Tagline: Watch your back.
Mean Girls movie storyline.
Calling somebody else fat will not make you any thinner.
Calling somebody stupid will not make you any smarter.
And you’ve got to stop calling each other sluts and whores. It just makes it all right for guys to call you that.
— Math teacher Ms. Norbury (Tina Fey) addressing a student assembly.
Her parents being zoologists, homeschooled Cady Heron lived in Africa for 15 years. Attending a Chicago public high school for the first time, she starts out by befriending the “best people you will meet”, Janis, a supposedly lesbian girl; and Damian, a boy “too gay to function”. Cady is warned to avoid the “worst people you will ever meet”, the Plastics–a clique comprised of three girls: Gretchen Wieners, a girl who’s rich because her father invented toaster strudel; Karen Smith, the “dumbest girl you will ever meet”; and Regina George, the unofficial leader and the meanest one. She becomes a hit with the Plastics and eventually assimilates into the clique, only for Janis to ask her sabotage them.
After conflicts involving Regina’s ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels, Cady later becomes tied between being part of them or sabotaging them. Whilst eventually becoming one, she sabotages them. She tricks Regina into eating fattening candy bars that she claims will make her skinny, tries to break her and Samuel up, and tries to turn her fellow Plastics, Karen and Gretchen against her. Will she be caught? Will she become too Plastic and become the fourth Plastic?
Mean Girls is a 2004 American teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters and written by Tina Fey. The movie is based in part on Rosalind Wiseman’s non-fiction self-help book Queen Bees and Wannabes, which describes female high school social cliques and the damaging effects they can have on girls.
Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels produced the film; Tina Fey, screenwriter and co-star of the picture, was a long-term cast member and writer for SNL. The film stars Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Fey, Lacey Chabert, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Franzese, Jonathan Bennett and Amanda Seyfried (in her film debut), and features appearances from SNL cast members Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer and Amy Poehler. The film marks Lohan’s second collaboration with director Waters, the first being Freaky Friday (2003), released a year earlier.
Although set in Evanston, Illinois, the film was mostly shot in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at Etobicoke Collegiate Institute and Malvern Collegiate Institute as well as Montclair, New Jersey at Montclair High School. Notable landmarks include the University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall and Sherway Gardens.
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $24,432,195 from 3,159 screens at 2,839 theaters in the United States, ranking #1 at the box office and averaging $8,606 per venue. The film closed on September 9, 2004, grossing $86,058,055 domestically and $42,984,816 internationally for a total worldwide gross of $129,042,871.
About the Story
Sixteen-year-old homeschooled Cady Heron and her zoologist parents return to the United States after a 12-year research trip in Africa, settling down in Evanston, Illinois. Attending a public school for the first time, Cady meets new classmates Janis Ian and Damian Leigh.
The two educate Cady on the school’s various cliques and warn her to avoid the most popular and infamous one, the “Plastics”, who are led by queen bee Regina George and include rich but insecure Gretchen Wieners and airhead Karen Smith. The Plastics take an interest in Cady, and invite her to sit with them at lunch. Seeing that Cady is getting along with the Plastics, Janis hatches a plan of revenge against Regina for some past slight, using Cady as the infiltrator.
Cady soon learns about Regina’s “Burn Book”, a journal filled with rumors, secrets, gossip, and insults about the other girls and some teachers at school. Despite this discovery, Cady decides to forgo Janis’s scheme for ethical reasons. Meanwhile, Cady begins to have a crush on Regina’s ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels, whom a jealous Regina proceeds to steal back at a Halloween party in front of Cady. This spurs Cady to fully commit to Janis’s plan to cut off Regina’s “resources”, which involve breaking Regina and Aaron up, tricking her into eating nutrition bars that actually make her gain weight, and turning Regina’s fellow Plastics against her. In the process, Cady unwittingly remakes herself in Regina’s image, becoming spiteful and superficial, and abandons Janis and Damian.
When Regina is finally made aware of Cady’s treachery, she retaliates by spreading the contents of her Burn Book all over the school, quickly inciting a massive brawl. To avoid suspicion, Regina inserts a fake libel of herself in the book in order to blame Cady, Gretchen, and Karen, the only female students not mentioned in the book. Karen convinces Principal Duvall that they did not spread the book.
Duvall soon quells the fighting, and gathers all the girls in the school in the gymnasium. Math teacher Ms. Norbury, whom the Burn Book defamed as a drug dealer, makes the girls face the terrible way they all treat each other, confess their transgressions, and apologize to each other and the teachers. When Janis’s turn comes, she defies Norbury and confesses her plan to destroy Regina with Cady’s help, and openly mocks Regina with the support of the entire school. Pursued by an apologetic Cady, Regina storms out and is struck by a school bus, breaking her spine.
Without any friends, shunned by Aaron, and despised by the school, Cady takes full blame for the Burn Book and becomes an outcast. After she makes amends with Regina, Cady’s guilt soon dissolves and she returns to her old personality. As part of her punishment for lying and failing Ms. Norbury’s class, she joins the Mathletes in the state championship finals, and ends up winning the competition for her team after her opponent answers incorrectly.
At the Spring Fling dance, Regina’s new boyfriend, Shane Oman, is elected King, while Cady is elected Queen. Onstage, Cady declares that all her classmates are wonderful in their own way, breaks her plastic tiara, and distributes the pieces to some other girls. She then makes amends with Janis and Damian, reconciles with Aaron, and reaches a truce with the Plastics.
Continue Reading and View the Theatrical Trailer
Mean Girls (2004)
Directed by: Mark S. Waters
Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Tina Fey, Rachel McAdams, Lizzy Caplan, Jonathan Bennett, Ana Gasteyer, Lacey Chabert, Amanda Seyfried, Tim Meadows, Elana Shilling, Graham Kartna
Screenplay by: Tina Fey
Production Design by: Cary White
Cinematography by: Daryn Okada
Film Editing by: Wendy Greene Bricmont
Costume Design by: Mary Jane Fort
Set Decoration by: Patricia Cuccia
Art Direction by: Brandt Gordon
Music by: Rolfe Kent
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, language, teen partying.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: April 30, 2004
Views: 197
