In post-Soviet Russia, civil war erupts as a result of the ongoing conflict in Chechnya. Military units loyal to Vladimir Radchenko, a Russian ultra-nationalist rebel, take control of a nuclear missile installation in the Russian Far East near the Chinese and North Korean borders and threaten nuclear war if confronted. USS Alabama, a U.S. Navy submarine, is dispatched on patrol with orders to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike if Radchenko fuels his missiles. Combat-hardened veteran Captain Frank Ramsey chooses Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter, who has an extensive education in military history and tactics but no combat experience, as his new XO. Tensions arise between the headstrong Ramsey and the more analytical and cautious Hunter, exacerbated by Ramsey's decision to order a missile drill amidst the chaos caused by a galley fire that results in the death of the chief mess officer. Hunter helps fight the fire and discreetly questions the decision but is chastised by Ramsey for the appearance of discord. Alabama receives an Emergency Action Message ordering a missile launch against the Russian base. As Alabama prepares to fire, a second radio message is detected before a rebel Russian Akula -class submarine attacks, damaging the boat’s radio and leaving the message incomplete. With the last confirmed order being to launch, Ramsey decides to proceed. Hunter disagrees, believing the partial second message may be a retraction. When Hunter refuses to consent as is required for a launch to be authorized, Ramsey tries to relieve him of duty. Hunter orders Ramsey arrested for attempting to circumvent two-man protocol. The Chief of the Boat sides with Hunter and has Ramsey relieved of command and confined to his stateroom, putting Hunter in charge. The Russian submarine attacks Alabama again. Alabama emerges victorious but is damaged when a torpedo detonates next to her hull. The main propulsion system is disabled, and the bilge bay begins flooding. As the crew tries to restore propulsion, Hunter orders the sealing of the bilge with sailors trapped inside, saving Alabama at the expense of the men. Propulsion is restored before Alabama reaches hull-crush depth. Officers and crew loyal to Ramsey unite and stage a mutiny. They retake the control room, confining Hunter, the Chief of the Boat, and some others to the officers' mess. Repairs to the radio continue, but Ramsey is determined to proceed without waiting for verification. Hunter escapes his arrest and prepares to retake the ship. He gains the support of weapons officer Peter Ince in the missile control room, further delaying the launch and leading Ramsey to go there. Hunter's party storms Alabama' s command center, removing the captain's missile key. Ramsey and his men return, resulting in an armed Mexican standoff. With news that the radio will soon be repaired, Ramsey and Hunter agree to wait until the deadline for a preemptive missile launch to be effective. Communications are eventually restored, revealing the full message from the second transmission – a retraction ordering that the missile launch be aborted because Radchenko's rebellion has been quelled. Ramsey turns the conn over to Hunter and returns to his cabin. The two men are put before a tribunal at Naval Station Pearl Harbor to answer for their actions. The tribunal concludes that both men were right and both men were wrong, and Hunter's actions were deemed lawfully justified and in the best interests of the United States. Unofficially, the tribunal reprimands both men for failing to resolve their differences. Thanks to Ramsey's personal recommendation, the tribunal agrees to grant Hunter command of his own sub while allowing Ramsey to save face via an early retirement with full honors. Outside, Hunter meets with Ramsey to express his gratitude, and the two men part ways amicably. A textual epilogue states that as of January 1996, only the President has the authority to launch nuclear missiles.

Bull McCabe, an Irish farmer, dumps a dead donkey in a lake. It transpires that McCabe's son, Tadhg, killed the donkey after discovering it had broken into the field the family has rented for generations. The donkey's owner blames Bull McCabe for the death and demands "blood money". McCabe has a deep attachment to the rented field, which his family has cultivated and improved, from barren to now very productive, over a number of generations. The field's owner is a widow who, around the time of the 10th anniversary of the death of her husband, decides to sell the field. She decides to sell the field by public auction rather than to McCabe directly. Unbeknownst to McCabe, Tadhg has been harassing the widow for years, causing her to believe that McCabe is behind the harassment in order to force her into a sale. On hearing there will be an auction McCabe goes to the village pub and announces that nobody would dare bid against him for "his" field. McCabe has constant doubts about Tadhg's ability to safeguard the field. His older son, Seamie, died by suicide when he was 13. McCabe blames himself for the death, as he told Seamie the field could only support one family, and that Tadhg would have to emigrate when he grew up. McCabe and his wife have not spoken in the 18 years since the death. Peter, an American whose ancestors are from the area, arrives in the village. He has plans to build a hydro-electric plant in the area and quarry stone for new roads. Central to his plans is McCabe's field. At the auction Peter repeatedly out-bids McCabe, forcing the price up to 80 pounds, 30 pounds more than what McCabe can afford. Seeing the bidding war