Malibu Rescue

In the San Fernando Valley on the last day of school, trouble making teenager Tyler Howard accidentally ensues a chase around his school campus after instigating a fight with his bully. After a series of events, Officer Wagstaff visits Tyler's home and informs the family of Tyler's mischief. Tyler's mother suggest that he help the school janitor during the summer cleanup, but Tyler's step-father, Roger, suggests he attend Junior Rescue, a program hosted in Malibu Beach that focuses on being a lifeguard, with an annual competition called the Crucible hosted at the end of the month that decides who gets a tower to help guard the beach during the summer. Tyler's day gets better after learning that Vooch, his favorite bus driver, will be driving him to Malibu. Vooch picks up the athletic and sarcastic Gina, and the witty and intelligent Lizzie, whose mother suggests that going to Junior Rescue is a bad idea. Unbeknownst to Vooch, the nonathletic and truthful Eric had missed the bus and has followed Vooch across the state.

Arriving at Malibu Beach, Tyler helps up the sweaty Eric and meets Dylan, a clumsy and kind captain at Junior Rescue. To Tyler's dismay, Eric informs him of Junior Rescue's true purpose and instantly forms a rivalry with fellow captain Brody, who hates kids from the Valley. Other captain Spencer leads the team on several exercises that include a two mile run, carrying ten pound bags, paddling across shore, all while Brody mocks Tyler's physical strength. Dylan struggles while explaining the purpose of Junior Rescue and is routinely mocked by Brody and the other captains. During a standardized swim test, Tyler notices that Gina is on the swim team, but is suspicious when she keeps fumbling in the water. Arriving home from Junior Rescue, Tyler wishes to quit; Roger forbids it.

The next day, Brody assigns the kids to their training pods and captains to help guide them throughout the program. Brody takes lead of the "Dogfish" while Dylan is assigned Tyler, Gina, Lizzie, and Eric, otherwise known as the "Flounders.". During several training exercises, Tyler rigs them and creates several mayhem throughout the day in order to get kicked out of Junior Rescue. When Tyler removes the screws on Brody's lifeguard chair, Garvin, the program's leader, refuses to remove Tyler from the program and puts the blame on Dylan. Garvin reveals that he was forced by the Mayor to accept kids from non-beach cities into the program, and decides to take advantage of Tyler's situation to show the Mayor that the Valley doesn't deserve to be included. While the Flounders rebuild the chair, they spot a man that is drowning in the ocean. The Flounders pod springs into action, but the whole thing is revealed to be a ruse created by Brody to humiliate the Flounders. A kid named Jeffy begins messing with Tyler while attempting to avoid his suspicious mother.

On the ride home, Vooch's bus breaks down while the kids wait for him on a deserted spot near the road. While reconciling with the kids, Tyler is motivated to start putting effort into the program. Tyler and the rest of the kids begin improving during their training exercises, alarming Garvin. Garvin then allows Tyler to leave the program, but Tyler refuses, satisfied with how the Flounders have become like a family to him. While attempting to get revenge on Brody, Tyler inadvertently ruins a sand sculpting competition, allowing Garvin to kick out Tyler and ruining the Flounders' chances at winning the Crucible. Tyler then spends the rest of the summer helping the janitor, but is confronted by the Flounders, who have since learned of Garvin's motives and come to reveal to Tyler that the sculpting competition is outside of Garvin's jurisdiction, which doesn't give Garvin the right to have kicked out Tyler.

Arriving at the Crucible, the Flounders reveal to Garvin their plan to win the Crucible but are interrupted by the mayor, who has come to see the progress of the Flounders during the competition. Garvin decides to then attempt to sabotage the Flounders, but is bested when the Flounders get a lead in the Crucible. During the swimming portion of the Crucible, Gina reveals that she is not actually part of the swim team and had actually come to Junior Rescue to help overcome her struggle in the water. Tyler motivates her and helps her overpower her fears, which ends with Tyler getting on an ATV in the final portion of the race. Midway through, he is stopped by Jeffy's mother, who reveals that Jeffy had stowed away in a rouge boat and asks the Flounders to rescue him from oncoming flammable oil barrels on the pier. Forced to cooperate, Lizzie drives the Flounders out to the boat while Eric catches Jeffy when Gina throws him from the boat. Tyler them misdirects the boat to hit jagged rocks.

Returning to shore, the Flounders are hailed heroes by the crowd. In a twist of events, the mayor is revealed to be Jeffy's father from a failed marriage. He thanks the Flounders for their bravery and forces Garvin to give the Flounders a tower. Garvin reluctantly agrees in hopes of keeping his job, encountering his old fellow Junior Rescue buddy, who is revealed to be Roger, who states that he is proud of Tyler.

A year after the events of the first film, Tower Two (Flounders) help rescue a man surrounded by sharks. This whole event is revealed to be a dream by Dylan, who fears getting attached to Tyler after seemingly developing a connection with him. Roger, who now leads the Junior Rescue program after Garvin's termination, reminds Tyler that Malibu is hosting the annual International Junior Rescue Competition that year. With the help of Lizzie, Gina, and Vooch, Tyler is able to sneak Eric out of summer school and places a dummy stowaway in his place. Arriving at Malibu Beach, the Flounders realize that they are gonna be serving food for the teams competing. Having had enough of team USA (Ashley, Spencer, Brody, Gooch, and Izzy), Tyler puts expired coleslaw in their meals, leading to the team being sent to the hospital with a severe case of food poisoning. Tyler hides this from the team. With no Team USA, Rogers deduces that they will not be able to win the competition a 5th time. He then reveals that due to low sign-ups to junior rescue, the program will be disbanded at the end of the year. Tyler then decides to take Team USA's place in hopes of saving the program, although the rest are not on board.

While watching videos of the past competitions, Tyler begins second guessing, although gets encouragement from Dylan; Gina volunteers to train the Flounders due to the fact that her father is an Iraq war veteran. The Flounders endure through several training exercises such as digging through sand, climbing Malibu cargo containers, and struggling with diffusing a firefighter water hose. The Flounders encounter Team Aussie (Australia) and are mocked after observing the Flounders struggling with putting out the hose. After Team Aussie's leader, Wayno, breaks a wrench in half, Tyler wonders if Team USA will really win the competition. Jeffy develops a crush on Sasha. During a training exercise, the Flounders see a couple whose canoe has flipped and are now drowning. Due to being entangled in ropes, The Aussies step in and save the couple, showing an intense rivalry forming between the two teams.

Gina decides to become harder on the team, while Eric and Lizzie's relationship struggle. Eric is left alone after unintentionally offending everyone. During a pep talk from Gina, the Aussies offend the Flounders while showing off during Training, leading to Gina apologizing to the team for being hard on everyone. The Flounders make up, but Tyler reveals he put the expired coleslaw on the plates, leading to him abandoning the team. Jeffy attempts to woo Sasha, but she rebuffs him. Tyler arrives at Brody's house and apologizes to him, but gives closure to Brody after revealing he had felt like he let everyone down. By insulting him, Tyler is inspired by Brody to never give up. On the day of the competition, Eric and Lizzie apologize to each other for texting during art class, leading to Eric having to attend summer school. The Flounders reunite and apologize. Gina gives the team a pep talk about believing, leading to the Aussies intimidating them in the process. Using Jeffy as a decoy, Sasha leads the Aussies into a cargo container to attend a rescue, but end up getting trapped by Sasha. Sasha reveals this to the Flounders and leads them to the container, only to find that it is being taken away by a transport truck.