Hugo

In 1931 Paris, 12-year-old Hugo Cabret lives with his widowed father, a clockmaker who works at a museum. Hugo's father finds a broken automaton – a mechanical man created to draw with a pen. He and Hugo try to repair it, documenting their work in a notebook. Following his father's death in a fire, Hugo goes to live with his alcoholic uncle, Claude, who maintains the clocks at Gare Montparnasse. When Claude goes missing, Hugo continues maintaining the clocks, fearing that the Station Inspector Gustave Dasté will send him away if Claude's absence is discovered. Hugo attempts to repair the automaton with stolen parts, believing it contains a message from his father, but the machine requires a heart-shaped key.
One day, Hugo is caught stealing parts from a toy store, and the owner, Georges, takes his notebook, threatening to destroy it. Georges' goddaughter Isabelle suggests that Hugo confront Georges and demand it back. Georges reluctantly proposes that Hugo work at his toy store as recompense, and might earn the notebook back in the future. Hugo accepts the job offer and commences work, in addition to his job maintaining the clocks. Isabelle and Hugo become fast friends, and Hugo is astonished to see she wears a heart-shaped key, given to her by Georges. Hugo shows her the automaton, which they activate with the key. It draws a scene from A Trip to the Moon, once described to Hugo by his father. Isabelle identifies the drawing's signature as that of "Georges Méliès" – her godfather. She sneaks Hugo into her home, where they find a hidden cache of drawings in an armoire, but they are discovered by a bewildered Georges, who bans Hugo from his house.
Several days later, at the Film Academy Library, Hugo and Isabelle find a book about the history of cinema that praises Méliès' contributions. They meet the book's author, René Tabard, a film expert who is surprised to hear Méliès is alive, as he disappeared after World War I along with the copies of his films. Excited at the chance to meet Méliès again, René agrees to meet Isabelle and Hugo at Georges' home tomorrow evening to show his copy of A Trip to the Moon.
Finding the heart-shaped key on the station railway tracks, Hugo drops down to the track to retrieve it, and is run over by an out-of-control train that smashes through the station. He wakes up from the nightmare, but hears an ominous ticking emanating from himself, and discovers he has been turned into the automaton. Hugo wakes up again; it was only another nightmare.
At Georges' home, his wife Jeanne allows them in after René recognizes her as Jeanne d'Alcy, an actress in many of Méliès' films. They play the film, waking Georges, who is finally convinced to cherish his accomplishments rather than regret his lost dreams. Georges recounts that, as a stage magician, he was fascinated by motion pictures and used film to create imaginative works through his Star Film Company. Forced into bankruptcy after the war, he closed his studio and disposed of his films. He laments that even an automaton he built and donated to a museum was lost in a fire; Hugo realizes it is the one he has repaired.
Hugo races to the station to retrieve the automaton but is caught by Dasté, who has learned of Claude's death. Dasté prepares to take him to the orphanage, but Hugo manages to escape and precariously hides on the outer face of the clock tower. After climbing back inside, Hugo races for the exit but drops the automaton on the tracks. He jumps down to retrieve it and is almost run over by a train, but Dasté saves him and the automaton at the last minute. Georges arrives at the scene and tells Dasté "This child belongs to me." while saving Hugo, who realized that the automaton survived. Hugo is then adopted by Georges.
Sometime later, Georges is named a professor at the Film Academy, and is paid tribute through a showcase of his films recovered by René. Hugo and his new family celebrate at the apartment, and Isabelle begins to write down Hugo's story.