In an unknown Balkan city-state – "a place that calls itself Rome " – riots are in progress after stores of grain are withheld from citizens and civil liberties are reduced due to a war between Rome and neighbouring Volsci. The rioters are particularly angry at Caius Martius, a brilliant Roman general whom they blame for the city's problems. During a march, the rioters encounter Martius, who is openly contemptuous and does not hide his low opinion of the regular citizens. The commander of the Volscian army, Tullus Aufidius, who has fought Martius on several occasions and considers him a mortal enemy, swears that the next time they meet in battle will be the last. Martius leads a raid against the Volscian city of Corioles; much of Martius's unit is killed, but he gathers reinforcements and the Romans take the city. After the battle, Martius and Aufidius meet in single combat, which results in both men being wounded but ends when Aufidius's soldiers drag him away from the fight. Martius returns to Rome victorious, and in recognition of his great courage, General Cominius gives him the agnomen of "Coriolanus". Coriolanus's mother Volumnia encourages her son to run for consul within the Roman Senate. Coriolanus is reluctant but eventually agrees to his mother's wishes. He easily wins the Roman Senate and seems at first to have won over the commoners as well due to his military victories. Two tribunes, Brutus and Sicinius, are critical of his entrance into politics, fearing that his popularity would lead to Coriolanus taking power away from the Senate for himself. They scheme to undo Coriolanus and so stir up another riot in opposition to him becoming consul. When they call Coriolanus a traitor, Coriolanus bursts into rage and openly attacks the concept of popular rule as well as the citizens of Rome, demonstrating that he still holds the plebeians in contempt. He compares allowing citizens to have power over the senators as to allowing "crows to peck the eagles". The tribunes term Coriolanus a traitor for his words and order him banished. Coriolanus retorts that he will banish Rome from his presence: "There is a world elsewhere". After being exiled from Rome, Coriolanus seeks out Aufidius in the Volscian capital of Antium and offers to let Aufidius kill him, to spite the country that banished him. Moved by his plight and honoured to fight alongside the great general, Aufidius and his superiors embrace Coriolanus and allow him to lead a new assault on the city so that he can claim vengeance on the city which he feels betrayed him. Coriolanus and Aufidius lead a Volscian attack on Rome. Panicked, Rome sends General Titus to persuade Coriolanus to halt his crusade for vengeance; when Titus reports his failure, Senator Menenius follows but is also shunned. In response, Menenius, who has seemingly lost all hope in Coriolanus and Rome, commits suicide by a river bank. Finally, Volumnia is sent to meet with her son, along with Coriolanus's wife Virgilia and his son. Volumnia succeeds in dissuading her son from destroying Rome and Coriolanus makes peace between the Volscians and the Romans alongside General Cominius. When Coriolanus returns to the Volscian border, he is confronted by Aufidius and his men, who now also brand him as a traitor. They call him Martius and refuse to call him by his "stolen name" of Coriolanus. Aufidius explains to Coriolanus how he put aside his hatred so that they could conquer Rome but now that Coriolanus has prevented this, he has betrayed the promise between them. For this betrayal, Aufidius and his men attack and kill Coriolanus.

