影片将故事设定在一列通勤列车上，一位十年如一日乘坐列车上下班的商界人士麦考利（连姆·尼森 饰），偶遇一位主动搭讪的“神秘乘客”乔安娜（维拉·法米加 饰）。乔安娜为麦考利提供了一个极具诱惑性的任务——找出车上的一位乘客，即可获得一笔巨额现金作为回报。但在寻找的过程中，麦考利逐渐发现自己卷入到一场致命的危险处境中。 　　他是否能够从这辆“恐怖列车”中成功逃脱，背后又隐藏着怎样的惊天阴谋。随着列车不断加速，真相逐一揭开......Now a hard-working life insurance salesman and a caring family man, the former police officer, Michael MacCauley, has taken the commuter rail to New York for the past ten years. But, unexpectedly, things will take a turn for the worse, when on one of his daily journeys, the cryptic passenger, Joanna, makes Michael a generous and tempting offer to locate a single commuter or face grave consequences. Is this a sick joke, or is this indeed a serious situation? As Michael races against the clock to solve this wicked conundrum, everyone aboard is a suspect, in a deal where there's definitely more than meets the eye. Can he decide in time who's the one?