12 year old Josh Whitney and his younger brother Sam are on their way from their mother's house in the
San Fernando Valley region of
California to go stay with their father, Thom and his new family in
Orlando, Florida. Their mother, Caroline is engaged and set to remarry Jean-Pierre, a man Josh doesn't particularly care for. While Josh and Sam are eating dinner, their stepbrothers Curtis and Leon are teasing Josh saying he's gay, Thom, overhearing the conversation, tells them to stop and then he tells Josh to ignore them, but the teasing continues and Josh starts to cry because of the insults, Thom then sends Josh to his room, but Josh snaps back and curses at Thom, then Thom begins to realize that Josh isn't fond of Curtis and Leon because Thom spends more time with them than Josh and Sam. Josh unintentionally brainwashes his younger brother making him believe that he is a genetically designed child warrior and that his name is an acronym for "Strategically Altered Mutant.” After a series of coincidences in Josh's lies, Sam eventually believes that he is a S.A.M. Meanwhile, at dinner, Thom tells the boys that they have to fly back to California to get their belongings from their California home and bring them to Thom's house, because Caroline and Jean-Pierre are planning on moving to Europe for a year and the boys will move in with Thom. On the way to California, a thunderstorm grounds the boys’ flight in
Dallas forcing them to stay in a hotel for the night. Josh, frustrated with his family situation decides to abandon Sam and his life at the hotel. As the hotel staff is on watch, Josh crashes a high-school reunion and lies that his mother was a graduate. While crashing the event, Josh meets Derek Baxter, a drunken man claiming to have been in a relationship with the woman whose pin he took. Before Josh has time to clear his lie, Sam appears and joins the two. Derek tells the boys to call him "Dad." Derek drives the boys to a random house, where Josh breaks into with the hope of calling the police. Upon entering the home, Derek sees a picture of the real family and goes after Josh for lying to him about everything leading up to the break-in. In self-defense, Sam hits Derek with a billiard ball and Josh hits him on the head with a pool cue, knocking him unconscious. Fearing they murdered Derek, the boys flee the scene, stealing his rental car in the process. With Josh in possession of copies of his Jean-Pierre's credit and debit cards, the boys drive the stolen car across the
Western United States, where they encounter Allison, a runaway from
Hannibal, Missouri, who the boys believe is “The Liberty Maid” in a coincidental situation based on another one of Josh's lies. Allison travels with the boys along the way, as the trio evade authorities. During a night stop in a motel, Sam steals the car and abandons it on the side of the road. Josh finds the stolen car, only to find that it broke down, takes a bus and sees Sam stowing on the back of a tractor-trailer unit and exits the bus, reuniting at the border crossing, illegally entering into
Canada through a fence. Josh tries several attempts to tell Sam the truth of his lies, and sends him on a flight back to Orlando. Josh, who is feeling unwanted, stays in Canada. He calls Derek and finds out he's alive. Sam arrives in Orlando, where he tells Thom of Josh's whereabouts. Thom tells Sam that he went to Dallas and talked to the Dallas police and the police told Thom that Derek wasn't killed by Josh, but rather knocked unconscious from the pool cue. Then, Sam tells Thom that nobody likes Josh because of his behavior. Thom says that even though Josh has done bad things before, he will always love Josh no matter what because he loves being a father to him and Sam. Josh arrives back to Orlando, and Sam greets him by turning the tables, using the computer file trick about a file on him. == Cast ==