Major Vic "Deak" Deakins and Captain Riley Hale, pilots from Whiteman Air Force Base, are flying a stealth bomber with two B83 nuclear bombs on a secret exercise. Deakins suddenly attacks Hale and ejects him from the plane. He then jettisons the unarmed bombs, reports that Hale has gone rogue, and ejects, leaving the plane to crash in a national park in rural Utah. Colonel Max Wilkins send a USAF team to find the missing warheads, and a " Broken Arrow " situation is declared and sends Agent Giles Prentice to oversee the situation. The team locates the warheads in a canyon, but is ambushed by mercenaries and betrayed by Master Sergeant Kelly, who is in league with Deakins. Deakins arrives with Pritchett, the mercenaries' financier. They plan to blackmail the United States government with the threat of detonating the warhead in a populated area. Hale is arrested by park ranger Terry Carmichael, but he convinces her to help him track down Deakins. Deakins' mercenaries commandeer a search-and-rescue helicopter to kill Hale, but Hale and Carmichael bring it down, forcing Deakins' men to continue in Humvees. Hale and Carmichael carjack the Humvee carrying the warheads, escaping to a nearby abandoned copper mine. They soon discover that Deakins was using the mine as a checkpoint. Hale starts to disable one warhead, but Deakins reveals via radio that he has programmed it so that Hale's attempts to disarm it will activate the bomb. Hale and Carmichael take the armed warhead down the shaft, where the mine is deep enough to contain the nuclear blast. Deakins's team arrives and secures the second warhead. After a gun battle deep in the mine, Deakins shortens the countdown of the armed warhead and sabotages the keypad to prevent any disarm attempts while leaving Hale and Carmichael trapped. They escape via an underground river just before the bomb detonates. The resulting nuclear electromagnetic pulse downs an approaching NEST helicopter, allowing Deakins to escape. Pritchett reveals a lack of confidence in Deakins' plans, so Deakins kills him and drives off with Kelly. Carmichael and Hale track the mercenaries to a motorboat to be used for transporting the warhead down the river. While trying to steal the boat, Carmichael is forced to hide on board, while military forces rescue Hale. The U.S. Government is now aware that Deakins betrayed them as he issued a ransom video. Hale deduces that Deakins intends to use a train to transport the warhead to Denver. Stowing away on the train, Carmichael kills one of the mercenaries and tries to sabotage the warhead, but is caught by Deakins, who arms it. Catching up on a helicopter, Hale saves Carmichael before Deakins can kill her. A gunfight ensues, causing the helicopter to crash, killing Wilkins and his pilot, with most of the mercenaries dying in the aftermath. Deakins has prepared a remote control that can either disarm or detonate the warhead and prepares to leave in his own getaway helicopter. Hale sabotages the helicopter's fuel pump, causing it to explode and leaving Deakins and Kelly stranded with the ticking bomb. Deakins shortens the countdown timer out of spite, however, this does not sit well with Kelly. Hale sneaks up on them and engages in a gun battle with Deakins, but not before sending Kelly off a bridge to his death. Carmichael detaches the section of the train with the bomb, but gets into a shootout with the engineer. The engineer is killed and falls on the train brakes, allowing the detached boxcars to catch up. Deakins still has the remote detonator, so he forces Hale to drop his gun and challenges him to a fight. Hale overpowers Deakins, acquires the remote detonator, disarms the warhead, and leaps out of the train. Carmichael also jumps from the train before the detached boxcars catch up and collide. The hurtling warhead flies towards Deakins, who stands in the way of it, launching him into a stack of oil barrels, causing the train to derail and the barrels to explode, killing him. After the explosion, Hale and Carmichael embrace and formally introduce themselves for the first time.

Dr. Larry Roberts, a renowned Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, performs cosmetic procedures on a clientele mainly consisting of female television models. Lisa Convey, one of his patients, falls into a trance state in her apartment after being exposed to a flash of light, unaware of the presence of a man lurking in her closet. She falls from her balcony moments later in what is suspected by police to be a suicide. Lieutenant Masters questions Roberts at his office, where his secretary finds that several medical records—including Lisa's—have mysteriously vanished. After Masters departs, patient Cindy Fairmont visits for a final follow-up appointment, followed by Tina Cassidy. A disturbed Tina begs Roberts to return her to her original appearance, claiming that the "perfect" models in the city are being murdered. As Tina departs, she leaves behind her purse, which contains a document from Digital Matrix Inc. (DMI). When Roberts attempts to return the purse to Tina, he sees a flash of light in her apartment window, and she too falls to her death. Roberts sees a man on her balcony, but he disappears. Fearing for Cindy's safety, Roberts invites her to join him for a fundraising dinner held by billionaire businessman John Reston, who introduces Roberts to the head of DMI, Jennifer Long. She explains that DMI used women's facial measurements for a visual technology experiment that was recently ended. Roberts then brings Cindy back to his residence and, despite her expectation of a romantic encounter, has her sleep in the guest room. The next day, Roberts accompanies Cindy to the filming of a television commercial where DMI technicians monitor the set using a computer. When Cindy is unable to hit her marks, the DMI technicians inform her that the commercial will be completed using CGI which will require Cindy to visit DMI. As Cindy undergoes a 3D body scan at the DMI laboratory, Jennifer tests Roberts' eyes with the computer. His point of focus is shown to be on the model rather than the products advertised. Jennifer divulges that, after surgery, Cindy and other models were assessed as visually "perfect" by the computer in still photos, but their scores were inconsistent while in motion. Roberts notices flashes of light from the "Looker" lab which Jennifer claims her security card will not allow them to enter. Roberts steals a security card from a technician before departing with Cindy and the theft is reported to Reston. While Cindy is visiting her parents, Roberts is exposed to a series of light flashes by the man from Tina's balcony after which hours pass without his awareness. When Cindy returns that night, the two drive to DMI and enter using the security card to breach the Looker lab. Roberts learns that Looker stands for "light ocular-oriented kinetic emotive responses" which uses high-intensity light to induce trances in those exposed. A man enters the Looker lab and attacks Roberts using the Looker gun. Roberts defends himself by using a pair of mirrored sunglasses to reflect the light, immobilizing the assailant. Later, Reston orders the man to abduct Cindy and murder Roberts. Arriving at Roberts's office, they kidnap Cindy. The next morning, Roberts is chased through the city by Reston's henchman, causing Roberts to crash his car, but he escapes. Roberts stows aboard a Reston Industries security car to infiltrate the company headquarters. Onstage for a gala demonstration, Reston introduces his company's newfound ability to create commercials using computer-generated actors. The audience is then mesmerized by Jennifer who is operating the computer from the room where she is holding Cindy. When Jennifer leaves the console, Reston's henchman kills her having mistaken her for Roberts. A struggle between Roberts and the henchman is ended by Reston shooting at Roberts and accidentally killing his own man. Lieutenant Masters, who has been following Roberts, arrives in time to kill Reston before he can shoot Roberts.