the widow stops the auction and insists there would be a new auction, with a reserve price of 100 pounds. Knowing he cannot outbid Peter and seeing his cattle thrown off the field, McCabe goes to the rectory to confront Peter, and the parish priest who has been supporting him. McCabe now discovers Tadhg's actions, expelling him from the meeting, and goes on to explain his deep attachment to the field. This includes the death of his mother while saving hay. Peter refuses to back down from his plans. In a desperate last attempt McCabe and Tadhg confront Peter at a waterfall he has just purchased, the night before the second auction. When Tadhg fails to defeat Peter in a fight, McCabe himself intervenes and beats both men in a rage. Peter is killed, and upon realising this, McCabe has a mental break. He confuses Peter with his dead son Seamie. Tadhg flees to the Irish Traveller woman he has fallen for. He tells her he has killed Peter, and they make plans to run off together. McCabe's acolyte Bird O'Donnell bids on behalf of McCabe and secures the field for 101 pounds at the second auction, unopposed. A Traveller boy spots the dead donkey floating in the lake and a crane is brought in to recover it. It inadvertently recovers the corpse of Peter. At the same time Tadhg comes home to tell his father he is leaving with the Traveller and says he never wanted the field. The Parish priest arrives to confront McCabe about the discovery of Peter. Having lost his son and with the corpse discovered, McCabe goes insane and herds his cattle to the cliffs. Bird informs Tadhg that his father has gone mad. Tadhg rushes to stop his father but gets driven over the cliff by the herd of cattle and killed. Further maddened with grief, McCabe attempts to drive the waves back from his dead son, while Tadhg's mother and the Traveller sob on the clifftop.

LAPD SWAT bomb disposal officers Jack Traven and Harry Temple are tasked with preventing a bombing on a city elevator containing 13 people, planned by an extortionist, Howard Payne. After narrowly rescuing the passengers, the duo hunt down Payne, during which Harry is wounded to stop Payne from taking him hostage. Payne seemingly blows himself up, and Jack and Harry are later commended in a ceremony for their bravery. It is revealed that Payne had faked his death, and has become personally bitter towards Jack. After destroying a city bus to get Jack's attention, Payne contacts him with a new scheme: a bomb planted on a second city bus (a 1966 GMC New Look) that will activate upon reaching 50 mph (80 km/h) and detonate if the speed goes below 50, but is also set to go off sometime before noon. He warns Jack not to offload passengers or the bus will explode. Jack receives a demand from Payne: $3.7 million in ransom or the bomb will explode. Racing through traffic, Jack gets a ride in a Jaguar from Maurice to warn the bus driver of the bomb. Realizing the bus has surpassed 50 mph and the bomb is armed, Jack boards the bus, but a felon's panic leads to the driver, Sam, being shot. A passenger, Annie Porter, takes over driving. With the bomb armed and passengers aware of the threat, Jack contacts Harry for help while trying to keep the bus moving. Payne agrees to allow Sam to be offloaded as a sign of good faith. A passenger, Helen, panics and attempts to get off the bus, but Payne detonates a smaller bomb, causing her to fall out and be killed. Despite Payne's constant surveillance, Jack and Annie maneuver the bus through several dangerous obstacles, including a gap in the freeway, and direct it to Los Angeles International Airport to avoid traffic-congestion. Meanwhile, Harry discovers that Payne is a former Atlanta Police Department bomb squad officer who was placed on administrative leave after losing a thumb. The bomb's design reflects his long-lasting bitterness over being under-compensated with nothing but a "cheap gold watch". Harry leads a SWAT team to arrest him; however, Payne's house has been rigged with explosives, and Harry and his teammates are killed in the blast. In a last-ditch effort to defuse the bomb, Jack goes under the bus on a tethered roller bed, but the cable snaps. He is helped onboard by the passengers. In the process, he punctures the fuel tank and the bus starts leaking gasoline. Jack admits defeat until he notices that Payne is monitoring the bus interior with a hidden surveillance camera. With the help of a television crew, the LAPD tamper with Payne's surveillance footage. This gives Jack enough time to help the passengers escape before the bus crashes and explodes into a cargo plane. While noticing the LAPD has dropped-off the ransom and is waiting to apprehend him, Payne sees the tampered video feed and seeks revenge. The SWAT team are waiting for Payne to appear, but Payne kidnaps Annie while impersonating a police officer. Jack discovers a hole under the trash can, where Payne has taken the ransom and accessed the subway system. Jack finds Annie wearing an explosive vest; after a confrontation between Payne and Jack, Payne escapes on a train with Annie. Payne shoots the driver and train controls. He opens the duffel bag containing the money and a dye pack explodes in his face. An enraged Payne fights Jack on the train roof, only to be decapitated by a passing overhead signal when Jack pushes him to the roof of the tunnel. Jack deactivates the vest from Annie, but finds that the train cannot be stopped. Jack instead accelerates the train, causing it to derail and crash onto Hollywood Boulevard, and screeches to a halt in front of a tour van. Jack and Annie emerge unscathed and share a kiss as onlookers watch in amazement.

