Planes Fire And Rescue (Fox Version)

Planes: Fire & Rescue (also known as Planes 2) is a 2014 American 3D computer-animated direct-to-video comedy-adventure film. It is a sequel to the 2013 film Planes, a spin-off of DreamWorks Animation’s Cars .Produced and released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, it was released direct-to -video on July 18, 2014. Dane Cook, Stacy Keach, Brad Garrett, Teri Hatcher, Danny Mann, and Cedric the Entertainer reprised their roles of the voices of Dusty Crophopper, Skipper, Chug, Dottie, Sparky, and Leadbottom, respectively. New cast members included Hal Holbrook, Julie Bowen, Ed Harris, Regina King, Wes Studi, Patrick Warburton, and Dale Dye.

Plot
Since winning the Wings Around the Globe race, Dusty Crophopper has had a successful career as a racer. Unfortunately, his engine's gearbox becomes damaged because Dusty routinely operates the engine beyond its design limits. With that particular model of gearbox now out of production and none available anywhere, Dusty's mechanic Dottie fits a warning light to his control panel to ensure that he doesn't damage his gearbox any further. No longer able to race and faced with the possibility of returning to his old job as a crop-duster, Dusty goes on a defiant flight and tests his limits. In doing so, Dusty exceeds his limits and makes a forced landing at Propwash Junction airport, causing a fire.

The residents put out the fire with some difficulty, but the accident leads government inspector Ryker to condemn the airport for inadequate firefighting personnel. Aggrieved at his carelessness, Dusty offers to undergo training to be certified as a firefighter to meet the necessary regulations to reopen the airport. To that end, Dusty travels to Piston Peak National Park, where he meets a fire and rescue crew under the command of a helicopter named Blade Ranger. The leader of an efficient unit, Blade is initially unimpressed by the small newcomer and Dusty's training proves to be a difficult challenge. Maru, the team's mechanic, replaces Dusty's original undercarriage with two pontoons fitted with retractable undercarriage wheels for his new role as a single engine air tanker firefighter. During training, Dusty learns that Blade was formerly an actor who played a police helicopter on the TV series CHoPs. Later, Dusty is devastated by a call from his friends at Propwash Junction, telling him that all attempts at finding a replacement gearbox have failed, and his racing career is officially over.

Lightning in a thunderstorm over a forest near Piston Peak starts several spot fires which unite into a serious forest fire. The team fights it and seems to have extinguished it; but later, during the grand reopening of the park's lodge, visiting VIPs fly too low and create air eddies that blow embers about. This creates a larger fire, forcing the need to evacuate the lodge.

A depressed Dusty's education in the midst of the large fire falters, much to Blade's frustration. Things come to a head when Dusty makes a forced landing in a river while trying to reload his tanks against orders and is swept through the rapids with Blade trying to extract him. Eventually, the pair make it to land, and Dusty confesses his physical disability. Blade advises Dusty not to give up. They shelter in an abandoned mine while the fire passes. The situation is complicated because Blade was gravely damaged from protecting Dusty in the fire and is grounded for repairs. While Blade is recovering, Dusty learns from Maru that Blade's co-star Nick Lopez from CHoPs was killed during a stunt gone wrong on set that Blade was helpless to stop. Afterwards, he decided to become a firefighter to save lives for real.

When the wildfire threatens the lodge, the national park's superintendent, Cad Spinner, selfishly diverts the entire water supply to the roof sprinklers to prevent the lodge from burning. This prevents the firefighters from making fire retardant for their firefighting duties. With only their pre-existing tank loads, the firefighters manage to help the evacuees escape the fire.

Dusty is alerted that two elderly campers named Harvey and Winnie that he met earlier are trapped on a burning bridge deep in the fire zone. He races to the scene and pushes his engine to the maximum to climb vertically up a waterfall to refill his water tanks to drop water to save the campers, as the only other surface water nearby is the river in Augerin Canyon, too shallow, twisty, and rocky for him to scoop from. Simultaneously, Blade shows up and assists Harvey and Winnie by hooking up Winnie, preventing her from falling. Dusty successfully drops water and extinguishes the bridge fire, allowing the campers to escape just before the bridge collapses; but his gearbox fails completely, his engine stalls, and he crashes.

Unconscious, Dusty is airlifted back to base where he wakes up five days later to find that park ranger Jammer is now in charge of the park, to much delight. Maru tells him that not only has his structure been fully repaired but he has built a superior, custom-refurbished gearbox for his engine that allows Dusty full performance once again. Impressed at Dusty's skill and heroism, Blade certifies him as a firefighter. Propwash Junction is reopened with Dusty assuming his duty as a firefighter, celebrated with an aerial show with his new colleagues from Piston Peak.

During the mid-credits scene, it is shown that Cad Spinner's misconduct resulted in his demotion and reassignment as a park ranger in Death Valley.

