In 1957, at an automobile factory in Detroit, a red 1958 Plymouth Fury slams its hood shut by itself on a worker's hand, while another worker is found dead inside the car after dropping cigar ash on its seats. In 1978 Rockbridge, California, nerdy high school senior Arnold "Arnie" Cunningham is bullied on the first day of school by classmate Buddy Repperton and his gang. Arnie's only friend, Dennis Guilder, intervenes with help from a teacher, who sends Buddy and his gang to the principal's office. Buddy is expelled for possession of a switchblade. After school, Arnie and Dennis see the same 1958 Plymouth Fury—now in a dilapidated state—for sale at the home of George LeBay, the brother of the recently deceased original owner, who tells them the car's name is Christine. Despite Dennis' objections, Arnie purchases the car. Since Arnie's strict parents refuse to let him keep the car in their driveway, he begins to restore Christine at a local garage owned by the gruff Will Darnell, who offers Arnie a part-time job and access to parts he needs to repair Christine. Soon, Arnie develops a rebellious, arrogant personality, worrying his parents and Dennis. Dennis confronts LeBay, who discloses that his late brother was also obsessed with Christine, his five-year-old niece choked to death in the car, and his sister-in-law and later his brother both committed suicide in it. At night, Dennis breaks into the garage to inspect Christine, but when Christine's radio begins playing 1950s rock and roll music, he flees. Arnie begins a relationship with a new student, Leigh Cabot, who has rejected all her other admirers at school. While playing a football game, Dennis is stunned by the sight of Arnie and Leigh kissing in front of the now fully-restored Christine, causing him to sustain a severe injury that permanently ends his football career. One night, when Arnie and Leigh are attending a drive-in theater, Leigh expresses jealousy over Christine. While alone in the car, Leigh nearly chokes to death on a hamburger, as Christine briefly locks her doors to keep Arnie from coming to her rescue. A nearby theater-goer performs the Heimlich maneuver on Leigh, saving her. Arnie drives Leigh home and she vows to never get into Christine again. Later that night, Buddy and his gang sneak into Darnell's garage and vandalize Christine. Arnie, enraged by the destruction, breaks up with Leigh and physically attacks his father following an argument about Christine's vandalism. The next day, Arnie returns to the garage alone and witnesses Christine repairing herself. Over two evenings, the car kills Buddy and all his gang members, blowing up a gas station in the process. Christine drives away in flames and returns to Darnell's garage, where she crushes him to death against the steering wheel. By morning, Christine is fully repaired when the police find Darnell's body. State Police detective Rudy Junkins questions Arnie about the death of Darnell, Buddy, and his gang members. However, the car's pristine condition and Arnie's alibi convince the detective he was not involved. Leigh and Dennis conclude that Christine is responsible for Arnie's downward spiral. They plan to lure Christine to Darnell's garage and smash her with a bulldozer, but Christine surprises them by emerging from a pile of scrap metal. Leigh flees on foot while Dennis battles Christine with the bulldozer. Arnie is now driving Christine, and in an attempt to run Leigh down, Christine crashes into Darnell's office. Arnie is thrown through the windshield and impaled on a shard of glass. He reaches out to touch Christine's grille one last time, and Christine responds by playing " Pledging My Love " on her radio as Arnie dies. Christine resumes her attack, until Dennis and Leigh corner her and flatten her with the bulldozer. The following day, Dennis, Leigh, and Junkins watch as the remains of Christine are crushed into a cube at a junkyard. Junkins congratulates the pair for stopping Christine, but they regret being unable to save Arnie. The sound of a 1950s rock and roll song spooks them briefly, but it proves to be coming from a boombox carried by a junkyard worker. Unbeknownst to them, Christine's grille twitches slightly.

