Adventures in Babysitting (also known as A Night on the Town in certain countries) is a 1987 American comedy film written by David Simkins, directed by Chris Columbus, and starring Elisabeth Shue, Bradley Whitford, Maia Brewton, Anthony Rapp, Penelope Ann Miller, Keith Coogan, and a brief cameo by blues singer/guitarist Albert Collins. Although it is set in Oak Park, and Chicago, Illinois, with much of the action taking place in the city itself, the movie was filmed primarily in Toronto.
Plot
After her boyfriend, Mike Todwell (Bradley Whitford) cancels their anniversary date, 17-year-old Chris Parker (Elisabeth Shue) reluctantly volunteers to babysit for the Andersons' children, 15-year-old Brad (Keith Coogan) and 8-year-old Sara (Maia Brewton). Brad has a crush on Chris, which is revealed when he is tricked by Sara, who was getting back at him for calling her favorite superhero Thor a homo. After turning away his best friend Daryl Coopersmith (Anthony Rapp), a sex-crazed, big mouthed teen with whom he was going to spend the night, Brad finds college pamphlets in Chris' purse, but is relieved to hear she had no intention of looking into them. Chris gets a phone call from her friend Brenda (Penelope Ann Miller) who had run away from home, but ran out of money on the cab ride to Chicago's downtown bus station and she asks Chris to come pick her up. After initial hesitation and being blackmailed to keep from leaving the kids at home alone, Chris takes Brad, Sara, and the snooping Daryl from their safe suburban surroundings for an hour drive into the city and back. Unfortunately for them, they get a flat tire and become stranded on the expressway without a spare, and Chris realizes she left her purse at the house.
A friendly tow truck driver, "Handsome" John Pruitt (John Ford Noonan), who, to their surprise has a hook for a hand, coinciding with a scary story Chris was telling Sara earlier, offers to replace the tire for free. But en route to Dawson's garage, he gets a call on his CB that his wife is cheating on him, and he diverts violently to his home. In a brief shootout, the kids climb into a Cadillac which is being stolen by Joe Gipp (Calvin Levels) and are taken to a chop shop where they are detained until after a meeting they are holding. Daryl finds a Playboy magazine and boosts it before they make a tense escape across the building's rafters and out onto the roof. However the Playboy contains incriminating notes, and the car thieves give chase in order to get them back. The group stumbles into a Blues club, but they are forced by Albert Collins to sing of their ordeal, receiving cheers and applause from the audience. When they leave, the thieves are held up when they are prompted to do the same thing.
Daryl's near encounter with a teenage prostitute reminds Chris of their ordeal and original mission, meanwhile Brenda is having issues of her own. Having had her glasses stolen while she was resting, she is laughed at by exterminators who were trying to kill a sewer rat when she thought it was a kitten, she got into an argument with a hot dog vendor who proclaimed "I don't have a wiener!" when she attempted to purchase one with a check, and is terrified by several of the station's bizarre patrons. Meanwhile, the kids are put in the middle of a gang fight on a monorail train where Brad is (slightly) injured, prompting Chris' famous line, "Don't fuck with the babysitter!" After which a mad rush to the hospital leads to a brief shock as they are told that Brad had died, when in fact he was disappointed for getting a single stitch after the chance to look good in front of Chris. They run into Pruitt, who is on the run for his earlier fight. He tells them that his boss Dawson has their car, it is fixed and he had repaired the window, but Dawson will force them to replace the tire which is $50, which they do not have. They then come across a college fraternity party which Chris meets a new love interest in Dan Lynch (George Newbern) who manages to gather $45 for them. Daryl gets into a fight with a jock after his lonely girlfriend attempts to have sex with him. Dan takes them to Dawson's garage and leaves, expectantly to never be seen again as he does not leave contact information for Chris to pay him back.
