Neville Flynn is an FBI agent handling what seems like a routine assignment, serving as bodyguard for Sean Jones, a Hawaiian surfer dude who is flying to California to testify in a high-profile criminal trial after witnessing mobster Eddie Kim murdering one of his underlings. However, Eddie dispatches hundred of different species of snakes airborne with a time operated device in the luggage to release the snakes in the flight with the intent of crashing the plane. Neville and the passengers have to struggle with the snakes to survive.