National Lampoons Family Vacation
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(micro)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
This cache is one in the series of “movie title” caches. Some will pertain to the Kootenay area, some not. The movie title series list will include “Mountie” movies, action packed thrillers , musicals and historical films.
As with all the cache hides the title will reveal a hint as to where the cache is stashed.
We had fun going thru the movie title list and picking and choosing which movie title to use.
Watch for the next attraction coming soon to a cache hide location near you.
the cache is camo'd container slightly larger than a 35 mm film canister.
The following is taken from the Wikipedia web site:
Vacation, sometimes referred as National Lampoon's Vacation, is a 1983 comedy film directed by Harold Ramis and starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, Dana Barron and Anthony Michael Hall. The film features numerous others, such as comedians John Candy and Imogene Coca, model Christie Brinkley, and Jane Krakowski in smaller roles.
The screenplay was written by John Hughes, based on his short story in National Lampoon Magazine, Vacation '58 (the screenplay changes the year to 1983). The original story is a (reportedly) fictionalized account of his own family's ill-fated trip to Disneyland (changed to Walley World for the film) when Hughes was a boy. The success of the film helped advance his screenwriting career.
National Lampoon's Vacation was a significant box-office hit, earning more than $61 million in the United States with an estimated budget of $15 million. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted National Lampoon's Vacation the 46th greatest comedy film of all time. It is widely considered to be the best film in National Lampoon's series of Vacation films, and continues to be a popular film and a staple on cable television channels. It also currently garners a 94% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[1]
•
Plot
Food additives researcher Clark Griswold (Chase), wanting to spend more time with wife Ellen (D'Angelo) as well as children Rusty and Audrey (Hall and Barron), decides to lead the family on a cross-country expedition from the suburbs of Chicago to Walley World—billed as "America's Favorite Family Fun Park"—in Los Angeles. Although Ellen wants to fly, he insists on driving, so he can bond with his family. The Griswolds' vacation goes awry before it starts.
Arriving to pick up the new car he purchased for the trip, Clark is informed by the dealership that the "Antarctic blue super-sports wagon with the CB radio and the optional rally fun pack" he ordered has not arrived. He is then conned into accepting a behemoth Wagon Queen Family Truckster — a hideous metallic pea-green station wagon. The gaudy car is clad in faux wood paneling, excessive bodywork, and features eight headlights. Clark initially protests and refuses to take possession of the car until he learns that his trade-in (a 1971-72 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser) has already been flattened in a car crusher. "You think you hate it now, but wait 'til you drive it", says salesman Ed (Levy). Arriving home, the engine roughly diesels on after shut off, and the air bag (clearly made from a garbage bag) deploys for no reason. When Ellen questions him, he finds himself repeating the dubious justifications heard at the dealership. Clark brushes off Ellen's last-ditch attempt to persuade him to fly to California instead, and the next morning they depart.
Reaching St. Louis, the Griswolds quickly become lost in a deteriorated neighborhood and pay $10 for useless directions, while their car is being tagged with the words "honky lips" and their hubcaps stolen. Continuing west, Clark falls asleep at the wheel and the car careens off the highway, through a small town, and stops (conveniently) in a motel parking lot. They stay overnight, where Ellen tries to enjoy a hot (and revealing) shower, until she is scared by Clark (in a homage to the infamous shower scene from Hitchcock's Psycho).
Meanwhile, Clark has had a series of on-road flirtatious encounters with a voluptuous young woman (Brinkley) driving a flashy red Ferrari 308 GTS; he casually flirts with her while Ellen dozes in the passenger seat, and (again) nearly wrecks the car. Later, the two go skinnydipping in the motel swimming pool in Arizona, but Clark is again frustrated when the entire motel is aroused by his shouted reaction to the cold water. Fearing repercussion from Ellen, Clark is surprised (and pleased) when she instead strips down and insists on skinnydipping as well.
