Camp Nowhere 1994

Twelve-year-old Morris ‘Mud’ Himmel, Jonathan Jackson, faces a summer problem: his parents want him to attend a boring computer camp. Determined to avoid it, he teams with friends to hatch a plan for a summer camp with no parents, no counselors, and no rules. Word of the scheme spreads, and soon other kids want to join the made-up camp.

Mud ropes in Dennis Van Welker, Christopher Lloyd, a former drama teacher who is being pursued by a debt-collector, M. Emmet Walsh as T.R. Polk, and Dennis agrees to help in exchange for $1,000. With Dennis’s help, the kids trick their parents into sending them to the camp and rent an old campground — once a hippie commune in the 1960s and ’70s — that sits beside a lake with a rustic cabin. Some parents believe it’s a computer camp, while others suspect a fat camp, a military camp, or an acting camp. Using the money paid by the parents, the kids buy toys and stock up on food.

After a while, boredom creeps in, and they wonder if they should return home. Mud goes back to Dennis for more ideas, and with a bribe, the drama teacher keeps the venture lively. When the parents try to visit, Mud and the others conceal the camp and quickly stage different scenes representing the various camps so the parents stay fooled. Polk, joined by a state trooper, infiltrate the camp and catch the teacher. Mud protects the teacher from the police, but Dennis turns himself in.

Mud confesses and explains the whole scheme, using the remaining money to settle Dennis’s debt with Polk, who will retire with a clean record. The other kids also claim responsibility, and the parents decide not to press charges. Dennis gets off, and the children head home after what they call the greatest summer of their lives, though Mud bears the primary consequences from his parents.