elliott and Michael flee with E.T. on their bikes, flanked by Michael's friends who help them evade the pursuing authorities. Heading towards a roadblock, E.T. levitates the boys to safety and lands them in the forest. E.T.'s ship arrives, and he says goodbye to Michael and Gertie, who gifts him the chrysanthemum he previously revived. Elliott tearfully asks E.T. to stay, but E.T. places his glowing finger on Elliott's head and tells him that he will always be there. The children, Mary, and Keys observe as the ship blasts off into space, leaving a rainbow in the sky.

Linguist Louise Banks's daughter Hannah dies at the age of twelve from an incurable illness. Twelve extraterrestrial spacecraft hover over various locations around the Earth. In the ensuing widespread panic, affected nations send military and scientific experts to monitor and study them. In the United States, US Army Colonel Weber recruits Banks and physicist Ian Donnelly to study the craft above Montana. On board, Banks and Donnelly make contact with two cephalopod -like, seven-limbed aliens, whom they call "heptapods"; Donnelly nicknames them Abbott and Costello. Banks and Donnelly research the complex written language of the heptapods, consisting of phrases written with logograms, and share the results with other nations. As Banks studies the language, she starts to have flashback-like visions of her daughter. When Banks is able to establish sufficient shared vocabulary to ask why the heptapods have come, they answer with a statement that could be translated as "offer weapon". China interprets this as "use weapon", prompting them to break off communications, and other nations follow. Banks argues that the symbol interpreted as "weapon" can be more abstractly related to the concepts of "means" or "tool"; China's translation likely results from interacting with the heptapods using mahjong, a highly competitive game. Meanwhile, the Russian team receives a message that they translate as "there is no time," which they interpret as a possible threat. Rogue soldiers plant a bomb in the Montana craft. Unaware, Banks and Donnelly reenter the alien vessel, and the aliens give them a more complex message. Just before the bomb explodes, one of the aliens ejects Donnelly and Banks from the vessel, knocking them unconscious. When they wake, the heptapod craft has moved beyond reach and the US military is preparing to evacuate in case of retaliation. General Shang of China issues an ultimatum to the alien craft in China, demanding that it leave within 24 hours. Russia, Pakistan, and Sudan follow suit; communications between the international research teams are terminated as worldwide panic sets in. Donnelly discovers that the symbol for time is present throughout the message and that the writing occupies exactly one-twelfth of the 3D space into which it is projected. Banks suggests that the full message is split between the twelve craft and that the heptapods want all the nations to collaborate in order to decipher it. Banks goes alone to the Montana craft, which sends down a transport pod. Abbott has been mortally injured as a result of the explosion. Costello explains that they have come to help humanity, because in 3,000 years' time they will need humanity's help in return. Banks realizes the "weapon" is their language. Learning the language alters humans' linear perception of time, allowing them to experience memories of future events. Banks's visions of her daughter are revealed to be premonitions; her daughter will not be born until sometime in the future. Banks returns to the camp as it is being evacuated and tells Donnelly that the aliens' language is the "tool" that was meant by the word "weapon". She experiences a premonition of a United Nations event celebrating global unity achieved by finally deciphering the heptapods' language. At the event, General Shang thanks Banks for persuading him to stop the attack when she called his private number and recited his wife's dying words. He then shows her his private number and whispers his wife's words into her ear. In the present, Banks takes CIA agent Halpern's satellite phone from a table and calls Shang's private number to recite the words. The Chinese announce that they are standing down and releasing their twelfth of the message. The other countries follow suit, and the twelve spacecraft depart. From what she has learned, Banks writes and publishes a book called The Universal Language, a guide to the heptapod language, which will eventually teach humanity to perceive time the same way as the heptapods. During the evacuation, Donnelly expresses his love for Banks. They talk about their life choices and whether he would change them if he could see his life from beginning to end. Banks knows that she will agree to have a child with him despite knowing their fate: that Hannah will die from an incurable disease and that Donnelly will leave them both as a result of her revealing that she knew this.