Eric, 19, is "starred up" from a juvenile prison to a high security adult prison, based on his age and his history of violent behaviour. His father, Neville, is serving a life sentence at this prison, and is a lieutenant for the crime boss that runs the prison. Eric soon begins attacking guards and inmates alike, but is rescued from retribution from the guards by Oliver, a volunteer prison therapist, who convinces Eric to join his therapy group. The group is composed of black men who also have violent pasts, which they are trying to confront. The sessions often degrade into angry, posturing tirades by members against others, which Oliver de-escalates but uses to help them understand their rage. Eric begins to observe this format, and also bond with the other group members. While his father has ordered him to "learn to behave" from the therapist, he is annoyed by his son "fraternising" with blacks. But when three inmates are paid with drugs to "dunk" Eric in his toilet, one of his black group-mates steps in to save him. The father and son have an explosive up and down relationship, with the father attempting to instill his dominance, and make Eric follow the prison rules so he can get out. When Eric however attempts to explain his feelings to the uncomfortable Neville, Eric intuits that his father is in a romantic relationship with his cellmate, and is disgusted by it. The boss, Dennis, appears to begin to mentor Eric, seeing his younger self in Eric. However, Eric is disinterested and ends up attacking Dennis during an argument with Neville. Dennis then orders the prison director to kill Eric. While Neville is telling Dennis that he will not abide the death of his son, prison guards in the basement begin to hang Eric, so it will look like suicide. But when Dennis goes to stab Neville, Neville overpowers him and stabs him, then runs down and rescues Eric. As Neville is being transferred out, the guards allow father and son a tender moment.

In LaGrange, Ohio, construction worker Curtis LaForche has apocalyptic dreams and visual and auditory hallucinations of rain "like fresh motor oil," swarms of menacing black birds, and being harmed by people close to him. He hides all of this from his wife, Samantha, and their deaf daughter, Hannah. He instead channels his anxieties into a compulsive obsession to improve and enlarge a storm shelter in his backyard; however, his increasingly strange behavior – including a tendency to cut ties with anyone in his life that has harmed him only in his dreams – strains his relationship with his family, friends, employer, and the close-knit town. He also puts his job in jeopardy as he borrows heavy equipment from the company for personal use to build his shelter. To deal with his increased insomnia and apocalyptic visions, Curtis sees a counselor at a free clinic, with whom he talks about his family's psychological history. His mother, Sarah, has paranoid schizophrenia that surfaced in her at about the same age that Curtis is now. He's worried that he may also have the disorder. In order to have the remodeled storm shelter completed, Curtis gets a home improvement loan he can't afford to start building the shelter – all without telling his wife. Samantha becomes angry when she discovers the project. After Curtis takes more than the prescribed dose of a sedative and has a seizure, Samantha calls an ambulance. He recovers, then finally explains the truth to her, including his dreams. Curtis is increasingly absent from work, causing tension with his boss, as he and Samantha make preparations for the cochlear implant surgery for Hannah in six weeks' time. Having been informed of the borrowed work equipment, Curtis's boss fires him and gives him only two weeks' worth of medical insurance benefits, after placing Dewart, the close friend and coworker whom Curtis asked to help him start construction of the shelter, on two weeks' unpaid administrative leave. Curtis buys gas masks for his family and extends his previous employer's health insurance policy for a few extra weeks. After he finds out that his counselor at the free clinic has suddenly transferred and been replaced with a new one, he walks out. Tensions linger between Curtis and Samantha over the loss of his job at such a crucial time for their family. Samantha gets Curtis to see an actual psychiatrist and demands that they attend a social function so she can restore some sense of normalcy to their strained, increasingly isolated life. At a Lions Club community gathering, a bitter Dewart, who has been spreading gossip that Curtis is crazy, is angrily provoked and punches him. Enraged, Curtis knocks Dewart to the floor, overturns a table, and unleashes a frightening verbal tirade upon everyone present. He prophetically shouts that a devastating storm is coming, insisting that none of them are prepared. Later, a tornado warning sends him and his family into the shelter. After they awaken, Curtis reluctantly removes his gas mask, prompted by Samantha. They go to open the shelter doors, but he still hears a storm outside. His wife implores him, insisting that there's no storm and that he needs to open the door. After a tense standoff, Curtis throws open the doors into the blinding sun; a strong but bearable storm has passed, and neighbors are cleaning up broken tree limbs and other yard debris as power company trucks restore electricity along the street. A psychiatrist advises the couple to go through with their planned, annual beach vacation but that Curtis will need to get psychiatric care in a facility away from his family upon their return. At Myrtle Beach, while Curtis is building sandcastles with Hannah, she signs the word "storm.” As Samantha exits their beach house, the thick, oily rain that Curtis spoke of begins to fall, staining her outstretched hand. Samantha looks up to a bigger version of the ominous storm clouds Curtis had seen, massing over the ocean; multiple waterspouts reach down to the ocean's surface, and the tide pulls back as a tsunami looms in the distance. Samantha and Curtis exchange glances as Samantha whispers "okay.”

