Airplane II: The Sequel.

Mayflower One's maiden flight may be in a little trouble...

Release Date: Dec. 10, 1982. Running Time: 85 minutes. Screenplay: Ken Finkleman. Producer: Howard W. Koch. Director: Ken Finkleman.


THE PLOT:

It is "The Future!", and the Mayflower One - the first passenger shuttle to the moon - is about to launch, under the command of Captain Clarence Oveur (Peter Graves). There are rumblings among the ground crew that the launch has been rushed, but only one man attempted to go public. That man was Ted Striker (Robert Hays), the head test pilot, who insisted the shuttle had serious issues - but who was declared insane for his efforts.

When Striker learns that the flight is launching, he escapes from the asylum and purchases a ticket. His ex-girlfriend, Elaine (Julie Hagerty), is certain that the problems are all in Ted's mind. Until the computer goes haywire, neutralizing the flight crew and setting the shuttle on a direct course for the sun... leaving Ted the only man with any chance of saving the lives of everyone aboard. Again!

Captain Oveur (Peter Graves) gets a bit
too friendly with young Jimmy.

CHARACTERS:

Striker: "I'm not your problem this time - The computer is!" One thing the sequel gets right is that Striker has progressed from his state in the first film. Sure, we repeat the gags about him talking people to death via flashbacks and there's a brief return of his peculiar "drinking problem." For the most part, though, this film presents a more confident Striker, more ready to take control and to commit to action. Robert Hays seems to respond to this characterization; though the film isn't remotely as good as the original, Hays' performance is actually stronger.

Elaine: So let me get this straight. In the original film, she dumped Ted for his various problems, only to go back to him after he saved the flight. As this film opens, she dumps him again... and to make it worse, she does so because he's been set up as unstable, and then moves on to one of the men framing him! Yes, early 1980s Julie Hagerty is gorgeous, but at this point I honestly think Ted should stop trying to win her back and instead search for a partner who can be supportive outside of life-or-death situations.

The Ground Crew: Lloyd Bridges and Stephen Strucker reprise their roles as substance abusing ground controller McCroskey and the campy controller Jacobs. Both are basically repeating their gags from the original, but they are still amusing. Robert Stack does not return - but in his place we get William Shatner in full self-parody as Buck Murdock, veteran of Striker's ill-fated mission over Macho Grande ("I don't think I'll ever get over Macho Grande"). Shatner doesn't so much chomp scenery as obliterate it in the style of the Tasmanian Devil, barking incoherent orders with the self-confidence shared by born leaders and idiots... with a growing sense that Murdock falls into the latter category.

The Flight Crew: Peter Graves returns as the ship's captain. He's in less of this film, and most of his bits are just repeating the "Oveur/Dunn" and pedophile jokes from the earlier film. As with other repeated jokes, they aren't quite as funny the second time around, though Graves' granite deliveries can't help but raise a smile. His most memorable scene comes at about the one-third mark, when he attempts to disconnect the maverick computer... while the Mission: Impossible theme plays, though ultimately Captain Oveur is no Jim Phelps. The other crew members, played by Kent McCord and James A. Watson Jr., are essentially spare parts, though they exit the film in a genuinely funny visual gag.

Warp Speed causes temporary metabolic changes...

THOUGHTS:

The runaway success of Airplane! made a sequel inevitable. When original filmmakers Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker, and David Zucker decided not to return, instead focusing on their short-lived TV series Police Squad!, Paramount moved forward without them. The resulting film was generally poorly received, and plans for a third entry in the series were permanently shelved.

For all of that, I rather like Airplane II. No, it's not as good as the original, but it's vastly better than many later spoofs would be.

The film is at its weakest when it falls back on rehashing gags from the original - something it does far too often. Ted tells stories of his past to unwilling passengers. McCroskey smokes and drinks until he's rendered useless. In a single, five-minute stretch, the film delivers three variations of the first film's, "What's that? It's a large building with patients, but that's not important now" gag - and not a single one of these variations manages to be even a little bit funny.

When it actually invents new gags, though, it delivers some genuinely inventive moments. A Star Wars-like opening crawl (set to the Battlestar Galactica theme) quickly detours from exposition to soft core erotica. The ship going "Warp O.5" results in "metabolic changes" - resulting in all of the passengers temporarily transforming into Richard Nixon. As Striker and Elaine assess the situation in the cockpit, the Grim Reaper appears behind them. Not to mention a space waltz, an unexpected rendition of "The Love Boat," and pretty much every second of William Shatner's screen time.

In the end, Airplane II suffered a less-than-perfect landing.

OVERALL:

Airplane II: The Sequel may not be the classic its predecessor was, but it's still more enjoyable than its reputation suggests. It rehashes too many of the first film's gags, generally to diminished effect. But when it strikes out on its own, it delivers some fun moments; and as with original, it benefits from strong performances.

It's unquestionably worse than the first film, and it was a wise choice to stop the series here. That said, time has been far kinder to this sequel than its dismal reputation would indicate.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Preceded by: Airplane!



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