Revenge of the Nerds
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| Revenge of the Nerds | |
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| Directed by | Jeff Kanew |
| Produced by | Ted Field Peter Samuelson |
| Written by | Jeff Buhai Tim Metcalfe |
| Starring | Robert Carradine Anthony Edwards Timothy Busfield |
| Cinematography | King Baggot |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | July 20, 1984 |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $8,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
Revenge of the Nerds is a 1984 comedy film starring Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards, with Curtis Armstrong, Ted McGinley, Julia Montgomery, Brian Tochi, Larry B. Scott, and Donald Gibb. The film was directed by Jeff Kanew. It chronicles the story of a group of nerds trying to stop harassment by the persecuting jock fraternity, the Alpha Betas. Exterior scenes such as the arrival of the nerds at college and the fraternity houses were filmed at the University of Arizona.
This film is number 91 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".
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[edit] Plot summary
The movie is set at fictional Adams College, where two nerds enroll due to its acclaimed computer studies department. Unfortunately, the college also displays inappropriate favoritism toward their football team, the Atoms. This gives the coach (John Goodman), an arrogant bully, and his team, stocked mainly by the equally obnoxious jocks of the Alpha Beta fraternity, considerable power on campus.
This power is shown when the Alpha Betas burn down their own fraternity house as a result of carelessness during a party. They pressure the dean of the campus to let them take over the freshman dorm while their house is being repaired, and they literally throw out the freshmen residents. The freshmen are forced to bunk in the gym until they can find housing with fraternities. However, the nerds are all rejected and attempts to approach the fraternities on their own lead to them being publicly humiliated and harassed.
The nerds, with some difficulty, manage to find a rundown house that they fix up. However, the Alpha Betas and their associated sorority, the Pi Delta Pis, harass them and attempt to drive them out of pure malice. It starts with the Alpha Betas throwing a brick that reads "NERDS GET OUT" through one of the new house's windows.
When the nerds approach the campus police, they are referred to the Greek Council, which oversees fraternity affairs, only to find that Stan Gable (the head of the Alpha Betas) is the president. He bluntly overrules their complaint because they are not a fraternity. The nerds attempt to start a chapter of a national fraternity, but all of the fraternal organizations reject them, with the exception of Lambda Lambda Lambda, the only fraternity they did not send a group picture to. It is, however, a predominantly African American organization and only one of the nerds is African-American (he is also openly gay), and the head of the national organization is uninterested in having them join. However, the nerds press the point using a regulation that, as a petitioning group, they have the right to join with probationary status. The nerds attempt to organize a party to impress the fraternity officials. However, they are tricked by the Pis, who falsely offer to be their dates only to completely snub them on party night. Another sorority, Omega Mu (known as the Mus, which sounds like "Moos"), come in their place, but they consist of social rejects themselves and the resulting awkwardness deadens the atmosphere. In desperation, the nerds resort to lighting large marijuana joints to liven up the affair, which proves successful. However, the party is spoiled by the Alphas crashing the party by letting pigs loose in the frat house.
The nerds, led by Louis, decide to retaliate. First they plan an elaborate panty raid on the Pis, which is actually a diversion during which they install hidden cameras in the sorority's rooms. The nerds also saturate the Alpha's jock straps in liquid heat (a liniment that produces sensations of heat) to create an agonizing and embarrassing experience at football practice. The Lambda fraternity head is impressed with the nerds' creativity, and a charter is granted for the chapter, officially making the nerds members of Lambda Lambda Lambda (or Tri-Lambs, for short).
However, the harassment by the Alphas only worsens, and the obviously biased Greek Council refuses to respond. Deciding that they must take power themselves, the nerds compete in the homecoming carnival, the winner of which will lead the council.