Thomas "Tom" Ludlow, an alcoholic undercover detective for the LAPD 's Vice-Special unit, arranges an arms deal with Korean gangsters suspected of kidnapping two teenage girls. He provokes the gangsters into beating him and stealing his car, allowing him to track them to the gang's hideout. Ludlow storms the hideout and kills the gangsters, staging the scene to make the shootings appear justified, and rescues the captive girls. While Captain Jack Wander and the rest of his unit congratulate him, Ludlow is confronted by his former partner, Terrence Washington, who disapproves of the unit's corrupt tactics. Ludlow is later approached by Captain James Biggs of Internal Affairs, but Wander warns that Washington has reported Ludlow to Biggs. Ludlow follows Washington to a convenience store, where they are ambushed by two gunmen under the pretense of a robbery. Accidentally shot when Ludlow returns fire, Washington is killed by the gunmen. Wander advises Ludlow to remove the surveillance footage, telling the press Ludlow was first on the scene but too late to save Washington. Temporarily reassigned to fielding civilian complaints, Ludlow enlists the help of Detective Paul Diskant, determined to find the killers himself. Washington is implicated in stealing drugs from the evidence room and selling them to the gunmen, identified as criminals Fremont and Coates. Joined by a reluctant Diskant, Ludlow brutalizes informants until a drug dealer, Scribble, leads them to the bodies of the real Fremont and Coates in a shallow grave, killed long before Washington. Giving the surveillance footage to Washington's widow, Linda, Ludlow reveals that he lost his own wife and vows to avenge Washington. He and Diskant pose as dirty cops, forcing Scribble to arrange a meeting with the killers masquerading as Fremont and Coates. Diskant recognizes them, but he and Scribble are killed in the ensuing gunfight. Ludlow kills both assailants, but sees on the news that they were Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies. Declared a "cop killer", Ludlow is arrested by fellow detectives Santos and Demille, who admit to killing the real Fremont and Coates and planting evidence to frame them for Washington's murder. Ludlow realizes that Washington was actually informing on Wander, who is really behind the evidence room theft. Before Santos and Demille can execute him, Ludlow manages to break free and kill them both. He saves Linda from Sergeant Mike Clady, sent by Wander to recover the surveillance footage and kill her, subduing Clady and locking him in his trunk. Ludlow confronts Wander at home, handcuffing him after a brawl. Wander confesses that he has incriminating evidence against high-ranking officials to use to become LAPD chief and, eventually, mayor. Revealing a stash of ill-gotten money and blackmail documents hidden inside his walls, Wander declares his actions were for the sake of Ludlow and their unit, but Ludlow shoots him dead. Biggs arrives, admitting he used Ludlow to bring down Wander on behalf of those in power, and tells him that the department still needs him.

In 2019, Lincoln Six Echo and Jordan Two Delta live with others in an isolated compound. This dystopian community is governed by a strict set of rules. The residents are told that the outside world has become too contaminated to support life with the exception of a pathogen-free island. Each week, one resident gets to leave the compound and live on the island by way of a lottery. Lincoln begins having dreams that he knows are not from his own experiences. Dr. Merrick, a scientist who runs the compound, is concerned so he places probes in Lincoln's body to monitor his cerebral activity. While secretly visiting the off-limits power facility in the basement where technician James McCord works, Lincoln discovers a live moth in a ventilation shaft, leading him to deduce the outside world is not really contaminated. Lincoln follows the moth to another section, where he discovers the "lottery" is actually a system to selectively remove inhabitants from the compound, where the "winner" is then used for organ harvesting, surrogate pregnancies, and other important purposes for each one's wealthy sponsor, of whom they are clones. Merrick learns Lincoln has discovered the truth about his existence, which compels Lincoln to escape. Meanwhile, Jordan has been selected for the island. She and Lincoln escape the facility and emerge in the desert. He explains the truth to Jordan, and they set out to discover the real world. Merrick hires Burkinabé mercenary and former GIGN operative Albert Laurent to find and return them to the compound. Lincoln and Jordan find McCord in a bar, who explains that all the facility residents are clones of wealthy sponsors kept ignorant about the real world and conditioned to never question their environment or history. Merrick explains to Laurent that while the public is told that the clones are kept in a persistent vegetative state, trials had shown that the organs could only survive if the clones had consciousness. McCord provides the name of Lincoln's sponsor, yacht designer Tom Lincoln, in Los Angeles and helps them to the Yucca maglev station, where they board an Amtrak train to Los Angeles before mercenaries kill him. In New York City, Jordan's sponsor, supermodel Sarah Jordan, is comatose following a car crash and requires transplants from Jordan to survive. Lincoln and Jordan evade both the Los Angeles Police Department and the mercenaries and arrive at Tom's house. Lincoln meets Tom, who gives him some explanation about the cloning institute, causing Lincoln to realize that he has gained Tom's memories. Tom seemingly agrees to help Lincoln and Jordan reveal Merrick's crimes to the public, but secretly betrays them to Merrick and Laurent, as he desperately needs Lincoln's liver to survive his cirrhosis. Tricking Lincoln into leaving with him, although Jordan had warned him she believed he was lying, Tom brings him to an ambush that results in a car chase through suburban Los Angeles. It ends with Lincoln tricking Laurent into believing Tom is the clone and killing him, allowing him to assume Tom's identity. Returning to Tom's home, Lincoln and Jordan give in to their romantic urges and have sex. Merrick surmises that a cloning defect was responsible for Lincoln's memories and behavior, resulting in him and every future clone generation to question their environment and even tap into their sponsor's memories. To prevent this, he decides to eliminate the four latest generations of clones. Lincoln and Jordan, however, plan to liberate the other clones. Posing as Tom, Lincoln returns to the compound to destroy the holographic projectors that conceal the outside world. Jordan allows herself to be caught to assist Lincoln's plan. Laurent, who has moral qualms about the clones' treatment after witnessing their fight for survival and learning that Sarah may not survive even with the organ transplants, helps Jordan. Lincoln kills Merrick with a harpoon gun, and the clones are freed, seeing the outside world for the first time. As Laurent seemingly gives up his mercenary life, Lincoln and Jordan sail away in one of Tom's boats together toward an island, fulfilling their dream of one day going to such a place.

