圣诞 Eve, Mackenzie (played by Bruce Willis) finds himself at a Washington airport waiting for his wife Holly (portrayed by Gina Davis) to return home for the holidays. However, he uncovers a major conspiracy instead: A special forces colonel, Shults, and his team are preparing to rescue a notorious drug lord, Cheech Marin, who has been extradited.
Mackenzie shares this information with the airport security chief, but his bureaucratic incompetence and stupidity fail to prevent anything from happening. Shults and his team seize control of a nearby church, establishing an air traffic control center, and severing all connections between the tower and the sky, causing multiple planes to be unable to land. Worse yet, Holly is on one of those planes.
To save his wife and the numerous passengers in the air, Mackenzie is forced to embark on another grueling mission.