How to Hotwire an Airplane begins by depicting a man struggling. Standing at the counter of a mechanical retailer, pilot Hiram Bleeker plucks the card of a budding entrepreneur who excels at the horizontal. With another night of contemplating using his firearm to end his life, he receives a call to transport a rescue dog in his airplane. That’s how we come to be intimately acquainted with Hiram, as his bloodied hand is in the jaws of Cujo, forcing him to attempt a one-handed landing.