Airplane II: The Sequel

The beginning of this movie finds Ted Striker (Hays), who had previously landed a passenger airplane over Chicago with no crew, in a mental hospital, and Elaine Dickinson (Hagerty), a computer officer on the lunar flight and Striker's one true love, engaged to one of the flight crew, Simon Kurtz (Everett). However, unknown to Elaine, most of the other crew, and the passengers, a flaw exists in the space shuttle's design that had caused it to crash during a test flight that Ted had piloted. After the test pilot, Ted was declared mentally incompetent as a result of a lawsuit where others framed Ted to cover up the shuttle's flaw, citing Ted's tendency to "fold under pressure." Upon reading news of the space shuttle's launch, Ted escapes from the hospital and buys a ticket for the lunar flight.

Elaine, of course, does not approve of Ted running out of the hospital and thinks that part of the reason he escaped was to stop her marriage to Simon. Elaine, like most people, thinks Ted really is crazy. Ted even begins to believe he is crazy himself, but he is proven right about the shuttle when its computer short circuits and develops a mind of its own. The shuttle changes course to the sun, and it appears to have a very effective fail-safe device; two crew members are sucked into space trying to reprogram it; the shuttle's captain is gassed when he tries to reprogram it. Simon gives up hope and leaves the ship through its only escape pod, which causes Elaine to renounce her love for him. It is up to Ted, once again, to save the day and win Elaine back, only this time, it appears even he may not be able to avert doom, as he must first figure out how to deactivate the seemingly impenetrable computer!