Plot
In the late 1930s, young Carl Fredricksen is a shy, quiet boy who idolizes renowned explorer Charles F. Muntz. Muntz has been accused of fabricating the skeleton of a giant bird he claimed to have discovered in Paradise Falls in Venezuela, and vows to return there to capture one alive. One day, Carl befriends Ellie, who is also a Muntz fan. She confides to Carl her desire to move her "clubhouse" — an abandoned house in the neighborhood — to a cliff overlooking Paradise Falls, and makes him promise to help her. Carl and Ellie eventually get married and grow old together in the restored house, working as a toy balloon vendor and a zookeeper respectively. Unable to have children, they repeatedly pool their savings for a trip to Paradise Falls, but end up spending it on more pressing needs. An elderly Carl finally arranges for the trip, but Ellie suddenly becomes ill and dies, leaving him alone.
Some time later, Carl still lives in the house, now surrounded by urban development. Carl has refused to sell the house to the developers. He accidentally injures a construction worker over damage to his mailbox, and a court orders him to move to a retirement home. However, Carl comes up with a scheme to keep his promise to Ellie: he turns his house into a makeshift airship, using thousands of helium balloons to lift it off its foundation. Russell, a young Wilderness Explorer (a fictional Scouting organization), becomes an accidental passenger in his effort to earn his final merit badge for assisting the elderly.
After surviving a thunderstorm, the house lands near a ravine facing Paradise Falls. Carl and Russell harness themselves to the still-buoyant house and begin to walk it around the ravine, hoping to reach the falls before the balloons deflate. They later befriend a tall, colorful flightless bird (whom Russell names "Kevin") trying to reach her chicks, and a dog named Dug, who wears a special collar that allows him to speak.
Carl and Russell encounter a pack of dogs led by Alpha, and are taken to Dug's master, who turns out to be an elderly Charles Muntz. Muntz invites Carl and Russell aboard his dirigible, where he explains that he has spent the years since his disgrace searching Paradise Falls for the giant bird. His decades-long isolation from the rest of the world and his obsession to catch the bird has made him paranoid, psychotic and dangerous, killing off any wanderer he sees, thinking they wanted the bird. When Russell notes the bird's similarity to Kevin, Muntz then becomes hostile, prompting the pair to flee with Kevin and Dug. Muntz eventually catches up with them and starts a fire beneath Carl's house, forcing Carl to choose between saving it or Kevin. Carl rushes to put out the fire, allowing Muntz to take the bird. Carl and Russell eventually reach the falls, but Russell is angry with Carl over his decision to abandon Kevin.
Settling into his home, Carl looks through Ellie's childhood scrapbook; finding photos of their happy marriage added into it, along with a note from Ellie thanking him for the "adventure" and encouraging him to go on a new one. Reinvigorated, he goes to find Russell, only to see him sailing off on some balloons to save Kevin. Carl empties the house of furniture and possessions, lightening it, and pursues him.
Russell is captured by Muntz, but Carl manages to board the dirigible in flight and free both Russell and Kevin. Dug manages to defeat Alpha and become the dogs' new leader. Muntz pursues them around the airship, finally cornering Dug, Kevin, and Russell inside Carl's tethered house. Carl lures Kevin out through a window and back onto the airship with Dug and Russell clinging to her back, just as Muntz is about to close in; Muntz leaps after them, only to snag his foot on some balloon lines and fall to his death. Snapped from its tether, the house descends out of sight through the clouds, which Carl accepts as being for the best.
Carl and Russell reunite Kevin with her chicks, then fly the dirigible back to the city. When Russell's father misses his son's Senior Explorer ceremony, Carl presents Russell with his final badge: a grape soda cap that Ellie gave to Carl when they first met and made their promise. The two then enjoy some ice cream together, sitting on the curb outside the shop as Russell and his father used to do, with the dirigible parked nearby. Meanwhile, Carl's house is shown to have landed on the cliff beside Paradise Falls, as promised to Ellie.
In scenes shown during the credits, Carl becomes a surrogate father to Russell and keeps Dug as his pet.
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