Flight of the Phoenix is a 2004 remake of a 1965 film, both based on the book of the same name. The film opened in the US on December 17.

Plot

When an Amacor oil rig in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia proves unproductive, Captain Frank Towns (Quaid) and copilot "A.J." (Gibson) are sent to shut the operation down. However, on their way to Beijing, a major dust storm forces them to ditch their C-119 Flying Boxcar in an uncharted area of the desert. Their cargo consists of used parts and tools from the rig, the rig's crew, and Elliot (Ribisi), a lone drifter. On the way down, the plane is damaged beyond repair, one crew member, Kyle, falls to his death out the aircraft's damaged cargo hatch, and two others, Dr. Gerber (Ditchfield) and Newman (Hindy), die from trauma inflicted by turbulence and impact.

When the storm ends and the dust settles, it becomes apparent that they are 200 miles off course with only one month's worth of water available. Davis (Padalecki) goes out and gets lost, dies and is not found by his crew. When the rest of the group realizes that he has disappeared, they are shaken up by it and morale drops. When more decide to try leaving, Towns stops them and declares "no-one else dies." At first they decide, with the counsel of Captain Towns, to just sit and await rescue. However, after surveying the situation and realizing that their value to Amacor is less than they had originally believed, they reconsider and are pitched a radical idea by Elliot, who claims to be an aircraft designer: rebuild the remains of their C-119 into a new, functional plane. Towns initially refuses, which causes Liddle to wander off on his own out of protest. When the others attempt to go in search of him, Towns stops them and tries to make them stay put. Kelly then tosses his own words back at him, and he decides to find Liddle on his own. Taking only a small canteen of water, he sets off following the footsteps left in the sand. After a long while, with the desert taking its toll on him, he comes across a valley littered with fresh debris. This turns out to be cargo from the plane which had been dropped when the tail was cut open. Among the debris, he discovers the stripped body of Kyle, full of bullet wounds with shell casings clustered on the ground near him. At this point, Liddle appears to Towns and explains that someone had already been there and took the watch that Kyle won from him in a poker match.