In Bedford Falls, New York, on Christmas Eve 1945, George Bailey is suicidal. Prayers for him reach Heaven. Clarence Odbody, Angel 2nd Class, is assigned to save George in order to earn his angel wings. To prepare Clarence, his superior Joseph shows flashbacks of George's life.
Squadron Leader Peter Carter (David Niven) is a British Royal Air Force pilot trying to fly a badly damaged and burning Lancaster bomber home after a mission over Germany on 2 May 1945. He has ordered his crew to bail out, without revealing that his own parachute has been shot up. He manages to contact June (Kim Hunter), an American radio operator based in England, and talks with her for a few minutes before jumping without a parachute.
Set in contemporary West Berlin (at the time still enclosed by the Berlin Wall), Wings of Desire follows two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, as they roam the city, unseen and unheard by its human inhabitants, observing and listening to the diverse thoughts of Berliners: a pregnant woman in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, a painter struggling to find inspiration, a broken man who thinks his girlfriend no longer loves him. Their raison d'être is, as Cassiel says, to "assemble, testify, preserve" reality. In addition to the story of two angels, the film is also a meditation on Berlin's past, present, and future. Damiel and Cassiel have always existed as angels; they existed in Berlin before it was a city, and before there were even any humans.
Joe Gideon is a theater director and choreographer trying to balance work on his latest Broadway musical with editing a Hollywood film he has directed. He is a workaholic who chain-smokes cigarettes, and without a daily dose of Vivaldi, Visine, Alka-Seltzer, Dexedrine, and sex, he wouldn't have the energy to keep up the biggest "show" of all — his life. His girlfriend Katie Jagger, his ex-wife Audrey Paris, and daughter Michelle try to pull him back from the brink, but it is too late for his exhausted body and stress-ravaged heart. In his imagination, he flirts with an angel of death named Angelique.
Bishop Henry Brougham (David Niven), troubled with funding the building of a new cathedral, prays for divine guidance. His plea is seemingly answered by a suave angel named Dudley (Cary Grant), who reveals his identity only to the clergyman.
The video begins with shots of a vacant village, overgrown with weeds, and the concrete sarcophagus of a covered-over nuclear reactor in the background. As the music begins, the scene changes to a sci-fi-style nighttime military-style police raid on a cult. Futuristic flying troop transports crash through the windows of a tower topped by gigantic neon-lit eyes and occupied by armed defenders. The policemen exchange gunfire and grenades with cultists whose hoods depict an enormous eye. The victorious police begin to sort through the bodies of the cultists, two policemen find what appears to be a girl, lying unconscious, with large feathered wings on her back.
On October 6, 1971, American soldier Jacob Singer is with the 1st Air Cavalry Division, deployed in a village in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War, when his close knit unit comes under attack. As many of Jacob's comrades are killed or wounded, others exhibit abnormal behavior, including catatonia and a bloody seizure. A terrified Jacob flees into the jungle, only to be bayoneted in the gut.
Martine and Michel are very much in love and have decided to get married, but one evening, their love is put to the test. Two messengers, a demon and an angel, come to their house. Ben Atkinson (the demon) comes first and offers Michel a good job and money. Martine suspects a trick, but Michel is ready to accept the demon's offer. The angel tries to go for help but is stopped by devil, who uses policemen to back him up. At the end, the angel prevents the demon's plans.
Bartleby (Affleck) and Loki (Damon) are fallen angels, banished for eternity from Heaven to Wisconsin for insubordination after an inebriated Loki (with Bartleby's encouragement) resigned as the Angel of Death. When the trendy Cardinal Glick (Carlin) announces that he is rededicating his cathedral in Red Bank, New Jersey in the image of the "Buddy Christ", the angels see their salvation: Anyone entering the cathedral during the rededication festivities will receive a plenary indulgence; all punishment for sin will be remitted, permitting direct entry into Heaven. They receive encouragement from an unexpected source: Azrael (Lee), a demon, once a Muse, also banished from Heaven (for refusing to take sides in the battle between God and Lucifer); and the Stygian Triplets (Barret Hackney, Jared Pfennigwerth, and Kitao Sakurai), three teenage hoodlums who serve Azrael in Hell.
Dieu interpelle un de ses anges, Jumper : il n'a rien fait depuis deux cents ans qu'il est mort. Il est temps pour lui de descendre sur Terre sauver les mortels. Jumper souhaite aider ses semblables homosexuels à West Hollywood. Comme il doit montrer l'exemple du safe sex pendant cinq jours, Dieu lui lance une pluie de préservatifs.
Billionaire media mogul William "Bill" Parrish is considering a merger between his company and another media giant, while also about to celebrate his 65th birthday with an elaborate party being planned by his eldest daughter Allison. He begins to hear mysterious voices, which he tries with increasing difficulty to ignore. His youngest daughter Susan, an internal medicine resident, is involved with one of Bill's board members, Drew. She is considering marriage, but her father can tell she's not passionately in love. When she asks for the short version of his impassioned speech, he simply says, "Stay open.
Cassiel and Raphaella, two angels, observe the busy life of reunited Berlin. Due to their divine origin, they can hear the thoughts of the people around them, and try to console a dying man. Cassiel has been following his friend Damiel (a former angel), who senses his presence and talks about his experiences as a human. He owns a pizza parlor named Casa dell'angelo (Angel's House) and has married Marion, a trapeze artist whom he met when an angel. She works in a local bar in West Berlin, and the two have a young daughter, Doria.
Given that the film is experimental, there is no proper narrative; rather, there is a guideline governing its development. The masked silhouettes climb stairs, and engage in various meetings on each level. This is a spiritual quest that doubles as a research on optical illusions, Bokanowski recreating all the objectives of his cameras. This is a feature film, which is rare for artisanal animation and experimental films.
With baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates in last place, their combative, foul-mouthed manager Guffy McGovern has plenty to complain about. All this changes when, while wandering through Forbes Field in search of his good luck charm one night, Guffy is accosted by the voice of an angel (voice of James Whitmore), who hints at having been a ballplayer during his earthly life.
In 1806, Pittsburgh farmer Johnny Appleseed watches as pioneers depart out west and wishes he could follow. Johnny is inspired by an angel to abandon his farm, go west, and plant apple seeds everywhere he goes. The angel tells Johnny that he has all that he needs to go out West: a bag of seeds to plant, a Bible, and a pot that he can use for a hat. In his travels, Johnny befriends a skunk, and thereafter, all animals instinctively trust him. In the end, after walking hundreds of miles and planting apple trees all along the way, Johnny finally rests for the last time under a tree; his angel appears before him, and tells Johnny that it's time to go. Johnny gets up, scared at first upon realizing he's dead, but refuses to go to his final resting place, believing that his work is not done yet. However, the angel tells him that, where they're headed, they're low on apple trees, so Johnny picks up his seed bag and happily agrees to go with him.