Covering pet stores, puppy mills, and animal profession, Earthlings includes footage obtained through the use of hidden cameras to chronicle the day-to-day practices of some of the largest industries in the world, all of which rely on animals. It draws parallels between racism, sexism, and speciesism.
Le film alterne des séquences montrant des paysages naturels et des rites religieux ou spirituels humains, filmés sur les cinq continents. Au cœur du film, des séquences plus pénibles (accompagnées notamment de morceaux de Dead Can Dance dont The Host of Seraphim) montrent les aspects destructeurs de l'humanité telles la misère ou la guerre. La fin du film revient sur des séquences de spiritualité, notamment une séquence des bains rituels dans le Gange, à Varanasi en Inde.
Au cours d'une de ses promenades en Haute-Provence, le narrateur a un jour rencontré un personnage extraordinaire, un berger solitaire et paisible qui plantait des arbres, des milliers d'arbres. Au fil des ans, le vieil homme a réalisé son rêve : la lande aride et désolée est devenue une terre pleine de vie.
En 200 000 ans d'existence, l'homme a rompu l'équilibre sur lequel la Terre vivait depuis 4 milliards d'années. Réchauffement climatique, épuisement des ressources, extinction des espèces : l'homme a mis en péril sa propre demeure. Mais il est trop tard pour être pessimiste : il reste à peine dix ans à l'humanité pour inverser la tendance, prendre conscience de son exploitation démesurée des richesses de la Terre, et changer son mode de consommation.
A constant and verbose off-narrator guides the viewer through the life of a tomato. Beginning at Mr Suzuki's tomato field, the tomato is then sold to a supermarket, where it is acquired by Mrs Anete, a perfume saleswoman, together with some pork. Each exchange requires the presence of money, which is, together with the tomato, the constant element in the story.
Crop blight has made growing food on Earth nearly impossible, threatening the existence of humanity. Joe Cooper, a widowed former NASA pilot, runs a farm with his father-in-law Donald, son Tom, and daughter Murphy. Murphy believes her bedroom is haunted by a poltergeist. When the "ghost" creates a pattern of dust on the floor, Cooper realizes an unknown intelligence is using gravity to communicate, and interprets the pattern as geographic coordinates, which Cooper and Murphy follow to a secret NASA installation.
The film follows former dolphin trainer and activist Ric O'Barry's quest to document the dolphin hunting operations in Taiji, Wakayama, Japan. In the 1960s, O'Barry helped capture and train the five wild dolphins who shared the role of "Flipper" in the hit television series of the same name. The show, very popular, fueled widespread public adoration of dolphins, influencing the development of marine parks that included dolphins in their attractions. After one of the dolphins, in O'Barry's opinion, committed a form of suicide in his arms by closing her blowhole voluntarily in order to suffocate, O'Barry came to see the dolphin's captivity and the dolphin capture industry as a curse, not a blessing. Days later, he was arrested off the island of Bimini, attempting to cut a hole in the sea pen in order to set free a captured dolphin. Since then, according to the film, O'Barry has dedicated himself full-time as an advocate on behalf of dolphins around the world.
The film begins with scenes showing the day-to-day life of a construction contractor by the name of Eddie Lama. Footage shows Lama discussing a construction job with one of his employees, and Lama also talks about how various different racial and ethnic groups who work at his firm are able to get along together. A scene is shown with Lama petting two dogs, and there is also footage showing that Lama keeps multiple cats in his office.
The film chronicles the growth of a large community in the western American desert. It brought abundance and the legacy of risk it has created in the United States and abroad.
In Muromachi period Japan, an Emishi village is attacked by a demon. The last Emishi prince, Ashitaka, kills the demon before it reaches the village, but its corruption curses his arm in the battle. The curse gives him superhuman fighting abilities, but will eventually kill him. The villagers discover that the demon was once a boar god, Nago, corrupted by an iron ball lodged in his body. The village's wise woman tells Ashitaka that he may find a cure in the western lands Nago was exiled from.
Oru Cheru Punchiri tells the story of a retired estate manager Krishna Kuruppu (Oduvil Unnikrishnan) in his mid seventies and his wife Ammalukutty (Nirmala Sreenivasan) in her mid sixties continuing their married life in a honeymoon mood. This couple wake up to romantic mornings dense with sweet herbal aroma with the melodious music of birds as the background. They spend their time engaged in games of mischief and even some social activities that they could manage. They make it clear that they would never surrender to the plea of their children coated in love, to sell the ancestral property in the village and move to the city with them. They are happy doing agriculture in the land they own. They have some good neighbours in Janu (Roslyn), her daughter Malathi (sindhu) and helper-boy Kannan (Master Vignesh). Krishna Kuruppu was instrumental in Janu getting a sweeper's job in the Urban bank there. He also sponsors for Kannan's education. Krishna Kuruppu helps Bhaskaran (Jayakrishnan) get a job in the estate he worked. He also arranges the marriage of Bhaskaran and Malathi. He also supports the love affair of his granddaughter Beena (Lena) with a Muslim youth.
The film spans from March 11, 2001 to September 19, 2011, starting with Noland's own experience in the Tōhoku Earthquake and tsunami, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster followed by volunteer activities in Ofunato