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Heathers is a 1989 black comedy film starring Winona Ryder, Shannen Doherty, and Christian Slater. It is widely viewed as a classic teenage comedy of the 1980s, considered revolutionary at the time because of its high levels of violence, cruelty, black humor and absurdity, especially for a movie set in high school. It was written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann. On its release, the film was seen as a stiff response to the gentler and more romanticized view of high school and teenage culture put forth in the movies of John Hughes.

In the film three out of the four girls in a trend-setting clique at Westerberg High are called Heather. They play croquet with each other and rule the school through intimidation, contempt and sex appeal. One of the central themes of the movie is that people who want their high schools to be kinder places are deluded -- high school is not a safe haven from the world, it is the world in microcosm; and "kids who complain they want to be treated like grownups usually are being treated like grownups."

Because Heathers portrays alienated teenagers who solve their problems with murder and terrorism, audiences in 1989 found it far-fetched and therefore safe to enjoy as a dark wish-fulfillment fantasy. But in the post-Columbine era the movie hits a different nerve and now appears prescient and unsettling in a new and even darker way.

In 1993 fans of the film set up #heathers, an IRC channel on EFNet which focuses on the movie and its mythology.

Plot description
Heathers centers on a high school student named Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder). Veronica is part of a clique of popular, pretty and wealthy girls called The Heathers. Other than Veronica, they all share that first name. Heather Duke (Shannen Doherty), Heather McNamara (Lisanne Falk) and Heather Chandler (Kim Walker), Veronica's best friend, are the prettiest and most popular girls in school. They are also the most vacant, shallow, self-centered and vicious. Veronica finds their 'friendship' both tempting and repellent.

Veronica wasn't always so popular. Although it is never fully explained how she ascended to popularity, it is made clear that she used to be good friends with one of the school's biggest nerds, Betty Finn. She is also clearly smarter and far more compassionate than any of her Heather cohorts. When a new, dark boy named Jason Dean (Christian Slater), or J.D. for short, pulls a gun on school bullies Kurt (Lance Fenton) and Ram (Patrick Labyorteaux), and fires blanks at them, Veronica is intrigued.

Soon Veronica and J.D. are dating, and he accompanies her on an early morning visit to Heather Chandler's home. Veronica is furious with Heather Chandler's behaviour at a frat party and the two of them jokingly prepare a cup full of drain cleaner to bring her as a morning wake-up drink. They later decide on milk and orange juice as a vomit-inducing prank, but Veronica accidentally mixes up the cups (J.D. notices, but doesn't tell her) and to her horror Heather Chandler downs the drain cleaner and begins to heave and spasm, eventually collapsing face first into a glass table and dying.

Realizing that she is the unintentional perpetrator of her best friend's murder, J.D. urges Veronica to forge a suicide note in Heather Chandler's handwriting. Veronica does so only to protect herself from prosecution. The entire school and community looks on Heather Chandler's death as a hip, if dramatic, decision in the life of a popular but troubled teenager, and everyone accepts the suicide note as authentic. Soon Heather's death becomes yesterday's news.

Weeks later J.D. concocts a plan to punish bullies Ram and Kurt for spreading gossip about Veronica. He tells her that they will lure the two guys into the forest with the promise of a three-way with Veronica, only once the bullies have stripped down to their boxer shorts, Veronica and J.D. will shoot them with "Ich Lüge" bullets; fake bullets that will stun them unconscious long enough for Veronica and J.D. to flee. They will leave behind homosexually-oriented materials including pornographic magazines and the somewhat questionable bottled-water as well as a fake suicide note that will make it look like the two killed each other in a gay suicide pact. When they awaken, they will be humiliated.

Veronica agrees, thinking the plan is hilarious, but when she misfires and one of them doesn't get shot, J.D. goes running after him desperately. Veronica instantly realizes that the bullets were real ("Ich lüge" means "I'm lying" in German) and J.D. had intended to kill the two boys all along. J.D. managed to chase the unshot boy in a circle so that he ends up back where they started, and Veronica, in a frightened daze, shoots him dead. The plan goes off without a hitch when the boys' bodies are discovered and the two school football stars are "revealed" to be gay lovers. (In one of the more memorable moments of the film, a redneck father is seen at a funeral with a football in his hand crying out "I love my dead gay son!")

