- Witness: Striker was the squadron leader. He brought us in real low. But he couldn't handle it.
- Prosecutor: Buddy couldn't handle it? Was Buddy one of your crew?
- Witness: Right. Buddy was the bombardier. But it was Striker who couldn't handle it, and he went to pieces.
- Prosecutor: *Andy* went to pieces?
- Witness: No. Andy was the navigator. He was all right. Buddy went to pieces. It was awful how he came unglued.
- Prosecutor: *Howie* came unglued?
- Witness: Oh, no. Howie was a rock, the best tailgunner in the outfit. Buddy came unglued.
- Prosecutor: And he bailed out?
- Witness: No. Andy hung tough. Buddy bailed out. How he survived, it was a miracle.
- Prosecutor: Then Howie survived?
- Witness: No, 'fraid not. We lost Howie the next day.
- Steve McCroskey: Jacobs, I want to know absolutely everything that's happened up till now.
- Jacobs: 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, put it on and went to town.
- Prosecutor: Dr. Stone, would you give the court your impression of Mr. Striker?
- Dr. Stone: I'm sorry, I don't do impressions... my training is in psychiatry.
- Simon: Gentlemen, I'd like you to meet your captain, Captain Oveur.
- Capt. Oveur: Gentlemen, welcome aboard.
- Simon: Captain, your navigator, Mr. Unger, and your first officer, Mr. Dunn.
- Capt. Oveur: Unger.
- Unger: Oveur.
- Dunn: Oveur.
- Capt. Oveur: Dunn. Gentlemen, let's get to work.
- Simon: Unger, didn't you serve under Oveur in the Air Force?
- Unger: Not directly. Technically, Dunn was under Oveur and I was under Dunn.
- Dunn: Yep.
- Simon: So, Dunn, you were under Oveur and over Unger.
- Unger: Yep.
- Capt. Oveur: That's right. Dunn was over Unger and I was over Dunn.
- Unger: So, you see, both Dunn and I were under Oveur, even though I was under Dunn.
- Capt. Oveur: Dunn was over Unger, and I was over Dunn.
- Jimmy: Dad never slaps me around at home, must be his coffee.
- Jimmy's Mom: No, I've been serving him decaf. Maybe he's just an asshole.
- Steve McCroskey: Jacobs, what have you got on Elaine Dickinson?
- Jacobs: Well, I'm two inches taller, a better dancer, and much more fun to be with.
- Clerk: Do you swear on the Constitution of the United States to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
- Witness: Ain't no thing.
- [he slaps the clerk's book and the clerk uses his book to slap the witnesses hand as if "giving fives" to each other]
- Defense Attorney: [approaches the witness as he sits down in the witness stand] Would you describe, in your own words, what happened that night?
- Witness: Check it, bleed. Bro... was ON! Didn't trip. But the folks was freakin', Man. Hey, and the pilots were laid to the bone, Homes.
- [the stenographer wears sunglasses and sways back and forth as he types]
- Witness: So Blood hammered out and jammed jet ship. Tightened that bad sucker inside the runway like a mother. Shit.
- Buck Murdock: Oh, cut the bleeding heart crap, will ya? We've all got our switches, lights, and knobs to deal with, Striker. I mean, down here there are literally hundreds and thousands of blinking, beeping, and flashing lights, blinking and beeping and flashing - they're *flashing* and they're *beeping*. I can't stand it anymore! They're *blinking* and *beeping* and *flashing*! Why doesn't somebody pull the plug!
- Mary, Shuttle Stewardess: [Mary is walking down the aisle among passengers] When we're ready we would like to ask you to remove your eyeglasses and shoes and place your head between the knees.
- [She glances towards an attractive lady]
- Mary, Shuttle Stewardess: Between your own knees, Father.
- [Father O'Flannagan pulls his head up from the attractive lady's lap]
- Controller #3: Get me Steve McCroskey!
- Controller #2: Are you kidding? Ever since Reagan fired the air traffic controllers he's been completely senile!
- Controller #3: Yeah, but what about McCroskey?
- Controller #2: About the same as Reagan.
- Striker: [in the cockpit] I guess it's in God's hands now.
- Father O'Flanagan: [in cabin area] I'm Father O'Flanagan, and I am a man of God. Therefore you must trust me when I tell you that we're all likely going to die.
- First Woman in Line: Where is the passenger processing lounge for the lunar shuttle?
- Information Agent: Concourse lounge C, fourth level.
- First Woman in Line: Thank you.
- Information Agent: Next?
- Next Woman in Line: How long is my parking permit good for?
- Information Agent: Two hours.
- Next Woman in Line: Thank you.
- Information Agent: Yes, next?
- Next Man: What's the fastest animal on Earth?
- Information Agent: The cheetah. Next?
- Female Passenger #3: Should I fake my orgasms?
