Build a movie plot around this: Who presents Cliff with a brand-new Gee Bee air racer and a fresh pack of chewing gum? Hughes
Answer:
The movie takes place in Los Angeles in the year 1938. At an airfield, a flight crew is moving a new plane (the GeeBee) out onto the runway. The pilot, Cliff Secord (Bill Campbell) is discussing the plane with his mechanic and best friend, Peevy (Alan Arkin). Cliff and Peevy intend to use the GeeBee in a national air show within a year. Cliff sticks a piece of Beeman's chewing gum on the wing of the plane for good luck and takes off to test out the GeeBee.Meanwhile, a duo of gangsters are engaged in a gun fight with members of the FBI. Cliff flies overhead and the gangster (thinking Cliff may be law enforcement) shoots at the GeeBee. Cliff's engine begins to stutter as he maneuvers back towards the runway.The gangsters arrive at the same runway and hide in a hanger. The driver, Wilmer, learns that the gunman has been fatally wounded in the shootout. Wilmer hides the package the 2 of them had stolen and heads back out into the fight. Cliff's GeeBee bumps into a car on the runway, crash landing. THe mechanic crew gets Cliff out alive, but he quickly rushes back in to retrieve a photo of his girlfriend. The GeeBee is totaled, and Wilmer crashes his car into a fuel truck, causing an explosion.The FBI refuses to admit responsibility for Cliff's crash. They question Wilbur about the stolen package, who merely responds that it is "blown to Hell." They find a metal device in the wreckage of the fuel tank, and they assume this is the device in question. They report this to the owner, Howard Hughes (Terry O'Quinn) who is upset but decides not to build another device because the theft proves the technology too dangerous.Cliff and Peevy argue with the owner of the air field, Bigelow (Jon Polito) who is holding them responsible for the damage to the fuel truck. He talks them into doing a pitiful "Clown Act" at his annual air shows, which Peevy calculates would result in taking a minimum of four years to settle their debt.Cliff decides to work on the biplane they will be using for the Clown Act, putting his girlfriend's...