| Dead Man on Campus | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Alan Cohn |
| Produced by | Gale Anne Hurd |
| Screenplay by | Michael Traeger Mike White |
| Story by | Anthony Abrams Adam Larson Broder |
| Starring | Mark-Paul Gosselaar Tom Everett Scott |
| Music by | Mark Mothersbaugh (Score) Matt Mahaffey |
| Cinematography | John A. Thomas |
| Editing by | Debra Chiate |
| Studio | MTV Films Pacific Western |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 21, 1998 |
| Running time | 96 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $14 million |
| Box office | $15,064,946 |
Dead Man on Campus is a 1998 comedy film starring Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Tom Everett Scott. It centers on the urban legend that a student gets straight A's if his or her 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 in the theater, the film's US release was timed with the start of the new college school year in late August 1998. It is the first film by MTV Films to have an R rating (the first two films - Joe's Apartment and Beavis and Butt-head Do America - had PG-13 ratings). The film was shot at University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. The Curve, also known as Dead Man's Curve, which came out in the same year, uses a similar plotline.
The movie has since gone out of print.
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Josh (Tom Everett Scott) gets in to college on a scholarship, and Cooper (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) is assigned as his roommate. Cooper does little work and instead spends all the time partying and consistently fails his course, but his father continues to fund him through college. The normally studious Josh is led astray by Cooper's lifestyle and spends the first half of his first semester partying instead of studying, and consequently flunks his mid-term paper. To his horror he then finds out that a condition of his scholarship is a passing grade average each semester, and that with his poor mid-term score he needs an A+++ in his end of term paper or he'll lose his scholarship. Meanwhile Cooper's father finally realizes Cooper is not trying to pass his course at all and threatens to pull his funding if he does not get a passing grade this semester, leaving him in a similar position.
They 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, regardless of any previous academic standing. They set out to find roommates who are likely to commit suicide; their first potential roommate, Cliff O'Malley (Lochlyn Munro), 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 eventually kick him out.
Next they try Buckley Schrank (Randy Pearlstein), a computer geek who thinks Bill Gates wants his brain. After they move Buckley in, 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 equipment that may assist in a suicide (rope, daggers, prescription drugs). Seeing this, Buckley thinks that they're trying to kill him, and believing that the conspiracy to kill him and steal his brain is real, he runs away.
Finally, Josh and Cooper move in Matt Noonan (Corey Page), a moody rock musician who talks about the futility of life. Later, Cooper catches him singing show tunes and learns he was voted Mr. Happy in high school, leading them to believe that he is only pretending to be depressed to impress girls and make a name for himself in music. After all the time wasted on trying to find a suicidal person instead of studying, Josh and Cooper become agitated.
Facing the loss of his scholarship Josh stands on the edge of a bridge, about to commit suicide himself. Cooper 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, and Cooper would look like a hero to his father. The film ends with Josh narrating that he was given an additional semester to improve his grades, in which he saved his scholarship, and that Cooper became a more serious student, but did work summers cleaning toilets for his father's business to learn how to eventually take over.
The movie has a 15% rating on the aggregate film review site Rotten Tomatoes.[1] The New York Times said the film was "predictably dumb", but praised Mark-Paul Gosselaar's performance, saying; "Mr. Gosselaar is so good, however, that his performance as Cooper sometimes overrides the film's adolescent tone."[2]
The film was made on a $14 million budget, and grossed $15,064,946 domestically, making it a moderate box office success.[3]
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