Making the Grade(1984)

Submitted by Tornado Dragon

SHORT VERSION:
Dice eventually confronts Nicky and beats him up to get him to tell him where Eddie is, then brings him with him to Hoover Academy and finds Eddie. Having also learned about Eddie’s deal with Palmer through Nicky, Dice ultimately tells Eddie that when he graduates and collects his $10,000 payment from Palmer, he will take all but $50 of it to cover his debt to him, and he and Nicky are going to remain on campus to ensure that he gets the money. Dice also decides to cook up a scheme to steal money from the academy by setting up a phony fund for it, and Nicky ends up establishing the fund by pretending to be “Palmer’s” father while Dice pretends to be “Palmer’s” business manager and takes responsibility for administering the fund. In addition to these problems, Eddie ends up in the doghouse with his love interest Tracy (who also knows him as “Palmer”) after she comes to think that he is having an affair with Muffy, the real Palmer’s girlfriend, and this incorrect thought gets reinforced by Eddie’s school nemesis Bif.

Ultimately, in exchange for forgiving a gambling debt that Coach Wordman owes him, Eddie has Wordman pose as Palmer’s father and confront Dice over his fund scam on graduation day, then trick him into leaving town for good. Eddie also manages to get Bif expelled beforehand, forcing him to attend summer school. At the graduation ceremony in the auditorium, Eddie gets his diploma and trades it with a disguised Palmer for his $10,000 check, but he also receives the Hoover Memorial Award. However, having grown tired of being someone that he is not, especially since it resulted in Tracy shunning him, Eddie admits his true identity to everyone (as well as Nicky’s and Dice’s) and then points out Palmer to them, and Palmer retreats in shame.

Outside the auditorium, Tracy and her parents approach Eddie, Palmer, Rand, Nicky, and Muffy while they are hanging out around the Porsche that Eddie also received from Palmer for his work, and Tracy’s father declares this day to be the worst day in Hoover Academy’s history. Sensing that the money is the issue here, Eddie initially decides to endorse his check over to the academy, but he soon changes his mind, saying that he has earned this money and he is now going to enjoy it. Palmer heads off to Rio de Janeiro with Rand and Muffy, and Tracy decides to forgive Eddie and join him in his style of celebrating, and they kiss before driving off in the Porsche.

 

LONG VERSION:
Dice (Andrew Clay) eventually tracks Eddie (Judd Nelson) down to Hoover Academy and confronts him there, and he has also brought along Eddie’s older friend Nicky (Ronald Lacey), having forced Eddie’s location out of him through violent means. Dice tells Eddie that he has decided to almost triple the debt he owes him, tacking on the extra as “interest”, and then he brings up to Eddie how he heard that he was being paid a considerable sum to attend this school. Eddie informs him that he won’t be getting any of the money until he graduates, but Dice tells him that he refuses to wait that long, then orders him to come up with the money he owes him in three days or else suffer the consequences. Eddie thus sets about trying to get the cash in various immoral ways, but it all amounts to a drop in the bucket.

Two days later, Rand (Carey Scott) warns Eddie that Muffy (Patrice Watson) – Palmer’s (Dana Olsen) girlfriend – will be coming up to the school this weekend to confront him over how he has been avoiding her all year. They then enter their dorm room and find Palmer lounging in it, having returned early from Europe to check up on Eddie (as well as throw his parents off his scent because he used their credit cards while he was in Paris). Just as Eddie looks to start trying to make a deal with Palmer to give him the money early so he can pay off Dice (during which Rand takes the opportunity to warn Palmer about Muffy), Dice appears. He puts Palmer and Rand in the closet before telling Eddie that, after having a chat with Nicky, he has decided to wait until he graduates and gets his $10,000, but he will have to fork over all but $50 of it to him once he gets it. He also informs Eddie that he and Nicky are going to be staying on campus to make sure that he gets the money.

Dice then proceeds to throw a wild party in the dorm to celebrate this new arrangement, and though Eddie eventually puts an end to it, he gets caught by the academy’s authorities, and the whole affair winds up costing the academy a much-needed grant. Headmaster Harriman (Gordon Jump) informs Eddie that he is placing him on probation and demands that he get his (Palmer’s) father to the academy immediately if he wants to continue receiving an education here. Eddie meets with Palmer and Rand and explains to Palmer what his new dilemma is, but Palmer refuses to summon his father here because it will blow his cover. Eddie decides to solve this problem by having Nicky pose as Palmer’s father and meet with Harriman, and in the end, Nicky manages to get Harriman to agree to have Eddie earn his way off probation by claiming that he will make a generous donation to the academy towards the construction of a new library (though he later tells Eddie that he will withdraw the donation once Eddie gets his diploma). Meanwhile, Palmer meets and sleeps with Muffy before lazily telling her that he never wants to see her again.

