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Of course, the key question is do the jokes work? And the answer is yes, even without Robert Stack or Leslie Nielsen on hand to once again deliver deadpan subversions of most of their straight roles, there are more than enough loonies to go around to keep a straight face while exhibiting ridiculous behavior. Attention must be given to the performances of two actors in general for raising the bar on what could have been an entirely lackluster go-around and for a more general mean-spiritedness on Finkleman’s part, which keeps things more interesting than they have a right to be.

Robert Hays’ performance in the lead role of Ted Striker possibly didn’t do as much for him as for the likes of Stack, Nielsen, Raymond Burr, Peter Graves, and Chuck Connors, precisely because they had a longer history behind them from which to draw a contrast. (I have seen very little of his post –Airplane!/II output though he has worked consistently in movies, television, and cartoon voiceover over the last three decades.) It may also be because if there is any center to the hurricane of insanity in the Airplane! films, it is Striker.

He is the ZAZ universe’s idea of a straight man: part oblivious, part insightful, heroically stupid and stupidly heroic, all at the same time. In what might be an archetypal role for him, Hays makes for one of the more unusual leading men of the ‘80s: attractive (I would say), and yet not sexual or threateningly masculine in the least. (Almost by default, co-star/romantic interest Julie Hagerty seems the more masculine of the two.) Still in his early 30s at the time, he has the soft features of a boy band idol who unexpectedly aged overnight. He keeps one’s interest actually rooted in the nonsensical plot, and manages to sustain his “drinking problem” gag from the first, repeating it at least half a dozen times. (ZAZ would push this character type even further with the casting of Val Kilmer in his acting debut as teenybopper singing megastar Nick Rivers in the subsequent Top Secret!)

1982 was a great year for William Shatner from a career standpoint: the hit summer film Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan was preceded by the launch of T.J. Hooker (to run for four years) in March on ABC and he capped it all with a breathlessly hysterical performance as Buck Murdock in Airplane II. Shatner only shows up in the final 20 minutes playing a counterpart on the moon to Bridges’ control room role back on Earth, but he grabs up all of the late laughs in the film. Having not followed his post-Star Trek ‘70s television work (and occasional feature film), I cannot vouch for whether this represents any kind of sea change from earlier performances, but he comes off as ruthless in his self-mockery, at one point delivering an extended rant on “blinking lights” that sounds like a Captain’s Log as rendered by a madman. It’s a terrific comic performance.

As I have stressed, a lot of Finkleman’s script recycles gags and situations from the first film. It is a credit, then, to the strength of the ZAZ team that the jokes hold up, even in the wake of three decades of lame spoof wannabes, and perhaps to the fact that I hadn’t seen Airplane II a million times. But I credit him for the ridiculous plot and the very funny first act setup, which features one of the best uses of gratuitous breasts ever, two chuckle-worthy gags involving dogs, a mental hospital escape that evokes (for me anyway) the cover of Band on the Run, and Rip Torn back when he had a full head (and face) of hair. Later on, he manages to make winking nods to Star Trek, Star Wars, Mission: Impossible, and 2001 (he is the voice of the HAL-esque computer that goes haywire).

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