Felix (Gracia) is an architect who lives in a large house. He appears to be sensitive about visitors after a recent separation from his wife Vera (López). One night, a man asks to come in and use the phone. Felix allows him to do so and leaves the room for a few minutes, but then he discovers the man is nowhere to be seen. For the next few days, Felix hears strange noises in the house, suspecting the man actually never left. Felix then calls the police who are unable to find anything. He later calls Vera and asks her to visit him, eventually resulting in them having sex. But he becomes paranoid when he thinks he hears her talking to someone in the kitchen and accidentally injures her with a knife. Felix's suspicions are heightened when his neighbour's dog enters the house and appears to hear noises from upstairs too. His neighbour, Mrs Müller, runs after the dog and appears to be thrown down the stairs, killing herself and her dog in the process. The police determine that she merely slipped accidentally. Eventually, Felix encounters someone in his house and shoots him, leaving that person locked in the attic. Felix locks down his house, throws the keys in the sewer and leaves. He naps in his car until he is awakened by two children who are looking at a picture that Felix drew of the strange man. They identify him as "Martin" and points Felix towards Martin's house. Felix sneaks into Martin's house and sees Martin's wife; Claudia (also played by López) who is paralysed from the waist down following a recent accident. Felix stays hidden in her house for the next few days and knows that Martin is an archeologist who is currently away on a business trip. He also discovers that Martin has been unkind to Claudia since her accident. Felix becomes infatuated with Claudia and manages to speak to her by hiding in plain sight at a surprise birthday party. Eventually, Felix alerts Claudia and Martin's friend Bruno to his presence by breaking a vase and finding a key to the locked door of the basement. Claudia reveals to Bruno that she actually locked Martin in the basement. Felix escapes the house through the basement (getting stabbed by Bruno in the process and possibly injuring or killing Bruno and Claudia in turn), which leads to a tunnel where he finds Martin's corpse. The tunnel leads to Felix's own basement. Felix climbs upstairs and discovers that the "man" he had shot a couple of nights ago was actually Vera who, dying on the floor, reveals she is pregnant.

Mercenary Martin David is hired by military biotech company, Red Leaf, to go to Tasmania and gather samples of a supposedly extinct marsupial, the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), with further instructions to kill all remaining tigers to ensure no competing organisation will get their DNA. Posing as a university biologist, Martin lodges in the home of the Armstrong family: Lucy and her two young children, Katie and Jamie. Lucy is perpetually benumbed from prescribed medication, taken after the disappearance of her environmentalist husband, Jarrah Armstrong. Speculation surrounds Jarrah's disappearance, particularly with regard to a longstanding conflict between the local loggers who are in desperate need of jobs, and the 'greenies', a group of environmentalists who have set up road blocks to the forest to prevent its deforestation. Martin goes into the bush for twelve days at a time, setting up various steel traps and makeshift snares, while waiting patiently to see if a tiger will surface. On each excursion, Martin leaves the family a map with his coordinates, to be used to search for him if he fails to return on schedule. During his short stays at the Armstrongs' to resupply, Martin slowly befriends the children, and discovers that Lucy's medication is delivered to her by Jack Mindy, who has been unofficially looking in on the family. Martin confiscates Lucy's medication, and bathes her while she is unconscious, after realising the detrimental effects of her dependency. During one return from the bush, Martin finds Lucy has recovered from the symptoms of her addiction. Jamie provides Martin with a clue as to the tiger's whereabouts: a drawing of the tiger near trees and small bodies of water. From the drawing, Martin is able to deduce the tiger's location on his map. On his next trip out, Martin stumbles across Jarrah's skeletal remains and discovers that he had been shot through the head. Martin gives him a proper burial, but does not reveal his findings to the Armstrong family. On his return to the Armstrong house, Lucy informs him that Red Leaf had initially contracted Jarrah to locate the tiger, a pursuit he eventually abandoned in favour of taking up an environmental cause to protect wildlife and that Red Leaf wanted Jarrah to find the tiger because they believed that it had a paralysing venom in its bite. While hiking to check his traps, Martin is ambushed by a rival Red Leaf operative sent to replace him. The man binds Martin's hands and instructs Martin to lead him to the tiger's cave, but Martin instead leads the operative past one of his steel traps. The operative steps on the trap, and its metal teeth bind his leg. The operative drops both rifles. Martin frees his hands, picks up one of the rifles, and kills the operative just as the operative frees himself from the trap and lunges for the other rifle. Searching the man's pockets, Martin finds the map he left with the Armstrong's, and realises the operative has been to their house. Martin returns to the Armstrong residence to find it burnt down. Confronting Mindy, he learns that Lucy and Katie had perished in the fire that Mindy claims broke out by accident, but Jamie survived and was taken by the authorities. Martin sets out into the bush once more to find the Tasmanian tiger and put an end to Red Leaf's pursuit. He finally finds the creature and reluctantly shoots it, then proceeds to cremate it in order to remove all traces of its existence. Martin returns to town and calls Red Leaf, informing them that what they are looking for is "gone forever". He then goes to a school where Jamie sits alone on a bench. When Jamie sees Martin, he runs excitedly toward him and the two embrace.

