History Film / LostInAmerica

* CrossingTheBurntBridge: Discussed. After realizing what a huge mistake they made, David and Linda decide their best option is to go to New York so that David can "eat shit" and essentially beg for his job back. He does get the position, but a WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue card informs the audience that he had to take a 31 percent pay cut.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Of road trip and "journey of discovery" films. David gets angry when he learns that instead of a promotion he's getting transferred to New York, which would probably have been a great opportunity for him and was actually done because of how well respected he is for his skill set but since it's not what he was expecting or what he wants he gets mad, throws a tantrum at his boss and prospective work partner, gets fired and then pressures his wife Linda into quitting her job, which she wasn't exactly crazy about either, and coming with him on his crazy half baked scheme to live under the radar in a motor home living off of just enough money by excluding some life's necessities. Ultimately David discovers, after many mishaps and enduring the humiliation of being reduced to a cross walk guard where he is mocked and ridiculed by spoiled, stupid, foul mouthed children, that he was really better off where he was, so he goes to New York and manages to get his job back with a pay cut - but better medical.
* FallenOnHardTimesJob: Having less than right hundred dollars to your name is hard times, so David has to take a job as a crossing guard in a small Arizona town. It works out horribly.
* FishOutOfWater: David and Lisa are comically out of place as urban yuppies trying to make a go of it in small-town Arizona. The man at the employment office cackles with laughter after David tells him that David quit a job where he made $100,000 a year.

* RoadTripPlot: A middle-aged married couple decides to leave the rat race behind and go wandering around America in an RV. It turns out badly when they keep running into different obstacles over and over.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: David bases the idea that he and Linda can pull off a JourneyToFindOneself because that's what happened in ''Film/EasyRider''. As David and Linda are shocked to discover, it's a lot more work than shown in that movie. Not only is the lifestyle not very glamorous, but they end up losing everything they have, stuck in low-paying jobs, and nearly getting divorced because of how many things go wrong.

* TravelMontage: The film ends with a montage of David and Linda's road trip to New York, which includes a bridge over the Mississippi River, the Capitol, and the Gaffney Peach, which looks like a butt.

* PassedOverPromotion: David overreacts when he doesn't get a promotion to Senior Vice President, flipping out and getting fired from his job.
* RefugeInAudacity: After Linda loses all of their money gambling, David goes to the casino manager and asks them, as a bold advertising ploy, to give them their money back. The casino manager's reaction is priceless balks at the idea.

* ShoutOut: The number Linda keeps betting (to no avail) on the roulette wheel is 22, the winning number in the roulette scene in ''Film/{{Casablanca}}''.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: A yuppie couple decides to leave the world of office wage slavery behind and live a life of freedom on the open road. It turns out to be a fiasco that leaves them in abject poverty, before David eventually goes begging for his old job back.

* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: David is a shallow yuppie who blows up at work when he doesn't get a promotion he feels he's owed, and flushes his career down the toilet as a result. Linda gambles away their entire nest egg that they got from liquidating their assets. Their own foolish choices leave them in poverty. Were these good and decent people, this entire story would play out like a tragedy. But they're also rather rude to everyone else, try zany schemes to get what they want, try and bribe people into doing what they want when things don't work out, and continuously make things worse for themselves through their own characters faults. That wa,y the audience can laugh at their pain.

* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: David is a shallow yuppie who blows up at work when he doesn't get a promotion he feels he's owed, and flushes his career down the toilet as a result. Linda gambles away their entire nest egg that they got from liquidating their assets. Their own foolish choices leave them in poverty. Were these good and decent people, this entire story would play out like a tragedy. But they're also rather rude to everyone else, try zany schemes to get what they want, try and bribe people into doing what they want when things don't work out,

* JourneyToFindOneself: Deconstructed. David throws a tantrum at his boss, gets fired, and then pressures his wife Linda into quitting her job. The two of them have a half-baked scheme to live under the radar in a motor home, living off of just enough money by excluding some life's necessities. But, the two of them clearly have no idea what they're doing, leading to a massive amount of hardshipfor both of them. After losing nearly everything they own, David and Linda finally realize that their mid-life crises were a really dumb reason to try and live off the grid, that the two of them have ultimately learned nothing about themselves from the experience, and they were just fine as they were.

* {{Deconstruction}}: The film could be seen as a deconstruction of road trip and journey of discovery films. David gets angry when he learns that instead of a promotion he's getting transferred to New York, which would probably have been a great opportunity for him and was actually done because of how well respected he is for his skill set but since it's not what he was expecting or what he wants he gets mad, throws a tantrum at his boss and prospective work partner, gets fired and then pressures his wife Linda into quitting her job, which she wasn't exactly crazy about either, and coming with him on his crazy half baked scheme to live under the radar in a motor home living off of just enough money by excluding some life's necessities. Ultimately David discovers, after many mishaps and enduring the humiliation of being reduced to a cross walk guard where he is mocked and ridiculed by spoiled, stupid, foul mouthed children, that he was really better off where he was, so he goes to New York and manages to get his job back with a pay cut - but better medical.

