Peggy Sue Got Married
Encyclopedia
Peggy Sue Got Married is a 1986
American
comedy-drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola
and starring Kathleen Turner
as a woman on the verge of a divorce, who finds herself transported back to the days of her senior year in high school. The film was written by husband and wife team Jerry Leichtling and Arlene Sarner.
The film was nominated for three Academy Awards
: Best Actress
(Turner), Best Cinematography
and Best Costume Design
. In addition, Turner was nominated for Best Foreign Actress at the Premis Sant Jordi de Cinema.
The fame of co-stars like Nicolas Cage
, Jim Carrey
, Helen Hunt
, Joan Allen
, Catherine Hicks
and Sofia Coppola
rose considerably in the years after this film.
) sets off for her 25-year high school reunion, albeit hesitantly, with her daughter, Beth (Helen Hunt
), coming along as company. Peggy Sue has just separated from her former high school sweetheart, now husband, Charlie (Nicolas Cage
), and is wary of attending the reunion
because of everyone questioning her about the absence of Charlie; they have been married since she became pregnant at the end of high school.
Peggy Sue arrives at the reunion and is happy to reconnect with her old friends, Maddy (Joan Allen
) and Carol (Catherine Hicks
), and all start to comment on old high school memories and how times (and classmates) have changed. Charlie unexpectedly arrives at the reunion, causing an awkward scene with Peggy Sue ignoring him. The awkwardness is ended when the event MC announces the reunion’s "king and queen." The king is Richard Norvik (Barry Miller
), a former class geek turned multi-millionaire computer whiz. Peggy Sue is named the queen, but on arriving at the stage, she faints.
When Peggy Sue awakens, she finds she’s gone back to the spring of 1960, her senior year of high school, having passed out after donating blood. Peggy at first believes she died at the reunion, but then comes to accept that she has gone back in time. She’s in shock to see old family members so young and to talk to relatives who have since died. She attends high school classes and meets with old (now-young) friends as well as their now-young boyfriends (Jim Carrey
in one of his earliest roles is among them). Peggy answers simple questions with adult responses. For example, when her mother asks if she and Charlie had a fight, she replies yes - but about "house payments," talking about their future divorce. She also makes a get-rich-quick reference of going to England to discover The Beatles
.
Peggy is confused by this new/old world, but she’s fascinated to get to live high school all over again and say things she always wanted to say (such as telling off rude girls and informing an algebra teacher she knows, for a fact, that she will never need algebra in her life). She uses this opportunity to repair an estranged relationship with her younger sister, Nancy (Sofia Coppola
). One thing Peggy is not happy about is that she’s still dating Charlie. She breaks up with him and has a one-night stand with Michael Fitzsimmons (Kevin J. O'Connor) — the guy in school she always wished she’d slept with.
Peggy Sue soon sees that this Charlie (at 18 years) is not the same as the adulterous Charlie she left in 1985 - and Peggy starts to fall in love
with him all over again, though the relationship still has its problems. Meanwhile, she contacts the young (ever geeky) Richard and asks for his advice on time travel
. He seems to believe her as they discuss events and inventions that do not yet exist. Her inquiries into time travel lead to her grandfather, who agrees to try a strange séance
ritual with his Masonic Lodge
buddies to send her forward in time.
Peggy is kidnapped by Charlie. He takes her to a greenhouse of sorts, while everybody at the Lodge thinks the ritual worked. He tells Peggy Sue that he loves her and gives her the locket she wore at the beginning of the film. Realizing that she cannot cheat fate, Peggy Sue kisses Charlie and they begin to make love, which would again lead to Peggy getting pregnant and marrying him. In the next moment, Peggy Sue is transported back to present day.
Peggy Sue wakes up in a hospital, with Charlie at her side. However, the idea that she may have dreamed the entire ordeal is called into doubt when she sees that Michael has dedicated a book to her and their night together. Charlie, meanwhile, is deeply regretful of his adultery and tells Peggy Sue he wants her back. She looks at Charlie with new eyes and it seems there's hope for them possibly reconciling their differences, then recalling something her grandfather told her ("It's your grandmother's strudel that has kept the family together.") Peggy Sue offers to bake Charlie a strudel.
, Nicolas Cage
stated that he based Charlie's unusual voice on Pokey from The Gumby Show. He said Coppola (his uncle) and the studio were unhappy with his voice and almost fired him.
.
