In Baghdad the Magnificent reigns Haroun al Plassid, who is the Caliph. There also dwells Iznogoud, who wants to be the Caliph. The irascible Grand Vizier hatches plot after plot to remove his ruler and take his place—melting Djinn, invisibility spell, cursed diamond, voodoo doll… But no amount of cunning or obstinacy can make up for sheer, hilariously bad luck.

Laura Bartelli is a stripper in a French bar. She retires after a moody landscape architect named Marco Tisserand asks her to abandon her life and share his. However, after her red Volkswagen runs off the road en route to the rendezvous, she ends up scarred and comatose in a hospital. Marco stays at her bedside.

Sami, Tacchini, Yaya and Kader are four small-time crooks from the suburbs of Paris. After a failed robbery, their boss, Carlito, sends them to Canada to spy on his fiancée. There, they are mistaken for a band of professional killers and are hired to assassinate the heiress Léonore de Segonzac...

A steelworker leaves Lorraine with his family for Finland, his wife's country. On the way, they meet two zonards, one of whom falls in love with the proletarian's daughter. The other, his brother protector, a sort of philosophic brute, does not accept to abandon him.

Sensing their relationship is crumbling, Christian avoids celebrating Christmas with his girlfriend Julia and heads for Paris.

During Paris Fashion Week, models, designers and industry hot shots gather to work, mingle, argue and try to seduce one another.

Mr. K is a do-it-yourselfer and he works very seriously. One day he has a problem with one of his screws. Furious, he decides to complain at the administration office of the Department Store of Non Ferrous Metals!..

In a post-apocalyptic world, the residents of an apartment above the butcher shop receive an occasional delicacy of meat, something that is in low supply. A young man new in town falls in love with the butcher's daughter, which causes conflicts in her family, who need the young man for other business-related purposes.

A beautiful woman hires an intrepid adventurer to help find her father, who has disappeared in the jungle while searching for a rare and priceless butterfly. Along the way they run into cannibals, a race of Amazon warriors and all the usual attractions one would expect to find in a lost jungle.

Detective Frank Zodiac is a cop traumatized by the death of his wife in a car accident that also left his daughter in a coma. This tragedy prevented him from being present to apprehend the dangerous gangster Gus Sabor, who was then able to escape from law enforcement. Three years later, Frank and Gus' paths cross again. Frank then sets out to pursue the criminal through Paris.

The plot explores the devastation of civilization and issues of brutality, hostility and isolation. Pierre Jolivet stars as the main character (identified only as "The Man" in the end credits) who is menaced by "The Brute" (played by Jean Reno) on his journey through a world filled by people rendered nearly mute by some unknown incident.