Dead Man on Campus

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Dead Man on Campus
DVD cover for Dead Man on Campus
Directed by	Alan Cohn
Produced by	Gale Anne Hurd
Written by	Anthony Abrams Adam Larson Broder
Starring	Mark-Paul Gosselaar Tom Everett Scott
Music by	Matt Mahaffey Mark Mothersbaugh
Cinematography	John Thomas
Editing by	Debra Chiate
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	21 August 1998
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$14,000,000 (estimated)
Official website
IMDb profile

Dead Man on Campus is a 1998 comedy starring Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Tom Everett Scott. It centers on the urban legend that a student gets straight A's if their roommate commits suicide (see: Pass by catastrophe). Two friends attempt to find a depressed roommate in order to push him over the edge and receive A's. To boost ticket sales for this film in the theater, its US release was timed with the start of the new college school year in late August 1998. The Curve, originally titled Dead Man's Curve, which came out in the same year, uses a similar plotline.

1 Plot
2 Related Fact
3 Cast
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Two university students,Cooper (whose father threatened to stop paying his tuition because of his failing grades), and Josh (who is in danger of losing his scholarship) find out about an obscure academic rule that states that if a student's roommate commits suicide then the roommates get perfect grades for that semester. They set out to find roommates who are likely to commit suicide. Their first potential roommate, Cliff, is more likely to get himself (and any one with him) killed than commit suicide. After Josh and Cooper get him to move in, they just want him out.

Next they try Buckley Schrank, a computer geek who thinks Bill Gates wants his brain. After they move Buckley, they try to help push him over the edge. First, Cooper poses as a suicide hotline volunteer, and when Buckley calls, he tells him that he's Bill Gates and wants his brain. Then, Josh and Cooper stock their dorm room with rope, daggers, and prescription drugs, but seeing this, Buckley thinks that they're trying to kill him and give his brain to Bill Gates, so he runs away from them in terror.

Finally, Josh and Cooper move in Matt, a heavy metal rocker who talks about committing suicide and seems depressed. Later Cooper catches him singing show tunes and learns he was voted Mr.Happy in high school, leading them to believe that he will not commit suicide. After all the time wasted on trying to find a suicidal person instead of studying, Josh and Cooper become agitated. Josh stands on the edge of a bridge, about to commit suicide. Cooper gives him a dramatic speech and tells Josh he is not a failure and talks him down; when Josh comes down from the bridge he reveals to Cooper that he was faking his suicide attempt so the school wouldn't fail him & Cooper would look like a hero to his father.

[edit] Related Fact

Co-stars Alyson Hannigan and Jason Segel now star together as Lilly and Marshall on the CBS series, How I Met Your Mother, in which they claim to know each other since college, and in Dead Man on Campus they went to the same college.

The movie was shot at University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.