Two elderly men,
blue-collar automotive mechanic Carter Chambers and billionaire Edward Cole, meet for the first time in a hospital owned by Edward after both men are diagnosed with terminal
lung cancer. Carter, a gifted
amateur historian and family man, wanted to become a history professor in his youth but chose to start a family instead. Edward, a four-time divorced healthcare tycoon and cultured loner, enjoys drinking
kopi luwak, one of the most expensive coffees in the world and mocking his personal
valet Matthew, whom he wrongly but intentionally calls Thomas. While in the hospital, Carter and Edward manage to find common ground. For fun, Carter started writing a list of activities to do before he "
kicks the bucket." After hearing he has less than a year to live, he dejectedly discards his list. Edward finds the list the next morning and urges Carter to do everything on it, adds his own items and offers to finance all expenses. He agrees, although his wife Virginia objects, so the two patients begin their globetrotting last vacation along with Matthew. They go
skydiving, drive a vintage
Shelby Mustang and
Dodge Challenger around
California Speedway, fly over the
North Pole, eat dinner at
Chèvre d'or, visit the
Taj Mahal, ride motorcycles on the
Great Wall of China, attend a lion
safari in
Tanzania and visit
Mount Everest. Atop the
Great Pyramid of Giza, they confide mutually about faith and family. Carter reveals that he has long been feeling less in love with his wife and feels some regret for his chosen path. Edward discloses that he is deeply hurt by his estrangement from his only daughter, who distanced herself after he drove away her
abusive husband. Later, while in
Hong Kong, Edward hires a
prostitute to approach Carter, as he has never been with any woman but his wife. Carter declines and insists they stop the bucket list and go home. During the return journey, Carter tries to reunite Edward with his estranged daughter. Considering this a breach of trust, Edward scolds him and then angrily storms off. Carter returns home to his family while Edward, feeling alone, breaks down weeping in his luxury home. Carter's family reunion turns out to be short-lived as, while readying for marital romance, he suffers a seizure and is rushed to the hospital. There, it is discovered that the cancer has spread to his brain. Edward, now in a remarkable
remission, visits him to reconcile. Carter, always a
Jeopardy! fan and knowledgeable trivia fanatic, reveals how Edward's kopi luwak coffee is fed to and defecated by an
Asian palm civet cat before being harvested. As the two laugh hysterically over the obscure fact, crossing off the item 'laugh to tears', Carter implores Edward to finish the list for him. After Carter dies during surgery, Edward manages to reconcile with his own daughter, who introduces him to the granddaughter he never knew he had. After greeting the little girl by kissing her cheek, he thoughtfully crosses "kiss the most beautiful girl in the world" off the bucket list. Soon after, Edward delivers a
eulogy at Carter's funeral, during which he explains that the last three months of Carter's life were, thanks to Carter, the best three months of his own. An
epilogue reveals that Edward lived to age 81 and Matthew then took his ashes to a peak in the
Himalayas. As he places a
Chock full o'Nuts coffee can of Edward's ashes alongside another can of Carter's ashes, he crosses off the last item on the bucket list, "witness something truly majestic", and tucks the completed list between the cans. A voice-over from Carter says that he thought Edward would have gotten a laugh out of being buried on the mountain, as it is "against the law". ==Cast==