Strike!(1998)

(aka All I Wanna Do)

SHORT VERSION:
On Prize Day before summer vacation, Board of Trustees member Mrs. Sawyer officially announces to the students of Miss Godard’s that their school will be merging with the all-boys school St. Ambrose Academy, and none of the girls are happy about this. When they step outside afterward, Odette gets the attention of all of the girls with help from Tinka, Maureen, and Theresa, and she voices her disapproval of this decision because the Board of Trustees did not consult them for their opinion, and they ought to have a say in it. She tells them that they must demand a vote, and then she has all of the girls follow her into the dorm and lock themselves in it, intending to remain there until the board agrees to their terms. Once they get in, they call for news crews and newspaper reporters to come to the school, and they also put up banners denouncing the board and demanding a vote. A couple of hours later, the news teams and reporters have arrived, in addition to the girls’ parents, who were already coming to take them home. The police are also summoned, but when they decide to get the girls out by force, Odette and a bunch of her fellow equestrians appear on their horses and get in between the cops and the front door and keep them at bay.

McVane soon enters the dorm and tells the girls that neither she nor they have the power to override the board’s decision. Odette informs her that they can amend the by-laws and elect their own student representative right now, then all of them will vote on co-education, which will count as one trustee vote, and they have the ballots ready. When she sees that the girls are standing firm in their choice, McVane capitulates. Odette persuades the girls to vote for Miss Godard’s to remain a single-sex institution regardless of how they feel about the place, and when tabulated, the votes total 115-77 in favor of refusing co-education, and the girls appoint Odette as their student rep and donate a total of $3,000 to help ease the school’s financial troubles. McVane heads into the chapel and tells the parents and alumni assembled there about the student vote refusing the integration and the money donated, and she encourages them to follow the girls’ example on the latter. Odette is allowed onto the board, and with the vote against co-education, the merger is rejected. The girls then go home for the summer.

Odette and her friends all go on to lead successful lives, and Miss Godard’s remains a girls-only school to this day, with thousands of successful women having graduated from there.

LONG VERSION:
One night, Theresa (Heather Matarazzo) goes up to the secret meeting place of the D.A.R. (Daughters of the American Ravioli) – whom she is a member of along with Odette (Gaby Hoffmann), Verena (Kirsten Dunst), Tinka (Monica Keena), and Maureen (Merritt Wever) – to eat some canned ravioli, but just before she gets there, she loses her balance on a plank and falls through the floor into the office of Headmistress McVane (Lynn Redgrave). After hiding from McVane and a couple of members of the school’s Board of Trustees when they come in to investigate the noise, she spies on a meeting the board is having in the next room and learns that the school will be going co-ed by merging with the all-boys St. Ambrose Academy, mainly for financial stability because the school is cash-strapped. She reports this to the rest of the D.A.R., and the next day, they convene in their meeting place to discuss it. The discussion soon devolves into a huge argument between them, with Theresa and Tinka in support of co-education and Maureen and especially Verena vehemently against it, but Odette tries to look at it from a level-headed perspective, saying that this integration is going to take place whether they want it to or not and they will just have to adjust. Verena then says that she learned that St. Ambrose’s choir is going to be coming over to the school for a dance and concert in May as a trial run to see how well their schools get along, and what they need to do is make the boys look so awful that the Board of Trustees will cancel the merger. Theresa and Tinka refuse to help her with any plans she has to achieve this and quit the D.A.R., and Odette quits as well after failing to dissuade Verena.

Verena gets 20 pounds of sugar and two dozen empty liquor bottles from the school cook Tomas (Nicu Branzea), and Maureen uses her chemistry expertise to create her own alcohol with the sugar so she and Verena can spike the punch at the dance with it. During a field hockey game that they are participating in, Odette tells Verena that she should tell everyone about the school going co-ed so the whole question will get thrown into debate, but Verena warns Odette that, if she breathes a word about this to anyone, she will inform Abby (Rachael Leigh Cook) – the resident snitch whose parents, Page (Rosemary Dunsmore) and Harvey (Nigel Bennett) Sawyer, are members of the Board of Trustees – about her upcoming secret romantic rendezvous with her boyfriend Dennis (Matthew Lawrence) in the D.A.R.’s meeting place that she helped to arrange for her. Odette accuses her of being afraid that the girls might like the idea of their school going co-ed and says that this is not the end of the world, but Verena refuses to listen. Verena and Maureen later wonder if any of the boys in the choir are related to someone serving on St. Ambrose’s Board of Trustees, and after they find out that Bradley Frost (Thomas Guiry) is one of them, Verena decides to work her charms on him when he arrives. When the choirs of both schools get together, Verena meets with Bradley and goes somewhere private with him, but they discover that they have much in common, and when she invites Bradley to come up to her room later, she finds out that he wouldn’t mind getting caught with her and getting expelled because he feels he has never fit in at St. Ambrose. Meanwhile, Dennis sneaks onto the property through the back entrance, and per Odette’s written instructions, he finds a St. Ambrose uniform in a crate outside the kitchen door and puts it on, then goes into the D.A.R.’s meeting place to wait for Odette.

