A satellite re-enters the atmosphere and ejects a capsule, which lands approximately 320 mi (510 km) northwest of Station Nord, Greenland, in the Arctic Ocean ice pack. A person approaches, guided by a homing beacon, while a second person secretly watches from nearby. Commander James Ferraday, captain of the American nuclear attack submarine USS Tigerfish stationed at Holy Loch, Scotland, is ordered by Admiral Garvey to rescue the personnel of a British scientific weather station moving with the ice pack named Drift Ice Station Zebra. This rescue is actually a cover for the real mission. British intelligence officer Jones and a United States Marine Corps platoon join the Tigerfish while in dock. After setting sail, a Kaman SH-2 Seasprite helicopter delivers Captain Anders, a strict officer who takes command of the Marines, and Boris Vaslov, a Russian defector and spy, who Jones trusts. The submarine sails beneath the thick Arctic pack ice, but is unable to break through with its conning tower. Ferraday orders a torpedo launch to break a hole in the surface. When the inner torpedo hatch is opened, seawater rushes in, flooding the compartment and causing the submarine to nose-dive. The Tigerfish is only saved before reaching crush depth by pumping air into the flooded area. After an investigation, Ferraday discovers that the torpedo tube was sabotaged. Ferraday suspects Vaslov, while Jones suspects Anders, continuing to refuse Ferraday's demand for more information about the mission's true objective. The Tigerfish rises and breaks through thin ice to the surface. Ferraday, Vaslov, Jones, and the Marine platoon set out for the weather station in a blizzard. On arrival, they find the base almost burned to the ground and the scientists nearly dead from hypothermia. Jones and Vaslov question the survivors about what happened. Jones reveals to Ferraday that he is looking for an experimental British camera that used an enhanced film developed by the Americans. The Soviets stole the technology and sent it into orbit to photograph locations of American missile silos. The satellite also recorded all the Soviet missile sites. After a malfunction, it crashed near Ice Station Zebra. When Soviet and British agents arrived to recover the film capsule, the scientists were caught in the crossfire; the only way of finding the capsule being a tracking device lost somewhere in the station. Ferraday sends his crew out to search for the capsule. Just as Jones finds the tracking device, he is knocked out by Vaslov, now revealed to be a Soviet double agent and the saboteur. Anders confronts Vaslov and the two men fight before the dazed Jones shoots and kills the American. Vaslov feigns his innocence to Ferraday, who discovers a detonation transmitter for the capsule, which he keeps concealed. The Tigerfish detects approaching Soviet aircraft. Ferraday lets Vaslov use the tracker to locate the ice-buried capsule. Jumping from their transport planes, Soviet paratroopers land nearby and move in as the Americans work to free the capsule from the ice. Their commander, Colonel Ostrovsky, demands the film, threatening to detonate the capsule's explosive booby trap should the Americans attempt to escape with it. After Ferraday hands over the empty container, a brief firefight occurs when the deception is discovered. In the confusion, Vaslov tries to take the film, but is wounded by Jones. Ferraday orders him to give the film to the Soviets. The canister is sent aloft by weather balloon for recovery by aircraft. Moments before it is taken, Ferraday activates his own detonator, destroying the film and denying either side the locations of the other's missile silos. Ostrovsky concedes that both his and Ferraday's missions are effectively accomplished, and the standoff ends, each side beginning the return to their home countries. The Tigerfish completes the rescue of the civilians, and sets sail back to Scotland. A teleprinter machine report frames the incident as a successful cooperative "humanitarian mission" between the West and the Soviet Union.

