Often dismissed as a "yuppie film," Lost in America is really concerned with the universal subjects of greed, hedonism, and panic. Writer-director Brooks plays David Howard, a desperate man trapped by his own expectations. He makes a lot of money but not enough; lives in a big house but is outgrowing it; drives an expensive car but not a Mercedes; is a top executive but not a vice president. Unwilling to take a transfer, he quits his job, convinces his wife (Julie Hagerty) to do the same, and makes plans to go on the road indefinitely in their Winnebago. What unfolds is Brooks's attempt to satirize the upper middle class from within: its nagging terror and the complacency of settling for being less than perfect.