Un jeune scénariste, à la fois ambitieux et talentueux, vit coincé dans son camping-car en panne à Austin et cherche à s'en sortir depuis que sa petite amie, interprète de langue des signes, l'a quittée pour un champion sourd. Un jour, il rencontre une jeune femme dynamique….
In 1898, Daniel Plainview, a prospector in New Mexico, mines a potentially precious ore vein from a pit mine hole. In the process of dynamiting the lode, he falls from a broken rung of the tunnel ladder and breaks his leg. He saves a silver sample, climbs out of the mine, and drags himself to the nearest assay office to record his and gets a Silver and Gold certificate claim. In 1902, he discovers oil near Los Angeles, California and establishes a small drilling company. Following the death of a worker in an accident, Daniel adopts the man's orphaned son. The boy, named H. W., becomes his nominal "business partner", allowing Daniel to paint himself to potential investors as "a family man".
Joe Stefanos (Paul Valentine) arrives at small, out-of-the-way Bridgeport, California, in search of Jeff Bailey (Mitchum). Jeff is away, off on a picnic with local girl Ann Miller (Virginia Huston). Stefanos sends Jeff's deaf young assistant, The Kid (Dickie Moore), off to bring Jeff back. When he arrives Stefanos informs Jeff that Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) wants to see him. Jeff has a past with Whit which Ann is unaware of. Ann trusts Jeff implicitly, but her parents are wary, as is Jim (Richard Webb), a local police officer who is Ann's long-time admirer.
The film follows the Artinian extended family with deafness through three generations over a year and a half, focusing on two brothers — Peter Artinian, who is deaf and Chris Artinian, who has proficient hearing — and their wives and children. Chris and Mari Artinian (who is a Child of Deaf Adult) find out that one of their newborn twins is deaf. They begin to research the cochlear implant and its advantages and disadvantages.. While this is going on, Heather, Peter and Nita's oldest child, starts asking for an implant as well. The brothers, along with grandparents on both sides, become embroiled in a bitter argument over the importance of deafness, the best form of education for their kids, and the controversy of cochlear implants for young children. For Peter and his wife, Nita, it's their fear of losing a child to the "hearing world", and her losing the importance of Deaf culture, which concerns them.
The film is the story of a deaf-mute young woman, Belinda McDonald (Jane Wyman), who is befriended by the new doctor, Dr. Robert Richardson (Lew Ayres), who comes to Cape Breton Island on the east coast of Canada. The doctor realizes that, although she cannot hear or speak, Belinda is very intelligent. She lives on a farm with her father, Black McDonald (Charles Bickford), and her aunt, Aggie McDonald (Agnes Moorehead), and rarely goes into town. The family sells farm goods to the nearby town, mainly flour. Her father and aunt resent Belinda because her mother died giving birth to her. Dr. Richardson teaches Belinda sign language and what things are. Over time, his affection for her grows.
The film begins with five friends who are organizing a weekend camping trip to a Missouri lake. Three of the friends are deaf, one is a hearing child of deaf adult (CODA) and the last is a hearing person. The film focuses on the interaction between the friends, and mirrors the interactions between 'Big-D' Deaf, hard-of-hearing, CODAs and hearing people.
John Singer (Alan Arkin) is a deaf-mute who works as a silver engraver in a small southern town. His only friend is a mentally disabled mute, Antonapoulos (Chuck McCann), who continually gets into trouble with the law since he doesn't know any better. When Antonapoulos is committed to a mental institution by his family, Singer decides to move to a town near the institution in order to be near his friend. Singer finds work there and rents a room in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Kelly (Biff McGuire and Laurinda Barrett), who are having financial difficulties as a result of Mr. Kelly's recent hip injury. Because the Kellys' teenage daughter, Mick (Sondra Locke), resents having to give up her room to him, Singer makes a few tentative efforts to win her friendship. Singer also tries to become friends with Blount (Stacy Keach), a semi-alcoholic drifter, and Dr. Copeland (Percy Rodriguez), an embittered segregationist African American who is secretly dying of lung cancer. Copeland's deepest disappointment is that his educated daughter, Portia (Cicely Tyson), works as a domestic and is married to a field hand.
The overarching plot takes place over five days leading up to a political rally for Replacement Party candidate Hal Phillip Walker, who is never seen throughout the entire movie. The story follows 24 characters roaming around Nashville, in search of some sort of goal through their own (often overlapping) story arcs.