Cast

 * Dane Cook as Dusty Crophopper. He was inspired by the Air Tractor AT-502, Cessna, and the PZL-Mielec M-18 Dromader.
 * Stacy Keach as Skipper Riley, a Chance-Vought F4U Corsair and Dusty's mentor.
 * Danny Mann as Sparky, a forklift.
 * Julie Bowen as Lil' Dipper, a Super Scooper based on the Grumman G-21 Goose and CL-415 SuperScooper
 * Brad Garrett as Chug, a fuel truck.
 * Teri Hatcher as Dottie, a forklift.
 * Curtis Armstrong as Maru, a forklift mechanic at the Piston Peak Air Attack base
 * Ed Harris as Blade Ranger, a veteran fire-and-rescue helicopter. He used to play a police helicopter in CHoPs with Nick "Loop'n" Lopez but became a firefighter when Nick died. He is inspired by the AgustaWestland AW109, AgustaWestland AW139 and Bell 429 GlobalRanger
 * Wes Studi as Windlifter, a Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane heavy-lift helicopter
 * Dale Dye as Cabbie, a Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar retired from military service
 * Regina King as Dynamite, the leader of The Smokejumpers, a team of ground vehicles who parachute into fire sites
 * Corri English as Pinecone, a smokejumper equipped with a rake tool to clear brush and debris
 * Bryan Callen as Avalanche, a bulldozer and a smokejumper
 * Danny Pardo as Blackout, a smokejumper equipped with a circular saw
 * Matt L. Jones as Drip, a smokejumper equipped with a skid-steer claw to clear fallen trees and brush
 * Fred Willard as Secretary of the Interior, a green four-wheel-drive with a roof rack
 * Cedric the Entertainer as Leadbottom, a biplane.
 * Jerry Stiller as Harvey, an RV and Winnie's husband.
 * Anne Meara as Winnie, an RV and Harvey's wife. This would be Meara's final role before her death in 2015.
 * Erik Estrada as Nick "Loop'n" Lopez, a helicopter police officer who was the co-star of CHoPs who was killed before Blade became a firefighter
 * John Michael Higgins as Superintendent Cad Spinner, a self-absorbed luxury sport utility vehicle whose sole concern was the grand reopening and protection of the park's luxurious lodge.
 * Barry Corbin as Ol' Jammer, a tour bus based on the White Model 706
 * Hal Holbrook as Mayday, an old fire and rescue truck from Propwash Junction
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Ryker, a transportation management safety truck with a roof-mounted watercannon for firefighting
 * Patrick Warburton as Pulaski, a structural firefighting fire truck with a roof-mounted watercannon for firefighting. Pulaski's namesake, Ed Pulaski, was known for his heroism in saving most of his crew during the Great Fire of 1910 by sheltering in an abandoned mine.
 * Brad Paisley as Bubba, a Pickup truck
 * Kari Wahlgren as Patch
 * René Auberjonois as Concierge
 * Steve Schirripa as Steve
 * Brent Musburger as Brent Mustangburger, a Ford Mustang
 * John Ratzenberger as Brodi

Production
According to director/co-writer Roberts "Bobs" Gannaway, "The first film [directed by Klay Hall] was a race film. I wanted to look at a different genre, in this case, an action-disaster film." Production on Planes: Fire & Rescue began six months after the start of the previous film. "We've been working on this film for nearly four years." The filmmakers researched the world of air-attack teams and smokejumpers by working with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and sent a crew to the US Forest Services' annual training exercises for smokejumpers. Gannaway explained "We actually hooked cameras onto their helmets and had them drop out of the airplane so we could catch it on film." Nearly a year of research was done before the filmmakers started work on the story. The idea of Dusty becoming a fire and rescue plane was based on reality. Gannaway stated that during their research they discovered that in 1955 cropdusters were among the first planes to be used in aerial fire-fighting, "There was a group of cropdusters who reworked their planes so they could drop water." Gannaway also noted that in the first film "Dusty is doing things to his engine that should not be done to it—he is stressing the engine out and causing severe damage. It's great that the first movie teed this up without intending to. We just built on it, and the results were remarkable." Producer Ferrell Barron stated "I think we've all experienced some kind of loss at some point in our lives—an end of an era, a lost love, a failed career. We've all had to recalibrate. In Planes: Fire & Rescue, Dusty can't go back to being a crop duster, he left that behind. He has to move forward."

Release
Planes: Fire & Rescue was released on July 18, 2014. The second official trailer for the film was released on April 8, 2014.

Soundtrack
Mark Mancina, who composed the music for the first film, returned for the sequel. In addition, Brad Paisley wrote and performed a song for the film titled "All In". Paisley also performed a song titled "Runway Romance", co-written by Bobs Gannaway and Danny Jacob. Spencer Lee performed an original song titled "Still I Fly". The soundtrack album was released on July 15, 2014.


 * Track listing

All music is composed by Mark Mancina, except as noted.

Video game
A video game based on the film, titled Planes: Fire & Rescue, was released on November 4, 2014 for Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U and was published by

Little Orbit.

Cancelled spin-off sequel
In July 2017, John Lasseter announced that the third film in the Planes series would explore the future of aviation in outer space, and that it was being developed by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. The film had a release date of April 12, 2019. On March 1, 2018, it was removed from the release schedule.