A ten-year-old boy boards a cosmic train to become a robot so he can murder the man who killed his mother. The Galaxy Express 999 is patient enough to let that revenge fantasy breathe across an entire film, never rushing the weight of what immortality actually costs. By the time Tetsuro reaches his destination, the show has already dismantled why he wanted to go there in the first place.
A boy named Tetsuro carries grief like a weapon. Count Mecha murdered his mother, and now revenge consumes him in a future where people can trade their flesh for immortal machine bodies. Tetsuro lives as a street thief, hoping to gather enough to ride the Galaxy Express 999, a train that crosses space to the planet where those mechanical bodies are handed out. After stealing a pass and fleeing the police, he meets Maetel, a mysterious woman who looks much like his mother. She offers him a place aboard the train if he agrees to travel with her. As the journey carries them across the galaxy, they meet a wide range of people, among them Captain Harlock and Queen Emeraldas, and Tetsuro comes to learn what being human really means.
