- Three Ages tells a love story in three parts, all of which feature Buster Keaton striving for the love of Margaret Leahy, with Wallace Beery standing in the way. In the prehistoric era, Keaton's brontosaurus isn't impressive enough to make up for the fact that he can't take a club to the head, the natural way for a father (Joe Roberts) to identify a worthy suitor for his daughter. After consulting a psychic ("here's my card", Keaton says, offering her a stone tablet that features a drawing of him) and surviving a caveman-era showdown, Keaton decides that the best way to win this contest is by flinging rocks and even himself through the air. In the end, he drags Leahy off by the hair with a happy look on her face.
- In the Roman era, Keaton participates in a chariot race, but he's the only one with a dogsled. This quickly becomes the film's funniest sequence with its "spare dog" in the trunk and cat on a pole. Too bad, then, that Keaton gets locked up with a comical lion. He seems to recall somebody doing something with a lion's paw, but how did that go again? Nevertheless, our hero eventually finds a way out of the pit and into a chase across the Roman streets. Pole vaulting is employed, and sure enough Leahy and Keaton occupy the same chariot by the end.
- And finally, the modern era. Keaton tries sitting next to Leahy, but he quickly runs out of couch. At a restaurant, he really enjoys the spiked water, if not the crab dinner. Finally, there's the big football game. Much as Keaton's ancestor couldn't take a club, the modern anticedent can't survive a tackle. But boy can he run, jump, and flip! That's not just on the field, either, as the film's greatest stunt involves him leaping off a building's roof only to fall precipitously short and...well, let's just say that he eventually finds his way back to where he started. Keaton's best work would arrive a few years later, but for the first film he directed, wrote, and starred in, Three Ages has a lot going for it in any era.
- Apparently, Keaton was supposed to make the building leap, but his failed attempt turned out to be more entertaining than a successful one.
