User:MichaelQSchmidt/workspace/Jet Boy (film)


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Jet Boy (marketed in Europe as Moments) is a 2001 Canadian television drama written and directed by Dave Schultz. The film, starring Branden Nadon and Dylan Walsh, premiered September 2001 at Calgary Film Festival.

Plot
Set in Canada, Nathan (played by Branden Nadon) lives in poverty with his neglectful, drug-addicted mother, and sells himself on the streets to fund her addiction. Nathan is picked up by a client at a diner, and whipped with a belt, causing Nathan to leave the man's house the next morning–his fourteenth birthday–angry and with scars on his back. Nathan is met at the diner by his mother's drug dealer, Jordan (Matthew Currie Holmes), who sells Nathan heroin and who has arranged for Nathan to get a tattoo for his birthday. Taunted by classmates for his reluctance to take off his shirt in gym class, Nathan gets into a fistfight with another student before being pulled aside by the gym coach, who pities Nathan's life situation and wishes him a happy birthday. Shortly after Nathan returns home from school, his mother dies of a heroin overdose, and Nathan is brought to the police station where Boon Palmer (Dylan Walsh), an alleged fugitive, is being interrogated in the next observation room, and watches Nathan through the one-way mirror. When a social worker arrives, Nathan runs away and escapes the police station.

On the run, Nathan decides he will try to find his father, who he believes to live in Vancouver. At a diner, Nathan sees Boon eating at a table and is immediately drawn to him. Hungry and penniless, Nathan sits at Boon's table and asks if he is heading west, but Boon is annoyed by Nathan's intrusion and walks away. Outside, Boon makes a phone call and uses his finger to write a phone number in the dust on his car door, and then makes a second call to his aunt, who tells Boon that his father–with whom Boon has a strained relationship–is dying and wants to see his son. During the second call, Nathan wipes the number off the door and refuses to tell Boon the number, using this to leverage Boon to Boon to drive him to Vancouver. On the road, Nathan injures himself with a gun he finds in Boon's car, and Boon helps ensures Nathan is alright, before introducing himself. Boon takes Nathan to see a structure that is billed as the world's largest ball of string, and the two begin to bond.

The next morning, Boon visits his father, and Nathan walks to a local ballpark, where Lloyd (Jordan Weller) invites him to play baseball. Boon finds Nathan here, and teaches him how to play baseball, when he meets Lloyd's mother, Erin (Kelly Rowan), who was Boon's girlfriend twenty years prior. Convinced Nathan is Boon's son, Erin invites them both to her house, and she and Boon rekindle their old love, while Nathan and Lloyd become friends. Under the pretense of seeing a movie, Lloyd convinces Nathan to party with two older boys, Dennis and Clay. Clay is attracted to Nathan, and makes him uncomfortable by repeatedly staring at him. When Clay kisses Nathan and reveals that he is gay, Nathan becomes upset and reveals that his mother made him watch her have sex, and that he had been molested by her boyfriends; Nathan and Clay agree to keep each others' secrets. Dennis gets into a drunken argument with Nathan about the weight of the ball of string they are parked next to, and drives his car into the structure, causing the police to take the boys away, and the structure to collapse. Boon reluctantly picks up Nathan from the police station, and Nathan is ashamed for Boon to see him in a holding cell. Back at the motel room, Boon scolds Nathan and explains that he will give him a ride to Vancouver, after which they will go their separate ways. Boon then goes to visit Erin one last time.

Returning to the motel room late that night, Boon finds Nathan asleep in bed with his shirt off, and realizes the extent of abuse Nathan had suffered upon seeing the scars on his back. Nathan awakes in the middle of the night and sees Boon beside him. Desperate for Boon not to leave him, Nathan attempts to seduce Boon, causing Boon to awake and throw Nathan out of the bed. In tears, Nathan offers to have sex with Boon, angering Boon, and causing Nathan to storm out of the room. Boon goes through with the final stage of the undercover drug deal, and sees Nathan get picked up by a car right across the street from the scene of the deal. Boon gets in his car, and chases the car to a suite, intervening to protect Nathan as a client (played by Tom Edwards) is attempting to rape Nathan. Nathan learns that Boon is undercover, and the two drive off, Boon having learned to give the love of a father, and Nathan finally having a father figure in his life.

Cast

 * Branden Nadon as Nathan
 * Dylan Walsh as Boon Palmer
 * Matthew Currie Holmes as Jordan
 * Kelly Rowan as Erin
 * Jordan Weller as Lloyd
 * Valerie Planche as Mrs. Ross
 * Krista Rae as Ivory Girl
 * Carrie Schiffler as Nathan's Mom
 * Lynn Ivall as Schuyler
 * Stephen Strachan as Ferris
 * Roy Neilson as Clay
 * Joe Norman Shaw as Nathan's First Pick-up
 * Tom Edwards as Nathan's Last Pick-up
 * Bruce McDonald as Dennis
 * Mark Gabruch as Hustler