Ernest Goes to Jail
Ernest Goes to Jail is a 1990 American comedy film directed by John Cherry and written by Charlie Cohen. It stars Jim Varney, Gailard Sartain, Barbara Bush, Charles Napier, Randall "Tex" Cobb, Bill Byrge, Barry Scott and Dan Leegant.
It is the fourth film to feature the character Ernest P. Worrell and the third film in the Ernest series, after Ernest Goes to Camp and Ernest Saves Christmas. It was released on April 6, 1990. It grossed $25 million and was the second highest grossing film in the series. The next film in the series, Ernest Scared Stupid, was released in October 1991.
Plot
Ernest P. Worrell is employed as a night janitor at the Howard Country Bank & Trust where his friends and neighbors, Chuck and Bobby, work as security guards. While trying to use a floor polisher, Ernest makes an enormous mess that results in him being electrocuted with strange results. His body becomes magnetized and while trying to escape the various objects attracted to him, he goes into the vault but a pair of safety deposit boxes knock him out just as the effect wears off.The next morning, co-worker Charlotte Sparrow, whom Ernest is smitten with, asks him out to “just dinner” to discuss Ernest's desire to move up and become a clerk. However, this goal is hampered by his knuckleheaded antics and the ire earned from bank president, Oscar Pendlesmythe. Meanwhile, at the Dracup State Penitentiary, convict Rubin Bartlett kills a fellow prisoner and seeks help from Felix Nash, a convicted bank robber and death row inmate. Unable to offer anything in return, Rubin goes on trial. At the same time, Ernest receives a summons to jury duty on the same trial. In the courtroom, Rubin notices Ernest has a striking resemblance to Nash. In league with Bartlett and Nash, the defendant's attorney makes a successful motion for the jury to see the scene of the crime so the switch can be made.
Nash and his silent yet hulking henchman, Lyle, make the switch. Nash coerces the jury to pardon Rubin while Ernest, unknowingly at first, takes Nash's place. Upon realizing his predicament, Ernest makes a series of unsuccessful attempts to escape the prison while also trying to keep up the ruse that he is Nash out of fear of reprisal. At the same time, Nash is planning to rob the bank but gets distracted trying to keep a suspicious Bobby and his smooth, un-Ernest like demeanor from exposing him.
In prison, Ernest is taken to be executed via the electric chair. Having given up on escaping and trying to convince the warden of his identity, Ernest makes a final speech and is electrocuted. The massive voltage puts him in a kind of trance and he becomes magnetized again — only this time, he can zap bolts of electricity from his fingers. He uses this power to comically subdue the guards and blast a hole in the main gate. Rubin attempts to stop him but Lyle, speaking up for the first time, steps in and knocks him out. He tells Ernest to flee so he can stop Nash and save his friends. He also rejects Ernest's request to come with him, saying his place is in the prison but that he will miss him. Ernest escapes, and after changing out of his prison uniform, races to the bank with his dog, Rimshot.
Nash has set up a bomb and handcuffed Chuck to the vault. Charlotte arrives, after an earlier encounter with Nash at Ernest's home that went bad, and is taken hostage as well. Just as Ernest arrives, so do the prison officials. Bobby appears and almost gains the upper hand over Nash but fails. An electrified security cage that Chuck and Bobby installed also fails as Ernest and Nash fight. Nash throws Ernest against the cage and is electrocuted yet again. This time, his body is electromagnetically polarized allowing him to levitate erratically. Ernest uses the floor polisher against Nash, dragging him up along the ceiling, resulting in him being dropped out cold.
With seconds left on the bomb's timer, Ernest heroically grabs it and flies up and out of the bank to a safe distance, but it explodes in the night sky. Chuck and Bobby are devastated that Ernest may have been killed but Nash recovers and holds the group at gunpoint. Before he can use Charlotte as a hostage again, Ernest's charred body lands on Nash and knocks him out again. Charred but alive, Ernest is hailed as a hero, while Nash is arrested.