- Denzel Washington (Captain Whip Whitaker)
- Kelly Reilly (Nicole)
- Don Cheadle (Hugh Lang)
- John Goodman (Harling Mays)
Asleep in his Orlando hotel room bed with a naked woman, an alarm wakes them, and then Whip’s phone rings. His ex-wife is on the phone wanting money but Whip sees last night’s unfinished beer on the bedside cabinet, and finishes that before talking to her. Feeling lightheaded from drinking the night before, Whip snorts a waiting line of cocaine to wake up and get to his 9:00am flight, with Katerina Marquez (Trina) who is a flight attendant on that same flight.
Onboard SouthJet Air Flight 227 to Atlanta, Captain Whip Whitaker asks friend and flight attendant Margaret for coffee and aspirin, and breathes in oxygen from the captain’s emergency oxygen mask. His co-pilot Ken Evans notices that Whip isn’t looking great, and asks how he is feeling today. Whip brushes the hangover and drugs off as tiredness, and they continue to prepare for departure.
Shortly after take off, the flight experiences severe turbulence. Whip insists on manually flying without the autopilot and eventually breaks free of the weather and finds blue skies. Whip then hands control over to the Ken, then leaves the cockpit for the forward galley. Whip addresses the passengers from the galley, but as a cover for discretely pouring two single serve vodka bottles in to a bottle of orange juice, then returning to the cockpit to take a nap in his Captain’s seat.
Ken is flying and and sets the aircraft controls getting ready to start their descent, and Whip is jolted awake when the aircraft suffers mechanical failure and enters in to a steep dive. After struggling with the aircraft, dumping fuel and manually overriding the aircraft’s controls, Whip manages to pull out of steep dive by rolling the aircraft inverted. Maintaining a very low altitude, while inverted, they lose power in both engines and roll the aircraft upright in time to make a controlled crash-landing in to an open field just short of the airport. On impact, Whip hits his head and loses consciousness.
Whip awakens in an Atlanta hospital to the news footage of the crash landing. He has a concussion and moderate injuries and is greeted by an old Navy friend, Charlie Anderson, who now represents the pilot union. Whip learns he saved 96 out of 102 on board the flight, with two crew and four passengers deceased. Trina was among the dead and Ken is in a coma.
Whip is visited by friend and drug dealer Harling Mays, who brings him a carton of cigarettes, and a bottle of vodka. Whip refuses the vodka and says he is not drinking any more. Later Whip is awoken by thunder and lightning and leaves his room to sneak a cigarette in a nearby stairwell, where he meets Nicole who is in the hospital after a drug overdose. Whip learns Nicole’s address and says he will come and visit her.
The next morning, Harling picks up Whip from the hospital and takes him to pick up his car from the airport. Whip decides to stay at his late father’s farm since the media are camped outside his condo. When he looks around the farmhouse he sees alcohol stored everywhere. Whip pours all the alcohol he can find down the drain, as well as flushing his marijuana supply down the toilet.
The next morning Whip meets with Charlie and attorney Hugh Lang. They explain that the NTSB had collected blood, hair and skin samples from him for toxicology reports when he was at the hospital. The initial report showed that Whip was drunk, with alcohol in his system at a level of 0.24, and he was high on cocaine. He learns that he could go to prison for up to 12 years.
Whip had thought it wasn’t known he had taken cocaine the morning of the flight, or drunk vodka during the flight. Whip’s reaction to the news is to go to the bar and orders an orange juice and a neat double vodka, drinking just the vodka.
With this worrying news, Whip buys more vodka and beer then visits Nicole. He finds her trying to move out, but the landlord is threatening her, as she owes rent. Whip hits the landlord and gives him some cash to settle the debt. Whip drives Nicole back to the farm with him as she has no where to go, and her car does not run.
Whip continues to drink and becomes intimate with Nicole. Hugh Lang visits the farm and takes Whip to visit the crash site. He tells Whip that he cannot drink as he is under the microscope, so he cannot be seen buying liquor, at a bar or doing drugs. He offers Whip help to stop drinking, but Whip insists he doesn’t need help and he can stop on his own. He also promises that he won’t drink.
Hugh and Charlie meet with the owner of the airline, who learns that Whip is a heavy drinker. Hugh thinks he can get the toxicology report killed, as the testing was done incompetently.
Back at the farm, Whip continues drinking spirits straight from the bottle, and is too drunk to have a conversation with Nicole when she comes home. He falls over empty bottles on the floor and sleeps, where Nicole covers him. The next morning Whip wakes to Nicole outside having breakfast and taking photos of the farm. She says that he was in a pretty bad shape last night, and he admits that he might have had a bit too much to drink. Nicole comments that “a bit’ is an understatement, but Whip replies that he has thrown out the beer and vodka.
Whip attend’s Trina’s funeral where he meets up with his friend and surviving crew member, Margaret. She asks Whip to come to counselling but he says that he can’t, but he will. Whip lies to Margaret and says that he only had two glasses of wine the night before the crash, and asks Margaret to lie to the NTSB that it was just an ordinary day. She knows Whip too well, and does not believe the story about two glasses of wine. Margaret shares that Trina had told her that they hadn’t even been to sleep that night.