The Lambdas and Mus team up, and have a difficult time in several events, but manage to win a few others using ingenuity and their peculiar skills. They gain ground in fundraising by selling plates with naked pictures of the Pis (obtained by the cameras in the Pi dorms) which not allows them to best the Alpha Betas, but also humiliate their female counterparts. They design an ergonomically advanced javelin for the javelin throw, and they give their team member a chemical that will prevent him from feeling the effects of alcohol during another event. They seal their victory in the talent show with a spectacular song and dance routine using a TRS-80 Color Computer with an Audio Spectrum Analyzer cartridge for special effects. During the carnival, one of the leading nerds (Louis) pilfers Stan Gable's costume and tricks Stan's girlfriend Betty into thinking he is Stan. Louis and Betty make love, after which Betty discovers Louis's identity. She is not upset, in fact she immediately decides that she likes Louis better. Louis' explanation: "All jocks ever think about is sports. All we [nerds] ever think about is sex."
The Alphas retaliate by wrecking the Lambda house, and the nerds are disheartened, especially considering that they do not assume office until the next school year. One of the nerds (Gilbert) decides to personally confront the Alphas at the homecoming rally. When Gilbert is about to be beaten, the otherwise timid dean, himself a nerd, finally stands up to the coach and exercises his rightful authority. Although the dean is about to be beaten up himself, the Lambda head arrives just in time with a group of large muscular African-American Lambdas to intimidate the Alphas while Gilbert is given a chance to speak his mind to the audience.
He poignantly speaks about how he and his friends were harassed, but in spite of this, he re-affirms that he is a nerd and proud of it. His friends gather around in support and call on any of the audience who have ever felt left out or picked on to join them. The entire audience does so, and the Alphas find themselves hopelessly outnumbered.
The film ends with the Dean finally gathering up the courage to tell off the football coach, and eject the Alphas from their building for the Lambda's use until the Alphas repair the damage they caused to the Lambda's house. The Dean points out to the coach that they're jocks, so they should be right at home sleeping in the gym.
[edit] Characters
- Louis Skolnick (Robert Carradine): The protagonist of the film and the leader of the nerds. He has a distinctive yelping laugh that has become a hallmark of his character.
- Gilbert Lowell (Anthony Edwards): Louis' best friend. He counters Louis' generally positive attitude with mild pessimism and realism.
- Arnold Poindexter (Timothy Busfield): The nerdiest of the nerds. Provides mild comic relief. Characterized by coke-bottle glasses and atrocious violin playing.
- Harold Wormser (Andrew Cassese): He is actually middle or high school age but his parents forced him to skip a few grades because of his genius I.Q., much to his consternation, as he would much rather play video games with his friends.
- Dudley "Booger" Dawson (Curtis Armstrong): A disgusting druggie whose lack of personal hygiene supplies most of the toilet humor of the film.
- Toshiro Takashi (Brian Tochi): The stereotypical intelligent Asian. Has difficulty understanding American culture but does enjoy its porn.
- Betty Childs (Julia Montgomery): The unattainable love interest of Louis. She is a member of the popular girl's campus sorority, Pi-Delta-Pi. Dating Stan Gable.
- Lamar Latrell (Larry B. Scott): A stereotypically effeminate gay African American. He is the only one at the Tri-Lam dinner to have a date, though as Booger puts it, "Yeah, but that's with a guy."
- Stan Gable (Ted McGinley): The primary antagonist and the Alpha Beta President of the Greek Council that tries to revoke the Tri-Lambda's fraternity charter.
- Fred "The Ogre" Palowakski (Donald Gibb): A fellow Alpha Beta and the stereotypical dumb, overmuscled jock. Has little to no intelligence, and is the primary muscle of the team.
- Ogre was recently parodied in a new episode of Robot Chicken During an elementary school spelling bee, Ogre burst into the room screaming "NERDS!".
[edit] Notable bit parts
- John Goodman plays the coach of the university football team.
- James Cromwell is briefly shown to be Louis's father.
- Michelle Meyrink as Gilbert's girlfriend.
[edit] External links
| Revenge of the Nerds Series |
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Revenge of the Nerds (1984) | Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987) | Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation (1992) | Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love (1994) | Revenge of the Nerds (2007 film) (2007) |
