The prologue starred Bill Murray as Dillon and Robert Englund as David, who both get stuck in an elevator together on their way to different business meetings. To pass the time they trade jokes to each other until Englund's character explains he's holding the elevator cart up with his mind, thinking it's some bizarre joke Dillon plays along until David proves it by violently shaking the cart with his mind. Englund's character offers Murray's two choices, if he can tell him a joke in 15 minutes that's so funny he laughs hysterically he will open the door and allow him to exit safely to his meeting, and he will fall to a certain death. But if he fails to make him laugh they will both fall to their death. A montage ensues as Dillon relentlessly throws joke after joke, many hand and body gestures working in unison with his exaggerated facial expressions, while sweat pours down his face and stains his shirt in pools of dark grey, until he finally delivers the kicker that sets him free and into the waiting reception. A minute later, Dillon having heard no crash, turns around and clicks the elevator button to find the elevator perfectly sound with no one inside.
The first segment was directed by Martin Scorsese, and features a mafia gang hunting down a snitch named Theo (Sean Penn) in a crime ridden part of LA. In the dark foggy hours of a mid-winter morning they hunt him down in a number of unmarked cars filled with mobsters. He decides to hide in a random underground bar nearby. At the back seating area he witnesses a news report on a TV about a bombing in Texas when suddenly he starts to experience vivid deja vu, he sees where the gang will enter from as well as where and when to leave to avoid confrontation, his deathly future becomes apparent and avoidable. Mind maps of his future slowly process through his head. As the sun begins to rise, Theo travels to a rival gang territory to hide in desperation, he starts to lose perception of what is happening now and what is minutes in the future, affecting the very fabric of his reality. Can he survive in a demented dream-like existence or is he destined for an untimely end?
The second segment was directed by Richard Donner, the story concerns a disabled young man named Marty played by Anthony Michael Hall, who is confined to a wheelchair with multiple Sclerosis and unable to speak, he strangely seems to attract bad accidents, crime and even death where ever he goes. After a number of concerning years his carer, Elisabeth Crews played by Elisabeth Shue, begins to highly worry so she takes him to a number of appointments with authorities and brain thought specialists to determine why, but all of them come up empty handed until one late night in a backend of Chinatown. This is where she encounters a shop owner named Samuel Sun (James Hong), an advanced demonologist and self-proclaimed 4th dimension traveler. He says the young man she cares for actually is a sinister being called The Shan Kin that travels on the otherside of time and space, and can steal her very soul if it feels any danger. Sun explains she must travel with him to the 4th dimension where they will fight Shan Kin and vanquish it down to the darkgates, the unwavering space of eternal limbo. Will Elisabeth believe Sun's wild story and venture beyond? Will she save Marty or is all too late?
The third segment was directed by Joel Schumacher, it starred Michael Douglas as Doug White and Linda Fiorentino as Pam White, the two actors played a married couple relaxing on holiday on a secluded beach in Mombasa. After some hours drinking champagne and tanning in the sun they wake to notice their waiter is missing, so Doug reluctantly goes to investigate behind the bar, only to see it cleaned bone dry. The two decide to pack up and head to their room for dinner but are both hit with a thick coverage of leafy plants that greatly slow them down on their way, they almost feel lost before finally making their exit to a suddenly empty hotel. The two question if there was a severe storm warning they missed or perhaps a bomb threat, but conclude they were only asleep for a brief moment and someone would have told them. The two search for many minutes and eventually decide to leave the hotel only to find more thick leafy plants blocking the way. It seems impossible to leave, so thoroughly exhausted they turn back for now to try again later. As the two walk back past the bright blue pool, Pam notices in the distance a figure moving in the garage window, she runs over to the shed to ask for help but is shocked and taken aback to see her husband Doug killing her with an axe. "What is it, honey? What do you see?" As Pam turns around to see her husband still next to the pool and completely oblivious.
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