Nicole gets a job at a market and has an AA meeting to go to, and invites Whip to come along, to which he agrees. When a speaker asks the meeting if there are any other alcoholics present, Whip doesn’t raise his hand and sits with his arms folded looking uncomfortable. Whip excuses himself and leaves the meeting to visit a bar, where he sees Ken is on the news, and out of the coma, so goes to the hospital to see him.
Whip learns that Ken most likely won’t walk again without a walker and that he will certainly never fly again. Ken tells Whip that the plane was doomed the moment he sat in that cockpit, and that he reeked like gin or something. Although Ken knew that Whip got on the plane still drunk from the night before, he didn’t intend to tell that to the NTSB. Ken believes that the crash was preordained and agrees he is only alive because Whip was flying the plane that day.
Back at the farm, Nicole comes home to find Whip in the barn fixing up an old Cessna 172. He’s been drinking and dreams of leaving to Jamaica in the morning with Nicole to start over. Nicole tells Whip that she is worried about him, and that he needs help and rehab. He retaliates and says horrible things to Nicole. As an excuse, Whip says that he chooses to drink to deal with the problems in his life.
Whip admits to Nicole that he was loaded when the plane crashed and that he may go to jail for the rest of his life. He wants to get out of Atlanta and he wants her to come with him. Nicole is afraid that she will use again if she is with him, but Whip promises to get help, and that if he doesn’t sober up that she can leave.
Early the next morning, Nicole leaves while Whip is still asleep, leaving him a note. When Whip wakes and finds the note he smashes alcohol against the wall. Whip also learns that he needs to meet with Charlie and Hugh, and fixes himself vodka and orange juice for the trip.
Whip learns that his toxicology report has indeed been cancelled. And also that two empty vodka bottles were found in the galley trash from that flight, where crew were the only ones that had access. Whip and Trina were the only crew that had alcohol in their toxicology reports, and Hugh hints that at the NTSB hearing he should put the blame for the vodka bottles on Trina to save himself from jail.
Afterward, Whip returns to the farm but finds that the media have located his hideout. He drives to the home of his ex-wife and son, and finishes his vodka before going inside. His ex-wife asks him if he has been drinking, and wants him to leave. His son tells him he is a drunk and wants him to leave. When he comes out of the house, the media is waiting for him.
Whip stays with Charlie until the NTSB hearing, vowing that he won’t drink. The night before the hearing, and after eight days of not drinking, Charlie and Hugh move Whip to a guarded hotel. The alcohol had been removed from his mini bar, but during the night Whip finds the door to the adjoining room is unlocked, with its fully stocked mini bar. Reaching for vodka, Whip initially resists but ultimately can’t stop himself.
The next morning, Whip doesn’t answer the door, and they discover the room trashed, and Whip passed out drunk. With 45 minutes to the hearing, Hugh and Charlie call Harling for cocaine, hoping to get Whip alert enough to make it through the hearing. After a few hits, Whip is ready to go. When talking about responses for questions about drinking at the hearing, Whip lets them know he doesn’t need any help lying about his drinking, as he has been lying about his drinking his whole life.
At the hearing, the NTSB investigator Ellen Block explains that an improperly maintained elevator assembly jackscrew was the cause of the crash. But she also asks about the days and hours leading up to the accident, and if Whip had consumed any alcohol or drugs that may have impaired his ability to perform his job, which he denied. Whip also denied ever having had a problem with dependency or addiction.
Ellen then reminded Whip that the drink service was cancelled on the flight due to the severe turbulence, and asked if he was aware that investigators had found two empty single serve vodka bottles in the galley trash can. Blood samples were taken within an hour of the accident from all five crew members that had access to the beverage trolley. Toxicology analysis showed three crew had no alcohol in their system, Whip’s blood test had been excluded, and that Trina’s test result came back with a blood alcohol level of 0.17. Ellen went on to ask if Whip was aware of her prior alcohol addiction, and asked Whip if he believed Trina had been drinking on that flight.
Whip pauses, unable to bring himself to blame Trina for his actions. He admits that he was the one that drank the vodka. Whip also admits that he was intoxicated on the days she had asked about leading up to the crash, and that he was drunk on the day of the accident. Whip further admits he is also drunk now at the hearing, because he is an alcoholic. He could have lied one more time and would have gotten away with whatever repercussions he will now face.
13 months later, an imprisoned Whip is talking to a support group of fellow inmates. He has written to the loved ones of the deceased victims’ families, and some have forgiven him. He has also apologized to people that have tried to help him along the way, where he couldn’t or wouldn’t listen; such as his ex-wife and his son. Some will never forgive him, and some will, but he is glad that he is sober, and feels that for the first time in his life he is free.
The movie ends with his son visiting him in prison, where he wants to interview his father for a college admissions essay, entitled “the most fascinating person that I never met”, and he begins with “so, who are you”?, to which Whip replies, “that’s a good question”. https://amzn.to/42eyDr0
