A team of four lifelong friends — Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck), James "Jem" Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), Albert "Gloansy" Magloan (Slaine), and Desmond "Dez" Elden (Owen Burke), from the tough streets of Charlestown, Massachusetts — rob a Cambridge bank, take bank manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) hostage. After her release, Doug follows Claire and they begin a relationship - he reveals that his mother deserted his family and may have moved to Tangerine, Florida. FBI agent Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm) surveils the crew and realizes they work for 'Fergie' Colm (Pete Postlethwaite), a local florist. Doug is hesitant to undertake their next assignment, and his fears are confirmed during the robbery in the North End, where gunfire erupts. The police arrive quickly, a chase ensues, and the team barely escapes.
In a visit to his father (Chris Cooper) at the local federal prison, Doug reveals he is planning to leave Charlestown. Jem approaches Doug with another job but he turns it down. He tells Fergie he won't do the job, but Fergie reveals that Doug's mother never left the family—she committed suicide after Fergie supplied her with drugs—and warns that he will kill Claire if Doug does not do the job. Doug finally agrees - he and Jem enter Fenway Park dressed as Boston police officers, trick the guards and counting room staff, steal millions of dollars, and prepare to leave in an ambulance. Meanwhile, the FBI has surrounded the building. Jem spies SWAT officers and begins to shoot; soon Dez is killed. Gloansy creates a diversion and is also killed, Doug and Jem put their cop uniforms back on and slip out. Agent Frawley figures out the ruse, catches sight of Jem, and tries to arrest him — Jem fires at Frawley and is killed.
Doug escapes in a police cruiser, heads to Town Flowers and kills Fergie. He calls Claire and asks her to come away with him, but she gives him a coded warning that the FBI are with her. Doug slips out of Charlestown, drives a bus to Route 128 Amtrak station and boards a southbound train. Later, Claire finds a bag buried in a community garden that she tends. It contains money, a tangerine and a note that ends with "I'll see you again, on this side or the other." Claire uses the money to finance the renovation of a run-down children's hockey rink and dedicates it to Doug's mother. The film ends with a shot of Doug looking over an estuary from the porch of a wooden house, presumably in Tangerine, Florida.
Soren (Jim Sturgess) is a young adventurous Barn Owl who loves hearing stories from his father Noctus (Hugo Weaving) about the legend of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, a legendary alliance of owls that are sworn to protect the Kingdom of Ga'Hoole. His younger sister Eglantine (Adrienne deFaria) is enamoured by these stories, but his older brother, Kludd (Ryan Kwanten), is jealous of the attention Soren receives. One night, after falling out of their tree, Soren and Kludd are attacked by a tasmanian devil and then captured by owls working for the evil Metalbeak (Joel Edgerton) and his mate Nyra (Helen Mirren).
Soren and Kludd are snatched by two brothers, Long-eared Owls Jatt (Leigh Whannell) and Jutt (Angus Sampson). As the slave-takers gather, Soren meets Elf Owl Gylfie (Emily Barclay) and her captor, Boreal Owl Grimble (Also Hugo Weaving). Nyra arrives and makes a speech to the kidnapped owls, explaining that their families have abandoned them and that Metalbeak's "Pure Ones" are their new family. Metalbeak believes that Tytos are pure and strong, and deserve to rule. These owls are encourged to show strength and ruthlessness, and as such are to be trained as soldiers, while the rest will be "pickers". Soren and Gylfie object and are thus sent to be pickers. Kludd denies his brother, which pleases Nyra. He goes away with the Tytos.
The pickers are made to sleep under glare of the full moon, which Gylfie says will induce a sort of hypnotic state that she calls "moon-blinked". Soren and Gylfie help to keep one another awake to avoid this fate. As predicted, the moon-blinked owls are docile and zombie-like the next morning; Soren and Gylfie try to imitate the moon-blinked birds, but Grimble notices their strange behavior. The pickers are guided to the Pelletorium, where their labor consists of picking apart owl pellets in search of metal flecks which the mice had eaten before being consumed. En masse, the flecks generate a strong magnetic field which has a peculiar weakening effect on owls; they are therefore managed by bats, which are immune to the effect.
