The story is told from the viewpoint of Lt. Werner (Herbert Grönemeyer), who has been assigned as a war correspondent on the German submarine U-96 in October 1941. He meets its captain (Jürgen Prochnow), chief engineer (Klaus Wennemann), and the crew in a French nightclub. Thomsen (Otto Sander), another captain, gives a crude drunken speech to celebrate his Ritterkreuz award, in which he openly mocks not only Winston Churchill but implicitly Adolf Hitler as well.
Ludo Decker (Schweiger) is a Berlin based yellow press reporter. With his photographer Moritz, his daily routine is to spy on celebrities for the tabloid Das Blatt. He also uses his work for frequent sexual contacts with his objects of interest.
In a prologue, Alex Kerner (Nico Ledermüller) recalls how proud he was as a child in 1978 when the first German to enter space, Sigmund Jähn, came from East Germany (the GDR).
Bank robber Zeki Müller has just been out of prison. Upon his release, he goes to retrieve the money he stole in order to repay a debt, but his friend buried it in a construction site. During Zeki's time in prison, the construction project was completed and his money is now buried beneath the new gymnasium at the Goethe Gesamtschule. In order to obtain the money, Zeki applies for the vacant position of a deceased janitor. However, due to a misunderstanding, he is given a job as a substitute teacher.
The movie begins at a place which appears to be Nevada's legendary Area 51. A visiting general is led down into an underground complex where he is shown a captured alien. The alien resembles a chubby Vulcan in a cowboy costume, and greets the general with a "What are you looking at so stupidly? (Sounds better in German)".
In 1984 East Germany, Stasi Captain (Hauptmann) HGW XX/7, Gerd Wiesler, suggests to his superiors that he begin to spy on the playwright Georg Dreyman. Wiesler and his team bug the apartment, set up surveillance equipment in an attic and begin reporting Dreyman's activities. Dreyman had escaped state scrutiny due to his pro-Communist views and international recognition. Wiesler soon learns the real reason behind the surveillance: Minister of Culture Bruno Hempf covets Dreyman's girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria Sieland, and is trying to eliminate Dreyman as a romantic rival. While Wiesler's superior, Lt. Col. Anton Grubitz, sees an opportunity for advancement, Wiesler, an idealist, is horrified, asking Grubitz "Is this why we joined?" Minister Hempf coerces Sieland into having sex with him by exploiting her vulnerability as an insecure actress whose livelihood is dependent on state approval of stagecraft. After discovering Sieland's relationship with Hempf (through Wiesler's covert intervention), Dreyman implores her not to meet him again. Sieland flees to a nearby bar where Wiesler, posing as a fan, urges her to be true to herself. She returns home and reconciles with Dreyman, rejecting Hempf.
Mortimer "Mo" Folchart (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Teresa "Resa" Folchart (Sienna Guillory) are reading the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood" to their baby daughter Meggie. As Mo reads the story, a red velvet hood appears as a narrator (Roger Allam) explains that people known as "Silver Tongues" are born with the gift that whenever they read a story out loud, the story becomes real.
The plot begins in 11th-century England, much knowledge having been lost . It is the Dark Ages, and the Church is fighting against 'black magic'. The medical knowledge of Greek physicians like Hippocrates and Galen had been lost to the medicine of medieval Europe, until taught later in schools such as the School of Salerno (after the Arabic-Latin translation movement of the 12th century). In 11th-century England, travelling barber surgeons attempted to supply medical care to the ordinary population, often at the risk of the Church persecuting them for witchcraft.
In 1995, Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds) is an obese, curly-haired high school student with a lisp, braces, and a "gentle giant" demeanor. He attends the graduation party of his best friend, Jamie Palamino (Amy Smart), whom he secretly has a huge romantic crush on. He plans to confess his feelings by writing them in Jamie's yearbook. When Chris tries to return Jamie's yearbook, it is taken by her despicable ex-boyfriend, Tim (Ty Olsson). Chris is publicly humiliated when Tim reads his (Chris) confession aloud to the party but is further demoralized when Jamie doesn't reciprocate his intense and close romantic feelings and affections. After they share a kiss, Tim and the class burst out and humiliate Chris again. Embarrassed, Chris leaves on his bicycle tearfully and vows to leave town and never return in order to achieve greater success than his classmates.
Lieutenant Danny Roman (Samuel L. Jackson), a top Chicago Police Department hostage negotiator, is approached by colleague Nate Roenick (Paul Guilfoyle) who warns him that large sums of money are being embezzled from the department's disability fund, for which Danny is a board member, and members of their own unit are involved. Nate claims to have an informant whom he refuses to name. When Danny goes to meet with him again he finds Nate murdered seconds before other police arrive, pinning him as the prime suspect.
70,000,000 years ago, a mountain-sized meteor, bristling with unknown energies, crashed into the Earth in what is now the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, with a major chunk of the object landing in Central Africa. The impact and resulting ecological catastrophe causing the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The film is set in Washington state in 1964 and focuses on Selma Ježková (Björk), a Czech immigrant who has moved to the United States with her son, Gene Ježek (Vladica Kostic). They live a life of poverty as Selma works at a factory with her good friend Kathy (Catherine Deneuve), whom she nicknames "Cvalda" (which means "chubby" in Czech). She rents a trailer home on the property of town policeman Bill Houston (David Morse) and his wife Linda (Cara Seymour). She is also pursued by the shy but persistent Jeff (Peter Stormare), who also works at the factory.
Vicky (Jonas Hämmerle) is the son of Halvar (Waldemar Kobus), chief of the Viking village of Flake. Halvar is a strong and big warrior who measures the strength of people through muscles. Vicky, on the other hand, is a small but very smart boy who always has to prove his father that ingenuity of a man can meet muscles.
Retired vet Amandus (Dieter Hallervorden) suffers from Alzheimer's disease. A speech he holds at his wife Margarete's funeral reveals his deteriorating mental state. When his son Niko (Til Schweiger) and his granddaughter Tilda (Emma Schweiger) visit him, they see that he can no longer live on his own because of his mental condition. Niko convinces Amandus to move into his house near Hamburg.