Actor Robert Downey Jr. (1965)

In Victorian era Britain, Dr. John Dolittle is a Welsh veterinarian with the ability to communicate with animals. After his wife, Lily, dies at sea, Dolittle retreats from human society and only tends to animals. Years later, a boy, Tommy Stubbins, accidentally wounds Kevin the red squirrel and is guided to Dolittle’s help by Polynesia, a macaw. Queen Victoria dispatches Lady Rose to summon Dolittle to help cure her of a deadly illness. He refuses until Poly persuades him that he must begin to reconnect with fellow humans. He finds the Queen has been poisoned by nightshade and the only cure is the magical fruit of Eden. Though they will need ...

In 2018, twenty-three days after Thanos killed half of all life in the universe, Carol Danvers rescues Tony Stark and Nebula from deep space and they reunite with the remaining Avengers—Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, Thor, Natasha Romanoff, and James Rhodes—and Rocket on Earth. Locating Thanos on an uninhabited planet, they plan to use the Infinity Stones to reverse his actions, but discover Thanos has already destroyed them to prevent further use. Enraged, Thor decapitates Thanos. Five years later, in 2023, Scott Lang escapes from the Quantum Realm. Reaching the Avengers Compound, he explains that he experienced only five hours while trapped. Theorizing the Quantum Realm allows time ...

Having acquired the Power Stone–one of the six Infinity Stones–from the planet Xandar, Thanos and his lieutenants: Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive, intercept the spaceship carrying the survivors of Asgard’s destruction. After subduing Thor, Thanos extracts the Space Stone from the Tesseract, overpowers the Hulk, and kills Loki. Thanos also kills Heimdall after he sends Hulk to Earth using the Bifröst. Thanos and his lieutenants leave, destroying the ship. Hulk crash-lands in the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City, reverting to the form of Bruce Banner. He warns Stephen Strange and Wong about Thanos’ plan to destroy half of all life in the ...

Following the Battle of New York, Adrian Toomes and his salvage company are contracted to clean up the city, but their operation is taken over by the Department of Damage Control (DODC), a partnership between Tony Stark and the U.S. government. Enraged at being driven out of business, Toomes persuades his employees to keep the Chitauri technology they have already scavenged and use it to create and sell advanced weapons, including a flying Vulture suit Toomes uses to steal Chitauri power cells. Eight years later, Peter Parker is drafted into the Avengers by Stark to help with an internal dispute in Berlin, but resumes his studies at the Midtown School of Science and Technology when ...

In 1991, the brainwashed super-soldier James “Bucky” Barnes is dispatched from a Hydra base in Siberia to intercept an automobile carrying a case of super-soldier serum. In the present day, approximately one year after Ultron’s defeat in the nation of Sokovia at the hands of the Avengers, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson, and Wanda Maximoff stop Brock Rumlow from stealing a biological weapon from a lab in Lagos. Rumlow blows himself up, attempting to kill Rogers. Maximoff telekinetically diverts the explosion, accidentally destroying a nearby building and killing several Wakandan humanitarian workers in the process.

In the Eastern European country of Sokovia, the Avengers—Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton—raid a Hydra facility commanded by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, who has experimented on humans using the scepter previously wielded by Loki. They meet two of Strucker’s test subjects—twins Pietro (who has superhuman speed) and Wanda Maximoff (who has telepathic and telekinetic abilities)—and apprehend Strucker, while Stark retrieves Loki’s scepter. Stark and Banner discover an artificial intelligence within the scepter’s gem, and secretly decide to use it to complete Stark’s ...

Miami-born Carl Casper is the head chef of Gauloises in Brentwood, Los Angeles. While popular with his kitchen staff and hostess Molly, Carl clashes with the restaurant’s owner, Riva, who wants him to stick to classical cuisine rather than innovative dishes. Carl also has a strained relationship with his tech-savvy preteen son, Percy, and his rich ex-wife, Inez. When Carl has the chance to serve prestigious food critic and blogger Ramsey Michel, Riva demands he prepare old favorites at the last minute; Carl concedes, leading to a scathing review. Carl insults Ramsey on Twitter, not realizing that his reply is public, and gains a large online following. Carl comes up with a new ...