In the garage, Dawson (Vincent D'Onofrio) appears, and Sara takes his resemblance as Thor to believe he is actually the superhero. He refuses to release their car due to the $5 shortage. But Sara's selflessness in giving him her plastic helmet to make him act like the hero she knows he is prompts him to have a change in heart and they are able to take the vehicle. On their way through the city, Chris spots the restaurant that her date was supposed to be that night, and Daryl points out Mike's car. She goes in and finds Mike flirting with the sleasy Sesame Plexer. Brad and Daryl stand up to him when he insults Chris, in the meantime Sara steps out to visit a toy store they saw on the way down the street. She is spotted by the head car thief Bleak (John Davis Chandler) who then proceed to chase her to the Smurfit-Stone Building office building where her parents are due to have a party. She escapes into the building, hoping to find her parents to protect her. She goes up to the top floor which is being renovated and uses a rope to slip out the window. Bleak stops inadvertently on the floor of the party, and his second in command Graydon (Ron Canada) discovers Sara and attempts to climb outside with her as she dangles precariously on the glass side. Chris, Daryl and Brad enter the party, barely missing being seen by the Andersons. Chris and Bleak both spot Sara walking along the thin window ledge just outside and while Chris is able to detain Bleak, the three make their way upstairs and save Sara, leaving Graydon outside to "sweat for a while". Joe arrives and punches Bleak out and takes them out of the building.
Brenda finds her glasses, and ends up running into all of the people she encountered while making a mad dash for the front door. She is picked up by Chris and they race back home. The kids are sent upstairs while Chris tidies up the messes left earlier in the day, coming to settle just as the Andersons appear in the door. She goes up to say good night to the kids, announcing her retirement to them. They all then thank each other for the greatest night of their lives ("...so far") and as Chris leaves, Dan shows up to return Sara's skate, which she had accidentally left behind, but notes that wasn't the only reason. Sara shouts out the window to kiss him and they comply as Brad, who has learned that Chris and he can be friends, closes the blinds to the bedroom.
Cast
- Elisabeth Shue as Chris Parker, a high school senior whose boyfriend cancels their date, so she goes to babysit the Andersons. She has an upbeat though very mature personality, taking the responsibility thrust upon her being trapped in Chicago with her charges very seriously. She is compassionate and friendly, though naive when it comes to meeting the "right guy."
- Penelope Ann Miller as Brenda, Chris' best friend, terrified while in the bus station. A little neurotic, Brenda runs away from home due to unspecified stress and becomes trapped in the bus station downtown, prompting Chris to come pick her up. She is persistent, edgy and positively, blind without her glasses, which are stolen early on.
- Bradley Whitford as Mike Todwell, Chris' boyfriend who canceled their anniversary date for another girl. He is obnoxious, chauvinistic, and only after a girl who puts out easily. He is regarded as a jerk and once beat Daryl up under suspicion that he touched his Camaro. His license plate is well-known as reading "SO COOL."
- Maia Brewton as Sara Anderson, an 8-year-old girl who idolizes Thor. She is the youngest and most impressionable, Brad going to lengths to keep her from being exposed to Daryl's overtly sexual personality. Sara is best known for wearing her Thor helmet and carrying around a plastic hammer. She is fun-loving and caring and attempts to offer her helmet for payment of a car tire when the mechanic has an uncanny likeness to the famed god Thor.
- Keith Coogan as Brad Anderson, a 15-year-old boy who has a crush on Chris. He is obsessed with becoming popular and more worthy in Chris' eyes. He's not afraid to speak his mind and often tries to be more mature than Daryl, but in his attempts to act cool he can tend to make some pretty big mistakes. His foot-in-mouth syndrome is solved at one point by having a knife thrown into his toe when trying to intervene in a gang fight.
- Anthony Rapp as Daryl Coopersmith, Brad's best friend. Daryl is a sex-crazed, ambitious, and fun-loving party animal, though he has never been to a party nor had sex. He thanks Chris for the best night of his life "so far" and is responsible for stealing a Playboy full of stolen car orders, sending a gang after them all to try and replace the one he stole from his dad to show Brad.
