Alex Pruitt, an 8-year-old boy living in Chicago, must fend off four international criminals who are seeking a top-secret microchip in his toy car.
Four high-tech industrial spies, Beaupre, Alice, Jernigan and Unger, steal a top-secret microchip, and, to fool customs, hide it in a remote-control toy car. Through a baggage mix-up at the airport, grumpy old Mrs.Hess gets the toy and gives it to her neighbor, 8-year-old Alex. Spies want to get the toy back before their clients get angry and decide to burglarize every house at Alex's street to find the chip. But Alex is prepared for their visit...—Anonymous
Down with the chickenpox, smart eight-year-old Alex Pruitt finds himself home alone with his new toy: a radio-controlled car crammed with highly classified government secrets. Before long, a ruthless quartet of inept international spies, who desperately want the car back, break into the vacant house bent on retrieving the encrypted information. However, Alex won't go down without a fight. Now, with dad and mum away and with the entire house rife with clever booby-traps, can the minuscule defender save the day and the neighbourhood?—Nick Riganas
After stealing a top-secret computer chip four spies hide it in a remote control car. Alex gets the toy car as a thank-you gift. The next day, Alex, who is home sick from school, spots the crooks and decides to catch the burglars in action. After a fight with the burglars to gain the toy car, Alex finds the chip hidden inside the car. The burglars, figuring that Alex has the car, approach the Pruitts' house, only to find booby traps.—Erick Hunziker
Peter Beaupre is the leader of a group of thieves who have stolen a valuable Air Force computer chip. When a bag mixup at the O'Hare Grouchy old Mrs. Hess accidentally brings home from the airport a toy remote-control car with a top-secret microchip hidden inside. Beaupre and his followers: Alice Ribbons, Earl Unger, and Burton Jernigan, start searching Mrs. Hess's neighborhood and breaking into houses searching for the chip. 8-year-old Alex Pruitt reports seeing Beaupre and his followers, but Alex's sister Molly, his brother Stan, and his parents Jack and Karen refuse to believe him. Beaupre and his followers figure out that the chip is in the Pruitt home, because Mrs. Hess gave Alex the remote-control car. Alex is left home alone with chickenpox when Karen goes to work, Jack goes out of town on a business trip, and Molly and Stan go to school. When Beaupre and his followers break into the Pruitt house, Alex is ready with some of the most painful booby traps Beaupre's gang will ever face.—Todd Baldridge
In Hong Kong, Peter Beaupre (Olek Krupa), Alice Ribbons (Rya Kihlstedt), Burton Jernigan (Lenny Von Dohlen), and Earl Unger (David Thornton) are four internationally wanted spies working for a North Korean terrorist organization. After stealing a $10 million missile-cloaking microchip from Silicon Valley, the spies put it inside a remote-control car to sneak it past security at the San Francisco International Airport. However, a luggage mix-up causes an elderly woman named Mrs. Hess (Marian Seldes) to inadvertently take the spies' bag containing the car before returning home to Chicago. The four spies arrive in Chicago (Beaupre guesses correctly that whoever took the car immediately boarded a flight (since all lounges and bars were clean) and Chicago was the only one boarding) and systematically search every house in Hess's suburban neighborhood to find the chip.
8-year-old Alex Pruitt (Alex D. Linz) is given the remote-control car by Hess for shoveling her driveway (Hess is angry with Alex for not doing a good job, but she has no use for the car and gives it to Alex as payment. Her own bag had sourdough bread in it), but she lectures him for scratching in public.He returns home and discovers that he has chickenpox and must stay out of school.Karen Pruitt (Haviland Morris), the mother of Alex. Jack Pruitt (Kevin Kilner), the father of Alex. Molly Pruitt (Scarlett Johansson), the older sister of Alex. Stan Pruitt (Seth Smith), the older brother of Alex.Karen works from home to take care of Alex. But she is called into work for a critical meeting that she cannot afford to miss.
The next day, Alex discovers the spies (they are working in daylight as they reckon no-one is in the house during the day in the suburbs) while spying on his neighbors. After two failed attempts at reporting them (he calls 911 who send a squad car, but the spies hide or vacate the area so that the police don't find anything or anyone. The police give a stern warning to Alex not to waste their time again).
