National Lampoon’s SENIOR TRIP(1995)
Submitted by Tornado Dragon
SHORT VERSION:
The morning after having an impromptu party in the hotel room of one of Senator Lerman’s shady friends, the Fairmount High students – minus the imbecilic Miosky – find out about Lerman’s plot to use them to make support cease for President Davis’ education care reform bill at the Senate Committee’s hearing that day, and they inform Principal Moss and Miss Milford about it when they show up looking for them with Lerman. Lerman tells them that he will find another way to get Davis’ bill nixed, but as he leaves the hotel, he crosses paths with Miosky and decides just to bring him to the hearing since he knows nothing about his agenda. The Fairmount High group spots them leaving and chases after them.
They get to the hearing just before Miosky can really make Davis look bad, and they inform Davis about Lerman’s ulterior motives and then encourage the Senate Committee to make sure that all kids get a good education so they don’t become screw-ups like them. The committee members applaud the group, and Davis tells Lerman he wants to see him in his office that afternoon.
The Fairmount High group returns to Ohio, and they all go on to have varying degrees of success in life. However, the fates of Lerman and the education bill are never revealed.
LONG VERSION:
On their only night in Washington, the students of Fairmount High (minus the uptight Steve [Sergio Di Zio]) crash a party at a posh hotel, and there, Frank Hardin (Wayne Robson) – owner of the Bounty Burger franchise and one of Senator Lerman’s (Lawrence Dane) shady friends – goes up to Lisa (Fiona Loewi) and tries to give her his hotel room key and force himself onto her, but she knocks him out. She then takes his key and brings the group up to the room to have a much wilder party, and she ends up sleeping with Dags (Jeremy Renner), whom she has a mutual attraction to. Miosky (Eric Edwards) finds his dream woman – a blonde Japanese woman – away from the party, and it is assumed that they sleep together as well, and the stoners Reggie (Rob Moore) and Wanda (Kathryn Rose) also finally hook up.
The next morning, Lisa finds and reads the confidential file that Lerman gave to Hardin, which tells of Lerman’s plot to use her and the other students to embarrass President Davis (George R. Robertson) at the Senate Committee’s hearing for his education care reform bill and cause support of it to cease. Also, it tells of how he plans to introduce his own education bill afterward, with a clause stating that Bounty Burger will replace the cafeterias in all public schools, therefore making Hardin a lot more money, and he will make a big donation to Lerman’s bid for the presidency in return. Lisa shows the file to Dags and the others, and when Lerman, Principal Moss (Matt Frewer), and Miss Milford (Valerie Mahaffey) eventually find them, the students enlighten Moss as to what Lerman has in store for them. Moss stands up for the students for the first time, telling Lerman that he has no right to walk all over them even if they aren’t the best and brightest, but Lerman replies that he doesn’t need any of them and will find some other way to accomplish his goal. As he is departing the hotel, he crosses paths with Miosky, and after realizing that Miosky knows nothing about his scheme, he decides to just bring him to the hearing. Carla (Tara Charendoff) spots Miosky leaving with Lerman in his limousine and warns the others, and they try to yell to Miosky not to go with him, but he is out of earshot. They immediately give chase.
Miosky is brought into the room where the hearing is taking place, but since Lerman had him drink a lot of booze on the way there, he predictably makes himself look (more) like an idiot. Thankfully, before things can get really bad, the Fairmount High group arrives, and they inform President Davis of Lerman’s true agenda. Lerman tries to discredit them by providing reports of the hijinks they got into during their trip, and the group admits that, though they are screw-ups, the committee should make sure that future generations of kids get a good education so they don’t wind up like them. Initially responding with silence, the committee soon applauds them. Davis tells Lerman to come to his office that afternoon, and the Fairmount High group returns to Ohio.
The movie then reveals what became of every member of the group:
- Steve became the assistant road manager for High On Life, the terrible band from earlier in the film that he likes.
- Herbert (Michael Blake) became a Hare Krishna and now sings and dances at airports throughout the world.
- Carla opened a successful chain of nude aerobics clubs.
- Meg (Nicole de Boer) became a traveling masseuse on the Professional Female Golf Tour.
- Lisa graduated magna cum laude from Princeton and became addicted to Prozac.
- Miss Milford became the head waitress of a Hooters Restaurant in Dayton, Ohio. She had also pressed sexual harassment charges against Principal Moss over the sexual episode they had on the group’s only night in Washington, but he was acquitted (undoubtedly because, though she was drunk, their wild night was consensual).
- Barry (Danny Smith) became a multi-millionaire producer of pornographic CD-Roms.
- Miosky went on to do nothing.
- Reggie and Wanda became co-managers of the Bongzilla Head Shop in Venice, California.
- Dags was appointed Junior Ambassador to Italy, but he was thrown out of the country after he accidentally set fire to the Vatican.
Travis (Kevin McDonald) – the mentally unstable crossing guard who followed Reggie around aiming to (ultimately unsuccessfully) get revenge on him for insulting him earlier in the film – ends up taking a job with the U.S. Postal Service. The fates of Lerman and the President’s bill are never revealed.