INYERFACE

INNERSPACE (1987)
dir: Joe Dante

INYERFACE
Cracked #233, January 1988
a: Bob Fingerman

This parody isn't completely faithful to the movie, so I'll try to summarize it based on my memory from at least 20 years ago. I don't remember the reason for a lot of these things or if there even was one.

Navy pilot Tuck Pendleton (Dennis Quaid) is drunk at a party and gets in an argument with his girlfriend Lydia (Meg Ryan). Jack Putter (Martin Short) is a clerk at a grocery store and is a hypochondriac.

All the other pilots are drawn as Oliver North, even though he was a marine.

At the grocery store, Jack's boss (Henry Gibson) sees he's cracking up and urges him to take a vacation. Jack's mission is being to be shrunk down and fly through the body of a rabbit. At microscopic size, he is inside a serum, and then the lab is invaded by a rival organization, which chases Dr. Ozzie Wexler (John Hora, who runs away with the serum. The doctor runs through a mall, and while trying to escape the hitman of the rival lab, Mr. Igoe (Vernon Wells), bumps into Jack accidentally injecting him with the syringe containing the serum.

Initially, neither Jack nor Tuck know what's happening. Jack is experiencing pain and goes to his doctor. Tuck realizes he's inside a human and not an animal and talks but only Jack can hear him. Tuck has to fly up into Jack's head and attach himself to his optic nerve in order to see what's going on. This really hurts. They (or at least Tuck) have to see Lydia.

the second panel is a reference to Short's SCTV character Ed Grimley. The third refers to a scene at Jack's home where to prove he's not just hearing voices, Tuck shoots Jack's TV through his body. The fifth one has Ray Walston from My Favorite Martian.

Lydia is a reporter for a newspaper and Jack finally convinces her that Tuck is inside of him. She uses her reporting skills to eavesdrop on a smuggler known as “The Cowboy” (Robert Picardo) who's there to steal the shrinking formula on behalf of the rival organization, which Lydia must get back in order to return Tuck to normal size. Tuck gets transferred into Lydia through a kiss and Jack doesn't realize he's now doing all these stunts through his own confidence. Jack is being chased by the rival gang who now knows Tuck's in him and he runs off a meat truck and rides on the highway hanging on the door. He and Lydia get the formula back, return Tuck to normal, and they get married because while he was in her he found out she was pregnant. Jack goes back to normal life but quits his old job to become Tuck's lackey.

The next-to-last panel is an homage to the famous Conan the Barbarian cover by Frank Frazetta. At the end is Dustin Hoffman and they make reference to Little Big Man, probably a size joke.