Thomas and Friends' Adventures of Planes: Fire and Rescue

Thomas and Friends' Adventures of Planes: Fire and Rescue is a crossover film.

Summary
After Dusty's gearbox is damaged and Propwash Junction is closed down, Thomas and his friends must help the superstar former cropduster turned racer get back on track.

Plot
Since winning the Wings Around the Globe race in the first film, 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 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 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 seem to have extinguished it; but later, during the grand reopening of the park's lodge, visiting VIPs fly too low and create air eddies which 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, 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 damaged from protecting Dusty in the fire and is temporarily grounded for repairs. While Blade is recuperating, 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 is forced to push 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. Meanwhile, Blade shows up and assists Harvey and Winnie by holding up the bridge. Dusty successfully drops water and extinguishes the bridge fire, allowing the campers to escape just before the bridge collapses; but his overstressed gearbox fails completely and his engine stalls. He tries to glide through the trees to make a safe landing, but one of his pontoons hits one of the trees 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.

Script

 * Thomas and Friends' Adventures of Planes: Fire and Rescue/Transcript