Miriam Flynn

Following the approval of the food preservative he helped create that keeps perishable goods fresh for years, Clark Griswold receives the bonus that Frank Shirley promised him in the last movie. He tells his family that he and his wife Ellen are going on vacation to celebrate and reaffirm their vows. Clark's announcement that they are going to Las Vegas, however, dampens the excitement. Las Vegas is not known for being a family-friendly place, so Ellen and her teenage daughter Audrey are hesitant, but their teenage son Rusty seems more excited. When the Griswolds first arrive in Vegas, they visit Cousin Eddie, the husband of Ellen's cousin Catherine, and go to a Siegfried & Roy show. Eddie now resides with his family on a former hydrogen bomb test site in the desert north of Las Vegas. Clark is separated from the group during a guided tour of the Hoover Dam by Arty after he unintentionally causes a leak in the interior walkways and must scale the scaffolding to the top of the dam in order to escape. The following evening, they discover to their surprise that a dress for Ellen and tickets to a Wayne Newton concert have been delivered to their hotel room. They discover that Newton sent the dress when they arrive at the concert. As he sings, he visits their table and invites Ellen to join him on stage. The following day, the family consents to a "alone day" and is left on their own. Following his visit to a casino, Clark develops a gambling addiction. Rusty becomes a successful high roller after purchasing a phony ID from a Frank Sinatra impersonator. Vicki, Eddie's free-spirited exotic dancer daughter, and her friends begin to hang out with Audrey. Wayne Newton, who is attracted to Ellen, spends time with her. When Clark gambles away the family's $22,600 bank account, Ellen becomes enraged and the children leave him. Audrey and Vicki visit a strip club and Audrey secures a job as a go-go dancer, while Rusty wins four cars from four different slot machines. Since the Griswolds have helped Clark and his family so much, Eddie, who has money buried in his front yard, tries to help him. When Clark and Eddie visit a casino to retrieve their money, Clark also gambles away Eddie's money. Afterwards, he understands that he must get his family back and no longer cares about getting his money back. Clark brings his family together from the Vegas area, and they play keno to spend their final two dollars. They are seated next to an elderly man who tells Clark how happy he is with his family and suggests that he has always been lonely. In a show of compassion, Clark advises the man to spend the night with the Griswold family. The game starts after the man gladly accepts Clark's offer. Initially hopeful, the Griswolds sit in silence as they come to terms with their defeat. The man next to them abruptly announces that he has won the game. While Ellen sends Rusty for assistance, he drifts in and out of consciousness in his emotional outburst. He survives long enough to speak to Clark in a whisper. According to Clark, who is perplexed, the man said, "Take the ticket." The man is declared dead by the paramedics and casino security officers upon their arrival. Mr. Ellis was his name, and they tell the Griswolds that he would have done anything for a friend. In front of Eddie's relatives, Clark and Ellen exchange vows of marriage after winning a lot of money. In return for his generosity, Clark then gives Eddie $5,000. Rusty won four cars from the slot machines: a white Ford Aspire, a black Hummer H1, a maroon Ford Mustang, and a red Dodge Viper. The Griswolds drive home in these vehicles.