- Information Agent: Yes.
- Female Passenger #3: Thank you.
- Information Agent: Next?
- Simon: Just a few more hours and change 'til liftoff.
- Elaine Dickinson: I'm very excited, Simon.
- Simon: Guess this is a first for you, eh kid?
- Elaine Dickinson: No, I've been excited before.
- Steve McCroskey: Striker? Striker, Striker,
- [turns away from his control screen]
- Steve McCroskey: *Strike Her*!
- [a man behind McCroskey punches a woman]
- [the Wilson family arrives at the checkpoint]
- Porter: Can I help you folks?
- Alice Wilson, John Wilson: Oh, yes, thank you.
- Porter: Aw, is that your dog, son?
- [looking at Scraps, Jimmy's dog]
- Jimmy Wilson: Yes, his name is Scraps, and he's going to the moon with us.
- Porter: Oh no. No dogs are allowed in the shuttle son. I'm afraid Scraps will have to be shot.
- [pulls out a gun, shoots the dog and the dog falls to the floor]
- Jimmy Wilson: [shouts, bending towards his dog] Scraps! He shot him! He shot Scraps! He shot him!
- Porter: Just joking. Blanks, see? Scraps is fine.
- [Dog stands up]
- Porter, Alice Wilson, John Wilson: [laughing]
- Dunn: Uh, Captain, I'm picking up an overheat in the computer core.
- Capt. Oveur: How serious is it, Mr. Dunn?
- Dunn: Uh, I can't tell sir.
- Capt. Oveur: Well you can tell me - I'm the Captain.
- Elaine Dickinson: [speaking into handset] Hello, this is the Mayflower. Come in. Anyone?
- Steve McCroskey: Okay okay. Now we're making some headway.
- [responds into handset]
- Steve McCroskey: Yeah yeah, we read you Mayflower. Identify yourself.
- Elaine Dickinson: Well, this is Elaine Dickinson. I'm 5-foot-8, 123 pounds. I have, uh, brown hair, blue eyes. I enjoy surfing, backgammon and men who aren't afraid to cry.
- [last lines]
- The Bomber: I don't know if this is a good time to ask, but would it be possible for me to get my briefcase back?
- Jimmy: Can I ask you a question?
- Striker: What is it?
- Jimmy: It's an interrogative statement, used to test knowledge. But that's not important now, mister. Is my dog Scraps, is gonna make it through okay? I'm scared mister, somebody has to do something.
- Striker: Scraps, is going to be fine son. You'll both, be just fine.
- [Striker, puts Jimmy's face in the icing of the cake]
- Simon: Striker, listen to me. I don't want you to do this. They forced me to cut corners...
- Striker: Get outta my way!
- Simon: Help me, Striker for Christ -
- [Striker, slugs Simon in the face]
- Elaine Dickinson: Ted, I have the strangest feeling we've been through this exact same thing before.
- Mr. Hammen: And how about the time we hopped in the family car and drove all the way to Woodstock?
- Mrs. Hammen: Oh, that was a time. You got hold of that bad acid and didn't come down for two weeks, you kept telling everyone that you were Jesus Christ and then you jumped off a roof 'cause you thought you could fly!
- Mr. Hammen: What a bummer.
- Mrs. Hammen: No shit.
- Steve McCroskey: [speaking to the entire control room] Now listen to me and listen good. If you got any ideas, any ideas at all, now is the time. I want to hear them and I want to hear them now!
- Jacobs: How about a game show like Hollywood Squares but with kids? Gary Coleman could host.
- Simon: My God! The sun!
- Elaine Dickinson: What is it, Simon?
- Simon: A large, fiery ball at the center of our solar system, but that's not important now. We're headed right for it.
- Steve McCroskey: [after hearing Striker on the radio] A man - now that's more like it.
- [to the radio]
- Steve McCroskey: Come in Mayflower 1, give me your name and position.
- Striker: My name's Striker and I'm sitting down and facing front. Why would you want to know that?
- Jimmy Wilson: Can I ask you a question?
- Striker: What is it?
- Jimmy Wilson: It's an interrogative statement, used to test knowledge. But that's not important right now...
- Steve McCroskey: And I can sum it all up in just one word: courage, dedication, daring, pride, pluck, spirit, grit, mettle, and G-U-T-S, *guts*. Why, Ted Striker's got more guts in his little finger than most of us have in our large intestine, including the colon!
- ROC: Voice interface.
- Elaine Dickinson: There's an overheat in the core. Please analyze problem.
- ROC: There is no apparent overheat.
- Elaine Dickinson: Yes, there is, ROC. We read a core overheat. Repeat analysis.
- ROC: Analysis confirmed. All systems compute positive.
- Elaine Dickinson: Well, not from where I'm sitting they don't!
