Elijah Wood
Performer for Our Time
FOREVER YOUNG
(1992)
Synopsis
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Elijah Wood Performer for Our Time FOREVER YOUNG Synopsis |
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FOREVER YOUNG (1992) |
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Spoiler
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Edward C. Patterson, site owner |
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The prolog of Forever Young opens with Daniel McCormick, test pilot, in a nose-diving plane. It is 1939 and he makes a very narrow crash landing at the airfield. He emerges from the plane unscathed to be met by his friend Harry Finley, who has just completed a government experiment. He froze a chicken and brought the chicken back to life again. After swearing Daniel to secrecy, they go out and celebrate. We meet Daniel’s girlfriend and lover, Helen, who also learns about the chicken experiment and is sworn to secrecy. Daniel and Helen attend an airman’s picnic, where Harry and his wife, Blanche, announce that they are going to have a baby. This puts pressure on Daniel to propose to Helen. He rehearses a proposal at Jane’s Diner. But when Helen arrives, she’s in a hurry and Daniel just can’t get the words out. She leaves and is hit by a car. Helen is in a coma. Daniel sits vigil, but can’t take it any longer. When he finds out that Harry’s cryogenic experiment has graduated chickens to humans and that the man slated to participate has dropped out, Daniel insists that he take his place. It’s only for a year. As Daniel is placed in stasis, he dreams about Helen and a house by the sea near a lighthouse. The action switches to 1992, when we meet Nat Cooper and his friend Felix. They appear to be happy kids, eating twinkies, playing in their tree house. We meet Nat’s single mother Claire (she’s a nurse). The next day, Felix’s brother, who is in the Reserves, takes his kid brother to the dentist. On the way home, he stops at the depot to deliver a package at the Air Base. He tells Felix and Nat to stay in the car. While he’s delayed, Nat and Felix (boys will be boys) sneak into an old warehouse and play army. They find Daniel’s cryogenic capsule and while playing Nat accidentally releases the freon and discovers a frozen Daniel. Daniel wakes (somewhat) and grabs Nat. The boys run like hell, Nat losing his jacket, stuck in Daniel’s hand. Daniel revives and discovers he is no longer in 1939, but in 1992. He tries to explain this to a disinterested Army officer and barely escapes the base before being detained by security. Daniel shows up at Nat’s house (with the jacket) scaring the bejeebers out of the kids. They hide in the treehouse. But eventually Nat explains to Daniel how they released him from "just a bunch of junk." Daniel tries to locate Harry Finley and to get caught up on the 50 missing years, Nat brings him to the library. Nat (11 years old) shows an interest in a girl (Alice), but feels he’s too much of a geek to express himself. Nat hides Daniel in the treehouse and feeds him appropriately—peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Claire gets a visit from an old boyfriend, who roughs her up. Daniel beats him up and ejects him. He tells Claire, he was in the neighborhood and Nat suppresses his previous knowledge of Daniel, keeping the secret. Daniel stays the night on the couch. In the morning, Daniel follows a lead to find Harry, while Claire takes Nat to the Air Show. It turns out to be the Wrong Harry and Daniel goes to the Air Show, bumping into Claire and her doctor boyfriend, John. She insists Daniel stay with her and Nat until he gets settled. Nat asks Daniel to teach him to fly, which Daniel says can’t be done, as he has no plane. Nat helps Daniel cook dinner by cutting an onion (with ensuing tears). Claire almost misses a date with John, as the dinner is so good. There’s a leak in the roof and Daniel says he’ll repair it in the morning. On his way back from the hardware store, Daniel sees Jane’s Diner and sits in the booth where he almost proposed to Helen. Nat climbs the roof, while Daniel repairs it. Nat asks Daniel about girls. Daniel tells Nat he’s too young and "to forget about them", then almost falls off the roof. That evening, after hearing his and Helen’s favorite Billy Holiday song—"The very thought of you," Daniel loses it. Claire consoles him just short of lovemaking. Daniel wakes Nat and tells him to forget about his previous advice on girls. "Open up your heart. Sing to her." Nat goes to Alice’s house, climbs a tree and sings to her like a troubadour—"You are my sunshine." The government (FBI) has discovered that the capsule has been found and Daniel is alive and wandering. They start tracking him down. Daniel decides to leave, but before he does, Nat gives him a World War II bombardier jacket. Daniel rigs up the treehouse like a cockpit and teaches Nat how to fly. They have become more than friends. They have become the son he never had and the missing father. Daniel falls out of the treehouse. He’s ill. At the hospital his condition worsens. He is growing old. The FBI has tracked him down. Nat tells Claire the truth about Daniel. At first she doesn’t believe him. Then, she is convinced and gets Doctor John to redirect the FBI agents to the wrong room while she escapes with Daniel. It appears that there has been some word on Harry Finley’s whereabouts. Daniel, with Claire and Nat, arrive at Harry’s daughter’s home. Harry has been dead for some time. "I was his best friend," Daniel says. "Daniel?" the daughter says. She takes them into the basement and gives them Harry’s notebooks, which shows that the experiment was a failure and the body would revert to old age. In the basement, Daniel finds a picture of Helen and a little girl. When he discovers that the little girl is Harry’s daughter, he finds it impossible as Helen died before the daughter was born. "No. Helen’s alive." Helen is living at the house by the sea near the lighthouse. In a car chase (the FBI in pursuit), Claire drives Daniel to the Air Base, where he borrows a plane. After taking off, he discovers that Nat is a stow-a-way. "You forgot your jacket," Nat says. As Daniel’s body begins to fail, Nat, following instruction, lands the plane inches from the house by the sea. An FBI agent explains to Claire that they want Daniel as an essential link in an important experiment. Claire gives them the notebooks for their research. Daniel tries to enter the house, but it’s locked. Suddenly, he spies a woman at a distance. It’s Helen. They are reunited. Nat joins them as they walk by the sea—the three, man, woman and child—hand in hand.
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