Plot

A firefighter, injured and trapped in a burning building, has flashbacks of his life as he drifts in and out of consciousness. Meanwhile, fellow firefighters led by the Chief attempt to rescue him.

Under the watchful eye of his mentor Captain Mike Kennedy, probationary firefighter Jack Morrison matures into a seasoned veteran at a Baltimore fire station. Jack has reached a crossroads, however, as the sacrifices he's made have put him in harm's way innumerable times and significantly impacted his relationship with his wife and kids. Responding to the worst blaze in his career, he becomes trapped inside a 20-story building. And as he reflects on his life, now Deputy Chief Kennedy frantically coordinates the effort to save him.

Jack Morrison (Joaquin Phoenix), a firefighter on location at a 20-story building on fire. He is with three other firefighters on the 12th floor of the building searching for two guys they heard were still inside. They find one and two of the firemen take him out while Jack and another stay to look for the other guy.

Jack finds the guy laying on the floor and just then hears explosions going off and blocking his path out. He goes to the window and ties the guy to ropes and harnesses. Meanwhile, the firefighters down below are preparing the truck to lift up the bucket to get the guy. The bucket doesn't quite reach so Jack has to get him to lower himself down while Jack holds the ropes. To ease him Jack gives him his oxygen mask to breathe into and talks to him to gain his trust. The guy gets in the bucket OK and just then a large explosion goes off right behind Jack causing the area he's standing in to collapse and he falls through, still inside the burning building.

He is laying on the ground bleeding & starts to flashback to when he first started as a firefighter, walking into the station, Ladder 49 and he meets all the guys including his chief, Mike Kennedy (John Travolta). The station seems a little laid back all the guys play jokes on each other, and Mike is an easy-going guy. Being "The Rookie" Jack has to do all the work and he hasn't been in any real fire situations for a while.

One day they're playing cards, talking and the alarm goes off; it's a town-home on fire. Mike is right behind Jack coaching him on what to do. Jack is the guy that holds the hose and points it at the fires. He's learning while hosing this fire and is able to put it out before the structure is ruined. Jack dates Linda (Jacinda Barrett), whom he picked up at a grocery store while he was with the other guys.

They go out to dinner later that night and he really likes her but he's a shy guy. They date. Next they show them getting married and all the guys at the wedding singing on stage. The next scene is at a bar celebrating St. Patrick's Day. The guy that was with Jack at the grocery store when they met is Jack's best friend in the movie along with his brother who also works at the station. Next Linda is pregnant.

They next show where they are at this old apt bldg. and it's on fire and there are a team of firefighters on the roof poking the rooftop to make sure where they are stepping isn't soft by the fire. A firefighter talks to Jack's brother Nicky about how the building should just burn when all of a sudden, he looks at the brother and then falls into the blazing fire & dies.

The chief, Mike goes into the red firefighter car with a priest and Nicky to talk to the mother. While they are gone Jack and three other guys are sitting at a table sad and talking about the guy that just died and one guy Lenny, the kind of prick of the station (Robert Patrick) is saying that the guy wasn't paying attention to what he was doing, and they start to fight. Just then Mike comes in and breaks it up yelling.

We see them all at the funeral and Jack's wife still pregnant is looking around at the family the firefighter left behind and his young children and she starts to worry. Meanwhile Jack is very sullen all the time and on edge because his best friend died, he decides to take over his best friends spot as "search and rescue" instead of a being the water sprayer. Linda is upset because it is potentially more dangerous than being behind the water hose.

The very next day Jack has to rescue a person from the burning building & the whole thing is being televised. Linda gets to see how Jack almost lost his life when a man inside the building jumped on Jack in a hurry to escape the inferno. They later show him at his daughter's birthday party. The chief and everyone are there. The chief is very close to the family and the kids.

The next day or so they are in a warehouse fire searching for victims when they decide to evacuate. Just then Jack's friend Morris Chestnut is shot with hot steam and his skin on his face is melted off. He's in the hospital when Jack goes to visit him and is upset and afraid to see his children because of what they might think of him now with no skin. The chief is about to move to a desk job as the Fire Marshall at the headquarters and he offers Jack a job working with him and tells him there's nothing wrong with moving on and that he knows its hard to see friends get hurt or die and maybe he should think about his children.

While Jack is contemplating this, he has to work Christmas and goes to a fire where there is a girl missing from the top floor apartment. He finds the girl and he and Lenny save her and later get Medals of Honor, and he realizes that these types of things he goes through are worth the heartache. This is when we get up to the point of the fire that he is stuck in at the beginning of the movie. He is still laying there hurt and the Fire Marshal Mike) comes on the scene to take command. It's a huge fire and almost all the units in the city are there.

He radios Jack and tells him that on the other side of the wall he's in is a control room. If he can somehow get in there, the fire fighters can meet him. They are on the other side of the door and are sawing through metal and debris to get to the door that leads to the control room. They finally get through to the door as Jack makes it to the room. When the firefighters open the huge metal door all this fire starts coming out. They close it quickly as Jack stands up inside the room and sees it completely ablaze in fire. He knows now there is no way the firefighters can get to him and that it's far to risky for them to even try. Mike asks him what he sees, and Jack tells him to pull back everyone out of the building. Mike lets out a sigh of guilt that he cannot do anymore to save his friend. Jack tells him to tell his wife and kids he loves them and will always be with them.

We then see Mike and the priest get out of the red car and Linda sees through the window and she knows what happened. At the funeral where Mike is talking about the life of Jack and how he saved so many people and he was one of the most courageous firefighters he's ever known, and they show all the firefighters walking the street behind his casket.