Recently widowed Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon), still grieving his loss and dealing with the expulsion of his 14-year-old son, Dylan (Colin Ford), from school, decides to make a fresh start by buying a new house. He tours many houses with his 7-year old daughter, Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones), and his realtor, Mr. Stevens (J.B. Smoove), but finds none he likes until his daughter finds a listing with what seems like the perfect house. They drive to an old large house and Benjamin inspects the property, telling his realtor it is perfect. When they hear a lion roar, Stevens explains that the house comes with a zoo in the back, which closed several years before; if they want the house, they must buy the zoo.
The film opens with a large gathering inside an aircraft hangar. Everyone is attending a private ceremony for Democratic U.S. Representative Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), who is receiving a major commendation for supporting the U.S. clandestine services. As everyone looks in admiration upon a clearly moved Wilson, the movie goes back in time.
En 2022, la jeune Charlie Roan assiste impuissante à la mort de ses parents torturés par un psychopathe le soir de la Purge annuelle, un événement où pendant une période de douze heures consécutives toute activité criminelle est permise.
A French unit on patrol in Vietnam in 1954, during the final year of the First Indochina War, is ambushed by Viet Minh forces. Viet Minh commander Nguyen Huu An orders his soldiers to "kill all they send, and they will stop coming".
Anna Leonowens (Jodie Foster) is a British widow who has come to Siam with her son Louis (Tom Felton) to teach English to the dozens of children of King Mongkut (Chow Yun-fat). She is a strong-willed, intelligent woman, and this pleases the King, who wants to modernize his country to keep it safe from the threat of colonialism, while protecting many of the ancient traditions that give Siam its unique identity. The King and Anna discuss the differences between Eastern and Western love, and the King dismisses the notion that a man can be happy with only one wife. In order to win the favors of Britain, the King orders a sumptuous reception and delegates Anna to organize it. During the reception, the King verbally spars graciously and wittily with Sir Mycroft Kincaid (Bill Stewart), of the East India Company, who accuses Siam of being a superstitious nation. At the end of the reception, the King dances with Anna.
The film takes place mostly against a backdrop of the pre-World War I years, World War I itself, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Russian Civil War. A narrative framing device, set in the late 1940s to early 1950s, involves KGB Lieutenant General Yevgraf Andreyevich Zhivago (Alec Guinness) searching for the daughter of his half brother, Doctor Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago (Omar Sharif), and Larissa ("Lara") Antipova (Julie Christie). Yevgraf believes a young woman, Tanya Komarova (Rita Tushingham), may be his niece and tells her the story of her father's life.
In 1963, professional thief turned CIA agent Napoleon Solo extracts Gaby Teller, daughter of Udo Teller, an alleged Nazi scientist turned United States collaborator at the end of World War II, from East Berlin, evading KGB operative Illya Kuryakin. He later reports to his superior, Saunders, who reveals that Teller’s uncle Rudi works in a shipping company owned by Alexander and Victoria Vinciguerra, a wealthy couple of Nazi sympathizers who intend to use Teller's father to build their own private nuclear weapon. Due to the potentially world-ending nature of this crisis, the CIA and KGB have reluctantly teamed up and Solo and Kuryakin are ordered to stop the Vinciguerras from succeeding, with both men secretly assigned to steal Udo Teller's research for their respective governments.
Popular Democratic President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) is preparing to run for re-election. The President and his staff, led by Chief of Staff and best friend A.J. MacInerney (Martin Sheen), attempt to consolidate the administration's 63% approval rating by passing a moderate crime control bill. However, support for the bill in both parties is tepid: conservatives do not want it, and liberals think it is too weak. If it passes, however, Shepherd's re-election is presumed by his staff to be a shoo-in, and Shepherd resolves to announce the bill, and the Congressional support to pass it, by the State of the Union.
In Kentucky, a family watches an enormous horde of cattle running past their home, having caught fire, and a flying saucer leaving Earth. The ship explodes before it returns to Mars, and hundreds of other Martian ships leave Mars and head towards Earth.
U.S. Army Private Witt (Jim Caviezel) goes AWOL from his unit and lives among the easy-going and seemingly carefree Melanesian natives in the South Pacific. He is found and imprisoned on a troop carrier by his company First Sergeant, Welsh (Sean Penn), who notices Witt's indifference to the war. The men of C Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division have been brought to Guadalcanal as reinforcements in the campaign to secure Henderson Field and seize the island from the Japanese. As they wait in the holds of a Navy transport, they contemplate their lives and the impending invasion. On deck, battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Tall (Nick Nolte) talks with his commanding officer, Brigadier General Quintard (John Travolta) about the invasion and its importance. Tall's voice-over reveals that he has been passed over for promotion and this battle may be his last chance to command a victorious operation.
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.
In 1942, Vasily Zaytsev (Jude Law), a shepherd from the Ural Mountains who is now a soldier in the Red Army, finds himself on the front lines of the Battle of Stalingrad. Forced into a suicidal charge by barrier troops against the invading Germans, he uses impressive marksmanship skills—taught to him at a young age by his grandfather—to save himself and commisar Danilov (Joseph Fiennes). Nikita Khrushchev (Bob Hoskins) arrives in Stalingrad to coordinate the city's defences and demands ideas to improve morale. Danilov, now a Senior Lieutenant, suggests that the people need figures to idolize and give them hope, and publishes tales of Vasily's exploits in the army's newspaper that paint him as a national hero and propaganda icon. Vasily is transferred to the sniper division, and he and Danilov become friends. They also both become romantically interested in Tania (Rachel Weisz), a citizen of Stalingrad who has become a Private in the local militia. Danilov has her transferred to an intelligence unit away from the battlefield.
Major Bennett "Ben" Marco (Denzel Washington) is a war veteran who begins to doubt what is commonly known about his famous U.S. Army unit. During the Gulf War, Sergeant First Class Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber) supposedly rescued all but two members in his unit, of which Marco was the commanding officer. Shaw became a war hero and was awarded the Medal of Honor, launching his political career.
One night, a thief fleeing through Georgetown in Washington, D.C., is shot by a man carrying a briefcase. A pizza delivery man who witnesses the incident is also shot by the killer and is left in a coma. The following morning, a young woman is killed by a Washington Metro train in what seems to be suicide. Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) is distraught to hear that the woman was Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer), a lead researcher on his staff. Collins, who has military experience, is leading an investigation into PointCorp, a private defense contractor with controversial operations involving mercenaries. Collins tells his former college roommate and old friend Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe), an investigative reporter, that he had been having an affair with Sonia and that she had sent him a cheerful video message on the morning of her death, which he says is inconsistent and unusual behavior for someone about to commit suicide.
À la fin de Ek Tha Tiger, Tiger décide de disparaître des radars au profit de sa vie amoureuse. Mais les temps sont durs. Des indiens sont pris en otage en Irak par une organisation terroriste. Personne ne semble à la hauteur de la crise. Mis à part Tiger !