Slackers(2002)

SHORT VERSION:
Dave, Sam, and Jeff end up ruining Ethan’s life, first by sabotaging his chances of working at a law firm he always wanted to work for, then by enlightening Angela to his stalker-like obsession with her by showing her a photo they secretly took in his room of his shrine to her and giving her the doll he made out of her hair. Finally, they get him expelled by having him get caught with the answer key to the final exam of his Physics class by the head T.A. Phillip, which they had earlier stolen and planted in his backpack.

During the latter two acts, Dave comes clean with Angela – who is also in the class – about how he is a cheater, and tells her that he is being honest with her because he loves her, and Sam and Jeff back him up while implicating themselves as cheaters, too. Phillip writes down their confessions, and in the end, the trio get expelled as well. However, Dave and Angela officially become a couple, Sam hooks up with Angela’s friend Reanna, and Jeff prints fake diplomas for them after Angela and Reanna graduate.

Ethan is last shown back working at his job at Lenny’s Restaurant, playing a sad stalker song on the piano about how he has lost Angela forever.

LONG VERSION:
Dave (Devon Sawa) and Angela (Jaime King) fall for each other and even have sex at the university’s pool. However, when they talk afterwards, they don’t know that Ethan (Jason Schwartzman) is nearby secretly recording them on his camcorder, and Dave – in a joking (but true) context – tells Angela that he and Jeff (Michael Maronna) are cheaters. Ethan later shows the footage to Sam (Jason Segel) and Jeff, who are upset that Dave betrayed them on all levels. As Ethan is about to leave to inform the dean that the trio are cheaters, Sam gives him their dossier on Angela in exchange for the tape, as consolation for them failing to get her to fall for him (though they are unaware of Ethan’s stalker-like obsession with her).

When Ethan visits Angela at her dorm room later that night, he attempts to get closer to her, but she rejects him, saying that she loves Dave. Determined to get Dave out of the picture, Ethan proceeds to partially lie to her, saying that he paid Dave and his friends to get close to her and gather information on her because he felt he couldn’t get her himself due to how beautiful she was, and Dave had reneged on the deal by getting intimate with her. He then shows her the dossier as proof. Meanwhile, Dave returns to his dorm room and sees the tape playing on his TV, and he rushes over to Angela’s room, suspecting that she may have figured out the truth. When he gets there, she – with Ethan standing behind her – heartbrokenly shows him the floppy disk containing her e-mails from the dossier and demands to know if he had seduced her because of a deal he made with Ethan. Dave admits that he did, but not because he was paid to, and he punches Ethan before he gets locked out. He then goes to see Sam and Jeff at their hangout, but they both reject him. 

After spending the next several hours wandering around, Dave decides to be completely honest with Angela about everything – including him being a cheater – since he wants to be with her. He patches things up with Sam and Jeff and tells them about what he intends to do, but promises not to reveal them as cheaters in the process. The trio then decide to bury Ethan as their last scam before graduation, which they get to work on with information on him that they had secretly collected.

Dave and Sam go to the law firm that Ethan had always wanted to work for, and with Sam’s assistance, Dave gets a meeting with the man in charge of its human resources department. He then pretends to be Ethan and makes a very bad impression on the man so Ethan will never be employed there. As this happens, Sam calls Ethan on the firm’s phone pretending to be the receptionist and asks him to come in for a job interview as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Jeff – posing as a repairman – enters the Physics Department office and steals the answer key to the class’ final exam, then sneaks into Ethan’s room and plants it in his backpack. He also gets a photo of Ethan’s shrine to Angela and takes the doll he made out of her hair. Ethan goes to the law firm and gets turned away, and then he heads for the Physics lab to take his exam.

Dave enters the lab just as the exam has begun and talks to Angela, telling her that Ethan had actually blackmailed him into making the deal they had because he caught him cheating. He reveals to her all of the cheating tactics he has ever pulled and says that he is being honest with her because he loves her. Ethan then shows up with the paper implicating Dave as a cheater supposedly in his hand, and he tells everyone that Dave is a cheater, but Dave informs him that he already came clean with Angela about it.

Sam and Jeff then enter the lab, and Sam tells Dave that they will not let him go down alone, and he backs up Dave’s story by admitting to Angela that Dave helped him cheat. Sam then enlightens Angela to Ethan’s obsession with her by showing her the photo Jeff took and then the hair doll. Jeff then secretly calls the class’ head T.A. Phillip (Jim Rash) (who has been taking notes of the trio’s confessions) and tells him that Ethan is a cheater, so he comes up to Ethan and asks for the paper. After Ethan hands it over, Phillip shows him that he actually handed him the answer key to the exam. Ethan soon distracts Phillip, grabs the paper, and runs away with Phillip chasing after him. Now convinced of Dave’s sincerity, Angela takes him back, and they kiss. Sam also starts hitting it off with Angela’s friend Reanna (Laura Prepon), and they later become a couple.

Ethan is expelled, but so are Dave, Sam, and Jeff, due to Phillip’s notes. However, Jeff prints fake diplomas for him and his friends after Angela and Reanna graduate. Ethan is last shown back at his job at Lenny’s Restaurant, playing a sad stalker song on the piano about how he has lost Angela forever.