Sophie, an eighteen-year-old hatter, is a responsible young woman who encounters a mysterious and powerful wizard named Howl on her way to visit her younger sister Lettie. The Witch of the Waste, who romantically pursues Howl, visits the hat shop only and insults Sophie, being refused service by her as a result. The Witch exacts revenge by cursing Sophie, transforming her into a ninety-year-old woman. Seeking a cure for the spell, Sophie travels into the Wastes and encounters a living scarecrow whom she names "Turnip Head," who leads her to Howl's castle. There, she meets Howl's young apprentice, Markl, and the fire-demon Calcifer, who is the source of the castle's energy and magic. Calcifer offers to break the witch's curse in exchange for Sophie's help in breaking the spell he's under, which keeps him bound to the house. When Howl appears, Sophie announces that Calcifer has hired her as a cleaning lady for the house.
The film starts in sepia toned Kansas in the early 1900s. Dorothy Gale lives with her dog Toto on the farm of her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Dorothy and Toto get in trouble with a ruthless neighbor, Miss Almira Gulch, when Toto bites her. However, Dorothy's family and the farmhands are all too busy to pay attention to her. Miss Gulch arrives with permission from the sheriff to have Toto euthanized. He is taken away, but escapes and returns to Dorothy; she then decides to run away from home with Toto to escape Miss Gulch.
In the film's backstory, human civilizations built flying cities, which were later destroyed by an unspecified catastrophe, forcing the survivors to live on the ground. The only remaining flying city, Laputa, still floats in the sky, concealed by a permanent powerful thunderstorm that surrounds it.
The film is set in 1980s Moscow. Standing right in the city centre on Kalinin Prospekt, a barefoot man dressed in a tattered coat appeals to anyone with a strange request: "Tell me the number of your planet in the tenture? Or least the number of your galaxy in the spiral?". Random passers-by, two Soviet citizens previously unknown to each other ("Uncle Vova", a gruff construction foreman from Moscow, Vladimir Mashkov, and a "Violinist", a student from Georgia, Gedevan Aleksidze), start a conversation with him, during which the stranger shows them an alien teleportation device – "traveller". The foreman Mashkov holds out his hand to the device and, despite the stranger's warnings, presses a random button. Suddenly Uncle Vova and the violinist find themselves alone on the desert planet "Pluke" in the "Kin-dza-dza" galaxy. From that point on, the movie describes their long quest to find a way back home.
Jasper Morello (Joel Edgerton), is deployed by the government to distribute mobile weather beacons along the route of his next voyage. The cocoons are brought aboard the ship. After Jasper discovers that one of them has hatched, Dr. Belgon reveals to him that he discovered that the creature lives on human blood, and that the other creatures have died from starvation. Belgon explains that he has been feeding the remaining creature with his own blood, as it is the last chance they have. Jasper insists to tell the Captain, but Belgon convinces him that if the crew gets to know, they'll kill the creature and with it, the cure for Jasper's wife. The next day, a crewmember goes missing. The crew concludes that he fell overboard and mourn him. As another member goes missing, Jasper becomes suspicious and looks into the creature's room, where he finds the monster devouring the missing man. He is then ambushed and sedated by Dr.
A village lies near a gap in a stone wall bordering the magical kingdom of Stormhold. The gap is guarded constantly but Dunstan Thorn manages to go through and meets an enslaved princess, Una. She offers him a glass snowdrop in exchange for a kiss. Nine months later, the Wall Guard delivers a baby to Dunstan, saying his name is Tristan.
In a dilapidated apartment building in post-apocalyptic France, food is in short supply and grain is used as currency. On the ground floor is a butcher's shop, run by the landlord, Clapet (Jean-Claude Dreyfus), who posts job opportunities in the Hard Times paper as means to lure victims to the building, whom he murders and butchers as a cheap source of meat to sell to his tenants.
From an ocean rig, a demented scientist, Krank (Daniel Emilfork), kidnaps children from the nearby, unnamed port city to steal their dreams, as he is incapable of having dreams of his own. Among them is the adopted little brother, Denree (Joseph Lucien), of carnival strongman and former whaler One (Ron Perlman), who sets out to rescue him with the help of a little girl named Miette (Judith Vittet), a member of a thieves' guild composed entirely of orphaned children. They delve into the world of a bio-mechanical kidnapping cult and discover the connection between the scientist and the missing Denree.
In 1931, 12-year-old Hugo Cabret lives in Paris with his father, a widowed, but kind and devoted master clockmaker. Hugo's father takes him to see films and loves those of Georges Méliès best of all.
Le comte d'Artigas a mis sur pied une bande de pirates qui écume les épaves voire coule intentionnellement les navires marchands à l'aide d'un sous-marin ultramoderne, lui-même dérobé. Son ambition le pousse ensuite à enlever le professeur Roch et son assistant, Simon Hart, afin de les mettre à son service. Le professeur, tenu dans l'ignorance des projets maléfiques du comte, met au point un explosif très dangereux et révolutionnaire par sa puissance destructrice. Son assistant, lui, a décelé les projets du comte et est gardé prisonnier.
In 1891, Irene Adler delivers a package to Herr Dr. Hoffmanstahl; payment for a letter he was to deliver. Hoffmanstahl opens the package, triggering a hidden bomb that is prevented from detonating by the intervention of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes takes the letter while Adler and Hoffmanstahl escape. Holmes finds Hoffmanstahl assassinated moments later. Adler meets with Professor Moriarty to explain the events, but Moriarty poisons and kills her — deeming her position compromised by her love for Holmes.
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.
In the futuristic city of Metropolis humans and robots coexist. Robots are discriminated against and segregated to the city's lower levels. A lot of Metropolis' human population are unemployed and deprived, and many people blame the robots for taking their jobs.
France, 1941. Napoleon V rules France and for the last 70 years, scientists have been mysteriously disappearing, depriving mankind of their inventions. Avril (Marion Cotillard), a teenage girl, goes in search of her parents, two of the missing scientists.
The shadow of Nathan Rijckx, a Belgian soldier who died in World War I, is captured by a collector. He is offered the chance to live again if he captures the shadows of 10,000 other people instead. He thinks nothing of his job at first. Simply find the name, pick the death, and capture the shadow when they die. Between his job, he touches the nails in his own shadow to remember what it was like right when he died. He remembers the woman Sarah Winters, who helped him right before his death, and how he was in love with her, and his mission is given new purpose.