A Flight to Remember
From Futurama Wiki
| A Flight To Remember | |
|---|---|
| |
| Episode | 1 |
| Season | 2 |
| Air date | 26 September 1999 |
| Running Time | 30 minutes |
| Directed By | Peter Avanzino, Edemer Santos (Assistant director) |
| Written By | Eric Horsted |
| Storyboards By | Albert Calleros, Doug Gallery, John Mathot |
| Preceded by | Hell Is Other Robots |
| Followed by | Mars University |
- "Thank God there're plenty of escape pods. We won't have to dress up like women and children."
- ―Professor Farnsworth during the sinking of the Titantic[src]
A Flight To Remember is the first episode of Futurama Season Two. It was written by Eric Horsted, and directed by Peter Avanzino.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Returning from a mission, Fry, Leela, and Bender announce their resignations to Professor Hubert Farnsworth. They reconsider when the Professor tells them he has scheduled a company vacation as thanks for not reporting him about his disregard for employee safety. He tells them the vacation is a cruise on the maiden voyage of the largest space cruise ship ever built: the Titanic. No one suspects anything dangerous despite the crash of the first luxury ship. As they board, they are stopped by Zapp Brannigan, the honorary captain of the Titanic for its maiden voyage who attempts to seduce Leela again. In an attempt to avoid Brannigan's unwanted advances, Leela claims she is engaged to Fry. On the way to their room, Bender meets the Countess de la Roca.
On the bridge, Brannigan diverts from the ship's original course and through a swarm of comets. At the buffet, Amy unexpectedly runs into her parents who immediately attempt to set Amy up with a date. In order to redirect her parents' attention, Amy claims Fry is her boyfriend.
At the ship's casino, Bender meets the Countess again and pretends to be rich to become her friend; at first he really wants her money and jewelry, until he realizes he loves her. Then she realizes he's broke after he steals a drinks from the bar, but she claims she still loves him.
In the swimming pool capsule, a limbo competition is being held. Hermes is urged to limbo, but declines, remembering a traumatic incident from twenty years ago. He was on the Earth Olympic limbo team, but during the 2980 Olympics, a boy ran onto the field, wanting to be just like his hero Hermes. He tried to limbo under an Olympic level bar but broke his spine. It is implied that the boy died. Hermes has never limboed since then. Brannigan takes time off from steering the ship to judge the limbo contest, and declares Leela the winner, despite her not having entered ("No matter, I know from personal experience just how horizontal you can get"). As a prize, she and Fry are invited to dinner at the captain's table.
At dinner both Zapp Brannigan and Amy's parents are present and demanding Fry kiss his date. Before the fake relationships are exposed, Kif calls Brannigan back to the bridge. The new course has placed the ship in danger. Brannigan's attempt to correct the problem results in the ship flying toward a black hole. Realizing the danger he has put them in, Brannigan promotes Kif to Captain so that he can go down with the ship while Brannigan escapes. Bender heads off to save the Countess, while the rest of the crew make their way to the escape pods. On the way, an airlock door begins to close, blocking the crew's escape. Zoidberg holds it from closing all the way, but the door release is on the other side and no one can reach it. Hermes resurrects his old limbo skills to squeeze under and hit the door release. Arriving at the escape pods, they meet Amy's parents, who have found Amy a new boyfriend they feel is suitable: Kif. After waiting as long as they can for Bender, the crew launches the escape pod. Bender leaps from the Titanic, Countess in tow. He grabs the escape pod, but they are overweight. The Countess sacrifices herself to allow the others to escape. Bender is heart broken through the sad sight.
The episode ends with the words: Bender: At least I'll always have her bracelet. [Hermes] What do you think it's worth? Hermes: Its fake man. Bender: AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHAAAAAHHHAAAAAAHHHHHHHHAAAAA!
[edit] Appearances
[edit] Characters
Characters who first appear in this episode are:
[edit] References Explained
- This entire episode is a parody of the plot, characters, scenes, dialogue, and even shots, of the movie Titanic. The title, however, is a reference to Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember," a book/movie detailing the last hours of the doomed liner.
- The bartender robot, iZac, is a parody of "Isaac", the bartender on the show, The Love Boat.
- The use of the Titanic as a luxury spaceship is a reference to Douglas Adams' book "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in which a similarly named starship suffers "a massive existence failure." There is also a video game entitled "Starship Titanic" prduced by Mr. Adams.
[edit] Easter Eggs
[edit] Goofs
Bender's fake bowtie was magnetic. Magnets have been shown to disable Bender's inhibition unit and cause him to sing folk songs at least once before A Flight To Remember (and many more times after), but Bender is clearly unaffected by the bowtie, and no explanation is given in the episode. One can only assume that this incident was merely a consistency error in the writing of the episode, and this theory will probably remain active until one of the Futurama staff reveal information suggesting otherwise. One alternate explanation that has been proposed is that only magnets on Bender's head affect his inhibition unit, as the bowtie was on his torso. Another, similar explanation was made by a commentator on the audio commentary for Bendless Love stating that the only place the inhibition unit isn't disabled is on Benders' neck.