Kang Jae-hyeok works at the aging Hanbyul Nuclear Power Plant, which is their namesake town's only source of energy and jobs. Jae-hyeok, who had earlier lost both his father and brother working at the plant in his early years, lives with his mother, sister-in-law, and nephew Min-jae. He expresses his desire to work at a fishing vessel to make money for his family rather than work at the plant, but is discouraged by everyone he knows, including his childhood friend & fiancée Yeon-joo. Pyeong-seok is one of the head operators of the plant, who alongside a coalition of his concerned plant workers and anti-nuclear activists, tries to get the President of South Korea Seok-ko Hang, to shut down the plant due to urgent safety concerns, but they are dismissed by the other senior plant operators, especially the Prime Minister. An earthquake suddenly strikes the town, causing the nuclear reactor to overheat. Due to the plant's aging safety systems, attempts to cool down the overheating reactor are ineffective. Meanwhile, Hang's administration fiercely debates between allowing the reactor to vent radioactive particles into the air to relieve pressure from the core or evacuating large population centers around the plant, before they settle on evacuating residents closest to the reactor. Due to the lack of a contingency plan in place, the only route leading out of town quickly became gridlocked. This critical delay led to the reactor building exploding before the crew could open the pressure release valves themselves, killing or injuring most of the plant workers. Jae-hyeok hauls out his friend Gil-seop and much of the workers out from the plant before he collapses from radiation poisoning. The KCDC quarantines the town's residents not far from the reactor. However. after Yeon-joo gets proof that the reactor exploded and delivers the news, they set up a jammer and locks the evacuees inside the evacuation center as they leave them for dead, except for the junior nurse Mi-sook, who is treating Jae-hyeok and other plant workers. Yeon-joo, along with the town's residents manage to break out from the evacuation center and commandeers one of the buses for their citizens to escape. Despite the firefighters' efforts to cool the reactors, some of the firefighting crew also began experiencing radiation poisoning symptoms as well. Hang, after fallen into depression for the reactor explosion, orders the firefighters to use seawater to decommission the reactors completely. He and Pyeong-seok discovers that there is a growing crack underneath the storage tank in the basement, putting the spent fuel rods in danger of overheating. When the Army 's military engineers refuse to step in, Hang addresses to the nation, requesting aid from the plant workers to perform a dangerous operation of sealing the cracks in the basement. Jae-hyeok bitterly declines, but at the insistence of Gil-seop, he eventually agrees for the sake of the people. He calls a distraught Yeon-joo before he boards on a bus back to the town along with their surviving crew. During their operation, the crack underneath the coolant tank grew bigger and they are ordered to retreat. Jae-hyeok suggests they seal the door and blow up the tank to allow the spent fuel rods to fall into the basement, effectively creating a new tank. However, at the current situation, both of these steps must be executed simultaneously, meaning one will not be leaving out alive. Jae-hyeok, the only person among the group who can operate explosives and having already been too sick from radiation poisoning, volunteers to sacrifice himself, allowing the workers to then seal himself into the waste room before fleeing the area. Jae-hyeok uses his helmet-mounted camera to broadcast a farewell message to his family and Yeon-joo before blowing himself up, sending all the fuel rods into the flooded basement and averting a larger nuclear disaster.

