In 1964, three civil rights workers who organize a voter registry for minorities in Jessup County Mississippi, go missing. The FBI sends two agents, Rupert Anderson (Hackman) and Alan Ward (Dafoe) to investigate. The pair find it difficult to conduct interviews with the local townspeople, as Sheriff Stuckey (Sartain) and his deputies exert influence over the public and are linked to a branch of the Ku Klux Klan.
Suzanne Stone (Nicole Kidman) dreams of being a world-famous news anchor. To that end, she marries Larry Maretto (Matt Dillon), because she believes his family business will keep her financially comfortable, and starts attempting to climb the network news ladder, beginning as a weather girl at a local cable station, WWEN.
The story may not be linear and exhibits several instances of temporal disruption. A dark-haired woman (Harring) escapes her own murder, surviving a car accident on Mulholland Drive. Injured and in shock, she descends into Los Angeles and sneaks into an apartment which an older, red-headed woman has just vacated. An aspiring actress named Betty Elms (Watts) arrives at the same apartment and finds the dark-haired woman confused, not knowing her own name. The dark-haired woman assumes the name "Rita" after seeing a poster for the film Gilda (1946), starring Rita Hayworth. To help Rita remember her identity, Betty looks in Rita's purse, where she finds a large amount of money and an unusual blue key.
In the Paris suburb of Petit-Clamart on 22 August 1962, an assassination attempt is made on the President of France General Charles de Gaulle by the militant French underground organisation OAS in anger over the French government granting independence to Algeria. As the president's motorcade passes, de Gaulle's unarmoured Citroën DS car is raked with machine gun fire, but the entire entourage escapes without injury. Within six months, OAS leader Jean Bastien-Thiry and several other members of the plot are captured and Bastien-Thiry is executed.
A stranger on horseback rides into the isolated mining town of Lago. Three gun-toting men follow him into the saloon, taunting him to fight. When they follow him to the barbershop and begin threatening him, the Stranger quickly dispatches the three with little effort. Impressed with this performance, a dwarf named Mordecai, who works in the barbershop, befriends the Stranger. A woman named Callie Travers arranges to bump into the Stranger in the street, claiming loudly it was his fault. When she slaps the cigar from his mouth while insulting him, he drags her into the livery stable and has sexual relations with her in a very rough and aggressive manner (the scene is initially depicted as a rape, but by its end, the woman has clearly given her consent, as she is portrayed as an active, and seemingly enthusiastic participant in the act). Next, the Stranger rents a room at the hotel but declines to give a name to the hotelier. That night, he dreams about a man being brutally whipped. In the morning he returns to the barbershop for a bath. Callie Travers shoots at him after he is in the tub; inexplicably, he remains uninjured.
Young, starstruck Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) seeks out Jesse James (Brad Pitt) when the James gang is planning a train robbery in Blue Cut, Missouri, making unsuccessful attempts to join the gang with the help of his older brother Charley (Sam Rockwell), already a member. The train turns out to be carrying only a fraction of the money originally thought, and Frank James (Sam Shepard) tells Charley Ford that this robbery would be the last the James brothers would commit, and that the gang "gave up their nightridin' for good." Jesse returns home to Kansas City, bringing the Fords, Dick Liddil (Paul Schneider) and his cousin, Wood Hite (Jeremy Renner). Jesse sends Charley, Wood and Dick away, but insists that Bob stay. He wanted the younger man just for his help in moving furniture to a new home in St. Joseph. Bob becomes more admiring of James before being sent back to his sister's farmhouse, where he rejoins his brother Charley, Hite, and Liddil.
Dave Skylark, host of the talk show Skylark Tonight, interviews celebrities about personal topics and gossip. After Dave and his crew celebrate their 1,000th episode, they discover that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is a fan of Skylark Tonight, prompting the show's producer Aaron Rapoport to arrange an interview. Aaron travels to rural China to receive instructions from Sook-yin Park, the North Korean chief propagandist, and Aaron accepts the task of interviewing Kim, on behalf of Dave.