CIA Officer James Silva leads a top secret CIA Special Activities Division unit, code-named Overwatch, to infiltrate a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) safe house in the United States. Under the supervision of James Bishop, Overwatch's mission is to locate and destroy shipments of caesium before the highly toxic substance can be weaponized to kill thousands. The unit kills the occupants, while Overwatch Agent Alice Kerr is wounded. One of the Russians, an 18-year-old named Anatole Kuragin, falls out of a window during an explosion after failing to save the caesium. Silva executes Kuragin despite his pleading, and everyone escapes. Sixteen months later, Indocarr (a fictional country loosely based on Indonesia) police officer Li Noor surrenders at the United States Embassy to negotiate for passage out of the country in exchange for information on the remaining caesium. Kerr vouches for Noor's reliability as an asset, but he refuses to reveal the password to an encrypted, self-destroying disc until he is safely on a plane. While Noor is being tested, Kerr tries to come to terms with her family issues. Axel, leading a team from the Indocarr State Intelligence Agency, arrives at the embassy and demands that Noor be handed over as Noor fends off an assassination attempt by Indocarr government agents. Overwatch Agent Sam Snow and Kerr arrive, shocked at his combat prowess, learning that Noor used to be Indocarr Special Forces. Silva agrees to take Noor to an airplane 22 miles away. Noor reveals he is turning on the corrupt Indocarr government because it killed his family. Bishop's surveillance feed blacks out, then comes on again. During the blackout, Axel's men place a bomb on the car, which explodes. While Silva's unit helps fend off Axel's men, Sam is mortally injured. Silva gives Sam two grenades and leaves her, letting her suicide-attack the remaining henchmen. Silva, Noor, Kerr, and another Overwatch Agent, William Douglas, enter a restaurant. Silva sees Axel and walks toward him despite Bishop's orders. Axel tells James to give up Noor, but James refuses. While returning, he brushes past two girls and realizes that there is a grenade in the restaurant; he tackles civilians before it explodes. When the dust clears, Douglas is severely wounded, and Silva is attacked by the girls. Noor helps Silva kill them. While going to a safe house, Douglas dies while holding off Axel's men. After taking cover in an apartment complex, Kerr is separated and meets a young girl. Kerr and the girl escape harm by using booby-trapped grenades. Silva and Noor split up, fighting Axel and his henchmen. Silva and Noor meet up again, as well as the young girl Kerr saved. She leads them to Kerr, who is losing against a henchman, until Noor kills him. On the way to the air strip, the remaining team members briefly confront Axel. Exasperated, Silva has Overwatch destroy his car with a drone strike. The team barely makes it to the airplane. Li Noor boards the airplane, along with Kerr who is going to meet her family once again. While on the airplane, Bishop notices Noor's heart rate is accelerating, and it is revealed that Noor is not a double agent, but a triple agent working for the Russian government, and Kuragin was the son of a high-ranking official within that government. The official hired Noor to give Alice the wrong information, so they would trust him. Just as Alice realizes this, Bishop's Overwatch surveillance team is raided. The entire team is shot and Bishop walks outside to die. Silva refuses to acknowledge that Alice is killed on the plane. Silva realizes this too late and details his experiences during a post-mission debriefing. Back at home, Silva puts up Noor's picture, vowing revenge.

