The wedding of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann is crashed by Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company, who has arrest warrants for the couple along with Commodore James Norrington, for allowing Captain Jack Sparrow to escape custody. Norrington resigned after his crew died in a typhoon. Elizabeth is imprisoned, but Beckett promises to free her if Will tracks down Jack and brings him his magic compass which points to whatever the holder wants most. Shortly after, Governor Swann tries to escape Port Royal with Elizabeth but is captured. Elizabeth negotiates with Beckett to let her escape to find the compass herself.
After a failed attempt to rescue his first mate, Joshamee Gibbs, in London, Captain Jack Sparrow is brought before King George II, who wants Jack to guide an expedition to the Fountain of Youth before King Ferdinand and the Spanish Navy can locate it. Heading the expedition is Jack's old nemesis, Captain Hector Barbossa, now a privateer in service to the British Navy after losing his leg and ship, the Black Pearl, which he believes to be sunk.
To control the oceans, Lord Cutler Beckett executes anyone associated with piracy and uses Davy Jones to destroy pirate ships. Condemned prisoners sing “Hoist the Colours” to compel the nine Pirate Lords to convene at Shipwreck Cove to hold the Brethren Court. However, Captain Jack Sparrow, one of the Lords, never named a successor. Captain Barbossa, along with Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, Tia Dalma, and the crew of the Black Pearl, plot to rescue Jack from Davy Jones’ Locker. Travelling to Singapore, the crew meet Sao Feng who owns navigational charts to the Locker. Beckett’s soldiers invade, but the crew escape, Feng and Turner making a deal to give Jack to Feng so he in turn can use the Pearl to rescue his father Bootstrap Bill from the Flying Dutchman. The crew successfully rescue Jack, but find themselves trapped in the Locker, encountering dead souls, including Elizabeth’s murdered father Governor Swann. They learn the Dutchman must have a captain, and their heart must be cut out to captain the vessel.
While Scrat inadvertently causes the break up of Pangaea, Manny and Ellie are forced to deal with the trials and tribulations of their teenage daughter Peaches, who has trouble fitting in with her peers. Ellie tries to support her daughter, but Manny becomes exceedingly over-protective. Peaches' friend Louis, a molehog, tries to warn her as she tries to approach a mammoth named Ethan on whom she has a crush. Meanwhile, Sid's family returns, but only long enough to drop off the elderly Granny before abandoning them both. Manny catches Peaches sneaking off to meet Ethan, and leading to an argument and their estrangement. Shortly after, a continental break-up separates Manny from the herd. Trapped on a moving chunk of ice with Sid, Granny, and Diego, Manny has no choice but to ride out the current. Meanwhile, a giant land shift encroaches on Ellie, Peaches, and those remaining on land, causing them to make their way toward the land bridge.
Captain Jack Sparrow is pursued by an old enemy, Captain Salazar, who along with his crew of ghost pirates has escaped from the Devil's Triangle and is determined to kill every pirate at sea. Jack seeks the Trident of Poseidon, which grants its possessor total control over the seas to use against Salazar.
Sailing to Port Royal, Governor Weatherby Swann, his daughter Elizabeth, and Lieutenant James Norrington encounter a burning shipwreck and recover a young boy Will Turner. Elizabeth hides a golden medallion owned by Will, and sees a ghost ship vanishing into the fog. Eight years on, Norrington is promoted to the rank of Commodore and proposes to Elizabeth, but her tight corset causes her to faint and fall into the sea. She is rescued by Captain Jack Sparrow, who Norrington identifies as a pirate who intends on commandeering a ship. Jack attempts to escape but runs into Will, now a blacksmith and a talented swordsman. They engage in a sword fight but Jack is captured by Norrington’s men and imprisoned.
It has been four years since the events of the first movie. Seventeen-year-old Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) is caught by the police after a brief chase on his dirtbike which ended with him driving into a swimming pool while trying to evade them. Minutes later, his stepfather Hank (Dwayne Johnson) arrives where a police officer (Stephen Caudill) who is friends with Hank tells him that Sean had broken into a remote satellite research center. The police officer also tells Hank that he has talked Mr. and Mrs. McGillicutty (the owners of the swimming pool) out of pressing charges. Hank takes Sean home where his mother Elizabeth (Kristin Davis) is not pleased with his actions or the fact that he and Hank don't get along well.
