The Darjeeling Limited

In India, Peter Whitman boards a train, "The Darjeeling Limited", as it pulls out of a station. On the train, he reunites with his brothers, Francis and Jack; the three have not seen each other since their father's funeral a year earlier. Francis, the eldest, whose head is covered in bandages after a near-fatal motorcycle accident, wishes to reconcile with his brothers on a journey of spiritual self-discovery. He is also secretly searching for their mother, Patricia, whom the brothers have not seen in many years. With the help of his assistant, Brendan, Francis has drawn up a strict itinerary for the trip, and he confiscates his brothers' passports to prevent them from getting off the train too early. The brothers continue to grieve over their father's death: they carry many pieces of luggage marked with his initials, along with other personal items that belonged to him. The train takes them through the countryside and to various Hindu and Sikh temples, though tension builds as Peter and Jack become angered with Francis's controlling behavior. Francis eventually reveals that they will be going to see Patricia, who has become a nun and is living at a Christian convent in the Himalayas. Peter and Jack are furious; Francis knew they would not come if he told them this earlier. Their differences finally come to a head, and the brothers have a physical altercation on the train, upsetting the other passengers. The chief steward, whom the brothers have repeatedly annoyed throughout the journey, has them ejected. Brendan quits his job and reboards the train after giving Francis a letter from Patricia; the letter implies that she does not want to see them. The brothers decide to leave India, go their separate ways, and never return. After hiking through the wilderness with all their luggage, the brothers see three young boys fall into a river while attempting to pull a raft across it. Jack and Francis rescue two of the boys, but Peter fails to save the third, who dies. They carry the body back to the boys' village, where they spend the night. They attend the funeral the next day and experience a flashback to the day of their father's funeral. Riding to the funeral in a limousine with Peter's wife, Alice, the brothers get out to pick up their father's Porsche from a repair shop. When the mechanic tells them it is missing a part and the battery is dead, Peter frantically tries to get it moving, but he eventually has to give up, and the three continue on to the funeral in the same limousine. It is revealed that their father died from being hit by a taxi, and that their mother will not be attending the funeral. Back in the present, the brothers arrive at the airport, but they suddenly decide to rip up their tickets and go visit their mother. They reach the convent, where Patricia is surprised but happy to see them. Francis tells her that his accident was actually intentional. That night, after the brothers confront Patricia for abandoning them, the family gather together in silence and reconnect in love. The brothers awake the next morning to find their mother gone, having left them their breakfast. They decide to leave. At a station, the brothers run to catch another train, the "Bengal Lancer", and discard all their father's suitcases and bags along the way. On board, Francis offers to return Peter’s and Jack’s passports to them, but they tell him to hold onto them.

Plot from The Darjeeling LimitedCC BY-SA 4.0