Suddenly Veronica is sucked into a world that she never intended to be a part of. Although the people they are killing were not particularly good or nice, she feels guilt for their murders. Additionally, because they were popular, other students are mimicking their behavior and attempting suicides. Most notably, obese student Martha "Dumptruck" Dunnstock (Carrie Lynn) pins a suicide note to her chest and walks into traffic. (She is not killed; instead she is horribly wounded and wheelchair bound.)

Veronica realizes she has to stop participating in these crimes with J.D., but when she tells him, he goes nuts. He reveals his plan to kill Heather Duke next, and hints that he might try to kill Veronica. Veronica, expecting him to find her and kill her, rigs a harness in her room to make it look like she has hanged herself. J.D. discovers her "body" and leaves, heartbroken. (Veronica's mother (Jennifer Rhodes) also discovers her just before she unties herself, getting quite a scare.) Before J.D. leaves, however, he reveals that he intends to blow up the entire school during a pep rally. A petition he has been circulating to get the band "Big Fun" to play was actually a cleverly disguised suicide note that almost the entire school has signed.

Veronica heads to school the next day and confronts J.D. in the boiler rooms where he is rigging dynamite to go off. They get into a gunfight where Veronica shoots off J.D.'s middle finger, and finally she forces him to disable the bomb. However, she is unable to save J.D., who later meets her outside and detonates a bomb that is strapped around his chest. Thus Veronica has literally saved the entire school without anyone knowing it. The final shot of the film is of Veronica, ash laden and bleeding, walking through the halls of the school. She confronts Heather Duke and rips a red bow from her hair (the bow which Heather Chandler is known to wear, which J.D. had given Heather Duke) and then starts up a friendly discussion with Martha Dunnstock.

Production
"'I'd include the script for Heathers in the category of literature. It said so much about society. There is an assumption when you're young that things don't mean as much or aren't as painful. But first love is the most devastating of all. Society wilt always look down on teenagers - parents and teachers dont seem to pay enough attention to kids when they are at their most painful age. Most of the great writers were outcasts, especially the beats. That's why Lawrence Ferlinghetti is such a hero, because he was the first person to get those artists published.'"

Alternate ending
On the special edition DVD of Heathers, the "special features" section contains the script for an alternate ending which was considered too dark for teen audiences and nixed by New World Pictures, the distributor.

In the alternate ending, J.D. dies in the boiler room, and Veronica is shown walking through the school, though only from the back. This is interrupted by shots of the bomb counting down, showing that Veronica had not shut it off. When she reaches the front of the school, Veronica turns around, allowing the viewer to see that the bomb was strapped to her chest. It hits zero, the screen turns black, and Veronica says, "Boom." Then black letters tell the viewer that this is the prom. A banner hangs, saying "WHAT A WASTE, OH THE HUMANITY".

The students begin to dance, at first sticking with those of the same or similar social cliques. Then, when it is time for prom pictures, people from different cliques are couples. A geek and a stoner pose together, then Pauline Fleming (Penelope Milford) and Principal Gowan (John Ingle). Kurt, now alive, has his picture taken with the cow he had tipped. Mismatched couples continue to appear, and dead characters make their own appearances. J.D. plays a "smoking hot" guitar solo, then rushes to the dance floor to dance with Heather Duke, Kurt, and finally Heather Chandler. The Heathers do a ring-around-the-rosy. The camera is moved up to reveal Martha Dunnstock, wailing beautifully. The viewpoint is then lifted even higher to show a smiling Veronica in a "striking pose."

Those who have not seen the movie or who did not pay attention will not understand the implications of this ending. In order for the scene to be understood, one must remember that J.D. tells Veronica, in defense of his actions, that "the only place different social types can genuinely get along is in Heaven." Through this quote, it becomes clear that the people of Westerburg High had all died. This explains the mingling of social groups, as well as the reappearance of those who died at prom.

Despite the change of the endings, the movie failed to be a big hit. Instead it has increased in popularity over time, developing into a cult movie.

Trivia

 * The fictional Westerberg High School is named for musician Paul Westerberg.
 * Daniel Waters wrote the film for Stanley Kubrick, but struggled greatly to get the script sent to him.
 * In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Heathers the 32nd greatest comedy film of all time.
 * Screamo band From First to Last took the title of their album Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has a Body Count from a quote by Veronica in Heathers ("Dear diary, my teen-angst bullshit now has a body count.").
 * Veronica and her not-so-popular friend have combination first and last names that go together (Betty and Veronica, from Archie Comics, and Sawyer and Finn, from Tom Sawyer)
 * The idea of cliques of popular adolescent girls that all share the same name has been frequently copied, including the Casper Saturday morning cartoon and in The Oblongs.