Plot
Howard Langston (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a workaholic mattress salesman, who does not find time for his wife, Liz (Rita Wilson), and his young son, Jamie (Jake Lloyd) - especially when compared to next door "superdad" divorcee, Ted Maltin (Phil Hartman), who continually puts Howard in a bad light. After missing Jamie's karate class, Howard resolves to redeem himself by fulfilling Jamie's ultimate Christmas wish: getting an action figure of Turbo-Man, a popular children's TV superhero toy that everyone is looking for. Along the way, Howard meets Myron Larabee (Sinbad), a postal worker dad with a rival ambition, and the two soon become bitter competitors in their race for the action figure. Also, during his search for the toy, Howard keeps running into Officer Alexander Hummell (Robert Conrad), a traffic cop who had earlier pulled him over for a traffic violation. After several failed attempts to find the toy in a store, Howard attempts to buy a Turbo-Man from a Mall of America Santa (James Belushi) who is actually the leader of a band of counterfeit toy makers. When he accuses the Santa of undermining the values of Christmas, Howard ends up in a brawl with the gang. Howard barely escapes when the police raid their warehouse and gets out by posing as an undercover detective.
Later, Howard and Myron cross paths again, and while they are drinking coffee at Mickey's Diner, Myron tells Howard about the time when his father was unable to get him a specific toy on Christmas. They hear on the KQRS radio station that the D.J. (Martin Mull) is running a Turbo-Man competition. When they get to the studio they find out they can only win a gift certificate. They are nearly arrested but Myron bluffs the police into backing off by threatening them with a package (which he claims is a mail bomb, unaware that it really is one). Officer Hummell tries to open it and it blows up in his face. After his car is stripped by thieves, Howard is ultimately forced to return home empty-handed. Upon seeing Ted in his house placing the star on his tree, Howard gets angry and attempts to steal the Turbo-Man doll from Ted's house, destined for Ted's son Johnny (E.J. De La Pena), but changes his mind. Before he has a chance to replace the doll, he is caught by Ted and a disappointed Liz. Howard decides to join his family at the city's Wintertainment Parade, as he promised his son he would do. Meanwhile, while Johnny and Jamie attend the parade together, Ted attempts to flirt with Liz, but she turns him down by hitting him with a thermos of eggnog.
On arrival at the parade, Howard runs into Officer Hummell and accidentally drenches him with hot coffee. In the ensuing chase, Howard runs into a preparations room and is mistaken as a live action Turbo-Man stuntman in the parade. As the "real" Turbo-Man, he uses the opportunity to present the coveted limited-edition Turbo-Man doll to his son in the crowd. But before he can recognize his father, Jamie is chased around the parade by Myron, who is dressed as Turbo-Man's arch enemy Dementor (having caught and tied up the real actor (Richard Moll)), while Howard does his best to keep up, though with little skill in controlling the Turbo-Man equipment.
Jamie is ultimately saved by Howard, who reveals himself to his son, Howard apologizes about everything to Officer Hummell, who looks at Howard with a surprise that Howard was Turbo Man, while Myron is escorted away by police while ranting about how he will explain the situation to his son. Touched by Myron's undying dedication to his own son, Jamie gives the doll to him, and tells Howard that he does not need the doll since his father is "the Real Turbo Man". The crowd carries Howard off praising him for his heroic actions, while Myron, Jamie, and Liz happily watch.
Back at home, Howard puts the star on his Christmas tree, his tradition, and shares a happy moment with his family before realizing that, with his quest to get a present for Jamie, he forgot to get Liz a Christmas gift.
Read more about this topic: Jingle All The Way
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“After I discovered the real life of mothers bore little resemblance to the plot outlined in most of the books and articles I’d read, I started relying on the expert advice of other mothers—especially those with sons a few years older than mine. This great body of knowledge is essentially an oral history, because anyone engaged in motherhood on a daily basis has no time to write an advice book about it.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“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 thickens,” he said, as I entered.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)