A former world-famous conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra, known as "The Maestro," Andrey Simonovich Filipov, had had his career publicly broken by Leonid Brezhnev for defending Jewish musicians and is reduced to working as a mere janitor in the theatre where he once conducted, becoming an alcoholic in the process.
While vacationing in Switzerland, pediatrician Chris Nielsen (Robin Williams) meets artist Annie Collins (Annabella Sciorra). They are attracted to each other, and bond as if they had known each other for a long time. They marry and have two children, Ian (Josh Paddock) and Marie (Jessica Brooks Grant). Their idyllic life ends when the children die in a car crash. Life becomes difficult: Annie suffers a mental breakdown and the couple contemplates divorce, but they manage through their losses.
Lance Barton (Chris Rock) is a struggling comedian who is quite funny and confident in his personality, but is unable to bring his talent across in front of an audience. After being booed off stage one night he hears about an opportunity from his manager, Whitney Daniels (Frankie Faison), at the Apollo Theater, which is having a goodbye show due to its imminent closing. He is hoping to get a chance to prove himself in front of a real audience, when on his way home riding a bike Lance is distracted by Sontee Jenkins (Regina King). Not paying attention, he is hit by a semi truck and is instantly killed. Because of this, Lance is brought up to Heaven where he meets the angels, King (Chazz Palminteri) and Keyes (Eugene Levy) who reveal that Lance has died before his time, and can help Lance return to Earth.
In the underground Facility, senior technicians Gary Sitterson and Steve Hadley discuss plans for a mysterious ritual. A similar operation undertaken by their counterparts in Stockholm has just ended in failure.
A disaster of some type has occurred, of which the audience only knows that uncontaminated water is scarce and livestock have to be burned. Fleeing the city, the Laurent family arrive at their country home, hoping to find refuge and security, only to discover that it is already occupied by strangers.
In 2027, after 18 years of global human infertility, civilization is on the brink of collapse as humanity faces extinction. The United Kingdom, the only stable nation with a functioning government, is deluged by asylum seekers fleeing the chaos and war which have taken hold around the world. In response, Britain has become a militarized police state as British government forces round up and detain immigrants. Theo Faron, a former activist turned cynical bureaucrat, is kidnapped by the Fishes, a militant immigrants' rights group. They are led by Theo's estranged wife, Julian Taylor, from whom he separated after their son's death.
The Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with his wife and son. Marcus, who lost his faith after the birth of his ill son, is accustomed to performing fake exorcisms on "possessed" individuals. He chooses an exorcism request sent by farmer Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum), who claims his livestock is being slaughtered by his daughter Nell (Ashley Bell) who is possessed.
Rachel Lapp (McGillis), a young Amish widow, and her 8-year-old son Samuel (Haas) are traveling by train to visit Rachel's sister. Samuel is amazed by the sights in the big city, but at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, he witnesses two men attack and murder a third. Detective John Book (Ford) is assigned to the case and he and his partner, Sergeant Elton Carter (Jennings), question Samuel. Samuel is unable to identify the perpetrator from mug shots or a police lineup, but notices a newspaper clipping with a picture of narcotics officer James McFee (Glover) and recognizes him as one of the killers. John remembers that McFee was previously responsible for a drug raid on expensive chemicals used to make amphetamines, but the evidence had mysteriously disappeared.
The plot-summaries of the shorts are listed below in the order that they run in the DVD release, which is not the chronological order. Chronologically, the order would be:
The Archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) falls to Earth in Los Angeles and cuts off his wings. He steals a police car after a policeman is killed by another officer who is possessed. He travels towards the Paradise Falls Diner, near the edge of the Mojave Desert. Meanwhile, Kyle (Tyrese Gibson), a single father driving to Los Angeles, stops at the diner. He meets the owner, Bob Hanson (Dennis Quaid); Bob's son, Jeep (Lucas Black); Percy (Charles S. Dutton), the short-order cook; Charlie (Adrianne Palicki), a pregnant waitress; Howard (Jon Tenney) and Sandra (Kate Walsh) Anderson, a married couple; and Audrey (Willa Holland), their rebellious teenage daughter. An old woman (Jeanette Miller) enters the diner and begins taunting the diner's patrons. When Howard confronts her, she rips his throat open, screeches that they are all going to die, and climbs up the ceiling. Kyle shoots her before she can kill Jeep. Percy, Kyle, Sandra, Audrey and Charlie try to get Howard to the hospital but they are forced to turn back after passing through a swarm of flies.
As a child, Joan has a violent and supernatural vision. She returns home to find her village burning. Her sister Catherine tries to protect her by hiding her from the attacking English forces, part of a longstanding rivalry with France. Joan, while hiding, witnesses the brutal murder and rape of her sister. Afterward, Joan is taken in by distant relatives.
Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day-Lewis) is shown in Belfast stripping lead from roofs of houses when security forces home in on the district with armoured cars, and a riot breaks out. Gerry's father, Giuseppe Conlon (Pete Postlethwaite), later saves him from IRA punishment, and he is sent off to London to stay with his aunt, for his own good. Instead, he finds a squat, to explore, as he puts it, "free love and dope". One evening by chance he gains entry to a prostitute's flat and he steals the £700 he finds stashed inside; on that evening in Guildford there is an explosion at a pub that kills four off-duty soldiers and a civilian, and wounds sixty-five others.
During the original outbreak of the Rage Virus, Don, his wife Alice, and four other survivors hide in a barricaded cottage on the outskirts of London. They hear a terrified boy pounding at their door, and let him in. A few minutes later, they discover that the infected have followed the boy to them. The infected attack and kill most of the survivors, while Don, Alice, and the boy are chased upstairs. Don is separated from Alice and when the boy is seen hiding in the closet. Alice rushes to get the boy, while Don tells her to just leave him. Soon the infected break into the room and after Alice pleading with Don to "help us", he decides to leave, abandoning them. Don desperately sprints to a nearby motorboat and narrowly escapes.
Americans Ben and Sean (Max Minghella and Emile Hirsch) travel to Moscow to sell their social networking/party locating software. As they approach the airport the plane short circuits due to an electrical storm but regains power. They find their Swedish business partner, Skyler (Joel Kinnaman), has betrayed them and already made a deal with the Russians, using a knockoff application. They go to a nightclub and meet Natalie (Olivia Thirlby), an American, and her Australian friend Anne (Rachel Taylor). The lights go out in the club and everyone heads outside. There, they witness what appears to be an aurora. Balls of light fall from the sky and then fade away. When a policeman investigates he is disintegrated. The invisible entities begin hunting and disintegrating people, sending them into a panic.