After catching his wife Amy having an affair with their friend Ted, mystery writer Mort Rainey retreats to his cabin in upstate New York. Six months later, Mort, depressed and suffering from writer's block, has delayed finalizing the divorce. A man named John Shooter arrives at the cabin and accuses Mort of plagiarizing his short story, "Sowing Season". Upon reading Shooter's manuscript, Mort discovers it is virtually identical to his own story, "Secret Window", except for the ending. The following day, Mort, who once plagiarized another author's story, tells Shooter that his story was published in a mystery magazine before Shooter's, invalidating his claim. Shooter demands proof and warns Mort against contacting the police. That night, Mort's dog, Chico, is found dead outside the cabin, along with a note from Shooter giving Mort three days. Mort reports the incident to Sheriff Newsome. Mort drives to his and Amy's house to retrieve a copy of the magazine, but he leaves because Ted and Amy are there. Mort hires private investigator Ken Karsch, who stakes out the cabin and speaks to Tom Greenleaf, a local resident. At the cabin, Shooter appears and demands that Mort revise the ending of his story, giving it Shooter's twist, in which the protagonist kills his wife. When a fire destroys Amy and Mort's house, and presumably the magazine, Mort tells the police that he has an enemy. Mort and Karsch agree to confront Shooter but first plan to meet up with Greenleaf at the local diner the next morning, but neither Karsch nor Greenleaf show up. On his way home, Mort encounters Ted, who demands that Mort sign the divorce papers. Believing Shooter is in Ted's employ, Mort refuses. Later, Shooter summons Mort; when he arrives, Mort finds Karsch and Greenleaf dead. Shooter tells Mort he killed the two men because they "interfered." He warns Mort that he has implicated him in their murders and implies Mort should dispose of the bodies. Mort agrees to meet Shooter at his cabin to show him the magazine containing his story, which has been sent overnight by his agent. Mort disposes of the bodies. Mort retrieves the package containing the magazine from the post office but finds that it has already been opened; the pages containing his story have been cut out. After a series of startling events, Mort realizes that Shooter is a figment of his imagination, unwittingly created to cope with his anger and carry out malevolent tasks that Mort cannot do – like killing Chico, Greenleaf, and Karsch, as well as burning down Amy's home. Amy arrives at the cabin, finding it ransacked, and she sees the word "SHOOTER" carved repeatedly on the walls and furniture. Mort appears, having been taken over by the "Shooter" persona. Amy realizes the name "Shooter" represents Mort's desire to "SHOOT HER". Mort stabs Amy in the leg. Ted arrives and is killed by Mort while Amy watches helplessly. Mort approaches her while reciting the ending of "Sowing Season". Months later, Mort has recovered from his writer's block, and his passion for life has returned. He is feared and shunned in town because of the rumors about the murders. Sheriff Newsome arrives and tells Mort that he is the prime suspect and that the bodies will eventually be found. Mort passively dismisses the threat and tells Newsome that the ending to his new story is "perfect". It is implied that Amy and Ted's bodies are buried under the corn growing in Mort's garden.

The film begins with a young professional suddenly going blind in his car while at an intersection, with his field of vision turning white. A seemingly kind passerby offers to drive him home. However, he then steals the blind man's car. When the blind man's wife returns home, she takes him to an ophthalmologist who can identify nothing wrong and refers him for further evaluation. The next day, the doctor goes blind, and recognizes that the blindness must be caused by a communicable disease. Around the city, more citizens are struck blind, causing widespread panic, and the government organizes a quarantine for the blind in a derelict asylum. When a hazmat crew arrives to pick up the doctor, his wife lies that she has also gone blind in order to accompany him. In the asylum, the doctor and his wife are first to arrive and agree they will keep her sight a secret. They are joined by several others, including the driver, the thief, and other patients of the doctor. At this point, the "white sickness" has become international, with hundreds of cases reported every day. The government is resorting to increasingly ruthless measures to try to deal with the epidemic, including refusing aid to the blind. As more blinded people are crammed into what has become a concentration camp, overcrowding and lack of outside support cause hygiene and living conditions to quickly degrade. The doctor serves as the representative of his ward, and his sighted wife does what she can to assist her fellow inmates without revealing her ability. Anxiety over the availability of food undermines morale and introduces conflict between the prison's wards, as the soldiers who guard the camp become increasingly hostile. A man with a handgun appoints himself "king" of his ward, and takes control of the food deliveries, first demanding the other wards' valuables, and then for the women to have sex with their men. In an effort to obtain necessities, several women reluctantly submit to being raped. One of the women is killed by her assailant, and the doctor's wife retaliates, killing the "king" with a pair of scissors. Independently, other raped women sneak to the dead king's ward and set it on fire, which rapidly engulfs the building, with many inmates dying in the ensuing chaos. The survivors who escape the building discover that the guards have abandoned their posts, and they venture out into the city. Society has collapsed, with the city's population reduced to an aimless, zombie-like struggle to survive. The doctor's wife leads her husband and a few others from their ward in search of food and shelter. She discovers a well-stocked basement storeroom beneath a grocery store, barely escaping with aid from her husband when the throng around her smell the fresh food she is carrying. The doctor and his wife invite their new "family" to their apartment, where they establish a mutually supportive long-term home. Then, just as suddenly as his sight had been lost, the driver – the first person to lose his sight – recovers his sight, indicating that the body had fought off the disease, and that the blindness is ultimately temporary. They celebrate and their hope is restored.