Babe, an orphaned piglet, is chosen for a "guess the weight" contest at a county fair. The winning farmer, Arthur Hoggett, brings him home and allows him to stay with a Border Collie named Fly, her mate Rex and their puppies, in the barn. A duck named Ferdinand, who crows as roosters are said to every morning to wake people so he will be considered useful and be spared from being eaten, persuades Babe to help him destroy the alarm clock that threatens his mission. Despite succeeding in this, they wake Duchess, the Hoggetts' cat, and in the confusion accidentally destroy the living room. At the barn meeting, Rex sternly instructs Babe to stay away from Ferdinand (now a fugitive) and the house. Sometime later, when Fly's puppies are put up for sale, Babe asks if he can call her "Mom". Christmas brings a visit from the Hoggetts' relatives. Babe is almost chosen for Christmas dinner but a duck is picked instead after Hoggett remarks to his wife Esme that Babe may bring a prize for ham at the next county fair. On Christmas Day, Babe justifies his existence by alerting Hoggett to sheep rustlers stealing sheep from one of the fields. The next day, Hoggett sees Babe sort the hens, separating the brown from the white ones. Impressed, he takes him to the fields and allows him to try and herd the sheep. Encouraged by an elder ewe named Maa, the sheep cooperate, but Rex sees Babe's actions as an insult to sheepdogs and confronts Fly in a vicious fight for encouraging Babe. He injures her leg and accidentally bites Hoggett's hand when he tries to intervene. Rex is then chained to the dog house, muzzled and sedated, leaving the sheep-herding job to Babe. One morning, Babe is awakened by the sheep's cries and finds three dogs attacking them. Although he manages to scare them off, Maa is mortally injured and dies as a result. Hoggett arrives and, thinking that Babe killed her, prepares to shoot him. Fly is so anxious to find out whether he is guilty or innocent that, instead of barking orders at the sheep, she talks to them to find out what happened. Learning the truth, she barks to distract Hoggett, delaying him until Esme mentions that the police say feral dogs have been killing sheep on neighboring farms and asks him why he has taken his shotgun out. When Esme leaves on a trip, Hoggett signs Babe up for a local sheep-herding competition. As it is raining the night before, Hoggett lets him and Fly into the house. However, Duchess scratches him when he tries to speak to her, so Hoggett immediately confines her outside. When she is let back in later, she gets revenge on Babe by revealing that humans eat pigs. Horrified, he runs out to the barn and learns from Fly that this is true. The next morning, Fly discovers that Babe has run away. She and Rex alert Hoggett and they all search for him. Rex finds him in a cemetery and Hoggett brings him home. However, he is still demoralized and refuses to eat. Hoggett gives him a drink from a baby bottle, sings to him "If I Had Words" and dances a jig for him. This restores Babe's faith in Hoggett's affection and he begins eating again. At the competition, Babe meets the sheep that he will be herding, but they ignore his attempts to speak to them. As Hoggett is criticized by the bemused judges and ridiculed by the public for using a pig instead of a dog, Rex runs back to the farm to ask the sheep what to do. They give him a secret password, first extracting a promise that he will treat them better from now on. He returns in time to convey the password to Babe, and the sheep now follow his instructions flawlessly. Amid the crowd's acclamation, he is unanimously given the highest score. While he sits down next to the farmer, Hoggett praises him with the standard command to sheep dogs that their job is done, "That'll do, Pig. That'll do."

The Griswold family's plans for a big family Christmas predictably turn into a big disaster. It's Christmas time and the Griswolds are preparing a big family celebration, but things never run smoothly for Clark, his wife Ellen and their two kids. Clark's perennial bad luck is aggravated by his obnoxious family guests, but he manages to keep going knowing that his Christmas bonus is due soon. —Rob Hartill / edited by Hans Delbruck Clark Wilhelm Griswold wants to have a special "Griswold Family Christmas", and after months of careful planning he invites both of his parents, both of his wife, Ellen's parents even his uncle Louis and his senile aunt Bethany. Clark even prepares his house for Christmas with over 20,000 lights and a tree. As Christmas eve comes, Clark will soon realize that a series of unfortunate events will start to unravel for him. Can Clark keep it together and understand the true meaning of Christmas? —John Wiggins After the colossal blunders in National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) and National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985), well-meaning Clark Griswold wants to have a good old-fashioned Christmas. But it takes more than good intentions to organise the ideal holiday. And this year, Clark will have to work twice as hard to create the perfect illusion. After all, no one can work miracles when unsophisticated relatives crash your party, monumentally defective electronics threaten to blow the house to smithereens, and a cinematic brush with the law jeopardises the celebration. Perhaps one thing can save the day: the Griswolds must work together. But how hard can it be to get into the spirit and host the most memorable Christmas vacation? —Nick Riganas

Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) is a food processing salesman living in Chicago, Illinois who wants to spend more time with wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) and his teen children Rusty (Anthony Michael Hall) and Audrey (Dana Barron). So, he decides to lead the family on a cross-country expedition from Chicago to the Los Angeles amusement park, "Walley World", billed as "America's Favorite Family Fun Park". In the opening scene, Clark and Rusty drive to a local car dealer lot where he decides to purchase a new sports wagon for the cross-country drive. But the conniving salesman Ed (Eugene Levy), tells him that the car he ordered never arrived and scams Clark into taking in its place a more gas-guzzling, technically failing, behemoth station wagon called the Wagon Queen Family Truckster. Clark refuses to be conned, but after his old station wagon, a 1970 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, is "accidentally" crushed by a compacter machine, Clark is left with no choice but to take the Family Truckster. At home, although Ellen tells Clark that she wants to fly to California for their two-week vacation, he insists on driving, so he can bond with his family. The next day, the family packs into their new car for the long drive to California, only to have all their luggage strapped to the top of the station wagon fall off after they back out of the garage... a bad omen of things to come. During the first day's drive, Clark and Ellen try to ease the boredom by singing old folk songs including the so-called Wally World National Anthem. Rusty and Audrey take their escape by listening to their radio Walkman's of their favorite rock group The Ramones. While stopping for gas, Clark cannot find the gas tank opening, and accidentally tears off the station wagon's license plate searching for it. Later that same day, the family arrives in St. Louis, Missouri, but after crossing the Mississippi River into the city, they get lost and end up in a rough ghetto area where some local street hoodlums steal their hubcaps and spray paint graffiti on one side of their car while giving them sham directions back to the local expressway. While driving late at night on the interstate west of St. Louis, all of the family falls asleep... including Clark driving in which their car exits the road and roars through a residential neighborhood, tearing up several yards, before stopping for the night at a local motel. Clark has planned a romantic evening at the motel with Ellen with wine and quarters for the vibrating mattress, but the mattress is loud and starts bouncing wildly. Clark pulls blankets onto the floor and they crawl under the covers, ready for sex. The kids rush in from the connecting room to investigate the noise. Rusty unplugs the bed before the kids go back to their room. On the second day of the vacation (Day 2), the family arrives in Dodge City, Kansas without further incident where Clark falls victim to another tourist trap when he insults the local bartender at a Western-themed tavern, and gets shot with a round of blanks. Back on the road, Clark is tempted by a hot young woman (Christie Brinkley) driving a flashy red 1983 Ferrari 308 GTS, with a California license place that reads LUV ME. That afternoon, the Griswolds arrive at a farm outside of Coolidge, Kansas to visit Ellen's cousin Catherine (Miriam Flynn) and her eccentric husband Eddie Johnston (Randy Quaid), and their five kids, plus one on the way, creating more tension among the Griswolds. Catherine and Eddie foist crotchety old Aunt Edna (Imogene Coca) and her vicious dog, Dinky, on the Griswolds, asking them to drop her off at her son Normy's home in Phoenix, Arizona. Eddie also asks for a loan of $500 to help him out with numerous debits he owns the local bank and many bill collectors. The kids have better experiences with Eddie and Catherine's eldest kids. Cousin Vicki (Jane Krakowski) shows Audrey her secret pot stash, while Cousin Dale (John Navin) shows Rusty his secret porn magazine collection. The next day (Day 3), the Griswolds along with Aunt Edna and Dinky drive off. During a picnic stop in Colorado, Clark has another encounter with the young woman in the red Ferrari whom is parked and dancing to pop music. The Griswolds stop for the night in a run-down, dirty campground in South Fork, Colorado where they survive another