Soren and Gylfie make plans to escape, but their planning is interrupted by Grimble and they are marched off to Grimble's library. Grimble reveals that his family is held hostage against his good behavior, and he has been waiting for owlets clever enough to avoid being moon-blinked; he wishes to teach them to fly and send them to warn the Guardians of Ga'Hoole of Metalbeak's plans.
Meanwhile, Kludd and other various Tytos are being trained by Nyra. With Kludd's success in an aerial hunting exercise, Nyra suggests that he try to convince Soren to join the Pure Ones. Nyra and Kludd catch Grimble in the middle of a flying lesson, forcing Grimble to fight the Pure Ones to buy time for Soren and Gylfie to escape. Soren begs Kludd to come with them, but Kludd refuses and joins the fray on Nyra's side. While the Pure Ones kill Grimble, Soren and Gylfie dive over the cliff's edge and barely escape from their pursuers.
Lost, tired, and injured, the two owls find allies in the form of a quirky Burrowing Owl called Digger and the Great Gray Owl Twilight, who considers himself a bard. They are unexpectedly reunited with Mrs. Plithiver (Miriam Margoyles), Soren's nest maid snake, who Twilight had captured as dinner. After hearing Soren's story, they agree to guide him to the Sea of Hoolemere, wherein lies the island of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree.
Kludd, under the orders of Nyra, brings Eglantine to St. Aegolious. When Eglanine proves resistant to Kludd's cajolery, he tells her to sleep under the gaze of the full moon, moon blinking her.
Soren and his band are mobbed by crows on the way to the Sea, and nearly lose Twilight's lute, in which Ms. Plithiver is riding. The battle brings them to the shore of the Sea of Hoolemere and the home of an Echidna (Barry Otto) mystic; the crows deliberately led them to the meeting so that the Echidna could give them their bearings to the Great Tree. Far out over the ocean, the group encounters a fierce ice storm and their strength fails. As Digger falls toward the sea, he is rescued by a pair of enormous Snowy Owls with armored masks -- the Guardians of Ga'hoole. They lead the band through the storm and to the Great Tree.
Digger's saviors are Boron (Richard Roxburgh) and Barran (Deborra-Lee Furness), the king and the queen of the Tree. They and the ranking officers of Ga'hoole hear Soren's tale in council. The search-and-rescue squadron leader, Allomere, expresses doubts about Soren's story, but battle-scarred Ezylryb defends him and Boron eventually agrees to send a scouting party to St. Aegolious.
Soren and Gylfie's training begins. Ezylryb takes them out to learn how to "really fly", using a powerful storm to teach the young owls how to use the wind currents instead of fighting them. Soren briefly masters the technique of flying by instinct, though he loses control when he starts trying to think about what he's doing. After the lesson, Ezylryb brings Soren to his hollow to discuss the lesson. While there, Soren discovers that Ezylryb is in fact the legendary warrior Lyze of Kiel; the story of Lyze defeating Metalbeak had been one of Soren's favorite stories.
When Allomere and his soldiers arrive at Metalbeak's camp, they are ambushed by the Pure Ones and the energy of the metal flecks is used against them. Allomere barely escapes, carrying two moon-blinked owlets, one of whom is Eglantine. With this proof, the Guardians go to war. Soren reluctantly stays behind to watch over Eglantine, but when Eg awakens she tells Soren that Kludd gave her to Allomere to bring back. Soren and the band fly off to warn the Guardians against the trap and Allomere's treachery.
When the Guardians arrive at St. Aegolious, they are drawn into a trap; Allomere peels off at the last moment and the Pure Ones unleash the power of the flecks against the Guardians, leaving the owls helplessly enervated on the ground. Soren and the band arrive minutes too late, just as Metalbeak and Nyra send the bats to finish off the disabled Guardians. Soren hatches a hasty plan and sends Twilight, Digger and Gylfie to hold back the bats, buying Soren enough time to fly into a nearby forest fire and ignite a pot full of coal. Meanwhile, Allomere reveals that he betrayed the Guardians based on Metalbeak's promise that Allomere would be the new king of the Tree, but Metalbeak betrays him and orders several bats to kill him.