- Calvin Levels as Joe Gipp, a compassionate, streetwise criminal who helps Chris and the others on several occasions. He knocks out his boss as a sign of resignation and is known for telling Chris when seeing a Playboy centerfold who looks like her, "She don't even compare to you."
- Vincent D'Onofrio as Dawson/Thor, introduced as a hard-bargaining curmudgeon who is nobody's friend. After having been given a gift from Sara, who claims him to be her hero, thinking he is Thor, Dawson gives the repaired car back to the group after initially refusing, as Chris was $5 short.
- George Newbern as Dan Lynch, a college student who falls in love with Chris and refuses to believe she is merely a high school student. He finds Sara's skates in the back of his Jeep after dropping the kids off at Dawson's garage and returns them, revealing he actually wanted to see Chris again. He becomes her new boyfriend in the end.
- John Ford Noonan as "Handsome" John Pruitt, a tow truck operator who picks Chris and her friends off the side of the highway and offers to pay for the tire. He is short-tempered, however, and immediately veers to his house to take care of the man with whom his wife is having an affair. He goes on the lamb after the assault charges catch up with him, but he gives them the directions to Dawson's garage.
- John Davis Chandler as Bleak, the ringleader of a gang of car thieves that Chris and the others encounter. He is smarter, and more suave than Graydon, his counterpart but his ambition to meet his goals often leaves him blind sided.
- Ron Canada as Graydon, Bleak's second in command. He has a short temper and is nervous when met with confrontation with his boss. He tends to leap before he looks and gets himself into some vary precarious positions.
- Albert Collins as himself portrayed as a player in a Chicago Blues club, he insists on anyone who comes on his stage to "(not leave) this place without singin' the blues"
- Lolita Davidovich as Sue Ann, a lonely girl at a frat party whose dumb jock boyfriend attacks Daryl when she attempts to have sex with him for being compassionate to her needs.
Production
This was the first PG-13-rated film released by a Disney film division and was released as A Night on the Town in the United Kingdom. In the bus station scene with Brenda, the actor who portrayed the hot dog salesman originally improvised his line as "then I don't have a fucking weiner!" Columbus loved the line, but executives at Disney wanted to keep the picture more family-friendly, so the line was removed (although the word "fuck" is used twice in the final cut[1]). This scene was added to stretch out the bus station segments. It was not in the original script.
Bradley Whitford, who played Mike Todwell in the film, was actually 27 years old at the time of shooting. He was uncomfortable with the age difference, but director Chris Columbus put him at ease by allowing him to use his own Camaro in the movie. The car is later seen with Whitford's real-life license plate "SO COOL."
The movie's title was parodied in an episode of Bobby's World as "Adventures in Bobbysitting," as well as an episode of Disney's television show That's So Raven, "Adventures in Boss-Sitting," and an episode of Lizzie McGuire as "Misadventures in Babysitting."
Valerie Bertinelli was one of the actresses who auditioned for the role of Chris Parker.[2]
Anthony Rapp and director Chris Columbus would reunite 18 years later for the film adaptation of the musical Rent, which originally starred Rapp on Broadway.
Television pilot
Adventures in Babysitting was adapted into an American television pilot[3] of the same name for CBS in 1989. The pilot starred Jennifer Guthrie as Chris Parker, Joey Lawrence and Courtney Peldon as Brad and Sara Anderson, Ariana Mohit as Brenda, and Brian Austin Green as Daryl. It was not picked up for a series.
Sequel/Remake
A sequel is reportedly planned for release in 2010.[4] Disney Channel star Raven-Symoné will star in the sequel, currently titled Further Adventures in Babysitting.[4] Miley Cyrus has denied involvement.[5]
According to Variety, Tiffany Paulsen is writing the script.[4]
Critical response
The film has received positive reviews, and it currently earns a "fresh" 76% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
References
External links