The film opens with a group of primary school children in 1977, who have a Victoria State Central Bank representative, Mr.Johnson, who give them lessons on saving and give them the chance to open their first checking account, and telling them that if they will put in any money for 25 years, at the end they will eventually set aside $727,000. In the present, the Centa Bank's board of directors orders CEO Simon O'Reily to find a way to increase profits. Then he discovers the work of a mathematician, Jim Doyle, whose software B.T.S.E., based on fractal geometry of Benoit Mandelbrot makes it possible to predict stock market trends. Doyle is hired by O'Reily and supplied with the best computer hardware. He befriends Vincent, who had advised O'Reily to hire him, and enters into a relationship with his colleague Michelle Roberts, who views O'Reily's business activities critically. Meanwhile, the couple Diane and Wayne Davis, who took out a loan in a foreign currency at the bank, become insolvent. The son of the couple is found dead after a meeting with the deliverer of the eviction notice. The Davises hire a lawyer, Stephen O'Connor, to sue the bank on the grounds that they were not informed about the risks of a loan in foreign currency. Invited by O'Reily to a party at his house, Jim takes Michelle, she insults the landlord and the relationship between her and Jim is broken, because he is hiding something and don't want to open up with her. O'Reily asks Jim to change his attitude to him and their business and ask him as a proof of loyalty to falsely state in court that he was present as an intern in the bank's loan counseling to the Davises and that Wayne Davis was sufficiently informed. That causes the Davises to lose their lawsuit. This also causes the final breakup between Jim and Michelle; the latter then decides to investigate Jim's past. Jim informs his boss that a stock market crash will soon occur. Michelle finds out in Jim's hometown that his real name is not Jim Doyle but Paul Jackson; the bank had terminated his father's credit, whereupon his father committed suicide. A man who watches Michelle on behalf of O'Reily learns the truth and warns O'Reily. O'Reily wants to stop the bank's stock sale in that moment, but Wayne Davis breaks into O'Reily's house to shoot him. O'Reily offers him two million dollars if Davis allows him to make a phone call. Wayne realizes that it would be a very important call for the bank, so he destroys the house's power-box to stop this important phone call, which is intended to warn the bank of Jim's plans, and leaves the estate. Stock prices initially perform as expected, but then they rise instead of falling. The bank goes bankrupt after losing $50 billion. Jim leaves the country. He meets Michelle for the last time and tells her that the money has partly been lost forever and partly has been "redistributed". Then ask to her to come after him before departure, which she refuses. The Davises discover at an ATM that their bank balance is $727,000 - an amount referenced in the opening credits. They want to clarify the matter at the neighboring bank branch, but it is one of the many branches that have been closed by O'Reily. They decide to keep the money.

