Plot Summary

Having it all planned down to the last detail, well-meaning American paterfamilias Clark Griswold and his supportive wife Ellen take their two teenagers, Rusty and Audrey, on a cross-country trip from the suburbs of Chicago all the way to sunny California's Walley World amusement park. However, anything that could go wrong does, and before long Ellen's cousin Catherine and her husband Eddie enter the picture and Clark is on the verge of blowing a gasket. Roy Walley's wonderful park seems farther and farther away, and although the prospect of a clandestine meeting with the alluring blonde in the fast 1981 Ferrari 308 GTSi sounds tempting, Clark must do the right thing and find the promised land. How hard can it be to have the perfect vacation?—Nick Riganas