Approximately eighteen minutes into The Spanish Prisoner, there are three scenes that involve Joe Ross, the corporate designer and inventor protagonist of the film, and Susan Ricci, the new company secretary and, to that point in the narrative, Joe's potential romantic interest. The scenes take place in the first class compartment of a plane flying back to New York from the Caribbean islands. It was there where Joe, Susan and a few select employees of a New York-based company had enjoyed a short stay on the company's account, while trying to pitch to a group of investors and businessmen Joe's invention – a mathematical formula through which a corporation could control the global market and which is referred to throughout the film as ‘the process’. While on the island, Joe befriended a mysterious, well-off, middle-aged man named Julian ‘Jimmy’ Dell, with whom he made arrangements to meet in New York after agreeing to drop off to Dell's sister a package on his behalf.

The first of the three scenes opens with a shot of Joe in the plane corridor trying to find his seat. Susan and George Lang, Joe's business partner and company lawyer, follow him to their own seats. Noticing that Susan struggles to place her bags on the luggage compartment, Joe, who had earlier upgraded Susan's ticket from economy to first class, quickly volunteers to help her.