A transport takes Air Force pilot Jim Darcy up in his experimental X-15 jet craft. At the Palmville Flight Test Center below, Jim's wife Linda and daughter Janie arrive. Linda presents her pass and the gate sentry lets her by, and she drops Jamie off at the base's day nursery. As the matron leaves the children to get some ice cream, Linda drives out to the desert to watch the X-15 flight.
At flight control, General Baldwin warns Jim over the radio that he's drifting. Jim takes the X-15 up into the stratosphere and accelerates to Mach 6.
Janie rides her tricycle out of the nursery and into the street. Nearby, a driver parks his truck.
Jim reaches test velocity and Baldwin tells him not to try and ride it out if the plane starts vibrating. They begin the test and Jim performs his designated maneuvers. The X-15 shakes and plummets out of control, and Linda sees the jet plummet toward the desert. It hits the ground and skids, and Linda's car goes off the road while she's distracted.
When he climbs out of the wreck, Jim sees two soldiers nearby watching the sky. They're frozen in motion and don't respond when Jim calls to them. Jim looks up and sees the X-15 in the sky, frozen in place. Nearby animals are also frozen, and Jim sees Linda nearby in her wrecked car. Jim runs over and sees a second identical car on the road. When Linda wakes up, she says that she swerved when she saw the X-15 coming down. Linda sees what Jim sees, and they both notice the second car.
The Darcys check the frozen soldiers and find a third man, a technician, similarly frozen. None of the equipment moves, and Linda points out that she can see "Jim" in the plane frozen in the sky. She panics and Jim slaps her to bring her to her senses. Jim insists that they must be alive and assures her that they'll figure out what's going.
The couple go to the X-15 on the ground and Jim realizes that they and their smashed vehicles aren't frozen, but everything else is. Neither of them remember their respective moments of impact, and they go to flight control to find answers. The base and its personnel are similarly frozen, and they go to the nursery. Janie isn't there, and the Darcys spot her frozen in the street, the matron frozen as she moves to the girl. The couple then go into test control... and behind them a warning light strobes very slowly.
Inside, the Darcys find Baldwin and the others similarly frozen. The countdown sign is frozen at plus three seconds, and Jim figures that when he performed the maneuver at zero, he upset the balance of time and "skidded" into their current limbo state. Linda wonders why she's there with him, and Jim suggests when he broke the time barrier, there was a shock wave and her car was pushed along with it.
A negative-image Limbo Being enters test control but cowers back when Jim holds up his cigarette lighter. It runs off and the Darcys go the opposite direction. When they get outside, Jim sees the slowly strobing light but Linda runs back to Janie. When she gets there, Linda apologizes for panicking and tells Janie that she hopes her daughter can tell she's there and she loves her. Linda realizes that Janie has moved slightly since the last time they saw her, and Jim realizes the world is moving forward in slow motion, becoming resynchronized. He figures the Limbo Being can't hurt them, and discovers that his lighter has stopped working. Linda says that she'll stay there with Janie while Jim goes to the car to get flares, but he refuses to leave her there.
As they talk, Jim notices the nearby truck. He looks into the cabin and realizes that the speedometer shows the truck is moving, but can't shift the brake lever. The Darcys realize that Janie is moving into the truck's path, and Jim figures that there's nothing they can do.
The Darcys run back to the car and realize everything has moved forward slightly as time catches up with them. Linda gets the flares while Jim confirms the plane's instruments are frozen at plus ten seconds and haven't moved. The couple's watches haven't moved, and Jim figures that if they can get back in sync with time before the crash, they can save Janie. Linda tells him that it's too late, and wonders how he's going to light the flares.
Back at the base, Jim finds Linda's discarded purse and takes a book of matches out of it. The counter has moved backward five seconds, and Jim figures that ten seconds elapsed between when the X-15 dived and when it hit the ground. There are two seconds left, which is approximately two hours in their time. The Limbo Being appears again and approaches them, but flinches back when the Darcys light one of the flares.
Jim threatens to throw the flare at the Limbo Being if he doesn't talk, and the Being says that he is what they are and what they will become if they don't return to normal time at the moment of resynchronization. What happened to them happened to him, but he didn't get back. When time catches up to them, there will be space for two lives to escape if two lives become trapped, and the Being figures he can escape when the Darcys are trapped. They have to be where they were when they were thrust through the rift, and Jim vows that they'll be there.
The Darcys leave the building and Jim puts the flare in the doorway to keep the Being from following them. Janie and the truck have moved closer together, and Jim figures the truck will hit Janie in one hour of their time. Linda insists that they can't let it happen, and Jim figures there's something in the plane he can use. His wife realizes that he'll give up his own life and remain trapped in Limbo to save Janie, and Jim asks her to trust him and takes her back to the car.
At the crashed car, Jim cuts out a seat belt with a shard of metal from the X-15. He tells Linda to stay in the car while he goes back to the truck, and assures her that everything will be all right. They kiss and Jim goes back to the truck. He uses the seat belts to tie the brake lever to a front wheel, and then goes back to the X-15. The Darcys assume their positions at the moment of their crashes, and time catches up to them.
Jim reaches test velocity and Baldwin tells him not to try and ride it out if the plane starts vibrating. They begin the test and Jim performs his designated maneuvers. The X-15 shakes and plummets out of control, and Linda sees the jet plummet toward the desert. It hits the ground and skids, and Linda's car goes off the road while she's distracted.
The turning wheel tightens the strap, pulling the brake lever and stopping the truck before it can hit Janie.
The Air Force men confirm that Jim is okay and put out the fire in the engine. Jim goes to Linda and makes sure that she's alive, and neither of them remember what happened. Linda has a premonition that something is happening at the base and they drive back in a borrowed jeep. The couple confirms that Janie is okay and Linda cries in relief. Jim wonders why she was in a hurry to get back, and Linda asks him why he agreed so quickly. They both admit that they had premonitions, and leave with Janie.
Written by Gadfly on Oct 19, 2019