Wacky hijinks of counselors and campers at a less-than-average summer camp.
Rudy goes to summer camp full of rowdy teenagers. The head counselor is Tripper Harrison, the prank pulling, girl seducing, fun lover, teasing both his boss and the counselors at the nearby rich kids camp. He and everyone else are sick and tired of always losing the Camp Olympics every year, and Tripper must encourage all campers to try their hardest, and even convince young Rudy that this may be his chance to feel better about himself.—Wallace Entertainment
Very early in the morning at Camp North Star, an alarm clock wakens the head counselor, Tripper. He dons a kid's space cadet helmet and switches on the camp's PA system. His public service announcement informs the camp's counselors that they should get out of bed and report to for their assigned duties. He also expects that the summer session at the camp will be fun. Tripper forgets to turn the microphone off and takes it into the bathroom with him. The sound of a toilet flushing is heard across the camp. The other counselors are seen doing landscaping, painting, replacing windows and generally getting the camp ready.
At the rendezvous for the campers, Tripper has his staff gather the kids and get them on the buses. Some of the kids have bad attitudes and have to be threatened with bodily harm. One of the counselors, Spaz, a nerdy type with taped-together glasses, is met by some counselors from North Star's rival summer camp, Mohawk. They seize his milkshake and pour it over his head. A news reporter is doing a story on Mohawk, which has a much richer budget, a long waiting list, stringent approval standards and seems like a luxury for its campers. Tripper talks to the reporter, posing as Mohawk's program director and gives him bogus information about the camp's activities, including "Sexual Awareness Week" when prostitutes are brought into the camp and the campers earn prizes for cavorting with as many as they can.
Among the campers is a young kid named Rudy. Shy and lacking in self-confidence, he doesn't want to go to camp but his father insists. The buses bring the campers to North Star where they're assigned to their counselors and cabins. The head of the camp is Morty, a clumsy but likeable leader. He hands Tripper a list of rules for the camp, which Trip promptly tears up and throws in a trash bin.
At chow, the camp's gossip expert informs everyone that several romances are brewing or continuing among the counselors, much to their embarrassment. Rudy participates in his first ever soccer game and accidentally scores on his own goalie. He's ridiculed and stalks off hurt. He packs his things and walks to the nearby town to catch a bus home. Tripper shows up and talks to Rudy in a kind tone, telling him that he just needs to make a few friends and he'll have a great summer. If anyone gives him any trouble, Trip tells him to go directly to him.
Rudy and Tripper become friends, Rudy joining him for morning runs and staying up late to play cards - Tripper is no match for the budding card shark in Rudy, who takes home nearly all the peanuts they'd been using for wagers. Seeing a few good character traits in Rudy, Tripper later puts him in charge of making the PA announcements while he takes the counselors-in-training (CITs) on an overnight trip. At the overnight, Tripper and the other head counselor, Roxanne, become closer, despite Tripper's previous unwanted advances.
North Star heads over to Camp Mohawk for the annual basketball game. North Star has continually lost to the ringer athletes of Mohawk, who also cheat to win. With his team many points in the hole, Tripper tells them they can lose with self-respect: at the next tip-off, the North Star players yank the shorts of their rivals down to their ankles and run. Joined by the North Star spectators and Tripper, they make it to their bus and triumphantly race back to their camp, Tripper proclaiming "This is the proudest day in North Star history!"
Parent's Day arrives, with Morty, his bed and his nightstand hung from a tree near the camp's entrance as a prank by Tripper and his CITs. Rudy's father is unable to come to the event and he spends the day jogging with Tripper around the woods.
The big event of the summer is the Olympiad that takes place between Mohawk and North Star. North Star has lost consistently to Mohawk for the past 13 years, primarily because they can't match the skill of the Mohawk athletes but also because Mohawk is notorious for cheating. Beating North Star at several events, Mohawk takes an early and seemingly insurmountable lead in points. When all hope seems lost, Tripper rallies everyone in the camp. North Star begins to cheat just as cleverly as Mohawk does and they begin a solid comeback, winning in a speed swimming event, a wrestling match, the sauce/teacup contest (won by the klutzy Spaz) and in the hot dog eating contest, where the chubby CIT Fink is able to beat Mohawk's champion, The Stomach, while Tripper frantically coaches him and massages his stomach.
Morty announces that they're only 20 points behind Mohawk and can win with the final event, a short, cross-country run. Unfortunately, North Star's best runner, Jackie, was fouled during the field hockey game by two Mohawk players and is out with a broken ankle. Tripper volunteers Rudy, saying he's been running with him all summer and is in shape enough to win. Rudy immediately objects but Tripper tells him he has the utmost confidence in him. He tells him that he probably can't outrun Mohawk's runner on the open road but when the course enters the woods, he can outpace him because he's smaller and able to avoid a lot of the foliage.
The run begins and Rudy paces his opponent steadily until they enter the woods. Rudy takes off, outdistancing his opponent, gaining a solid lead. When they hit the homestretch, Rudy is able to keep his lead and finishes the victor. The camp rallies to Rudy as the camp champion.Tripper and Roxanne escort Rudy back to his cabin that night where Rudy is greeted heartily by his mates. Tripper takes the CITs to a final campfire where they all drink champagne to celebrate their victory with Morty. They all sing a song about the more rotten aspects of being camp counselors. Tripper talks to Roxanne about moving in with him back home. Roxanne says she'll join him.
The next morning, everyone prepares to go home. Rudy is asked by one of his mates if he'd like to come to a camp his father is opening. Rudy turns him down, saying he'll return to North Star. Roxanne suggests they say goodbye to Morty: out on the lake, Morty has been placed on a raft with his bed and nightstand to drift until he wakes up. Tripper gathers everyone together for the ride out, taking Roxanne with him on his motorcycle.
On the lake, Morty wakes up to find he's stranded while the credits roll.