Hank Palmer is a successful attorney in Chicago. When Hank receives news his mother has just died, the judge grants his case a continuance. Before returning to his hometown of Carlinville, Indiana to attend the funeral, Hank argues with his neglected, unfaithful wife, Lisa, whom he is divorcing. In Carlinville, Hank reunites with his older brother, Glen, a tire shop owner, and his mentally disabled younger brother Dale. Hank’s estranged father is Judge Joseph Palmer of Carlinville’s criminal court, who he merely calls “Judge.” The two have been estranged due to the Judge’s harsh treatment of his son in light of his youthful indiscretions, including a car ...

At a New Year’s Eve party in 1999, Tony Stark meets scientist Maya Hansen, the inventor of an experimental regenerative treatment named Extremis that allows recovery from crippling injuries. Disabled scientist Aldrich Killian offers them a place in his company Advanced Idea Mechanics, but Stark rejects him. In December 2012, seven months after the battle of New York, Stark is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and is having frequent panic and anxiety attacks due to his experiences during the alien invasion and subsequent battle. Restless, he has built dozens of new Iron Man suits to cope with his insomnia, creating friction with his girlfriend Pepper Potts.

The Asgardian Loki encounters the Other, the leader of an extraterrestrial race known as the Chitauri. In exchange for retrieving the Tesseract, a powerful energy source of unknown potential, the Other promises Loki an army with which he can subjugate Earth. Nick Fury, director of the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D., and his lieutenant Agent Maria Hill arrive at a remote research facility during an evacuation, where physicist Dr. Erik Selvig is leading a research team experimenting on the Tesseract. Agent Phil Coulson says that the object has begun radiating an unusual form of energy. The Tesseract suddenly activates and opens a wormhole, allowing Loki to reach Earth. Loki takes the ...

In 1891, Irene Adler delivers a package to Dr. Hoffmanstahl, payment for a letter he was to deliver. Hoffmanstahl opens the package, triggering a bomb that is prevented from detonating by Sherlock Holmes. Holmes takes the letter while Adler and Hoffmanstahl escape. Holmes later finds Hoffmanstahl assassinated. Adler meets with Professor Moriarty to explain the events, but Moriarty, deeming her compromised, poisons and kills her. Dr. Watson arrives at 221B Baker Street, where Holmes discloses that he is investigating seemingly unrelated murders, terrorist attacks and business acquisitions that he has connected to Moriarty. After meeting with his brother Mycroft at Watson’s ...

Peter Highman, a successful architect, is due to fly home from Atlanta to Los Angeles to be with his wife Sarah, who is about to give birth. On the way to the airport, he has a chance encounter with Ethan Tremblay, who is going to Los Angeles to be an actor and is planning to scatter his recently deceased father’s ashes at the Grand Canyon. When Ethan misuses the words “terrorist” and “bomb” while talking to Peter, they are both escorted off the plane. Peter, now on the No Fly List and missing his wallet, agrees to drive with Ethan to Los Angeles. Ethan stops to buy marijuana, and Peter discovers that they are nearly ...

In Russia, the media covers Tony Stark’s disclosure of his identity as Iron Man. Ivan Vanko, whose father, Anton Vanko, a former Stark Industries employee, has just died, sees this and begins building a miniature arc reactor similar to Stark’s. Six months later, Stark is a superstar and uses his Iron Man suit for peaceful means, resisting government pressure to sell his designs. To continue the legacy of his father Howard, he reinstitutes the Stark Expo in New York City’s Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. Later, Stark learns that the palladium core in the arc reactor that keeps him alive and powers the armor is slowly poisoning him, ...