At the dance, Maureen serves up the spiked punch to the boys and they all get drunk, and Verena plants the empty liquor bottles all over the bus that the boys came in, which are later found by St. Ambrose teacher Mr. Chubb (Richard McMillan). McVane has a private chat with St. Ambrose’s Headmaster Armstrong (Michael Reynolds) and learns that St. Ambrose’s building will serve as the home for the new co-ed school, and McVane tells him that she knows that this is because the property Miss Godard’s is built on is going to be bought up by real estate agents for subdivision. Verena ends up taking Bradley to Abby’s room to get intimate with him, claiming that it is her room, and they start to turn up the heat between them. Theresa is tricked by St. Ambrose boy Todd (Robin Dunne) into an intimate private moment, where he removes her bra and then exposes her breasts to one of his buddies, who suddenly appears and photographs them. They then run outside and meet with two of their friends who had knowledge of their scheme, but Tinka’s love interest Snake (Vincent Kartheiser) and his Flat Critters gang suddenly appear, fixing to get into the dance, and they beat up all four of the St. Ambrose students and steal their clothes to get in. Tinka finds out from Theresa about what she has been subjected to and goes looking for Todd, but she is met by Snake on the dance floor, and she finds out that he had already punished Todd and his friends for her and tells him that he is a sweetheart. However, Snake and his pals have to flee when Mr. Chubb recognizes them as outsiders, and Tinka tells Snake – who doesn’t want to leave her – that she knows of a place they can go to. Odette’s and Dennis’ rendezvous goes bust when he fails to bring condoms and the female contraceptive he brought explodes, and shortly afterwards, the shady Miss Godard’s teacher Mr. Dewey (Robert Bockstael) finds them. He forces Dennis to leave, claiming that he needs to deal with Odette alone, but he really intends to have his way with her. Thankfully, before he can do anything, Tinka arrives with Snake and his crew, who punish Dewey by disrobing him and then dropping him into McVane’s office through the hole Theresa earlier made, after which they give him a schoolgirl’s uniform to wear.

Moments later, the dance is brought to an end due to the boys being too drunk and rowdy, and McVane orders Maureen to find Verena, fully believing that she masterminded this. Maureen runs into Odette and Tinka and lets them know that McVane is on the warpath looking for Verena, and after she is surprised by the Flat Critters when they come in behind Odette and Tinka, Tinka says that they are better than the St. Ambrose boys and that she is now with Maureen on refusing the merger. Maureen tells her and Odette to help her look for Verena since the concert is about to begin, and after Tinka and Odette agree to do so, Tinka kisses Snake and promises to return. Meanwhile, Verena ends her intimate moment with Bradley so she can get to the concert, and when Bradley asks her not to leave because he wants to get caught, she assures him that someone will be along eventually. Verena then admits that they are not in her room, and she has Bradley promise her that, when he gets expelled, he must write to her. Abby then suddenly enters with Odette and catches them. Just before the concert begins, Maureen and Tinka pass around label-less bottles to the boys claiming that it is more liquor, but it is actually Theresa’s entire supply of Ipecac, so all of the boys vomit moments after the singing starts. They soon get on their bus and leave, and McVane and Dewey’s wife then find Dewey in his outfit.

