"So you've mentioned," replies the man next to her, unkindly. She is too agitated to sit and gets up from her seat.
The flight attendant tries to stay pleasant, as people are very rude to him. To his surprise, when he picks up a toy dinosaur and returns it to its owner, the young girl thanks him. "What did you say?" he asks.
"Uh, Thanks," she replies.
He squats down next to her chair and says "You're very welcome, young lady." The girl seems quite precocious and explains that she wants to be a paleontologist and a botanist when she grows up. "My mom says I can be anything," she says proudly. They are interrupted by another rude passenger trying to get the flight attendant's attention. He sighs, stands up and moves on.
The air traffic controller clears the plane for landing. The flight attendant takes his seat with a pensive look on his face. A woman next to a window sleeps peacefully. Many passengers are lost in thought. In the bathroom, the anxious woman splashes water on her face praying, "Please don't crash, please don't crash."
The little girl looks up from her book. She sees something out the window. "What's that?" she asks.
In the tower, the air traffic controller guiding the flight in looks out the window and sees the plane disappear. Alarms start ringing as he looks at his screen. "Flight 134, this is Boston tower. Do you read me, over?" he asks. He takes off his headset, stands and moves toward the window. "I just saw them. Where did they go?" he asks in confusion.
Back at his station, the controller tries to explain to his supervisor. "I had them on radar and on visual when they suddenly disappeared," he says agitatedly. Suddenly, out of the window they see the plane reappear. He stands up in disbelief and quickly demands that the runway be cleared. He puts back on his headset, "Flight 134, do you read me?"
A voice over the radio responds in awe, "My God, it was beautiful."
In Boston, Paul walks into the SQ headquarters and is greeted by Evelyn. She begins to gather employment paperwork for Paul. He interrupts and says, "Before I sign anything, I need to talk to Mr. Keel." Alva comes out of his office and suggests they take a walk.
While walking in a park, Paul asks Alva why he had been following him. "You're a good investigator, something I desperately need in light of the coming darkness," explains Alva. He adds that Paul's former employers didn't appreciate Paul's rather unique gifts.
"Like seeing 'God is now here' written in my own blood?" snorts Paul.
"Yes," responds Alva earnestly. He tries to convince Paul that he will play a significant role in all of this.
"All of what? I don't believe in the end of the world, Keel," insists Paul. He wants to know what he has to do with all this.
"Isn't that what you are here to find out?" challenges Alva.
"This was a bad idea, I'm sorry," says Paul and starts to walk away.
Alva stops him. "Something is coming Paul. The signs are everywhere." As he tries to convince Paul, Keel's cell phone rings. After listening briefly, he says he's on his way and hangs up. He looks at Paul. "Something very strange just occurred at Logan airport. Are you coming?" Alva asks.
While Alva, Evelyn and Paul drive to the airport, Alva explains that he was called by Charles Jurgenson, a Sr. Officer in the NSA. Evelyn asks Alva how she knows him. He explains that they went to Cambridge together, but admits that although he respects him, he doesn't like him. At the airport, they drive past security amidst military vehicles and armed troops. "This is big. They've got half the army out here," comments Evelyn.
They walk into the terminal as an airline representative addresses the crowd of friends and family who are waiting. She explains that the flight landed as scheduled, but just before landing there was a small fire in one of the lavatories. She assures them that the passengers will be released once the federal investigators complete their investigation of the fire. The people in the crowd look worried. One man speaks up, saying that his wife has severe medical problems. The representative asks them to be patient.
Jurgenson is on the phone, talking to a superior, assuring him that there will be a lockdown in place until they get to the bottom of this. He doesn't believe it is the work of terrorists. "Its like nothing we have ever seen before," he admits. He goes on to say that he has brought in a team to look into any possible paranormal ramifications. As he is talking, he is bringing up dossiers of Evelyn and Paul on his computer and printing them out.
Alva, Evelyn and Paul are ushered into the room. Jurgenson is abrasive, demanding to know what took them so long. "This investigation is closed door," he maintains. "Discussing it with anyone off premises will be considered an act of treason." Alva insists they now be told what is going on.
They are told that while landing, the control tower lost radar and visual contact with the plane for 64 seconds. The plane just disappeared. It then reappeared in the exact same location and landed safely. "What happened to the passengers?" asks Paul. Jurgenson admits that they don't know. They are interviewing the ones who are coherent, but they all have a different story.
"What do you want from us," asks Alva.
"Answers," responds Jurgenson flatly. "You investigate unusual occurrences. Well, something very strange happened to these people. We've got to get as much information out of them as possible."
The three investigators have noticed a figure on a gurney covered by a sheet. Paul finally asks, "What's under the sheet?"
