At midnight on New Years Eve the S.S. Poseidon is struck by a 90′ tidal wave and is capsized. The Reverend Frank Scott leads nine Survivors; an elderly couple, Manny and Belle Rosen headed to Israel to see their grandson; A New York detective and his ex-prostitute wife, Mike and Linda Rogo on their second honeymoon to Italy; A young brother and sister, Robin and Susan Shelby going to meet their parents in Greece; A haberdasher James Martin; a pop singer Nonnie Parry, and a waiter from the ship Acres. They travel from the grand ballroom struggling through, steam, fire and rising water in the up-side-down ship to reach the bottom (the propeller shaft), now the top.

When Sean Jones witnesses a murder, he is asked to fly from Hawaii to Los Angeles to testify against the notorious gangster Eddie Kim. However, Kim has paid an assassin to release a crate-full of deadly snakes loose when the plane is 30,000 feet in the air. Only FBI agent Neville Flynn can protect Sean and rally the passengers together in hope of landing in L.A. alive.

Two directionless musicans, a Chicano guitarist (Cheech Marin) and a White drummer (Tommy Chong), meet up in a chance encounter and embark on a series of odd adventures, including being the unwitting partcipants of a bizarre marijuana smuggling plot.

Viktor Navorski, a man from an Eastern European country arrives in New York but after he left his country; war broke out and because of that Navorski is a man without a country that the U.S. cannot recognize, thus he is denied entrance to the U.S. However, he also can’t be deported so he is told by the Security Manager that he has to remain in the airport until his status can be fixed. And also Navorski doesn’t speak English well, so no one can talk to him and he can’t talk to anyone. But he somehow adapts and sets up residence in the airport, which makes the man who placed him there unhappy cause, it seems he is line for a promotion but Navroski’s presence might complicate that. So he tries to get Navorski to leave but Navorski remains where he is. Navorski makes friends with some of the people who work in the airport and is attracted to a flight attendant he runs into whenever she comes in.