Soren plunges into the flecks' magnetic field to drop the flaming pot on the mechanism which holds open the lids over the flecks; the fire burns through the ropes and the lids slam down, freeing the Guardians. With his plan disrupted, Metalbeak orders the Pure Ones into battle. Ezylryb and Metalbeak square off, as do Soren and Kludd. Kludd has the upper hand against Soren, eventually sending them both plummeting into the forest fire, but Kludd breaks his wing on a branch. Dangling over the flames, Soren tries to save him, but Kludd tries to throw Soren into the fire. The attempt breaks Kludd's branch, and he falls instead. Grieving for his brother, Soren breaks of a burning branch and flies off to find Metalbeak.
Ezylryb is no match for both Metalbeak and Nyra. Soren arrives just in time to save his life and attacks Metalbeak with the burning branch. The veteran warlord easily overpowers Soren, but he grows overconfident and Soren manages to stab Metalbeak with the flaming branch when Metalbeak goes in for the kill, killing Metalbeak. A shocked Nyra retreats with the remaining Pure Ones.
They return to the Great Tree with all the owlets and Soren is greeted by Eglantine and his parents. Soren, Gylfie, Twilight and Digger are made Guardians of Ga'Hoole. In the epilogue, Soren reveals that Kludd's body was never found and Nyra is still out there with a contingent of Pure Ones, hinting at a sequel. Also, Kludd is shown looking at Metalbeak's body and mask.
In 2003, Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg gets the idea to create a website to rate the attractiveness of female Harvard undergraduates after his girlfriend Erica Albright breaks up with him. Mark hacks into the databases of various residence halls and downloads pictures and names. Using an algorithm supplied by his best friend Eduardo Saverin, Mark creates a page called "FaceMash", where male students choose which of two girls is more attractive.
Soon afterwards, Mark approaches his friend Eduardo, who has recently been invited to pledge the Phoenix S-K final club. Mark has an idea for what he calls "The facebook", an online social networking tool exclusive to Harvard University students, where people can display personal information. He explains this lets people share certain information without the invasion of privacy. Eduardo agrees to help Mark, providing a thousand dollars to help start the site. Mark and Eduardo eventually launch Facebook, distributing the link to Eduardo's connections at the Phoenix S-K. The site quickly becomes popular throughout the student body. When Divya learns about the launch of Thefacebook, he tells the Winklevoss twins that Mark stole their idea; Cameron and Divya want to sue Mark for intellectual property theft, but Tyler votes against it.
As The Facebook grows in popularity, they expand to other schools in the Northeastern United States, initially Yale and Columbia, and Stanford as well, while the Winklevoss twins and Narendra become angrier at seeing "their idea" advance without them. Tyler refuses to sue them, instead accusing Mark of violating the Harvard student Code of Conduct. Through their father's connections they arrange a meeting with Harvard President Larry Summers, who is dismissive and sees no potential value in either a disciplinary action or in The facebook website itself.
Through Christy Lee, now Eduardo's girlfriend, Eduardo and Mark arrange a meeting with Napster co-founder Sean Parker. When Christy, Mark and Eduardo meet Parker, Eduardo becomes skeptical of Parker, noting his problematic personal and professional history. Mark, however, is impressed with Parker since he presented a similar vision of Facebook. Although no deals are reached, Parker suggests that they drop "The" from Thefacebook to make it simply "Facebook".
The framing device throughout the film shows Mark testifying in depositions in two lawsuits: one filed by the Winklevoss twins, and the other filed by Eduardo. In the final scene, a junior lawyer for the defense (Rashida Jones) informs Mark they will be settling with Eduardo, since the sordid details of Facebook's founding and Mark's personality will make a jury highly unsympathetic. The film ends with Mark sending a friend request to his former girlfriend Erica on Facebook, and then refreshing the page every few seconds waiting for a response.
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