Still haunted by that fateful wartime incident and the nearly catastrophic events of Airplane! (1980), Ted Striker, the ex-fighter pilot who hates flying, escapes from the mental asylum. But as the first passenger space shuttle, the state-of-the-art but untested Mayflower One, is about to take off on its maiden flight, once more, an unforeseen malfunction forces Ted to take over the controls of the shuttle. Now, the traumatized commander is holding everyone's lives in his hands, and as if that weren't enough, Striker has to patch up his already complicated relationship with his engaged former lover, Elaine Dickinson, and confront an unhinged voyager bent on destruction. Can Ted Striker, the reluctant hero, save the day for the second time?—Nick Riganas