Hook-handed Vietnam veteran Staff Sergeant John "Four Leaf" Tayback's (Nick Nolte) memoir, Tropic Thunder, is being made into a film. With the exception of newcomer supporting actor Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel), the cast—fading action hero Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), five-time Academy Award-winning Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr.), rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), and drug-addicted comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black)—behave unreasonably. Rookie director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) cannot control them during filming of a large war scene, and production is reported to be one month behind schedule a mere week into production. Studio executive Les Grossman (Tom Cruise) orders Damien to resume filming as planned, or risk its cancellation.
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 Aurora, Illinois, twenty-something rock and roll enthusiasts Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar host a cable access television show called Wayne's World, in which they lampoon eccentric locals and discuss topics of interest that include music and beautiful women; in spite of the show's low budget, it has proven quite popular in the Aurora area. One day, Benjamin Kane, a television producer, discovers Wayne's World while visiting his girlfriend; after learning of the show's popularity, he has his assistant Russell Finley track down where Wayne's World is taped.
Brothers Walter and Gary, residents of Smalltown, are fans of the Muppets, having watched The Muppet Show throughout their youth. Now adults, Gary plans a vacation to Los Angeles with his girlfriend, Mary, to celebrate their tenth anniversary, inviting Walter so he can tour the Muppet Studios. Mary feels Gary's devotion to Walter is detracting from their relationship.
Danny Madigan is a teenage boy living in a crime-ridden area of New York City with his widowed mother Irene. To escape from his harsh reality, Danny often skips school to watch movies at the run-down Pandora movie theater, owned and managed by Danny's friend Nick. Nick receives the film reels for Jack Slater IV, the latest in one of Danny's favorite film series about the titular Los Angeles police detective and violent action hero, and offers to show it to Danny at a private screening just before the world premiere. To mark the occasion, Nick tears up a special ticket he received from Harry Houdini years ago, giving one half of the stub to Danny as a keepsake.
In 1927, silent film star George Valentin is posing for pictures outside the premiere of his latest hit film when a young woman, Peppy Miller, accidentally bumps into him. Valentin reacts with humor to the accident and shows off with Peppy for the cameras. The next day, Peppy finds herself on the front page of Variety with the headline "Who's That Girl?" Later, Peppy auditions as a dancer and is spotted by Valentin, who insists that she have a part in Kinograph Studios' next production, despite objections from the studio boss, Al Zimmer. While performing a scene in which they dance together, Valentin and Peppy show great chemistry, despite her being merely an extra. With a little guidance from Valentin (he draws a beauty spot on her, which will eventually be her trademark, after finding her in his dressing room), Peppy slowly rises through the industry, earning more prominent starring roles.
In the American Old West of 1874, construction on a new railroad led by Lyle (Burton Gilliam) runs into quicksand. The route has to be changed, which will require it to go through Rock Ridge, a frontier town where everyone has the last name of "Johnson" (including a "Howard Johnson," a "Dr. Samuel Johnson," a "Van Johnson" and an "Olson N. Johnson"). The conniving State Attorney General Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) – who constantly has to correct people who call him "Hedy", the name of a movie star, instead of "Hedley" – wants to buy the land along the new railroad route cheaply by driving out the townspeople. He sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky assistant Taggart (Slim Pickens), to scare them away, prompting the townsfolk to demand that Governor William J. Le Petomane (Mel Brooks) appoint a new sheriff. Lamarr persuades the dim-witted Le Petomane to select Bart (Cleavon Little), a black railroad worker who was about to be hanged, as he believes a black lawman will so offend the townspeople that they will either abandon Rock Ridge or lynch the new sheriff, with either result paving the way for him to take over the town.
