Airplane II: The Sequel



The 1982 sequel to the classic comedy film Airplane!.

In this film, Ted Striker is brought back yet again and forced to pilot a prototype lunar shuttle that malfunctions and goes off course. Hilarity naturally ensues.

Without ZAZ at the helm and recycling much of the humor, it suffers from Sequelitis but is still a lot of fun for many viewers. Though the main joke is the title, there is no airplane in the film.

"Seluchi: DON'T SAY THAT WORD!"
 * Adam Westing: William Shatner.
 * A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Complete with Shout-Out to 2001: A Space Odyssey -- "What are you doing, Dave?"
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "That's why we're worried. This clown is impotent, suicidal, and incredibly stupid!"
 * Asteroid Thicket: Including a doughnut-shaped asteroid that the shuttle flies through.
 * Bad News, Irrelevant News: Played for laughs. While being told about what's wrong with the crew, the passengers don't panic until Elaine reveals they're also out of coffee.
 * Batman Can Breathe in Space: Apparently, the Moon has an atmosphere and normal Earth gravity. Who knew?
 * Berserk Button: Joe Seluchi and "impotent".

"Controller #1: They're screwed. Controller #2: They're dead. Johnny: Did I leave the iron on?"
 * Billions of Buttons: Again, a slow pan across an endless panorama of buttons, knobs and switches, only this time at Alpha Beta Base, which is Murdoch's Berserk Button.
 * They don't know what all those lights do either, they just keep blinking on and off.
 * The Cameo: Bob Costas, Pat Sajak, Jack Jones and Art Fleming.
 * Celebrity Paradox: When we see McCroskey in the Old Folk's Home (for senility), the nurse mentions that he "...thinks he's Lloyd Bridges."
 * He's hiding under his blankets with a snorkel sticking out of the top.
 * By this time, his lungs were aching for air.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Joe Seluchi's bomb.
 * Closest Thing We Got: Brought up, then intentionally subverted, as this time Striker does know exactly what he's doing, but it's the shuttle that's malfunctioning.
 * Continuity Nod: While talking to Buck Murdock on the radio, Ted says "Roger, Murdock". Roger Murdock was the character in Airplane! played by Kareem Abdul-Jabar. The scene even does a Beat so you don't miss it.
 * In the courtroom scene one of the jive talking passengers from the previous movie appears as a witness, as does the hysterical woman.
 * Conveniently Coherent Thoughts: Played for laughs. After the Mayflower space shuttle malfunctions, someone in the space traffic control room asks "What do your people think?" The audience is briefly granted the power of Telepathy so we can hear the controllers' thoughts.

"Woman: "I don't mean to sound forward. I mean, I know I don't know you, but I don't think we're going to live through this, and I've never been with a man before. I know this isn't the right place...""
 * Courtroom Antics: Both the prosecution and the defense during Ted Striker's trial.
 * Cow Tools: The machine in Alpha Beta Base.
 * Credits Gag: At the end, Joe Seluchi goes into the cockpit asking for his suitcase back.
 * Did Not Do the Research: The assumption that the moonscape would be a shirtsleeve environment with breathable atmosphere for the convenience of disembarking passengers.
 * Dirty Coward: Simon
 * Droste Image: McCroskey in front of the framed photograph of himself, which contains a framed photograph of himself, etc. Recycled almost verbatim from the first film.
 * Faster-Than-Light Travel: "Point Five Worp." Well, close enough. See Ludicrous Speed.
 * Flash Back: A woman is testifying in court and has flashbacks to when everyone lined up to slap her out of her hysterics in the first movie. This memory sends her into hysterics...
 * Funny Background Event: The drug deal gone bad in the flight control center, among others.
 * Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: see Flash Back above.
 * Glad I Thought of It: The, "No, why don't you take care of it," Running Gag.
 * Heroic Dog: Scraps, little Joey's dog, catches the suitcase with Joe Seluchi's bomb before it can hit the ground.
 * Hysterical Woman: Recycled almost verbatim from the first film. As she testifies in court about her first episode, she goes into a fresh bout of hysterics.
 * Inner Monologue: The flight controllers' opinions about the passengers' chance of survival. Parodied by Johnny's, "Did I leave the iron on?"
 * Is This Thing Still On?: Commander Buck Murdock of Alpha Beta Base on the Moon. He just... keeps... talking...
 * Ignored Expert: Striker's treated this way in the first half of the film, as his warnings about the shuttle's safety problems (based on being the test pilot) go unheeded.
 * Just Ignore It: Provides the page quote.
 * Kangaroo Court: Striker was transparently framed for the crash of the prototype lunar shuttle to cover up the faulty wiring.
 * Ludicrous Speed: Point Five Worp does some strange things to people.
 * Mile-High Club: A woman twice propositions men to have sex with her. The second time, we see a line of men waiting to take their turn... and later a donkey.

"McCroskey: "I want you to tell me everything that's happened up until now." Johnny: "Well, let's see. First the Earth cooled, and then the dinosaurs came. But they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil. And then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes-Benzes. And Prince Charles started wearing all of Lady Di's clothes. I couldn't believe it! He took her best summer dress and he put it on and went to town...""
 * Market-Based Title: known as Flying High II: The Sequel in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, and the Philippines
 * Mr. Exposition: Parodied. McCroskey tries to get Johnny to do this, to his regret.
 * My Friends and Zoidberg: The events of the previous movie put Striker in the papers, and the Canadian Jewish News.
 * Not Actually the Ultimate Question: Johnny's response to McCroskey's ill-advised inquiry.

