Enredo

A Transsiberian train journey from China to Moscow becomes a thrilling chase of deception and murder when an American couple encounters a mysterious pair of fellow travelers.

Americans abroad. Roy and Jessie finished a volunteer stint in China. He loves trains, so they go home via the Trans-Siberia Express. There are strains in the relationship, including her past. They meet Carlos, a Spaniard, traveling with Abby, a young American. Carlos keeps close to Jessie, and when Roy is left behind and waits a day for the next train so he can catch up, Jessie and Carlos take a trip into the dead of winter to photograph a ruined church. Carlos may be running drugs, so, later, when Roy catches up and introduces Jessie to his new pal, an English speaking Russian narcotics detective, he's the last person Jessie wants to see. Will the Siberian desolation be their undoing?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

After completing a missionary stint in Beijing, married Americans Roy and Jessie decide, as an adventure, to take the Trans-Siberian Express to Moscow rather than fly directly home. The train trip is partly to satisfy Roy's big kid fascination with locomotives, but mostly to add some spice into their somewhat troubled marriage, those troubles due to their differences, Jessie who was a wild child, that wildness still bubbling beneath the surface. They end up sharing a compartment with another couple, Spaniard Carlos and barely legal American Abby, who seem more experienced not only about travel in general, but traveling through this part of the world. Abby would probably admit to herself that Carlos, who has a dangerous edge to him, is the type of guy she would have fallen for in her wild child days. While Jessie and Roy end up apart for a few days, Jessie begins to make connections with Carlos and Abby, both in slightly different ways. In that time apart, Roy himself befriends Ilya Grinko, a Russian narcotics officer who helped Roy navigate what are the mysteries of Siberia ways. These five provide a dangerous combination and place Roy and Jessie's lives at risk.—Huggo

After a period of volunteer work with needy children in China promoted by his church, Roy and his wife Jessie decide to travel to Russia by train on the Trans Siberian Railway. Roy is a naive American with a great passion for locomotives and Jessie, an aspirant photographer, is haunted by her past image as a "bad girl". During the journey, they share their cabin with a Spaniard, Carlos, and his American girlfriend, Abby. At one station Roy get's off the train to look around other trains in the yard but is left behind; Jessie decides to wait for him at the next stop, and Carlos and Abby stay with her. While waiting for Roy, Carlos invites Jessie to travel to the countryside with him where they see a ruined church in the middle of nowhere. Carlos tries to force Jessie to have sex with him, and Jessie kills him with a plank. Jessie does not report the crime and meets with Roy on the next train. Roy introduces Grinko, a narcotic division detective, who is sharing the cabin with him. Jessie finds out that Carlos was trafficking drugs and scared, she tells many lies to them. However the experienced Grinko does not buy her story.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Ilya is a cop who investigates a murder in Vladivostok, a town in the Far East of Russia. He finds a hidden compartment, expecting to find a package, but the compartment is empty. Ilya knows that drugs are involved and could be anywhere by now.

US couple, Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer), takes the Trans-Siberian train from Beijing to Moscow on their return home from a Christian mission in China. The journey takes 6 days, and it is Jessie who insisted on taking the train instead of a flight. The train is relatively full as Jessie, an avid photographer, starts clicking pictures of the passengers and the landscapes.

Roy befriends their cabin mates, a Spanish man, Carlos (Eduardo Noriega), & his Seattle-born girlfriend, Abby (Kate Mara). Jessie is more wary than her husband and does not share his unguarded warmth to the strangers, but Carlos shows Jessie his souvenir Matryoshka dolls.

Roy misses the train in Irkutsk while sightseeing. Jessie gets off the train at Ilanskaya and waits for Roy to arrive in another train. Carlos and Abby get off too claiming Jessie would be unsafe alone. In a restaurant, Jessie sees a doll nearly identical to those of Carlos. Abby is upset when she mentions this and goes to bed. Jessie begs Carlos not to involve Abby in his activities.