Wilee is a disenchanted Columbia Law School graduate who has put off taking the bar exam, dreading the humdrum life of the legal profession. He enjoys working as a New York City bicycle messenger, despite arguments with his girlfriend and fellow bike messenger, Vanessa, who insists that he should make something of himself. Vanessa's roommate Nima exchanges her savings of $50,000 to Mr. Leung, a Chinese hawaladar, for a ticket. The ticket is to be given to Sister Chen as payment for Chen's gang smuggling her son and mother into the United States. Robert Monday, a gambling addict, learns of the ticket, which can be returned to Mr. Leung for the money. He approaches Nima, who already hired Wilee to deliver it to Sister Chen. He attempts to trick Wilee into giving him the ticket, but Wilee refuses. Wilee rides off, with Monday in pursuit. Wilee heads to the police station only to find out Monday is a police detective. Thinking he is delivering something illegal, Wilee informs his dispatcher Raj that he cancels the delivery. Returning to Nima's college, Wilee leaves the envelope, which is picked up by his rival, Manny. With the delivery receipt stolen from Nima, Monday calls the dispatch to redirect the delivery to a different address. Wilee runs into Nima and confronts her about the ticket, and she reveals the truth. Wilee catches up to Manny, who refuses to give Wilee his drop. They race each other and are chased by a bike cop who had earlier tried to arrest Wilee. Near Monday's address, the bike cop tackles Manny off his bike and arrests him. Vanessa, who had learned of Monday's trickery and raced over gives Manny's bag to Wilee. As they are about to escape, Wilee is hit by a taxi, and fractures several ribs. He is put in an ambulance with Monday, while his damaged bike is taken to an impound lot, with the envelope hidden in the handlebars. Monday tortures Wilee, who asks for his bike back. Wilee tells Monday that the envelope is in Manny's bag, and Monday leaves to search for it, while Wilee meets with Vanessa in the impound lot. She gives him the envelope, which she had retrieved, and he escapes on a stolen bike. Monday, realizing Wilee has tricked him, pursues Wilee to Sister Chen's place. Meanwhile, Nima calls Mr. Leung for help. He deploys his enforcer, the Sudoku Man, to help her. As Wilee reaches Chinatown, Monday confronts and threatens to kill him, but Vanessa arrives with a mob of messengers, dispatched by Raj, who distract Monday. Wilee delivers the ticket to Sister Chen, who tells the captain of her ship to allow Nima's family aboard. Monday is confronted by Chinese and Italian mobsters and doesn't notice Sudoku Man, who shoots Monday in the back of his head using a Sudoku book to silence the pistol. Dying and feeling faint, Monday tries to get in his car but dies before he can do so. Nima's mother calls her and confirms that she and Nima's son have gotten on the ship. Nima meets with Wilee and Vanessa while they are finally reunited. Sometime later, Wilee is back on his job stating while one day he might settle in a firm job but does not feel ready.

MI6 sends James Bond into the field to scout a terrorist arms bazaar on the Russian border. Despite M 's insistence on letting 007 finish his mission, Royal Navy Rear Admiral Roebuck orders the frigate HMS Chester to fire a Harpoon missile at the bazaar. Bond discovers two nuclear torpedoes mounted on an L-39 Albatros trainer jet; with the missile out of range to be aborted, Bond is forced to pilot the L-39 away seconds before the bazaar is destroyed, dogfighting with another L-39 before being able to return to base. Media baron Elliot Carver starts his plans to use an encoder obtained at the bazaar by his associate, cyberterrorist Henry Gupta, to provoke war between China and the UK. Meaconing the GPS signal using the encoder, Gupta sends the frigate HMS Devonshire off course into Chinese-occupied waters in the South China Sea, where Carver's stealth ship, commanded by Carver's chief enforcer Stamper, ambushes and sinks it with a "sea drill" torpedo. Carver's henchmen steal one of Devonshire 's missiles and shoot down a Chinese MiG fighter jet investigating the scene. Stamper kills the Devonshire 's survivors with weaponry loaded with Chinese ammunition. The British Minister of Defence orders Roebuck to deploy the fleet to investigate the sinking of the frigate, and demands retaliation, leaving M only 48 hours to investigate its sinking and avert a war. M sends Bond to investigate Carver and his company, CMGN, after Carver released news articles about the crisis hours before MI6 had become aware of it. Bond travels to Hamburg to seduce Carver's wife, Paris (an ex-girlfriend of Bond's), to get information that would help him enter CMGN headquarters. He defeats Stamper's men and cuts Carver off the air during the inaugural broadcast of his satellite network. Carver discovers the truth about Paris and Bond and orders