Credits Distributed by 20th Century Fox (North America) Universal Pictures (United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Latin America and Germany) Summit Entertainment (International)
Production company Walden Media
Directed by Jennifer Flackett Mark Levin
Screenplay by Joseph Kwong Paula Mazur Mark Levin Jennifer Flackett
Synopsis 11-year-old Nim (Abigail Breslin) lives with her widower marine biologist father Jack Rusoe (Gerard Butler) on a South Pacific island. Jack has told Nim that her mother Emily died when she was swallowed by a blue whale after it was scared by a ship called The Buccaneer. Nim has several native animals for company: Selkie the sea lion, Fred the bearded dragon, Chica the sea turtle, and Galileo the pelican.
Jack takes the boat for a two-day scientific mission to find Protozoa nim, a new species of plankton he has named after her. He wants to take Nim along but she convinces him she can manage on her own and must stay to oversee the imminent hatching of Chica's eggs. They will be able to communicate by satellite phone.
Nim is fond of "Alex Rover" adventure books written by Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster). Nim receives an email addressed to her father from "Alex Rover" enquiring about Jack's field of knowledge. She imagines it is from the explorer but is actually from the author. The author, in turn, is a neurotic agoraphobe who imagines she is speaking to her fictional hero Alex Rover (also portrayed by Butler). An email conversation follows.
Jack’s sailboat has a problem in a cyclone and cannot return on the planned day, nor communicate with Nim. Galileo brings Jack things he needs to fix his ship as sharks begin to circle. Nim tells Alex her father has not returned as planned but she feels powerless to help, given that she can hardly even open her own door.
The island is visited by uncouth tourists who Nim believes to be pirates, as the name of their cruise liner is The Buccaneer. She attempts to make the island unattractive to them by catapulting lizards to shore, and by making a fire in the crater of the volcano and rolling boulders down the slopes to make it appear to be erupting. In so doing she inadvertently triggers an actual eruption. The tourists scramble for the boats. One of them, a boy, Edmund, sees and catches up with Nim. He is confused by her presence and she tells him she lives on the island. He tells the others, but no one believes him.
Meanwhile, Alexandra's visions of her character Alex Rover help her to overcome her agoraphobia in order to travel to the island to rescue Nim. Nim, expecting "Alex" (the fictional male character), at first rejects Alexandra, but later relents and they share a meal.
The next day, Nim starts to cry, reasoning that if her ever-successful father were still alive he would be back already. Luckily, Jack reaches the island windsurfing on a makeshift catamaran. Jack and Alex meet and begin to get to know each other (Alex amazed at Jack being just as she imagined her fictional character). The film ends with everyone playing on the beach, using a coconut as a ball.
