Welcome To Movie Recall. In Today's video, we will be going through the 2009 Teen Comedy
Movie Starring Zac Efron : “17 Again”.
It's Time To Recall.
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The movie starts in 1989. Mike O’Donnell, the handsome teenage high-school basketball
star, practices shooting hoops. Coach Murphy comes in and tells him to take it easy. A
scout is coming in for the game tonight and Mike is a shoo-in for a scholarship. The coach
calls all the players in for a photo shoot, but Mike tells them to wait for Ned, the waterboy.
The others are scornful of Ned, but Mike says he’s part of the team. Ned Gold comes in,
dressed up as a Harry Potter, stumbling over his robe. The other players laugh at him,
except for Mike his best friend. They pose for the picture. Just as it clicks, one of
the jocks gives Ned a wedgie, making him jump.
Game time! As the cheerleaders for Mike’s team, the Hayden Warriors do their routine,
Mike joins in, dancing and posing for the cheering crowd. As he prepares himself for
the game, he sees his girlfriend, Scarlett, standing by the rafters, waving at him. He
runs over and gives her a big hug. He also makes a special shooting pose for her. She
seems a bit tentative though. He asks her what the problem is, but she tries to brush
it off. He persists and she tells him. The news is obviously heavy, as he seems completely
dazed. The game starts and Mike’s mind is not in it. He just stands on the floor, dribbling
the ball, pondering. His teammates, coach and the crowd are shocked to see him do nothing.
He watches Scarlett walk out sadly. He makes a decision and throws the ball over his shoulder,
to everyone’s shock, and runs to Scarlett. The coach sees the scout metaphorically close
his book. Mike catches up to Scarlett and tells her he wants to be there for her. She
tells him that he has a future, but he retorts that the baby is his future. She tries to
walk away, but he kisses her, ending the discussion.
And then, he wakes up in the present day. He’s in his buddy, Ned’s, house. Ned is
now a billionaire. As they have breakfast together, they talk about Mike being kicked
out by Scarlett now his ex-wife and his kids not wanting to be with him. However, Mike
is up for a big promotion and he’s quite excited about it.
Mike goes to the office, at Wyatt Pharmaceuticals. He sits in a meeting, where the boss, Dean,
talks about a new drug that gives a four-hour erection. Except for Mike, all the other people,
seated at the conference table, are attractive ladies. Dean brings up the topic of the promotion,
and everyone sits up, excitedly. Dean announces that the promotion has been awarded to one
of the attractive ladies. While all the ladies celebrate, Mike is nonplussed.
When all the ladies leave, he confronts Dean. He tells him that he’s been at the company
for 16 years, while the lady was there for only a couple of months. Dean brushes him
off to take a call, but Mike yanks off his bluetooth earpiece and smashes it furiously
against the wall. As the celebrating ladies get into the elevator, they pay no heed to
Mike, who stands there morosely with all his stuff dumped in a box. He’s either been
fired or he’s quit. Like it matters, huh?
He drives over to his old school, Hayden. He goes onto the empty basketball floor and
reminisces for a while. He looks at the trophy cabinet in the hall and looks at his old 1989
picture. The school janitor comes along and recognizes him. He tells that he was a high-school
star who didn’t live up to his potential. He says that people come back to look back
upon the glory days, like they were living in the past. Mike prefers the past, as it
was better for him. The janitor asks him if he wants a do-over, to which Mike nostalgically
says “yes”. The janitor smiles. Just then, Mike’s daughter, Maggie, and her friends
come up. Mike notices that the janitor has disappeared. He tells her that he’s there
to take her and her brother for ice-cream. He pretty much forces them to go.
At the ice cream place, while other kids and their parents have fun, Mike, Maggie and Alex
sit quietly at a table. Maggie and Alex are none too pleased about being there, especially
with their dad. Maggie listens to her IPod while Alex plays on his playstation. He tries
to talk to Alex about trying out for basketball. Alex, too busy to look up from his playstation,
just answers noncommittally. To get his dad off his back, he tells him that Maggie got
into Georgetown. Mike tries to congratulate her, but she ignores him, acting like she’s
grooving to the music, though her earphones are not even plugged in. He drops them home,
where they just walk inside without a word to him. He sees Scarlett in the backyard,
throwing his stuff into a woodchipper. Their divorce is not final yet, but she’s already
started shutting him out of her life. She’s pissed at him for all his complaining about
how his life could have been different, all these years. He tells her that he’s disappointed
with his life. She angrily tells him that now they’re not holding each other back
anymore. She’ll see him in court. Her friend, Naomi, arrives. Mike and Naomi are a bit antagonistic
to each other. Naomi tells Scarlett that she should get back on the market. Scarlett says
goodbye to Mike and goes inside the house. Unhappily, Mike walks out, just as it starts
to rain.
