Teenagers from a small town and their high school science teacher join forces to battle a giant mutant spider, living in a cave nearby and getting hungry.

George Kelly is angry at the world and scared to death of dying. A career bank robber, Kelly gets his confidence from his Thompson SMG and his girl Flo. After a botched robbery, Flo, Kelly and his gang try their hand at a more lucrative job: kidnapping.

Tommy Price is the leader of a gang of young thugs interested in thrills, hot rods and girls. His friends bet him he can't make it with 17-year-old Rosemary Clinton. Their date turns out badly and her parents forbid her to see him again. They keep meeting, and the relationship changes him to the extent that he plans on going to college and changing his life, which delights his parents.

A troublemaker returns to town only to find his old tearaway pals have joined a supervised motorcycle club. Friction erupts between him and the new leader about this goody-goody setup, and about the charms of gang moll Terry.

Prohibition-era nightclub crooner Joe E. Lewis has his career and nearly his life cut short when his throat is slashed as payback for leaving the employ of Chicago mob boss Georgie Parker. A broken alcoholic, Joe is brought back from the abyss by his faithful piano player, Austin Mack, who helps turn the former singer into a successful stand-up comedian. But Joe's demons plague his romantic life even as he reaches new heights of success.

A struggling painter begins taking inspiration from the dreams of his friend and roommate, a comic book fan who narrates an adventure story while he sleeps, but unbeknownst to the latter, the artist of his favorite comic book lives in the same building as they do with the model for her drawings.