Fast Times At Ridgemont High Movie Recap (1982)

 

Fast Times At Ridgemont High

Literally, the first second of this movie we get hit in the face with “We Got the Beat” by The Go-Gos as the film kicks off at the Ridgemont Mall. Start off with Mike. Mike is a ticket scalper who tries to rip off two young boys in getting Van Halen tickets. We also meet Mark aka Rat, he works at the movie theater but he hates his job as the action is by the food court. Over the other side at Perry’s Pizza we meet Stacy, a freshman who is a first-time worker and befriends Linda. They spot a cute guy and Linda urges Stacy to talk to him. Stacy lies about her being 19 years old and the guy is 26. Meanwhile outside of the mall we meet Stacy’s brother Brad, he works at an All-American Burger. At the burger joint, we meet Jeff Spicoli, a stoner and slaker who likes to arrive in public establishments shirtless. Brad being one of the best employees there, orders Spicoli and his friends to put their shirts back on.

After their shift ends, Linda tells Stacy about her sexual experiences but it’s possibly cap. But we finally arrive at Ridgemont High. Mike runs into Charles Jefferson and Mike lies about his affiliation with Charles. In Mr. Hand’s history class, Jeff Spicoli arrives late and Mr. Hand gives him a hard time. At lunch, Stacy links up with Linda and Linda gives her a lesson on “water fountain drinking” and I don’t know how much (or if) I post what occurred on this channel. At biology class Rat catches eye for Stacy and he get the goggle-eyed effect. Rat goes to his friend swindler Mike and he give him advice on talking to girls.

But Rat isn’t even on Stacy’s radar as she’s going to meet up with the much older guy she flirted with at Perry’s Pizza and the tune “She Somebody’s Baby”. They go to the baseball dugout and hangout but hanging out turned into Stacy losing her virginity. Brad is taking care of his Buick that he’s nearly paid off. Stacy also arrives home to roses sent by the older guy and she goes to her brother to rid the roses and we never see him again. Mr. Hand is disappointed that everyone mostly failed his weekly quiz. He tries to locate Spicoli but he was skipping class. When he finally shows up, Hand asks him about his frequent tardiness and he say I Don’t Know, leaving Mr. Hand to humiliate him yet again. Back at the mall, Rat finally find some strength to talk to Stacy, but he winds up blushing but he got the digits nonetheless. Brad’s time working at All American Burger comes to an end when he argues with a business customer over his breakfast plate.

Before Rat’s big date with Stacy, Mike give him some pointers on what women like and what to do for the date. But the date comes and Rat forgets his wallet. He calls Mike in for a save and retrieves his wallet. After the date, Stacey invites Rat in and they were bout go to in for the game winning touchdown, but Rat got fumbled the ball at the goalie and leaves due to nervousness. Stacey assumes that Rat isn’t into her, when it was him getting the jitters. Spicoli meanwhile is driving Charles Jefferson’s Camero with Charles’s brother and unsurprisingly wrecks the car. So they come up with a plan. The plan is to trash the car even further and vandalize Lincoln ahead of the big football game to fuel Jefferson’s fire. That plan worked better than expected as Ridgemont shuts out Lincoln 42-0.

Brad bounced back with a new job as a waiter at a pirate themed restaurant. This leaves us with the pool scene. After Brad gets off his shift, he goes to the bathroom and spots Linda and he fantasizes about her, and we get one of the top 10 greatest scenes in cinema history, a it’s a scene that transformed a lot of boys into men (and I obviously can’t show it on YouTube). But in the bathroom, Brad is doing the thing Rocky did in the freezer in that one movie. Reality hits and Linda walks in on him and oh, oh, OH.

Back with Mr. Hand’s class, Spicoli interrupts the class yet again when he orders pizza. Spicoli then states that it’s his time in class as well (which he’s not wrong). Mr. Hand says he’s right and since it’s also his time, he invites a few class members to eat Spicoli’s pizza (honestly this would make me livid). Mike then spots Stacey and she starts to get the hots for him. She invites him to the pool room as they get changed into their swimwear, it lead them to…well. Mike only lasted .4 of a nanosecond and he storms off in initial embarrassment. But the next day, he feels like the man.

Brad is feeling a bit embarrassment over his uniform. While doing a delivery, he decide to save face and quit his job. Then Stacey confronts Mike and tells her that she’s pregnant. They mention the A-word. Mike then tries to scramble money to get her the A-word. But Stacey believes Mike not going to take her to the clinic, so she ask her brother to take her to the bowling alley. But he catches her detouring for the clinic and gets the A-word. After this she calls Linda, and she’s pissed that Mike bailed on her in a time of need. So Linda vandalizes Mike’s Car/locker with the word “prick”.

Rat finds out about their encounter with Stacey and they nearly get into a fight, until their gym teacher breaks it up. The biology class (with the addition of Jeff Spicoli) take a field trip to the hospital. But the field trip gets too real for Stacey after realizing what she went through. It’s the end of the school year, Spicoli gets a visit for Mr. Hand. He tells him that he’s blowing his potential and they go through a lengthy lesson to make up the time he missed/wasted, all this where the final dance of the school year occurs. Do school still have dances? Linda is distraught that she got a breakup letter from her college bound boyfriend. Stacey comes to the conclusion that she wants a relationship instead of these quick flings. So she talks to Rat, and the rekindle their relationship.

Brad now works at a mini-mart and Spicoli walks in to use the bathroom. But while he’s doing #1, a robber comes in and tries to rob the place. When Spicoli asks for paper towels, that one second distracts the robber, just enough time for Brad to douse him with coffee and he defuse the situation. We now get epilogues on the main cast. Thanks to his heroics Brad is now the manager of the mini-mart (just enough for him to pay off his Buick), Mike got busted for scalping Ozzy Osbourne tickets and now works at a 7/11, Linda went to college but hooked up with her Abnormal Psych Professor, Rat & Stacy are now lovers that haven’t reached home plate (nice that they are taking things slow), Mr. Hand still thinks everyone is on dope, Spicoli saved Brooke Shields from drowning, got a handsome award that he blew when he booked Van Halen to play his birthday party.

Final Thoughts: This was a movie, I thought I wasn’t going to be this stressed but I end up being so let’s get into some thoughts. Brad, seemed like an easy guy trying to hold down random jobs but eventually found one that stuck. Scalper Mike, I did not like this guy something about him that gives me the ick. Was it his lack of accountability, likely? But let’s move on to Linda. Linda was very sex craved, claimed to have a upperclassman boyfriend and said she did it and he lasted pretty long. My question was her, was she all cap. Everything she said about her sexual experiences and relationship were true, don’t know but I think it was all cap. Spicoli was the stereotypical slacker, showed up late to class and just want to smoke weed every day. He has potential but what he does with it, is concerning. Like he could’ve set himself up for success but he ended up blowing it on a Van Halen concert. Finally, Stacy, she was naïve when it came to men and relationship. She wanted to experience sex, thanks to Linda’s tall tales. When she finally tried it, it nearly cost her everything and after the mike incident, she realized she needed to slow down. Overall, I will say this didn’t relate to my high school experiences but I feel like every high schooler needs to see this film. There are many important lessons you can learn from this movie. No wonder this was movie is in the Library of Congress. So if you haven’t seen this movie, go check it out, it’s worth watching.