Scrooged (1988)

Scrooged is a 1988 film depicting a modern-day adaptation of A Christmas Carol.

Synopsis
Francis "Frank" Xavier Cross (Bill Murray) is a conceited, cynical television programming executive who has the position of president for television network IBC. Frank has found great success and wealth but only by becoming cold-hearted and cruel. In the opening scenes, he is seen working out in a room with a border that reads "Cross: (n) A thing they nail people to."

His ruthless concentration on his career has cost him his true love, the warm-hearted Claire Phillips (Karen Allen). It has also alienated him from his family, having only an "at arm's length" relationship with his brother James (John Murray), and ruined any chance of his having a happy and fulfilling life. Frank overworks his assistant Grace Cooley (Alfre Woodard), forcing her to constantly break plans with her family and neglect her mute son Calvin. When a disturbing TV commercial that Frank personally produced is criticized by timid staff member Eliot Loudermilk (Bobcat Goldthwait), Frank responds by firing him on Christmas Eve. Frank's boss Preston Rhinelander (Robert Mitchum) comes to Frank's office with an idea about reaching out to the animal audience, and takes the liberty of hiring Frank an assistant, weaselly sycophant Brice Cummings (John Glover) who is transparently after his job.

When Cross is given the task of heading up a live Christmas Eve broadcast of A Christmas Carol, his life begins to mirror the story he's producing. The decomposing corpse of his mentor, media mogul Lew Hayward (John Forsythe) who had died of a heart attack several years prior, comes back to visit to tell him the error of his ways, and to announce the impending visitation of three Ghosts.

The Ghost of Christmas Past (David Johansen) appears as a loudmouthed New York City cab driver, and takes Frank back to his childhood in 1955 where his mother Doris Cross (Lisa Mende) is watching The Lone Ranger with him, until his drunk and angry father Earl Cross (Brian Doyle-Murray) comes home after a hard day of working at the meat packing plant, and gives him a side of veal instead of a choo-choo train for a Christmas present. The ghost then takes him to his late teens in 1968 when he had his first job at the TV station, and 1969 for his anniversary with Claire. The Ghost of Christmas Past finally takes him to 1971, the year in which he chose his job as "Frisbee the Dog" over Claire, and to have dinner with Lew Hayward (who was the president of the network at the time) instead of with friends. The sequence shows how Frank gradually became the man he is in the present.

The Ghost of Christmas Present (Carol Kane) then appears as a life-size pixie who's cheerful, childlike demeanor offsets her violent behavior; she shows him how Grace's family lives in poverty because of his stinginess and how much his brother misses him.

After the second ghost's visit, Eliot Loudermilk, now deranged and drunk after spending Christmas on the streets, storms the office with a Double-barrel shotgun and tries to murder Frank. The Ghost of Christmas Future (Robert Hammond), a seven-foot-tall ghoul with a TV screen for a face, appears and shows Frank a future in which Calvin has ended up in a mental hospital, Claire has become as cold and uncaring as he is, and only James and James' wife attend his sparse and sterile cremation.

As he feels his body being burned, Frank finally sees the error of his ways and begs for a second chance. He awakens back in his office, just as the live broadcast is approaching its climax. The reformed Frank rehires Loudermilk at a considerable salary increase, and enlists his help to hijack the live broadcast. Frank steps in front of the rolling studio cameras, and publicly wishes his viewers a Merry Christmas and delivers a manic but heartfelt speech about the true meaning of Christmas. Calvin urges him to add Tiny Tim's phrase, "God bless us, everyone", finally breaking free of his mute condition. Claire appears in the studio and Frank reconciles with her, sharing a romantic kiss as Grace and the other television workers start to sing "Put a Little Love in Your Heart".