- After a trippy animated sequence, we open on a quaint suburban street.
- The mailman drops mail into a mailbox labeled "The Thompsons" before reaching the Szalinski household. Instead of dropping their mail into the bin, however, he hands it to a dog named Quark, who eagerly brings it toward the front door.
- We follow the dog inside. There's a teenage girl talking on the phone and a nerdy little kid building a small machine.
- This is a strange kitchen, btw—all of the appliances seem to be custom-built. Quite haphazardly, we might add.
- Through the girl's conversation, we learn that the kids' parents got into a fight the previous night, and that their mom stayed at their grandma's house. Ouch.
- Suddenly, we hear a zap.
- We cut to a weird switchboard labeled with different locations in the house. After panning out, the camera reveals none other than the great Rick Moranis working like a mad scientist in a lab.
- Seeing the alarm for "breakfast" ringing, daddy dearest sends a message downstairs (using another custom contraption) that he'll be a little late. Now back to work.
- The camera moves next door to find a man asleep in bed. His slumber is interrupted by the sound of Mr. Szalinski hard at work. This is dude is Big Russ Thompson.
- He and his family are taking a trip today, so he rushes outside to give his neighbor a piece of his mind. As he angry walks, however, he comes across a tripwire and stops.
- It was set up by his son, Ron, who claims to be "defending the backyard." Mr. Thompson pays no heed and walks straight into the wire…
- ...which activates a mouse trap, which in turn activates a crossbow. Ouch. It's a head shot. Luckily, the weapon of choice is a mere suction cup bolt.
- Inside the Szalinski home, Nick (the son) rushes up to his dad's laboratory and shows him a tiny replica of the weird gun-thing his pops is constructing. Mr. Szalinski ignores him, however.
- He focuses instead on his own machine, which he's just activated. We see an apple on a target screen and...it gets blown to bits. That wasn't supposed to happen. The apple was supposed to shrink.