Airplane! Scene 2 Summary

  • After abandoning his taxi in one of the aforementioned zones (and leaving the meter running with a passenger inside), Ted manages to find Elaine inside the airport.
  • We find out that the two once had a romantic relationship, but that it's since failed. It's clear that Ted wants her back, that he can change, but Elaine explains that her patience has run out. It's over.
  • Elaine heads to the plane, leaving a frustrated Ted who proceeds to break the fourth wall and address the audience directly, an example of the self-aware, meta-humor that characterizes Airplane!
  • Captain Clarence Oveur, the pilot of the eponymous airplane, receives a call from a doctor at the famous Mayo Clinic explaining that there's an important medical patient, a sick little girl, who will be transported on Oveur's flight then taken to the clinic in Minnesota. She'll be having a heart transplant and must be monitored closely. (Note the set decoration at the Mayo Clinic.)
  • After the sick girl is delivered to the plane by ambulance, we cut to Elaine and Ted who are at it again.
  • We learn that Ted's a former fighter pilot who can't bring himself to fly again after trauma experienced in an unnamed war.
  • Elaine insists that he must accept real responsibility, and explains that she has to move on with her life.