Plot
Martin Harvey (Short) is a middle-aged office worker who lives in Chicago with his wife Katherine (Place), 11-year-old son Ben (Salisbury), and 16-year-old daughter Caroline (Sisto). When Martin learns that his recently deceased uncle has bequeathed him a sailing yacht once owned by Clark Gable, he decides to take the family to the island of Ste. Pomme de Terre ("Saint Potato" literately "Apple of Earth" ) to retrieve the boat so he can sell it. At first, Katherine resists the idea of taking the family away from work and school, but she agrees after Caroline announces that she has just gotten engaged to an uncouth young man.
When the Harveys arrive at the island, they discover that the yacht, the Wanderer, is in terrible condition. Upon hearing this, the yacht broker cancels his plan to send an experienced captain to help them sail to Miami, and instead hires a local sailor. Captain Ron Rico (Russell) arrives at the dock a bit later. He is a one-eyed man with a very casual attitude, a Navy veteran who claims to have piloted the USS Saratoga. He initially plans to inspect the yacht before setting sail, but he decides to launch immediately when he discovers that the car he arrived in has rolled off the dock and sank. As the Wanderer motors out to sea, the man who owns the car arrives at the dock, shouts "You stole my wife!", and tries to shoot Captain Ron.
As the story progresses, we learn that Captain Ron is different from anything the family has ever experienced. He has no problem taking Ben's money in a game of Monopoly, giving him beers to drink and then charging him for them later, but shows a surprising loyalty to Martin, who he only refers to as "Boss". Martin, however, doesn't like Captain "Moron", as he calls him in his diary. It appears that he is getting strangely close to his family, and also believes that he doesn't know what he's doing. The other family members learn to love Captain Ron and his quirky life style.
While on their way to Miami, the family decides to make the most of it, and stop off at certain islands of the Caribbean, but learn that Captain Ron doesn't know how to navigate. While on a random island that they mistook for another place, Martin becomes infuriated with Captain Ron and decides to go on a "nature hike" instead of staying with his family to make the most of it. Captain Ron warns him to stay on the path, because of "guerrillas", which Martin shrugs off as ridiculous, believing him to mean "gorillas", but the angered Martin strays from the path only to run into guerrillas, led by General Armando (Sunshine Logroño). Captain Ron eventually bargains for Martin's freedom by giving them a lift to the next island, and receiving some firearms in return to fight off pirates. This only angers Martin more, as he declares there will be no firearms on his boat and tosses them overboard, before realizing that without them, he is indeed going to be forced to give the revolutionaries a ride.
When the family arrives at their next destination (San Juan, Puerto Rico), Martin and Katherine are arrested for smuggling revolutionaries onto the island. The children, however, have a great time partying with the locals and Captain Ron on the island which ends with Caroline getting a tattoo, Ben breaking his glasses and Captain Ron losing his glass eye. Martin and Katherine are released from jail, but are forced to leave the island that night. Martin decides to leave Captain Ron behind and go on without him. Not soon after, they encounter pirates, have the Wanderer stolen, and are stuck floating in the ocean on a raft. After some drifting, they land on the island of Cuba, much to Martin's dismay, and discover that their yacht is there. The pirates discover them, but with the surprising help of Captain Ron, they are able to escape with their boat. Captain Ron learns that the family underrates Martin and decides to play hurt, forcing Martin to take control in the escape of the pirates. Using the skills that Captain Ron taught the family, they are able to get their sails up after their engine breaks from lack of oil to better the distance between them and the pirates. In the end, the United States Coast Guard fires once at the pirates, scaring them away and creating a safe passage to Miami for the family.
They arrive in Miami and part ways with Captain Ron. As they sail to their destination, they decide to turn the boat around and keep it. Then a couple in another boat who envy the Harvey Family see them sail off. To their surprise, Captain Ron, now cleaned up with his hair pulled back and wearing a suit, pops up and says they should take the boat out for a spin.
Read more about this topic: Captain Ron
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“James’s great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofness—that is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually “taken place”Mthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, “gone on.””
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
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“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)