Vacation
Short description
Vacation follows Rusty Griswold, now an adult with a family of his own, who hopes to strengthen the bond between his wife Debbie and their two sons by recreating the cross-country trip he took as a child. He piles everyone into a car and sets off for Walley World, the theme park his parents once dragged him to, but the journey quickly turns into a string of mishaps and detours. Along the way the family stops in on Rusty's sister Audrey and her husband Stone, and the question of whether they will ever actually reach their destination becomes increasingly doubtful.
The 2015 comedy was directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, who also wrote the screenplay and made their feature directorial debut with this film; they went on to direct Game Night, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and Mayday. Ed Helms leads as Rusty, with Christina Applegate as Debbie, Skyler Gisondo and Steele Stebbins as the sons, and Leslie Mann and Chris Hemsworth as Audrey and Stone. It runs 99 minutes.
Made for a budget of 31 million dollars, the film took in roughly 104 million dollars worldwide, a solid return. Audience reaction was moderate: on IMDb it holds 6.2/10 from about 132,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.3/10 from a much smaller base of just over 4,000 votes. A film critics' rating of 4.2/10 from 175 reviews places professional opinion well below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Jason Sudeikis, Adam Sandler, and Michael Rosenbaum also auditioned for the role that went to Ed Helms.
- Initially, John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein were hired for the project only as screenwriters and did not even anticipate becoming the film's directors.
- The river rafting scene was filmed at three different locations.
- The first film in the series was shot in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio.
- The van the Griswolds travel in is a modified Toyota Previa.
- When the Griswolds are eating with Audrey and Stone, the cow in the background intermittently disappears and reappears.
- The pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee, is visible to the left of the Griswolds' direction of travel. However, since they are traveling to California, they should have been leaving Memphis in this scene, not arriving.
- After the Griswolds head to San Francisco, they drive across the Golden Gate Bridge. However, since they were previously headed to Southern California and had only passed the Four Corners, they are definitely traveling from the south, where they wouldn't have crossed the Golden Gate Bridge as it's north of San Francisco.
- In one scene, Russ claims the pilot took the plane (later identified as an A318) to an altitude of 60,000 feet. This is impossible, as the maximum altitude for that type of aircraft is approximately 40,000 feet.
- When Kevin speaks into the walkie-talkie, it's clearly visible that he isn't pressing the transmit button.
- When Rusty decided to do a 180-degree drift, the car flipped several times and the side mirrors on both sides of the car were damaged. The next day, the mirrors are in perfect condition.
- At the beginning of the film, Rusty looks through a photo album, the pictures in which are frames from the previous four films in the series: 'Vacation' (1983), 'European Vacation' (1985), 'Christmas Vacation' (1989), and 'Vegas Vacation' (1997).
- The roller coaster shown in the trailer is the 'The Ninja' attraction from the 'Six Flags Over Georgia' amusement park. However, in the film itself, the 'Colossus and Revolution' roller coasters from 'Six Flags Magic Mountain' were used.
- Chris Hemsworth was born in 1983, the same year the first film in this series, 'Vacation,' was released.
- The film's director, John Francis Daley, appeared as the operator of the "Velociraptor" ride.
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