In an underground bunker, two Air Force nuclear missile officers try to distract themselves as World War 3 breaks out above but get interrupted once the incoming alarm sounds.
Emily Walters is an American widow living a peaceful, uneventful existence in the idyllic Hampstead Village of London, when she meets local recluse, Donald Horner. For 17 years, Donald has lived—wildly yet peacefully—in a ramshackle hut near the edge of the forest. When Emily learns his home is the target of developers who will stop at nothing to remove him, saving Donald and his property becomes her personal mission. Despite his gruff exterior and polite refusals for help, Emily is drawn to him—as he is to her—and what begins as a charitable cause evolves into a relationship that will grow even as the bulldozers close in.
High school guidance counselor Jeff and his platonic friend and co-worker Anne are responsible, well intentioned, kind… and boring. They frustratingly watch on as their peers find love and companionship, while they continue to fail in spectacular fashion when it comes to romance. As they reach their loneliness breaking point, they make a pact to forgo their familiar, vanilla personas in exchange for their unexplored, confident alter egos. They wave goodbye to Jeff’s awkward all-male book club and Anne’s flailing attempts to catch the eye of Jeff’s sexy neighbor Max, and say hello to raucous summer nights filled with booze, dancing, and sex. Naturally things don’t exactly go according to plan.
Carter is a small-town mechanic who observes life from the shadows. When he discovers that a young woman is similarly watching him, he is compelled to confront a world that he has always avoided.
The Yosemite Valley Railroad, which runs through the breathtaking scenery and stunning vistas of Yosemite National Park, is on the brink of failure. The grandson of a Chinese railroad laborer embarks on a romantic, but ultimately doomed, quest to save this railroad from being sold for scrap. His love of trains finds him working as a railroad-man, instead of at his father's profitable business. He manages to locate a wealthy eccentric investor to help him acquire the railroad, but its financial inviability makes this a quixotic reprieve, at best. The film also portrays the anti-Asian racism present in America at the conclusion of World War II.