A brilliant and driven scientist, Jake Terrell, and his wife, Maggie, along with their small team, are training dolphins to communicate with humans at their remote island research facility. They teach Alpha ("Fa"), a dolphin they have raised in captivity for four years, to speak simple English. They introduce him to a female dolphin captured from the wild, whom they name Beta ("Bea"). Fa regresses to his "native language" for a while, but soon teaches Bea to understand English, too. Terrell's research is funded by the Franklin Foundation, headed by Harold DeMilo (Fritz Weaver). An undercover government agent for hire, Curtis Mahoney (Paul Sorvino), blackmails DeMilo to allow him access to Terrell's facility under the guise of a freelance journalist writing about dolphin research. Although Terrell and his team attempt to stonewall Mahoney, he finds out the truth about Fa and Bea and threatens to publish his findings. To prevent this, Terrell agrees with DeMilo to reveal his progress to the Foundation board of directors, and travels to the mainland for a press conference. Once he and Maggie are there, the press conference is mysteriously cancelled, and Fa and Bea are stolen from the island. After the dolphins are kidnapped, Mahoney reveals that the Franklin Institute is planning to further train the dolphins to carry out a political assassination, using a magnetic limpet mine to kill the President of the United States. One of Terrell's team, David, is revealed to have been an undercover operative of the institute, and is helping them train the dolphins for the assassination attempt. Fa escapes and returns to the Terrells, and the conspirators set Bea off to place the mine on the President's yacht. Realizing what is happening, Jake tells Fa to stop Bea; Fa intercepts Bea, and redirects her to place the mine on the conspirators' boat, which is destroyed in the ensuing explosion, killing David and most of the board. Fa and Bea return to the Terrells, but as DeMilo approaches the island in a seaplane, Jake instructs Fa and Bea to escape and live free in the ocean. Fa is reluctant to go, having formed a bond with Jake and Maggie, but Jake gruffly orders him to leave; eventually, both dolphins escape, leaving Jake and Maggie awaiting DeMilo and reflecting on what happened.

Jim Bennett is a Los Angeles literature professor who uses gambling as a way of self-destruction. He ends up owing $260,000 to Lee, the proprietor of an exclusive, high-stakes underground gambling ring, and another $50,000 to Neville Baraka, a loan shark. Lee gives Jim seven days to pay off his debts or be murdered. During one of his classes, Jim begins an awkward discussion of literary excellence using Shakespeare as an example, arguing how almost all aspiring writers fail to accomplish literary excellence. He singles out exemplary athletes in his class for discussion, including Dexter, an emerging tennis star. Jim later confronts a collegiate basketball star, Lamar Allen, who pays no attention in class but intends to play in the NBA. Jim expresses his extremist view on achieving excellence in one's field or vocation: if you cannot be exemplary, he reasons, then you might as well not try. He tells them that only Amy Phillips, a quiet student, is capable of a career in literature. He identifies her as a potential writing prodigy based on her work in his class, as well as having previously encountered her working secretly as a waitress at the underground gambling house. They develop a mutual interest in each other. After class, Jim visits his mother Roberta at the family's luxury estate, but she says that she will not give him any more money. Jim considers borrowing money from Frank, another loan shark, to consolidate his debts and buy himself some time, but refuses to do so when Frank first demands Jim admit, "I am not a man." Jim convinces Roberta to give him enough to pay off his debts, expressing no gratitude, then gambles it all away in a casino with Amy. Neville kidnaps Jim, has him tied up and tortured, confronting him with an ultimatum —convince Lamar to win his college basketball semifinal by seven points or less, or he will kill Amy. Jim goes to Frank, who advises him to change his version of a "fuck you" attitude towards life by getting enough money to build a safe house and make reliable low yield investments for protection against his severe gambling losses. Frank lends him $260,000 to pay his debt to Lee but also threatens to kill everyone in Jim's personal life if he is not repaid. Lee's men assault Jim when he comes to ask Lee to stake him $150,000, saying the only way he can pay the full $410,000 debt to Lee and Frank is to gamble and win. Jim uses the $150,000 to bribe Lamar into doing the point shaving. He sends Dexter to Las Vegas to bet on the game with the $260,000 he got from Frank. Lamar succeeds, so Jim uses his winnings to pay his debt to Neville, denying he knows anything about the large bet made in Vegas. Jim then convinces both Lee and Frank to meet him in a neutral gambling den, where he wagers enough money to pay both men off—if he wins—on a single roulette spin. Successful, he leaves the money at the club for Lee and Frank saying, "I am not a gambler." The payment to Frank is more than he owed; Frank finds Jim and offers to give back the "cream", but to Frank's amusement, Jim responds "Fuck you." On an apparent adrenaline rush, Jim runs miles through the city to arrive at Amy's apartment; he is broke, but free from debt.

