En 1980, un journaliste allemand travaille au Japon pour une chaîne de télévision allemande. Au mois de mai de la même année a lieu, en Corée du Sud, le soulèvement de Gwangju. Ce mouvement, principalement étudiant et syndical, s’oppose à la dictature de Chun Doo-hwan, mise en place après l’assassinat de Park Chung-hee. Il décide alors de se rendre dans le pays. Il prend un taxi de Séoul à Gwangju et filme tout ce qu’il voit. Son retour jusqu'à Séoul sera éminemment compliqué puisqu'il leur faut échapper à la surveillance aérienne. De retour au Japon, il envoie son film en Allemagne.
A bomb detonates in the plaza of the Colombian Consulate building in Los Angeles, killing nine people, including a caravan of Colombian officials and American intelligence agents. Among the civilians killed are the wife and son of LAFD firefighter, Captain Gordon "Gordy" Brewer, who was injured in the explosion. A tape is sent to the U.S. State Department, in which a masked man calling himself "El Lobo" (The Wolf) claims responsibility, explaining it was in retaliation for the oppression of Colombia by the United States. The FBI believes El Lobo is a Colombian terrorist named Claudio Perrini. CIA Special Agent Peter Brandt, the Colombia Station Chief, is harshly reprimanded for the incident by a Senate Oversight Committee, who promptly terminate all CIA operations in Colombia. Brandt angrily returns to Mompós and meets with his paramilitary allies to plan a major offensive to take down Claudio.
Pete Sandich (Dreyfuss) is an aerial firefighter, flying a war-surplus A-26 bomber dropping fire retardant slurry to put out forest wildfires. His excessive risk taking in the air deeply troubles his girlfriend, Dorinda Durston (Hunter), a pilot who doubles as a dispatcher, and is also of concern to his best friend, Al Yackey (Goodman), a fellow fighter. On one flight, Pete makes one extra drop, runs out of fuel, and barely manages to glide onto the runway.
Derek Charles (Idris Elba) works for a finance company and is married to Sharon (Beyoncé Knowles). While Derek is at work, he greets temporary worker Lisa Sheridan (Ali Larter), who—believing Derek was flirting with her—attempts to seduce him throughout the film. Derek repeatedly rejects her, but Lisa continues to pursue him, making sexual advances on him at the Christmas party and flashing him in his car. Derek intends to report Lisa to his firm's human resource management, but learns that she has quit her job. Thinking that Lisa has given up, Derek is annoyed when he receives flirtatious emails from her. Derek and his workmates visit a resort for a conference, where he spots and confronts Lisa, who spikes his drink. Incapacitated, Derek is helpless when Lisa follows him into his hotel room and rapes him. He confronts Lisa again the following day, and hours later discovers her lying naked in his bed after attempting suicide by drug overdose. Derek calls for medical help.
In the Bélier family, sixteen-year-old Paula is an indispensable interpreter for her deaf parents and brother on a daily basis, especially in the running of the family farm. One day, a music teacher discovers her gift for singing and encourages Paula to participate in a prestigious singing contest in Paris, which will secure her a good career and a college degree. However, this decision would mean leaving her family and taking her first steps towards adulthood.
Belle Williams (Queen Latifah) is a talented driver and auto mechanic who dreams of driving in NASCAR. As the film opens, she celebrates her last shift as a bicycle courier after winning her taxi license and beating the shop's record with a new delivery record of 13 minutes and 54 seconds. Although in a happy relationship, she occasionally neglects her boyfriend Jesse (Henry Simmons) and has bestowed much love on her custom-built 1999 Ford Crown Victoria taxicab over the past five years. This evening, having skipped her dinner date, she installs into the cab a supercharger that was given to her as a present for her last day.
Ten-year-old Samantha "Sam" Montgomery (Hannah Robinson) lives in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, with her widowed father Hal (Whip Hubley), who runs a popular sports-themed diner. Hal soon marries a vain, self-absorbed woman named Fiona (Jennifer Coolidge). During the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Hal is killed when he runs to save Fiona. Having supposedly left no will, Fiona receives all of his belongings, including the house, the diner, and to her dismay, Sam.
In Queens, New York during October 1999, John Sullivan (Caviezel), a 36-year-old homicide detective, breaks up with his girlfriend Samantha (Melissa Errico) with the reason partially attributed to the trauma caused by the death of his fireman father Frank (Quaid). Still living in the same house where he grew up, he discovers his father's Heathkit single-sideband ham radio and begins transmitting radio signals. Because of highly localized electro-temporal spatial effects caused by unusual aurora borealis activity, John somehow makes contact with his father exactly 30 years in the past on the day before Frank's death in a warehouse fire. The ensuing conversation results in Frank thinking John is a stalker. Before the connection cuts out, John is able to shout out the circumstances that led to Frank's death. The next day as little things brought up in their conversation prove true, Frank believes and heeds John's words, escaping the fire to safety. The father and son reconnect on the HAM radio set later that evening, with Frank sharing his dreams and his hopes for his son, and John recounting the details of the Mets-Orioles World Series, which is just beginning in Frank's timeline in 1969. John also reveals to Frank that he now dies of lung cancer in 1989 due to his smoking habit.