- ROC: Look, Elaine. Cut the "not from where I'm sitting" shit. It must be a human error.
- [Elaine turns to the captain]
- Elaine Dickinson: Captain, I think we have a computer foul-up!
- Capt. Oveur: I see.
- Elaine Dickinson: Well, what do you recommend, Captain?
- Capt. Oveur: Maybe you'd better run it through the computer.
- Elaine Dickinson: But sir, I already have!
- Capt. Oveur: Good!
- Steve McCroskey: Would somebody please tell me what in Sam Hill a woman is doing up there in charge of that ship?
- Jacobs: Well maybe she's got her ship together.
- Buck Murdock: We'd better get to the tower, Lieutenant.
- Lt. Pervis: We have no tower, sir.
- Buck Murdock: No tower?
- Lt. Pervis: Just a bridge, sir.
- Buck Murdock: Why the *hell* aren't I notified about these things?
- Father O'Flanagan: I'm Father O'Flanagan, and I am a man of God. Therefore you must trust me when I tell you that we're all likely going to die.
- [All of the passengers start panicking and start punching each other. A hockey referee is seen trying to separate the attacking members of his hockey team, and other passengers are repeatedly slugging the same people over and over]
- Father O'Flanagan: [a montage of newspaper headlines shows up. First is the headline from the Daily Star: "Lunar Shuttle Heads For Disaster." Followed by the headline for The Jerausalem News: "They Shouldn't Have Gone In The First Place," and then lastly, the headline for The International Inquirer: "Man Has Sex Change - Marries Self."]
- Buffalo Anchorman: Our Top Story Tonight: Four-Alarm Fire Rages Through Downtown Buffalo. Also in the News: Lunar Shuttle heads for the Sun, and Certain Disaster.
- Tokyo Anchorman: Our Top Story Tonight: Four-Alarm Fire Rages Through Downtown Tokyo. Also in the News: American Lunar Mission Locked in Death Struggle.
- [on the monitor behind him is a clip of Godzilla eating a Lunar Shuttle]
- Moscow Anchorman: [with a gun being held to his head] A four-alarm fire in Downtown Moscow clears way for a glorious new tractor factory, And, on the lighter side of the news, Hundreds of Capitalists are Soon to Perish in Shuttle Disaster.
- [as we cut to the next clip, the sound of a gunshot is heard]
- Tad Woman: [on a talk show] If this canned beet was run by vegetarian women rather than flesh-eating men, this whole space disaster would never have happened. You know right now, we're working to raise the consciousness of the vegetarian minorities with diet sensitivity training, so that people will be able to deal with the foul...
- Male Passenger: [TV Version] There's nothing to worry about.
- Testa, Shuttle Stewardess: Could you hand me your cup, please? Thank you. Be careful, it's very hot, okay.
- Male Passenger: Thank you, and stewardess, would you please tell my wife, that these flights are completely safe? I hope she hears it from you.
- Testa, Shuttle Stewardess: There's nothing to worry about.
- [Unger's hand sticking out of the door]
- Testa, Shuttle Stewardess: [Screams and drops the last pitcher of coffee on the female passenger]
- Female Passenger: [Screams, after Testa dropped the coffee on her]
- Steve McCroskey: Listen good. That thing is bound to come apart on you at that speed, and that's no good! It's got to be in one piece when you land on the moon! You know damn well that that warp drive has never been tested!
- [stabs his cigarette into the left hand of the controller sitting next to him]
- Steve McCroskey: You're putting yourself and everybody else on that ship in jeopardy!
- [cuts to the cabin of the shuttle, where Art Fleming is suddenly doing a match of Jeopardy! with the passengers as the contestants]
- Jeopardy Host: All right, Contestant #38.
- Male Passenger: Art, I'll take Air Shuttle Disasters for $40.
- Jeopardy Host: The answer is...
- [the display with $40 on it rotates to reveal the answer]
- Jeopardy Host: ... the Mayflower!
- Capt. Oveur: Well, my goodness, Scraps is a boy dog, isn't he?
- Jimmy: Yeah.
- Capt. Oveur: Jimmy, do you like it when Scraps holds onto your leg and rubs up and down?
- Dr. Stone: Thought you might like a paper.
- Striker: Thanks...
- [opens paper, reads headline]
- Striker: My God!
- Dr. Stone: What's wrong?
- Striker: They're launching the XR-2300! Do you know what that is, Doctor?
- Dr. Stone: The muffler bracket for a '79 Pinto?
- Striker: No, that's the XR-2200. The 2300's the Lunar Shuttle.
- Elaine Dickinson: [On P.A] Ladies and gentlemen, please calm down. Please listen to me! I want to tell you what's going on with the ship! Thank you. We've been thrown off course just a tad.
- Tad Woman: Miss? What exactly is "a tad?"
