User:TheBigFish/Sandbox
Current project: Rewrite of the Plot Summary section of the Grease (film) article, to bring it in line with WikiProject Film guidelines (which state the plot summary should not be more than 900 words unless the plot is particularly complex).
In 1959, during their summer vacation, Danny Zuko (Travolta) and Sandy Olsson (Newton-John) meet at a beach and begin to fall in love. At summer's end, Sandy tells Danny that she's returning to Australia where she lives but it's only the beginning. That is followed by an animated credits sequence accompanied by the theme song, "Grease", composed expressly for the film by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees and performed by Frankie Valli.
The "T-Birds" are a gang of boys who go to Rydell High School. Danny is their leader and Kenickie (Conaway), second-in-command of the T-Birds, is Danny's best friend. Doody (Pearl), Sonny LaTierri (Tucci), and Putzie (Ward) round out the quintet. They have not seen each other during the Summer.
Sandy's parents decide to move to the States and Sandy enrolls at Rydell High School, where Danny is a student. Sandy has a new friend Frenchy (Conn) who is a member of the schoolgirl clique "The Pink Ladies". The other members are Jan (Donnelly), Marty Maraschino (Manoff), and their leader, Betty Rizzo (Channing).
The school's principal is Miss McGee (Arden) and her sidekick is Blanche (Goodman). Sandy is registering in the office. After the bell rings, the boys are still in the hallway and Mcgee notices Sonny wasting his time and they square off in a Yes Ma'am, No Ma'am sequence. During the morning announcements McGee points out that there is a bonfire on saturday night and also that National Bandstand is coming to broadcast the National Dance-off later in the year.
At lunchtime, Sandy is sitting with the Pink Ladies and they get to know her. In the bleachers, Kenickie and the boys encourage Danny to tell them about his holiday experiences, while the Pink Ladies likewise persuade Sandy. This results in "Summer Nights."
Encouraged by preppy school girl Patty Simcox (Buckner), Sandy joins the Rydell cheerleaders. The Pink Ladies decide to reunite Danny and Sandy, but Danny wants to protect his cool image, and his behavior towards Sandy causes her to storm off in tears.
Frenchy attempts to cheer Sandy up by inviting her to a sleepover at her house with the rest of the girls. Rizzo, however, soon gets fed up with Sandy's goody-two-shoes behavior. Frenchy announces that she is dropping out of Rydell and going to beauty school. Rizzo lampoons Sandy, singing the sarcastic "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee". When the T-Birds arrive outside Frenchy's house, Rizzo changes in to the clothes she had on at the bonfire (minus her Pink Ladies jacket) and abandons the sleepover to see the guys below. Riz and Kenickie flirt then leave. After the party splits up, Sandy decides that she still loves Danny, in spite of everything, and sings "Hopelessly Devoted to You", a poignant love song that was added for the film and was a big hit as a single. Meanwhile, Rizzo and Kenickie are making love to each other in the backseat of Kenickie's new car, but Kenickie's condom breaks. Rizzo, however, is unable to resist Kenickie, so they decide to have sex anyway. They are interrupted when the leader of a rival gang, Leo (Stewart) of The Scorpions, and his girlfriend, Cha Cha DiGregorio (Charles), damage Kenickie's car. While repairing the car, the T-Birds fantasize about what it will look like after a paint job, singing "Greased Lightning".
Danny meets Sandy at the Frosty Palace (the local ice cream parlor that serves as the local teens' hangout), and tries to apologize for his poor deportment at a juke box. When he sees that Sandy is sharing a soda with jock Tom Chisum (Lamas), Danny decides that he is going to join the jocks to impress her. After disastrous performances in basketball, wrestling, and baseball - where he keeps losing his temper when he loses - he finally finds his ideal sport in cross country, until the sight of Sandy distracts him and he falls. Sandy comes to see if Danny is all right, and they are seemingly reconciled.
Danny attempts to go to the Frosty Palace with Sandy so that they can be alone and not worry about ruining his image. What they didn't know was that the T-Birds and Pink Ladies are already there, and Danny finds it hard to charm Sandy without looking like a sissy in front of his friends. After everyone leaves the malt shop, Frenchy imagines a guardian angel telling her what to do with her life, and Frankie Avalon sings "Beauty School Dropout".
