Dans un monde post-apocalyptique ravagé après un holocauste nucléaire, de gigantesques villes mobiles errent et tentent de prendre le pouvoir sur d'autres villes mobiles plus petites ou moins armées. Le récit suit ainsi le trajet de la ville de Londres, hégémonique et sans pitié.
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.
Au début du XX siècle, dans un monde où l'alchimie est une activité extrêmement développée et respectée, deux frères, Edward (Ryōsuke Yamada ) et Alphonse Elric, tentent une technique secrète de transmutation humaine. L'expérience tourne cependant mal et Alphonse perd son corps tout entier tandis qu'Edward perd sa jambe gauche. Ce-dernier sacrifie alors son bras droit pour sauver l'âme de son frère en l'attachant à une armure de métal. Il reçoit ensuite des prothèses mécaniques appelées « automail » en remplacement de ses membres manquants.
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.
Abandoned by their father deep in a forest, young Hansel and Gretel enter a gingerbread house and are captured by a cannibalistic witch. The witch forces Hansel to continuously eat candy to fatten him up, and enslaves Gretel, ordering her to prepare the oven, but the siblings outsmart her and incinerate her in the fire of the oven. In the fifteen years that follow, Hansel and Gretel become famed witch hunters, slaying hundreds of witches. The pair find that they are somehow immune to spells and curses, but the incident in the gingerbread house has left Hansel diabetic. He needs a shot of insulin every few hours or he will get sick and die.
During World War II, Russian soldiers on a reconnaissance mission receive a distress call that would lead them further into Germany. The message seems to repeat without any response to their queries, and at the same time that they begin to receive the message, they lose radio contact with their command. Although the others are dubious about the existence of other Russians in the area, Sgt. Novikov orders them to investigate. Dmitri, a Soviet propagandist who is filming the mission, interviews the soldiers and documents the proceedings. As they draw closer to the designated coordinates, Dmitri takes an interest in and films several odd occurrences, such as unexplained dead Nazis, a burnt convent full of massacred nuns and strange machinery. When the soldiers arrive at their destination, they find an abandoned church guarded by an undead person with metal implants; the film calls these creatures zombots in the credits. The zombot kills Sgt. Novikov, and, after they destroy the zombot, Sergei takes charge. The hotheaded Vassili challenges his authority, but the others back Sergei.
In 1812, on the eve of the decisive battle of Borodino, a French secret agent steals a battle plan of the Russian troops. This fact is known to General Kutuzov, thanks to a young nobleman named Alexey Tarusov. Tarusov joins a regiment of Russian lancers, and finds new friends and together they have many adventures...
Chine, 19ème siècle, une guerre sans fin ravage le royaume. Sur le champs de bataille, un guerrier d’exception fait preuve d’une force sans limite. Mais ce don surhumain finira aussi par le tuer. Pour survivre, il devra se rendre là où tout a commencé et percer le secret d’une pratique ancestrale…
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.
The film is set in an alternate-reality Earth. In 1899, The Martians launched an unprovoked attack on the major nations of the world. In Leeds, England, a younger Eric Wells watches in horror as a Martian Tripod lays waste to his city and then kills his father and mother. But before it can kill him, the Martian Tripod suddenly keels forward and crashes into the ground. Over 140 million people were killed by the Martians, and many of the great cities of the world were destroyed until the Martians were killed off by Earth's bacteria, against which the Martians had no defence.
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.
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.
In Venice at the beginning of the 17th century, the Three Musketeers, Athos (Matthew Macfadyen), Porthos (Ray Stevenson), and Aramis (Luke Evans), with the help of Athos' longtime lover, Milady de Winter (Milla Jovovich), steal airship blueprints made by Leonardo da Vinci. However, they are betrayed by Milady, who gives the blueprints to the Duke of Buckingham (Orlando Bloom). Upon returning to France, the Musketeers are forced to disband by Cardinal Richelieu (Christoph Waltz) for their failure, and they end up on the streets of Paris.