The affluent Taylor clan gathers for the 25th wedding anniversary of liberal Georgetown professor Ellen and restaurateur Paul. Attending are their four children: Cynthia, an environmental lawyer like her husband Rob; Anna, a caustic lesbian comic; the teenager Birdie, a bohemian would-be wildlife scientist; and Josh, an unsuccessful novelist – and his poised fiancée Liz Nettles, who practices greetings in a mirror before meeting the family. Liz is polite, but Ellen realizes she was a student who left Georgetown after Ellen challenged her totalitarian ideas in a paper advocating a one-party state. Liz shocks Ellen by gifting her new book, written with Josh's help, The Change: The New Social Contract, the cover showing an American flag with the stars placed at the center, supposedly to represent Americans uniting in the political center. Leaving, Liz tells Ellen privately that she is not afraid of Ellen anymore. Two years later, The Change has become hugely influential; at the Taylors' Thanksgiving gathering, Anna's assistant/lover says it helped her reconnect to her parents. Liz is now pregnant with twins, and Josh, now with a makeover, has grown more confident, even arrogant. However, the four Taylor women are not enthusiastic about Liz or the book, which is sponsored by the Cumberland Corporation. Liz gives Birdie a password to a noted virology database. Shortly after, a video of Ellen vandalizing a neighbor's "Change" American flag goes viral. In the confrontational atmosphere, Liz first feels sick, then appears to break water and go to the hospital, though later, it seems she only urinated from stress. The following year, Ellen has lost her Georgetown job. A totalitarian "Change" society is in place. Anna, beaten up when making fun of the "Change" movement at a show, is in hiding. Birdie's journalist-student boyfriend Moses drops by, but feels threatened by Josh mentioning a journalist who was dismembered, and leaves. Liz offers Birdie a job at Cumberland studying virology, which disgusts Ellen, who threatens to kill Liz. Rob joyfully announces that Cynthia is pregnant; however, when they leave, she reveals she had an abortion, fearful of bringing a child into the currently troubled world. Enraged and grieving, Rob drives off and leaves her behind. Josh offers to support Paul's failing restaurant, but Paul suspects he does it to find Anna. Josh and Liz's au pair Gerda shows Ellen a message from Anna as proof of life. A year later, Rob has joined the "Change". Cynthia, addicted to sleeping pills, lives with her parents. Census-takers ("Enumerators") arrive and ask Ellen and Paul, whose restaurant has closed, questions designed to find Anna, enraging them. The Enumerators show photos of Birdie at a protest, threatening jail; Ellen capitulates and endorses the "Change", angering Birdie, who says Ellen has sold out. The next year, at the Taylors' 30th anniversary party, Liz, dressed in red as Ellen was at the first anniversary, speaks privately to Ellen, asking her to help with Josh's unspecified strange behavior; Ellen slaps her. Liz and Josh then invite Ellen and Paul to dance to a favorite song. While they dance, a clown unexpectedly arrives. The clown enters the house and turns out to be Anna, who speaks to the confused, despondent Cynthia. Josh gets alerted by a partygoer about an attack on Cumberland and enters the house. The television news announces a horrific bio-weapon attack at the Washington, D.C. Cumberland headquarters, where Birdie works; Birdie appears on camera and performs a suicide bombing. Ellen and Paul are devastated, sobbing; Anna joins them. Josh notifies the police of Anna’s whereabouts. Cynthia stabs Josh, though not fatally. She then exits the house with the bloody knife, and police officers open fire. The police also shoot at Anna, who runs from the house and dives into the sea. The police enter the house and put bags over Ellen's and Paul's heads; Paul tries to soothe Ellen by reminding her of when he first met Ellen, in front of René Magritte 's The Lovers painting, which shows lovers with cloth-covered heads. Josh asks a policeman to keep his parents together, but the police ignore him and wrestle him to the ground. A policeman asks Liz what to do; she says that Josh is with his parents. The police remove the Taylors. Liz, having destroyed the Taylor family, looks at a picture of them in happier days; she looks distraught, but her reverie is interrupted by a small smile.

