Teenagers, Kate Haskell, Danny, Val, and Bobbi become joint owners of a local shuttered nightclub. During renovations, the neon sign outside the club reads “Nook,” but is transformed to “Zoo,” once Danny repairs the neon and the “N” is turned on its side to look like a “Z,” and the “K” is removed. On opening night, Danny welcomes the crowd to “The Zoo,” and Kate Haskell’s underage brother, Ricky, tries to talk his way into the festivities, and claims their father knows he is at the club. Kate makes small talk with Hardin, who is more interested in playing pinball. When she admits that she and her friend, Bobbi, bet five dollars that he would dance with her, he says she just lost five dollars. Later, Little Joe Donnely and his twin brothers come into the Zoo carrying bottles of liquor and refuse to pay the cover charge. Little Joe Donnely claims he is on the lookout for troublemakers. He kicks a teenager standing at the bar, and his twin brothers toss the boy outside. Kate makes it clear they are not welcome, but Little Joe ignores her. When Kate asks Little Joe to leave a second time, he gropes her. Observing the tense exchange, Hardin disarms Little Joe and pinches his nose, forcing the punks to leave. Outside, Little Joe threatens to cut off Hardin’s finger and stuff it up his nose, if Hardin touches him again. Instead of being grateful, Kate is upset that Hardin angered the Donnely boys, who work for a family repossession business, and will continue to harass them in the future. As Hardin mounts his motorcycle, Little Joe pulls up in his pickup truck and informs Hardin that he is parked in Little Joe’s space, and backs his truck into Hardin’s motorcycle. When Hardin attempts to attack Little Joe, the Donnely twins hold him back. Little Joe punches Hardin in the stomach and orders his brothers to finish Hardin off. Ricky Haskell distracts the brothers with karate moves and hits one twin. They chase him onto the roof of a building, and steal his glasses. Ricky becomes disoriented and falls off the roof onto a canvas awning. When the canvas rips, he falls to the ground and dusts himself off, but falls down an open manhole, and breaks his leg. At the hospital, Ricky promises to keep his time at the nightclub a secret from their father, if Kate gives him the use of her Walkman audio cassette player for a week. Later, Danny thinks the problem with the Donnely brothers is an isolated incident, but Kate and Val remind him that the brothers are the reason the town’s game arcade closed and the same thing could happen to their club. The friends stop their argument in time to see Hardin win a fight with a construction worker, and collect his prize money. Val and Danny ask Hardin if he would fight the Donnelys, but Hardin’s plan is to earn enough money to replace his motorcycle, and he declines. Later, he changes his mind, and agrees to help “The Zoo Gang” with their plan in which Ricky Haskell persuades his father to take him to the movies. The friends steal the father’s car in the parking lot, and invite the Donnelys to the local cemetery for some fun. Kate, Bobbi and Val, who is dressed as a woman, pretend to seduce the brothers while the boys lock one twin in the trunk and the other in the backseat. The Zoo Gang corners Little Joe, and orders him to walk home in his boxer shorts. As he protests, his brother, three-hundred pound “Goose,” arrives and tosses Hardin in a nearby pond. He also frees the twins by ripping the trunk lid and the back door off their hinges. Danny runs away and Goose orders Little Joe to chase after him in his truck. Bobbi breaks Goose’s headlights with a tire iron while Kate asks Val to distract Goose as she starts her father’s car. The Zoo Gang narrowly escapes as Goose’s truck collides with the Donnelys' pickup truck. Later, Goose and the Donnelys spray paint threatening graffiti on the walls outside the nightclub. Nearby, they harass James Winchester aka “The Winch,” the alcoholic landlord who lives in a motorhome, next to the nightclub. The Donnely brothers warn him that the Zoo Gang’s lives are in danger. Still later, the Winch meets the Zoo Gang to explain that he is not really the building owner, just a squatter who used to be the bouncer for the former owner. Before that, he was an undefeated three-time world champion wrestler, and wants to make amends. However, Hardin does not want to be coached by an alcoholic and leaves. Later, Val and Danny lure the Donnely twins into the nightclub during off hours. When Goose and Little Joe look for their brothers, the Winch fights Goose, and knocks him unconscious. No one has ever defeated Goose, and Little Joe runs away. Later, Pa Donnely appears in person to thank the Winch for disciplining his wild bunch of sons. The father promises that his boys will not make any more trouble. However, Kate and her brother, Ricky, take the bus home and the Donnely brothers ambush them. The brothers also lure the Winch into the nightclub and beat him. The next day, Bobbi discovers Little Joe cut Kate’s hair with his knife. When the Winch ends up in the hospital and refuses to press charges, Pa Donnely draws up paperwork to repossess the nightclub. When Hardin learns that the Zoo Gang has lost the nightclub, he chases Little Joe on his new motorcycle, and ropes him like a steer. Later, Hardin places Little Joe’s knife in a cigar box and gives it to Kate. He tells her that her “haircut” does not look so bad, and kisses her. Soon, from a rooftop perch, the gang observes the Donnelys renovating the nightclub. Kate notices that the repossession document states they have a week before the property officially changes ownership. At the hospital, Kate explains that if the Winch files a squatter’s rights claim within seven days and moves his motorhome back, the property will revert to him instead of the Donnelys. The Winch would rather leave town, but the Zoo Gang persuade him to stay and teach them how to fight. When the training goes slowly, the Winch becomes disgusted and quits. The Zoo Gang sets up their own training course, and focuses on becoming fighters. Ricky removes his leg cast with a hatchet so that he can fight with the gang. The night before the deadline, Hardin and Danny cut the chain-link fence surrounding the nightclub. Danny searches the bus full of sleeping Donnely brothers, finds the keys and leaves mousetraps and marbles on the bus floor. Danny hands Hardin the keys but accidently shuts the bus door and it becomes sealed with the glue Hardin laid down. Only Ricky can fit through the driver’s window with the keys and start the bus. Danny’s handiwork gives Ricky enough time to drive the bus off the property and crash into a fire hydrant. The gushing water, slippery marbles and mousetraps keep the brothers occupied while the gang helps Ricky escape. They remove parts from under the bus’s hood, puncture tires, and toss the keys down a sewer drain. The gang races to the Winch’s motorhome, and insist he move the vehicle onto the nightclub property by 10:00 a.m. He refuses to cooperate until Danny proves that he has learned to fight by throwing the wrestler over his shoulder. As they approach the shuttered nightclub, Pa Donnely has his tough guys create roadblocks. When the Winch crashes into a dumpster, the Zoo Gang fights the henchmen. Hardin starts the motorhome but it stalls a few feet before it reaches the property, and a new wave of fighting erupts. Ricky starts the motorhome engine but it also stalls. The Zoo Gang and town locals push the motorhome toward the property line. As Pa Donnely is about to shoot his gun, Kate pushes Little Joe into his father and his knife lodges in Pa’s buttock. His aim is thrown off and the Winch attacks him. The clock tower chimes as the townspeople nudge the motorhome to the curb. Suddenly, Mr. Haskell drives his car up against the back of the motorhome and after three attempts rocks the vehicle over the curb onto the property. Kate rips the repossession notice off the front door. The Zoo Gang hugs and rejoices over their victory, and soon, the nightclub is back in business.