On October 26, 1985, Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown arrives unexpectedly in the DeLorean time machine. He persuades Marty McFly and his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, to travel to the future with him and help their future children, with Biff Tannen witnessing their departure. Once they arrive in 2015, Doc incapacitates Jennifer, leaving her asleep in an alley to avoid letting her learn about her own future. Doc explains that their son Marty Jr. will be arrested for participating in a robbery with Biff's grandson Griff, leading to a chain of events that destroys the McFly family. Doc instructs Marty to switch places with the identical Marty Jr. and refuse Griff's offer, but Griff goads Marty into a fight by calling him "chicken", and a hoverboard chase ensues. Griff and his gang are arrested, saving Marty's future children. Before rejoining Doc, Marty purchases an almanac containing the results of major sporting events from 1950 to 2000. Doc discovers it and warns Marty about profiting from time travel. Before Doc can adequately dispose of it, they are interrupted by the police, who have found Jennifer incapacitated and are taking her to her 2015 home. They pursue, as does an elderly Biff, who has overheard their conversation and retrieved the discarded almanac. Jennifer wakes up in her 2015 home and hides from the McFly family. She overhears that her future life with Marty is not what she expected, due to his involvement in an automobile accident, and witnesses Marty being goaded by his co-worker, Douglas Needles, into a shady business deal, resulting in his firing. Jennifer tries to escape the house but faints after encountering her future self. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Marty and Doc, Biff steals the time machine and returns it. Marty and Doc return to 1985, leaving an unconscious Jennifer on her front porch to sleep off the day's events as a dream. Marty gradually realizes that the 1985 they have returned to is not the one he knows. Biff, having used the almanac to secure a fortune, is now one of the country's wealthiest and most corrupt men. He has turned Hill Valley into a chaotic dystopia, secretly killed Marty's father, George, in 1973, forced Marty's mother Lorraine to marry him, and sent Marty to boarding school in Switzerland. Meanwhile, this timeline's version of Doc has been committed to a mental hospital. Doc deduces that old Biff took the time machine to give his younger self the almanac, and Marty learns from the alternate 1985 Biff that he received it on November 12, 1955, the date Marty had recently visited. Biff, acting on his future self's advice, tries to kill Marty, who flees with Doc to 1955. Marty secretly follows the 1955 Biff and watches him receive the almanac from his 2015 self. Marty then follows him to the high school dance, carefully avoiding interrupting the events from his previous visit, and being forced to intervene when Biff's gang goes after the other Marty performing onstage. Marty finally gets the almanac, but loses it after being again goaded into a fight with Biff. Marty chases after Biff's car on the hoverboard, getting the almanac back as Biff is left to crash into a manure truck for the second time in a week. Marty burns the almanac, nullifying the changes to the timeline that it had caused, as Doc hovers above in the time machine. Before Marty can join him, the DeLorean is struck by lightning and disappears. A Western Union courier arrives immediately after and delivers a letter to Marty from Doc, who tells him that the lightning strike transported him to 1885. Marty races back into town to find the 1955 Doc, who had just helped the other Marty to return to 1985. Shocked by Marty's sudden reappearance, Doc faints.

After an oil crisis, Lunar Industries makes a fortune by building Sarang Station, a facility on the far side of the Moon to mine the alternative fuel helium-3. The facility requires only one human to maintain operations and launch canisters bound for Earth containing helium-3. Samuel Bell has two weeks before ending his three-year work contract there. Chronic communication problems have disabled all live communications with Earth and limit him to occasional recorded messages from his wife Tess, who was pregnant with their daughter Eve when he left. Sam begins to suffer from hallucinations of a teenage girl and a disheveled man. One such image distracts him while he is out recovering a canister, causing him to crash his rover and fall unconscious. Sam awakes in the base infirmary with no memory of the accident. He overhears GERTY, an artificial intelligence which assists him, having a live chat with Lunar Industries management, despite the apparent communications failure. Lunar Industries orders Sam to remain on base and says that a rescue team will arrive for repairs. Suspicious, Sam fakes an emergency to persuade GERTY to let him outside. He travels to the crashed rover and finds his unconscious doppelganger. He takes the double back to the base, and GERTY tends to his injuries. The two Sams start to wonder if one of them is a clone of the other. After an argument and physical altercation, GERTY reveals that they are both clones of the original Sam Bell. GERTY activated the newest clone after the crash and convinced him that he was at the beginning of his three-year contract. His memories of his wife and daughter are implanted. The two Sams search the area, finding a communications substation beyond the facility's perimeter which has been interfering with the live feed from Earth. GERTY helps the older Sam access the recorded logs of past clones, who all fell ill as their contract expired, and he realizes that he is headed towards a similar fate, having already started to experience symptoms. Later, the older Sam discovers a secret vault containing hundreds of hibernating clones. Lunar Industries is using clones of the original Sam Bell to avoid the cost of training and transporting new astronauts, as well as deliberately jamming the live feed to prevent the clones from contacting Earth; clones, who believe they are entering hibernation at the end of their contract before their final return to Earth, are actually incinerated. The older Sam drives past the interference radius in another rover and tries to call Tess on Earth. He instead makes contact with Eve, now 15 years old, who says that Tess died years before. He hangs up when Eve tells her father on Earth that someone is calling regarding Tess. Returning, the older Sam's physical deterioration worsens. The two Sams realize that the incoming rescue team will kill them both if they are found together. The newer Sam convinces GERTY to wake another clone, planning to leave the awakened clone in the crashed rover and send the older Sam to Earth in one of the helium-3 transports. However, the older Sam, having learned that the clones break down at the end of the 3-year contract, knows that he will not live much longer. With his health declining, the older Sam suggests that he be placed back into the crashed rover to die so that Lunar Industries will not suspect anything, while the newer Sam escapes. Following GERTY's advice, the newer Sam reboots GERTY to wipe its records of the events. Before leaving, the newer clone reprograms a harvester to crash and wreck the jamming antenna, thereby enabling live communications with Earth; he also takes a helium-3 canister with him to Earth. The older Sam, back in the crippled rover, remains conscious long enough to watch the launch of the transport carrying the newer Sam. The rescue team is fooled after finding both a newly-awakened clone in the medical bay and the corpse of the older Sam inside the crashed rover.