* TranquilFury: After their nest egg is lost in Vegas, David is eerily quiet for most of the trip to the Hoover Dam. Once there, it takes a RantInducingSlight to actually set him off.

* AmericanTitle: Symbolic of two aging boomers, who, gripped in a mid-life crisis, make a serious mistake.

* EpicFail: The Safford, Arizona employment agency man calls David out for the stupidity of his quitting his well paying if boring job by laughing at him and mocking him before finally giving him the crossing guard job. [[spoiler:Ultimately David realizes his whole scheme was a mistake and goes to New York to get his job back.]]
* FallenOnHardTimesJob: Having less than $800 to your name is hard times, so David has to take a job as a crossing guard in a small Arizona town. It works out horribly.

* PassedOverPromotion: David overreacts when he doesn't get a promotion, flipping out and quitting his job.
* RefugeInAudacity: After Linda loses all of their money gambling, David goes to the casino manager and asks them, as a bold advertising ploy, to give them their money back. [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments The casino manager's reaction is priceless]].
* RoadTripPlot: A middle-aged married couple decides to leave the rat race behind and go wandering around America in an RV. It turns out badly.
* ShoutOut:
** ''Film/EasyRider'', of course.
** Also, the number Linda keeps betting (to no avail) on the roulette wheel is 22, the winning number in the roulette scene in ''Film/{{Casablanca}}''.

* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: David is a shallow yuppie who blows up at work when he doesn't get a promotion and flushes his career down the toilet. Linda for her part gambles away their entire nest egg that they got from liquidating their assets. Their own foolish choices leave them in poverty.
* VivaLasVegas: The plan to live off the grid goes awry when Linda blows $100,000 in a single night at roulette.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: David got his job back with a 31% pay cut but better dental, Linda got a job at Bloomingdale's, and she's pregnant with their first child.

* TheGamblingAddict: Unbeknownst to David, Linda is one of these.

''Lost in America'' is a satirical 1985 comedy directed and co-written by Creator/AlbertBrooks, who also stars along with Julie Hagerty.

* FlippingTheBird: The futility of David and Linda seeking to escape their yuppie lifestyle is first demonstrated when David, driving the Winnebago down the highway, honks and gives a thumbs-up to a biker. The biker gives him the finger.

* SurprisnglyRealisticOutcome: A yuppie couple decides to leave the world of office wage slavery behind and live a life of freedom on the open road. It turns out to be a fiasco that leaves them in abject poverty, before David eventually goes begging for his old job back.

* VivaLasVegas: The plan to live off the grid goes awry when Linda blows $100000 in a single night at roulette.

* {{Deconstruction}}: The film could be seen as a deconstruction of road trip and journey of discovery films. [[spoiler:David gets angry when he learns that instead of a promotion he's getting transferred to New York, which would probably have been a great opportunity for him and was actually done because of how well respected he is for his skill set but since it's not what he was expecting or what he wants he gets mad, throws a tantrum at his boss and prospective work partner, gets fired and then pressures his wife Linda into quitting her job, which she wasn't exactly crazy about either, and coming with him on his crazy half baked scheme to live under the radar in a motor home living off of just enough money by excluding some life's necessities. Ultimately David discovers, after many mishaps and enduring the humiliation of being reduced to a cross walk guard where he is mocked and ridiculed by spoiled, stupid, foul mouthed children, that he was really better off where he was, so he goes to New York and manages to get his job back with a pay cut - but better medical.]]

David Howard (Brooks) is a UsefulNotes/LosAngeles advertising executive counting on a big promotion. He does get a promotion of sorts -- he's being sent to UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity -- but because it's not the one he's expecting, he flies into a rage and quits on the spot. He then convinces his wife Linda (Hagerty) to quit her job as well, so they can hit the road in their Winnebago, and live their lives like the characters from ''Film/EasyRider''. Needless to say, things don't work out the way David envisioned. Also, HilarityEnsues.

* RefugeInAudacity: After Linda loses all of their money gambling, David goes to the casino manager and asks them, as a bold advertising ploy, to give them their money back. [[CrowningMomentOfFunny The casino manager's reaction is priceless]].

* ShoutOut: ''Film/EasyRider'', of course.

''Lost in America'' is a 1985 comedy directed and co-written by Creator/AlbertBrooks, who also stars along with Julie Hagerty.

David Howard (Brooks) is an L.A. advertising executive counting on a big promotion. He gets a promotion of sorts - he's being sent to UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity - but because it's not the one he's expecting, he flies into a rage and quits on the spot. He then convinces his wife Linda (Hagerty) to quit her job as well, so they can hit the road in their Winnebago, and live their lives like the characters from ''Film/EasyRider''. Needless to say, things don't work out the way David envisioned. Also, HilarityEnsues.

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Lost_in_America_3635.jpg]]

''Lost in America'' is a 1985 comedy starring Creator/AlbertBrooks and Julie Hagerty.

!!Tropes:

''Lost in America'' is a 1985 comedy starring AlbertBrooks and Julie Hagerty.

->'"'Say it! Say it! Say 'I lost the nest egg'. Go on, say it!"''

''LostInAmerica'' is a 1985 comedy starring AlbertBrooks and Julie Hagerty.