Summaries

Synopsis

Emperor Tod Spengo (Jon Lovitz), with General Afir (Thalmus Rasulala) at his side, takes over a small planet at the edge of the galaxy populated entirely by imbeciles, and renames it after himself. He has all the resources of the planet engaged to create his Death Ray to destroy Earth, thus making Spengo the greatest planet of the Universe. When Spengo peaks at the laser's planned point of impact (a Southern California suburb), he beholds housewife Marge Nelson (Teri Garr) and instantly falls in love. Using his Magnobeam (a giant magnet), he kidnaps Marge and her husband Dick (Jeffrey Jones) on their way to their 20th anniversary weekend, hoping to make Marge his queen.

Dick and Marge get separated on Spengo: Marge is sent to the lap of luxury, waited on servants with fish or dog heads, while Dick is thrown into a dungeon. In his cell, Dick meets the rightful king of Spengo, King Raff (Eric Idle), who gives him plans for his son, called the White Bird, leader of a band of rebels out in the desert. In the meantime, Spengo finds that his advances toward Marge are failing, so he attempts to read Dick's mind in order to discover the secret to her heart before having him executed. Upon witnessing Dick's devotion to Marge, Spengo's interrogator, Sibor (Wallace Shawn), has a change of heart and helps Dick escape. Despite the stupidity of his captors, Dick is soon discovered and forced down a garbage chute to the sewers, where he encounters a carnivorous mushroom-like creatures called Lub-Lubs and is forced to run for his life.

Dick manages to escape the sewers and steal an escape pod, and winds up crashing into the desert, where he meets the rebels led by King Raff's son, Prince Sirk (Dwier Brown) and daughter Princess Semage (Kathy Ireland), all of whom dress as six-foot-tall birds (although such creatures are not naturally found on Spengo). At first, the rebels don't trust Dick, but when Dick reveals that he shared a cell with Raff and that he is on their side, their attitude quickly changes, and Dick rises to the rank of war leader. Using what limited resources he can scrounge up, he devices a plan to sneak back into Spengo's palace and save Marge. In the meantime, General Afir, the only intelligent person among Spengo's forces and resentful of the emperor's antics believes that Dick and Marge are the key to ending Spengo's rule, so he switches the love serum meant for Marge with water and informs her of his intentions to recover Dick. However, Spengo overhears Afir's plan and has him placed into the barrel of the laser, to perish when the weapon is fired at Earth.

While Spengo's wedding with Marge is prepared, a detachment of Spengo's soldiers go into the finish the rebels, but find the camp deserted, and one by one they fall victim to a light grenade (which has "pick me up" engraved on it and disintegrates anyone with picks it up) left on Dick's pallet. Simultaneously, Dick and the rebels approach Spengo's fortress inside a large wooden bust of Spengo, which Spengo has brought into the chapel, and into the middle of the wedding ceremony the rebels emerged from the Trojan bust. As the fighting rages into the castle, Spengo retreats to his laboratory with Marge and prepares to fire the laser at Earth. Dick and Spengo clash swords, but neither gains the upper hand. Marge manages to free herself and helps Dick throw Spengo into the sewers, where he is last seen being cornered by the Lub-Lubs. At the last second, Dick and Marge manage to shut down the laser, saving Afir and the Earth.

With Spengo defeated as emperor, Raff is reinstated as the rightful king, and he reverses the polarity of the Magnobeam to send Dick and Marge back to Earth. Upon arriving home, Dick and Marge proceed to show their son (Danny Cooksey), daughter (Suzanne Ventulett), and her boyfriend Carl (Michael Stoyanov) slides (including an image of their space journey to the planet Spengo) from what they claim is Santa Barbara. To end their 20th anniversary, they share drinks on the roof, watching the stars from above.