In the Kingdom of Cloister, Jack, a young farm boy, is fascinated by the legend of Erik, an ancient king who defeated an army of invading giants from a realm in the sky by controlling them with a magical crown. At the same time, Princess Isabelle becomes fascinated with the same legend.
Following their successful Rio heist, Dominic "Dom" Toretto and his professional criminal crew have fled around the world: Dom lives with Elena; his sister Mia lives with Brian O'Conner and their son, Jack; Gisele and Han live in Hong Kong; and Roman and Tej live in luxury.
Boston Police Department officers Detective Sergeant Nick Walker (Ryan Reynolds) and Detective Lieutenant Bobby Hayes (Kevin Bacon) discover and steal several shards of gold while on duty. Nick buries his share under an orange tree sapling in his garden; his wife, Julia (Stephanie Szostak), thinks that the tree is a surprise gift and mentions how content she is with their life together. Nick realizes that they do not need the gold, and decides to submit it as evidence. During a subsequent raid, Hayes, dissatisfied with Nick's stroke of conscience, kills him.
In 2005, bookish student Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and popular underachieving jock Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum) miss their school prom. Seven years later, the two meet again at the Police Academy and become firm friends and partners on bicycle patrol. They catch a break when they arrest Domingo (DeRay Davis), the leader of a one-percenter motorcycle gang, but are forced to release him after they failed to read him his Miranda rights.
At the end of the 21st century, Earth is devastated by chemical warfare. What little habitable land remains is divided into two territories, the United Federation of Britain (UFB, located on mainland Europe) and the Colony (Australia). Many residents of the Colony travel to the UFB to work in factories via "the Fall", a gravity elevator running through the Earth's core. A Resistance operating in the UFB seeks to improve life in the Colony, which the UFB views as a terrorist movement.
Dave Lockwood (Jason Bateman) and Mitch Planko (Ryan Reynolds) are close friends who are each jealous of the other's lifestyle. While Dave is a lawyer with a wife and kids, Mitch is a freewheeling actor who has sex with many different women. After getting drunk at a bar, Mitch and Dave urinate in a park's fountain, and simultaneously wish that they had each other's lives.
Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is the irresponsible, 28-year-old slacker son of widower James Reid (Tom Wilkinson), publisher of the Daily Sentinel, a Los Angeles newspaper. Britt's attitude changes when James is found dead from an allergic reaction to a bee sting. After the funeral, Britt fires the staff aside from his maid, but later re-hires Kato (Jay Chou), James's mechanic and a skilled martial artist.
Sgt. Paul Cutler (Gabriel Macht) is an ex-military L.A.P.D. S.W.A.T. officer and considered to be one of the best, even holding a record of having no civilian casualties for ten years. After successfully rescuing hostages with no casualties, Cutler is requested to train the Detroit S.W.A.T. with an updated training curriculum from the F.B.I.'s Hostage Rescue Team training program. Shortly after arriving in Detroit, Cutler immediately imposes his authority and has a rough time with the Captain (Giancarlo Esposito) of the department as well as one of the senior S.W.A.T. leaders Justin Kellogg (Nicholas Gonzalez). During the middle of a training exercise, the team responds to an emergency call when ex-government agent Walter Hatch (Robert Patrick) is holding his girlfriend (Kristanna Loken) hostage.
On August 12, 2011, large masses thought to be meteors land in the oceans near several major coastal cities. The objects are discovered to be spacecraft containing hostile extraterrestrial life. Marines from Camp Pendleton arrive in Los Angeles, including SSgt. Michael Nantz (Eckhart), an Iraq War veteran. Nantz was to begin retirement, but because of the attack, he is made the acting platoon sergeant for 1st Platoon, Echo Company, of the 2nd Battalion 5th Marines.
When Dominic "Dom" Toretto is being transported to Lompoc Prison by bus, his sister Mia Toretto and friend Brian O'Conner lead an assault on the bus, causing it to crash and freeing Dom. While the authorities search for them, the trio escapes to Rio de Janeiro. Awaiting Dom's arrival, Mia and Brian join their friend Vince and other participants on a job to steal three cars from a train. Brian and Mia discover that agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are also on the train and that the cars are seized property. When Dom arrives with the rest of the participants, he realizes that one of them, Zizi, is only interested in stealing one car, a Ford GT40. Dom has Mia steal the car herself before he and Brian fight Zizi and his henchmen, during which Zizi kills the DEA agents assigned to the vehicles. Dom and Brian are captured and brought to crime lord Hernan Reyes, the owner of the cars and Zizi's boss. Reyes orders the pair be interrogated to discover the location of the car, but they manage to escape and retreat to their safehouse.
Milo Boyd (Gerard Butler) is a former NYPD detective who now works as a bail enforcement agent (bounty hunter). Milo's ex-wife, Nicole Hurley (Jennifer Aniston), is an investigative reporter who has been arrested for assaulting a police officer (As she later clarifies, she grazed a patrol horse with her car in trying to get to a press conference).
Norway, World War II. Hanna, whose husband Henrik participates in the resistance movement, gives temporary asylum to a prisoner of war, Arakel, by hiding him in her house in northern Norway. The presence of this stranger changes Hanna's life, and she starts writing about her mixed feelings in her diary.
Five years after leaving Los Angeles, Dominic Toretto and his new crew, consisting of his girlfriend Letty, Tego Leo, Rico Santos, Cara Mirtha, and Han Seoul-Oh, are hijacking fuel tankers in the Dominican Republic. Dominic begins to suspect that the police are hot on their trail, after Han informs him that one of his garages have been raided, forcing the crew to disband and go their separate ways. Realizing that he must move, he packs his things in the middle of the night and leaves Letty behind in order to protect her from harm.
On Halloween night, 1998, at Cornell University, Tom Bailey, Jr. (Patrick Dempsey), in costume as Bill Clinton, slips into bed with his pre-arranged date, Monica. It turns out to be the wrong woman, Monica's roommate Hannah (Michelle Monaghan), and Tom likes her because she is so honest and does not fling herself at him. Ten years later, Hannah and Tom are best friends. Tom is very wealthy because of his creation of the "coffee collar" and gets a dime every time it is used. Tom is with a different girl every week, while Hannah focuses on her career in an art museum. He is very content with his life, suspecting that Hannah is too.
In 2005, Bridgeport native Donna Keppel (Brittany Snow), a high school freshman, returns home from a movie date with her friend Lisa Hines (Dana Davis) to find her father and brother have been killed. In terror, Donna hides under the bed, where she sees her mother (Lori Heuring) struggling with Richard Fenton (Johnathon Schaech), a former teacher of hers who had become obsessed with Donna. As Donna locks eyes with her terrified mother, she witnesses Fenton murder her.