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  1. Lane and Monique are last seen kissing on home plate at Dodger Stadium, with Johnny bicycling towards them, while in a mid-credit scene Badger launches a homemade space shuttle from his room through the roof of the house. Cast. John Cusack as Lane Meyer. David Ogden Stiers as Al Meyer. Diane Franklin as Monique Junot. Kim Darby as Jenny Meyer.

    • The Story
    • Aesthetics of The Absurd
    • “Gee, I’m Real Sorry Your Mom Blew Up, Ricky”
    • Suicide
    • Sexual Slavery and The Revenge of The Nerds
    • Better Off Dead: Conclusion

    The film follows Lane Meyer (John Cusack) as he navigates all the cliches of 1980s-era teen comedies. His girlfriend (Amanda Wyss) dumps him for a shallow jock (the Ted McGinley-channeling Aaron Dozier). His best friend (Curtis Armstrong) is a drug-obsessed buffoon. And his parents (David Ogden Stiers and Kim Darby) are tragically out of touch with...

    Most of these plot elements are fairly standard for a teen comedy of the era. What makes Better Off Dead distinctive is the bizarre aesthetics of Holland‘s direction, along with Cusack‘s ability to navigate the mayhem with his signature mix of charm, intelligence, and world-weariness. Hollandtakes the familiar tropes of the genre and exaggerates th...

    Ultimately, the film’s sheer disregard for the limits of reality makes its wholesale offensiveness tolerable. Like too many films of its era, Better Off Dead creates jokes from stereotypes, misogyny, and other terrible things. Women are made into sexual objects: cheerleader Chris Cummins not only dates the entirebasketball team, she is also strippe...

    Better Off Dead is the movie’s title, so let’s begin there. When the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why premiered, it sparked immediate controversy about the propriety of portraying suicide on screen. This has been taboo in film for good reason, yet Holland‘s film not only depicts several suicide attempts, it does so in an effort to create comedy. When ...

    A happy outcome of this scene is that Lane and Monique begin their redemptive relationship here. Not only does this mark the end of Lane’s obsession with ending his life, it is also how Monique is liberated from one of the film’s most jaw-droppingly offensive sub-plots. Ricky Smith is, to be blunt, a creepy, lecherous nerd. His mother has essential...

    Savage Steve Holland, along with Cusack and the rest of his cast, accomplish something unique with Better off Dead. At the surface, the film exhibits the same regressive political traits as many of its contemporary peers. More so, even. These films deserve much of the scorn our modern, more inclusive values place on them. Yet Holland‘s quirky, stra...

    • David Konow
    • It's based on real life. "Better Off Dead" was the creation of Savage Steve Holland, a promising young filmmaker just out of California Institute of the Arts.
    • The director really had a stalker paperboy. Yes, Holland's real-life experiences are exaggerated for comedic effect in "Better Off Dead," and he, fortunately, found some humor in the trauma he endured.
    • Henry Winkler helped get the movie made. After playing the Fonz on TV's "Happy Days," Henry Winkler reinvented himself as a producer and helped create the successful series "MacGyver."
    • Holland desperately wanted John Cusack for the lead. John Cusack took off as an actor in the mid-'80s, with roles in the John Hughes classic "Sixteen Candles" and the Rob Reiner romantic comedy "The Sure Thing."
  2. The final scene of the movie shows Lane and Monique making out on his Camaro while it's parked on the pitcher's mound at Dodger Stadium. A single paperboy on a bike is seen riding toward them. Contribute to this page

    • Garin Pirnia
    • Better Off Dead is based on a true story. Savage Steve Holland wrote the script based on his own high school girlfriend, who did indeed leave him for the captain of the ski team.
    • Henry Winkler played a part in getting the movie made. In the early 1980s, Holland’s short film, My 11-Year-Old Birthday Party, played at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
    • Holland had to fight to cast John Cusack. At Winkler’s suggestion, Holland checked out Cusack in The Sure Thing, which Winkler executive produced. After seeing the movie, Holland thought Cusack was perfect for the role.
    • John Cusack hated the movie (though he swears he didn't). It’s been widely reported that Cusack basically disowned the movie as soon as he saw it, which was the night before he was to begin filming Holland’s follow-up comedy, One Crazy Summer.
  3. Better Off Dead: Directed by Savage Steve Holland. With John Cusack, David Ogden Stiers, Kim Darby, Demian Slade. After his girlfriend Beth Truss ditches him for boorish ski jock Roy Stalin, sad sack high school student Lane Meyer decides that suicide is the only answer.

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  5. Sep 14, 2024 · In this article, we’ll explore 37 fascinating facts about the movie, from behind-the-scenes stories to interesting trivia that even the most die-hard fans may not know. So grab your jumbo box of tissues and prepare to navigate the wacky world of “Better Off Dead!

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