On November 5, 1975, in
Snowflake, Arizona,
logger Travis Walton, and his five co-workers—Mike Rogers, Allan Dallis, David Whitlock, Greg Hayes and Bobby Cogdill—head to work in the
White Mountains. Driving back towards town that night, the loggers see unearthly red light in the distance through the treeline. Investigating, they encounter an
unidentified flying object. Curious, Walton gets out of the truck to examine more closely, but is struck by a bright beam of light and is thrown several feet backwards. Fearing Walton has been killed, the terrified loggers flee. Rogers decides to go back to retrieve Walton, but he is nowhere to be found. In reporting the incident in town, the loggers are met with skepticism by investigators Sheriff Blake Davis and Lieutenant Frank Watters. Watters, learning that there was a great deal of tension between Dallis and Walton and that Dallis has a criminal record, suspects
foul play. That suspicion spreads in town and the loggers become social outcasts. After a large search party turns up no sign of Walton, the police offer the loggers the chance to take a
lie detector test. They take the test in the hopes of proving their innocence. Watters says that the tests were inconclusive and that they will have to return the next day to retake it. Rogers is outraged and angrily declines, the other loggers follow suit. The test's administrator reveals to Watters and Davis that, with the exception of Dallis (whose test results were inconclusive), the loggers seem to be telling the truth. Five days later, Rogers receives a call from someone claiming to be Walton. He is found at a
Heber gas station, alive but naked,
dehydrated and severely traumatized. A
ufologist questions Walton but is sent away and Walton is taken to a hospital. Rogers visits Walton while he's in the emergency room. He says that the team left but Rogers returned to try to retrieve Walton. Apparently enraged, Walton turns away from Rogers. He in turn chastises Walton for getting out of the truck in the first place. During a welcome home party, Walton suffers a mental breakdown and
flashback to the abduction by the extraterrestrials. In his flashback, he awakens inside a slimy cocoon. Breaking out of its membrane, a bewildered Walton finds himself adrift in a zero-gravity alien environment inside a cylindrical enclosure, whose walls contain other similar cocoons. Struggling in the low gravity, he accidentally breaches a nearby cocoon, horrified to discover that it contains decomposing human remains. Exploring further, he drifts towards a neighbouring area, seeing several humanoid figures below him. Drifting uncontrollably towards them, he investigates, surmising that the immobile figures are spacesuits, one of which is still occupied by an extraterrestrial creature. Walton attempts to escape, but is apprehended by two aliens who drag him down corridors full of terrestrial detritus such as shoes and keys before arriving in an examination chamber. The aliens hold the struggling Walton to a platform in the centre of the chamber, stripping him of his clothes and covering him with an elastic material that completely restrains him. Despite Walton's terrified screams, the aliens clinically subject him to a torturous experiment in which a gelatinous substance is forced into his mouth, a tube is inserted down his throat, his jaw is locked open and a device is stabbed into his neck. Overhead equipment then begins lowering towards him. As a needle-like ocular probe extends towards his exposed eye, Walton suddenly reawakens from his flashback in a doctor's office. While interviewing Walton, Lieutenant Watters expresses his doubts about the abduction, dismissing it as a hoax. He notes that Walton's new celebrity status resulted from the tabloids' attempts to profit from his tale. He believes that Walton faked the abduction. Given that the investigation is officially closed, Watters is forced to abandon his pursuit and leaves town. Two and a half years later, Walton visits Rogers, now a hermit, and the two men reconcile. The closing titles inform that in 1993, Walton, Rogers, and Dallis were resubmitted to additional polygraph examinations, which they passed, apparently corroborating their innocence. ==Cast==