Jurgenson sighs, ushers them over to the gurney and pulls the sheet off. They are shocked to see a charred and blackened body. Jurgenson explains that this is passenger 13B who was burned to death in the airplane lavatory - but there was no other indication of a fire. "We need to know what the hell happened, and we need to know now," insists Jurgenson. He recovers the body and leads them out of the room.
They proceed to a security checkpoint. They are advised that no cameras, notes or personal recording devices are allowed in or out of the site. As Evelyn walks through the checkpoint, she sets it off. She backs up, pulls out a laminated card, shows it to Jurgenson saying, "I have a 38 caliber bullet lodged in the anterior lobe of my brain. It was declared inoperable."
"You're a police officer?" asks Jurgenson.
"Former," corrects Evelyn.
"She's clean," grunts the guard and waves her through.
They walk into a hangar that has been set up with temporary, plastic draped cubicles. Jurgenson gets them oriented. He shows them the triage area where they make sure the passengers are medically fit, then they debrief them. While they are allowed to take notes, he insists that they cannot leave the premises with them or anything else. Alva leaves with Jurgenson as Evelyn and Paul are shown some of the passengers.
They first see the couple from the plane that had exchanged glances. They now appear to be in love, sitting with hands intertwined, gazing into each other eyes and kissing. As far as anyone knows, those two had never spoken before takeoff. The man who had been unkind to the agitated lady calmly tells them that he saw Satan while the plane disappeared. Another woman describes hearing thousands of voices singing.
Paul enters a cubicle finding Karen, the woman who had been sleeping on the plane. She rushes up to Paul. "The most wonderful thing has happened!" she exclaims. "I have to see my husband." Paul invites her to sit down. She declines and starts spinning around and laughing. Paul begins taking notes and a technician records the session on video. She insists again that her husband needs to see her.
"Why?" Paul asks. She explains that she has a severe brain injury that prevents her from moving, walking, standing or speaking. She spins around again in disbelief.
Evelyn enters the cubicle of the precocious little girl and introduces herself. The little girl, named Deanna, tells her in dismay that she saw the rest of her life. Deanna explains to Evelyn that she gets married at 22 to a loser and they have two difficult kids that she finds hard to love. Deanna continues to recount the dismal details of her future life.
Jurgenson brings Alva to where they have the flight attendant restrained with a straightjacket, brain wave monitors attached to his head. The flight attendant is speaking non-stop in an unidentified language. Spittle is flying from his mouth with the intensity of his speech. Alva determines that he is speaking Aramaic.
Back in the cubicle, Karen explains to Paul that she was injured while skiing on their honeymoon 21 years ago. She describes how her husband has taken care of her all these years without complaint. She desperately wants to tell him how much she appreciates what he is doing and how much she has always known that he loves her. She pauses and asks where her nurse is. "She hates flying. She's always afraid that the plane's gonna crash and we're all gonna burn to death," she laughs. Paul has a thought and excuses himself for a moment.
Paul looks for the burn victim and discovers she is being autopsied. He confirms that this is the missing nurse.
Meanwhile, technicians have been transcribing what the flight attendant has been saying and Alva helps to translate. Alva explains that the flight attendant is explaining theoretical projections of modern physics. "Like what?" asks Jurgenson. Alva scans the computer screen.
"Cold fusion, perpetual motion…" Words like vaporization, depravity and death catch Alva's eye. "…etcetera," finishes Alva quickly.
In a supply room, Alva, Evelyn and Paul meet secretly. Alva has a theory for what happened. He thinks that each of the passengers brought their own individual experience to the phenomenon. Evelyn concurs saying that Deanna had been telling the flight attendant what she wanted to be when she grew up just before the plane disappeared. Paul tells how the nurse had been afraid of dying and being burned up and how Karen was dreaming about being able to walk and talk again. Alva feels that for 64 seconds the passengers were in a higher realm where consciousness determines reality.
Evelyn asks about the flight attendant. Alva explains that he hopes he is the only one seeing it, but the flight attendant seems to have discovered a cutting edge physics that could destroy the world. "Our friend is conducting a lecture series on the physics of destruction," Alva says. They agree that they need to stop the government from getting their hands on that technology. Jurgenson discovers them, breaks up their meeting and tells Alva that the flight attendant has started speaking English.
Evelyn returns to Deanna, who is starting to get a little confused about what she remembers. Karen tells Paul some of the things she wants to do when she gets out of there. She complains of a headache and Paul notices her hand begins to shake. The flight attendant is now lecturing in English and technicians are posting his equations on white boards. He starts to get confused and loses his train of thought.
Paul rushes in looking for Alva. He explains that Karen is starting to get sick again. They conclude that the effect is wearing off. Paul demands that Karen be allowed to speak to her husband while she still can. Alva stays quiet when Jurgenson says no.
When Paul walks away in frustration, Evelyn approaches him and reassures him that it gets easier working with Alva.