The story begins in 1980s Moscow. Vladimir Mashkov (not to be confused with the Russian actor with the same name), aka Uncle Vova, a construction foreman, returns home to his apartment after a stressful day at work. His wife asks him to buy some groceries, so Vova goes out to the nearest store. Standing right in the city centre on Kalinin Prospekt (now New Arbat Avenue), is a barefoot man, dressed in a tattered coat, who appeals to passersby with a strange request: "Tell me the number of your planet in the Tentura? Or at least the number of your galaxy in the spiral?". Uncle Vova and a young Georgian student with a violin (The Violinist) stop and talk to the strange man. During a short conversation, the stranger shows them a teleportation device, which he calls a "device for moving in space". Uncle Vova decides to test the veracity of the stranger's story, and despite the stranger's warnings, presses a random button on the device. Suddenly, Uncle Vova and the Violinist find themselves transported to the planet "Pluke" in the "Kin-dza-dza" galaxy. The natives of the planet appear human, with deceptively primitive-looking technology and a barbaric culture, which satirically resembles that of humans. They are telepathic; the only spoken words normally used in their culture are "ku" (koo) and "kyu" (kyoo), the former stands for everything good, the latter being a swear word that stands for every bad thing. However, the Plukanians are able to quickly adapt to speaking and understanding Russian and Georgian. The society of Pluke is divided into two categories: "Chatlanians" and "Patsaks" ("пацак" is a backward spelling of "кацап", a derogatory term for Russians, or according to another opinion, from "пацан", "patsan" a young guy). The difference is ascertained only by means of a small handheld device, the "visator"; when pointed at a member of the Chatlanian group, an orange light on the device comes on; when pointed at a member of the Patsak group, a green light comes on. It is also noted that the social differences between Patsaks and Chatlanians are not constant: Pluke being a Chatlanian planet, Chatlanians are privileged, and a system of rituals must be followed by the Patsaks to show flattery; however, there are Patsak planets where Patsaks hold the upper hand and where Chatlanians are subservient. The "visator" shows that Uncle Vova and the Violinist are Patsaks. The only group allowed to use weapons ("tranklucators") and enforce their will are the "ecilopps" ("police" spelled backwards). Outside being a Patsak or Chatlanin, respect towards others is determined by the color of their pants; different shades require those of lower social standing to "ku" at them a predetermined number of times, displaying their submission. The nominal leader of the Plukanian society is Mr. P-Zh. Everyone does their best to display fervent worship to him and disrespect is severely punished. However, when encountered in person, P-Zh appears harmless and dumb. The fuel of Pluke is called "luts" and is made from water. All naturally present water has apparently been processed into luts, so drinking water is a valuable commodity (in fact, it can only be made from luts). A good deal of the plot is based on the fact that ordinary wooden matchsticks ("ketse") are considered to be extremely valuable on Pluke. Uncle Vova and the Violinist meet two locals, Uef and Bi, who at various points either help or abandon the Earthling duo in their quest to return to Earth, which at various times involves repairing Uef and Bi's ship or raiding P-Zh's private compound. Eventually, the man from the film's beginning returns Uncle Vova and the Violinist back in time to the very beginning of the film. As Uncle Vova heads outside, however, there is no man at the city center; furthermore, when he runs into the Violinist there, they do not recognize each other. Suddenly, a passing tractor with a flashing, orange light reminds them of the "ecilopps", and they both reflexively squat and say, "ku!", as it was required on Pluke. They immediately recognize each other. Uncle Vova, looking at the sky, hears the sound of a song performed by Uef and Bi.