Plot

A military pilot makes a valiant effort to be certified insane during World War II so that he can be excused from flying missions. But there's a catch.

A bombardier in World War II tries desperately to escape the insanity of the war. However, sometimes insanity is the only sane way to cope with a crazy situation. Catch-22 is a parody of a "military mentality", and of a bureaucratic society in general.—Jeffrey Struyk <[email protected]>

WWII, the Mediterranean theatre: Captain Yossarian is the bombardier of a B-25 medium bomber. His squadron's missions largely involve bombing targets on the Italian mainland. A veteran of countless missions, he has become cynical about the war and pessimistic about his chances of surviving. He should have been rotated home a long time ago, but the Wing's Commanding Officer, Colonel Cathcart, keeps raising the number of missions required to rotate out. Yossarian hits upon a plan to get sent home, but there's a catch.—grantss

Yossarian is a bombadier during World War II. He desperately tries to be declared insane by the U.S. Army Air Forces in order to go home. However, during the process he slowly watches each of his friends and crew die off in the horrors of war.

Captain John Yossarian (Alan Arkin), a U.S. Army Air Force B-25 bombardier, is stationed on the Mediterranean base on Pianosa during World War II. Along with his squadron members, Yossarian is committed to flying dangerous missions, but after watching friends die, he seeks a means of escape. Futilely appealing to his commanding officer, Colonel Chuck Cathcart (Martin Balsam) (Group Commander, 256th Bomb Group), who continually increases the number of missions required to rotate home before anyone can reach it, Yossarian learns that even a mental breakdown is no release when Dr. "Doc" Daneeka (Jack Gilford) (Group Flight Surgeon) explains the "Catch-22" the Army Air Force employs. Major Danby (Richard Benjamin) (Group Operations Officer) & Capt. Fr. Albert Taylor "A. T." Tappman (Anthony Perkins) (Chaplain). 1st Lt. Dobbs (Martin Sheen) (Pilot).

While most crews are rotated out after twenty-five, the minimum number of missions for this base is eventually raised to an unobtainable eighty missions: a figure resulting from Colonel Cathcart's craving for publicity, primarily a mention in the nationally syndicated Saturday Evening Post magazine. Catch-22, as explained by Doc Daneeka, the squadron flight surgeon: An airman would have to be crazy to fly more missions, and if he were crazy, he would be unfit to fly. Yet, if an airman would refuse to fly more missions, this would indicate that he is sane, which would mean that he would be fit to fly the missions, basically an impossible "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.

The bomber squadron is populated by many additional comically strange characters. Major Major Major (Bob Newhart) (Laundry Officer, later Squadron Commander), is promoted to a squadron commander without ever having flown in a plane (as the acting squadron commander died in a mission and Major is the only person close to the Major rank to the SC, even though Major insists that he was just a captain), and refuses to see anyone in his office while he is in, instructing Sergeant Towser (Norman Fell) (Desk Clerk) that people can see him when he's out. The person had to wait in the waiting room until Major Major Major was gone, then the visitor could go right in.

Yossarian begs Tappman to speak to Major Major to get him out of flying duties, but Tappman is never able to see him. So, Tappman mentions this to Cathcart when Cathcart calls him to start prayers before every mission (since some other Colonel got into the papers for starting this service in their unit). Brigadier General Dreedle (Orson Welles) (Wing Commander) comes for the latest mission briefing with his WAC (Susanne Benton) (a girl with enormous cans) & Lt. Col. Moodus (Austin Pendleton) (Dreedle's son-in-law).

Yossarian is haunted, in several recurring flashbacks during the film, by the bloody death of Snowden, the young turret gunner on his B-25. After Snowden's death, Yossarian temporarily refuses to wear his uniform, which Snowden bled on. He shows up at a medal ceremony (where Dreedle is presenting the medals. Cathcart is recommending the medals to the men even though they missed the target town and dropped the bombs 4 mins before hitting the ocean in a "marvellous bomb pattern". Cathcart tells Dreedle that court marshaling the men will bring unwanted attention to the outfit) naked, and later morosely sits naked in a tree, where he is visited by 1st Lt. Milo Minderbinder (Jon Voight) (Mess Officer), who rapidly progresses from squadron supply officer to a capitalistic tycoon involved in black-market money-making schemes.

Milo works with Cathcart to barter camp supplies to get fresh produce, which is sold to the soldiers in the unit for a neat profit. Milo sells all the silk in the unit (from the parachutes of the bombing squads) & all the blankets & morphine and gets luxuries (like Egyptian Cotton) that he and Cathcart can sell to the soldiers in exchange. The scheme hits a bump when there is a glut of Egyptian cotton in the market and Milo has 100 warehouses full of it everywhere in Europe. He cant sell any of it.

Trapped by this convoluted logic, Yossarian watches as individuals in the squadron resort to unusual means to cope; Lt. Milo Minderbinder concocts elaborate black-market schemes while crazed Captain "Aarfy" Aardvark (Charles Grodin) (Navigator) commits murder to silence a girl he raped. Lt. Edward J. Nately III (Art Garfunkel) (Pilot) falls for a prostitute, Major Danby delivers goofy pep talks before every bomb run and Captain Orr (Bob Balaban) (Pilot) keeps crashing at sea. Meanwhile, Nurse Duckett (Paula Prentiss) (Army Medical Nurse Corps) occasionally beds Yossarian.

Nately tells Yosarrian that Dobbs will try to kill Cathcart since he just increased the number of missions to 80. Nately and Yosarrian together stop Dobbs. That's when the trip observes Cathcart and Korn turning on all the lights of the runway at night.

Nately dies as a result of an agreement between Milo and the Germans, trading surplus cotton in exchange for the squadron bombing its own base. While on a pass, Yossarian finds that Milo has rounded up all the whores of the city under his syndicate, taking over the pimp business. Yossarian attacks Milo finding him accountable for Nately's death. Milo has his own private army, under the syndicate of M&M. He says that Nately died rich since he had 60 shares in the syndicate. Moli guides Yossarian to Nately's whore, to whom he explains the cause of Nately's death. The whore attacks him, as Yossarian barely escapes.

Because of Yossarian's constant complaints, Colonel Cathcart and Lt. Colonel Korn (Buck Henry) (Group XO) eventually agree to send him home, promising him a promotion to major and awarding him a medal for the fictitious saving of Cathcart's life; the only requirement being that Yossarian agrees to "like" the Colonels and praise them when he gets home.

Immediately after agreeing to Cathcart's and Korn's plan, Yossarian survives an attempt on his life when stabbed by Nately's Whore, who had disguised herself as an airman. Once recovered, Yossarian learns from the chaplain and Major Danby that Captain Orr's supposed death was a hoax and that Orr's repeated "crash" landings had been a subterfuge for practicing and planning his own escape from the madness. Yossarian is informed that Orr ditched the plane and paddled a rescue raft all the way to Sweden on his last run.

Yossarian decides to ditch the deal with Cathcart, leaps out of the hospital window, takes a raft from a damaged plane and, while a marching band practices for the ceremony to award Yossarian the promotion and medal, he hops into the sea, climbs into the raft and starts paddling.