The next morning Carlos comes to Jessie's room, tells her that his shower is not working & uses her bathroom. Jessie leaves Carlos in the room. She receives a telephone call confirming that Roy will rejoin her at 4 o'clock that day. Carlos convinces her to go on a trip into the wilderness, where they find a ruined church.

Jessie, an amateur photographer, starts taking pictures. Carlos takes Jessie into the church. Carlos makes advances, she first refuses, but they then begin kissing. Jessie quickly changes her mind and asks Carlos to stop but he continues, becoming aggressive and chasing after her. She becomes terrified and hits him with a fence post, killing him.

She returns to her hotel and goes to the railway station to meet Roy. Roy assumes her emotional greeting is due to her anguish over his delay. As the train pulls away, Jessie notices Abby through the window, running alongside the train searching hopelessly for Carlos.

Ilya Grinko (Ben Kingsley) is Russian narcotics officer & the new cabin mate of Roy & Jessie on the train. Jessie finds Carlos' dolls in her own suitcase and realizes that Carlos may have hidden them while he took a shower. Grinko accompanies them for dinner and talks about his job, Jessie realizes that Carlos was smuggling heroin in those dolls and Grinko, who is on the payroll of a Russian drug lord, is looking for Carlos and Abby.

Jessie unsuccessfully tries to get rid of the dolls when the others are asleep. She panics when Grinko becomes suspicious. When she returns to her cabin to find Roy examining the dolls, she breaks down and explains their origins, though without telling Roy about Carlos' death. They give Grinko the dolls, who seems satisfied they were not involved.

The next morning, she and Roy awake to discover that most of the train's cars are now gone along with the passengers - only Grinko and his partner Kolzak (Thomas Kretschmann) remain.

Grinko and Kolzak stop the train in the middle of nowhere and take Jessie and Roy to an abandoned military bunker, where Abby is being tortured. Ilya says it's about more than the heroin. It is about the money that Carlos has that belongs to the drug lord. Ilya tells Jessie that Abby is not a "good girl" as Jessie had thought. Abby recruited Carlos, was responsible for another man's death, and is trying to cheat the drug lord of his money. Jessie disbelieves Ilya because Carlos told her Abby was innocent. Abby continues to be tortured in the presence of Jessie and Roy.

Jessie and Roy escape by boarding the train where they find the conductor, who works for Grinko. Roy kills him. They escape with the train as Roy, a railway enthusiast, knows how to operate it. The train slows down and Grinko and Kolzak re-board the train. When they question Jessie again about Carlos' whereabouts, holding her and Roy at gunpoint, Jessie admits she killed Carlos. Kolzak does not believe her.

Ilya and Kolzak follow them, the train has a head-on collision with another train. Soldiers from the other train board this train and Ilya shoots Kolzak to maintain his cover that he is on the right side of the law. He claims he is a government investigator who rescued Jessie and Roy from a hostage situation, claiming Kolzak had taken Jessie and Roy hostage. Jessie, weakened, tries to tell them that Ilya is lying, but the Russians don't understand English. As she loses consciousness, she sees Ilya walking away into the woods.

In Moscow, U.S. officials visit Jessie and Roy. Through a photograph Jessie took of Grinko and his associates, the officials believe they can shut down the drug operation. U.S. officials later tell Jessie and Roy about Carlos' criminal history. He has past convictions for both theft and sexual assault. The officials don't know anything about Abby and report that she is just a twenty-year-old who got mixed up with the wrong guy. Jessie and Roy end up signing statements for the U.S. officials, and Jessie never tells them that she killed Carlos, although Roy may or may not have heard her admit to this when the train was about to crash.

Upon touring Moscow and seeing a billboard of a girl sitting on the end of a dock (similar to a scene Abby had described as her dream home), Jessie insists on talking to Abby in the hospital & tells her where Carlos is.

The last scene shows a still limping Abby finding Carlos's body in the snow by the old church. Abby tears open a hidden pocket in his jacket and finds all the money that had been stolen, stacks of 500 dollar notes sealed in a long clear roll. She takes the money and walks away, leaving Carlos' body without a backward glance.