Film editor Alan Smithee gets his big break to direct what he hopes to be a great action-adventure film and a real run away success. Unfortunately for Smithee, he is not the only one with creative input. Distraught over the choices forced on him by his megalomaniacal producer James Edmunds and challenger films studio head, Jerry Glover, Smithee is horrified with the resulting feature, "Trio," which has become the biggest budget movie of all time. Smithee's particular misfortune is his name. He can't take his name off the finished movie because it happens to be the same as the pseudonym specified by the Directors Guild for any director who doesn't want credit for his work. Now desperate, Smithee does indeed make his big break, literally running away from the filmmakers and taking the film's precious negative with him. Soon, the greatest vanishing act in the history of motion pictures leads to Hollywood scandal. As detectives search for Smithee and as other try to wield new deals, the whole film industry watches and waits for Smithee's final move. But perhaps it's not too late for an unexpected hero. After all, this is Hollywood.