- Elaine Dickinson: In space terms, that's about half a million miles. The bumps you feel are asteroids smashing into the hull of the ship. Also we're flying without a navigational system and can't seem to change course.
- Dr. Stone: Miss, are you telling us absolutely everything?
- Elaine Dickinson: Not exactly. We're also out of coffee.
- [the passengers, who stayed calm for the other disastrous announcement, become hysterical]
- Striker: Elaine, we're going to have to blow the computer!
- Elaine Dickinson: Blow ROC?
- [a smiling face appears on the computer]
- [the controllers thinking about the people in the hijacked airplane]
- Controller #2: They're screwed!
- Controller #3: They're dead!
- Controller Jacobs: Did I leave the iron on?
- Striker: Which passenger is Joe Solucci?
- Mary, Shuttle Stewardess: 16C. Why?
- Striker: He's carrying a bomb.
- Mary, Shuttle Stewardess: A bo - ?
- Striker: No, not a bo-. A bomb. Now, discreetly as possible, I want you to move the passengers, into the lounge.
- Mary, Shuttle Stewardess: We don't have a lounge.
- Striker: That's not important right now but, you got to do is get those people away from that bomb.
- Mary, Shuttle Stewardess: Well, what should I say?
- Striker: Anything. Just don't let Solucci think that we're onto him.
- Mary, Shuttle Stewardess: I'll do my best.
- Mary, Shuttle Stewardess: [Over Intercom] Attention ladies and gentlemen, please. Would everybody move to the lounge who is not carrying a bomb.
- [Everyone on the plane stands up and screams]
- Steve McCroskey: [he hears lots of static on his two-way radio] Striker, you're fading out! Come in. Over.
- [more static]
- Steve McCroskey: Damn! We lost him!
- Controller #1: Could be those sun spots.
- Jacobs: Could be your dishwashing detergent.
- Bud Kruger: [as he and the commissioner get out of their car and enter the terminal building] Commissioner, now we both know that shuttle needs another month of pre-launch testing.
- The Commissioner: Forget it.
- Bud Kruger: Commissioner.
- The Commissioner: I said forget about it. The Mayflower is the first Lunar Shuttle to fly from a commercial terminal, and the boys on the board want that flight to go on schedule.
- Bud Kruger: Well the boys on the board know about safety...
- The Commissioner: Bud, get wise to the political reality. The boys on the board are under a heavy pressure from the boys downtown.
- [the elevator arrives, and the doors open. Several people exit, all of them covering their ears because the elevator music is very, *very* loud. Everyone files into the elevator and puts their hands over their ears to protect them from the music, except for Bud and the Commissioner. The doors close, silencing the music]
- The Commissioner: [At the fourth floor, everyone files out, and the loud elevator music is playing a rendition of "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head."]
- The Commissioner: [the first part of what he says is drowned out by the loud music] The boys on the board are under pressure from the boys downtown.
- Bud Kruger: And I'll be the one to crucify if that shuttle screws up.
- Businessman: So the company's actually doing very well. We're just raising the figures of the last quarter, they show a 40% increase over the past year.
- Dr. Stone: [looking at the patient's chart] Visiting hours are over.
- Man in White: Doctor, do you think my brother will be able to come home to the farm soon?
- Dr. Stone: It's hard to say, it's a difficult case. He still thinks he's an accountant.
- Man in White: Okay.
- [Nurses, meanwhile, are trying to restrain the patient who thinks he's an accountant]
- Businessman: You must believe me! Invest in money markets!
- Hallick: Passenger's name is Joe Saluki. He was supposed to fly to Des Moines for an operation, something to do with sexual impotence...
- Steve McCroskey: The Des Moines Institute?
- Hallick: You know it?
- Steve McCroskey, Bud Kruger, The Commissioner: We're familiar with it.
- Testa: Captain, Mr. Dunn and Mr. Unger were sucked out an air lock in the computer room!
- Captain Clarence Oveur: Both together?
- Testa, Elaine Dickinson: [together] Mr. Dunn and Mr. Unger were sucked out an air lock in the computer room!
- Captain Clarence Oveur: Don't panic. Calm down, ladies. Now, are there any other problems?
- Mary, Shuttle Stewardess: [races in the cockpit] Captain, we've run out of coffee.
- Captain Clarence Oveur: Damn! If I've told them once I've told them a hundred times, store extra coffee!
- Testa, Shuttle Stewardess: Captain, what should we do if the passengers start to panic?
- Capt. Oveur: All right, this is the way we're gonna play it.
- [pulls out a marker and pad of paper]
- Capt. Oveur: Mary, I want you here in case there's a full-cabin press. Testa, you take the aisle here, cover Mary's weak side in case she gets double-teamed.
- Testa, Shuttle Stewardess, Mary, Shuttle Stewardess: Right!