Black Box

Jeremy Durham is on Vero Airlines Flight 298 from Seattle to New Orleans, returning with the body of his girlfriend after she died on a hiking trip that they had taken together. Sitting in the back rows of economy class of the aircraft, Jeremy sees how an elderly, long-bearded man begins coughing nonstop, locking himself in the lavatory. A young girl named Chloe who is on the flight with her mother sits in the opposite row to Jeremy and starts a conversation while waiting to use the bathroom. When the elderly passenger emerges from the stall, he panics, bleeds and dies. Shocked by the sudden death, the two flight attendants and a female air marshal try to bring calm after the rest of the passengers begin showing symptoms of illness.

More than midway into the flight, air traffic control loses contact with the plane, which is engulfed by a dense cloud filled with aliens who attack and possess human bodies. When the creatures attempt to enter the aircraft, a young man who is travelling with two friends takes hold of the exit door and tries to keep it closed. However, one of the aliens gets through the toilet and into the first-class lavatory, attacking and infecting a passenger who subsequently opens the door and gives way to the aliens.

As the creatures kill most of the passengers, Jeremy, the two flight attendants, the air marshal, a young couple and the girl take refuge in the cargo area. However, an alien uses Chloe's mother's voice to trick her into opening the door, killing her and all but Jeremy and one of the flight attendants. When the crewwoman parachutes off the plane, she is abducted by the aliens and killed. Meanwhile, Jeremy sees his deceased girlfriend's body, possessed by an alien, talking to him and trying to hug him. Jeremy escapes from the creature and returns to the passengers' area, seeing them all in their seats, staring at him in shock as he is bloodied and with a hammer in his hands.

The air marshal, presumably infected, tries to stop Jeremy from storming the cockpit. Aware that these are not humans, Jeremy makes his way through to the cabin and kills the pilots, barricading himself inside and plunging the aircraft nose down with the intent to crash it. As the plane heads down, the automatic landing system activates, and the aeroplane makes a safe landing. Meanwhile, a SWAT team storms the aircraft and quickly subdues and arrests Jeremy, who sees the passengers and crew evacuating with serious expressions on their faces. A voice-over speaking on behalf of the aliens says that they are doing that (hijacking planes and taking over human bodies) because they are preparing for a future takeover of Earth.