Steve Zissou (Bill Murray), who sails the ocean and makes movies about aquatic creatures, much like Jacques Cousteau, goes through a life crisis after his partner is killed by a jaguar shark. He decides to make a movie about getting revenge on the shark. He embarks on a voyage with his wife Eleanor (Anjelica Huston), with whom he has a difficult relationship, Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson), who claims to be his estranged son, and Jane Winslett-Richardson (Cate Blanchett), a pregnant journalist. While they are at sea, their ship is attacked by pirates, and they must fight the pirates to survive.