On a runway at a small airport, reporter Dale Arden (Melody Anderson — TV’s "All My Children," John Carpenter’s Elvis) awaits take-off during the storm of hot hail; to her surprise, she’s joined on the plane by only one other passenger, Flash Gordon, quarterback of the New York Jets (Sam J. Jones — Fist of Honor, nothing else worth mentioning). While Dale’s nervous about flying in general, let alone through a storm of hot hail the size of human heads, she’s comforted by Flash’s knowledge of planes and broad shoulders. But that comfort doesn’t last long.

The pilots are mysteriously sucked out through the cockpit windows after take-off, and Flash manages to safely "land" the plane right in the laboratory of Dr. Hans Zarkov (Topol — Fiddler on the Roof). Dr. Zarkov has long suspected that aliens would soon invade the earth, so he’s been planning to beat them to the punch. See, Zarkov has his own rocket and now that he knows that the disturbances in Earth’s atmosphere are coming from a distant planet, he programs the rocket to take him there. But he can’t travel alone, so he forces Flash and Dale (at gun point) to join him.

Once they land on Mongo, they’re taken captive by Ming’s secret police. While being escorted to the court of Ming the Merciless, they witness a droid kill an escaping lizard man, then in Ming’s presence, Flash is caught uttering, "This Ming is a psycho." When Ming calls Flash forward to explain his insolence, Flash takes on his guards in a fight that strangely resembles a football game, armed with what appears to be a watermelon with a gold ring around it. During the fight, we see mild dissension among the representatives of Mongo’s kingdoms (i.e. the Hawkmen, the Treemen). But ultimately, Flash misses a melon that Dale passes him, is knocked out and sentenced to death. All hope seems lost, but it’s like the song says, "Flash! … Ah ah … King of the impossible!"

That’s right, Flash survives the gas chamber because Ming’s daughter, Princess Aura had him injected with an antidote. Princess Aura finds Flash irresistible, and believes that the bravery he showed earlier could help unite the kingdoms of Mongo and overthrow Ming. She takes him to Arboria, the tree planet, where her lover, Prince Barin (Timothy Dalton — The Lion in Winter, The Living Daylights) rules. Flash passes the test of the tree men—sticking his hand into a stump where a deadly beast resides—but he and Barin are then captured by Hawkmen, and taken to Prince Vultan (Brian Blessed — Henry V, Hamlet). Once with the Hawkmen, Flash and Barin are made to fight with bullwhips on a floating platform complete with remote-controlled spikes. When Flash saves Barin from falling into oblivion, he finally wins the Treeman’s respect. "What is this?" Vultan asks. "Compassion," Zarkov answers. Vultan replies "What a damn nuisance!" Now to convince the dudes with wings and feathers over their crotches.