The rapture hasn't happened, it's an Alternate Universe version of The Langoliers with a more global impact.
- Comparison:
- Airplane where a lot of people disappear in flight: Check.
- (News) Writer on board plane: Check
- Lucky to have one pilot flying: Check
- Emergency landing low on fuel in the Northeast: Check
- Business man on his way to an important meeting: Check
- Psycho with family issues threatens plane group with a gun: Check
- In the last shot, with New York city in flames, is the chaos as the unseen the Langoliers are eating everyone. Plane group is DOOMED.
- This actually fits really well, because there is no proof of heavenly intervention in the film (There's no mention of the Antichrist, etc), it's just characters assuming it's the rapture.
The "Christian" at the beginning of the movie who accosts Buck isn't one of the elect.
She's hardly a paragon of Jesus's message of peace and love the way she treats Buck. A few hours later she is just as perplexed as the rest of the world.