Awal cerita 

Train to Busan adalah ketika sebuah truk pembawa barang diizinkan melewati sebuah
daerah yang mengalami kebocoran. Ketika itu, pengendara truk tidak melihat seekor rusa melintas
di tengah jalan sehingga rusa yang mati itu berubah menjadi rusa zombie.
Seok-Woo, seorang manajer keuangan sebuah perusahaan, berangkat ke Busan bersama anaknya,
Su-an, untuk bertemu dengan ibunya sebagai hadiah ulang tahun anak perempuannya. Seok-Woo,
yang baru bercerai dengan istrinya, berangkat dengan KTX (kereta api cepat Korea)
dari Seoul bersama para penumpang lain. Ketika kereta akan berangkat, seorang wanita dengan
luka di kakinya masuk ke dalam kereta tersebut. Wanita tersebut mencoba menyerang pramugari
kereta yang ingin mencoba menolongnya. Sejak itu, wanita zombie itu telah menginfeksi sejumlah
besar penumpang kereta.
Masinis kereta mengumumkan bahwa kereta akan berhenti di Daejeon, tempat para tentara telah
siaga untuk menolong mereka. Namun, ketika sampai di sana, keadaan stasiun sepi dan tidak ada
orang sama sekali. Ketika menyadari bahwa seluruh tentara telah menjadi zombie, mereka masuk
kembali ke kereta api tersebut dan menuju Busan, tempat yang kebocoran virus itu dibersihkan.
Dalam perjalanan tersebut, mereka diserang oleh sejumlah mayat hidup dan Seok-woo sempat
digigit oleh Yong-suk, yang akhirnya berubah menjadi zombie. Seok-woo mengajari Sung Kyung
dan Su-an bagaimana menghentikan kereta api sebelum ia meninggalkan mereka dan terjun dari
atas kereta api yang berjalan.

Seok-woo, a divorced fund manager, is a workaholic and absentee father to his young daughter Su-
an. For her birthday she asks her father to take her to Busan to see her mother. The next day they
board the KTX 101 at Seoul Station. Other passengers include Sang-hwa and his pregnant wife
Seong-kyeong, a high school baseball team, the rich and egotistical COO Yon-suk, elderly sisters In-
gil and Jon-gil, and a traumatised homeless man.
As the train departs, a convulsing young woman boards the train with a bite wound on her leg. She
turns into a zombie and attacks a train attendant, who also turns. The virus quickly spreads
throughout the train as they attack other passengers. Baseball player Yong-guk, cheerleader Jin-
hee, who has a crush on him, and several passengers escape to another car and lock the doors.
News broadcasts report zombie outbreaks (reported as riots) nationwide. After the train stops
at Daejeon station, the surviving passengers find the city and station overrun, and they hastily retreat
back to the train, splitting up into different train cars in the chaos. The conductor restarts the train to
head to Busan, where a quarantine zone has reportedly been established.
Seok-woo, Sang-hwa and Yong-guk fight their way to where Su-an, In-gil, Seong-kyeong and the
homeless man are hiding. Together, they struggle through the zombie horde to the front train car,
where the other passengers are sheltered. At the instigation of Yon-suk, the passengers prevent the
survivors from entering, fearing that they are infected. Sang-hwa and In-gil sacrifice themselves to
give the others time to force open the door and enter the car. Yon-suk demands that the newcomers
isolate themselves in the vestibule. When Jong-gil deliberately opens the door to the zombies to be
with her zombified sister In-gil, the zombies kill the rest of the passengers, leaving Seok-woo, Su-an,
Seong-kyeong, Yong-guk, Jin-hee and the homeless man safe. Yon-suk and the train attendant
escape the onslaught by hiding in the bathroom.
A blocked track at East Daegu train station forces the survivors to stop and search for another train.
In the process, Seok-woo, Seong-kyeong, Su-an, and the homeless man are separated from Yong-
guk and Jin-hee. Yon-suk escapes after using the train attendant as a distraction, and then does the
same with Jin-hee. Heartbroken, Yong-guk stays with Jin-hee and is soon bitten by her. The train
conductor starts a locomotive on another track but, is also killed by zombies whilst trying to save
Yon-suk. The homeless man sacrifices himself to let Su-an and Seong-kyeong escape with Seok-
woo into the train the conductor had activated. They encounter Yon-suk in the motorman's cab, on
the verge of turning into a zombie, having been bitten when the train conductor saved him. Seok-
woo fights him off, but is bitten in the process. He puts Su-an and Seong-kyeong inside the engine
room and says goodbye to his daughter before moving outside. As he zombifies, he thinks of the first
time he held his daughter in his arms and throws himself off the locomotive with a smile.
Su-an and Seong-kyeong get off at Busan and begin walking through a train tunnel. On the other
side of the tunnel are soldiers stationed to defend the perimeter against zombies. Unable to see the
new arrivals clearly, the soldiers at the checkpoint are instructed to shoot them. However, the
soldiers then hear singing, which makes them realize the newcomers are human. Su-an tearfully
sings the song "Aloha ʻOe" she had wanted to perform for her father at the beginning of the film.