July 26, 1985
National Lampoon's European Vacation is a 1985 American comedy film directed by Amy Heckerling and written by Robert Klane based on characters created by John Hughes. The second film in National Lampoon's Vacationfilm series, it stars Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Dana Hill, Jason Lively, Victor Lanoux, and Eric Idle with special appearances by John Astin, Paul Bartel, Maureen Lipman, Willy Millowitsch, Mel Smith, and Moon Zappa. It tells the story of the Griswold family when they win an all-expense-paid trip to Europe as chaos of all sorts occur. The film received mixed reviews from critics and audiences, making it the weakest of the original trilogy, but was a financial success.
Storyline
Sometime after their trip to Wally World, the Griswold family competes in a game show called Pig in a Poke and win an all-expense-paid trip to Europe. They first stay in a sordid London hotel with a sloppy, tattooed Cockney desk clerk. While in their English rental car, a yellow Austin Maxi, Clark's tendency to drive on the wrong side of the road causes frequent accidents. Later, Clark drives the family around the busy Lambeth Bridge roundabout for hours, unable to maneuver out of the chaotic traffic. At Stonehenge, he accidentally backs the car into an ancient stone monolith, toppling all but one of the stones like dominoes.
In Paris, the family's camcorder is stolen by a passerby whom Clark had asked to take a picture of the family. Clark is also mocked by a French waiter for his terrible French, although he does not realize it. The family wears stenciled berets, causing Rusty to be teased by young women at the Eiffel Tower observation deck. Clark offers to get rid of the beret for Rusty, but when he throws it away, another visitor's dachshund mistakes it for a frisbee and jumps off the tower after it, landing safely in a nearby fountain. Later, Clark and Ellen visit a bawdy Paris can-can dance show, finding Rusty there with a prostitute.
Next in a West German village, the Griswolds burst in on a bewildered elderly couple, whom they mistakenly think are relatives due to misreading the address, but the couple provides them dinner and lodging anyway, neither family understanding the other's language. Clark turns a lively Bavarian folk dance stage performance into an all-out street brawl, which he flees, hastily knocking down several street vendors' stands and gets their Citroën DS stuck in a narrow medieval archway.
In Rome, the Griswolds rent a car at a travel office, but unknown to them, the men in charge are thieves holding the real manager captive. The lead thief gives them a car with the manager in the trunk, claiming he lost the trunk keys. The next day, Ellen is shocked to discover that private, sexy videos of her from the family's stolen camcorder have been used in a billboard advertising porn, leaving her humiliated. After screaming at Clark, who had lied about erasing the video, Ellen storms off to their hotel, where she encounters the thief who rented them the car. She confesses her troubles, still unaware that he is a criminal. The man then tries to get the car keys, which are in her purse, but fails. When the police arrive at the hotel, he kidnaps Ellen and takes her away in the Volkswagen Beetle. Clark chases the thief all over Rome until he ends it up in a fountain. The police arrest the thief.
On the flight home, Clark tries to find a WC, but falls into the pilot's cockpit and accidentally forces the plane to drop altitude, knocking the Statue of Liberty's torch upside down as Rusty declares "Yep, the Griswolds are back."
Also See
- National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)
- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
- Vegas Vacation (1997)
- Vacation (2015)
Movie Trailer
- National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985) (Trailers)