Pay It Forward is a 2000 American
drama filmA drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
based on the novel of the same name by
Catherine Ryan HydeCatherine Ryan Hyde is an American novelist and short story writer. Her novels have enjoyed bestseller status in both the U.S. and U.K., and her short stories have won many awards and honors...
. It was directed by
Mimi LederMimi Leder is an American film director. She was the first female graduate of the AFI Conservatory in 1973.-Movie career:...
and written by
Leslie DixonLeslie Dixon is an American screenwriter and producer. Some of the screenplays she has written include: Outrageous Fortune, Overboard, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Thomas Crown Affair, Pay It Forward, and Hairspray. She was nominated for a Saturn Award for her Freaky Friday screenplay...
. It stars
Haley Joel OsmentHaley Joel Osment is an American actor. After a series of roles in television and film during the 1990s, including a small part in Forrest Gump playing Tom Hanks' title character’s son, Osment rose to fame with his performance as Cole Sear in M...
as a boy who launches a good-will movement,
Helen HuntHelen Elizabeth Hunt is an American actress, film director, and screenwriter. She starred in the sitcom Mad About You for seven years, before being cast in the romantic comedy As Good as It Gets...
as his single mother, and
Kevin SpaceyKevin Spacey, CBE is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...
as his social-studies teacher.
When 11½-year-old Trevor McKinney (Osment) begins seventh grade in
Las VegasThe Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
,
NevadaNevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, his social studies teacher Eugene Simonet (Spacey) gives the class an assignment to devise and put into action a plan that will change the world for the better.