影片由一个噩梦开始，一个机毁人亡的噩梦，萨利突然惊醒，幸好只是一个噩梦。

四十二年的飞行人生，一辈子都在飞，几十年如一日的认真与坚持使他在意外的突发状况中准确果断地采取措施，最大程度降低风险。在飞机故障的整个过程中，萨利机长一直保持冷静 理智 果断，和副机长的沉着配合，创救了此次事故。
在疏散乘客时，他蹚着没过膝盖的冰冷河水走到机舱的尾部逐个检查，确保没有任何人落下，才撤退，在大家被救上岸后，他一直在反复确认乘客人数，直到确认到包括机组在内的155名人员平安才安心。这是他始终贯彻的责任感，即便他也刚刚经历了这场浩劫。
这一次近乎完美的事故挽救 成就了他，使他成为了受人尊敬的机长。在带来荣誉赞美的同时他也遭受了安全委员会的质疑。数据分析和模拟驾驶的种种数据显示萨利机长将飞机迫降哈德逊河河面的举措不合理，这意味着萨利近四十年的职业生涯或将毁于一旦。这些质疑并非没有道理，但他们却忽略了一个重要因素，人性，人的反应，人的判断，人的情感是难以用数据衡量的，在危机时刻，有限的时间里，排查故障，计算可行性，在生死攸关的几十秒里冷静客观的做出选择。
模拟驾驶的成功着陆是在飞行员反复练习了17次后才做到的，且他们是按照既定的指令操作，丝毫没有考虑任何在事故发生时的人性因素，当重新将人的因素考虑进去设置模拟情境后，模拟飞行无一成功着陆，皆以坠机或撞机结束。可是事故发生时，萨利机长在两个引擎同时熄火，飞机完全失去动力的状况下，他只有一次机会，稍有差池就是全员丧命。他几十年的飞行经验，在争分夺秒的生死时刻明智冷静果断地处理为所有人赢得了生还得奇迹，将飞机成功迫降在哈德逊河河面并确保了所有人的平安。
调查最后也证明了机长的决定是完全正确的，‘如果不考虑你，一切都不成立，因为你，才有了这次奇迹’ ，萨利和机组人员得到了应有的肯定和尊重，

‘任何事情都史无前例，直到第一次发生’
萨利和副机长杰夫再次回述后坚定的说‘我们克尽了职责’
印象很深的一段对话，
--can we get serious now?
--Captain?
--we’ve all heard about the computer simulations and now we are watching actual sims. But I can’t quite believe you still have not taken into account the human factor.
--- Human piloted simulations showed that you could make it back to the airport.
---No, they don’t. These pilots were not behaving like human beings. Like people who are experiencing this for the first time.
---Well, they may not be reacting like you did.
---Immediately after the bird strike they are turning back for the airport. Just as in the computer sims, correct?
---That is correct.
---They obviously knew the turn and exactly what heading to fly. They did not run a check. They did not switch on the APU.
---They had all the same parameters that you faced.
---No one warned us. No one said, you are going to lose both engines at a lower altitude than any jet in history, But be cool. Just make a left turn for LaGuardia Like you’re going back to pick up the milk. This was dual engine loss at 2800 feet followed by an immediate water landing with 155 souls onboard. No one has ever trained for an incident like that. No one.
The Teterboro landing, with its unrealistic bank angle, we were not the Thunderbirds up there. I like to know how many times the pilot practiced that maneuver before he actually pulled it off. I’m not questioning the pilots. They’re good pilots. But they’ve clearly been instructed to head for the airport immediately after bird strike. You’ve allowed no time for analysis or decision-making. In these simulations, you’ve taken all of the humanity out of the coming. How much time did the pilots spend planning for this event? For these simulations?
You are looking for human error. Then make it human.
---This wasn’t a video game. It was life and death.
---Please ask how many practice runs they had.
---Seventeen. The pilot who landed at Teterboro had 17 practice attempts before the simulation we just witnessed.

‘155 is a number, but when you can put faces to it and not just 155 faces, but the other faces, the wives, the daughters, the sons, the fathers, the mothers, the brothers, it gets to be a pretty big number pretty quickly.’

电影整体简约又深刻，节奏紧凑但给人一种不矛盾的稳重感，点到即止的特效和煽情，整个过程很节制很克制，一种沉稳。平淡叙述却有直击灵魂的效果。
结尾处所有幸存者报自己的座位号，机长和大家相聚在一起的时刻，他们共同经历了生命的不平凡。

注：影片根据2009年1月15日1549号航班真实事件改编而来。最终机上共155人全部生还。该事件也被称为‘哈德逊奇迹’