The next morning, Kate again has to go to work, and Alex decides to do something by himself. He figures that the burglars are looking for something special, as they are searching for each house systematically, but not stealing anything. He identifies the next house they are going to burgle.Alex attaches a camera to the remote-control car and uses it to spy on them, leading to the spies chasing it when they spot it. Alex thinks he has the proof of the burglars but finds that Beaure has removed the recording cassette.
Wondering what they want with the toy car, Alex opens it and discovers the stolen chip. He informs the local Air Force Recruitment Center (he gets the number printed on the back of the chip) about the chip while asking if they can forward the information about the chip to the right authorities. The information reaches FBI Agent Stuckey (Christopher Curry), an FBI agent whose been after Beaupre, who gets on a place to Chicago.Meanwhile Beaupre is given 24 hours to produce the chip, or he and his team would be eliminated.
The spies finally realize that Alex has been watching them (Alice calls the house and Karen picks up. Alice asks if Alex took her son's car and Karen replies that he already has a car that he got from Mrs. Hess) and decide to break into his house. Alex overhears the conversation and knows that its the burglars calling the confirm about the car. He knows no-one will believe him and he will have to defend him when Karen goes out to work the following day.Alex rigs the house with booby traps with help from his pet rat Doris and his brother's loud-mouthed parrot. The Quattro kidnap Mrs. Hess as she is coming over to check on Alex upon the request of his mother.
Beaupre, Alice, Jernigan and Unger break in, spring the traps, and suffer various injuries.Alice scopes the front door and Alex uses a dog whistle to excite Alice's dog, who drags her away. Earl is electrocuted at the front entrance by a wiring, he thinks is fake but turns out to be real. Earl attacks the door but slips and falls on a mat which had ceramic roll balls underneath. Beaupre and Earl figure out a hanging weightlifting apparatus connected to a wire at the door, and cut the wire, only to unleash a bookcase which falls right onto them from the attic. Then Alex drops the weights.Earl tries to get in via a window to be confronted with a bag of plaster of Paris, which hits him smack in the face. Earl gets into but lands into 2 buckets of sticky glue.
Burton is electrocuted at the back when he sits on a metal chair, which was connected to a battery. Then, a hanging hook activates the water hose and drenches Burton (it's snowing). He gets into the basement and finds a pair of feet dangling (whom he assumes is Alex). When Burton pulls on it, he activates a lawn mower, which falls on him and mows his head.Burton gets into via the attic window but doesn't notice the removed floorboards and falls 3 stories down right onto the basement toilet.
Alice has to jump over a locked fence into the backyard and lands into glue and is hit by a falling pot. As Alice tries to walk, all her clothes get stuck in the glue and have to be taken off one by one. She tries to get in via the backyard door, but Alex had cut the handles of the small ladder, and she falls flat on her back. She somersaults over the ladder onto the back porch, only to find that the floorboards were unscrewed at the ends (hinged in the middle) and she falls below into a gap.
Beaupre gets into the front door by cutting it but activates a hidden lever that unleashes a boxer punch right into his gonads.Beaupre goes to help Alice, but again falls through the floorboards, on top of Alice. Earl can't get out of the buckets and walks with them. he tries to help Alice and Beaupre but ends up falling face first into the basement and accidentally shoots his gun which damages the sewer line and drops raw sewage on top of him.
Alex is distracted when Karen calls and Beaupre finds out that Alex has asked Karen not to return home and instead pick his brother and sister from school. Karen realizes the danger when the FBI agent reaches Alex's school and meets Karen and her 2 other kids there.While the four pursue Alex around the house, he flees (Earl and Burton jump out of the attic window on the trampoline to pursue him, but the trampoline was cut, and they fall right into the icy pool. Alice tries to take the service elevator, but Alex had removed the bottom, and she falls right through) and rescues Hess, who has been duct taped to a chair in her garage by Alice. Beaupre ambushes Alex at Hess's garage, but the latter uses a bubble gun resembling a Glock to scare him off and rescue Hess.
Alex's family brings the agents and the police to their house, where they arrest Alice, Jernigan, and Unger. However, Beaupre flees to the snow fort in the backyard. The parrot drives the remote-control car into the snow fort and threatens to light fireworks, which are lined around the inside. Beaupre offers a cracker in exchange for silence, but the parrot demands two. Since Beaupre has only one, the parrot then lights the fireworks and flees. Beaupre is discovered and arrested.
Later, the Pruitts, Agent Stuckey and Hess celebrate with Jack returning home from a business trip, while Alex's house is being repaired. The spies are shown to have contracted Alex's chickenpox during their mugshots.