The film begins with Ross Ulbricht's arrest in San Francisco in 2013. It then delves into Ross's background, portraying him as a well-educated aspiring entrepreneur living in Austin, Texas. Ross comes up with the idea for Silk Road as a way to challenge government control and regulations, believing in the idea of taking back liberty. He starts the website to allow anonymous buying and selling of illegal goods using cryptocurrencies, and it flourishes, with Ross making millions by facilitating the sale of illegal items such as drugs, weapons, and identity information. Julia connects him with a contact at Gawker in order to drive interest in the site, and though the plan works, the increased attention leads to Meanwhile, DEA agent Rick Bowden has returned to work following a mandated stay in rehab after abusing drugs. Despite having little experience with technology, he is punished with a reassignment to the cybercrimes unit, where he is instructed to wait out nine months until he can retire with a full pension. Unwilling to merely languish, Rick begins to investigate Silk Road by registering and posing as a regular user, though his findings are ignored or dismissed by his superiors and colleagues, who are much younger and mock his seemingly outdated methodology and tactics. He is eventually assigned to an FBI task force unit dedicated to taking down Silk Road and tracking down Ross. Rick manages to ingratiate himself with Ross, building a friendship with him over Silk Road chatrooms with the help of the more tech-savvy Rayford, a former informant that Rick had blackmailed into lending assistance. After Ross hires Curtis Clark Green, a longtime user and seller on Silk Road, as Silk Road's sole employee, the task force manages to track down Green. Rick apprehends Green, and Ross grows increasingly panicked as Green apparently disappears. Rick, posing as a disinterested third party, offers to assist, and Ross agrees. After squeezing information about Silk Road and Ross from Green through torturous interrogation, Rick manipulates Ross into ordering Green's murder (which he feigns) while privately using Green to steal cryptocurrency from Silk Road's escrow. Both Ross and Rick's personal lives begin to fray: Julia, already having become disillusioned with Silk Road's impact on poor communities after learning that crystal meth and crack cocaine are being sold there, breaks up with Ross for good after he grows increasingly paranoid and obsessed. Ross also begins to question his own mission after learning of a teenager who died while taking drugs purchased from Silk Road. Meanwhile, Rick's investigation puts an emotional and financial strain on his family as he remains engrossed in the case. Ross begins to rely on Rick as a fixer, with Rick even showing up to his apartment incognito to coach him upon learning that FBI agents will be coming to his address for questioning after intercepting forged passports that he purchased from Silk Road. Cognizant that he will be arrested for his involvement once Ross is captured, Rick extorts Ross for hundreds of thousands of dollars by posing as both a hacker and hitman offering to dispose of said hacker, intent on providing for his family while he is in prison. The FBI task force, completely unaware of Rick's activities, eventually close in on Ross, and he is arrested in a public library. Rick is arrested not long afterwards, though not before confronting his superiors and warning that actors like Ross will soon be running the world. Ross and Rick are both sentenced to prison, where Ross passes Rick by chance one day and stares after him in disbelief.