While in post-production on a low-budget exploitation film, Philadelphia sound technician Jack Terry (Travolta) is told by his producer that he needs a more realistic sounding scream and better wind effects. After leaving the studio to record potential sound effects at a local park, he sees a car careen off the road and plunge into a nearby creek. Jack dives into the water to help, discovering a dead man and a young woman, still alive, trapped inside the submerged car. He pulls her to safety and accompanies her to a local hospital. Jack learns that the driver of the car was the governor (and a presidential hopeful); the girl was an escort named Sally (Allen). Associates of the governor attempt to whitewash the incident by concealing that Sally was in the car, and they convince Jack to smuggle Sally out of the hospital with him.
While driving at night along the northern California coast, architect Dan Merrick (Tom Berenger) and wife Judith (Greta Scacchi) are involved in a violent car wreck. Dan suffers major injuries and significant brain trauma, resulting in psychogenic amnesia. After extensive plastic surgery, Dan returns home in Judith's care.
La Cérémonie tells the story of a young woman, Sophie Bonhomme (Sandrine Bonnaire), who is hired as a maid by the Lelièvre family. The Lelièvres live in an isolated mansion in Brittany. The family consists of four members: Catherine (Jacqueline Bisset) and Georges, the parents, who have no children together, but one each from previous marriages. Gilles is Catherine's and her ex-husband's son. He is a lonely teenager who loves reading and has a passion for arts in general. Melinda is Georges' and his late wife's daughter. She studies at a university and only spends the weekends at home, where she invites her boyfriend Jérémie. The household chores are excessive for Catherine – who owns her own art gallery – so she requires a maid's help and hires Sophie. Throughout the film Sophie avoids using the dishwasher, refuses to take driving lessons, buys fake eyeglasses, and has trouble giving a cashier the correct change. The viewer finds out later that Sophie is illiterate and has a history of violence since she is believed to have killed her handicapped father, or at least not to have rescued him from the fire she might have set in his house.
A successful Paris lawyer with a seemingly perfect life discovers that his wife is having an affair and accidentally kills her lover in a moment of madness. He escapes the law by faking his own death, assuming his victim's identity, and making a fresh start on the Adriatic coast as a photographer. This eventually leads him to realise what was missing in his life before: he finally sees the big picture.
Veronica Guerin (Cate Blanchett) is a feisty crime reporter for the Sunday Independent. Suddenly aware of how much Dublin's illegal drug trade is encroaching upon the lives of its working class citizens, especially the children, she becomes determined to expose the men responsible for its spread.
The film opens with Gene Watson (Johnny Depp), a mild-mannered, widowed accountant arriving with his daughter Lynn at the Union Station in Los Angeles. As Watson makes a pay phone call informing an unidentified person that his train was late, two mysterious strangers in suits, known only as Mr. Smith (Christopher Walken) and Ms. Jones (Roma Maffia), survey the station from a catwalk, discussing a yet-to-be-elaborated scheme. Noticing Watson retaliate against a skater who was harassing his daughter, Smith and Jones set their sights on him and swiftly approach the pair. Showing a badge, the two strangers convince Watson that they are police officers and whisk both father and daughter into a van without justification. Once in the vehicle, Watson begins to notice things are not right and gets nervous, but Smith subsequently pistol whips him in the leg to get his attention. Smith then informs Watson that they will kill his daughter by 1:30 p.m. unless he murders a woman depicted in a photograph. He soon learns that the woman is State Governor Eleanor Grant and realizes that killing her would be a suicide mission.
During the Korean War, the Soviets capture a U.S. platoon and take them to Manchuria in Communist China. Some days later, all but two of the soldiers return to U.S. lines and Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw is credited with saving their lives in combat. Upon the recommendation of the platoon's commander, Captain Bennett Marco, Raymond is awarded the Medal of Honor for his reported heroism. When asked to describe him, Marco and the other soldiers automatically respond, "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life." Deep down, however, they know that Shaw is a cold, sad, unsympathetic loner.
In 1850, on the isolated French island of Saint-Pierre, a murder shocks the natives. Two fishermen are arrested. One of them, Louis Ollivier, dies in custody. The other, Neel Auguste (Emir Kusturica), is sentenced to death by the guillotine. However the island is so small that it has neither a guillotine nor an executioner. While one is sent for, Auguste is placed under the supervision of the army Captain (Daniel Auteuil).