In the 19th century, a Grande Dame (Jeanne Moreau) summons The Brothers Grimm to her palace, where the brothers discuss their interpretation of the Cinderella story and notice a painting displayed in the room. The Grande Dame shows the brothers a glass slipper and tells them the story of Danielle de Barbarac, the true story of Cinderella. In 16th-century France, widower Auguste de Barbarac (Jeroen Krabbé), father of eight-year-old Danielle, marries Rodmilla de Ghent (Anjelica Huston), a wealthy baroness with two young daughters, Maguerite and Jacqueline, but he dies of a heart attack shortly afterwards. Before dying, Auguste's last words are directed to Danielle, which causes the Baroness to envy Danielle and treat her miserably for the next ten years. While Marguerite (Megan Dodds) is hostile and cruel to Danielle, Jacqueline (Melanie Lynskey) is kinder and more respectful to her, though she often stays out of the crossfires to keep the peace.
A group of thieves calling themselves the Santa Claus gang are wreaking havoc, and the Marseille police are, as usual, unable to keep up. Superintendent Gibert (played by Bernard Farcy) is distracted by a Chinese journalist (Bai Ling) writing a story on his squad. Detective Emilien's wife, Petra, has just announced that she's pregnant and taxi driver Daniel (Samy Naceri) is in the midst of a relationship crisis. His long-suffering girlfriend Lilly has walked out on him after finding him customising his taxi at four o'clock in the morning, and complaining that their house has become a mere garage. After a string of mistakes in which the thieves outsmart the police time and time again, a journalist is kidnapped. It is revealed that the journalist is the leader of the Santa Claus gang. The police go in search, but Emilien is captured after another botched attempt to arrest them. The journalist sets a trap; she leaves Emilien tied to a chair in an old warehouse, directly in the path of a giant ball which will crush him five minutes later. At the very last moment, Daniel rushes in with his taxi and rescues him. They track the gang to their hideout in the Swiss mountains, where the journalist and her accomplices are arrested by a crack team of Alpine troops. Gibert lands in an ice-bound lake after leaping from an aircraft with them. Petra gives birth, Daniel proposes to Lilly and a Gibert is seen being pushed around in a wheelchair covered in ice.
À la fin de son règne, lors du Jubilé de 1887, on découvre la reine empêtrée par l'obséquiosité servile de son entourage. Affectivement, elle est seule depuis la mort de son mari trente ans plus tôt, ce que la scène introductive du banquet ne manque pas de souligner : les convives n'y paraissent que comme des pantins sans partager aucun affect ni propos avec la Reine. Lors de ce banquet, un seul invité se distingue : un des deux Indiens dépêchés par les autorités coloniales depuis la cité d'Agra pour présenter une pièce commémorative, et tenus par le protocole de ne jamais dévisager la Reine lorsqu'ils la lui montrent, ainsi que de se retirer le dos courbé à reculons tout le long du hall. Ce dernier ne respecte pas cette règle et tient un regard appuyé vers la Reine, laquelle ne manquera pas de le trouver beau ("handsome") en rapportant ultérieurement ses impressions auprès de son majordome. Elle réclame ensuite à nouveau sa présence, à la stupéfaction des valets.
A Belgian criminal, wanted all over Europe for his crimes, is in the custody of the Police Department of Marseille to be watched for a few hours before transfer to a prison in Congo. Unfortunately Émilien (Frédéric Diefenthal) is tricked by the villain and convinced to let the prisoner go. After these events he's fired, but luckily for him, his friend Daniel (Samy Naceri) helps him one more time by telling him the location where the criminal is located, having been the taxi driver who drove him after he left the police station, not knowing he was a criminal. With Daniel's skills and his new Peugeot 407, Émillen seeks to capture the criminal to restore his job back.
A Japanese minister of defence is traveling to Paris to sign a weapons contract between Japan and France, but first, he is visiting Marseille to view and rate the city police's anti-gang tactics (using fake attacks on him). During the visit, however, he is kidnapped by a group working for the Japanese yakuza. Emilien (Frédéric Diefenthal) is determined to rescue the minister and detective Petra (Emma Sjöberg), his girlfriend who was also kidnapped, and restore the honour of his department. Once again, speed demon taxi-driver Daniel (Samy Naceri) is called upon to save the day with his high-speed driving skills.
Darren McCord (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a Canadian-born firefighter with the Pittsburgh Fire Bureau who suffered a personal crisis after he was unable to save a young girl from a house fire. Now removed from active duty, Darren is the fire marshal for the Civic Arena.
Plusieurs femmes travaillant pour Fox News ont plusieurs altercations avec le fondateur de la chaîne, Roger Ailes. Elles vont tenter de briser la « loi du silence » à propos du harcèlement sexuel.