Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland

Plot summary

Thad Castle, recently drafted into the pros, is now an ostentatious multi-millionaire with high prospects as an NFL player. At Blue Mountain State, his former team is training as normal under an increasingly frustrated Coach Daniels and new assistant coach Larry, with Alex as the senior captain. However, Alex realizes that the only three players with any notable skill left are himself, Harmon, and Donnie, and declares that he will devote himself to partying for his final year of college due to the fact that his team is set to have a losing season. Sammy, meanwhile, is still attempting to find sexual gratification, usually masturbating to the sight of either Alex's -- or his sister Mary Jo's -- conquests. Mary Jo, still a lesbian, tells Alex about her newest conquest, a ditzy airhead named Holly.

After returning from practice, Alex and the team are confronted by the new dean of the university, Oliviares, who declares that the Goat House will be auctioned off so as to avoid further damaging the school's reputation. Alex is aghast, and seeks Thad for help. He meets him at a garish and expensive restaurant, whereupon he is also confronted by Thad's equally bombastic cousin and bodyguard, Dick Dawg. After a bit of convincing, Alex convinces Thad to purchase the Goat House, with Thad's condition that he throw a massive party in his honor, an idea that he dubs Thadland. He gives Alex a crudely drawn picture book, and the team gets to work, stopping to puzzle at the contents of the last page, which shows a crayon drawn Thad with angel wings.

Coach Daniels, facing his second divorce from Debra and the decline of his career, drinks his sorrows at a bar in town, where he meets a young woman, to whom he offers a ride on his bike. While she performs fellatio on him during said ride, he crashes and breaks his arm. The party begins days later, and Thad and Dick Dawg show up, with the former highly impressed with the results; however, the popularity of Thadland causes the drug supply, of which Harmon collected from literally half of the United States, to decline. Sammy, in an attempt to impress Thad and make him remember his name, asks Harmon to offer his experimental drug of choice. After Harmon initially declines due to the drug's potency, he relents, first testing it on Billy the goat, the team's animal mascot, before sharing it with the rest of the party in the form of a gas sucked from balloons. The drug is wildly successful, and the party is renewed.

Sammy, again attempting to make Thad remember him, tries to make conversation with him, only for Thad to offhandedly give him a "sloot" named Tina, who is insistent upon anally playing with a tied-down Sammy, who relents on the condition that they have sex afterwards. Tina leaves the bedroom to grab more items; while she is gone, Billy, in a drug-induced haze, anally rapes an unknowing Sammy, horrifying Tina upon her return.

Alex begins to flirt with Holly, infuriating Mary Jo. Upon seeing her anger, Donnie tells her that she is not gay, but rather, in love with Alex, which she denies. She asks him how he is so sure of her sexuality, to which he responds that he himself is gay. Thad and Dick Dawg overhear this, and happily announce his sexuality to the party in a misguided show of support, surprising everyone except for Harmon, who already was aware of it. Coach Daniels arrives at the party to see Thad, and the two struggle to admit that they miss one another.

The auction begins for the house, and Thad bids five million dollars on it (having outbid himself from three million). Alex celebrates having "his" house back, and Thad confronts him on only thinking of himself when agreeing to create Thadland. Thad angrily banishes Alex from the Goat House. Outside, Alex finds Mary Jo and Holly talking about their date, and, after taking a hit of Harmon's drug, confronts the former on her supposed inability to turn Holly gay. Mary Jo, to disprove this, kisses Holly; Alex does so as well. Finally, Mary Jo and Alex kiss, and they confess their feelings for one another before the drug causes the three to hallucinate having an orgy before passing out.

Alex, in a dream, sees a potential future where Sammy is dead, Thad, now a middle-aged wash-up, is living in the Goat House, having never left, and Alex is now his house boy. Horrified, Alex wakes up in the middle of a deserted field. He walks to a nearby road, where he flags down a car driven by his old teammate, Craig Shilo. The two go to Thadland together, which is still running as a shell of its former self, with derelict amusement attractions and multiple deaths as a result of partying too much. Alex finds a drugged out Sammy, who has eaten Billy as a form of vengeance. Thad and Dick Dawg approach Donnie with a gay young man that the former bought for him. Despite the off putting start, Donnie and the boy, Frank, seem to hit it off. Out of options and seeing Mary Jo flirting with Thad, Alex asks Larry, who he finally treats as a coach rather than his friend, for help in rounding up the team.

