Vacation is a 2015 American road comedy film written and directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (in their directorial debuts). It stars Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Leslie Mann, Beverly D'Angelo, Chris Hemsworth, and Chevy Chase. It is the fifth and final theatrical installment of the Vacation film series, serving as a standalone sequel to Vegas Vacation (1997). It is also the second not to carry the National Lampoon name after Vegas Vacation, and was released by New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. on July 29, 2015. It successfully grossed $104 million on a $31 million budget but received generally negative reviews.
Plot
Rusty Griswold is now working as a pilot for the low budget regional airline Econo-Air, living in suburban Chicago and in a stale relationship with his wife Debbie and their two sons, shy and awkward 14-year-old James, and sadistic 12-year-old Kevin, who constantly bullies and torments his older brother. The gloating from his friends Jack and Nancy Peterson about a family trip they had in Paris does not help matters.
Desiring to relive his childhood family vacations and holiday gatherings, Rusty surprises his family with an alternative summer vacation. Rather than their annual trip to a cabin in Cheboygan, Michigan (which everyone else secretly hated), he plans a road trip from Chicago to Walley World, just like he did with his parents and sister. For the trip, Rusty rents a Tartan Prancer, an ugly, over-complicated Albanian SUV.
Along the way, the Griswolds take many detours. The first stop is in Memphis, where it is revealed that the otherwise mild-mannered Debbie was an extremely promiscuous Tri Pi sorority sister nicknamed 'Debbie Do Anything'. To prove that she was the rebellious student, Debbie attempts to run an obstacle course while drunk, but fails miserably. While staying at a motel, James meets Adena, a girl his age that he saw while driving on the highway, but she is scared off by Rusty's failed attempts to be a "wingman".
In Arkansas, they are led to a supposedly hidden hot spring by a "helpful" local, eventually realizing that it is actually a raw sewage dump. They return to their SUV, only to see that it has been broken into, sprayed with graffiti, and emptied of their luggage and cash.
Stopping in Plano, Texas, they get help from Rusty's sister Audrey and her attractive husband Stone Crandall. Rusty begins to fear problems in his relationship with Debbie due to her seeming acceptance of Stone's obvious sexual advances, but she rebuffs his suspicions; Stone then walks in on them and shows off his muscular body and oversized genitalia.
Spending the following night at a Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona, Rusty and Debbie sneak away and attempt to have sex at the Four Corners Monument, where officers from all four states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico confront them. When the officers start arguing about who gets to make the arrest, Rusty and Debbie sneak away. James encounters Adena again, and finally asserts himself against Kevin thanks to her encouragement.
The next morning, they nearly get killed by Chad, a Grand Canyon rafting guide, who had just been dumped by his fiancé. Later, their SUV runs out of gas in the middle of the desert, and Rusty's unfamiliarity with the key fob causes the vehicle to explode, leading him to walk off dispirited and alone, thinking about the disastrous trip. Unfortunately, they have been tracked down by a seemingly unstable truck driver, who they think has been stalking them throughout the trip. In actuality, he has been actually trying to return Debbie's missing wedding ring. He ends up giving them a lift to San Francisco.
There, they spend the night at a bed and breakfast run by Rusty's parents, Clark and Ellen. They intend to fly home the next day, but Rusty and Debbie face each other about their stale marriage and decide to start over again. With some encouragement from Clark the next morning, Rusty borrows his father's Wagon Queen Family Truckster and drives Debbie and the boys to Walley World to ride their newest roller coaster, the Velociraptor.
After spending the entire day waiting in line, they are cut off by Ethan, a rival pilot who Rusty knows from Chicago, and his family before the announcement of the park's closing. A fight breaks out, which the Griswolds win, forcing the other family to flee. The Griswolds finally board the ride, but it stalls halfway up the butterfly inversion, and they are rescued several hours later.