A joint British–American plan is devised to steal the MiG-31 "Firefox", a highly advanced Soviet fighter jet. Capable of Mach 6 hypersonic flight, the Firefox is invisible to radar and carries weaponry controlled by human thought, threatening to give the Soviets a military advantage over the West. Retired U.S. Air Force Major Mitchell Gant —an experienced pilot, Vietnam veteran, ex-member of an aggressor squadron, and former prisoner of war—is deemed well-suited for the task, despite his affliction with " delayed stress syndrome ". Air Force Captain Buckholz makes an unannounced helicopter trip to Gant's home in Alaska and explains the mission. Gant has two further advantages: he speaks Russian, thanks to his Russian mother, and will be aided by a network of Soviet dissidents, three of whom are scientists working on the fighter plane itself. His mission, as directed by the British–American team and arranged by the S.I.S., is to infiltrate the Soviet Union, steal the Firefox, and fly it back to friendly territory for analysis. Kenneth Aubrey, the British spymaster guiding the plan, briefs Gant in London. Gant enters Moscow disguised as Leon Sprague, a businessman and heroin smuggler. Gant and the dissidents make a rendezvous with the real Sprague but, to the shock of Gant, one of them kills Sprague and plants Gant's false identification papers on the corpse. Gant assumes several identities during his mission. He is questioned by a KGB agent in a metro station, but blows his cover and kills the agent in a fight, barely escaping the station afterward. While the KGB is concerned about the Firefox, they do not yet know who Gant is. Aided by the dissidents, Gant remains one step ahead of the KGB and reaches the air base at Bilyarsk, where the Firefox prototype is under heavy guard. The dissidents working on the Firefox help Gant infiltrate the base. Pyotr Baranovich, one of the dissident scientists, briefs Gant about the aircraft and warns that there is a second prototype in the hangar. A fire will destroy the second plane and cause a diversion, allowing Gant to hijack the first plane. Gant knocks out Lt. Colonel Yuri Voskov, a Soviet pilot assigned to perform a test flight while the Soviet First Secretary visits. Alone with the unconscious Voskov, Gant decides to spare his life. The KGB finally learns Gant's identity, but it is too late. Although the scientists start the fire, the second prototype survives. Baranovich is singled out by Soviet personnel and draws a pistol, managing to shoot one of the guards before he is gunned down. As the commotion unfolds, Gant boards the Firefox and taxis out of the hangar. Colonel Kontarsky orders his men to open fire, but Gant successfully takes off. The British–American team, monitoring Soviet communications, realize that he is airborne. The Soviet First Secretary contacts Gant and tells him to return the plane. After Gant refuses, he orders the plane destroyed. Gant begins flying south to confuse his pursuers, then turns north. He narrates his actions on the cockpit voice recorder while the Soviets frantically try to stop him. General Vladimirov plans a trap for the Firefox, but Gant destroys a Soviet plane instead, and the First Secretary berates Vladimirov. Gant engages a homing device en route to a U.S. submarine, which will refuel him after he lands on the polar ice pack. A Soviet ship launches missiles, but none hit the plane. Gant reaches the submarine, whose crew refuel and rearm the Firefox. However, Gant's decision to let Voskov live has consequences—the Soviet pilot flies the second prototype, with orders to intercept him in the North Cape area. Gant is flying home when Voskov appears, engaging him in a dogfight. After a hard-fought battle, Gant fires a rearward missile with the aircraft's thought-control system, and Voskov's plane is destroyed. Gant continues his flight to safety.

Gabriel Yulaw, once an agent of the MultiVerse Authority (MVA) which polices interdimensional travel, seeks to hunt down 124 variants of himself across parallel universes. By killing his other selves and absorbing their life energies, Yulaw believes that he will become a super-powered, godlike being called "The One". After killing Lawless, a convict and the 123rd variant in the Anubis Universe, Yulaw is captured by MVA agents Roedecker and Funsch and taken back to the MVA headquarters in the Alpha Universe. He is sentenced to life in the Hades Universe's Stygian penal colony, but Yulaw manages to escape with the help of an accomplice and teleports to the Charis Universe. The last known variant, Gabe Law, is a deputy sheriff working of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department within the Charis Universe. For two years, Gabe has been experiencing increases in strength, speed, and mental ability, but neither he nor his wife T.K. can understand why. While transporting a prisoner, Gabe "feels" Yulaw's presence in time to avoid being shot. Gabe sustains an injury after falling from a wall which Yulaw scales with ease. Roedecker and Funsch arrive in time to stop Yulaw from finishing him off. Although unfamiliar with interdimensional travel, Gabe realizes that Yulaw is identical to him in every way. Roedecker and Funsch track Yulaw to the hospital where Gabe is being examined. Yulaw deters them from shooting him because if he is killed, Gabe would then be left as the One. Dressed alike and identical to each other, Gabe and Yulaw's battle confuses the other police officers. Both Gabe and Yulaw manage to escape the hospital. The MVA agents deviate from their orders and split up. Roedecker pursues and fights Yulaw but is killed when the latter breaks his neck, disabling a bomb Roedecker intended to use to finish both of them off. Funsch catches up with Gabe and explains to him that there are multiple universes with wormholes briefly connecting them at uncontrollable times. Meanwhile, Yulaw sneaks into Gabe's residence where T.K., believing him to be Gabe, agrees to hide him from the police. She realizes that Yulaw is deceiving her but not in time to avoid being captured. Gabe arrives, only to watch helplessly as Yulaw kills T.K. Funsch finds a guilt-ridden Gabe and both team up to find Yulaw at the next wormhole. Gabe and Funsch arrive at an industrial plant, where they encounter and fight Yulaw. Funsch is easily defeated but Gabe and Yulaw are more evenly matched. Gabe manages to gain the upper hand but only seconds before the wormhole arrives. All three of them are sucked into it and collapse on the floor of the MVA headquarters. Yulaw is transported immediately to the Hades Universe after a failed attempt to switch places with Gabe. The MVA then prepares to send Gabe back to his own universe, where he will take the fall for Yulaw's crimes. Recalling an earlier conversation with Gabe, Funsch compassionately sends him to a different universe in which Gabe can have a normal life again from when he first met T.K. Now imprisoned in the Hades Universe, Yulaw declares that he will still become the One and then proceeds to battle several of the penal colony's inmates on top of a ziggurat.