tourist trap for the night as well as deal with Edna's vicious dog. The next day (Day 4), the Griswolds and Aunt Edna pack up and leave the campground for Arizona. But while packing the car, Clark forgets to untie the nasty Dinky from the car's rear bumper before leaving. Clark does not realize his error until he is pulled over by a local motorcycle cop (James Keach) to angrily inform him of his mistake that has led to the apparent death of the dog. Nevertheless, the policeman, overcome by his own memory of his childhood dog, allows Clark to proceed on his way. During the drive, Clark again sees the young woman driving the red Ferrari while everyone else is asleep. Tempted to keep speed with her, Clark accelerates & almost has an accident. Subsequently, one of the suitcases falls off the car, which contains all of Ellen's credit cards. The next day (Day 5), the family gets lost on a back road somewhere between Utah and Arizona where while Clark and Ellen argue, they accidentally drive off the road, missing a large roadblock and get into an accident, damaging the Wagon Queen Family Truckster and stranding them near Monument Valley. Clark hikes off into the desert and spends many hours wondering aimlessly in the hot and arid desert until he finds a gas station... only to find the family there after they were rescued by some local Indians whom had a camel to tow their car to the very station. After making some half-hearted repairs, the lead redneck mechanic (Mickey Jones), who also happens to be the local sheriff, intimidates/scams Clark out of all the money he has on him (over $500 for the repairs). But they manage to get to the Grand Canyon Village to check in for the night. The next day (Day 6), the frustrated Clark realizes that in reporting Ellen's lost credit cards to their hometown bank, the bank had frozen Clark's credit cards by accident and Clark cannot convince the stuffy hotel manager (James Staley) to take a $1,000 personal check to pay for their rooms for the night. With the hotel manager distracted for a few minutes when he has to answer a ringing telephone, Clark steals all the cash in the hotel's cash register, leaves behind the $1,000 check, and flees the hotel like a Wild West bank robber, grabs the family away from the scenic sight of the Grand Canyon, and speeds away. Continuing through Arizona, they find that Aunt Edna passed away in her sleep. With little options, they decide to drive to Phoenix anyway and deliver her to her son Normy's house (with the dead Aunt Edna tied to the roof of their car). When they reach Normy's home that evening in a raging thunderstorm, they discover he is out of town, and leave Edna's rigor mortised body on a lawn chair in the backyard, over Ellen's objections. Clark concedes to Ellen's request they say a prayer for the dear departed Edna. Despite all the events and the begging of Ellen and the kids, Clark is more determined than ever to get to Walley World. They check into a motel for the night where after another argument with Ellen, Clark hangs out at the motel's bar where he has a face-to-face-encounter with the beautiful young woman from the red Ferrari and they make small talk about things. The woman beckons Clark to go skinny dipping with her in the motel's swimming pool, but upon diving in, Clark screams over his reaction to the cold pool water... thus waking up the entire motel, including Ellen, Rusty, and Audrey. When the woman takes her leave, Clark goes back to apologize to Ellen who demands that Clark repay the favor by taking him back to the pool to skinny dip with her. The next day (Day 7), the family finally arrives in Los Angeles, California and arrives at Wally World... only to find that the park is closed for the next two weeks for repairs. Clark, slipping into madness seeing all the week's struggles had been for nothing, buys a realistic-looking BB gun from a local sporting goods store, returns to Wally World, and demands to a overweight and geekish park security guard named Russ Lasky (John Candy) to take them through the park; Ellen and kids follow him, attempting to placate their father. Eventually an LAPD SWAT team arrives along with park owner Roy Walley (Eddie Bracken) and they arrest the whole family. Clark manages to talk to Roy who surprisingly understands Clark's impassioned epitome of the American Vacation, describing his own memory of a less-than-enjoyable cross-country trip he took with his own family to Florida. Roy does not file charges against the Griswolds, and lets the family enjoy the park as his guests, along with the police and SWAT team who are seen riding on the park's top roller coaster attraction in the final shot of the movie. The end credits show various still photographs of the Griswolds enjoying the rest of the vacation at all the various stops they made over the course of the movie, including a final frame of them returning to Chicago via plane... having abandoned their gas-guzzling car in California.