He drives in the rain. His car radio starts to malfunction, switching stations every second.
As he drives on a bridge, he sees a man standing on the edge, about to jump. He stops quickly
and shouts to the man. The man turns – it’s the janitor from Hayden High. He smiles at
a surprised Mike, just as a truck passes by. When it passes, the janitor has disappeared
off the edge. Mike runs to the edge and looks down into the water. To his shock, he sees
a whirlpool and his younger self reaching out to him. Suddenly, he falls into the water.
A while later, he reaches Ned’s place, completely muddy and wet. He stands in the shower, hosing
himself off. Then he looks in the mirror and screams out. He’s back to being his 17's
lookalike. Ned wakes up, hearing the scream. In the bathroom, Mike looks at himself in
disbelief. Ned enters, with a Spartan helmet and a battle-axe. Seeing the younger Mike,
he swings the axe at him. They scuffle a bit, with Mike trying to explain, but Ned’s too
scared. Thanks to being younger and more agile, Mike manages to defend himself against the
hysterical Ned. Soon, they’re fighting with light-sabres. Mike recalls past events about
Ned to prove it’s him, but Ned manages to drop Mike. As he prepares to beat Mike with
a picture-frame, he sees the picture of the two of them graduating in 1989. Finally getting
it, he drops the frame… right onto Mike’s head, knocking him out.
When he comes to, he and Ned try to understand what happened. Ned, after asking a lot of
sci-fi-related questions, decides it’s got to be Spirit God Transformation Magic. Mike
figures out that the janitor must be his “Spirit God”. Still in older Mike’s dirty and
much looser suit, he speeds off to Hayden High, where he urgently asks the students
where the janitor is. He sees a female janitor who tells him that she’s the only janitor
at the school. After she leaves, he sees Alex and tries calling out to him. Alex runs off.
Mike sees the lights flickering and a pool of water on the floor, leading to a door.
He follows the water trail and sees a bucket and mop, standing unattended outside a room.
Looking inside the room, he sees it’s the basketball court.
He runs back to Ned’s and says he knows what he has to do. He’s going back to high
school. Ned is skeptical, but Mike is resolute. Ned refuses to have anything to do with this.
And soon… he’s introducing Mike to the principal as a new student, “Mark”. Mike’s
dressed all weird, like Kevin Federline. As they go to meet the principal Jane Masterson,
Mark bumps into Stan, a bully. The moment Ned sees Jane, it’s love at first sight.
Thanks to Ned’s doctored documents, “Mark" is accepted into the school. Ned tries to
hit on Jane, but mark drags him out. As they walk through the halls, the students stares
on Mike's Kevin Federline like clothing. So Ned takes him shopping.
The next day, he comes in a flashy sports car, wearing much more respectable but stylish
dress. People check him out as he walks into school. Once he’s in the hall, the bell
rings and the hall is crowded by quick-walking students, who shoulder-bump and push him as
they walk. In his class, he gets a call from Scarlett. He’s late for the divorce hearing.
He tries to lie, saying he’s out of the country, but they hear the cheerleaders behind
him. One of them asks him out on a date. Scarlett’s lawyer pushes for full custody of the kids,
but Mike argues. He sees Maggie walk inside. He says that he’s closer to them than she
thinks and asks to reschedule. During gym class, he finds he still has his
basketball skills. He catches the eye of Coach Murphy (yes, the same one, only 20 years older).
He asks Mike to show up for tryouts. In the bathroom, mark calls Ned to report the good
news. After hanging up, he sees Alex, sitting duct-taped to a toilet. Outraged, he asks
who did it. Alex replies “the basketball team”. mike is surprised that his son is
not popular. He introduces himself as “Mark Gold”, his uncle Ned’s son. He starts
to undo the tape, much to Alex’s agony. They go to lunch, where Mike says they should
look out for one another. Alex seems interested in a girl named Nicole, the head cheerleader.
Just then, the basketball team, led by Stan, enter. They walk into the cafeteria, pushing
smaller kids out of their way and stealing their lunches. Stan is also Maggie’s boyfriend.
Seeing her and Stan kiss, Mike is a bit unhappy that Maggie is dating a bully. Stan approaches
them and pushes Alex around. Mike stands up for his son. He verbally humiliates Stan,
calling him a bully and a “dick”, while expertly spinning Stan’s basketball, much
to the delight of the whole school.
At Ned’s place, he eats junk food, while lamenting the fact that his son is a punching
bag and his daughter is a bully’s girlfriend. He now understands his “Spirit Path”.
