Yet “In Transit” illustrates how their journeys mirror one another, and not just geographically. A 21-year-old heads to North Dakota, convinced that seven years of oil-boom work will earn him money for life. Another man, having already toiled there, heads in the opposite direction, to Indiana and the woman he loves, to settle down, something he thought he’d never do. He worries about finding a job there.

Other passengers seek to forget romance or to clear their heads. The mix is roughly even between those settling unfinished business and those, like the young man from Mississippi who left his job overnight, who have hopped aboard on impulse.

“In Transit” has been edited — by Ms. True — to privilege narrative over chronology. At any moment, the movie is liable to turn up at a different spot along the route, a sort of productive disorientation that contributes to a feeling of universality. Anyone who thinks the movie was easy to make should try getting watchable footage out of a train window. (A separate drive-along trip was necessary for the picturesque exterior shots.)

While observing roughhousing children, dining car meals, card games and a jam session, the movie makes room for perceptive observations on class, race and upbringing. At times, “In Transit” seems utopian in its optimism that all it takes to get two people talking is to put them in adjacent seats. Here’s a summer movie that is about — and offers — escape.