Paul goes back to Karen and explains, "Whatever it was that happened on that plane - its stopping." She interrupts him and repeats that she has to see her husband. Paul explains that she that no one is allowed to leave until it's over. "Until everyone's forgotten. As if it never happened at all?" she accuses.
Paul and Karen walk through the hangar and pass an NTSB investigator as she explains to him what she saw. Paul tells the guard to get the investigator -- he needs to hear this. When the guard moves away, Paul and Karen sneak through the exit and begin running across the tarmac. The guards are close behind.
The door to the terminal is locked. "There he is. Mark! Mark!" she screams over and over as they bang on the windows trying to get her husband's attention. Inside, the glare on the glass is too strong, he doesn't even look up. The guards pull them away from the window and into a waiting vehicle. "Mark, Mark," Karen continues to cry.
Too late, Mark finally senses something, walks up to the window and shielding his eyes, peers outside. He notices a perfect handprint on the outside of the window.
Back at the autopsy, the assistant says, "Doctor, look at this." He and the doctor watch incredulously as the charred skin is restored to normal. "This is interesting," the doctor understates.
On a live report on TV, a reporter explains that in the lavatory fire someone was tragically killed. Back at the autopsy room, lies the unburned body of the nurse, the Y-incision of her autopsy stitched up. "Wait a second. You're saying that she would be alive right now if it weren't for the autopsy?" Jurgenson asks the doctor. He decides that they'll still need to stick with the story that she died from the fire.
"Yet now we have an almost perfectly restored body. Difficult to explain," points out Alva.
Jurgenson makes a quick decision. "Burn her," he commands and walks away.
As Alva stands by, guards release Paul from handcuffs. "They're letting me go?" asks Paul in disbelief.
"Yes, I convinced Charlie that sending you to jail for five years would result in unwanted publicity." Alva chastises Paul for what he did. "We were brought here to observe, nothing more," says Alva.
"You're beginning to sound just like your friend," Paul says in disgust and walks away.
Passengers are being allowed to leave. The couple that had been in love bumps into each other and clearly don't know each other. Deanna runs out happily. Karen sits slumped in her wheelchair. Paul squats down in front of Karen, holds her hands and looks up at Evelyn. Paul follows Evelyn's gaze as she looks over at the video recorder.
"What's gonna happen to me?" asks the flight attendant. Alva explains that they will take him somewhere to find out what he knows. "But I don't know anything," insists the flight attendant. Alva says that they will try to find out anyway. The flight attendant asks for his help. Alva sighs and says he is sorry. He asks what the flight attendant had been thinking before the plane disappeared. He explains how passengers were running him ragged, being rude, and making him feel bad. After the little girl told him that her mother told her she could be anything she wanted when she grew up, he remembered his mother saying the same thing when he was young. "'When you grow up your gonna do big things, you'll be important, you're gonna change the world.'"
In the hallway, Alva asks Jurgenson if he will let the flight attendant go. Jurgenson has little patience left for Alva and his friends at this point, and refuses. As the flight attendant is being led out, Keel asks if he can say goodbye to him. Jurgenson nods. Alva walks up to the flight attendant, starts speaking slowly to him then suddenly places his hands on either side of his face, and shouts something unintelligible to the onlookers. He releases his hands in a grand sweeping gesture as the guards pull him away. "What the hell was that?" demands Jurgenson.
Alva grins, "A traditional Aramaic farewell." Alva shares a significant look with Paul and Evelyn.
As they go through security, both Paul and Evelyn set off the detector. "It's the bullet lady," the guard says to Evelyn and waves her through. The guard searches Paul and discovers a camcorder tape in his pocket and confiscates it.
Alva, Evelyn and Paul watch the passengers walk out into the terminal. Deanna rushes happily to her parents who hug her. The man who had been "in love" is greeted excitedly by his two children; his wife is less thrilled. The woman who had been the object of his affection walks out and is greeted by no one. Mark wheels Karen out in her wheelchair and kisses her head.
As they walk to the car, Paul asks Alva, "It didn't look like you were exactly observing back there." Alva explains that ancient shamans believe that a sudden shock coupled with the correct phrase can erase a person's short-term memory. "I hope it worked," says Paul. While Alva is getting into the car, Evelyn quietly pulls a camcorder tape out of her purse, hands it to Paul and nods. Paul takes it and thanks her.
The next day at Karen and Mark's house, Mark is slicing tomatoes while Karen sits in a wheelchair and gazes out the window. There is a knock at the door. It's Paul. He introduces himself to Mark and explains that he was with his wife after the flight landed. He says that Karen is a terrific person and hands Mark the tape. Mark looks baffled. "Please don't ever tell anyone you have it," requests Paul and walks away.
Mark loads the tape and he and Karen watch the television. Mark sees Karen talk about how wonderful he is and how much she loves him. With tears in his eyes he looks from the TV to Karen and touches her hair. On the TV Karen says, "I can't wait to tell him." Paul's voice responds, "You will."