In September 1986, in the Pakistani city of Karachi,
members of the Abu Nidal Organization which is a Libyan-sponsored Palestinian terrorist group,
are watching the local airport and gathering weapons to be ready for their next mission.
The idea is to hijack a plane in order to demand the freedom of their brothers jailed in Cyprus.
The chosen ones for this mission are Khalil, Zayd, Fahad and Mansoor, who manage to enter the
airport by disguising themselves as security officers escorting a Libyan diplomat and
presenting fake documents. Meanwhile in Bombay, 22-year-old Neerja is having a great time at a
house party with friends and family, including her parents Rama and Harish. After the party,
Neerja naps for a few hours, and Rama wakes her up when it's time for her to go to work.
Rama also thinks Neerja's modeling career is strong enough for her to drop her second job,
but Neerja refuses because she likes being a flight attendant. Before Neerja leaves, Rama
promises she'll get that yellow dress she wanted for her birthday, which is in a couple of days.
Neerja is picked up by her good friend Jaideep, and as he watches them leave,
Harish admits he made a mistake in not marrying Neerja to Jaideep instead of her awful ex-husband.
On the way to the airport, Jaideep admits he'll miss Neerja, so she tells him to take a specific
street and shows him a billboard with her face. This way, whenever he misses her,
he can come by and look at those pictures. At the airport, Jaideep gives Neerja her birthday
present and tells her not to open it until the date comes, Neerja thanks him with a hug. The
other flight attendants welcome Neerja and tell her she should marry Jaideep already and that it's
time for her to move on from her failed arranged marriage. Neerja's plane tonight is flying to New
York via Karachi and Frankfurt, which means the passengers are a mix of Indian and American. The
plane takes off safely, and Neerja gets teased by her coworker when she discovers Jaideep's gifts.
Neerja's told that leaving her husband had been the right decision, and she cannot help thinking
back to what happened last year. Naresh had angrily scolded her for buying take-out and
being a bad housewife that liked to pretend to be a model instead of taking care of her husband.
He swore he would ask Harish for all the money Neerja wasted, and told her to stay in the kitchen
while he had friends over. When she called her dad later, she tried to avoid visiting him by
saying she had to spend more time in her new home to adjust, and Harish got worried. Neerja
asked him not to talk to Naresh and swore the decision to quit modeling was made together,
although she didn't sound so sure. Harish reminded her to stay strong, not to do or tolerate anything
wrong, and always be brave. A bit over an hour later, the plane lands in Karachi.
Some passengers get off here, and radio engineer Ali comes abord to check everything is alright.
At that moment, the terrorists barge in, killing every guard in sight. Neerja hears the shooting
and urges the other attendants to close the door, but they aren't strong enough and the
terrorists burst in to hijack the plane. While they gather all the passengers, Neerja quickly
alerts the cockpit, allowing the three American pilots to escape through the overhead hatch.
Khalil finds Neerja and makes her take him to the cockpit, forcing it open with a kick and seeing
the pilots run away through the windows. Furious, Khalil tries to shoot at them through the hatch,
but it's too late: they're already far enough to reach the terminal safely. Meanwhile at home,
Rama discovers that Neerja has left without the special ring she had gifted her and takes it
as a bad omen. Back on the plane, the terrorists discuss what to do now that the plane is grounded.
Ali, who couldn't get out before all this happened, notices them planning their next
move and takes off his uniform jacket to pretend he's just another passenger.
While in the terminal they're already rerouting all their planes to another airport, Khalil
insists they should start killing people, but Zayd reminds him to be patient because they may
not send them pilots if they act too violently. Then, Zayd makes Neerja make an announcement
to the whole plane, asking them to collaborate and stay calm if they don't want to be killed.
She also adds a bit of her own, saying they should lower their hands, which Zayd doesn't approve of,
but he changes his mind when Neerja explains she's just trying to help because this will make people
feel reassured and they'll make things easier. Cameras are put on the roof of the terminal to try
to get a picture of the terrorists while guards are sent near the plane to try to negotiate.