"Oveur: "Damn, if I told them once, I've told them a hundred times -- load more coffee!!""
 * Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo
 * Overcrank: Parodied; when Joe Seluchi hurls the briefcase with the bomb into the air, its brief flight is shown in extreme slow motion, but during the scene one of the passengers, in normal time, checks his watch as if to wonder why everything's suddenly going so slowly.
 * Rant-Inducing Slight: When the passengers learn there's no more coffee.

"Passenger: "Stewardess, what exactly is a 'tad'?" Elaine: "In space terms, that's half a million miles.""
 * Recycled in Space
 * Ridiculous Future Sequelisation: As Joe Seluchi buys the bomb in the spaceport gift shop, a poster for "Rocky XXXVIII" is shown behind him.
 * Right on Queue: The Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! Flash Back, the Mile-High Club scene above, plus when the flight controllers beat up a radio.
 * Rousing Speech: Subverted. McCroskey tries giving one to Striker like in the previous film, only for Ted to point out that he's fine; it's the ship that's screwed up. Later, Buck Murdock tries it, but gets so involved in his own narrative that he's completely oblivious to the fact that Striker has already landed.
 * Running Gag:
 * "No, why don't you take care of it?"; "No, not a 'bu-', a bomb," and many more.
 * (Following Ethel Merman in the first film). "He thinks he's Lloyd Bridges..."
 * Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: It's a lunar shuttle. Going to the Moon. That goes off course, through the asteroid belt, on the way to the Sun. In a few hours. Riiiiiight...
 * It was just a tad off course.

"Airport officer 1: "We could get McCroskey." Airport officer 2: "I don't know. Ever since Reagan fired the controllers, he's been completely senile." Airport officer 1: "Yeah, but what about McCroskey?""
 * Shaped Like Itself: "I guess Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes."
 * Shout-Out
 * Guess what Shatner's character sees through the periscope?
 * When the shuttle takes off, the song playing is straight from the original Battlestar Galactica theme.
 * To Jeopardy!
 * R.O.K. is a direct parody of H.A.L. 9000.
 * Sleeping Dummy: Ted uses one when he escapes from the insane asylum.
 * Smoking Hot Sex: A woman and a donkey.
 * Somebody Else's Problem: The passengers are freakishly calm when told that they are off course and asteroids are smashing into the ship. The coffee shortage, though...
 * Space Friction: When the space shuttle is about to crash into the sun, Striker finally regains control of it and brakes it to a halt. It fishtails 180 degrees and you can hear tires skidding.
 * Spit Take: Ted Striker, after the psychiatrist tells him that Elaine is getting married.
 * Split Screen: Lampshaded when President Reagan is talking to the Commissioner.
 * Stock Sound Effects: When Elaine says, "sucked out," lightning flashes and thunder rolls. In space, mind you.
 * Take That:
 * A brilliant one at Ronald Reagan.

"FBI Man: "That's right. This clown is impotent, suicidal, and incredibly stupid.""
 * There's also one against Public Broadcasting: Two women discussing how the shuttle wouldn't have gotten into trouble in the first place if it had been piloted by vegetarian women instead of meat-eating men, while a third translates into sign language.
 * Terrorists Without a Cause: Joe Seluchi tries to blow up the shuttle so his family can receive his insurance money; it turns out it was an auto insurance policy, not a life insurance policy.

"Unger: "Dunn, weren't you under Oveur in the Air Force?" Oveur: "Dunn was over Unger, and I was over Dunn." (...) Witness: "But then, Striker said to go down into that fog, and our squadron went in too low." Prosecuting attorney: "And he went to pieces?" Witness: "Naw, Andy was a rock! Striker went to pieces.""
 * The suitcase with the bomb has stickers from touristy places like Dresden, Hiroshima, Iwo Jima...
 * There Will Be Toilet Paper: The man shaving himself in the shuttle bathroom... while it's crash landing.
 * This Is No Time to Panic: During a riot a sign flashes "DON'T PANIC", then changes to "OK, PANIC".
 * Values Dissonance: Parodied. At the "Ronald Reagan Hospital for the Mentally Insane," the sign reads "We Cure People the Old Fashioned Way". Cut to a bunch of orderlies beating a patient with slapjacks, while telling him "It's for your own good!"
 * Video Phone: Parodied. Someone on the moonbase turns on a screen and after some static and wavy lines appear is able to get through to Buck Murdock. There's a brief conversation, then Murdock opens the door in front of him to reveal that he was talking to the man through a window.
 * Visual Pun: Simon's turned to jelly!
 * Who's on First?: The pilots' names, and the courtroom testimony.


 * You Don't Want to Die a Virgin, Do You?: Inverted. A young woman claims to be a virgin (repeatedly) to seduce a long line of men apparently eager to relieve her of that problem.
 * You Look Familiar: Several passengers from the first movie return as different characters (with pretty much the same personalities).
 * Zeerust: Some of the technology displayed on this supposedly-futuristic lunar shuttle, such as the video displays, are analogue and primitive by modern standards.