Congressman Phil Hammersley opposes a proposed counterterrorism bill that would significantly expand surveillance powers for American intelligence agencies, arguing that it poses a threat to civil liberties. In response, National Security Agency (NSA) Assistant Director Thomas Reynolds, who supports the bill and stands to benefit professionally from its passage, orders Hammersley's assassination. His team stages the murder as a fatal car accident brought on by a heart attack. Meanwhile, labor lawyer Robert Clayton Dean is working on a case involving racketeer Paulie Pintero, leveraging a videotape — obtained through a surveillance contact known only as "Brill" — to coerce a favorable settlement. At the same time, wildlife biologist Daniel Zavitz discovers footage of Hammersley's murder captured by a remote camera; Reynolds sends his team after him. In a chance encounter, Zavitz discreetly slips the incriminating video disc into Dean's shopping bag before getting struck and killed in traffic. Reynolds' team finds Dean's business card on Zavitz's corpse and wrongly assumes that he knows about the tape. NSA agents impersonating police officers attempt to enter Dean's home without a search warrant. When Dean turns the request down, the agents later break in and plant surveillance devices in his clothes and personal effects. They also fabricate false evidence linking Dean to money laundering and an affair with Rachel Banks, Dean's ex-girlfriend and Brill's courier. As a result, Dean is fired from his law firm, has his car repossessed, his bank account frozen by the IRS, and his wife Carla, who is also a labor lawyer, kicks him out the house. Desperate, Dean calls Rachel to get in touch with Brill. The NSA intercept the call and send an impostor, but the real Brill intervenes. Brill — revealed to be Edward Lyle, a former NSA communications expert in hiding — removes the bugs on Dean's clothes and reveals the NSA's involvement. Dean starts a fire in a hotel to distract Reynolds' henchmen and is chased through a tunnel and a sewer to evade them. When Rachel is later found murdered in her apartment, Dean and Lyle locate the original disc and identify Reynolds as the mastermind. However, their hideout is raided and blown up, the disc is destroyed, and they are forced to escape. Lyle reveals his background: he once worked in Iran during the revolution and escaped after his partner, Rachel's father, was killed. He now lives off the grid. While Lyle urges Dean to disappear, Dean insists on exposing Reynolds. They record Congressman Sam Albert, a supporter of the surveillance bill, in a compromising situation, then manipulate Reynolds into believing he is being blackmailed. They lure him into a meeting under the pretense of trading the tape. At the meeting, Dean deceives Reynolds by claiming the tape is concealed at Pintero's restaurant, which is under federal surveillance. Reynolds confronts Pintero, who misinterprets the demand as a threat involving separate evidence, unfortunately, a massive shootout ensues between the gangsters and the NSA agents, leaving most of the participants dead. Lyle streams the confrontation to the FBI, prompting a raid that ends the standoff. Reynolds' involvement is exposed, the survivors are apprehended, and Dean is rescued. In the aftermath, the surveillance bill is canceled by American federal legislators, the NSA covers up Reynolds' rogue operation, and Dean is exonerated of all charges. He reunites with Carla and their son Eric. Lyle, having retreated again, sends Dean a covert farewell message via television, showing himself enjoying life in a tropical hideaway.