People around Eddie soon notice that he is behaving more like a preppie, especially his new girlfriend Tracy (Jonna Lee), the daughter of the academy’s boss Mr. Hoover (John Stevens), who wishes that he would go back to his old laid-back self. One day, Muffy shows up at the academy, spots Eddie, and calls him by the name “Bif” (the name he offered to her the first time they met) at the same time the real Bif (Scott McGinnis) is walking past him, and Eddie tells Bif that “Bif” is his middle name before taking Muffy away somewhere to talk. Tracy then appears in her car and asks Bif if he’s seen “Palmer”, and he informs her that he just took off with Muffy before pointing out the departing pair to her. Since she had separated with Eddie once before over Muffy getting a little too friendly with him while he was around her, Tracy comes to think that he does have a thing for Muffy after all, and since Bif has never liked Eddie, he lies to her by saying that “Palmer” has been seeing Muffy a lot and he doesn’t know how “Palmer” is able to keep track of who he is dating. Upset, she quickly gets into her car and drives off. Meanwhile, Eddie tells Muffy to meet him in his dorm room that night for some sexual fun and games, but he instead sets her up with the real Bif in HIS dorm room and then rats him out to Harriman.

The next day, Eddie, Palmer, and Rand are hanging out together, and they mention that Tracy is angry with Eddie and won’t speak to him for reasons unknown to him. Harriman then comes up to Eddie and says that he hopes that he wins the Hoover Memorial Award this year, especially since his “father,” Nicky, and his “business manager,” Dice, just set up a fund for the academy. After the trio react with shock at this news, Harriman explains to Eddie that, for every dollar raised and put into the fund by the academy, Nicky matches it with a dollar, and Dice will be administering the fund. After Harriman takes off, Rand panics and says that they must fess up to the school, but Eddie shoots down this idea, telling him that Dice – whom he knows is trying to swindle the school – will just say that they were all a part of his scam, too, which will get them all put in jail.

In the wee hours of the morning, Eddie decides to visit Tracy at her family’s house, having been unable to sleep because he can’t stop thinking about her. He hotwires Bif’s car to get over there, and Palmer and Rand – whom Eddie had woken up while he was getting dressed – decide to come with him. Eddie parks the car on the front lawn and then starts throwing pebbles at Tracy’s bedroom window to try to wake her up, but Tracy shows up nearby, having taken a walk around the exterior of the house because she couldn’t sleep, either. Eddie takes her to another part of the property to talk, but Tracy refuses to listen to anything he has to say and tells him that she doesn’t know him anymore before going back into the house. Eddie and the others are forced to return to the academy on foot when Eddie can’t get the car started again, and (off-screen) Tracy’s father reports the car to the school in the morning. Harriman summons Bif into his office and tells him that he is expelled, forcing him to attend summer school.

On graduation day, Dice is confronted outside the auditorium by a man who claims to be the driver for Palmer’s real father. When Dice asks what that is supposed to mean to him, he replies that Mr. Woodrow can explain unless Dice would prefer to have the authorities do the explaining. The driver then puts him into Woodrow’s luxury car, which both Nicky and a smirking Eddie witness. As the car drives down a highway, Mr. Woodrow tells Dice that his scam is ending today, and he will take care of Eddie and Nicky for their impersonations, believing them to be the brains behind the scam, and Dice cowardly passes the buck onto them. Mr. Woodrow takes Dice to the airport and tells him to disappear to save the Woodrow family from any further embarrassment, after which he hands him a one-way plane ticket out of town. After Dice heads into the terminal, we find out that Mr. Woodrow is actually Coach Wordman (Walter Olkewicz), who more than likely did this because he owed Eddie a gambling debt, and Eddie told him to do this for him in exchange for having the debt erased.

Meanwhile, the graduation ceremony gets underway, and after Eddie gets his diploma, he trades it with Palmer – who is dressed incognito in the row behind him – for the $10,000 check when he returns to his seat. Moments later, Eddie is announced as the winner of the Hoover Memorial Award, but after accepting the award, he decides that he can no longer continue with pretending to be someone that he is not, especially since he hurt Tracy in the process, so he admits his true identity in front of the assembly and says that he was hired to play Palmer, and he outs Nicky as not being his father and Dice as his bookie. Though Tracy smiles over all of this, Harriman faints from shock, and then Eddie points out Palmer to the audience and hands him the Hoover Award, after which Palmer retreats in shame.

In the next scene, outside the auditorium, Harriman is on a gurney and about to be put into an ambulance. Palmer and Rand approach Eddie and Nicky while they are standing around the Porsche that Eddie also received from Palmer for his work, and Palmer has his arm around Muffy, having reconciled with her. Muffy lies and tells Eddie that she wasn’t fooled by his charade for a minute, and Eddie retorts by calling her a phony, snooty gold-digger, which Palmer states that he is cool with. Harriman sees Nicky and gets up and tries to attack him, but the paramedics restrain him, and Palmer then tells him that that was not a very wise thing to do because the diploma he got now unlocks his trust fund, so he could be very generous to this school if he wanted to be.

Tracy and her parents approach the group as Palmer finishes his sentence, and Mrs. Hoover (Lucille Ewing) orders for Harriman to be taken away before Mr. Hoover declares this day to be the most embarrassing day in the academy’s history. Sensing that the money is the issue here, Eddie initially decides to endorse his check over to the academy, but he soon changes his mind, saying that he earned this money and he is now going to enjoy it. Palmer tells everyone that he is going to Rio de Janeiro and takes off with Rand and Muffy, and as Eddie is leaving the campus in the Porsche, Tracy gets him to stop before he gets too far and jumps in with him, having decided to forgive him and wanting to partake in his style of celebrating. They then share a kiss before driving off together.