| Director | Robert Zemeckis |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama film |
| Runtime | 138 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $31 million |
| Box office | $161.8 million |
One morning, airline pilot William "Whip" Whitaker snorts cocaine to stay alert after a night of drinking in his Orlando hotel room with flight attendant Katerina Marquez, who is scheduled to work his flight. He captains SouthJet Air Flight 227 to Atlanta. Meanwhile, a drug addict named Nicole Maggen buys heroin and overdoses.
After takeoff, the first officer, Ken Evans, takes over while Whip mixes vodka in his orange juice and takes a nap. He is jolted awake when the plane enters a catastrophic dive. Whip manages to regain partial control by rolling the aircraft upside down and executing a crash-landing in an open field. The maneuver saves 96 of the 102 people on board; the six dead include Katerina, who dies saving a child. Whip is injured and loses consciousness.
Whip awakens in an Atlanta hospital with moderate injuries and is greeted by Charlie Anderson, who represents the airline's pilots union. Charlie credits Whip with saving most of the passengers and informs him that Evans is in a coma but is expected to survive. Whip is also visited by his drug dealer, Harling Mays, who offers him alcohol, which he refuses. While smoking, Whip meets Nicole, who is also hospitalized after her overdose, and the two form a connection.
After his release, Mays drives Whip to his late father's farm. Determined to change, Whip pours out his alcohol and resolves to get sober. Whip meets with Charlie and defense attorney Hugh Lang, who explain that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) performed a blood test on Whip while he was unconscious, and the toxicology report shows that Whip was intoxicated during the flight. Hugh believes he can have the evidence dismissed on a technicality, but Whip is concerned that he may face prison time and soon relapses into heavy drinking.
Whip meets up with Nicole again; she moves in with him at the farm, and the two begin a relationship. Whip's severe alcoholism clashes with Nicole's attempts to stay sober, and she repeatedly encourages him to stop drinking, but he resists. Whip visits Evans in the hospital after he comes out of his coma. Evans is severely disabled and will never fly again. When Whip tries to convince Evans to tell NTSB investigators that he was sober on the flight, Evans is upset, as he knows Whip was drunk. Despite this, he refuses to implicate Whip, believing that divine intervention placed Whip on the flight to save lives.
Nicole and Whip have a fight about his drinking, and she leaves. Feeling guilty, Whip drives to the home of his ex-wife and son, both of whom resent him. As media scrutiny intensifies before an NTSB hearing, Charlie and Hugh move Whip to a guarded hotel room with no alcohol so he can sober up. Whip finds the door to an adjacent room unlocked and with a full minibar. Although he initially attempts to resist, Whip succumbs to temptation and goes on a severe drinking binge.
The next morning, Charlie discovers Whip passed out and drunk. In a desperate attempt to help him function, Mays provides cocaine to sober him up before the hearing. At the hearing, lead NTSB investigator Ellen Block confirms that the crash was caused by mechanical failure, not pilot error, and that no other pilot in simulations could have replicated Whip's successful landing. However, she also reveals that empty vodka bottles were found on the plane, and because Whip's toxicology report is inadmissible, the only crew member officially recorded as intoxicated is Katerina. A tearful Whip, unable to blame Katerina for his actions, confesses the truth: he drank the vodka then and is currently drunk.
Thirteen months later, an imprisoned but content Whip is lecturing a support group of fellow inmates. Whip is serving a five-year sentence and will probably never fly again, which he believes is fair. However, he is proud of having done the right thing and staying sober. He is also working to rebuild his relationships with Nicole and his son, who visits to interview Whip for a college application essay. He begins by asking, "Who are you?" As a plane flies overhead, Whip replies, "That's a good question."