Chili Palmer, a loan shark based in Miami, clashes with mobster, Ray "Bones" Barboni over a leather jacket borrowed from Palmer at a restaurant without permission by Mr. Barboni. They have two confrontations, the first of which leaves Barboni with a broken nose. Barboni then wants his boss Jimmy Capp to go after Palmer, but he refuses, as Palmer has done nothing wrong. Barboni took the jacket without permission, and Chili's car keys were in the jacket. Jimmy also tells Bones that Chili works for another mafioso named Momo and Capp has no power over him. But soon after Palmer's boss, Momo, dies of a heart attack, Chili finds himself working for Barboni, whose first order is for Palmer to collect a loan shark debt owed by dry cleaner Leo Devoe. Devoe was believed to have been killed in a commercial airliner crash, but in truth had actually gotten off the plane, and failed to re-board because he was getting drunk in the airport bar. After the plane crash, Devoe's wife identified his personal effects, and the airline quickly offers her an insurance check for $300,000. Faye carelessly gives Leo the insurance money, and he heads out of Miami. When Chili visits Leo's "widow" Faye, she reveals to Palmer that Leo is still alive, has left Miami, and is partying and winning money in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 1961, the financially strapped author Pamela "P. L." Travers reluctantly travels from her home in London to Los Angeles to work with Walt Disney at the urging of her agent, Diarmuid Russell. Disney has pursued the film rights to her Mary Poppins stories for twenty years, having promised his daughters that he would produce a film based on them. Travers has steadfastly resisted Disney's efforts because she fears what he would do to her character. However, she has not written anything in a while and her book royalties have dwindled to nothing, so she risks losing her house. Still, Russell has to remind her that Disney has agreed to two major stipulations - no animation and unprecedented script approval - before she agrees to go.
Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) is a faded Hollywood actor best known for playing the superhero Birdman decades ago in a series of films. He is often tormented by the mocking, critical inner voice of Birdman, and frequently visualizes himself performing feats of levitation and telekinesis. The film opens with a quotation from Raymond Carver stating that the main fulfillment in life is related to having once been loved, then cuts to a dramatic atmospheric disturbance resembling a meteor descending in flames. The film then cuts to a surreal shot depicting Riggan as levitating in his stage room. Riggan hopes to reinvent his career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production of a loosely based adaptation of Carver's short story "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love".
The film begins with the Spice Girls performing "Too Much" on Top of the Pops, but they later become dissatisfied with the burdens of it. Meanwhile, sinister newspaper owner Kevin McMaxford (Barry Humphries) is attempting to ruin the girls' reputation for his newspaper's ratings. McMaxford dispatches photographer Damien (Richard O'Brien) to take pictures and tape recordings of the girls. Less threatening but more annoying is documentarian Piers Cuthbertson-Smyth (Alan Cumming), who stalks the girls along with his camera crew, hoping to use them as subjects for his next project. At the same time, the girls' manager, Clifford (Richard E. Grant), is fending off two over-eager Hollywood writers, named Martin Barnfield and Graydon (George Wendt and Mark McKinney), who relentlessly pitch absurd plot ideas for a feature film for the Spice Girls.
Z-grade film producer Bobby Bowfinger is extremely eager to direct a film of his own and has saved up for it his entire life — he now has $2,184 to pay for production costs. He has a script ("Chubby Rain") penned by an accountant, Afrim, and a camera operator, Dave, with access to studio-owned equipment. Bowfinger then lines up several actors who are hungry for work; the only other thing he needs is access to a studio in order to distribute his masterwork.
Private investigator Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage) is contacted by Daniel Longdale (Anthony Heald), attorney for wealthy widow Mrs. Christian (Myra Carter), whose husband has recently died. While clearing out her late husband's safe, she and Longdale found an 8mm film which appears to depict a real murder of a girl, but Mrs. Christian wants to know for certain.
The film opens with Super 8 footage depicting a family of four standing beneath a tree with sacks over their heads and nooses around their necks. An unseen figure saws through a branch acting as a counterweight, causing their deaths by hanging.
Following the events of the previous film, The Muppets find themselves at a loss as to what to do until Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais) suggests that the Muppets go on a European tour with him as their tour manager. As the Muppets begin their tour, the criminal mastermind Constantine, a near-exact double for Kermit the Frog in appearance, escapes from a Siberian Gulag and joins his subordinate Dominic to begin a plot to steal the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.