[4] It tells the story of a successful airline executive in his thirties who, despite a loving family and fulfilling career, experiences an existential crisis when his best friend unexpectedly dies of a heart attack.

The film satirizes 1980s suburban culture, particularly the yuppie fear of death in spite of professional, financial, and social success.

After learning from Pat's wife that he may have ignored impending signs of death, including chronic lethargy and premature erectile dysfunction, Ray becomes a full-blown hypochondriac.

Though Ray's cardiologist informs him that his test results are routine and show only common Mitral valve prolapse, he spends a large sum of money on state-of-the-art home diagnostic equipment at a medical supply company.

On the operating table, Ray suffers cardiac arrest and has a near death experience in which Pat escorts him to their allotted space in the afterlife.

Ray is troubled to discover Heaven, for he and Pat, is a motel in the desert populated almost exclusively by White people who attend round-the-clock A cappella poolside concerts.

Pat explains that, due to their aviation connections, the pair have been assigned to Howard Hughes' version of Heaven, where there are a minimum of black people, everyone is a teetotaler, and no one enjoys swimming.

Ray spontaneously remembers the punchline to Pat's joke-- Italians don't have barbecues-- "The spaghetti would fall through the grill"-- and achieves a sense of closure over his death.

[5] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two out of four, and wrote: "The problem with Checking Out is that it provides us with fears we can understand and responses that seem to have been phoned in from a sitcom.