The Mountain Between Us

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and child abuse.

Ben Payne sits in the crashed plane recording a message. The pilot, Grover, is dead in the cockpit. The windshield of the plane is shattered, and Ben smells gasoline.

A dog enters the cockpit, freezing in the cold. It huddles up against Ben. He recalls that a woman was also on the plane. He checks on her and finds that she’s still alive, though unconscious, and that her leg is badly broken.

Ben apologizes to Rachel. He tells her that she was right. He was “angry” and “never should’ve said” what he said (3).

Ben sits in the terminal of the Salt Lake City Airport. He’s a surgeon who mainly operates on children with sports injuries. He’s returning from a medical conference in Colorado to Florida, where he lives with his wife, Rachel.

As Ben uses a recorder to dictate notes about his patients, a woman named Ashley Knox comes and sits near him. She asks him about his work and then explains that she’s a magazine columnist. It’s the night before her wedding rehearsal dinner, but given the snowstorm, she isn’t sure if she’ll make it back in time.