He has to help out his kids. He goes to his ex-wife’s house. In the yard, he sees Alex
shoot hoops. Alex seems pretty good at basketball. Mike realizes that Alex should be on the basketball
team, as part of his Spirit Path. Just then, Scarlett and Naomi pull up in the car. Alex
introduces Mike as “Mark, Ned’s bastard”. A bit drunk, Scarlett seems a bit taken aback
when she sees Mike. She grabs his face and pulls his cheeks, saying that he looks so
much like her husband. Naomi drags her away and advises her to hook up with someone else.
Mike throws the ball at Naomi and acts apologetic, though he does politely berate her for trying
to hook up a married woman.
Next day, at school, entering class, he sees Stan and Maggie in a liplock. He breaks it
up innocently and sits. The subject for the day is Abstinence. Mike announces that it’s
a great idea and everyone should make a pact to abstain from sex. He gets a bunch of amused
giggles and incredulous looks from the others. However, the teacher knows that no one’s
going to abstain, so, to emphasise safe sex, she passes a box of condoms around, much to
Mike’s horror. Stan grabs a handful. Mike says he doesn’t need any because he’ll
only have sex with the girl he loves. And sex should be done by married people, to have
kids. Forgetting himself, as he describes the joy of having a baby, the other girls
are touched. They return the condoms immediately. Stan grabs more and forcibly kisses Maggie.
Infuriated, Mike launches himself at Stan and the two fight, with Mike getting beat
down. The fight is captured on videophones and sent around the whole school. A humiliated
Mike is called to the principal’s office along with his “dad”, Ned, who comes dressed
to impress the Principal. In Jane’s office, he tries his crazy “seduction technique”,
but Jane blows him off.
He goes to Scarlett’s place and sees her in the yard, preparing to do some gardening
in the backyard. She leads him into the backyard and tells him what she plans to do to fix
it up. Unwittingly, he calls her “Scar” and she catches on to it. He volunteers to
help her out. Mike trains Alex for basketball, helps Scarlett with the garden and tries to
keep Maggie away from Stan, while Ned keeps flirting with Jane.
After the tryouts, Mike and Alex are both selected for the team. Scarlett is thrilled
to hear the news. She shows them the finished backyard and it looks great. Mike compliments
her and tells her to start a business. She’s flattered. She tells him that she’s going
out on a date, which involves dancing. He sees her dancing in front of a mirror. He
asks her to teach him. They start to dance pretty well. He asks about her husband, if
they’ll ever get back together. She’s pretty sure they won’t. They’re interrupted
by Alex, who’s a bit weirded out seeing them dance. He tells them her date’s here.
Her date is Mike’s former boss, Dean. Mike is pissed and tries to talk Scarlett out of
it, but she goes anyway. Just as they drive off, Stan rolls by to pick up Maggie for a
party. Dragging Alex along, Mike goes to the party.
The party is at a bowling alley. Alex is scared to be there, but Mike tells him he’s part
of the basketball team. They see Nicole and Alex tries to bolt, but Mike stops him. He
tells him he’s not a loser. He pushes Alex to go talk to Nicole. As he looks for Maggie,
he gets waylaid by three of Maggie’s friends – Jaime, Samantha and Lauren. They try to
seduce him, but he sits them down and tries to talk some sense in them, but it’s like
talking to the walls. He walks away, muttering it’s some other dads’ problems. As Alex
awkwardly and nervously talks to Nicole, he gets too close to a candle and his pant leg
catches on fire. He races to the restroom. Mike finds Maggie and sits next to her. He
asks her what she sees in Stan. She dismissively tells him that she and Stan are going to move
in together after high school. He’s going to work in Home Depot, while she attends Community
College to be closer to him. Mike refuses to let that happen. He angrily forbids her
to see Stan. She gets mad and walks off.
The next day, a basketball game is underway. Scarlett is in the audience with Dean. Hayden
High is a few points behind. Mike sees Stan making out with Maggie and gets mad. With
seconds left in the game, Mike finds himself deciding whether to pass to Stan or Alex.
He chooses Alex, the he scores! and Hayden wins! Everyone celebrates, though Stan is
pissed. Nicole congratulates Alex, though his nervousness almost ruins the moment. After
the game, Ned corners Principal Jane and asks her out to dinner. After some persuasion,
she agrees, though she doesn’t want any flashy stuff from Ned. To help Alex with Nicole,
Mike announces a party at his place. Later He sees Maggie crying and goes to her. She
tearfully says that Stan dumped her, because she refused to have sex with him. Greatly
relieved, he consoles her. However, she misreads his fatherly advice and tries to kiss him,
but he dodges her and sidesteps, inviting her to the party. Soon, word spreads throughout
the school about the party.
