St. Elmo's Fire (film)

St. Elmo's Fire is a 1985 American coming-of-age film co-written and directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Andie MacDowell and Mare Winningham. It centers on a clique of recent graduates of Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown University, and their adjustment to post-university life and the responsibilities of adulthood. The film is a prominent movie of the Brat Pack genre. It received negative reviews from critics but was a box-office hit, grossing $37.8 million on a $10 million budget.

Plot
Recent Georgetown University graduates Alec, Leslie, Kevin, Jules, and Kirby wait to hear about the conditions of their friends: Wendy, a sweet-natured young woman devoted to helping others, and Billy, a former fraternity boy and now reluctant husband and father, after a minor car accident caused by Billy's drinking. At the hospital, Kirby spots a doctor named Dale, with whom he has been infatuated since college.

The group gathers at their favorite college hangout, St. Elmo's Bar. Billy has been fired from the job that Alec helped him secure. At their apartment, Alec pressures Leslie to marry him, but she thinks they are unprepared. Kirby is telling Kevin of his love for Dale when Billy shows up, asking to spend the night as he cannot cope with his wife. Jules accuses Kevin of being gay and loving Alec. When Kevin visits Alec and Leslie for dinner, Alec confesses to Kevin that he recently had sex with a lingerie saleswoman.

Billy and Wendy get drunk together, and Wendy reveals that she is a virgin. They kiss, and Billy, tugging at her clothing, makes fun of her girdle. Wendy insists they remain platonic friends. At St. Elmo's during a Halloween party, Jules reveals to Leslie that she is having an affair with her married boss. Billy sees his wife Felicia with another man in the crowd and attacks him. Billy is thrown out of the bar but reconciles with her. The women confront Jules about her affair and reckless spending, but she insists that everything is under control.

Kirby takes a job working for Mr. Kim, a wealthy Korean businessman, and invites Dale to a party at Mr. Kim's house, which he is using without Mr. Kim's permission. Wendy arrives with Howie, an ungainly Jewish boy whom her parents want her to marry. Alec announces that he and Leslie are engaged, upsetting her. She confronts him about her suspicions of his infidelity, and the two break up. Alec accuses Kevin of telling Leslie about the tryst with the lingerie woman. Jules gives Billy a ride home, and Billy makes a pass at her. Furious, Jules orders him out of her car; Felicia witnesses the confrontation.

When Dale skips the party, Kirby drives to the ski lodge where she is staying and meets her boyfriend. Kirby's borrowed car gets stuck, and Dale and her boyfriend invite him in. The next morning, as Kirby prepares to leave the lodge, Dale tells him that she is flattered by his interest in her. He kisses her, and then her boyfriend takes a photo of them before he leaves.

Leslie goes to Kevin's apartment to spend the night after the breakup and discovers photographs of her. Kevin confesses his love for her, and the two have sex. Alec goes to the apartment to apologize to Kevin and finds Leslie there.

Wendy tells her father that she wants to be independent and move into her own place. Jules has been fired from her job, fallen behind on her credit card payments, and her possessions have been seized. She locks herself in her apartment and opens the windows, intending to freeze to death. Her friends attempt to coax her out, but she is unresponsive. Kirby fetches Billy, who landed a job at a gas station courtesy of Kevin, to calm Jules down. Billy convinces Jules to let him in, and they talk about the challenges of life, overheard by the rest of the gang.

Wendy moves into her own place; Billy visits and informs her that he is getting a divorce and moving to New York City, and the two have sex. At the bus station, the group gathers once more to say goodbye to Billy. Billy urges Alec to make up with Leslie, but she declares that she does not want to date anyone for a while. Alec and Kevin make up, and the group makes plans to meet for brunch. However, they decide not to go to St. Elmo's and instead choose Houlihan's because there are "not so many kids" there.

Development
The film was announced in July 1984. It was executive produced by Ned Tanen. Tanen also produced The Breakfast Club and it and St. Elmo's Fire were dubbed "The Little Chills", in reference to the film The Big Chill. "These are both movies that no one has ever seen before," said Tanen.

Casting
According to Schumacher, "a lot of people turned down the script...the head of [one] major studio called its seven-member cast ‘the most loathsome humans he had ever read on the page.’" The producers interviewed "hundreds of people" for the cast, including Anthony Edwards, Jon Cryer and Lea Thompson. According to Lauren Shuler Donner, she found Estevez, Nelson, and Sheedy through recommendations from John Hughes, who had cast them in The Breakfast Club; Schumacher said he had to "push hard" to get the studio to agree to cast the three. Demi Moore had to go to rehab before shooting.

"I think there are people who go to college because it's kind of what's accepted," said Lowe. "I feel unfortunately sometimes it's used as a holding tank, waiting to go into the real world, instead of for education. I think there are people who can go into the marketplace after high school and do well."

"I think I'm probably going to be criticized a lot," said Nelson. "My character is very straight, very conservative, very career-oriented. After Breakfast Club, I think people will say I should have played another street punk. They'll criticize me for not doing what I'm good at, for trying something new."

"It's refreshing to play someone who isn't defined by who her boyfriend is or what her body looks like," said Sheedy.

"I did feel a little like the new kid in class," said Moore.

Filming
Principal photography began early October 1984, just after executive producer Ned Tanen had been appointed as president of Paramount Pictures' motion picture division.

