Plot
When eleven and a half year old Trevor McKinney (Osment) begins seventh grade in Las Vegas, Nevada, his social studies teacher Eugene Simonet gives the class an assignment to devise and put into action a plan that will change the world for the better. Trevor's plan is a charitable program based on the networking of good deeds. He calls his plan "Pay it forward", which means the recipient of a favor does a favor for a third party rather than paying the favor back.
Trevor does a favor for three people, asking each of them to "pay the favor forward" by doing favors for three other people, and so on, along a branching tree of good deeds. His first good deed is to let a homeless man named Jerry (Jim Caviezel) live in his garage, and Jerry pays the favor forward by doing car repairs for Trevor's mother. Trevor's efforts appear to fail when Jerry relapses into drug addiction, but Jerry will pay his debt forward later in the film by talking to a suicidal woman, who is about to jump off the bridge.
Meanwhile, Trevor's mother Arlene (Hunt) confronts Eugene about Trevor's project after discovering Jerry in their house. Then Trevor selects Eugene as his next "pay it forward" target and tricks Eugene and Arlene into a romantic dinner date. This also appears to fail until Trevor and Arlene argue about her alcoholism and she slaps him in a fit of anger. The two adults are brought together again when Trevor runs away from home and Arlene asks Eugene to help her find him.
After finding Trevor, Arlene begins to pursue Eugene sexually. Eugene has burn marks visible on his neck and face, and he initially resists Arlene's overtures. When they finally sleep together, he is seen to have extensive scarring over his torso. Arlene accepts Eugene's physical disfigurement, but abandons their relationship when her alcoholic ex-husband Ricky (Jon Bon Jovi) returns to her, claiming to have given up drinking. Ricky's return angers Eugene, whose own mother had a habit of taking his abusive, alcoholic father back. He explains that his father intentionally burned him, and he warns Arlene of Ricky's potential to abuse Trevor. When Ricky resumes his abusive behavior, Arlene realizes her mistake and asks him to leave again.
Trevor's school assignment marks the beginning of the story's chronology, but the opening scene in the film shows one of the later favors in the "pay it forward" tree, in which a man gives a car to Los Angeles journalist Chris Chandler (Jay Mohr). As the film proceeds, Chandler traces the chain of favors back to its origin in Trevor's school project. After her date with Eugene, Arlene paid Jerry's favor forward by forgiving her own mother Grace (Angie Dickinson) for her mistakes in raising Arlene, and Grace, who is homeless, helped a gang member escape from the police. The gang member then saved a girl's life, and the girl's father gave Chandler his new car.
Chandler finally identifies Trevor as the originator of "pay it forward" and conducts a recorded interview in which Trevor describes his hopes and concerns for the project. Eugene, hearing Trevor's words, realizes that he and Arlene should be together. As Eugene and Arlene reconcile with a passionate embrace, Trevor notices his friend Adam being bullied by tall gangster like kids. He rushes into the scene and fights them while Eugene and Arlene rush to stop him. However, another bully enters the scene and takes a pocket-knife out of his pocket. Trevor is then accidentally pushed into the knife and is stabbed. Trevor consequently dies at the hospital. This news is reported on television; Arlene and Eugene are soon visited by hundreds of people who have participated in the "pay it forward" movement, gathering in a vigil to pay Trevor their respects.
Read more about this topic: Pay It Forward
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