To inherit a fortune, various addressees of a will must compete in a wild scavenger hunt to collect selected items, but cannot be simply bought.
Milton Parker has made millions inventing and selling games. Upon his death, his relatives and domestic staff gather for the reading of the will. However, Old Mr. Parker is a game player to the last, and his will stipulates that a Scavenger Hunt will be held to determine the beneficiaries of his sizeable estate. The winning team gets all the money, the rest get nothing.—Afterburner <[email protected]>, [email protected]
At his San Diego, California mansion, Milton Parker (Vincent Price), an elderly and wealthy game developer, is in poor health and plays one of his inventions in bed, competing against his young nurse (Carol Wayne). After losing, he suddenly dies.
At the reading of his will that Sunday, Charles Bernstein (Robert Morley), Parker's attorney, announces to a room of invited family members and acquaintances that the millionaire recorded an audio message for them. In keeping with his motto, "play to win," the inheritor of Parker's $200 million estate will be decided in a scavenger hunt. Each team will receive an identical list of clues identifying 100 items to obtain, and every item has a different point value. The group or person who earns the most points by 5:00 pm that day will inherit the Parker fortune.
The five competing teams consist of the following groups: Mildred Carruthers (Cloris Leechman), Parker's greedy, widowed, dowager sister; Stuart Selsome (Richard Benjamin), her calculating attorney; and Georgie (Richard Masur), her grownup, but childlike son; Parker's nephews, Jeff (Dirk Benedict) and Kenny Stevens (Willie Aames); Parker's son-in-law Henry Motley (Tony Randall) and his four disobedient young children Jennifer, Michelle, Jason and Scott; the millionaire's personal staff of Henri (James Coco), the French chef; Jenkins (Roddy McDowell), the valet; Jackson (Cleavon Little), the chauffeur; and Babbette (Stephanie Faracy), the dim-witted French maid; and Marvin Dummitz (Richard Mulligan), a blundering taxicab driver, who did not know Parker, but inadvertently helped him gain control of the company after being responsible for a car accident years earlier in which Parker's business partner died. Believing she is the sole rightful heir, Mildred is furious about the game. When she refuses to let her stepdaughter Lisa (Maureen Teefy) to compete, Jeff and Kenny invite the young woman to join their team. Before distributing the lists, Bernstein reminds the competitors that items can be acquired by any means, except purchase, and they are to be stored in the assigned pens located on the estate. As soon as the groups receive the list, they speed away in different directions.
Mildred, Stuart, and Georgie begin their quest by procuring a teddy bear at a carnival, but their next item proves to be more challenging as they remove a large safe from Stuart's office. After the elevator breaks down, Stuart tries to transport the heavy object down the stairs while George is determined to sabotage the effort. In a moment of good fortune, the safe falls out a window and conveniently lands in the backseat of their car.
Next, Stuart notices another item on the list, a fox tail, tied to a parked motorcycle. As he unfastens the object, a biker gang and their leader, "Scum," (Meat Loaf) accost him. Stuart emerges from the beating dazed and with his clothes in tatters, but the greedy and callous Mildred has no sympathy and screams that the 5:00 pm deadline is approaching.
Elsewhere, the servants pose as plumbers to detach a toilet, worth 40 points, from a hotel bathroom and steal a cash register from a grocery store, while leaving behind the money. Thanks to the efficient Jenkins, the servants make good progress in the hunt, until they become locked in a chemistry laboratory while foraging for a microscope.
Meanwhile, Marvin fumbles at the beginning as he tries several times to steal a Rolls-Royce automobile grille. Next, he breaks into a bridal shop to snatch a gown, but Sam (Scatman Crothers), the elderly security guard, catches him. After Marvin explains that he is the only team with one player in a very high-stakes scavenger hunt, Sam agrees to join him and share in any winnings. At a museum, the two develop a plan to procure a suit of armor: Marvin dresses as a mummy to distract visitors and guards, while Sam sneaks away wearing the metal outfit. However, Sam is knocked unconscious after falling down stairs in the cumbersome suit, with Marvin unaware of his partner's predicament. As Mildred, Stuart, and Georgie arrive at the museum to find the same item, they stumble upon the armored figure lying on the floor and store the body in their car trunk.
Elsewhere, Henry and his children have little to show for their scavenging efforts and when their station wagon breaks down after acquiring a parachute from a nearby sky-diving school, Henry appears too tired and discouraged to continue. His bored children, who have thus far been uncooperative, inspire their father to continue, and the family becomes motivated to finally work as team. To secure the next item, a medicine ball, Henry accidentally falls out the second floor window of a gym holding the item. Believing he performed the stunt on purpose, his children have a newfound respect for their father.
Also, the fifth team of Kenny, Jeff and Lisa are enjoying the experience. They abscond with a clown head at a Jack in the Box fast food drive-thru restaurant, steal a helmet from the San Diego Chargers football team, and pick up an overweight woman, worth 50 points, at a bus stop. After procuring a tank of nitrous oxide, the "laughing gas" leaks in their van and causes a chuckling Jeff to swerve across the road. A policeman stops the trio, but the officer is soon affected by the gas and happily agrees to give the team his uniform, the next item on the list.While Jeff, Kenny, and Lisa park the van to acquire another object, Mildred and her team steal their loot.
Meanwhile, the servants escape from the chemistry lab to discover that Parker's devious sister has also seized their items. A car chase ensues as the nephews and the servants attempt to catch the cheaters, who race back to the Parker estate to claim the objects as their own. With 15 minutes remaining until the deadline, the five teams converge on the estate and place their items in the designated pens. Although the servants and the nephews complain to Bernstein about Mildred's underhanded tactics, the attorney declares that the items are already in her pen, and, therefore no one can remove them. Meanwhile, a zookeeper (Avery Schreiber) arrives to protest that five of his ostriches were stolen for the game. As Mildred and Stuart anticipate their victory, the other teams realize that their only chance to defeat the miscreants is to combine their items. They use Kenny, Jeff, and Lisa's pen to collect the objects.
However, with seconds left on the clock, the score of the four teams is 1,365, while Mildred, Stuart, and George remain in first place with 1,480 points. Suddenly, Sam, dressed in full armor, climbs out of Mildred's car trunk and represents the points needed for the coalition to win the game. With encouragement from Marvin, Sam stumbles toward the nephews' pen and secures the $200 million estate for the four teams.
