Fact1: Jimmy ’s father does little to help youngest deal with grief, Fact2: Sam does little to help youngest deal with grief, Fact3: Corey sneaks Jimmy out of mental institute, Fact4: Nick and Sam head out to bring boys in competition with Putnam sleazy bounty hunter hired by Christine to find Jimmy, Fact5: trio hitchhike cross-country using Jimmy ’s skills to hustle people out of money by playing games
Output: Jimmy Woods is a young boy suffering from PTSD after his twin sister Jennifer drowned two years earlier. He is focused on traveling to California for unknown reasons, exasperating his mother Christine and stepfather Bateman. Jimmy’s father Sam lives with his elder sons Nick and Corey but does little to help his youngest deal with his grief. Fed up with his broken family, Corey sneaks Jimmy out of a mental institute, and they travel on foot for Los Angeles. Nick and Sam head out to bring the boys back, in competition with Mr. Putnam, a sleazy bounty hunter hired by Christine to find Jimmy. The two parties continually get into fights with each other on the road. At a bus station, Jimmy and Corey meet Haley Brooks, a teenager on her way home to Reno. They discover that Jimmy has an innate skill for playing video games. They make an agreement to take Jimmy to “Video Armageddon”, a gaming tournament being held in Universal Studios Hollywood, with a grand prize of 50,000, splitting the cash if Jimmy wins. The trio hitchhike crosscountry, using Jimmy’s skills to hustle people out of their money by playing games. They eventually meet Lucas Barton, a popular but snobbish gamer, who owns a Power Glove and shows that he is just as skilled as Jimmy. He informs Haley that he will also be entering the tournament. Corey and Haley learn that a lunchbox that Jimmy carries with him contains photos of Jennifer and their family. The trio arrive in Reno, gaining more money with help from Haley’s trucker friend Spankey by having him play at a casino’s craps table. Jimmy then trains on arcade machines, but Putnam arrives to retrieve him, only for Haley to get him thrown out when she accuses him of molestation. The children escape to Haley’s house, revealed to be a rundown trailer. She explains to Corey that her late mother was a gambler and wants half of the prize money to help her dad buy a proper house. Putnam captures Jimmy, but Haley summons several truckers to rescue him. Spankey then drives the children to the tournament. Jimmy is registered in the tournament and qualifies as a finalist, where the exciteable host announces that the final round will involve playing a brand new game. In between rounds, Putnam chases the children once again, but they escape in an elevator back to the tournament. Jimmy, Lucas, and a third finalist play Super Mario Bros. 3 unreleased at the time in the United States. Cheered on both sides of his family and Putnam, Jimmy wins the tournament at the last second using the game’s Warp Whistle and earns the prize money. Later, the family heads back home, but Jimmy spots the Cabazon Dinosaurs and gets his family to stop. They follow him inside, and Corey finds Jimmy looking at his photos of the family, one of which was taken at the tourist trap. They realize that Jimmy just wanted to leave the mementos of his sister in a place where she was happy. Leaving his lunchbox at the site, Jimmy goes home with Sam, his brothers, and Haley.