Former Ohio State quarterback and rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah assists senior agent Angelo Pappas in investigating a string of bank robberies by the "Ex-Presidents": robbers who wear rubber masks of former presidents Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Rather than robbing the vault, they demand only the cash the tellers have in their drawers and are gone within ninety seconds. Pursuing Pappas's theory that the criminals are surfers, Utah infiltrates the surfing community. He fabricates a family tragedy to persuade orphaned surfer and restaurant waitress Tyler to teach him to surf after she saves him from drowning during his first attempt. Through her, he meets Bodhi, Tyler's ex-boyfriend and the leader of a gang of surfers consisting of Roach, Grommet, and Nathaniel. The group is wary of Utah, but they accept him when Bodhi recalls how a knee injury derailed Utah's football prospects. As he masters surfing, Utah finds himself drawn to the surfers' adrenaline-charged lifestyle, Bodhi's philosophies, and Tyler. Following a clue retrieved by analyzing toxins found in the hair of one of the bank robbers, Utah and Pappas lead an FBI raid on another gang of surfers, resulting in the deaths of two of them, as well as one of the agents. The raid inadvertently ruins a DEA undercover operation, as those surfers were wanted for separate charges regarding drug dealing, and they are determined not to be the Ex-Presidents. Watching Bodhi's group surfing, Utah begins to suspect that they are the Ex-Presidents, noting how close a group they are and the way one of them moons other surfers in the same manner one of the robbers does. Utah and Pappas stake out a bank, and the Ex-Presidents appear. While wearing a Reagan mask, Bodhi leads Utah on a foot chase through the neighborhood, which ends when Utah's old injury flares up after he jumps into a flood control channel. Despite having a clear shot, the injured Utah allows Bodhi to escape. At a campfire that night, it is confirmed that Bodhi and his gang are the Ex-Presidents. Tyler discovers Utah's FBI badge and angrily terminates their relationship. Shortly afterward, Bodhi coerces Utah into skydiving with the group. After the jump, Bodhi reveals that he knows Utah is an FBI agent and has arranged for his friend Rosie, a non-surfing thug, to hold Tyler hostage to blackmail him into assisting the Ex-Presidents with their last bank robbery of the summer. During the robbery, they decide to infiltrate the vault, causing them to take longer than normal. Grommet is killed when an off-duty police officer and one of the bank security guards attempt to foil the robbery. The robbers kill the officer and security guard, then abandon Utah. Utah is arrested for the robbery and castigated by FBI director Ben Harp for the murders, but Pappas punches Harp out after an angry altercation and vows to bring in Bodhi himself. Pappas and Utah head to the airport where Bodhi, Roach, and Nathaniel are about to leave for Mexico. During a shootout, Pappas and Nathaniel are killed, and Roach is seriously wounded. With Roach aboard, Bodhi forces Utah onto the plane at gunpoint. Once airborne and over their intended drop zone, Bodhi and Roach put on their parachutes and jump from the plane, leaving Utah to take the blame. With no other parachutes available, Utah jumps from the plane with Bodhi's gun and intercepts him in mid-air. Despite landing safely, Utah's knee gives out again, allowing Bodhi to escape. Bodhi meets with Rosie, who frees Tyler; with Roach dead from his wounds, the two men flee the country and go their separate ways. Nine months later, Utah tracks Bodhi to Bells Beach in Victoria, Australia, where a record-breaking storm is producing lethal waves. This is an event Bodhi had talked about experiencing, calling it the "50-year storm." Bodhi begs Utah to release him so he can ride the once-in-a-lifetime wave, and Utah, knowing Bodhi will not come back alive, agrees and bids him farewell. As Bodhi surfs to his death, Utah walks away, throwing his FBI badge into the ocean.

In October 1962, U-2 aerial surveillance photos reveal that the Soviet Union is placing intermediate-range ballistic missiles carrying nuclear weapons in Cuba. U.S. president John F. Kennedy and his advisers must come up with a plan to prevent their activation. Kennedy wants to show that the United States will not allow a missile threat. The Joint Chiefs of Staff advise military strikes against the missile sites followed by an invasion of Cuba. Kennedy is reluctant to this because it would likely cause the Soviets to invade West Berlin, which could lead to an all-out war. Kennedy sees an analogy to the events that started World War I, where the tactics of both sides' commanders had not evolved since the previous war and were obsolete, only this time nuclear weapons are involved. War appears to be almost inevitable. The Kennedy administration tries to find a solution that will remove the missiles but avoid an act of war. They reject a blockade, as this is formally regarded as an act of war, and settle on what they publicly describe as a quarantine. They announce that the U.S. naval forces will stop all ships entering Cuban waters and inspect them to verify they are not carrying weapons. The Soviet Union sends mixed messages in response. Off the shores of Cuba, the Soviet ships turn back from the quarantine lines. Spy plane pictures continue to be ordered, but one of Kennedy's top advisers, Kenneth O'Donnell, calls the pilots to ensure they do not report that they were shot at or fired upon, because if they were, the country would be forced to retaliate under the rules of engagement. John A. Scali, a reporter with ABC News, is contacted by Soviet "emissary" Aleksandr Fomin, and through this back-channel communication method the Soviets offer to remove the missiles in exchange for public assurances that the U.S. will never invade Cuba. A long message in the same tone as the informal communication from Fomin, apparently written personally by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, is received. This is followed by a second, more hard line cable in which the Soviets offer a deal involving U.S. removal of its Jupiter missiles from Turkey. The Kennedy administration interprets the second as a response from the Soviet Politburo, and decides to ignore it and respond to the message assumed to be from Khrushchev. There are several mis-steps during the crisis: the defense readiness level of Strategic Air Command (SAC) is raised to DEFCON 2 (one step shy of maximum readiness for imminent war), without informing Kennedy; a U.S. nuclear weapon test proceeds (Bluegill Triple Prime) and a routine test launch of a U.S. offensive missile is also carried out without the President's knowledge. In a bid for time while under pressure from the military for an immediate strike, President Kennedy authorizes attacks on the missile sites and an invasion of Cuba, to commence the following Monday. An Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane is sent over Cuba to gather intelligence for the attack, but is shot down, killing the pilot Rudolf Anderson. After much deliberation with the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, Kennedy makes a final attempt to avoid a war by sending his brother Robert to meet with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin on Friday night. Bobby reiterates the demand that the Soviets remove their missiles from Cuba, and in return promises not to invade or assist in the invasion of Cuba. Dobrynin insists that the U.S. must also remove all Jupiter missiles from Turkey, on the border of the Soviet Union. Bobby says that a quid pro quo is not possible, but in exchange for Khrushchev removing the missiles from Cuba, there will be a secret understanding that the U.S. will remove all of its "obsolete" missiles from Turkey within six months as part of a pre-scheduled plan. The Soviets announce on Sunday that they will remove their missiles from Cuba, averting a war that could have escalated to the use of nuclear weapons. President Kennedy later dictates a letter of condolence to the family of the reconnaissance pilot Anderson.

