Headscratchers / National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

• During the Wal-Mart scene, Cousin Eddie mentions that he coasted from Gurnee, IL to Clark's house. So how did he have enough gas in his tank to drive to and from Clark's boss's house in the climax?
  • He says that the "gas money" ran out. He says that they will also be leaving "next month." Most likely, he has some pension money going to a bank account, which will replenish at the beginning of the month. Since he planned on staying at Clark's until then, he could drive to the Shirley house and back with what was left in the tank.
  • It's also possible/likely that Clark gave him enough to fill up the tank as part of the whole, "We want to give you a good Christmas," thing.
    • Giving Eddie a full tank of gas makes perfect sense for Clark. After all, he would dearly love for them to leave.

• It makes absolutely no sense how Eddie was able to track down Clark's boss and kidnap him. Clark makes the comment about his boss "living on Melody Lane with all the other rich people" but this sounds like a sarcastic comment made in anger rather than an accurate statement of where his boss lives. I highly doubt that his boss lives on a street called Melody Lane. But for the sake of argument let's just say he does...it would still be impossible for Eddie to track him down for the following reasons: 1. Clark doesn't give Eddie the exact street address. 2. Eddie is not from Chicago and is completely unfamiliar with the area. 3. GPS and Mapquest did not exist in 1989. 4. Eddie is an idiot. Also....Did Eddie just walk right in his house? Frank Shirley doesn't lock his doors? A man of his wealth doesn't have an alarm system?
  • By the same token, how do the police know where to track Eddie down later?
  • Clark likely had Mr. Shirley's address written down in an address book or Eddie looked for a "Shirley, Frank" listing in the phonebook which would have had Mr. Shirley's address printed beside the name. If Melody Lane is the actual street name, there's also the possibility that Eddie drove past Melody Lane on the way to Clark's house and simply backtracked and drove down the street until he came to a house that had "Shirley" printed on the mailbox.
  • As for the house seeming to not have an alarm system, it likely does but Mr. Shirley, being a grouchy old man, probably got tired of having to enter a code to disarm it every time he wanted to open a door leading outside and having to deal with a shrill alarm and answering to the police every time he forgot so he just had the system uninstalled or shut off.
  • And as for some of the doors not being locked, he may not have worried about intruders trespassing indoors because some people never think it'll happen to them until it does.
    • Yes it is possible that Eddie may have found his address written down or in the phone book but locating the actual street in a large urban area like Chicago would be like finding a needle in a haystack in the pre GPS era for someone like Eddie who was not from that area. Yes he may have passed the so-called Melody Lane on his way to Clark's house but what are really the chances of that? Would Eddie even remember that? He's not the sharpest tool in the shed. One would also think that Mr. Shirley would probably live in a gated community which would make it even more challenging for Eddie to get to him.
    • Mapquest was not around in 1989 but actual maps were. Since Eddie's family lives in an RV, they would undoubtedly have numerous maps, including at least one of the city of Chicago since his cousin (Ellen) lives there. He likely used that map to find the Griswold's street since he would already have their address so he most likely opened up that map, looked around it for a Melody Lane, and simply drove there while using the map as a reference for directions.

• I know is a comedy but, doesn't Julia Louis-Dreyfus' character look too intact to have been attacked by a Rottweiler? Rottweilers truly can kill or gravely maim.
  • Snots was after the squirrel, not her. She happened to catch the squirrel that this very large dog was pursuing and he likely got overly excited and jumpy at the prospect of "squirrel + new hooman"! Plus, Snots is not particularly aggressive or dangerous and dogs are known to jump when getting excited around new people and accidental injuries can result from dogs claws having not been trimmed a while.

• When Clark is in the attic, his mother-in-law Frances notices the hallway is cold and sees the ladder to the attic hanging out and closes it. Doesn't she realize that maybe the ladder is out because somebody is up there? Then when everyone is leaving to go shopping and wondering what happened to Clark she doesn't think "Hey! The ladder to the attic was out so maybe that's where Clark is!! I know her character is a lush but c'mon! She is already that hammered first thing in the morning?
  • Follow-up: the attic trapdoor can be opened from below in the hall, using a simple pull-chain and relatively little effort. No latch, no lock, no nothing to hold it shut. Why couldn't Clark have pushed it open himself after Frances closed it? Also, if he was sitting on that trapdoor to watch the home movies, why didn't it just swing open under his weight?

• Early in the movie when Clark realizes he forgot to bring a saw to cut down the tree he wanted the family ends up uprooting the tree instead. This would be a complete impossibility. A tree of that massive size would have a root system that would go extremely deep underground and it would be impossible to uproot it completely by hand with no tools. The ground would be frozen as well so there is no absolutely no way that the Griswolds are getting that tree out.

• The two kids have their own rooms. Russ has a bunk bed. So why are the two kids sleeping in the guest room while one set of grandparents sleeps in Russ's room? It'd make more sense for Grandma and Grandpa Whichever to share the guest room (and guest bed), Grandpa and Grandma Whoever to share Audrey's room and have Russ and Audrey use Russ's bunk beds, rather than having Russ and Audrey share the bed in the guest room. Are the grandparents not getting along or something?
  • The Guest room bed would be too small for two adults. Russell and Audrey are jammed next to each other (which, granted, was probably for the joke) and they're tinier, so there's no way Ellen's or Clark's parents would fit comfortably in there. Maybe they underestimated or always planned for Audrey to give up her bed.
• When Clark is trapped in the attic, he accidentally punches a hole through the floor into Russ's room. Why doesn't he just climb out through the hole he just made? It's not like he could make it much worse.
  • It's possible that he couldn't fit between the ceiling and the bed (which, considering there's less than a foot of space between the bed and ceiling, is the most likely scenario).
• How does Cousin Eddie know where to go in order to abduct Clark's boss? Clark simply mentions "Melody Lane" and "my boss," and Eddie comes back with the right guy. Even assuming that Melody Lane is a short street (which is a fair assumption, as it is made out to be an exclusive address), did Eddie go house to house? Does Eddie even know his kidnapping target's name? For that matter, the SWAT team zeroes in on Clark's house remarkably quickly, but admittedly Eddie's RV is an easily identified vehicle.
  • Clark mentioned his boss's full name (Frank Shirley) at the start of his now-famous rant. Eddie could've looked it up in a phone book or it's possible the Shirleys had their name on a mailbox or something. Shirley isn't that common a name, especially two on the same street. Now, the real question is how he got past the community's security...
    • Given how he snorts and laughs when Mr. Shirley threatens to send him to jail, it's reasonable to assume that Eddie's no stranger to criminal activity. Breaking into a gated community would probably be fairly easy for him. (Getting Mr. Shirley out might have been difficult, though it's possible that he broke through the gates with his RV.)
    • Or the guys in the guard shack might have been drinking/partying and didn't notice.
• When Clark and Rusty are putting up the Christmas lights, Clark says that he's "always wanted to do this", implying that they've never decorated the house before. So why are the lights all tangled up? Shouldn't they be new lights?
  • He probably meant that he's never decorated it to the extent he does in the movie.

• Everyone getting that excited about a pool to begin with, especially in a climate where you'd only be able to reliably use it about 3 months out of the year. Now, it makes sense for Clark to obsess about it due to his obsession with being the ultimate family man, but why would any of the in-laws give more than a polite applause towards Clark putting one in, much less being excited about the idea of taking a plane flight to come swim in Clark's pool?