The Sure Thing

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 Walter can do is lament the fact that he has lost his touch with women. Lance heads to UCLA while Walter moves on to college in New England. The two keep in touch by writing letters, but Walter'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 a beautiful girl (Nicollette Sheridan), assuring him she is a Sure Thing.

Walter finds a ride from a ride share board to make the trip. He meets Gary Cooper (Tim Robbins) and Mary Ann Webster (Lisa Jane Persky), the couple providing the ride: they are extroverted and upbeat to a fault. 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 bickering between Walter and Alison becomes too much for Cooper, and he abandons them on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and Alison hitches a ride which turns out to be a big mistake. The driver stops at a deserted little pocket of the road and attempts to rape her, but Walter comes to her rescue just in the nick of time. As they hitch to California, they overcome issues with transportation, weather, lack of food, lack of money (caused by Alison leaving her wallet behind) and sleeping arrangements, while at the same time developing genuine feelings for one another. Upon arriving in California, Alison discovers the real reason Walter made the trip is to meet his "Sure Thing" and angrily walks away.

That night at a college mixer Lance has arranged for Walter 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 Walter see each other at the party, but jealousy leads to a confrontation between the two. Walter takes the "Sure Thing" to Lance's room, but cannot stop thinking about Alison.

Back on campus after the break, Alison and Walter are obviously uncomfortable around each other. In their English class, Professor Taub (Viveca Lindfors) reads an essay composed by Walter 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.

Casting

When casting for the part of Walter Gibson began, director Rob Reiner initially refused to meet with John Cusack because the actor was under-aged. Casting directors Jane Jenkins and Janet Hirshenson convinced Reiner to audition Cusack, after which Reiner knew he had to have him for the part. At the time Anthony Edwards was seriously being considered for the lead, but after Cusack got the part, Edwards was offered the best friend role instead.

At the time of his casting, Cusack was still 16 and had not yet graduated from high school, so producer Roger Birnbaum had to go to court to have him emancipated. During the filming of the movie, Birnbaum then became Cusack's legal guardian.

Reception

Reviews for The Sure Thing were mostly positive with a rating of 87% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 31 reviews. Film critic Roger Ebert praised the film and called it a "small miracle" for its handling of teenage material in an era when movies like Porky's were the norm. In a review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote that The Sure Thing was "glowing proof of two things: Traditional romantic comedy can be adapted to suit the teen-age trade, and Mr. Reiner's contribution to This Is Spinal Tap was more than a matter of humor".

The film earned over $18 million at the box office.

DVD

The Sure Thing was released on DVD August 5, 2003 as a Special Edition. The release was a single disc, but was presented as a DVD-14 (a dual-sided disc with one side dual-layered and the other single-layered). The dual-layered side contains both widescreen and standard formats of the film along with digitally enhanced 5.1 surround sound or original mono in both French and English, audio commentary by Reiner, and a trivia track. The single-layered side contains a 26-minute featurette titled The Road To The Sure Thing with interviews of Rob Reiner, John Cusack, Daphne Zuniga, Nicollette Sheridan, writers Steven L. Bloom and Jonathan Roberts, and producer Roger Birnbaum. Also included are three mini-featurettes (Dressing The Sure Thing, Casting The Sure Thing, and Reading The Sure Thing) and the theatrical trailer.