| Director | Raja Gosnell |
|---|---|
| Genre | Christmas film, action film, comedy film, family film |
| Runtime | 102 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $32 million |
| Box office | $79.1 million |
Peter Beaupre, Alice Ribbons, Burton Jernigan, and Earl Unger are four internationally wanted criminals working for a Hong Kong-based terrorist organization linked to North Korea. In Silicon Valley, California, they steal a $10 million missile-cloaking microchip and hide it inside a radio-controlled car to get the chip past security at San Francisco International Airport. However, a passenger named Mrs. Hess inadvertently takes the criminals' bag containing the car, mistaking it for her identical bag. The criminals arrive in Chicago and systematically search every house in Hess' suburban neighborhood to find the chip.
Eight-year-old Alex Pruitt is given the toy car by Hess as payment for shoveling her driveway. He returns home and discovers that he has chicken pox and must stay home from school. The next day, Alex discovers the criminals while spying on his neighbors and calls the police, but they are unable to help. Alex attaches a camera to the car and uses it to spy on them, leading to the criminals chasing it when they see it. Wondering what they want with the toy car, Alex opens it and discovers the stolen chip. He calls the local U.S. Air Force Recruitment Center about the discovery and asks if they can forward the information about the chip to the authorities.
The criminals realize that Alex has been watching them and decide to break into the Pruitt house. Alex rigs the house with handmade booby traps with help from his pet rat Doris and his brother Stan's parrot. The criminals break in, spring the traps, and suffer various injuries. While the group pursue Alex around the house, he flees and rescues Hess, who has been taped to a chair in her garage by Ribbons. Beaupre ambushes Alex, but Alex uses a bubble gun resembling a Glock to scare him off.
FBI agents and the police later arrive and arrest Ribbons, Jernigan, and Unger, having received a tip from the recruitment center. However, Beaupre hides in a makeshift snow fort in the backyard. Stan's parrot discovers him 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 lights the fireworks, alerting the authorities to Beaupre's location.
That evening, the Pruitts, Mrs. Hess, and the authorities hold a celebration for Alex as the Pruitt house is being repaired, with Alex's father Jack returning home from a business trip. The company the chip was stolen from gives Alex a large monetary reward in gratitude. At the police department, the criminals are shown to have contracted Alex's chicken pox during their mugshots.