In 1977, at Chicago 's Cabrini–Green housing projects, a young boy witnesses the killing of Sherman Fields, a homeless African American man with a hook for a hand. Suspected of giving a white child a razor blade in a piece of candy, Sherman is beaten to death by police but later proven innocent when more cases of razor blades in candies come up. In 2019, artist Anthony McCoy lives in Chicago with his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright. Seeking inspiration, Anthony explores the projects after Brianna's brother Troy and his boyfriend tell them the story of Helen Lyle, who is believed responsible for a killing spree and briefly kidnapping a baby in Cabrini-Green. Stung on the hand by a bee, Anthony meets laundromat owner William Burke, the boy who witnessed Sherman's death. William introduces him to the urban legend of the Candyman, which Anthony tells Brianna and jokingly performs its curse: by saying "Candyman" five times to a mirror, Sherman's spirit will appear and kill the summoner. Inspired by Sherman's death and the Candyman legend, Anthony creates an elaborate art piece titled "Say My Name" for a show curated by Brianna and her colleague Clive, but his work is disparaged by critic Finley Stephens and other attendees. Later that night, Clive and his girlfriend Jerrica unwittingly summon the Candyman, who brutally murders them; Brianna discovers their bodies, triggering childhood memories of witnessing her father's suicide. Anthony compulsively paints gruesome portraits of unknown men, becoming obsessed as he investigates Helen Lyle and her own Candyman research, and has a vision of Sherman's ghost in an elevator. Interviewed by Finley, Anthony goads her into summoning the Candyman herself, and has another vision in a mirror of himself as Sherman. Joining Brianna at a business dinner, he leaves abruptly when he learns Finley has been murdered. Anthony goes to William, who explains that the legend originated in the 1890s with Daniel Robitaille, an artist who had an interracial affair with a white client's daughter. After the daughter claimed Robitaille raped her, he was mutilated and burnt alive. The legend has been renewed for generations with the souls of other murdered innocent black men joining the Candyman "hive"; these are the subjects of Anthony's paintings. Anthony attempts to protect Brianna, but only frightens her with his increasingly erratic behavior. A teenager who attended Anthony's show and her classmates are killed after summoning the Candyman in their school bathroom. Anthony undergoes a physical transformation, spreading from the bee sting on his hand across his entire body. He confronts his mother, Anne-Marie, after visiting a hospital and learning that she lied to him: he was born near Cabrini-Green, and was the baby taken the night Helen died. Anne-Marie admits the Candyman was responsible for the bloodshed blamed on Helen, and the community vowed never to speak his name. Brianna seeks out William, who abducts her to an abandoned church, where Anthony is in a fugue state. Shortly after Sherman's death, William witnessed his return as the Candyman when his sister and her friend summoned him and were killed. William plans to resurrect the Candyman "hive" as a form of retaliation against gentrifiers. Sawing off Anthony's hand and replacing it with a hook, William calls the police to have Anthony wrongfully gunned down as another vengeful spirit to join the hive. Chased into the Cabrini-Green row houses, Brianna stabs William to death with a pen. She is confronted by Anthony, who collapses in her arms and is shot dead by the police. Detaining Brianna in the backseat of a car, the police try to intimidate her into agreeing that Anthony was the killer and that his shooting was justified. Instead, she uses the rearview mirror to summon the Candyman, who appears as Anthony and massacres the police. Swarming with bees, his face transforms to that of Daniel Robitaille, instructing Brianna to "tell everyone" what she has witnessed. The film's end credits feature a shadow puppet montage of members of the growing Candyman hive, including Daniel, Sherman, Anthony Crawford, James Byrd Jr., George Stinney, and Anthony himself.