In 1996 Los Angeles, psychopathic criminal Simon Phoenix, kidnaps a busload of passengers. Police officer John Spartan, nicknamed "The Demolition Man" for the collateral damage he often causes in apprehending suspects, mounts an unauthorized assault to capture Phoenix. When a thermal scan of the area reveals no trace of the hostages, he raids the building and confronts Phoenix, who sets off explosives to destroy everything. The hostages' corpses are found in the rubble, and Phoenix claims that Spartan knew about them but attacked anyway. Both men are sentenced to lengthy prison terms in the city's "California Cryo-Penitentiary", in which convicts are cryogenically frozen and undergo subliminal rehabilitation techniques. In 2032, the city of San Angeles – a megalopolis formed from the merger of Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara after a massive earthquake – is a seemingly peaceful utopia, designed and run by Dr. Raymond Cocteau. Phoenix is thawed for a parole hearing but escapes using skills he did not have before. Discovering that he can hack into the city's computer network, Phoenix taunts and easily overpowers several police officers who attempt to stop him, to the disbelief of officers watching remotely from their headquarters. Lieutenant Lenina Huxley, an idealistic officer fascinated by 20th-century culture, learns about Spartan's career from veteran officer Zachary Lamb. He suggests that Spartan is their best chance to stop Phoenix, as someone with the experience and mindset to anticipate his actions. Huxley persuades her superior, Chief George Earle, to parole and reinstate Spartan. Spartan finds life in San Angeles to be sterile and oppressive, since all types of behavior deemed immoral or unhealthy have been declared illegal. Anticipating that Phoenix will attempt to secure firearms, Spartan has Huxley lead him to a museum, where he finds Phoenix looting a weapons exhibit. Phoenix unexpectedly encounters Cocteau while escaping and aims a gun at him, but involuntarily freezes, unable to kill him. Cocteau orders Phoenix to kill Edgar Friendly, the leader of the Scraps, a resistance society that lives underground. Spartan arrives to find Cocteau unharmed and ponders why Phoenix would spare his life. In gratitude for being "saved", Cocteau invites Spartan and Huxley to a formal dinner at Taco Bell. Spartan notices the Scraps' approach during the dinner and interrupts their attempt to steal food, but begins to sympathize with them. Acting on a hunch, Spartan has Huxley investigate Phoenix's rehabilitation program and finds that he has been given technological and combat skills to make him even more dangerous than he was in 1996. During a private meeting, Cocteau expresses his displeasure with Phoenix over the lack of progress in handling Friendly, threatening to return him to the cryo-prison if he fails his mission. Phoenix persuades Cocteau to release additional cryo-prisoners, then leads them underground to assassinate Friendly, only to find Spartan and Huxley already there. They thwart the attempt on Friendly's life, and Phoenix tauntingly reveals to Spartan that he framed him for the deaths of the 1996 hostages; they were dead long before the building exploded. Afterward, as Phoenix escapes to meet Cocteau, Spartan borrows weapons from the Scraps and pursues him. Pleased with Phoenix's terror campaign, Cocteau boasts of his intention to tighten his control over San Angeles. Unable to kill Cocteau directly himself, Phoenix has a gang member kill him instead, then begins the process of thawing out the cryo-prison's most dangerous convicts. Spartan incapacitates Huxley for her safety, then takes out Phoenix's gang. He battles Phoenix and kills him by freezing him solid then the uncontrolled freezing triggers an explosion that destroys the prison. The police fear that the loss of the prison and Cocteau's control will end society as they know it. Spartan urges them and the Scraps to work together, combining both the best aspects of order with personal freedom. Huxley and Spartan kiss, then depart together.

Eight candidates dress for an employment assessment exam at the company Biorg. The group enters a room and sits at individual desks. Each desk has a paper printed with the word "candidate" and a number from one to eight. The Invigilator explains that they have 80 minutes to answer one question, but there are three rules: the candidates must not spoil their paper, leave the room, or talk to him or the armed guard at the door. If they do, they will be disqualified. The Invigilator asks them if they have any questions, then leaves. As the exam starts, it turns out that the papers are otherwise blank. Within minutes, Candidate 2 is disqualified for spoiling her paper by writing on it. The seven remaining candidates realize it is permissible to talk to each other and collaborate. One candidate, "White", assigns nicknames to each candidate based on hair color and skin color: Black, Blonde, Brown, Brunette, Dark, and Deaf (for one candidate who does not speak or respond to the group). In the hour that follows, the candidates use lights, bodily fluids, and fire sprinklers in attempts to reveal hidden text on their papers, to no avail. They speculate on the exam's purpose and the nature of the company. Dark claims that the CEO is highly secretive and has not been seen since the initial public offering. It is gradually revealed that the company is responsible for a miracle drug designed to treat a condition afflicting a large part of the population due to a viral pandemic. In the chaos, White takes control of the group and engineers the disqualifications of Brunette and Deaf for spoiled papers. White also begins taunting the others, saying he has figured out the question but will not tell them. In response, Black knocks White unconscious and ties him to a chair. As White passes out, he pleads for his medication, implying he has the virus. Brown turns his attention to Dark, who demonstrates knowledge of the company's internal workings, and tortures her into revealing that she works for the company. It is revealed that Black is a carrier of the disease. White goes into convulsions; Dark pleads to the Invigilator for help and is disqualified. Blonde retrieves White's medication, which was stolen from him earlier by Brown, and uses it to revive him. The others release White and demand to know