The Sure Thing

The Sure Thing is a 1985 American romantic comedy Christmas road film directed by Rob Reiner and starring John Cusack, Daphne Zuniga, Viveca Lindfors, and Nicollette Sheridan. The film chronicles the cross-country journey of college students Walter Gibson (Cusack) and Alison Bradbury (Zuniga) as they make their way from New England to Los Angeles over Christmas break, each in an effort to meet their ideal romantic match.

Released theatrically in the spring of 1985, The Sure Thing received mostly favorable reviews from film critics, who commended it for its traditional comedic structure, with some likening it to a modern version of Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (1934), though Reiner himself stated that the parallels between the two films were unintentional.

Plot
High school senior Walter Gibson and his best friend Lance are celebrating the fact they are moving on to college, but all Walter can do is lament the fact that he has lost his touch with women. Lance heads to UCLA while Walter moves on to college in New England. The two keep in touch by writing letters, but Walter's luck has not changed. His attempt to woo the ambitious, pensive Alison Bradbury from his English class by tricking her into tutoring him only results in his angering and alienating her. Eventually, he receives a phone call from Lance telling him to come to California for Christmas break because he has set him up with a beautiful girl, assuring him she is a "sure thing".

Walter finds a ride from a ride-share board to make the trip. He meets Gary Cooper and Mary Ann Webster, the couple providing the ride. Things go from bad to worse when he realizes he will be sitting next to Alison as she heads to UCLA to visit her boyfriend Jason. The tension and bickering between Walter and Alison becomes too much for Cooper, and he abandons them on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, infuriating Alison.

Alison hitches a ride from a middle-aged man who swiftly attempts to rape her, but Walter comes to her rescue just in the nick of time. The two decide to stick together, eventually making it to a train station. However, when Walter does not have enough money to cover his bus fare, the two instead check into a motel. Walter grows jealous when he overhears Alison talking to Jason on the phone, and ventures to a nearby bar where he spends his remaining money on alcohol and drunkenly sings Christmas carols with the locals.

The next morning, Walter rushes Alison out of the motel, and has her stuff her shirt with scarves so she appears pregnant, hoping it will increase their chances of getting a ride. The two manage to hitchhike to a restaurant, whereupon Alison realizes she left her appointment book and cash back at the motel. That night, the two are crestfallen when they find themselves caught outside in a rainstorm, until Alison realizes that she has her father's emergency credit card. The two use the credit card to stay at an upscale hotel, where they treat themselves to drinks and dinner. The next morning, Alison is pleased to find Walter embracing her, but he quickly pulls away upon waking up.

While hitchhiking with a truck driver through Arizona, Alison overhears Walter explaining that he made the trip to meet his "sure thing". Upon arriving at the UCLA campus, Alison angrily parts ways with Walter. That night, Walter attends a Christmas mixer where Lance has arranged for Walter to meet his "sure thing". Meanwhile, Alison finds herself bored at Jason's dormitory, and decides to drag him to the same party. Alison and Walter see each other, but their mutual jealousy leads to a confrontation between the two. Walter takes the "sure thing" to Lance's room, but cannot stop thinking about Alison.

Back on campus after Christmas break, Alison and Walter are obviously uncomfortable around each other. In their English class, Professor Taub reads an essay composed by Walter as a writing assignment, which is a description of his night with the "sure thing". The girl in the essay asks the protagonist if he loves her, but for the first time he realizes that those are not just words and he cannot sleep with her. Alison realizes what actually happened that night, she tells Walter that she and Jason broke up, and they kiss.

Development
The origins of the film came from an experience writer Steven L. Bloom had while attending Brown University. During this time, his best friend was attending Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and was constantly recounting the good times he was having, which Bloom felt left out of. Out of pity over his situation his friend arranged for him to meet a sure thing over spring break, so Bloom found a ride through a ride board and drove to Atlanta with a number of other students.

Casting
When casting for the part of Walter Gibson began, director Rob Reiner initially refused to meet with John Cusack because the actor was under-aged. Casting directors Jane Jenkins and Janet Hirshenson convinced Reiner to audition Cusack, after which Reiner knew he had to have him for the part. At the time Anthony Edwards was seriously being considered for the lead, but after Cusack got the part, Edwards was offered the best friend role instead.

At the time of his casting, Cusack was still 16 and had not yet graduated from high school, so producer Roger Birnbaum had to go to court to have him emancipated. During the filming of the movie (March–April 1984), Birnbaum then became Cusack's legal guardian.

Robert Bauer played the same character, Moke, in two Rob Reiner movies, This Is Spinal Tap (1984) and this one.

Filming
Principal photography began in early March 1984 in Stockton and Los Angeles, California. Due to the fact that the winter of 1984 was uncharacteristically warm, the filmmakers struggled to locate snowy settings on the east coast for the sequences set there. Several days before shooting was scheduled to begin at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, a blizzard hit upstate New York, and a second unit was sent to Ithaca to capture the snowy locale. Meanwhile, the exteriors at the University of the Pacific—which was used as a stand-in for the east coast college campus—were sprayed with a fire-retardant foam to appear as though snow had fallen there. Additional photography took place at a beachside residence near Malibu.

Soundtrack
Many popular songs were used in the film but a soundtrack was never officially released. The following is a list of tracks featured in the film:

Box office
The Sure Thing was given advanced sneak previews in the United States and Canada on February 23, 1985  before its wide release on March 1, 1985. It earned over $18 million at the box office.

Critical response
Reviews for The Sure Thing were mostly positive. Film critic Roger Ebert, who gave it three-and-a-half stars out of four, praised the film and called it a "small miracle" for its handling of teenage material in an era when movies like Porky's were the norm. In a review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote that The Sure Thing was "glowing proof of two things: Traditional romantic comedy can be adapted to suit the teen-age trade, and Mr. Reiner's contribution to This Is Spinal Tap was more than a matter of humor". Variety deemed the film "a sweetly old-fashioned look at the last lap of the coming-of-age ordeal in which the sure thing becomes less important than the real thing. Realization may not be earth shattering, but in an era of fast food and faster sex, return to the traditional is downright refreshing."

Time Out magazine described the film favorably as a "confident, witty teenage variation on It Happened One Night [that] focuses on two students hitching across the States through rainstorms, starvation and show tunes. He's a libidinous layabout who inadvertently dropped in to college. She's an uptight goody-goody who believes spontaneity has its time and its place. There's plenty of mileage in this pairing, even if the movie isn't going anywhere unexpected."

In 2017, the British Film Institute ranked The Sure Thing among Reiner's five most essential directorial efforts, noting: "In an age when American teen comedies came to be defined by the success of Porky's (1982), The Sure Thing triumphs from its winning formula of being sassy yet never bawdy and sentimental while never mawkish."

The film holds a rating of on Rotten Tomatoes based on  reviews. The website's critical consensus reads: "Though its final outcome is predictable, The Sure Thing is a charming, smartly written, and mature teen comedy featuring a breakout role for John Cusack."

Home media
MGM Home Entertainment released The Sure Thing in a special edition region 1 DVD on August 5, 2003. In 2015, Shout! Factory released a 30th-anniversary Blu-ray edition of the film. Sandpiper Pictures reissued a Blu-ray edition on December 19, 2023.