In the Arizona desert, truck driver Martin "Rubber Duck" Penwald is passed by a woman in a Jaguar E-Type, which leads to an encounter with a sheriff's deputy. Proceeding on his way, Rubber Duck runs into fellow truck drivers Pig Pen/Love Machine and Spider Mike, when another "trucker" informs them over the C.B. that they are okay to increase their speed. The "trucker" turns out to be cold county Sheriff "Dirty Lyle" Wallace, a long-time nemesis of the Duck, who extorts them for $70 each.
As the film opens, Joe Buck (Jon Voight), a young Texan working as a dishwasher, dresses in new cowboy clothing, packs a suitcase, and quits his job. He heads to New York City hoping to succeed as a male prostitute for women. Initially unsuccessful, he succeeds in bedding a well-to-do middle-aged New Yorker (Sylvia Miles), but Joe ends up giving her money.
In Marseille, France, a young Vespa delivery boy named Daniel (Samy Naceri) has just finished his last delivery for a local pizza parlor, Pizza Joe, owned by Joe (Georges Neri), his boss, also beating his old record, as he is planning to quit the job to pursue a career as a taxi driver. As he reunites with his girlfriend Lilly (Marion Cotillard), a large group of delivery boys throw a huge celebration in honor of his departure as he goes with Lilly to his apartment.
Frank Martin (Jason Statham) is a highly skilled driver known only as "The Transporter." He will transport anything, no questions asked, always on time, and he is known as the best in the business. He strictly follows three rules when transporting: Rule Number 1: "Never change the deal", Rule Number 2: "No names", and Rule Number 3: "Never open the package." Frank has been hired to transport some robbers from a bank heist. On delivery to their destination, they foist an extra man in the car so he refuses to drive until they decide to kill one robber. Later they offer new money on Frank to drive further from the city. He refuses the deal. The robbers escape in another car, and Frank leaves.
Cha Tae-sik leads a quiet life running a pawnshop. His only friend is a little girl, So-mi, who lives next door. So-mi's mother, Hyo-jeong, is a heroin addict who steals drugs from a feared organized crime group. She pawns her camera bag to Tae-sik; he does not realize it has the stolen drugs inside. Crime lord Oh Myung-gyu sends his subordinates, brothers Man-Seok and Jong-seok to retrieve the drugs; Jong-seok and his henchman Lum Rowan torture Hyo-jeong to find the drugs' location, then kidnap her and So-mi. Two gangsters, Du-chi and "Bear" go to Tae-sik pawn shop, but Tae-sik easily overpowers them. When he finds that Hyo-jeong and So-mi have been kidnapped, he gives them the bag, and Rowan kills Bear to set him up as the fall guy.
Ambitious politician Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) is about to present a surprise star witness in a Senate Subcommittee hearing on organized crime. The witness, Johnny Ross (Pat Renella), a defector from the Organization in Chicago, is put under San Francisco Police Department protective custody for the weekend, 40 hours until his Monday morning appearance.
In Marseille, an undercover detective is following Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), a wealthy French criminal who runs the largest heroin-smuggling syndicate in the world. The policeman is assassinated by Charnier's hitman, Pierre Nicoli (Marcel Bozzuffi). Charnier plans to smuggle $32 million worth of heroin into the United States by hiding it in the car of his unsuspecting friend, French television personality Henri Devereaux (Frédéric de Pasquale).
John Milton (Nicolas Cage) is an undead criminal who has broken out of Hell to kill Jonah King (Billy Burke), a cult leader who tricked Milton's daughter into joining his followers in the wake of Milton's death 10 years prior, only to kill her and her husband and steal their daughter -Milton's granddaughter- to be sacrificed in a Satanist ritual, since King believes that if he kills the baby, he will unleash Hell over Earth. He also stole the Satan's personal gun, labeled The Godkiller.
Maindrian Pace (H.B. "Toby" Halicki) is a respectable insurance investigator who runs an automobile chop shop in Long Beach, California. However, he is also the leader of a professional car theft ring, who steal and re-sell stolen cars; utilizing the VIN numbers, engines, parts, and details (such as parking decals and bumper stickers) sourced from legitimately-purchased wrecks. As an insurance industry insider, Pace does have one small idiosyncrasy: All vehicles stolen must be insured.
Sylvain Marot, pilote d'exception, est un super-flic parisien qui vient d'arrêter un truand et, parce que celui-ci est d’humeur râleuse, décide de lui offrir quelques dérapages et pics de vitesse dans les grandes rues de la capitale. De retour au poste de police, il apprend être sanctionné pour avoir couché avec la femme du préfet : ce dernier le mute dans une brigade de police municipale de Marseille alors qu'à la base, il rêvait du RAID. Sur place, Alain Trésor, idiot logorrhéique en poste depuis plus de 20 ans à la Criminelle de Marseille et maintenant à la tête de la Municipale, lui présente l'équipe de bras cassés en place : Ménard, un grand dadais des farces et attrapes. Michel, un nain agressif. Régis, un pervers incontrôlable. Et Sandrine, une policière obèse et nymphomane. Lors d'un contrôle de routine, Sylvain est renversé par un chauffeur VTC calamiteux et intellectuellement limité. Il tente de poursuivre la Renault Laguna à travers les rues de Marseille, mais le passager du véhicule vomit sur le pare-brise de la voiture de police qui plonge dans le Vieux-Port. Casse-cou peu au fait des mœurs marseillaises, Sylvain est pris à partie par deux agents de la police nationale, qui connaissent ses origines parisiennes.
Ruthless real estate magnate Alonzo Hawk (Keenan Wynn) is pursuing his newest indoor shopping center, the 130-story Hawk Plaza. His only obstacle is an archaic firehouse inhabited by "Grandma" Steinmetz (Helen Hayes), widow of its former owner, Fire Captain Steinmetz, and aunt of mechanic Tennessee Steinmetz who appeared in The Love Bug; her displaced neighbor, flight attendant Nicole Harris (Stefanie Powers); and their sentient machines: Herbie the Love Bug, an orchestrion that chooses its own songs, and a retired cable car known as "Old No. 22". It is explained that Tennessee has gone to Tibet to visit his ailing philosophy teacher, while Herbie's former owner, Jim Douglas, has gone to Europe.
In 2017, after a worldwide economic collapse, American society has become a totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting game shows where convicted criminals fight for their lives, including the gladiator-style The Running Man, hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian, where "runners" attempt to evade "stalkers", armed mercenaries, around a large arena, and near-certain death for a chance to be pardoned by the state.
En 1892, le capitaine Joseph J. Blocker, légende de l'armée américaine, est chargé d'une mission qu'il accepte à contrecœur. Avec ses hommes, il doit escorter Yellow Hawk, un chef de guerre cheyenne mourant, ainsi que sa famille, pour retourner sur leurs terres tribales. Durant le voyage entre le Nouveau-Mexique et le Montana, les militaires et les Cheyennes vont devoir faire preuve de solidarité et d'entraide pour survivre aux dangers qu'ils vont croiser.
Carter "Doc" McCoy (McQueen), in prison in Texas, is denied parole. When his wife Carol (MacGraw) visits him, he tells her to do whatever necessary to make a deal with Jack Benyon (Johnson), a corrupt businessman in San Antonio.
Ji-won is one of numerous North Korean undercover spies living in South Korea as ordinary citizens, until he's called to fulfill his mission: the assassination of Kim Jong-il's second cousin who wrote a book that the North Korean government deems as a great betrayal to the Fatherland. However, one of his fellow spies, Tae-soon, betrays his orders by switching his allegiance to South Korea, and Ji-won mistakenly becomes the target for both countries.