Sergeant Gerry Boyle is an officer of the Garda Síochána (police) in the Connemara district in the west of Ireland. He is crass and confrontational, regularly indulging in drugs and alcohol even while on duty. He is also shown to be well read and highly intelligent as well as having a softer side, showing concern for his ailing mother, Eileen. Boyle and his new subordinate, Aidan McBride, investigate a murder, with evidence apparently pointing to an occult serial killer. Shortly after, Boyle attends a briefing by an American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent Wendell Everett, sent to liaise with the Garda in hunting four Irish drug traffickers led by Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, who is believed to be awaiting a massive seaborne delivery of cocaine from Jamaica. Boyle recognises one of the men in Everett's presentation as the victim of the murder he and McBride had been investigating. McBride pulls over a car driven by Sheehy and his lieutenants Clive Cornell and Liam O'Leary and is shot dead. McBride's wife, Gabriela, reports McBride's disappearance to Boyle, who promises to look into it. The strait-laced Everett suggests that he and the unorthodox Boyle team up to track down Sheehy and his men. Everett makes the rounds, encountering Irish-speaking residents who pretend not to understand English rather than deal with an outsider. Boyle has a sexual encounter with a pair of sex workers at a hotel in town. On his way back from the hotel, Boyle spots McBride's Garda car at a "suicide hotspot" along the coast but does not believe that McBride killed himself. Gabriela, an immigrant from Croatia, tells Boyle that McBride is gay and that she married him to obtain an Irish visa as well as to make McBride "look respectable". Meeting Everett at a local pub, Boyle notices a closed-circuit television camera and remembers that the original suspect in the murder case claimed to be frequenting it at the time of the killing. Looking over the footage from the time of the murder, they see that the suspect's alibi is valid – and Everett also spots Sheehy and Cornell at the pub. Cornell delivers a payoff to the Garda inspectors to keep them off the case and is warned that Boyle "is too unpredictable". After Sheehy meets with Boyle to half-heartedly attempt blackmail and then to offer a bribe, both are refused. Tipped off by a young boy named Eugene, Boyle discovers a cache of weapons hidden in the bog by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and says he will arrange its return. (It is later revealed that Boyle kept a few of the guns.) Shortly after having her last wish to hear a live pub band fulfilled, Boyle's mother kills herself by overdosing on pills. Meeting at the bar again, Everett tells Boyle that Garda sources indicate Sheehy's shipment will be coming into County Cork and that he is leaving to investigate. Returning home, Boyle is confronted in his living room by O'Leary, who has been ordered by Sheehy to murder him. Instead, Boyle pulls a Derringer (from the IRA cache) and kills O'Leary, then calls Everett to tell him that the Cork lead is a decoy arranged by corrupt Garda officers. Boyle drives to the local dock where Sheehy's vessel is berthed and Sheehy's men are unloading the cocaine. Everett arrives and Boyle hands him an automatic rifle and persuades him to provide covering fire as he moves to arrest Sheehy and Cornell. Boyle kills Cornell before leaping onto the boat to deal with Sheehy. Everett's gunfire sets the boat alight. Boyle shoots Sheehy and leaves him wounded in the main cabin as the boiler explodes. The next day, a shattered Everett looks out on the water where the boat sank, believing Boyle to be dead. Eugene, standing nearby, mentions that Boyle was a good swimmer, having placed fourth at the 1988 Summer Olympics, a claim that Everett had dismissed. A young photographer comments that it would be easy enough to look it up to check whether or not it was true. Everett remembers Boyle's remark that Sheehy's corrupt backers would not forget Boyle's actions and that Boyle would have to disappear were he to continue living, and smiles.

