Trailer
Plot summary
Martin Harvey, an office worker in Chicago, learns that his late uncle has left him a 60-foot yacht that once belonged to Clark Gable. He intends to sell it, so he takes his wife, Katherine, and their children, Caroline and Ben, to the Caribbean island of St. Pomme de Terre to collect the boat. Katherine objects to the trip until Caroline announces that she has just become engaged. The family arrives to find the yacht, Wanderer, in terrible condition. With the vessel unfit to sail, the yacht broker drops the experienced captain he had arranged and hires a local sailor instead: Captain Ron, a Navy veteran with one eye who says he once piloted USS Saratoga. Ron sets out to take the Harveys to Miami.
Cast
- Meadow Sistoas Caroline Harvey
- Tanya Soleras Angeline
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Captain Ron (1992)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film came from a 1969 trip: writer John Dwyer's father bought a used Chris-Craft Commander at a Fort Lauderdale boat show and sailed it back to Texas with a hired captain who was also named Ron. Like the film version, the real Ron wore an eyepatch.
- The real captain was drunk for most of the voyage, which earned him the nickname Ron Rico after the brand of rum he would drink.
- As first conceived the film was a more adult comedy about an ad man seeking status, with Chevy Chase in mind for Captain Ron. Walt Disney Studios bought the script and rewrote it as a family film, and Kurt Russell and Martin Short were cast in each other's roles before choosing to swap.
- The film was retitled twice before release: it was first called Don't Rock the Boat, then On the Wanderer, before going out as Captain Ron.
- In 2016, Tammy Kennon of USA Today called the film a sailing cult classic and suggested it might contain the most widely celebrated ketch in pop culture.
- Noah Segan has cited the character of Captain Ron as an inspiration for his performance as Derol in the film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
