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Lucas is a film directed by David Seltzer and first released on March 28, 1986. The film was a tragicomedy geared toward a teen audience. This movie ranked number 16 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.
Plot summary
The title character, Lucas Bly (Corey Haim), is an extremely intelligent, if nerdy 14-year-old high school student. He soon becomes acquainted with Maggie (Kerri Green), a pretty older girl who has just moved to town. After meeting Lucas on one of his entomological quests, Maggie befriends him, spending time with him during the remainder of the summer until school begins. Lucas, who finds himself a frequent victim of bullying and teasing, has a protector of sorts—Cappie (Charlie Sheen), a fellow student and football player; Cappie was once one of Lucas' tormentors, until Cappie contracted hepatitis and Lucas brought him his homework every day, ensuring that Cappie didn't fail and have to repeat a year of school. Even though Lucas deems it beneath her, Maggie becomes a cheerleader for the football team. Lucas begins to irritate Maggie, continuing to castigate her cheerleading as "superficial" and making the (wrong) assumption that Maggie will be his date to a school dance. She complains to him that she's interested in things besides just hanging out with him all the time. Lucas' unrequited affection for Maggie saddens him.
Everything changes on the night of the dance. Cappie is dumped by his girlfriend Alise (Courtney Thorne-Smith), who has noticed his budding attraction to Maggie. A depressed Cappie finds comfort with Maggie at her house—much to the chagrin of Lucas, who has arrived, in tuxedo, to pick her up for the dance. Even though Cappie and Maggie invite him out for pizza, he rudely rebukes them and rides off on his bike. Rina (Winona Ryder in her first feature film role), Lucas' best female friend, encounters him as he sits by a lake, looking across the lake at the dance festivities. Even though she has obvious feelings for him, Rina consoles Lucas as he frets about him and Maggie being "from two different worlds." Meanwhile, Cappie and Maggie are out for pizza alone. From afar, Lucas witnesses their first kiss. Shattered, Lucas takes drastic action the next day.
In a last-ditch (and misguided) attempt to impress Maggie and gain the respect he so desperately craves, the diminutive Lucas joins the football team. In the shower after practice, Lucas endures perhaps the worst prank yet from his constant tormentors Bruno (Tom Hodges) and Spike (Jeremy Piven). Shortly afterward, Lucas talks with Maggie in his favorite hiding place, underneath a road overpass bridge, and after she tells him with kindness that she wants him to be her friend, he tries to kiss her. Maggie pulls away bemusedly, and a heartbroken Lucas screams at her to leave. The next day, Lucas, still reeling, is severely injured in his first football game and requires hospitalization. Maggie and Cappie, along with Rina, attempt to contact his parents, though Maggie discovers that she does not know Lucas as well as she thought she did. Correcting Maggie's misguided impression that Lucas lives in a large luxurious house she has seen him at several times before, Rina shows the pair how Lucas lives in a dilapidated trailer with his alcoholic father, and instead works for a gardener who gardens at the large house where Maggie has visited him previously.
Lucas' friends hold a vigil in the hospital for him as he recuperates. Maggie visits Lucas' room that evening and sternly tells him never to play football again. Lucas promises and the two reconcile and pick up their close friendship where they left off. They speculate as to where they will be when the locusts return seventeen years later, locusts being one of the many scientific things Lucas introduced Maggie to during their summer together; both express the desire that they are still friends when the locusts return again.
Lucas returns to school a short time later, with schoolmates all casting surprised looks at him as he walks through the hall. Many talk amongst themselves about what he did on the football field, and how the jocks at school likely have it out for him now. Upon reaching his locker, he finds Bruno and Spike waiting for him. Thinking it'll just be the same old story, Lucas tries to ignore them as he opens his locker. Inside is a varsity letter jacket, emblazoned with Lucas' name and number (72) on the back. As Lucas takes it out in shock, Bruno starts the "slow clap", and the entire hallway starts applauding. Maggie, Cappie, and Rina are all there, too, leading the applause as Lucas raises his arms triumphantly and smiles.
Production
Reception
Reviews for Lucas were mixed as the film holds a 62% freshness at Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert gave the film 4 out of 4 stars, calling it a film "about teenagers who are looking how to be good with each other, to care, and not simply to be filled with egotism, lust and selfishness, which is all most Hollywood movies think teenagers can experience." Ebert later included the film in his top 10 films of 1986.
The film was not considered a box office success, although it gained a cult audience on home video and cable, and both Corey Haim and Kerri Green were nominated for a Young Artist Award in 1987.
References
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