Heaven Can Wait

With the help of Max Corkle, his best friend and one of the team trainers, Joe Pendleton, the backup quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams behind Tom Jarrett, does whatever he can to stay in top shape physically and mentally to do his part to help the Rams win the Super Bowl. One of his mental relaxation techniques is to play the soprano saxophone, albeit very badly. Despite the media trying to paint a rivalry between him and Jarrett, Joe truly believes that Jarrett is not his competition, but rather the opposing team is. Regardless, his hard work pays off and he is named the starter for the upcoming game. However, as he is riding his bicycle through a tunnel before the game, Joe is killed in a collision with a truck,... or so it would seem. In actuality, a novice "escort" - the spirit accompanying the dead into heaven - took Joe out of the situation before the collision, not wanting to see Joe actually get "hurt", but Joe would have missed the truck as the official record shows he isn't scheduled to be in heaven for close to fifty years. So Mr. Jordan, the escort's boss, personally has to take over the case, needing to find another undiscovered dead body in which to place Joe, as his own body has already been cremated. Who Mr. Jordan finds as a temporary until a more suitable body can be found is that belonging to ruthless industrialist Leo Farnsworth, who was murdered by his wife, Julia Farnsworth, and his aide, Tony Abbott, the two who are having an affair. Joe not only has to pretend to be Farnsworth not knowing anything about business or his personal dealings, but stay ahead of Julia and Tony who would not be averse to trying to kill him again. But Joe has a change of heart about his temporary second chance at life, which he now wants to make permanent, when he sees an opportunity to get Farnsworth into "Joe Pendleton" shape to regain his old life as a Rams QB, which will entail convincing Max that he truly is Joe Pendleton. That change in heart is also bolstered upon meeting and falling in love with Betty Logan, an activist who is trying to stop the environmental bad practices of one of Farnsworth's factories in her hometown of Paglesham, England.