British Army Colonel Katherine Powell discovers an undercover British/Kenyan agent has been murdered by the Al-Shabaab group. From Northwood Headquarters, she takes command of a mission to capture three of the ten highest-level Al-Shabaab leaders meeting in a safe house in Nairobi. A multinational team works on the capture mission, linked by video and voice systems. Aerial surveillance is provided by a USAF MQ-9 Reaper drone controlled from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada by Second Lieutenant Steve Watts. Undercover Kenyan field agents, including Jama Farah, use short-range ornithopter and insectothopter cameras to link in ground intelligence. Kenyan special forces are positioned nearby to make the arrest. Facial recognition to identify human targets is done at Joint Intelligence Center Pacific at Pearl Harbor. The mission is supervised in the United Kingdom by a COBRA meeting that includes British Lieutenant General Frank Benson, two government ministers and a ministerial under-secretary. Farah discovers three high-level targets arming two suicide bombers for a presumed attack on a civilian target, prompting Powell to change the mission objective from "capture" to "kill". She requests Watts prepare a precision Hellfire missile attack on the building and solicits the opinion of her British Army legal counsel who advises her to seek approval from superiors. Frustrated, Benson asks permission from the COBRA members, who can't find consensus and refer the question to the UK Foreign Secretary who is on a trade mission to Singapore. He in turn defers to the United States Secretary of State, who declares the American suicide bomber an enemy of the state. The Foreign Secretary then insists that COBRA take due diligence to minimise collateral damage. Alia, who lives next door, is near the target building selling her mother's bread. The senior military personnel stress the risk of letting would-be suicide bombers leave the house. The lawyers and politicians involved in the chain of command argue the personal, political, and legal merits around launching a Hellfire missile attack in a friendly country not at war with the US or UK, with the significant risk of collateral damage. Watts sees a more direct risk of little Alia selling bread outside the targeted building, and they delay firing until she moves. Farah is directed to buy all of Alia's bread so she will leave, but doing so blows his cover, and he flees without collecting it. Seeking authorisation to execute the strike, Powell orders her risk-assessment officer to find parameters that will let him quote a lower 45% risk of civilian deaths. He re-evaluates the strike point and assesses the probability of Alia's death at 45–65%. She makes him confirm only the lower figure which she reports up the chain of command. The strike is authorised, and Watts fires. The missile destroys the building and injures Alia, but one conspirator survives. Watts is ordered to fire a second missile, which strikes the site just as Alia's parents reach her. They rush Alia to a hospital, where she is pronounced dead. In the London situation room, the under-secretary berates Benson for killing from the safety of his chair. Benson counters that he has been on the ground in the aftermath of five suicide bombings and adds as he is leaving, provoking her to tears: "Never tell a soldier that he does not know the cost of war."

In London, mob boss Lenny Cole rules the ever-growing real estate business, using a corrupt councillor for bureaucratic fixing, and his right-hand man Archy for the dirty side of things. A billionaire Russian businessman, Uri Omovich, plans a fixed land deal, and London's crooks all seem to want a piece of it — particularly Uri's underhanded accountant Stella, and a gang called "The Wild Bunch" led by small-time crook "One-Two", his partner "Mumbles", and their driver "Handsome Bob". Uri agrees to Lenny's price of €7,000,000 for bribing the council, and as a sign of trust, lends him his "lucky painting". Yet when Uri arranges for Stella to move the funds, she double-crosses him and hires the Wild Bunch to steal the money. Additionally, Lenny's estranged and drug-addicted stepson Johnny Quid steals the painting from Lenny's office after faking his own death. Lenny and Archy then coerce Johnny's former talent managers Mickey and Roman into tracking down Johnny. In a subplot, Handsome Bob gets close to Stella's gay husband, a lawyer who has information on a longtime unknown informant in their criminal circle, and asks One-Two for a single dance before Bob goes to prison after the informant exposed him. Uri tasks Stella once more with covertly siphoning the necessary payoff from his holdings, despite his growing suspicion of her. Yet when his moneymen are once again robbed by the Wild Bunch, his assistant Victor convinces him that Lenny is likely to be behind the robberies, and is also purposely keeping Uri's lucky painting from him. Uri and Victor then invite Lenny to a private golf game, where Victor beats him with a golf club, finishing by breaking Lenny's leg as a warning to return his painting. Wild Bunch friend Cookie happens to buy the painting from a couple of crackheads who stole it from Johnny's hideout. Cookie then gives the painting to One-Two, who in turn offers it to Stella as a token of appreciation after a sexual encounter. After Stella leaves his flat, One-Two is surprised by Uri's henchmen but is rescued, and subsequently kidnapped, by Archy and his goons, who had come looking for Uri's money. Uri wants to marry Stella, whom he has long admired. He goes to Stella's house to propose, but he then spots the painting. Stella lies and says she has had it for years. Uri, enraged by Stella's betrayal, orders Victor to kill her. Archy brings Johnny, Roman, Mickey and the Wild Bunch to Lenny's warehouse where Lenny orders Johnny and the Wild Bunch executed. Handsome Bob offers the legal documents concerning the informant in his pocket to Archy. Archy recognizes the pseudonym used on documents, "Sidney Shaw", as belonging to Lenny. Lenny had arranged with the police to routinely lock up many criminal associates (including Archy) for years at a time to ensure his own freedom and while also enhancing his own standing in the criminal underworld. Archy orders Lenny's men to free the Wild Bunch and has Lenny drowned and fed to crayfish. In the elevator, Johnny explains to Roman and Mickey that they will also be killed to leave no witnesses, and graphically explains the manner of their executions. His description unnerves the man tasked to execute the trio, prompting him to act prematurely. Having already anticipated this move, Johnny warns Mickey and Roman to intervene and kill their would-be executioner. Johnny shoots two more men waiting at the top of the elevator and with help from the Wild Bunch, they escape the last of Archy's men. Later, Archy picks up Johnny from rehab and gives him Uri's lucky painting as a welcome home present, remarking that obtaining the painting "cost a very wealthy Russian an arm and a leg". Johnny proclaims that, with his new-found freedom from addiction and his stepfather, he will do what he could not do before: "become a real RocknRolla". In a post-credit scene, One-Two accedes to Handsome Bob's request to dance with him.

