Kurt Russell's Overboard Has A Connection To National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Garry Marshall's 1987 film "Overboard" is brisk and light, although the premise is a little dark. Kurt Russell plays Dean, a blue-collar widower who is hired by a spoiled heiress named Joanna Stayton (Goldie Hawn) to build a custom closet. Dean does quality work, but Joanna refuses to pay him because of a few small, insignificant details. Joanna is an entitled, spoiled brat who treats everyone poorly. 

When Joanna later falls off of a yacht and begins suffering from amnesia, Dean picks her up from the hospital, telling her that she's actually his wife Annie. 

Joanna is taken to Dean's home, and he gets a form of karmic revenge on her. Dean instructs her to do extensive difficult chores around the house, and to take care of his four sons. For a short while, he takes delight in watching her suffer with the hard work, understanding that she was too coddled to do heavy lifting in the past. Luckily, it doesn't take Dean very long to see that Joanna, even though afflicted with amnesia, is smart and charming and humane. They soon fall in love.

"Overboard" wasn't terribly well-reviewed, with some critics calling it predictable and rote, coasting only on the romantic charm of the two leads. It wasn't a huge hit either, earning under $27 million on a $22 million budget. Somehow, though, "Overboard" stuck in the pop consciousness, and many know the film; it was even remade in 2018. 

Also — and this is just fun trivia — it very well may share a cinematic universe with Jeremiah S. Chechik's 1989 comedy hit "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." The Dodge pickup that Dean drives in "Overboard" is the exact same truck driven by the rednecks Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) comes across on the road in the opening scene of "Christmas Vacation."

That's significant, right? Somehow?

And, yes — at least according to a recent article published in Yahoo! Entertainment — it was the exact same truck. It seems that both MGM and Warner Bros. rent their vehicles from the same Dodge rental outlet, and both of them happened to choose the same blue-ish truck for their respective movies. 

In "Overboard," the old truck was used as a symbol of Dean's working-class background, a symbol of his low income. In "Christmas Vacation," the truck was a dinged-up piece of crap driven by low-class hillbillies. The Griswolds, meanwhile, drove a swanky station wagon, a clearer symbol of their upper-class life. It seems that blue pickup trucks, to both the makers of "Overboard" and the makers of "Christmas Vacation," are symbols of poverty.

And, if we're feeling adventurous, we can also point out that "Christmas Vacation" star Chevy Chase and "Overboard" star Goldie Hawn also starred in a few films together. In 1978, they both appeared in Colin Higgins' slapstick farce "Foul Play," and in 1980, they were both in the Neil Simon flick "Seems Like Old Times." 

Kurt Russell was never in a film with Chevy Chase, although he was in Quentin Tarantino's 2007 film "Death Proof" which ... uh, which featured a Car Chase. That's a connection, too. It counts, right? Also, Chevy Chase played an invisible man in John Carpenter's 1992 film "Memoirs of an Invisible Man," and Kurt Russell played an invisible man in 1972's "Now You See Him, Now You Don't." 

Goldie Hawn has never turned invisible in a movie. She is, however, the only person between herself, Kurt Russell, and Chevy Chase to have an Academy Award. She won Best Supporting Actress in 1970 for "Cactus Flower."