Mortimer Tinkerbottom survived retirement, bad knees, worse coffee, and one zombie apocalypse.
Now he has to survive the 1980s.
When Shady Palms Retirement Village hosts an 80s Throwback Night, Mortimer expects neon decorations, questionable punch, and Carl making a fool of himself near the snacks. What he does not expect is a donated "memory therapy" pod to explode, fling him and his friends back to 1985, and strand them inside Cypress Bend Mall with a broken return lever.
To get home, Mortimer's crew must track down arcade parts, dodge mall security, outwit teenagers with too much hair spray, and avoid a smooth-talking electronics salesman named Blaine Vossler, a man whose shoes are too clean and whose interest in the machine is far too dangerous.
But the mall is hiding more than cassette tapes, food court pizza, and bad fashion. Somewhere beneath the neon lights, a false map is being drawn. A red star is being moved. And the future Mortimer knows, including Shady Palms, Carl, Dorothy, Mia, Mr. Buttons, and the whole cranky little family he never meant to need, may vanish if he cannot fix what the past is trying to steal.
Armed with a cane, a bathrobe, a suspicious amount of irritation, and absolutely no patience for teenagers, Mortimer must complain, insult, sidestep, and somehow save the people he loves without admitting he loves them.
A hilarious time-travel comedy adventure packed with arcade chaos, mall nostalgia, sharp old-man wit, found family, and one deeply reluctant hero who would like everyone to know he is not dancing, no matter what the witnesses claim.
