Gordon, 28, an aspiring animator, leaves his home in Oregon to sell his ideas to Hollywood. After being told, correctly, that they are quite possibly the most stupid ideas ever and that he needs to spend time rethinking them, he moves back home. But his father, never a kind man, escalates his mean treatment of his rather unconventional son. Meanwhile, Gord has fallen for Betty, an attractive doctor at the hospital where his friend is staying; she happens to use a wheelchair, and to delight in having her paralyzed legs beaten with a bamboo cane; her sexual aggression intimidates him. Gord's family goes to a psychiatrist, and he lies to her that his father molests Gord's brother, Freddy; Gord neglects to mention that Freddy is 25. Soon, Gordon has the house to himself, and comes up with a winning animated series, "Zebras in America" based on his own family. All this is really a framework on which hangs his usual crazy stunts.

In the Bronx, Joe, an Irish good guy, gets bad news twice the same day: he has a brain tumor and his wife wants a divorce, saying he's dull and lacks adventure. With her father's blessing, Joe takes off for adventures in the weeks before risky surgery. In Louisville, he's latched onto by Hush, a talkative belle with two kids, big debts to a nasty bookie, and few prospects. Even after she steals his wallet, Joe offers temporary help, bonds with her kids, and faces down the bookie. Soon Hush, Joe, and the kids are on the run toward Vegas. The bookie's on their tail, so are some Bronx bad guys, cancer lurks, Hush has her gambling jones, and the kids want stability. Can this work out?

One year later, agent Cody Banks is back for another awesome adventure but this time he must track down a former instructor who's gone rogue with a mind-control microchip. Banks masquerades as a musical prodigy to get close to a snobby, egocentric scientist in London who's the only person who can make the microchip work. Along the way Banks hooks up with a demoted agent and a cute-as-a-bug Scotland Yard operative. When Agent Cody Banks heads to England to catch an evil scientist who's stolen a mind-control device for his plot to rule the world and turning the world leaders into zombies!