An overnight stop in Coolidge, Kansas, to visit Ellen's cousin Catherine (Miriam Flynn) and her husband Eddie (Quaid) only increases the complications for everyone: Eddie hits Clark up for money and then foists crotchety old Aunt Edna (Coca) and her vicious dog Dinky on the Griswolds, so they can drop her off at her son Normy's home in Phoenix, Arizona, since it's "on the way". Cousin Eddie's son Dale (John P. Navin Jr.) introduces Rusty to pornography and masturbation, while Eddie's daughter Vicki (Jane Krakowski) shows Audrey a shoebox full of pot and boasts that her daddy thinks she's the best at French kissing ("daddy" was changed to "science teacher" for television broadcasts).
Once again on their way, the family stops at a picnic area, only to discover that Dinky the dog has urinated on the picnic basket. Everyone is revolted — except Aunt Edna, who shrugs off the flavor and continues eating. After leaving the smelly "Kamp Komfort", in South Fork, Colorado, they learn from an enraged motorcycle policeman (James Keach) that they have driven off with Dinky still tied to the rear bumper. The deceased dog apparently kept pace with the car "for a mile or so".
Lost in the desert, low on gas and arguing with Ellen, Clark crashes through closed road barriers and sails into the air, wrecking the car. Before leaving the family and setting off across the desert for help, Clark shares a beer with Rusty, and reassures him that he's in charge; taking a swig, Clark finds that there is nothing in the can and heads off to find a pay phone or a gas station. (This too was re-edited for television: when Clark opens and attempts to drink the beer it is inexplicably empty and Rusty is never shown drinking it. Yet Clark still tells Rusty not to let Ellen smell the beer on his breath.)
Clark is soon delirious and lost in the desert, until fortuitously finding his way to a gas station, not far from where he started. There, he is reunited with the rest of the family, but is swindled out of his remaining cash ("$500 for four bald tires and a tow") by dishonest mechanics — one of whom also happens to be the local county Sheriff. At the Grand Canyon, Clark is rebuffed trying to cash a check at the El Tovar hotel, eventually going so far as an unsuccessful attempt to bribe the uncooperative hotel clerk (Henry Gibson). Frustrated and ignored, Clark slams his hands on the desk, whereupon the hotel's cash register pops open. Clark cleans it out, but leaves the $1,000 check.
Off again, Rusty and Audrey soon discover that Aunt Edna is not napping, but has died in her sleep. Everyone protests against riding with the dead Aunt Edna inside, so Clark wraps the body in a tarp, and straps the rigor mortised cadaver to the roof of the car. Arriving through a heavy downpour, the Griswolds find Normie is out of town, so Aunt Edna's body is left propped up in a lawn chair in the backyard. The gang thoughtfully leaves a pinned-on note explaining what has happened.
Disillusioned by the disastrous turn of events, Ellen and the kids beg to return home, before anything else can go wrong. Clark, however, is now grimly determined to see his vacation through, and insists they press on, but not before going into a screaming tirade (".....this is no longer a vacation, it's a quest. It's a quest for fun.....You'll be whistling Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah out of your assholes!!!....."). The next day, the Griswolds finally arrive at Walley World — only to find the parking lots strangely silent and empty.
At first congratulating themselves for arriving early, they soon encounter a giant talking statue of Marty Moose, whose goofy cartoon voice tells them, "Sorry folks! We're closed for two weeks to clean and repair America's favorite family fun park!" Clark angrily punches the statue in the nose, caving it in and causing a slurred repeat of the message.
Incredulous and now completely out of control, Clark buys a realistic-looking BB gun and returns to the park, where he holds security guard Russ Lasky (Candy) at gunpoint, and demands to be allowed into the park. The Griswolds ride several rides with Lasky in tow, while everyone tries to feign enjoyment to placate the obviously out-of-control father. Eventually, the SWAT team arrives.
Clark and his family are about to be arrested when owner Roy Walley (Eddie Bracken) himself intervenes, opting not to press charges after hearing Clark's impassioned epitome of the American Vacation—and about the nearly two weeks of living hell the family has spent trying to drive to Walley World from Chicago. Walley identifies with Clark's predicament, recounting his own hellish experiences taking his family on vacation years ago. At last, the Griswolds, now guests of the owner of Walley World himself, can enjoy their vacation, as the film's final scene implies.
In the end credits, various vacation photos of the Griswolds are shown, including the family having evidently abandoned their car and flying home.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Whfg unatvat nebhaq