Buddy Amaral (Affleck) is an ad-man who, while waiting for his flight to meet with a client, meets a laid back family man, Greg (Goldwyn) awaiting another flight home to his family. When Buddy encounters a beautiful woman, Mimi Pager (Henstridge), and becomes enamored with her, he arranges to swap tickets and flights with Greg so that Greg gets home early and Buddy can have extra time with his new lady friend, figuring he's doing a good thing while serving his own needs. Buddy's "good deed" backfires horribly when the flight he bumped Greg to crashes, and Greg dies. Buddy is so guilt ridden over this that he eventually collapses into alcoholism. Sometime later Buddy re-emerges from rehab but guilt still haunts him, so in an attempt to redeem himself he tracks down Greg's widow, Abby, (Paltrow) and tries to help her and her children any way that he can, even though he does not tell her it was his fault her husband died. Things become complicated when the guilt-ridden ad-man and lonely widow fall in love.Buddy keeps quiet about how he met Greg at the airport and how he gave him his own ticket. But one day Mimi Pager suddenly shows up at Abby's doorstep with a video tape of her, Buddy and Greg at the airport. When she realizes the role Buddy has played, she breaks up with him. The families of the passengers on the crashed jet have taken the airline to court and Buddy must appear as a witness. At the stand he takes the opportunity to explain about the guilt he has felt ever since the crash. Abby watches the court proceedings on TV and decides that she can forgive him.
Who takes the airline to court?
families of the passengers