Peter Banning is a successful corporate lawyer who spends more time at work than with his wife Moira and children Jack and Maggie. The Bannings fly to London to visit Moira's grandmother, an older Wendy Darling, to celebrate her charity work for orphans, which once included Peter. During the visit, Peter is distracted by phone calls from his office and on one occasion, shouts at his children when they interrupt him, leading Moira to throw his cellphone out of an open window. Later, while Peter, Moira, and Wendy attend a banquet ceremony hosted by Great Ormond Street Hospital, a strange presence abducts Jack and Maggie. Tootles, another of Wendy's orphans who lives at her house, informs Peter that Captain Hook took the children to Neverland. Peter dismisses Tootles' warning and calls the police instead. With no sign of the children anywhere, Wendy informs Peter that he is actually Peter Pan and that he lost his memories of Neverland when he decided to stay in London with Wendy many years ago. Once again, Peter dismisses these claims and waits for the police to find his children.
Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) takes command of the MV Maersk Alabama, an unarmed container ship from the Port of Salalah in Oman, with orders to sail through the Gulf of Aden to Mombasa, Kenya. Wary of pirate activity off the coast of the Horn of Africa, he and First Officer Shane Murphy (Michael Chernus) order strict security precautions on the vessel and carry out practice drills. During a drill, the vessel is chased by Somali pirates in two skiffs, and Phillips calls for help. Knowing that the pirates are listening to radio traffic, he pretends to call a warship, requesting immediate air support. One skiff turns around in response, and the other – manned by four heavily armed pirates led by Abduwali Muse (Barkhad Abdi) – loses engine power trying to steer through the Maersk Alabama 's wake.
Peter (Levi Miller) is a young boy who is left as a baby on the steps of an orphanage in London by his mother Mary (Amanda Seyfried), an establishment under the care of Mother Barnabas (Kathy Burke). Several years later, during World War II,The Cold War, upon learning that she is hoarding food for herself, Peter and his best friend Nibs try to steal it to distribute amongst themselves and the other orphans but they get caught. In the process, Peter finds a letter written by his mother, declaring her love and assuring Peter they will meet again "in this world or another".
In 1837, the Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant), inexpert in the ways of pirates, leads a close-knit, rag-tag group of amateur pirates who are trying to make a name for themselves on the high seas. To prove himself and his crew, the Pirate Captain enters the Pirate of the Year competition, with the winner being whoever can plunder the most. After several failed attempts to plunder mundane ships, the Pirate Captain talks with his best friend and first mate, the Pirate with a Scarf (Martin Freeman), about giving up and selling baby clothes as a living, but is convinced to try boarding the next ship they find, which happens to be the Beagle. They find no treasure but succeed in capturing Charles Darwin (David Tennant). Darwin recognizes the crew's pet Polly as the last living dodo, and implores the Pirate Captain to enter it into the Scientist of the Year competition at the Royal Society in London for a valuable prize. The Pirate Captain directs his ship to London. The Pirates disguise themselves as Girl Scouts, so that they don't get caught and executed, as Queen Victoria has a strong hatred of Pirates.
In Edwardian-era London, in the nursery of the Darling home, Wendy Darling (Wood) tells her younger brothers, John (Harry Newell) and Michael (Freddie Popplewell), stories that enthrall Peter Pan (Jeremy Sumpter) and his fairy friend Tinker Bell (Ludivine Sagnier). Life is disrupted when their Aunt Millicent visits the family. Judging Wendy to be an "almost" full-grown woman, Aunt Millicent advises Mr. and Mrs. Darling to think of Wendy's future, saying that Wendy should spend less time with her brothers and more time with her as she learns how to be a proper young lady. The very idea terrifies the children.
The story focuses on Scottish writer J. M. Barrie, his platonic relationship with Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, and his close friendship with her sons named George, Jack, Peter, and Michael, who inspire the classic play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Never Grew Up.
During the London Blitz of World War II, Peter Pan's former playmate, Wendy Darling, has grown up and married, and has two children of her own: a 12-year-old daughter, Jane, and a 5-year-old son, Danny. However, her husband Edward is serving in the army overseas, and Jane is resentful of her mother's stories about Peter Pan, dismissing them as childish. The rift is increased between the two when Wendy announces her plan to evacuate the two to the countryside for their own protection against the Blitz.
Set in the future, the film's prologue depicts Jim Hawkins as a five-year-old (voiced by Austin Majors) reading a storybook in bed. Jim is enchanted by stories of the legendary pirate Captain Flint and his ability to appear from nowhere, raid passing ships, and disappear in order to hide the loot on the mysterious "Treasure Planet". Twelve years later, Jim (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has grown into an aloof and alienated teenager. He is shown begrudgingly helping his mother Sarah (Laurie Metcalf) run an inn and deriving amusement from "solar surfing" (a hybrid of skysurfing and windsurfing atop a board attached to a solar sail-powered rocket), a pastime that frequently gets him in trouble.