“‘Hey that’s my seat man,’ I said. A quick drawn ‘fuck you its mine now’ was the response as I sat down next to him mumbling ‘charming’.” That’s pretty much how movie producer Cassian Elwes’s cross-country flight started when he found an unruly ex-marine in his seat, and it was all uphill from there.

Elwes, a British filmmaker, boarded the last flight from New York to Los Angeles, JetBlue flight 677, and headed to his seat – a specifically booked window seat. Upon arrival, he found a 32-year-old, ex-marine identified only as “Marco” in his seat, unwilling to move. After a short while, a Japanese couple who have one seat behind Elwes, and one next to him, ask if he’d be willing to swap so that they can sit next to one another. He obliges. From his spot in the row behind Marco he still has an eye on what’s happening, and sees how events go from strange to bizarre, and everywhere else in between. After the flight, Elwes took to Twitter to recount events as they took place. We join the action about an hour into the flight.

Things continue in that fashion until Elwes decides to intervene and attempts to engage Marco in conversation and talk him down.

They chat for a while, Marco telling him about Queens and showing off his collection of tattoos. As the plane begins its descent, the Air Marshall informs Elwes that Marco will be taken into custody while the airplane taxis. Without giving anything away, Elwes asks for Marco’s email address so that they can stay in touch. Marco repeatedly pleads for him not to forget him.

After police had taken Marco away, and the flight departs again for its original destination, Elwes considers the entire ordeal and wonders what he can take from it and what the rest of us can learn from it.

You can read all his Tweets here.

[Source: BuzzFeed, Daily Mail]