The film opens with the murder of gangsters relaxing in a tanning salon. This shooting occurs between clans of the Di Lauro Camorra syndicate which rule Scampia-Secondigliano, and triggers the so-called Faida di Scampia (Scampia feud) which is the backdrop of the entire movie. The Faida erupts between members of the Di Lauro syndicate and the so-called scissionisti (separatists), who are led by Raffaele Amato, brother of two of the killed men in the opening scene.
Immediately after the events of the previous film, Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) lands in the middle of an intersection after falling out of a helicopter. He is scooped off the street via snow shovel by a group of Chinese medics and removed from the scene. Chev wakes up in a makeshift hospital and sees doctors removing his heart while Johnny Vang (Art Hsu) watches. The doctors place Chev's heart in a white cooler with a padlock, and place a clear plastic artificial heart in his chest. He wakes up sometime later and escapes. He notices a yellow battery pack is attached to him. After a gunfight and interrogation of a thug, he learns the location of Johnny Vang: the Cypress Social Club.
The film's plot follows a traditional theme, with Zatoichi (a blind swordsman) coming to the defense of townspeople caught up in a local Yakuza gang war and being forced to pay excessive amounts of protection money. Meanwhile, Zatoichi befriends a local farmer and her gambler nephew and eventually offers his assistance to two geisha siblings (one of whom is actually a man) who are seeking revenge for the murder of their parents. The siblings are the only survivors of a robbery and massacre that was carried out on their family estate ten years ago. They soon discover the people responsible for the murders are the same Yakuza wreaking havoc on the small town.
Jimmy Hoffa and Bobby Ciaro are impatiently waiting in the parking lot of a roadhouse diner on July 30,1975. Others are late for a meeting. Asked if he wants to leave, Hoffa gives Ciaro a scornful glance. The first flashback to 1935 then occurs:
Long-time friends and small-time criminals Eddy, Tom, Soap and Bacon put together £100,000 so that Eddy, a genius card shark, can buy into one of "Hatchet" Harry Lonsdale's weekly high-stakes three card brag games. The game is rigged however, and the friends end up massively indebted to Harry, who fully expects them not to be able to come up with the money before the deadline he gives them. He has his sights set on Eddy's father's bar as repayment, and sets his debt collector Big Chris (who is often accompanied by his beloved son, Little Chris) to work in order to ensure that some form of payment is coming up.
In Rome, Chen Ching-hua and her uncle Wang experience trouble with their restaurant from a mob boss who wants their property. When Chen refuses to sell, the mob boss sends gangsters to scare away customers. Appealing to an uncle in Hong Kong, Chen receives help in the form of Tang Lung, a martial artist. Disappointed, Chen asks how he can help her, but Tang confidently assures her that he is capable. At the restaurant, Tang learns that the staff have begun to learn karate, much to the annoyance of Quen, an employee who favors Chinese martial arts. Tang tells Quen that he should be open-minded and incorporate any moves that work. Before Tang can demonstrate his style to them, customers arrive, and the staff change clothes.
Charley Partanna is a hit man for a New York crime organization headed by the elderly Don Corrado Prizzi, whose business is generally handled by his sons Dominic and Eduardo and by his longtime right-hand man, Angelo, who is Charley's father.
Thanks to falsified dental records supplied by his former neighbor Nicholas "Oz" Ozeransky (Matthew Perry), retired hitman Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski (Bruce Willis) now spends his days compulsively cleaning his house and perfecting his culinary skills with his wife, Jill (Amanda Peet), a purported assassin who has yet to pull off a "clean" hit (everyone she is hired to kill dies in bizarre accidents before she can kill them). Oz, meanwhile, is now married to Jimmy's ex-wife Cynthia (Natasha Henstridge) and has a dental practice in California, now expecting their first child, but the relationship is complicated due to Oz's over-excessive paranoia about security, as well as Cynthia's secret continued contact with Jimmy (Although Oz also talks with Jill on occasion).
A musician named Dixie Dwyer begins working with mobsters to advance his career but falls in love with the girlfriend of gangland kingpin Dutch Schultz.
It is February 1929 in the city of Chicago, Joe (Tony Curtis) is an irresponsible jazz saxophone player, gambler and ladies' man; his friend Jerry (Jack Lemmon) is a sensible jazz double-bass player. They accidentally witness the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. When the gangsters, led by "Spats" Colombo (George Raft), spot them, the two run for their lives. Penniless and in a mad rush to get out of town, the two musicians take a job with Sweet Sue (Joan Shawlee) and her Society Syncopators, an all-female band headed to Miami. Disguised as women and renaming themselves Josephine and Daphne, they board a train with the band and their male manager, Bienstock. Before they board the train, Joe and Jerry notice Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), the band's vocalist and ukulele player.
En pleine prohibition, Claire, une jeune veuve, tente de reprendre les affaires de son compagnon avec la complicité de Walker. Une opération de trafic de travailleurs clandestins à la frontière mexicaine échoue lamentablement. Un américain, Kibby propose au couple une association et le trio se lance dans la contrebande d'alcool. Ils utiliseront pour ce faire un bateau voguant dans la baie de San-Francisco, le Lucky Lady. L'affaire n'est pas si simple puisqu'il faut compter avec la mafia dirigée par l'inquiétant McTeague et aussi par des gardes côtes incorruptibles. La première opération réussit, le trio dépense son argent dans un hôtel de luxe. Les relations entre les trois personnages tournent vite au ménage à trois. Mais Claire pense à son avenir, et sait qu'une fois l'argent dépensé, ils n'auront plus rien, il leur faut donc refaire une nouvelle grosse opération, mais cette fois McTeague n'est pas décidé à se laisser faire et compte bien éliminer ce trio qui le gène dans son propre trafic. On va donc vers une confrontation majeure où tous les moyens vont être bons pour éliminer l'adversaire.
Veterinary technician Corky Romano (Chris Kattan) having been banished from his family after the death of his mother, is unaware of their underworld connections until he receives a call from his father, "Pops" (Peter Falk) a Mafia crime lord. Pops has been indicted on racketeering charges, and, knowing that the prosecutors have a strong case against him, has concluded that the only solution is to somehow destroy the evidence held by the FBI.
In the prologue, gangster Angelo "Snaps" Provolone promises his dying father (Kirk Douglas) that he will give up a life of crime, and instead "go straight".
After being paroled from Sing Sing, Bumpy Johnson (Laurence Fishburne) returns to Harlem to resume his old life. He is welcomed back by his cousin, Illinois Gordon (Chi McBride) as well as Stephanie "Madame Queen" St. Clair, the monarch reigning over the numbers racket in Harlem. The psychopathic Dutch Schultz (Tim Roth), a Mafia associate who reports to mob boss Charles "Lucky" Luciano (Andy Garcia) runs the numbers rackets in downtown New York. His gang has been crowding into Harlem, terrorizing residents to only play the numbers with his operation.
Set in the 1920s, the story follows Joe Coughlin, the prodigal son of a Boston police captain. After moving to Ybor City, Coughlin becomes a bootlegger and a rum-runner and, later, a notorious gangster.