- A father vows to get his son a Turbo Man action figure for Christmas. However, every store is sold out, and he must travel all over town and compete with everybody else in order to find one.
- Howard Langston, a mattress salesman, is constantly busy at his job, and he also constantly disappoints his son, Jamie. After he misses Jamie's karate exposition, he tries hard to come up with a way to make it up to him. He says that all he wants for Christmas is a Turbo Man action figure. Unfortunately for Howard, it is Christmas Eve, and every store is sold out. Now Howard must travel all over town and compete with everybody else including a mailman named Myron Larabee to find one, and to make it to the Holiday Wintertainment Parade, which will feature Turbo Man.—John Wiggins
- Howard Langston is a mattress salesman with a bad habit of putting his work ahead of his family. His son, Jamie, who wishes he would pay more attention to him, wants only one thing for Christmas, a Turbo Man action figure with all the accessories. Howard promises both Jamie and his wife, Liz, that there will indeed be one under the tree for Jamie on Christmas morning, but on Christmas Eve, Howard realizes that he hasn't actually bought one yet. Seemingly it would be no great problem to head on down to the toy store and pick one up, but it just so happens that it has been the hottest ticket of the holiday season, and literally thousands of parents are scrambling for the last few. Howard then spends a hilariously hellish Christmas Eve madly scrambling from store to store in desperate search of one. In the course of his adventures, he keeps crossing paths Myron Larabee, a postal worker whose son wants a Turbo Man even more desperately than Jamie.
- This Christmas, only a miracle can get the workaholic and neglectful father, Howard Langston, out of the tight spot. One unfulfilled promise combined with an inadvertent mistake will have the desperate dad combing snowy Minnesota for an elusive toy, and every boy's holy grail: Turbo-Man, the ultimate action figure. At the end of his tether, Howard sets out on a frenzied odyssey to track down the precious gift, amid hordes of equally inattentive parents, and his relentless soon-to-be arch-nemesis: Myron, the manic postman. Now, under those dire circumstances, can Howard save Christmas and be, once more, the family's hero?—Nick Riganas
- When Howard misses his son Jamie's karate practice, he makes peace by promising him a Turbo Man action figure for Christmas. What he doesn't know is that every other child wants one as well. On Christmas Eve, he must compete against a deranged postal worker named Myron Larabee, as well as con artist Santas, the police, and almost every parent in town, to get one. But while he is going insane trying to find one, Jamie is wondering where he is, and his neighbor, Ted Maltin, is putting the moves on his wife, Liz.—Adam
- Howard Langston (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a workaholic mattress salesman, who does not find time for his wife, Liz (Rita Wilson), and his young son, Jamie (Jake Lloyd) - especially when compared to next door "superdad" divorcee, Ted Maltin (Phil Hartman), who continually puts Howard in a bad light.
After missing Jamie's karate class, Howard resolves to redeem himself by fulfilling Jamie's ultimate Christmas wish: getting an action figure of Turbo-Man, a popular children's TV superhero on Christmas Eve to find the toy everyone's looking for. Along the way, Howard meets Myron Larabee (Sinbad), a postal worker dad with a rival ambition, and the two soon become bitter competitors in their race for the action figure. Also, during his search for the toy, Howard keeps running into Officer Alexander Hummell (Robert Conrad), a traffic cop who had earlier pulled him over for a traffic violation. After several failed attempts to find the toy in a store, Howard attempts to buy a Turbo-Man from a Mall of America Santa (James Belushi), the leader of a band of counterfeit toy makers. When he accuses the Santa of undermining the values of Christmas, Howard ends up in a brawl with the gang, barely escaping when the police raid their warehouse.
Later, Howard and Myron cross paths again and while they are drinking coffee at Mickey's Diner, they hear on the KQRS radio station that the D.J. (Martin Mull) is running a Turbo-Man competition when they get to the studio they find out they can only win a gift certificate. They are nearly arrested but Myron bluffs the police into backing off by threatening them with a package (which he claims is a homemade bomb, unaware that it really is one). Officer Hummell tries to open it, and it blows up in his face. After his car is stripped by thieves, Howard is ultimately forced to return home empty-handed. Upon seeing Ted in his house placing the star on his tree, Howard gets angry and attempts to steal the Turbo-Man doll from Ted's house, destined for Ted's son Johnny (E.J. De La Pena), but changes his mind. Before he has a chance to replace the doll, he is caught by Ted and a disappointed Liz. Howard decides to join his family at the city's Wintertainment Parade, as he promised his son he would do. Meanwhile, at the parade, Ted attempts to flirt with Liz, but she turns him down by hitting him with a thermos of eggnog.
On arrival at the parade, Howard runs into Officer Hummell and accidentally drenches him with hot coffee. In the ensuing chase, Howard runs into a preparations room and is mistaken as a live action Turbo-Man stuntman in the parade. As the "real" Turbo-Man, he uses the opportunity to present the coveted limited-edition Turbo-Man doll to his son in the crowd. But before he can recognize his father, Jamie is chased around the parade by Myron who is dressed as Turbo-Man's arch enemy Dementor having caught and tied up the real actor (Richard Moll) while Howard does his best to keep up, though with little skill in controlling the Turbo-Man equipment.
Jamie is ultimately saved by Howard, who reveals himself to his son, Howard apologizes to Officer Hummell about everything, while Myron is escorted away by police, all the while ranting about how he will explain the situation to his son. Touched by Myron's undying dedication to his own son, Jamie gives the doll to him, and tells Howard that he does not need the doll since his father is "the Real Turbo Man". The crowd carries Howard off praising him for his heroic actions as Myron, Jamie, and Liz happily watch. Back at home, Howard puts the star on his Christmas tree, his tradition, and shares a happy moment with his family before realizing that through his quest to get a present for Jamie, he forgot to get Liz a present
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