(1988)

Submitted by Tornado Dragon

SHORT VERSION:
Billy ends up spreading Katie’s ashes at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, after remembering how she told him when he was a boy that she wanted to fly off of that pier to a happier place. While throwing her ashes into the air, it gets onto some seagulls as they fly away, essentially granting Katie her wish.

Billy stays in town, rejuvenates his baseball career, re-forms his friendship with Alan, and reconnects with and starts dating Robin, the woman he lost his virginity to.

LONG VERSION:
After reminiscing about the last time he ever saw Katie (Jodie Foster), Billy (Mark Harmon) finds and reconnects with the adult Alan (Harold Ramis), and together they spend a whole night having adventures like in their youth. While having breakfast at a diner the next morning, Billy tells Alan that he dropped out of minor league baseball after he screwed up catching a lazy fly ball during a game that cost his team the game, which was being attended by a scout for the major leagues. His teammates looked at him like he was a loser in the locker room afterwards, and he believed that he was, so he opted to give up on the sport. He also tells him about the silver baseball necklace Katie had given him a when he was a boy to remind him that he was a ballplayer, but he gave it away to Robin after he lost his virginity to her, finally admitting to Alan after all these years that he did have sex with the girl he wanted to take to the prom. He then remembers Katie’s grandfather’s pool and how Katie would dive into the deep end and touch the drain to cheer herself up whenever she felt sad (plus it was where they kissed for the first time), so he and Alan go to the pool’s location to spread her ashes there. Unfortunately, they find that the pool no longer exists.

Billy goes to Katie’s parents’ house to give her ashes back to them, but while there, he notices an old poster advertising the diving horses act at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City. He remembers how Katie told him as a boy that she wished she could leap off the edge of the pier and fly away to a happier place, and he realizes that he must scatter her ashes there. Remembering how Alan told him that Robin (Ollie Davidson) still lived in the house she grew up in, he goes over there in the hopes of reclaiming his necklace. Thankfully, Robin still has it, so he takes it back, and after noticing how attractive she is, he asks her if he can call her sometime, and she says yes. He then drives to Atlantic City and runs full speed down the pier and throws her ashes into the air at the end of it, which gets onto some seagulls as they fly away, essentially granting Katie her wish. He then tosses the urn into the ocean, smiling widely the whole time.

The film then cuts back to the present, where Billy is playing a game for the town’s minor league baseball team, and Alan and Robin – whom he is now in a relationship with – are watching from the stands. Billy hits a ball that enables him to reach third base, but as the pitcher is distracted with the next batter, he successfully steals home to win the game. The film ends with Billy leaving the field with Alan and Robin.