Weekend at Bernie's

Weekend at Bernie's is a 1989 American dark comedy film directed by Ted Kotcheff, written by Robert Klane, and starring Andrew McCarthy, Jonathan Silverman, Catherine Mary Stewart, and Terry Kiser. It tells the story of two young insurance corporation employees who discover that their boss Bernie is dead after arriving at his house in The Hamptons. While attempting to convince people that Bernie is still alive until they can leave to prevent them from being falsely suspected for causing his death, they discover that Bernie had ordered their assassinations to cover up his embezzlement. Weekend at Bernie's grossed $30 million on a $15 million budget. The film's success inspired a sequel titled Weekend at Bernie's II (1993). Plot Larry Wilson and Richard Parker are two low-level financial employees at an insurance corporation in New York City. While going over actuarial reports, Richard discovers a series of payments made for the same death. He and Larry take their findings to the CEO, the wealthy and hedonistic Bernie Lomax, who commends them for discovering the insurance fraud and invites them to his beach house in The Hamptons for the Labor Day weekend. Unbeknownst to the pair, Bernie is behind the fraud. Nervously meeting with his mob partner Vito, Bernie asks to have the two killed. After Bernie leaves, Vito orders that Bernie himself be killed for sleeping with Vito's girlfriend Tina. Bernie arrives at the island before the pair and plans the murders with Paulie, the hitman, on the phone unaware the conversation is being recorded on his answering machine. Paulie arrives and kills Bernie with a lethal heroin injection, then stages it as self-inflicted. Larry and Richard subsequently find Bernie's body. Before they can call the authorities, guests arrive for a party that Bernie usually hosts every weekend. To the pair's amazement, the guests are too busy partying to notice he is dead, with his grin from the injection and his sunglasses concealing his lifeless state. Fearing implication in Bernie's death, and wanting to enjoy the luxurious house for the weekend, Larry proposes he and Richard maintain the illusion that Bernie is still alive, which Richard finds absurd. He changes his mind when Gwen Saunders, a summer intern for the company and his crush, arrives at the party.