Manny's group escapes Gutt's ship and sinks it by accident. Shira, Gutt's first mate who was left for dead, ends up with them. On an island the herd befriends hyraxes, and Manny plans to steal Gutt's new ship to get home. Shira rejoins the pirates but is nearly killed by Gutt. She later turns against him after confronting her feelings for Diego. Gutt builds a new ship from two icebergs and pursues the herd. Peaches saves Ellie from Gutt using her possum-like skills. Manny beats Gutt in a duel on an ice floe, and Granny's pet Livyatan, Precious, helps. A siren in the form of a female Gigantopithecus then eats Gutt alive.
Peaches reconciles with Manny and Louis, and Shira joins the herd and starts a relationship with Diego. Their old home is destroyed, so everyone relocates to a lush island, where the hyraxes have already begun rebuilding.
In Scrat's subplot, he reaches Scratlantis. Pulling out the giant acorn plug sinks the city, and he is left in a desert, Death Valley, with his eyes burning.