both of them killed. Bond and Paris reconcile in Bond's hotel room, and she provides him with information to infiltrate Carver's newspaper facility. Bond steals the GPS encoder from Gupta's office at the facility. Meanwhile, Paris is killed by Carver's assassin and Stamper's mentor, Dr. Kaufman. After Bond returns to find Paris' body, Kaufman holds him at gunpoint. Bond is able to kill Kaufman and escape his henchmen through a multistory car park in his Q-branch vehicle, a BMW 750iL with remote control via his Ericsson cell phone. At a U.S. Air Force base in Okinawa, Bond teams with his CIA contact Jack Wade and meets GPS technician Dr. Dave Greenwalt. Bond understands that the encoder had been tampered with, and goes to the South China Sea to investigate the wreck. He and Wai Lin, a Chinese Ministry of State Security agent on the same case, explore the sunken ship and discover one of its cruise missiles missing, but after reaching the surface they are captured by Stamper and taken to the CMGN tower in Saigon. They soon escape and contact the Royal Navy and the People's Liberation Army Air Force to explain Carver's scheme. Carver plans to destroy most of the Chinese government with the stolen missile, allowing a corrupt Chinese general named Chang to assume power and negotiate a truce between Britain and China, both of which will have begun a naval war. Once the conflict is over, Carver will be given exclusive broadcasting rights in China for the next century, which would then allow his broadcasting network to be completely global. Bond and Wai Lin board Carver's stealth ship to prevent him from firing the missile at Beijing. Wai Lin is captured, forcing Bond to devise a second plan. Bond captures Gupta to use as his own hostage, but Carver kills Gupta, claiming he has "outlived his contract". Bond detonates a grenade in the hull, damaging the ship, thus rendering it visible to radar and vulnerable to a subsequent Royal Navy attack. While Wai Lin disables the engines, she is recaptured by Stamper. Bond kills Carver with his own drilling machine and attempts to destroy the warhead with detonators, but Stamper attacks him, sending a chained Wai Lin into the water. Bond traps Stamper in the missile firing mechanism and saves Wai Lin as the missile explodes, destroying the ship and killing Stamper. Bond and Wai Lin kiss amidst the wreckage as HMS Bedford searches for them.

An unnamed country is ruled by a petulant tyrant named Maximilian II (often called Junior) whose primary interests include selfish pleasure, micromanaging the country’s schlocky film industry, and enjoying sexual games with his beautiful, yet cruel, wife Josephine. His regime is barely tolerated due to the violence dealt by anti-government terrorists. One such subversive revolutionary, a dissident philosopher and playwright named John Thorne, is held in a state prison, where he is guarded by a man named Joe. Joe comes to learn from Thorne and respect him for his bearing and intellect, if not his message. Junior, trying to quash spiraling dissent, takes the risk of letting Thorne out of jail, hoping to have him become not a great folk hero but another greedy, dishonest politician. Joe, too, is soon promoted to one of the guards at the palace and a position in the country's elite military unit, where he becomes so disgusted by the excesses of Junior and Josephine that he allows Thorne and his followers to enter the palace and kill them. Thorne becomes the new ruler, with an even more totalitarian regime. His government encourages separating children from their parents, imposes veganism, bans action movies, oppresses women, and eliminates imported medicine all while sending the country's professional classes to grim re-education camps. For his assistance in assassinating the dictator, Joe is hailed as a hero by Thorne. Nevertheless, as Joe realizes that his one-time friend is just as bad as, if not worse than, his predecessor, he refuses to ally with the new regime. For this, Thorne sends Joe to a re-education camp.Subjected to numerous beatings and isolation, he continually refuses to sign his loyalty oath. His psyche begins to dramatically deteriorate as he is interrogated and tortured, seemingly discovering layers of bizarre hidden conspiracy within the camp and the broader regime of his former friend. Thorne is killed in his bath by one of his once loyal followers. The revolutionary government is quickly overthrown. Junior's in-laws and nephew are revealed to have escaped during Thorne's revolution and, having lived in exile, have returned to re-establish the old government, and former collaborators and torturers return to civilian life. Joe’s legal case remains in limbo for having destroyed the old government, but also never having 'played ball' with the new one, so he remains in prison indefinitely. Twelve years later, he writes his memoirs while under house arrest, his sanity possibly still shattered.