The terrorists make everyone shut the windows and order Neerja to ask if any of the passengers
is a radio operator because they don't want to open the door for the negotiations, they want
the safety of the cockpit. Ali considers handing himself in, but Neerja keeps him quiet with just a
slight movement of her head. Not finding what he needs, Zayd decides to open the door after all,
showing Neerja and an American passenger as hostages and threatening to kill them if the
pilots aren't sent to the plane in thirty minutes. In Bombay, Harish learns Neerja's plane has been
hijacked while at work and calls his wife to let her know. At the terminal, the guards argue with
the company's higher-ups because they won't allow their pilots to return to the plane to prevent
any deaths. The thirty minutes pass without any news, so Zayd opens the door again and Khalil
shoots the American man, promising to kill more if the pilots don't come. After the door is closed,
Neerja rushes to have a breakdown in the bathroom, making sure the lock is on behind her.
Khalil comes after her and begins hitting the door as he yells at her, reminding her of Naresh.
Her ex-husband used to get angry like this as well, especially when he heard Neerja would
call her dad to share her worries. Bitter as he was of her making her own decisions,
Naresh made a list of every phone call and food delivery to make her dad pay for everything.
Speaking of her dad, Neerja remembers his words: stay strong and brave.
After washing her face, she comes out with her chin held high and is taken back to the group.
Not wanting to let them think they have power over her, Neerja asks her coworkers to help them offer
the passengers some water as they would usually do. When Zayd tries to stop her, she reminds her
she's just doing her duty like he's doing his, so he allows her to continue. After identifying the
terrorists as part of the Abu Nidal Organization, the terminal guards contact the military for
backup, and they're told to stall for two or three more hours until reinforcements can get there.
Sometime later, the terrorists start discussing who to kill next, since they haven't heard
from the guards again. Khalil wants to kill Neerja because she's trouble but Zayd refuses,
pointing out she isn't American and she's the only one able to function. Then, they ask
Neerja to gather all the passenger's passports. Because she overheard them talking, she knows
they'll only kill Americans, so as she hands the other attendants trashbags to do the collecting,
she tells them not to grab the American passports. Neerja and the attendants get to work, making sure
to hide the American passports by throwing them on the floor and pushing them under the seats.
In Bombay, Harish calls Rama again to tell her the government is negotiating with the terrorists.
Rama's visibly upset yet tries to stay positive, expressing how sure she is that
Neerja will be fine. Then, she decides to go out to buy the yellow dress to welcome her
daughter back when this is over while one of her sons stays by the phone waiting for news.
Back on the plane, the terrorists are furious when they find no American passports in the bags.
Khalil checks Neerja's clothes to be sure she isn't hiding them and Zayd ends up grabbing a
British passport instead. The English man is brought to the door as Zayd and Khalil begin
arguing again to see if they'll kill him or not, especially since it's been eight hours since this
started. They open the door and the guards tell them about Ali being a radio operator in order
to negotiate properly through the communicators. At first, Ali doesn't want to surrender, but the
terrorists threaten with killing the English man so Ali has no choice but to offer his services.
Furious over having been tricked, the terrorists deliver a few blows before Zayd takes a flight
attendant and Ali to the cockpit, where Ali calls the terminal. The guards try to get the women and
the children released, but Zayd still refuses, thus the guard promises pilots are on their
way. Meanwhile, Khalil finds Ali's jacket and gets angry at Neerja for having hidden this from them.
As punishment, he tries to make her sing in front of everyone. Neerja refuses, not caring about his
threats because she knows they need her. Khalil realizes this and points his gun at a kid instead,
so Neerja does as he says and sings in tears while Rama at home looks at pictures of her
daughter as a child and wraps up the yellow dress. Some hours later, Neerja tries to help a kid go to
the toilet, but Khalil immediately jumps in to make them go back to their seats. Mansoor comes
in their defense, saying it's just a child and that Khalil needs to control his anger, but this
only makes Khalil hit him. Zayd has to come and push him back, putting Khalil in his place while
the kid wets his pants. Since time continues to pass without answers, the mood is getting
worse. Khalil throws a tantrum while Zayd asks a flight attendant to help him with his clothes
so he can take out the explosives he had hidden and take them to the cockpit with Ali. Zayd's
argument with the terminal guards starts going in circles, causing Khalil to get tired of it and
shoot Ali before telling the guards he'll kill more people if the pilots don't get here soon.
