An Arizona logger mysteriously disappears for five days in an alleged encounter with a flying saucer in 1975. His co-workers endure ridicule and contempt as they are wrongly accused of murder.
On the evening of November 5, 1975, a group of loggers saw a bright crimson light in a forest in White Mountains, Arizona. Curious, Travis Walton goes out for a closer look and is pushed to the ground by a blue-green energy beam. His co-workers escape in terror and they inform the police that Travis has been abducted by a flying saucer. For the next five days, Travis remains missing and the loggers endure ridicule and contempt as they are accused of murder. When he is found alive, Travis is unable to account the missing days, but the amazing ordeal slowly begins to emerge.
In 1975, a group of five men are driving home after working in a forest when they see a mysterious bluish-white light. Travis Walton (D. B. Sweeney) curiously leaves the truck to investigate the strange phenomenon -- the light captures him resulting in the beam teleporting him up into the flying saucer. The other four men report what had happen to their friend. Of course, no one believes them. The movie deals with the account of Travis Walton's ordeal and escape from what appears to be a hibernation chamber. Inside his small chamber, he is wrapped in a membrane. He frees himself only to find out there are many chambers with different specimens. Eventually, he is confronted by one of his small-statured captures who Travis punches in the face. After begin missing for five days, Travis is back on Earth. He manages to make his way to a phone booth to call his home. His friends arrive only to find a naked and scared Travis. The next few days, he is able to recollect the memories of his encounter aboard the spacecraft.—geginn
This film recreates the strange events which happened on November 5, 1975 in the small town Snowflake, Arizona. Travis Walton works as a logger under a government contract in the White Mountains. When he and his colleagues drive home after work, they encounter a flying saucer. Curious to learn more, Travis gets out of the truck and is struck by a beam of light from the object. For the next five days, Travis disappears without a trace and his colleagues are accused of murder. When he reappears, first he didn't remember that he was gone, but in time, the terrible memories come back.—Peter W. Simeon <[email protected]>
On November 5, 1975 in Snowflake, Arizona, logger Travis Walton (D.B. Sweeney), and his co-workers - Mike Rogers (Robert Patrick), Allan Dallis (Craig Sheffer), David Whitlock (Peter Berg), Greg Hayes (Henry Thomas) and Bobby Cogdill (Bradley Gregg) - head to work in the White Mountains.
Driving home from work, the loggers come across an unidentified flying object. Curious to learn more, Walton gets out of the truck and is struck by a beam of light from the object and is sent flying several feet backwards as if pushed by an unseen force. Fearing Walton has been killed, the others escape from the scene. Rogers decides to go back to the spot to retrieve Walton, but he is nowhere to be found. Making their way back to town to report the incident, the loggers are met with skepticism, as they relate what sounds like a tall tale to Sheriff Blake Davis (Noble Willingham) and Lieutenant Frank Watters (James Garner). They are suspected of foul play despite no apparent motive or knowledge of Walton's whereabouts.
After interviewing the loggers, Lieutenant Watters realize there is a great deal of tension between Walton and Dallis, leading him to believe this might be a murder investigation. The Lieutenant also discovers a tabloid newspaper in their truck with headlines about aliens, hinting that they used the article to concoct their story. The loggers are accused of murder and are threatened by Travis' brother Dan Walton (Scott MacDonald). The loggers are offered a lie detector test and take it. After the testing is complete, Rogers is outraged that the results are not shared and he and "his guys" refused to come back the next day to take it again. However, after the loggers leave, the man who administered the tests informs the Sheriff and the Lieutenant that with the exception of Dallis (which was inconclusive), the other loggers seem to be telling the truth.
Five days later, Rogers receives a phone call from someone claiming to be Walton. He is found at a Heber gas station, alive but naked, dehydrated and incoherent. A ufologist questions Walton but he is thrown out and Walton is taken to a hospital. Rogers visits Walton while in the emergency room and ends up informing Walton that he left him after he was struck by the beam of light but came back to get him. Walton appears enraged by this and turns away from Rogers who blames the whole incident on Walton for getting out of the truck. During a welcome home party, Walton suffers from a mental breakdown and flashback of the abduction by the extraterrestrials.
In his flashback, he awakens inside a slimy cocoon. Breaking out of its membrane, he finds himself in a zero-gravity environment inside a cylindrical enclosure whose walls contain other similar cocoons and he is horrified to discover by chance that one contains the decomposing remains of a human body. As he makes his way to a neighboring area featuring what appear to be several humanoid space suits, he is apprehended by two extraterrestrial creatures. He was unwillingly hauled down corridors full of terrestrial detritus such as shoes and keys before arriving in a bizarre examining room. The aliens strip him of his clothes and cover him with an elastic material that pins him painfully to a raised platform under an array of equipment and lights in the middle of the room. Despite Walton's terrified screams, the aliens pitilessly subject him to a traumatic, excruciating experiment in which a gelatinous substance is shoved into his mouth, his jaw is clamped open, a device is inserted into his neck and he is forced to endure an ocular probe while fully conscious during the experience. Afterwards, Walton loses consciousness until finding himself back to Earth, disoriented and severely traumatized.
After witnessing part of Walton's breakdown, Lieutenant Watters expressed his doubts about the abduction, dismissing this merely as a hoax. He notices Walton's newfound celebrity with care because of the tabloids' attempt to profit from his story. However, with the investigation closed, Watters is forced to abandon his pursuit and leaves town. The film culminates with a denouement between Walton and Rogers, both of whom struggled with trauma over the past. The film's closing titles inform that in 1993, the loggers were resubmitted to additional polygraph examinations, which they passed, corroborating their innocence.