the question. White suggests that there is no question and the company will simply hire the last remaining candidate. Black steals the guard's gun, but it requires the guard's fingerprint to fire, giving White time to retrieve it. By forcing the guard's hand into the trigger, White coerces Brown to leave the room, disqualifying him. As Blonde also exits, she turns off the voice-activated lights, allowing Black to attack White. The lights come back on after Black is hit by a gunshot. Blonde hides in the hallway, still holding one foot inside the room. Before White can kill her, the exam timer runs to zero. White addresses the Invigilator, sure of his success, but is disqualified. It is revealed that Deaf had earlier removed a few minutes from the countdown clock. Blonde remembers that Deaf had been using glasses and a piece of broken glass with an exam paper earlier. Taking the abandoned glasses, she finds the phrase "Question 1." on the exam paper in minuscule writing. Blonde realizes that Question 1 refers to the only question asked of the group by the Invigilator at the beginning of the test ("Any questions?"). Blonde answers "No." The Invigilator enters and reveals that Deaf is the CEO of the company. He found the virus cure but also discovered a method of rapid cell regeneration capable of providing "the gift of life". The bullet that hit Black contained this cure, reviving him. With high demand for the drug and a limited supply, the company needed an administrator capable of making tough decisions with attention to detail while showing compassion, all traits that Blonde displayed during the exam. Blonde accepts the job.

In 2169, people are genetically engineered to stop aging on their 25th birthday, when a one-year countdown on their forearm begins. When it reaches zero, the person "times out" and dies instantly.Time has thus become the universal fiat currency, transferred directly between people or stored on flashdrive type devices, some in secure bank vaults. Distinct socioeconomic caste "Time Zones" exist; Dayton is the poorest, a manufacturing hub and "ghetto" where people rarely have over 24 hours on their clocks, whereas in New Greenwich, the affluent Zone of plutocrats, people have enough time to be essentially immortal. Will Salas (Timberlake) is a 28-year-old Dayton factory worker who lives with his mother, Rachel. One night, he rescues a drunken 105-year-old Henry Hamilton, from Fortis and his Minutemen gangsters, a group of time-robbing thugs. Hamilton, who has 116 years on his clock, reveals to Will that the people of New Greenwich hoard most of the time, while constantly increasing prices to impoverish people in less prosperous districts. The next morning, he transfers all but 5 minutes of his time to a sleeping Will, then times out before Will can stop him. Raymond Leon, the leader of police-like "Timekeepers", erroneously assumes Will robbed Hamilton. Heeding his friend Borel's warning against possessing excess time in Dayton, Will donates 10 years (the length of their friendship) to him before departing, planning to relocate to New Greenwich with Rachel.However, that night, Rachel suddenly finds herself with insufficient bus fare to return to Dayton, having exhausted her earnings from two days' work in the Garment District to liquidate a two-day loan. The ambivalent driver advises her to run, but she arrives a few seconds too late for Will to rescue her and times out in his arms. The next morning, he furiously decides to avenge her death by visiting New Greenwich, internalizing Hamilton's words regarding the inequity of the Time System. Arriving in New Greenwich in style, Will meets Philippe Weis, a time-loaning businessman, and his daughter Sylvia at a casino. While playing poker, Will nearly times out but eventually wins a millennium. Sylvia invites him to a party that night at her father's. Will then purchases a classic Jaguar E-Type convertible for 59 years of his time (plus tax, the salesman tells him) and drives it to the party. Will dances with Sylvia and convinces her to swim in the ocean, something that, out of fear, the rich never do. Timekeepers later arrive and detain Will, who claims his innocence in Hamilton's death. Rather than attempting to prove Will's guilt, Raymond simply confiscates all but two hours of Will's time, explaining it does not belong in Dayton. Will escapes, taking Sylvia hostage and driving back to Dayton in the Jag. Fortis's gang sets up a roadblock which causes Will to crash into a flood control channel, knocking them unconscious. The gang arrives and steals most of their time, leaving Will and Sylvia with only 30 minutes each. They abandon the wrecked car and visit Borel's residence to retrieve some spare time but, his wife Greta tearfully explains that he has drunk himself to death. As their time is running out, the two obtain a day each by pawning Sylvia's diamond earrings. Will then calls Philippe to request a 1,000-year ransom to be paid into the time-mission for the desperate, releasing Sylvia when he declines. Raymond encounters Will, but when Sylvia accidentally shoots him in the shoulder, Will transfers two hours to Raymond, allowing him to survive long enough for his squad to retrieve him, and purloins his car. Now committed to crashing the system, Will and Sylvia rob Weis time banks, donating the extra capsules to the destitute, but soon realize that prices are simply increased to compensate for the extra time. Wanted and on the lam they rent out an entire hotel to hide.Fortis's gang finds them, but Will successfully times out Fortis in a wrist wrestling match by using his deceased father's technique and kills his Minutemen. He and Sylvia then decide to rob Philippe's vault of a 1,000,000-year capsule. Raymond pursues them from New Greenwich to Dayton, where he was born but eventually escaped, but fails to stop them from distributing the stolen time. Having neglected to collect his per diem, he times out. Will and Sylvia nearly time out themselves, but survive by taking Raymond's salary. Television reports show factories in Dayton shutting down as everyone abandons their jobs due to possessing sufficient time to sustain themselves. Having witnessed the consequences of Raymond's obsession with the pair, his colleague Jaeger orders the Timekeepers to return home. Will and Sylvia progress to larger banks, still attempting to level the system.