At Ned’s place, the party is underway. Mike sees Alex finally hit it off with Nicole.
At a fancy restaurant, Ned tries to act refined in front of Jane, but blows it. He confesses
he’s a dork. However, she proves that she’s just as big a nerd as he is, by quoting “Lord
of the Rings”. At the party, Stan drunkenly tries to apologize to Maggie. But she blows
him off and tells him she’s with someone else. Mike shows up and tells him to leave,
before he calls the cops. Stan insults Maggie, inciting Mike to swing at him. He misses,
but Stan connects, knocking Mike out.
When he wakes up, he finds his head on Maggie’s lap, while she caresses him. He recoils immediately,
but she pounces, thinking it to be a game. He tells her he has another girlfriend to
keep her off. Accepting it, she leaves. At the restaurant, Ned and Jane converse in Elf-tongue,
culminating in her asking him “your lair or mine”. He ask for the Check. At the party,
it seems to be going a bit out of control, with kids playing around with Ned’s most
treasured possessions. Scarlett shows up, looking for Alex. Mike tells her that Alex
has a girlfriend and he’ll take her to them. When Ned shows up at home, he’s fuming to
see his home a mess. He throws everyone out, with some help from Principal Jane. Scarlett
and Mike watch Alex and Nicole kiss. She’s thrilled and grateful to Mike for being a
good role model. As they talk, he suddenly kisses her, as Maggie and her friends watch
in astonishment. Scarlett slaps him in outrage and storms off. He chases after her, confessing
that he’s not “Mark”, but her husband and the father of her kids. That sets her
off and she yells at him and walks off. Maggie walks up, calls him a pervert and slaps him,
followed by Samantha, Lauren and Jaime. Jane tells Ned that this is why she doesn’t date
students’ parents and walks away. Mike apologizes to Ned. Ned slaps him few times and calls
it even.
The next morning, Ned cleans up the mess from the party, while Mike moans about his screw-up.
He has to appear in court for the divorce proceedings. Using a police siren, Ned drives
him there in his convertible. At the courthouse, Ned barges into the courtroom, acting as a
lawyer. However, the judge orders the bailiffs to remove him and Mike from the courtroom.
Mike yells out that he has a letter from Mike O’Donnell. Scarlett asks to hear it. Mike
reads the letter. He tearfully recalls the time he met Scarlett, and how much he loves
her. He apologizes for blaming her for his failures. He doesn’t want to divorce her,
but he loves her and wants her to move on. Scarlett emotionally listens. now that he’s
done The judge orders him to leave. Leaving the paper behind, he walks out. Scarlett watches
as he walks out and then asks the judge to postpone the hearing. When she looks at the
paper, she sees it only contains directions. And now she starts to understand.
At Ned’s place, as Mike shoots hoops, he tells Ned that his family is better without
him. He can move on. At Scarlett’s house, she looks through their high school yearbook
at Mike’s 1989 picture. She sees a wedding band and a note on the hammock. It’s from
Mike, apologizing for not finishing what he started.
At the basketball court, similar to the first scene, as Coach Murphy approaches and tells
Mike about a scout coming in and Mike being a shoo-in. A picture of the team is taken.
The game is about to begin. Scarlett and Maggie enter. Maggie tells her mother that she plans
to go to Georgetown. Ned approaches Jane and tells her he wants to be friends. Some geek-talk
follows and it looks like they’re back together.
The game starts. Just as it starts, Mike makes the same special shooting pose for Scarlett
similar to the beginning of the movie. Now understanding fully, Scarlett gets up and
starts to walk out. And a similar situation like in the start of the movie develops. He
sees her near the rafters, about to walk out. The coach, the crowd, the scout, everything
as before. He makes up his mind. He gives the ball to Alex and runs out. As he does,
the janitor his Spirit Guard watches and smiles. Alex is put into the game. Mike runs after
Scarlett. As he does, his vision starts to wave and then… a flash. He runs to the door.
Scarlett appears and asks if it’s him. It’s Mike's old self her husband. He tells her
that he loves her and wants to be with her. He promises to make it up to her. She forgives
him and kisses him.
Thanks to Alex, Hayden High wins the game. Mike and Scarlett walk out, reminiscing about
Mike’s “six-pack”, when he was younger.
During the credits, Mike goes to Ned’s bedroom to thank him and finds Principal Jane under
the sheets. Since Coach Murphy retired after 20 years, Mike is now the coach. Ned gifts
him a new whistle.
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