In 2005, Steve Lopez is a journalist working for the Los Angeles Times. He is divorced and now works for his ex-wife, Mary, an editor. A biking accident lands Lopez in a hospital. One day, he hears a violin being played beautifully. Investigating, he encounters Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless man with schizophrenia, who is playing a violin when Lopez introduces himself. During the conversation that follows, Lopez learns that Ayers once attended Juilliard. Curious as to how a former student of such a prestigious school ended up on the streets, Lopez contacts Juilliard but learns that no record of Ayers graduating from it exists. Though at first figuring ...

In 1890 London, private detective Sherlock Holmes and his partner Dr. John Watson prevent the ritualistic murder of a woman by Lord Henry Blackwood, who has killed five other young women in a similar manner. Inspector Lestrade and the police arrest Blackwood. Three months later, Watson is engaged to Mary Morstan and moving out of 221B Baker Street; while he enjoys their adventures together, Watson looks forward to not having to deal with Holmes’ eccentricities. Meanwhile, Blackwood, who claims to have supernatural powers, has been sentenced to death and requests to see Holmes, warning him of three more unstoppable deaths that will cause great changes to the world. Blackwood is ...

Hook-handed Vietnam veteran Staff Sergeant John “Four Leaf” Tayback’s memoir Tropic Thunder is being made into a film. With the exception of newcomer supporting actor Kevin Sandusky, the cast—fading action hero Tugg Speedman, five-time Academy Award-winning Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus, rapper Alpa Chino, and drug-addicted comedian Jeff Portnoy—all cause problems for director Damien Cockburn, who cannot control them, resulting in a million-dollar pyrotechnics scene being wasted. With the project months behind schedule, studio executive Les Grossman gives Damien an ultimatum: get the cast under control or the project will be cancelled.

Tony Stark, who has inherited the defense contractor Stark Industries from his late father Howard Stark, is in war-torn Afghanistan with his friend and military liaison, Lieutenant colonel James Rhodes, to demonstrate the new “Jericho” missile. After the demonstration, the convoy is ambushed and Stark is critically wounded by a missile used by the attackers: one of his company’s own. He is captured and imprisoned in a cave by a terrorist group called the Ten Rings. Yinsen, a fellow captive doctor, implants an electromagnet into Stark’s chest to keep the shrapnel shards that wounded him from reaching his heart and killing him. Ten Rings leader Raza offers Stark ...

The son of a depressed but doting mother and a father who is serving time for tax evasion, wealthy teenager Charlie Bartlett — after being expelled from several private academies for various infractions — enrolls in a public school run by embittered alcoholic Principal Nathan Gardner, who was formerly a history teacher. Unable to fit in with most of his fellow students, Charlie is diagnosed with ADHD. He forms an alliance with school bully Murphy Bivens and offers him half the proceeds from the sale of a variety of prescription drugs Charlie obtains by feigning physical and emotional symptoms during sessions with different psychiatrists. Before ...

On July 4, 1969, an unknown man attacks Darlene Ferrin and Mike Mageau with a handgun at a lovers’ lane in Vallejo, California. Only Mike survives. One month later, the San Francisco Chronicle receives encrypted letters written by the killer calling himself the “Zodiac,” who threatens to kill a dozen people unless his coded message containing his identity is published. Political cartoonist Robert Graysmith, who correctly guesses that his identity is not in the message, is not taken seriously by crime reporter Paul Avery or the editors and is excluded from the initial details about the killings. When the newspaper publishes the letters, a married couple deciphers one. ...

Set in 2003, Huck Cheever is a young and talented poker player in Las Vegas haunted by his relationship with his estranged father, L.C. Cheever, a two-time World Series of Poker Champion. Huck is a regular in Vegas poker rooms but needs $10,000 to get a seat in the World Series of Poker Main Event. After a good night at the Bellagio hotel’s poker room, Huck goes to a party and meets aspiring singer Billie Offer, who has just arrived in town. Billie’s older sister Suzanne warns her that Huck is “hustle 10, commitment zero.” Back at the Bellagio, Huck is doing well at the tables before L.C. returns to town from the South of France. Huck greets his father coldly. ...