Ernest in the Army is a 1998 American comedy film directed by John Cherry and starring Jim Varney. It is the tenth film to feature the character Ernest P. Worrell, the ninth and final film in the Ernest series before Varney's death in February 2000.[2]
It was shot in Cape Town, South Africa's Koeberg Nature Reserve.[3] It was released direct-to-video on February 2, 1998.
Plot
Ernest, working as a golf ball collector at a golf range in Valdosta, Georgia, fantasizes about driving a big rig. His friend, Ben, tells him that if he joins the United States Army, he will get to drive large vehicles and never have to go into actual combat. He enlists in the reserves, but one day, a UN peacekeeping commander Pierre Gullet and the British ambassador visit Ernest's camp and demand that the entire unit including him, be deployed to the fictional Middle Eastern country of Karifistan. He and his fellow soldiers are told to assist UN troops in the hope of saving the country from being invaded by an evil Islamic dictator named Tufuti of Arisia. Suddenly, he finds a lost boy, Ben-Ali and keeps him safe until his father, held in a prison called Sector 32, is found. A news reporter from Ernest's local Channel 3 and the colonel of Ernest's army are taken as hostages and brought to Sector 32, where the news reporter drops a hint on live television, which Ernest recognizes. He journeys to Sector 32 and frees the news reporter and Ben-Ali's father (who was narrating the movie itself), and steals a missile vehicle (carrying a Pluton missile with Colonel Gullet strapped on to it). However, as soon as Ernest releases the colonel, he restrains Ben-Ali and threatens Ernest to give him the missile, but they manage to release the missile, landing in the sand. At the end, the news reporter gets a new job and Ben-Ali is reunited with his father.