In New York City, during the late 21st century, genetically altered humans live side by side with aliens and other beings, with the former lording over the latter and treating them as second class citizens. These beings have come to Earth as refugees via the "inclusion zone", a mysterious vortex which appeared one day, encompassing Central Park and sealing it off. The forcefield allows the refugees to exit, but anyone who tries to enter is instantly killed. A strange pyramid appears hovering over the city. Within, the gods of ancient Egypt discuss their fellow god Horus and conclude that his rebellious antics are unacceptable and must be punished, sentencing him to lose his immortality and summarily be executed. They grant Horus seven days to "look upon his creation", and inform him that the only way to save himself is to reincarnate in a new body. However, the only way to do this is to find and mate with a compatible woman capable of carrying a god's child, a trait which is extremely rare. In the city below, Jill, a young woman with blue hair and a fey countenance, is captured by agents of the all-powerful corrupt eugenics company that controls much of the government and private sector, who kidnap the alien refugees to experiment on them. She is humanoid in appearance, but not quite human; her tears are blue and stain her pure white skin, and upon being examined by the company's scientists, it is discovered that her body's cells are no more than three months old despite looking and acting like a fully grown adult. Unbeknownst to the scientists, Jill is a bioengineered being, explaining her human-like appearance and unusual paranormal abilities. One of these abilities is the aforementioned capacity to procreate with gods, but she is unaware of this, nor is she aware that she was created explicitly for this purpose. Her genome is rapidly adapting and changing into that of a regular human, with the tradeoff being that she will lose all memories of her former self once the transformation is complete. One of the scientists, Dr. Elma Turner, is fascinated by Jill's unique physiology and becomes enamored with her, subsequently helping facilitate her escape. Elsewhere, Horus begins his search for a mate, but time is short as not only is his execution looming, but Jill herself will lose her unique ability to bear his child once she becomes fully human. He must inhabit a mortal body to perform this task, but quickly finds that anyone he tries to possess self destructs in a gruesome manner. He deduces that humankind has become incompatible due to their genetic modification, and are thus incapable of handling his godly presence within them. Desperate to find a suitable host body, Horus eventually encounters Nikopol, a political rebel condemned to thirty years of hibernation who, due to a mechanical accident, escapes his imprisonment one year early when the wall of the cryo-prison crumbles. Nikopol, having been in cryostasis for several decades, has remained unmodified, and thus is able to be a host body for Horus to inhabit, much to Nikopol's chagrin. Horus possesses Nikopol's body but fails to take full control of him, causing the two to frequently clash with one another. Nikopol, having lost his leg as a result of the prison toppling, is given a replacement by Horus which he fashioned out of some steel railway track, with the comical side effect that it is too heavy for Nikopol to move on his own when he is in control of his body. Together, the two set out to fulfill Horus's quest. Nikopol and Horus eventually find Jill, and Horus begins to put his plan in motion by seducing her as Nikopol. Nikopol takes umbrage with this, decrying Horus's actions as sexual assault, which Horus thinks is merely a necessity and not wrong, as he is a god and therefore anything he does is, by definition, morally just. Nikopol begins to fall in love with Jill, further complicating matters. Meanwhile, a police inspector is investigating a series of serial killings in which the bodies of seemingly random individuals appear to have been torn apart from the inside out. The victims are the remains of the previous hosts Horus tried to inhabit, and Nikopol as well as Jill become suspects. Nikopol/Horus must woo Jill while simultaneously trying to keep her safe from the eugenics corporation, as well as staying one step ahead of the police. Eventually, Horus is successful and impregnates her in the nick of time, giving Nikopol's body back and leaving a parting gift by granting him the ability to move his heavy metal leg on his own. A year later, Nikopol bumps into a now fully human Jill in Paris with her new baby, a blue falcon who Jill describes as "cheeky". She does not remember him, but the two strike up a conversation, hinting that they may one day rekindle their romance. As the film ends, the camera pans up to the pyramid ship where Horus is entombed in a sarcophagus, a glimmer of light flashing in his eyes.