After the death of her husband and a failed love affair with married Royal Air Force Group Captain Richard Paterson, Judith Farrow, a British Home Office assistant, meets Soviet attaché Colonel Feodor Sverdlov while on vacation in Barbados, but their budding personal relationship does not go unnoticed by British intelligence. Judith is enchanted by a story that the seeds of a tamarind tree on a certain plantation take the form of the head of a slave hanged from a tamarind. Sverdlov, on the other hand, dismisses the story as a mere fairy tale. Returning to London, Judith finds a surprise gift from Sverdlov: an envelope containing a tamarind seed. Convinced that Sverdlov is recruiting Judith to be a spy, British intelligence officer Jack Loder has his hands full with a clandestine Russian spy, code-named "Blue", when he learns that his assistant, George MacLeod, is having an affair with Margaret, the wife of a British diplomat Fergus Stephenson, who is a conduit of state secrets. Loder cautions Judith, who is to contact him if she hears from Sverdlov. Meanwhile Sverdlov, assigned to the Soviet Embassy in Paris, suspects that his boss, General Golitysn, distrusts him, and insists that Judith can be recruited as a spy. Sverdlov steals the "Blue" file, his bargaining chip with London to get asylum in Canada, and finagles a romantic stop in Barbados, where he is to meet Judith. Sverdlov eludes an assassination attempt by Golitsyn's agents at London Airport and meets Judith in Barbados, where they consummate their relationship. But the General jets in a group of Soviet agents disguised as businessmen to attack the bungalow with napalm, an explosive bullet-riddled event that kills most of the agents when British agents intercede. The event reportedly kills Sverdlov, destroys the "Blue" file, and traumatizes Judith. Loder later meets Judith in Barbados, where he divulges that newspaper accounts of Sverdlov's death were a false cover; seconds before the explosion, Sverdlov was whisked away to Canada by Loder's assistant, MacLeod. Her doubts dissolve when Loder gives her an envelope that contains a tamarind seed. Loder now knows that "Blue" is Fergus Stephenson, a double agent he can manipulate with low-grade information for Moscow, until the Soviets believe that Stephenson is a double agent against themselves and kill him, Loder postulates. Later on, in a Canadian mountain valley, Judith and Sverdlov meet again and share a lovers' embrace.

Thomas de Frémont, a child prodigy obsessed with tinkering and action films, lives in a secluded and high-tech castle with his widowed mother, Julie, his diabetic and partially blind grandfather, Papy, and his pet dog, J.R. On Christmas Eve, Thomas uses the Minitel to try and communicate with Santa Claus and unknowingly makes contact with a derelict who is using a public Minitel terminal. The deranged man claims to be Santa and attempts to get Thomas to divulge his address; before their connection is severed, the vagrant learns Thomas's mother manages a nearby Printemps. While Thomas sets up a security system to record or capture Santa, the vagabond gets a job as a Santa at the Printemps but is fired from it after Julie witnesses him slap a child who accused him of not being the real Santa. The vagrant subsequently steals a Santa suit, paints his hair and beard white, and hitches a ride to Julie's home in the back of a delivery van, the driver of which he kills upon reaching the de Frémont residence. The man then murders Julie's groundskeeper and her chef, breaks into her home through the chimney, and stabs J.R. to death in front of Thomas, who is convinced the intruder is an enraged Santa. What follows is a game of cat and mouse as Thomas uses his security system and booby traps, as well as an arsenal of makeshift weaponry, to defend his enfeebled grandfather and combat the trespasser, who has cut the telephone lines and trashed the only car; the man at one point catches Thomas but then lets him go while declaring, "I win. You lose. Now I hide and you seek. Okay?" Julie, concerned over her calls home not getting through, phones the police, who send an officer to the castle to check on Thomas and Papy. The vagrant murders the policeman and recaptures Thomas, but the boy is saved when his grandfather shoots his assailant with the dead officer's gun, with Julie arriving home seconds later to find a stunned Thomas standing over the killer's body, stammering, "It's my fault, Mom. I wanted to see Santa Claus."