Dr. Jeremy Stone recounts the events before the United States Senate Committee on Space Sciences in 1971: After a U.S. government satellite crashes near the small rural town of Piedmont, New Mexico, on February 5, nearly all the residents are dead. A military recovery team from Vandenberg Air Force Base sent to recover the satellite dies while trying to do so. Suspecting that the satellite has brought back an alien organism, the military activates an elite team of scientists. Dr. Stone, the team leader, and Dr. Mark Hall, a surgeon, are dropped in by helicopter. They discover the town's doctor opened the satellite in his office and that all of his blood has crystallized into a powder, the same death befalling nearly all of the town. Stone and Hall retrieve the satellite and find two survivors, 69-year-old alcoholic Peter Jackson and six-month-old crying infant Manuel Rios. The elite team also includes Dr. Charles Dutton and Dr. Ruth Leavitt, who join them at a top-secret Nevada underground facility, code named Wildfire. They go through four sub-levels of decontamination procedures, arriving at the fifth sub-level laboratories. If the organism threatens to escape, the Wildfire facility includes an automatic nuclear self-destruct mechanism to incinerate all infectious agents. Under the " odd-man hypothesis ", Dr. Hall is entrusted with the only key that can deactivate the device, the theory being that an unmarried male is the most dispassionate person within a group to make critical decisions in a crisis. Examining the satellite, the team discovers the microscopic alien organism that caused the deaths. The greenish, throbbing life form is assigned the code name "Andromeda." Infecting through the lungs, Andromeda kills biological life almost instantly via a blood clot in the brain and asphyxiation. It appears to be highly virulent. The team studies the organism using animal subjects, an electron microscope, and culturing in various growth media to learn how it behaves. The microbe contains the hydrogen and carbon required for terrestrial life and appears to have a crystalline structure, but lacks the DNA, RNA, proteins, and amino acids present in all forms of terrestrial life, and directly transforms energy to matter with no discernible byproducts. Hall tries to determine why the two Piedmont residents survived. Unknown to the others, Leavitt's research on the germ is impaired by her undisclosed epilepsy. A military jet crashes near Piedmont after the pilot radios that his plastic oxygen mask is dissolving. Hall realizes that the alcoholic Jackson survived because his blood was too acidic from drinking Sterno, and that the baby lived due to his blood being too alkaline from constant crying, suggesting that Andromeda can survive only within a narrow range of blood pH. Just as he has this insight, the organism mutates into a non-lethal form that degrades synthetic rubber and plastic. Andromeda escapes the biocontainment room into the laboratory where Dutton is working. When Andromeda causes all the laboratory's seals to start decaying, a five-minute countdown to nuclear destruction is initiated. Hall rescues Leavitt from an epileptic seizure, triggered by the flashing red lights of Wildfire's alarm system. The team discover that the microbe would thrive on the energy of a nuclear explosion and would consequently be transformed into a super-colony that could destroy all life on Earth. Hall races to reach a functioning station where he can disable the nuclear bomb with his key. He endures multiple attacks by automated lasers as he climbs through the laboratory's central core. He finds a working station, disables the bomb with seconds to spare, and collapses. Hall awakens in a hospital. His colleagues reveal that clouds are being seeded over the Pacific Ocean, which will cause rain to sweep Andromeda from the atmosphere and into alkaline seawater, rendering it harmless. Stone finishes testifying by saying that while they were able to defeat the alien pathogen, they may be unable to do so in the future. The film ends with a computer feed suddenly stopping and the computer flashing the number "601", the Wildfire code for information coming in too fast to analyze.