Later, the big dance comes to Rydell, where the TV show National Bandstand plans to broadcast live from the school's gymnasium with millions of Americans watching, including the waitresses at Frosties. Outside Kenickie tells Zukko that he'll get the date of a lifetime. Marty and Rizzo have no dates, Rizz suggests Rudy from the capri lounge but Marty called him already. That's when Leo picks them up and luck has changed.
Inside the gym, Danny takes Sandy to the dance. When Kenickie asks Cha Cha to the dance, Rizzo retaliates and asks out the rival gang's leader Leo. Vince Fontaine (Byrnes), who would be judging the dance contest, has a crush on Marty, or does Marty have a crush on Vince? During the dance-off, Rizzo leaves in a huff, seeing Kenickie dancing with Cha Cha, and Danny and Sandy are one of the few still in the dance-off. But soon, Sonny LaTeirri of the T-Birds, who has been drinking at the dance nonstop, pulls Sandy away from Danny, and Cha Cha starts dancing with Danny. Sandy realizes that Cha Cha was one of Danny's past girlfriends. Sandy leaves the gym upset, and Danny and Cha Cha win the contest. When they share their spotlight dance, the T-Birds (minus Kenickie) run in front of the camera and moon the crowd and the nation watching while "Blue Moon" is playing. Everyone ends up laughing, even Johnny Casino and the Gamblers, the band playing the songs, get into it.
Next evening, Danny takes Sandy to a drive-in movie, apologizes for leaving her, and gives her his class ring. Inside the drive-in toilets, Rizzo tells Marty that she has missed a period, after making love to Kenickie. Marty promised not to let anyone know about it but she tells Sonny the story anyway. That would lead to a chain effect that makes it common knowledge. When Kenickie asks Rizzo why she didn't tell him about it, she lies out of anger and tells him it isn't his. Back in the car, Danny starts trying to make out with Sandy. She raises a ruckus, throws back his ring (which she calls a "piece of tin"), and leaves. Danny laments losing Sandy again, and reveals the true extent of his feelings for her in the song "Sandy" — he is helpless without her.
Next day, the car the boys have been working on has finally been finished and will be used at the up and coming race at Thunder Road. Kenickie lets Danny know how they have been friends for years and asks him to be his right hand man at Thunder Road. Sandy meets Rizzo, who has no plans of going to the race. Sandy offers to help Rizzo but she declines and sincerly thanks Sandy. Rizzo expresses what she could do in the next number — "There Are Worse Things I Could Do".
Later that afternoon, the T-Birds, Pink Ladies, Scorpions and their girls gather for the race at Thunder Road. Jan sees a penny on the ground and picks it up for good luck. Marty grabs it out of her hand and gives it to Kenickie. Marty drops it and Kenickie has to pick it up again. Putzie opens the car door and it hits Kenickie on the head and knocks him out cold but he recovers. Because of this mishap, Danny races Leo in Kenickie's place while Sandy sits on the hill watching. While Sandy is happy to see Danny win the neck-and-neck race, she has misgivings about her own image, reflected in the song "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee (Reprise)". As the T-Birds and Pink Ladies celebrate with Danny, Sandy asks Frenchy's help in winning Danny's heart.
At the last day of school carnival, Marty orders Cotton Candy (she just asked for one). The T-birds discover that they have flunked Phys-Ed. Coach Calhoun (Caesar) invites them to Summer School. Doody gets revenge and decides to throw pies at the coach. After two unsuccessful attempts, Eugene Felsnic (Deezen) throws a third pie at the coach succussfully, but Doody pies Eugene right back. Rizzo and Kenickie get together after Rizzo has screamed from the Ferris wheel that she is not pregnant after all. Danny has followed through on his track jock plans and arrives in a preppy letter sweater. However, Sandy arrives dressed in a sexy off-the-shoulder-top, a black leather jacket, high heels and curly hair identical to Marty's, smoking a cigarette. Danny falls at her feet and the two reunite, singing "You're the One That I Want". The whole gang gets together, and although Marty and Jan are worried about the future, they all sing the big finale, "We Go Together." Sandy and Danny fly off in a car and disappear into the sky. Everybody waves goodbye and the end credits start in the style of a yearbook.