Afterward, Khalil tells everyone he's killed Ali to keep them scared. Neerja tries to comfort the
kids while they listen, causing her to remember the day she and Naresh had lunch with her family.
Rama was trying to tell Neerja about the things she had to learn to become a better wife because
she didn't want her to give up on her marriage this quickly, which was the last straw. Neerja
retrieved a file where Harish had been saving all of Naresh's letters asking him not to call Neerja
so often, complaining about the small dowry and how useless Neerja was at cleaning the house.
Crying, Neerja explained she'd tried her best and finally admitted that her bruises weren't from
falling but from Naresh's abuse. She also apologized for not being brave, but Rama,
who didn't know about any of this, comes into her defense at last. Back in the present, Neerja asks
Khalil permission to give everyone some snacks, and Khalil allows her and the other attendants
to do their jobs to keep everyone quiet. As she walks among the seats, Neerja slips an instruction
manual to one of the passengers so he knows how to activate the evacuation slide when the time comes.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani authorities are talking to the press, although they don't give all
the details about the terrorists' demands. The military has finally arrived at the airport and
begins working on a plan while Zayd finally gives up on trying to use the radio, so he returns to
the group with the attendant, leaving the bomb in the cockpit. Starting to worry about her future,
Neerja decides to open Jaideep's gift. She finds a letter where he expresses his understanding of her
fears but also begs her to remember to move on and accept to marry him. Neerja cries her heart
out as she eats the cookie that came with the letter as a sign of acceptance; at the same time,
Jaideep is looking at the billboard while listening to the radio for news about the plane.
After over fifteen hours pass, the terrorists open one of the windows and notice the military in the
area. At that moment, the plane loses auxiliary power and the lights go out. The terrorists panic,
not listening to Neerja when she tries to explain this is the battery and thinking this
was caused by the military, meaning they're about to enter the plane. Without anything to lose now,
the terrorists begin shooting down passengers indiscriminately, so Neerja takes advantage of the
chaos to open a door and release the evacuation slide, and the passenger with the manual does
the same on the opposite side. However, Neerja doesn't immediately jump, instead she stays behind
to guide as many people as possible to safety. The terrorists start fighting among themselves
because they've hurt each other with their own bullets, but soon they pour all their fury into
killing more passengers and Khalil even begins making grenades explode while Zayd searches for
the bomb in the cockpit. After a few minutes, there are only three kids left, so Neerja goes
to pick them up, only to be seen by Khalil. When he turns his gun on them, Neerja uses her body as
a shield between the bullets and the children, getting shot three times before they finally
manage to push through and slide out of the plane. As the military finally comes closer, Neerja is
put in an ambulance, where she gives one of the kids a message before passing out. In Bombay,
information isn't arriving properly anymore, so Rama and Harish don't know anything about the
state of their daughter. It isn't until Neerja's birthday a few days later that passengers and
flight attendants come home to reunite with their family, but unfortunately, Rama and Harish receive
bad news: Neerja's died. Crying, Rama covers her daughter's body with the yellow dress,
and the kid comes closer to give her Neerja's message, which is a reminder that she hates tears.
This inspires Neerja's coworkers to say goodbye with a salute instead of crying, and soon everyone
in the room follows their example. Sometime later, Neerja's rewarded with the highest honor for
bravery, the Ashoka Chakra, given by the president himself and received by Rama in Neerja's name.
Of the 379 passengers and crew, 359 have survived. The four terrorists are given life imprisonment,
and Neerja receives other accolades from the governments of Pakistan and the United States.