At a press conference about Thadland and Coach Daniels' liaison and subsequent car crash, Daniels angrily tells the reporters and Dean Oliviares off, admitting to everything he's done and denying any regret for it. Dick Dawg, at the conference, hands the dean an envelope from Thad.

In the basement of the Goat House, Alex confronts Harmon about the balloon-based drugs and what is inside of them. Harmon reveals that the drugs are a fermented gas derived from the house's septic tank. A disgusted Alex uses his authority as captain to coerce Harmon to shut the tanks down, to which he complies. Upstairs, Alex finds Thad and Mary Jo, both of whom are high due to the drug. Alex confronts him about his supposed wealth and asks why he can waste his time at a party at a college campus rather than attending practice with his professional team. Thad tearfully reveals that his contract was voided due to his bad behaviour upon receiving his money, and that all of his wealth was fake. He also reveals that Dick Dawg told the dean this. Alex, enraged, asks why he did that, and Thad produces a handgun, declaring that if he couldn't have his wealth, he wanted to die. Alex sadly realizes what the final picture in the Thadland book was: it was a picture of Thad "in heaven." He refuses to help Thad kill himself, but instead has another plan. He asks for Dick Dawg to come to him as police sirens approach the house.

In the basement, Dick Dawg begins to rig the septic and gas tanks to explode, where he is confronted by a naked and drugged Sammy; the two fight, with Dick Dawg easily overpowering Sammy, who is knocked unconscious by falling debris. The house begins to crumble, prompting everyone inside to evacuate. Upstairs, Alex and Thad embrace, with Thad asking him to remember his story. Alex leaves with Mary Jo, which Dick Dawg carries the unconscious Sammy out of harm's way. The Goat House explodes.

Mary Jo sympathetically consoles Alex about the house he fought so hard for, to which he responds that it's "just a house," and they kiss. The Dean celebrates his so-called victory over Alex but begins to hyperventilate from the excitement. Before Alex can confront him, Harmon, in the guise of providing oxygen, gives Oliviares a puff of his drug. The dean begins to hallucinate and promptly begins humping Holly, likely costing him his reputation and job. In a line-up, Alex, Mary Jo, Larry, Donnie, Harmon, Shilo, and Radon all toast to Thad's memory.

One month later, a girl is seen running with a mojito to a rocky beach in an unknown locale. There, a poorly disguised Thad, under the alias of "Mr. Poontang," takes a sip of it, only to angrily declare that it lacks lime. As the girl hastily runs back to the bar to correct the mistake, he finds the lime "hidden under all the mint" and tells her to return.

In a mid-credits scene, Dick Dawg calls out Sammy's name for him to wake up. Upon opening his eyes, Sammy accuses Dick Dawg of knowing his name, to which the latter vehemently denies, infuriating Sammy.

Cast

Production

In March 2013, Ed Marinaro stated in an interview with Class Act Sports that he was working on a Blue Mountain State film. He continued to hint on Twitter at some 'behind-the-scenes' work being done on said movie. In early March 2014, Page Kennedy started hinting at Blue Mountain State reunion project on Instagram, Vine and Twitter along with Darin Brooks, Kelly Kruger, Alan Ritchson, Sam Jones III, Frankie Shaw and Romanski.

On April 8, 2014, Blue Mountain State: The Movie was officially announced. On April 15, the production launched a Kickstarter campaign, much like the hugely successful 2013 campaign by Veronica Mars to get the cancelled show made into a feature film. The project's goal was to raise $1.5 million by May 15 in order to fund the film. There were rewards for donating to campaign, such as personalized tweets from the cast (for donating $10), shot and pint glasses with the BMS logo ($20), and a speaking role in the film (for a $10,000 donation).

On May 11, 2014, the Kickstarter goal of $1.5 million was reached. On May 15, 2014 the Kickstarter campaign ended, with the final funds raised being $1,911,827 from 23,999 backers.

In May 2014, it was announced Jay Chandrasekhar would be the director of the film. However, on September 28, 2014, Lev L. Spiro was hired as the new director of BMS: The Movie. The crew started filming in late 2014 on location in Wilmington, North Carolina.

On December 14, 2014, Ritchson tweeted that filming had completed.

Release

Originally slated for a September 2015 release, the film was pushed back due to issues with the studio and distribution. Writer and producer Eric Falconer said the film originally received an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, but certain scenes were edited in order to get the film down to an R rating. On January 14, 2016, the film's trailer was released, along with Falconer setting a February 2, 2016 release date.

On March 1, 2016, the film was released on Netflix.