Tommy (film) - Plot

Plot

The film begins as a sun lowers behind the horizon as a man stands atop a mountain, followed by several romantic experiences between the man, Royal Air Force Group Captain Walker (Robert Powell), and his wife, Nora (Ann-Margret), among the intimacy of nature. He has been drafted in the military and leaves Nora to fight in the war as a bomber pilot. Sometime later, Nora receives the news that her husband is missing and believed to be dead. She soon thereafter gives birth to a baby boy, Tommy. She eventually meets Frank (Oliver Reed), known to Tommy as Uncle Frank, at a holiday camp and starts a relationship with him. Tommy, still only a boy now, hopes to one day own his own holiday camp as he lives on without a real father.

Frank moves in with Nora and Tommy, quitting his job at Bernie's Holiday Camp. After Tommy is kissed good night by Nora, Captain Walker returns home and wakes him up. Frank and Nora are having sex in the room over, though, and Tommy follows Captain Walker to the lovers' bedroom where Walker sees Nora and Frank (now Tommy's stepfather) in each other's arms. Tommy then watches Frank kill Walker by smashing a lamp on his head (in the original album version and later musical, however, it is Captain Walker who kills his wife's lover). Tommy is then told that he "didn't hear it, didn't see it" and "won't say nothing to no-one". As a result, Tommy goes into shock and ultimately becomes non-responsive, leading people to believe that he is deaf, dumb, and blind. Nora is distraught at Tommy's condition while Frank finds it to be a nuisance.

The film jumps ahead ten years, and Tommy, now a young man, is being taken by his mother and stepfather on various attempts to cure him. Nora takes Tommy to a religious cult that worships Marilyn Monroe (with Eric Clapton as the preacher and Arthur Brown as the priest). Nora tries to get Tommy to try some of the curing methods, but Tommy breaks the Marilyn Monroe statue. Frank then brings Tommy to the Acid Queen (Tina Turner), a prostitute dealing in LSD, who sends Tommy on a wild trip that ultimately fails to awaken him. The experience also causes the Acid Queen to go crazy.

Nora and Frank frequently leave Tommy with his sadistic Cousin Kevin (Paul Nicholas), who beats and tortures him. Later, Frank and Nora go for a night out and leave Tommy with his Uncle Ernie (Keith Moon), a filthy, alcoholic child molester. When Frank and Nora leave, Ernie molests Tommy, having at last found a child he can abuse without being caught as Tommy does not know what is happening. The plan backfires when Frank and Nora return home and Frank finds Ernie in bed with Tommy. Ernie is caught in the act. One night, Tommy is staring at the mirror while his parents eat dinner. Tommy's id appears in the mirror and guides him to a junkyard, where he finds a pinball machine, and spends the rest of the night playing on it. Becoming an expert of the game, due to the lack of seeing and hearing the distractions, he defeats the local champ (Elton John) at a televised pinball championship, featuring The Who performing (sans Daltrey) as the local lad's backing band. The match ends with the hysterical crowd storming the stage, the band smashing up their equipment and the local lad (dressed in Doc Marten boots that are several feet high), falling into the hands of a booing audience who carry him out of the hall. Tommy is hailed as pinball champ.

The family becomes rich and famous thanks to Tommy's popularity. However, Nora thinks it isn't worth anything because Tommy is still disabled. Deeply upset when watching her son winning the pinball championship from earlier on television, she throws her champagne bottle at the TV screen, and then hallucinates the broken screen exploding champagne, beans, laundry detergent, and chocolate.

Frank announces that he has found a doctor who can look into people like Tommy, so they see him the next day. The doctor (Jack Nicholson) confirms that Tommy's problems are psychosomatic and not physical. At home, Nora tries to get Tommy's attention, but with no avail. She pushes him into the mirror, shattering it. Tommy lands into the swimming pool, and his senses return. He uses his newfound awareness to try to bring enlightenment to people using the symbol of a "T" topped with a sphere (a pinball).

Tommy starts holding rallies and lectures, with Uncle Ernie selling merchandise. Sally Simpson (Victoria Russell), a young reverend's daughter obsessed with Tommy, begs her parents to let her go to one of his sermons. Furious when they deny her permission, she spends all afternoon getting ready and sneaks out of her house to the sermon, which takes the form of a wild concert set to gospel music. Sally sits at the front row and as the police desperately try to control all the screaming girls, Sally pushes past onto the edge of the stage, attempting to touch Tommy. Frank, sitting behind Tommy onstage, kicks her away. Sally gashes her face on a chair and the ambulance men carry her out. She grows up to marry a green-skinned, guitar playing rock star who is a cross between a cowboy and Frankenstein's monster (Gary Rich). Her parents are distraught that their daughter has become a groupie. Sally forevermore carries a horrific scar streaked across her cheek to remember Tommy by.

In just a year, Tommy declares himself a 'sensation' and begins to have a profound impact on people whenever he nears them, including motorcycle gangs and slot-machine gambling Teddy Boys. Flying above them in a hang-glider, Tommy's mere presence converts them to a new life opposed to their previous wicked ways, converting many people over to his beliefs.

Masses of people begin to gather at Tommy's house, seeking spiritual fulfilment. However, the house is not big enough to accommodate the massive population, so Tommy declares to open a holiday camp, his lifelong wish from the beginning of the movie. Nora appears on television advertising his plans and Frank intends to eventually have a Tommy camp in every major city in the world.

Millions flock to Tommy's Holiday Camp. They arrive by the bus-load, finding Uncle Ernie to welcome them. Sitting atop a motorised church organ that doubles as a cash register, Uncle Ernie sings of the joys of the camp while also flogging Tommy merchandise to the crowds. The crowd begins clamouring for Tommy to bring them enlightenment. Tommy begins preaching, bans drinking and smoking, and has each follower wear a headgear that blinds, deafens, and silences them and then they are taken to a pinball machines. The followers do not find Tommy's enlightenment, start rioting, destroying the machines, and spreading fire over the camp. They retreat at the sound of a police siren. Frank and Nora die in the attack. Tommy, only mildly injured, flees as flames engulf the camp. As Tommy escapes, he arrives at the same place in the wilderness in the beginning of the film where his parents spent a romantic day together (presumably the day he was conceived). In the final shot, Tommy greets a rising sun, and a new dawn.