Former student radical Moses Wine now works as a private investigator. He is contacted by Lila, an ex-girlfriend from his college days, who is working in the election campaign for Miles Hawthorne, a politician who is running to be Governor of California. Lila takes Moses to meet Hawthorne's campaign coordinator Sam Sebastian, who is concerned about a fake campaign flyer supposedly showing former Berkeley radical Howard Eppis together with Hawthorne and endorsing him. Knowing that Moses was a former contemporary of Eppis, Sam hires him to find out if Eppis is behind it. Eppis was one of a notorious group of radicals known as the California Four and has been in hiding for years. Moses sets about trying to track him down by contacting some of his old associates. He is given the name of Oscar Procari Jr, the son of a businessman and a supporter of Eppis, who proves elusive. Meanwhile, Moses and Lila visit the printing company and trace the order for the flyers to an electronics store owned by a Korean man, Harold Pak Chung, who disappears after Moses tracks him to a casino. Moses then finds Lila murdered in her apartment. Later he meets with Sam, who seems more concerned about the publicity and the effect it will have on Hawthorne's campaign. Rather than be fired, Moses quits. Moses encounters a woman named Alora and discovers she is the niece of another of the California Four, Luis Vasquez, who says that her uncle met Lila on the night she died and has now disappeared. Procari's father contacts Moses and they meet. Procari says that he hasn't seen his son in years and blames Eppis for turning his son away from him. Procari offers to pay Moses to find his son, but Moses declines. Meanwhile, Sam re-hires Moses as Eppis has contacted him threatening a series of bombings but that the police think it is a hoax. Sam gives him a typewritten note with an address, which Moses visits and discovers Eppis now living a comfortable suburban lifestyle and no longer a radical. Moses is followed to the address by two hitmen, who burst in and try to kill them, but leave when Moses triggers an alarm. The hitmen try to kill Moses again at his office, but Alora and her associates ambush them. They interrogate the hitmen and find they were hired by Pak Chung and that they killed Lila when they kidnapped Vasquez, but don't know where he is being held. Moses calls the police to warn them about the bombings. Pak Chung has rigged a van with explosives and drives it by remote control while Luis Vasquez is unconscious at the wheel. Moses finds Pak Chung near one of the target sites and kills him before he can carry out the bombing. A tape recording is found nearby supposedly by Eppis claiming responsibility for the bombing. Later Sam reveals himself as Oscar Procari and that his father was behind Pak Chung and the attempt to fix the election by implicating Hawthorne with Eppis.

After a spectacular and mysterious cosmic event, ants of different species undergo rapid evolution, develop a cross-species hive mind, and build seven strange towers with geometrically perfect designs in the Arizona desert. Except for one family, the local human population flees the strangely acting ants. Scientists James R. Lesko and Ernest D. Hubbs set up a computerized lab in a sealed dome located in an area of significant ant activity in Arizona. The ant colony and the scientific team fight each other, though the ants are the more effective aggressors. The narrative uses the scientific team as the main protagonists, but there are also ant protagonists going about their duties in the colony. The ants immunize themselves to the humans' chemical weapons and soon infiltrate their lab. Teams of ants penetrate the computers of the lab and short them out. After Lesko decodes an ant message, Kendra Eldridge (a young woman who has taken refuge with the scientists), becomes convinced that her actions have enraged the ants. Seeking to save the two scientists, she abandons the lab and apparently sacrifices herself. Hubbs and Lesko begin to have different plans for dealing with the ants. While Lesko thinks he can communicate with the ants by means of messages written in mathematics, Hubbs plans to wipe out a hill he believes to be the ants' central hive. Delirious from a venomous ant sting, Hubbs can barely get his boots on, but is determined to attack the hive and kill the ant queen. Instead, Hubbs literally falls into a trap – a deep pit that the ants fill with earth. Helpless to save Hubbs and convinced that the ants will soon move into desert areas where their growth will exceed man's ability to control them, Lesko chooses to follow Hubbs's plan. He sets out to the hive with a canister of insecticide. Descending into the hive, Lesko hunts for the queen, but instead finds Kendra reaching out from under the sand. The two embrace and Lesko realizes that, far from destroying the human race, the ants' plan is to adapt the human race and make them a part of the ants' world. In a voice-over, Lesko states that he and Kendra do not know what plans the ants have, but they are awaiting instructions.