Will Rodman, a scientist at the biotechnology company Gen-Sys, is testing viral-based drug ALZ-112 on chimpanzees to find a cure for brain ailments such as Alzheimer's disease. The drug is given to a chimpanzee, Bright Eyes, greatly increasing her intelligence. However, when Will is presenting 112 to his boss and uses Bright Eyes as an example, she is forced from her cage, goes on a rampage, and is killed. Will's boss Steven Jacobs terminates the project and orders chimp handler Robert Franklin to euthanize the chimps. After doing as ordered, Franklin discovers that Bright Eyes had recently given birth and understands the reason why she was disturbed. He convinces Will to save the baby chimp's life by taking him home temporarily. Will's father Charles, who is suffering from Alzheimer's, names the chimp "Caesar", in reference to William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, from which he can, despite his deteriorating mental condition, cite long passages from memory. Will learns that Caesar has inherited his mother's high intelligence (the 112 virus passing to him in utero) and decides to raise him, working from home and observing his behavior in hopes that he can get the project restarted. Three years later, Will introduces Caesar to the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument. Meanwhile, with Charles' condition rapidly deteriorating, Will treats him with ALZ-112 and he is restored to better-than-original cognitive ability.
Ten years after the worldwide pandemic of the deadly ALZ-113 virus (known as the Simian Flu), human civilization is completely destroyed following martial law, civil unrest and the economic collapse of every country in the world. Over 90% of the human population has died in the pandemic, while apes with genetically enhanced intelligence have started to build a civilization of their own.
Baby est chauffeur pour un gang de braqueurs à Atlanta. Enfant, il a survécu un accident de voiture au cours duquel ses parents sont tués, mais qui lui cause des acouphènes qu'il atténue avec la musique. Il travaille dorénavant pour Doc, le chef du gang, afin de rembourser une dette en compensation d'avoir volé une voiture. Entre deux jobs, il fait des remixes des conversations enregistrées et prend soin de son père adoptif atteint de surdité, Joseph. Un jour, il fait la rencontre de la jeune et jolie Debora, serveuse d'un diner, avec lequel il sympathise avant de commencer à sortir ensemble. Lors d'un nouveau « boulot » au cours duquel un témoin armé l'a poursuivi ainsi que la police avec le gang, avant de parvenir à s'échapper, Baby quitte le monde criminel après avoir payé sa dette auprès de Doc et devient livreur de pizzas. Alors qu'il a invité Debora au restaurant, Baby, pensant fuir un monde qui ne lui ressemble pas, a la désagréable surprise de voir Doc, qui interrompt leur dîner. Ce dernier contraint le jeune homme à participer à un autre coup en dévalisant un bureau de poste, sous peine de s'en prendre à Debora et Joseph.
En 2020, dans un monde post-apocalyptique : les rares survivants vivent sous la menace de créatures très sensibles aux sons, et doivent ainsi demeurer dans le silence. Une famille du Midwest va devoir apprendre à lutter pour survivre, alors que la mère est sur le point d'accoucher.
Deux ans après avoir affronté les humains et Koba, César et les singes vivent reculés dans une forêt. Leur avant-poste est alors attaqué par une unité militaire pratiquement annihilée dans l'assaut et qui subit une défaite totale, rapportée par radio à leur commandant le colonel McCullough. Selon les dires d'un survivant fait prisonnier et présenté à César, cet homme sanguinaire cherche à tout prix à retrouver César pour installer la domination des hommes sur les primates : bien que ça ne fasse pas l'unanimité, César choisit d'épargner les soldats survivants et de les lui renvoyer avec un message de laisser tomber afin de clarifier les circonstances ayant amené cette situation et prévenir une montée vaine des conflits. Plus tard alors qu'ils s'occupent de leurs morts et blessés, César vient accueillir son fils aîné Yeux-Bleus et Rocket, qui reviennent d'une expédition prolongée et ont apparemment enfin trouvé la terre promise des singes, à des mois de marche de là. Le soir même, après des discussions houleuses sur la suite des événements et la crainte exprimée par Winter, un gorille albinos, la décision est prise de s'y rendre. Mais après l'échec de ses soldats, le colonel McCullough se déplace en personne avec un commando dans le refuge de César afin de le tuer. Il tue le fils aîné de César par méprise ainsi que sa compagne, Cornelia, épargnant sans le savoir leur enfant cadet, Cornelius qui s'était caché. César qui arrive juste avant son départ et constate leur mort, tente de se venger pour son acte mais échoue de peu. Tandis que la colonie a débuté son trajet vers leur futur foyer, César confie alors Cornelius à Lake, la compagne de feu son fils aîné, puis quitte les siens à leur grande surprise pour se lancer seul à la poursuite de McCullough, assoiffé de vengeance. Il est toutefois vite rattrapé et épaulé par ses plus proches amis l’orang-outan Maurice, le chimpanzé Rocket (dont le fils Ash, meilleur ami de Yeux-Bleus, fut également tué, par Koba en son temps) et le gorille Luca.
Sans famille, Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) a été trouvée, enfant, dans une rivière. Elle porte au cou des cicatrices semblant témoigner de violences exercées sur son larynx, qui expliqueraient qu'elle soit muette. Elle vit dans une grande solitude, tout comme son voisin de palier Giles (Richard Jenkins), un vieil homosexuel, illustrateur publicitaire sans emploi.