The private Catholic, Jesuit Georgetown University would not permit filming on campus, with their administrators citing questionable content such as premarital sex. As a result, the university seen on film is the public University of Maryland located 10 miles (16 km) away in College Park. The bar used as St. Elmo's is The Tombs in Georgetown.

"I loved wearing the clothes," said Moore, "I've always been such a tom boy."

Critical response
David Denby called Schumacher "brutally untalented" and said that "nobody over the moral age of fifteen" will like the work of the Brat Pack actors in the film: St. Elmo's Fire isn't drama, it's gossip, and peculiarly early-adolescent gossip&mdash; a movie designed to be picked apart on the telephone. The turbidly self-important treatment of these vacuous college graduates, each one a 'type', is like a TV sitcom without jokes. St. Elmo's Fire is so depressing a portent of Hollywood's teen sycophancy because it not only devotes itself to stupid kids, it accepts their view of the world without any real criticism....The sole survivor of the general disaster is Ally Sheedy, who manages to make something charming out of the yup petulance.

According to Janet Maslin, In the realm of films about close-knit bands of school friends, St. Elmo's Fire falls midway between The Big Chill and The Breakfast Club. Its characters are old enough to enjoy the first flushes of prosperity, but still sufficiently youthful to keep their self-absorption intact. But soon enough, they will be forced to give up their late-night carousing at a favorite bar and move on to more responsible lives. In the film's terms, which are distinctly limited, this will mean finding a more sedate hangout and learning to go there for brunch....St. Elmo's Fire is most appealing when it simply gives the actors a chance to flirt with the camera, and with one another. When it attempts to take seriously the problems of characters who are spoiled, affluent and unbearably smug, it becomes considerably less attractive.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 42%, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "St. Elmo's Fire is almost peak Brat Pack: it's got the cast, the fashion, and the music, but the characters are too frequently unlikable." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 35 out of 100, based on reviews from 15 critics.

Rob Lowe won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor for his work in this film.

In a 2015 retrospective review, Justin Gerber of Consequence of Sound said that he was "prepared to say it's the worst movie of all time, with all the necessary stipulations lined up and accounted for", going on to criticize the characters, plot, set, direction, and even score.

Box office
The film opened strongly, earning $6.1 million in its first week.

The film ended up making $37.8 million. It outperformed other box office disappointments from Columbia Pictures that year, including Silverado, The Bride and Perfect.

Soundtrack
It was the first soundtrack written by Canadian composer/producer David Foster. "When I was writing the score to St. Elmo's Fire, I loved it," he said. "But for that month and a half or so that I had to write the songs, it just felt like doing my regular job."

The theme song "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)" was written by Foster and English musician John Parr, and also performed by Parr. Foster had been impressed by Parr's song "Naughty Naughty" and invited him to perform the title track. Originally another song was chosen which Parr disliked. "That song sounded like Fame II or Flashdance II, Parr later said. "I thought the movie was supposed to have more class than that. It was a regurgitated song, and I didn't really want to sing it."

Parr urged Foster to try another song. They wrote it together, "very fast, between 2 and 4 on Friday afternoon," Parr recalled. "We wrote it, together, with David sitting at the piano." Schumacher had given Parr rough guidelines for the lyrics. "He wanted a song about determination," Parr recalled. "He wanted a song about kids who are growing up and have to make decisions about what to do with their lives. That's what the movie is about." Schumacher told them not to use "St. Elmo's Fire" in the lyrics, but Parr did it, regardless. "I thought it fit in the song," he said. "In the movie, St. Elmo's is a bar. But to me, St. Elmo's Fire is a magical thing glowing in the sky that holds destiny to someone. It's mystical and sacred. It's where paradise lies, like the end of the rainbow."

Parr was inspired to write the lyrics not by the movie (which he had not seen) but by the Canadian athlete Rick Hansen, who, at the time, was traveling around the world, via his wheelchair, to raise awareness for spinal cord injuries, a trip called the "Man in Motion Tour". The song did not appear on any Parr album until Letter to America was released in July 2011.

The song "Give Her a Little Drop More,” which plays during the movie when the characters enter St. Elmo's Bar & Restaurant, was written by British jazz trumpeter John Chilton.

"St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)" hit No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart for two weeks in September 1985, and "Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire" (the instrumental theme to the movie by David Foster) reached No. 15. Another version of the "Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire" with lyrics, titled "For Just a Moment", was performed by Amy Holland and Donny Gerrard, and was included as the final song on the soundtrack album.

Music video
The music video of "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)" serves as a mini-sequel to the film, which features all seven of the main cast reuniting and looking sadly through the broken and dirty windows of a run-down and fire-damaged St. Elmo's Bar. The video was directed by Kort Falkenberg III, who devised the concept with the film's director, Joel Schumacher.

Future
In August 2009, Sony Pictures Television received a "script commitment with a penalty attached to it" to adapt the film into a television series, which would "use the movie as a takeoff point and as an inspiration as it introduces six new friends: three boys and three girls." Topher Grace and Gordon Kaywin of Sargent Hall Productions proposed the idea to Jamie Tarses; the three of them then recruited Dan Bucatinsky to write the pilot and Schumacher agreed to the concept. After remaining in development hell by August 2019, it was reported that NBC was developing a television series with Josh Berman attached as writer and executive producer.

In June 2024, following the successful release of the documentary Brats which reunited the Brat Pack, it was announced that a legacy sequel is in early development from Sony Pictures. Andrew McCarthy, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Mare Winningham are expected to reprise their roles from the original movie.