In Manila, a terrorist assassinates the United States Ambassador to the Philippines, and also kills his son and dozens of children at an international primary school in a terrorist bombing. The mastermind, a Chechen terrorist, Abu Shabal, escapes to a training camp in Indonesia. Elsewhere in Costa Rica, two CIA officers, Walter Ross and Lisa Morales, meet to consolidate intelligence about their target, a drug smuggler named Mikhail "Christo" Troykovich. Christo's men kill Ross and capture Morales, who is imprisoned in a jungle compound and tortured. At Coronado, the members of Bandito Platoon, SEAL Team 7 are at home. Lieutenant Rorke confides to Chief Dave that his wife is pregnant and has the entire team spend time together with their families until their next deployment. A squad from the platoon consisting of Rorke, Dave, Wiemy, Mikey, Ray, Sonny, and Ajay, is then deployed to Costa Rica to exfiltrate Morales. The SEALs insert into the jungle via HALO and hold position outside the compound all night. At dawn, they raid the compound and eliminate several guards before extracting Morales and a cell phone containing the information she had gathered. Alerted by the assault, an enemy quick reaction force attempts to pursue and the SEALs commandeer a truck to exfiltrate. The pursuit forces them to revert to a tertiary extraction point where two SWCC boats extract the team, with Mikey being wounded in action. Christo and Shabal, who are revealed to have been childhood friends, meet in Kyiv. Christo knows the CIA is watching him and informs Shabal that subordinates will complete their project, which is to equip suicide bombers with specialized undetectable explosive vests. On the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard, Rorke is informed that the intelligence recovered confirms Shabal and Christo were working together. Shabal seeks to bring jihad to the U.S., while Christo provides the routes for smuggling drugs and people into the U.S. Ajay and Ray are sent to Somalia, where an arms transfer involving Shabal is taking place. The remaining SEALs, comprising Rorke, Dave, Sonny and Weimy, stay in the U.S. in case the terrorists make it in. Miller himself has been reassigned to SEAL Team Four, hunting for Christo somewhere on the oceans. Lieutenant Rorke gives Dave a letter to give to his family in case he is killed. Shabal and sixteen terrorists are found to be on an island off Baja California, where the SEALs act to secure the island, killing eight terrorists. Shabal and eight others escape. Elsewhere, in the South Pacific, SEAL Team Four captures Christo and interrogate him, learning that Shabal's plot is to outdo the September 11 attacks. The SEALs are informed that Shabal is en route to the U.S. via tunnels underneath a milk factory, and are ordered to link up with Mexican Special Forces and neutralize the remaining targets. Arriving at the factory, the SEALs and Mexican forces launch an assault there, engaging numerous Mexican cartel members and Shabal's terrorists in the process. During the gunfight, a combatant throws a grenade, and Rorke sacrifices himself by diving on it to save his team before it detonates, killing him. Dave pursues the terrorists and shoots them as they try to escape through the tunnels. He is then shot several times and gravely wounded by Shabal, who is intercepted and killed by Sonny before he can execute Dave. At home, Rorke is given a military funeral with full honors, where the SEALs pay their respects. It is then revealed that Dave's narration throughout the movie was a written letter meant for Rorke's son. The film ends with a dedication to 60 U.S. Navy SEAL and Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC) killed in action since 9/11 along with a listing of their names as well as a photo montage of fallen public servants.