In Los Angeles, Lt. Parker Barnes and John Donovan are tracking down a serial killer named SID 6.7 at a restaurant in virtual reality. SID (short for Sadistic, Intelligent, Dangerous - a VR amalgam of the most violent serial killers throughout history) puts Donovan into shock, killing him. The director overseeing the project, before Commissioner Elizabeth Deane and her associate, William Wallace, order the programmer in charge of creating SID, Dr. Darrel Lindenmeyer, to shut down the project. Barnes is a former police officer imprisoned for killing political terrorist Matthew Grimes, who killed Parker's wife and daughter and innocent bystanders. This caused Barnes to become a convicted killer and serve 17 years to life.
In the world of underground motorcycle racing, the undefeated racer known as Smoke (Laurence Fishburne) is the undisputed "King of Cali." But Smoke's dominance of the set is about to be threatened by a young motorcycle racing prodigy called Kid (Derek Luke), who is determined to win Smoke's helmet and earn the coveted title. Kid says that the difference between men and boys are the lessons they learn- and that his father, Slick Will, taught him plenty.
A father (Viggo Mortensen), devoted to teaching his six children how to live and survive in the deep forests of the Pacific Northwest, is forced to leave his self-created paradise. When confronted with the real world, he begins a journey that challenges his ideas of freedom and what it means to raise a family.
Republican Senator Russell Kramer of Ohio (Jack Lemmon) wins the Presidential election, narrowly defeating archrival Democratic Governor Matt Douglas of Indiana (James Garner). Four years later, Douglas wins a landslide victory over the now-incumbent Kramer. Another four years later, Kramer's former Vice President, William Haney (Dan Aykroyd), defeats Douglas. His Vice President, Ted Matthews (John Heard), is widely seen as an idiot, and becomes a continuing embarrassment for the administration. A further three years later, Kramer is spending his time writing books and speaking at various inconsequential functions, while Douglas is finishing his own book and going through a divorce.
In the beginning, a red/white '58 Plymouth Fury is built at its assembly line. While a worker begins to investigate the engine for any mistakes, the car surprisingly closes its hood on his hand, injuring him. Surprisingly, after the injured man is taken away, and during closing time, another worker is killed in the Fury, supposedly died of inhaling fumes 'in' the car.
On May 18, 1978, Texas Sheriff John Quincey Wydell and a large posse of State Troopers issue a Search and Destroy mission on the Firefly family for over 75 homicides and disappearances over the past several years. The family arms themselves and fire on the officers. Rufus is killed and Mother Firefly (Leslie Easterbrook) is taken into custody, while Otis and Baby escape. They steal a car, and after killing the driver, they go to Kahiki Palms, a run-down motel.
The story prologues with two auto-worker union officials addressing the recent death of a peer. Within moments, both are brutally murdered by a group of shadowy, almost supernatural killers that seem to move, disappear and reappear at will during a daring skyscraper assault.
When race car driver Brewster Baker (Kenny Rogers) is stopped at a gas station, parts are stolen from his race car. Then while in a diner in a small Texas town, he sees some people stealing parts from another car, and chases the thieves. When the thieves' van goes into a river, Brewster rescues them and discovers that they are orphaned children. The kids were stealing auto parts for "Big John" the corrupt county sheriff, who jails Brewster for breaking and entering, larceny, resisting arrest and speeding. After the kids help break Brewster out of jail, Brewster reluctantly takes the children with him. Eventually, they form a friendship and bond. The end of the movie features real race footage from the 1982 NASCAR Coca-Cola 500, held at Atlanta Motor Speedway and won that year by Darrell Waltrip.
A recently widowed single father, Jim Grant (Robert Redford), is a former Weather Underground militant wanted for a 1980 Michigan bank robbery and the murder of the bank's security guard. He has been hiding from the FBI for over thirty years, establishing an identity as a defense attorney near Albany, New York. When Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon), another former Weather Underground member, is arrested on October 3, 2011, an ambitious young reporter, Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf), smells an opportunity to make a name for himself with a national story. His prickly editor, Ray Fuller (Stanley Tucci), assigns him to follow up. Ben's ex-girlfriend, Diana (Anna Kendrick), is an FBI agent, and he presses her for information about the case. She tells him to look up a Billy Cusimano (Stephen Root). Billy, an old hippie with a history of drug arrests who runs an organic grocery, is an old friend of Sharon Solarz and a former client of Jim's. Billy is disappointed that Jim doesn't want to take Sharon's case, and he conveys this information to Ben when Ben questions him.
Detroit engineer Preston Tucker (Jeff Bridges) has been interested in building cars since childhood. During World War II he designed an armored car for the military and made money building gun turrets for aircraft in a small shop next to his home in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Tucker is supported by his large, extended family, including wife Vera (Joan Allen) and eldest son Preston Jr (Christian Slater).
Television journalist Diana (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick) records footage of a cocaine deal gone wrong between the Italian mob and a street gang called "The Demons" with mob boss Giancarlo (Richard Norton) killing the Demons' leader. Diana's partner Richard is captured and she bumps into TV chef Jackie (Jackie Chan), who helps her escape from the mob. During the chase, she accidentally switches the videotape of the drug trade with one of Jackie's cooking videos from a box of tapes, who he later gives to his friend Romeo, an officer for the city's police department.
Outside of Las Vegas, Michael (Kurt Russell), a recent parolee, stops at a run-down desert motel. There, he finds a boy named Jesse (David Kaye) stealing the air valve caps off his car's wheels and chases him, meeting his mother, Cybil (Courteney Cox Arquette) whom he later beds. Later that night he is picked up by four men, all dressed in Elvis costumes, Murphy (Kevin Costner), Hanson (Christian Slater), Gus (David Arquette), and Franklin (Bokeem Woodbine), and they set off the next day headed into a casino holding an Elvis convention intent on robbing it. Michael rigs the elevator while the others rob the cages and counting room, and after a grotesquely violent firefight, Franklin dies during their escape.