Growing up in East Los Angeles' gangland, cousins Miklo (Damian Chapa), Paco (Benjamin Bratt) and Cruz (Jesse Borrego) become more like brothers, forging a strong blood bond. When a simple twist of fate sends their lives veering in separate directions - Paco into the military, Miklo to San Quentin prison, and Cruz to a life of drug addiction - the trio continue to keep touch as they strive to achieve their goals.

Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts) is a brassy, unemployed, twice-divorced single mother. When she is injured in a motor accident and her lawyer, Ed Masry (Albert Finney), fails to win her any compensation, her solution is to insist that Ed provides recompense by employing her at his firm. Erin's new colleagues do not take her seriously at first, but when she discovers a cover-up by a water company who have been poisoning the local community, she and Ed set out to win the victims a multi-million settlement. Based on a true story; Julia Roberts won an Oscar for her performance in the title role and the real Erin Brockovich also appears briefly in the film as a waitress.

Off the coast of Mexico, Dr Susan McAlester's (Saffron Burrows) team of scientists are working on a cure for Alzheimer's disease by injecting degenerate human brain cells into mako sharks. The three sharks selected grow to over forty feet in length, and begin to demonstrate signs of intelligent behaviour. When pharmaceuticals' president Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson) arrives with funding in mind, one of the sharks attacks scientist Jim Whitlock, biting off his arm. However, the helicopter taking Whitlock to surgery crashes into the research centre and disables the protective security systems which keeps the killer sharks at bay...