Plot Summary
High school senior Walter Gibson (John Cusack) and his best friend Lance (Anthony Edwards) are celebrating the fact they are moving on to college, but all Gibson can do is lament the fact that he has lost his touch with women. Lance heads to UCLA while Gibson moves on to college in New England. The two keep in touch by writing letters, but Gibson’s luck has not changed. His attempt to get close to Alison Bradbury (Daphne Zuniga) 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 the beautiful girl (Nicollette Sheridan), assuring him she is a Sure Thing.
Gibson finds a ride from a ride share board to make the trip. He immediately knows it is going to be a long trip when he meets Gary Cooper (Tim Robbins) and Mary Ann Webster (Lisa Jane Persky), the couple providing the ride, as they are overly extroverted and upbeat. 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 (Boyd Gaines). The tension and constant bickering between Gibson and Alison quickly become too much for Cooper, and he abandons them on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. As they hitch to California, they overcome issues with transportation, weather, lack of food, lack of money, and sleeping arrangements, while at the same time developing genuine feelings for one another. Upon arriving in California, Alison discovers the real reason Gibson is making the trip is to meet his Sure Thing and angrily runs off.
That night at a college mixer Lance has arranged for Gibson to meet his Sure Thing. Meanwhile, Alison is spending a boring night with Jason when she drags him to the same mixer for some fun. Alison and Gibson see each other at the party, but jealousy leads to a confrontation between the two. Gibson takes the Sure Thing to Lance's room, but cannot stop thinking about Alison.
Back on campus after the break, Alison and Gibson are obviously uncomfortable around each other. In their English class, Professor Taub (Viveca Lindfors) reads an essay composed by Gibson 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, and they kiss.
Read more about this topic: The Sure Thing
Famous quotes containing the words plot and/or summary:
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“I have simplified my politics into an utter detestation of all existing governments; and, as it is the shortest and most agreeable and summary feeling imaginable, the first moment of an universal republic would convert me into an advocate for single and uncontradicted despotism. The fact is, riches are power, and poverty is slavery all over the earth, and one sort of establishment is no better, nor worse, for a people than another.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)