Shortly after the boys have departed, Odette meets with Maureen, Tinka, and Theresa and tells them (off-screen) that Verena has been caught fraternizing with Bradley. In the morning, McVane has Verena come to her office and tells her that she is expelled, in addition to informing her that Bradley will be kicked out of St. Ambrose and Mr. Dewey has quit. McVane also tells Verena that, though she can’t prove it, she knows that last night’s debacle was her handiwork. Verena replies that she did it to keep the school for girls only, and McVane says that she knows that….and she wished it worked; the trustees are going to hush up the entire affair and proceed with the plans for co-education, which she will announce to the students before summer vacation. Verena accuses her of betraying the school, but she replies that its own students have already done that; she has been spending years groveling to the alumni for handouts, but they don’t give as generously as the alumni for boys’ schools because they likely feel deep down that, since they never achieve the same level of success as men, making big donations would be a useless gesture. She then gets angry at the thought of having to suck up to Headmaster Armstrong, and she tells Verena that she has a right to be afraid because, once the men plant their flag in the school, the women will get buried in a subtle and insidious fashion, like in real life. She ends the conversation by telling Verena that, while she may be at the end of her road, Verena is still young and has the talent and power to lead, and she encourages her to never stop fighting no matter where she goes. Verena exchanges tearful goodbyes with Tinka, Maureen, and Theresa in her room and urges them to continue the fight, and when Odette comes in to talk to Verena alone, Verena lets her know that the merger is still on, and McVane will announce it on Prize Day. She remarks that it is all over, but Odette tells her not to be so sure about that, and then they hug each other goodbye. Later on, while Odette is chopping wood with Tinka, Maureen, and Theresa and the latter three are complaining about the changes that the co-ed school will likely implement, Odette tells them that now is the time for them to put on their thinking caps.

When Page Sawyer announces the merger to the student body on Prize Day, not one of the girls is pleased with this, including Abby. When they step outside afterward, Odette gets the attention of all of the girls with help from Tinka, Maureen, and Theresa, and she voices her disapproval of this decision because the Board of Trustees did not consult them for their opinion, and they ought to have a say in it. She tells them that they must demand a vote, and then she has all of the girls follow her into the dorm and lock themselves in it, intending to remain there until the board agrees to their terms. Once they get in, they call for news crews and newspaper reporters to come to the school, and they also put up banners denouncing the board and demanding a vote. A couple of hours later, the news teams and reporters have arrived, in addition to the girls’ parents, who were already coming to take them home. The police are also summoned, but when they decide to get the girls out by force, Odette and a bunch of her fellow equestrians appear on their horses and get in between the cops and the front door and keep them at bay.

McVane soon enters the dorm and tells the girls that neither she nor they have the power to override the board’s decision. Odette informs her that they can amend the by-laws and elect their own student representative right now, then all of them will vote on co-education, which will count as one trustee vote, and they have the ballots ready. When she sees that the girls are standing firm in their choice, McVane capitulates. Odette persuades the girls to vote for Miss Godard’s to remain a single-sex institution regardless of how they feel about the place, and when tabulated, the votes total 115-77 in favor of refusing co-education, and the girls appoint Odette as their student rep and donate a total of $3,000 to help ease the school’s financial troubles. McVane heads into the chapel and tells the parents and alumni assembled there about the student vote refusing the integration and the money donated, and she encourages them to follow the girls’ example on the latter. Odette is allowed onto the board, and with the vote against co-education, Miss Godard’s remains a girls-only school. Page and Harvey resign from the board in the aftermath.

The girls prepare to go home for the summer, but Tinka sneaks away from her mother to go with Snake and the other Flat Critters in a cherry picker truck, and she and Snake kiss in the bucket as the truck drives away. Verena then shows up near Odette in the parking lot with Bradley, having heard the news about the protest over the radio, and Verena congratulates Odette before informing her that she and Bradley will be entering a co-ed school this September, which she is actually looking forward to.

The epilogue states the following:

• Odette became a Congresswoman and declared war on the tobacco industry.
• Verena would go on to realize her dream of founding her own women’s magazine, which is called MOI and has over a million female readers.
• Tinka became a famous actress, and though she was promiscuous with men in school, she came out as a lesbian in a 1997 interview with Barbara Walters.
• Theresa became an adolescent psychologist and wrote a best-selling book about her struggle with bulimia.
• Maureen became a scientist, and she is presently developing the first male oral contraceptive.
• Abby became a radical activist, and she was jailed in 1970 after taking part in a bank holdup. She is still serving her sentence today.
• Miss Godard’s Preparatory School is still a girls-only institution. Their graduates over the years include thousands of corporate executives, 469 doctors, 387 lawyers, 209 professors, 3 movie stars, and 1 demagogue.