As radio show host Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) and her fiancé David (Naveen Andrews) are walking their dog at night at Stranger's Gate in New York's Central Park, they are attacked by three violent criminals who film the whole attack on their phones. David dies from his injuries, and Erica, while seriously injured, survives. Angry and traumatized, she attempts to purchase a gun. Terrified and unwilling to wait the month required to obtain a gun legally, she buys a Kahr K9 semi-automatic pistol from a black market gun dealer.
À la suite d'un quiproquo, Philippe, sympathique jeune homme, est amené à participer par Fernand, un concurrent malchanceux, à l'émission radiophonique Cent francs par seconde. Un coup sur la tête développe en lui un don de voyance qui lui permet de répondre brillamment à toutes les questions et de gagner des sommes folles. Ne voulant pas ruiner l'organisateur de l'émission qui est le père de Jacqueline, la jeune fille qu'il aime, il s'arrange pour tout perdre et gagner, par la même occasion, le cœur de la demoiselle.
Dirigeant avec sa femme Virginie une institution de jeunes filles, dans le village de Châtenay-sous-Cloche, Achille Gerbois, à l'insu de Virginie, anime l'émission de radio Cinq millions comptant, sous le nom de « Monsieur Bourgogne ». Les Gerbois s'apprêtent à recevoir leur neveu Philémon, un polyart technicien dont ils sont très fiers, qui arrive de Paris en grand uniforme de son école. La chorale de l’institution répète la chanson Ding ding dong les cloches du village, sonnez donc joyeux carillons, afin de l'accueillir. Toute la famille (leur fille Arlette, leur neveu Philémon et la jeune institutrice qui l'aime : Céleste, le chanteur de charme André Dargent, aimé d'Arlette) se retrouvera à l'émission où Philémon gagnera la somme proposée.
Encouraged to explore as a child by her late father, Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway works for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. She listens to radio transmissions hoping to find signals sent by extraterrestrial life. Science Advisor to the President David Drumlin pulls the funding from SETI because he believes the endeavor is futile. Arroway gains backing from secretive billionaire industrialist S. R. Hadden, who has followed her career and allows her to continue her studies at the Very Large Array (VLA) in Socorro County, New Mexico.
Barry Champlain, a Jewish radio personality in Dallas, Texas, is a host with a caustic sense of humor and a knack for cutting people down with his controversial politically liberal views.
Jack Lucas (Bridges), a selfish, misanthropic shock jock, becomes suicidally despondent after his insensitive on-air comments inadvertently prompt an unstable caller to commit a mass murder-suicide at a popular Manhattan restaurant. Three years later, Jack is working with his girlfriend Anne (Ruehl) in a video store in a mostly drunken, depressed state. One night while on a bender, he attempts suicide. Before he can do so, he is mistaken for a homeless person and is attacked and nearly set on fire by thugs. He is rescued by Parry (Williams), a deluded homeless man who is on a mission to find the Holy Grail, and tries to convince Jack to help him. Jack is initially reluctant, but comes to feel responsible for Parry when he learns that the man's condition is a result of witnessing his wife's horrific murder at the hands of Jack's psychotic caller. Parry is also continually haunted by a hallucinatory red knight, who terrifies him.
In Queens, New York during October 1999, John Sullivan (Caviezel), a 36-year-old homicide detective, breaks up with his girlfriend Samantha (Melissa Errico) with the reason partially attributed to the trauma caused by the death of his fireman father Frank (Quaid). Still living in the same house where he grew up, he discovers his father's Heathkit single-sideband ham radio and begins transmitting radio signals. Because of highly localized electro-temporal spatial effects caused by unusual aurora borealis activity, John somehow makes contact with his father exactly 30 years in the past on the day before Frank's death in a warehouse fire. The ensuing conversation results in Frank thinking John is a stalker. Before the connection cuts out, John is able to shout out the circumstances that led to Frank's death. The next day as little things brought up in their conversation prove true, Frank believes and heeds John's words, escaping the fire to safety. The father and son reconnect on the HAM radio set later that evening, with Frank sharing his dreams and his hopes for his son, and John recounting the details of the Mets-Orioles World Series, which is just beginning in Frank's timeline in 1969. John also reveals to Frank that he now dies of lung cancer in 1989 due to his smoking habit.
Jeanne Quester is a single mother. As a certified psychologist she works two jobs. During daytime she does social work but at night she is a radio personality who provides live advice for needy callers. Due to the success of her radio show she receives the offer to work for TV.
In 1966, numerous pirate radio stations broadcast to the United Kingdom from ships anchored in international waters, specialising in rock and pop music that is not played on BBC Radio. Seventeen-year-old Carl (Tom Sturridge), recently expelled from school, is sent to stay with his godfather Quentin (Bill Nighy), who runs the station "Radio Rock" anchored in the North Sea. The eclectic crew of disc jockeys and staffers, led by the brash American DJ "The Count" (Philip Seymour Hoffman), quickly accept Carl as one of their own.
In 1965, Airman Second Class Adrian Cronauer (Williams) arrives in Saigon from Crete to work as a DJ for Armed Forces Radio Service. Cronauer is greeted by Private First Class Edward Montesquieu Garlick (Whitaker). Cronauer's irreverence contrasts sharply with many staff members and soon rouses the ire of two of his superiors, Second Lieutenant Steven Hauk (Kirby) and Sergeant Major Phillip Dickerson (Walsh). Hauk adheres to strict Army guidelines in terms of humor and music programming, while Dickerson is generally abusive to all enlisted men. However, Brigadier General Taylor (Willingham) and the other DJs quickly grow to like the new man and his brand of comedy. Cronauer's show consists of unpredictable humor segments mixed with news updates (vetted by the station censors) and rock and roll records that are frowned upon by his superiors.
In early September, 1962, recent high school graduates and longtime friends, Curt Henderson and Steve Bolander, meet John Milner and Terry "The Toad" Fields at the local Mel's Drive-In parking lot. Despite receiving a $2,000 scholarship from the local Moose lodge, Curt is undecided if he wants to leave the next morning with Steve to go to the northeastern United States to begin college. Steve lets Toad borrow his 1958 Chevrolet Impala for the evening and while he's away at college. Steve's girlfriend, Laurie, who also is Curt's sister, is unsure of Steve's leaving, to which he suggests - to Laurie's surprise - they see other people while he is away to "strengthen" their relationship. She is not happy with his proposal.
The film is a road movie that follows a middle aged man who gives a young woman a lift. On the car radio, news bulletins warn the population against a recently escaped sadist who is known to prey on young women and children. Lelouch often cuts away from the main story, if only briefly, to parallel events that are not necessarily crucial to the story but illustrate what is suggested by the radio.
A man calling himself Henry Faber is actually a German spy nicknamed "the Needle" because of his preferred method of assassination, the stiletto. He is a coldly calculating sociopath, emotionlessly focused on the task at hand, whether the task is to signal a U-boat or to gut a witness to avoid exposure.
Pierre Dac, après avoir quitté Paris et s'être rendu en Espagne (où il a été brièvement incarcéré), arrive à Londres à la fin de 1943. Il rejoint la petite équipe de journalistes français (Jacques Duchesne, Pierre Bourdan, Jean Oberlé, Maurice Schumann) qui anime tous les soirs l'émission Les Français parlent aux Français diffusée par la BBC.