In Arizona, Bobby Cooper drives his 1964½ Ford Mustang convertible heading to Vegas by way of Globe and Phoenix to repay gangster Mr. Arkady. His journey takes a turn, three miles outside of Superior, when the radiator hose bursts. At Harlin's Garage, Darrell claims repairs will take time, asking about Bobby's bandaged left hand. Taking his money pack, Bobby locks his handgun in the trunk. Bobby walks into town and meets Grace, who is walking home with her new drapes. Bobby offers his assistance, and she invites him home to shower, where it's revealed Arkady dismembered two of Bobby's fingers as punishment for the overdue debt. Bobby kisses Grace, but he's interrupted and assaulted by her older husband, Jake McKenna. Walking back to Superior, Jake picks Bobby up, asking if Bobby would kill Grace for money. Bobby dismisses Jake's proposal. Boyd and Ed rob Jamilla's groceria, then demand Bobby's pack. When Bobby refuses, Boyd pistol-whips him, taking his $13,000. Jamilla retaliates with a shotgun, killing both robbers, but shredding and bloodying Bobby's cash. Unable to pay Darrell an exorbitant $150, Bobby phones acquaintances in vain for help, including Arkady, who sends Sergei after Bobby. At Waldorf Café, Bobby buys a beer from Flo. Troubled teenager Jenny flirts with Bobby, incurring ire from her jealous boyfriend Toby N. "TNT" Tucker. But Sheriff Virgil Potter enters, and TNT backs off. Desperate to recoup his $13,000, Bobby approaches Jake, who bought a $50,000 life insurance policy on Grace, but Jake needs it to look like suicide. Bobby tries pushing her off a cliff, but pulls her back. They have sex, but Grace stops short, claiming Jake's her stepfather, who molested her after her mother allegedly jumped off the cliff. Grace asks Bobby to kill Jake and steal his $100,000. Bobby distrustfully refuses. Darrell extorts another $50 from Bobby, who discovers Darrell took Bobby's gun; Bobby grabs a wrench, but Darrell wields a tire-iron. Bobby rages, trapped. Lacking fare to Mexico, Bobby hysterically begs, "They're gonna kill me!" The bus station clerk gives him the ticket, but he has to run from Sergei, who's arrested for speeding by Potter. TNT attacks, destroying Bobby's ticket; Bobby loses it, badly beating TNT, whom Jenny comforts. Out of options, Bobby phones Grace, who unlocks Jake's back door. During sex with Grace, Jake hears Bobby entering, and brandishes Bobby's own gun (which Darrell gave Jake). Bobby claims killing Jake was Grace's idea, and he'll kill Grace for only $200 to get his car back and leave town. After a ruckus, Jake enters; Grace attacks Jake with her tomahawk, and Bobby delivers the coup de grâce, killing him. They unlock Jake's safe to find $200,000, and have sex on Jake's bloody bed. Bobby gets his Mustang back from Darrell, picking up Grace and the money. Leaving Superior, Potter intercepts them, revealing he too has been sleeping with Grace, who betrays Bobby, blaming him for Jake's death. Potter tells Bobby, that Grace is Jake's biological daughter, angering her. She shoots Potter with Bobby's gun. Bobby hits Grace, recovering his gun, but after dumping Jake and Virgil down a ravine, Grace pushes Bobby into the ravine, severely injuring him. Leaving, Grace discovers Bobby has the ignition key and climbs down to retrieve it. As Bobby strangles her, she shoots him, but dies. Bobby climbs out, starts the car, and says into the review mirror, "You're still lucky." But Darrell's shoddy replacement hose bursts. Bobby leans back, laughing ironically about his continuing bad luck as he looks up at the bright blue sky where vultures circle, aware he'll soon die.