A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.

In 1971, a warden at Attica Penitentiary is caught up in a hostage crisis when inmates take over the prison to demand better living conditions.

Three street punks--Turk, his girlfriend BB., and his sidekick Wimp--observe two young affluent kids, Ginger and Danny, shoplifting from a record store. On a lark, the street kids invite themselves along to a party at the home of the yuppies' friends, Rod and Arlene. There the party games turn from strip darts to Russian roulette.

A lifelong yellow-belly who made a deathbed promise to his father to be a pacifist seeks bloody revenge on the men who gang-raped his wife.