Peggy Sue Got Married ranked number 17 on Entertainment Weekly
's list of "50 Best High School Movies."
This film appeared on Siskel and Ebert's best of 1986 lists. http://www.innermind.com/misc/s_e_top.htm#SE1986
American Film Institute
Lists
, played over the opening credits, is a Buddy Holly
sequel to "Peggy Sue". It is unusual because it is the rarely-heard original version recorded by Holly in his New York City
apartment, accompanied only by his own guitar, essentially a demo or practice tape. The version normally heard was overdubbed for commercial posthumous release, adding background vocals and an electric guitar
track that drowned out Holly's own playing.
1986 in film
-Events:*April 12 - Actor Morgan Mason marries The Go-Go's Belinda Carlisle.*April 26 - Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger marries television journalist Maria Shriver.*May - Actress Heather Locklear marries Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee....
American
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
comedy-drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
and starring Kathleen Turner
Kathleen Turner
Mary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...
as a woman on the verge of a divorce, who finds herself transported back to the days of her senior year in high school. The film was written by husband and wife team Jerry Leichtling and Arlene Sarner.
The film was nominated for three Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
: Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
(Turner), Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
and Best Costume Design
Academy Award for Costume Design
The Academy Award for Best Costume Design is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for achievement in film costume design....
. In addition, Turner was nominated for Best Foreign Actress at the Premis Sant Jordi de Cinema.
The fame of co-stars like Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
, Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey
James Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...
, Helen Hunt
Helen Hunt
Helen 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...
, Joan Allen
Joan Allen
Joan Allen is an American actress. She worked in theatre, television and film during her early career, and achieved recognition for her Broadway debut in Burn This, winning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play in 1989.She has received three Academy Award nominations;...
, Catherine Hicks
Catherine Hicks
Catherine Mary Hicks is an American stage, film, television actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Annie Camden on the long-running television series 7th Heaven and as Karen Barclay in Child's Play.-Personal life:...
and Sofia Coppola
Sofia Coppola
Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and producer.In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing...
rose considerably in the years after this film.
Plot
Peggy Sue Bodell (Kathleen TurnerKathleen Turner
Mary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...
) sets off for her 25-year high school reunion, albeit hesitantly, with her daughter, Beth (Helen Hunt
Helen Hunt
Helen 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...
), coming along as company. Peggy Sue has just separated from her former high school sweetheart, now husband, Charlie (Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
), and is wary of attending the reunion
Class reunion
A class reunion is a meeting of former classmates, typically organized at or near their former school by one of the class on or around an anniversary of their graduation. Former teachers may be invited as well...
because of everyone questioning her about the absence of Charlie; they have been married since she became pregnant at the end of high school.
Peggy Sue arrives at the reunion and is happy to reconnect with her old friends, Maddy (Joan Allen
Joan Allen
Joan Allen is an American actress. She worked in theatre, television and film during her early career, and achieved recognition for her Broadway debut in Burn This, winning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play in 1989.She has received three Academy Award nominations;...
) and Carol (Catherine Hicks
Catherine Hicks
Catherine Mary Hicks is an American stage, film, television actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Annie Camden on the long-running television series 7th Heaven and as Karen Barclay in Child's Play.-Personal life:...
), and all start to comment on old high school memories and how times (and classmates) have changed. Charlie unexpectedly arrives at the reunion, causing an awkward scene with Peggy Sue ignoring him. The awkwardness is ended when the event MC announces the reunion’s "king and queen." The king is Richard Norvik (Barry Miller
Barry Miller (actor)
Barry L. Miller is an American actor. He won Broadway's 1985 Tony Award as Best Actor for his performance as 'Arnold Epstein' in Biloxi Blues....
), a former class geek turned multi-millionaire computer whiz. Peggy Sue is named the queen, but on arriving at the stage, she faints.
When Peggy Sue awakens, she finds she’s gone back to the spring of 1960, her senior year of high school, having passed out after donating blood. Peggy at first believes she died at the reunion, but then comes to accept that she has gone back in time. She’s in shock to see old family members so young and to talk to relatives who have since died. She attends high school classes and meets with old (now-young) friends as well as their now-young boyfriends (Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey
James Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...
in one of his earliest roles is among them). Peggy answers simple questions with adult responses. For example, when her mother asks if she and Charlie had a fight, she replies yes - but about "house payments," talking about their future divorce. She also makes a get-rich-quick reference of going to England to discover The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
.
Peggy is confused by this new/old world, but she’s fascinated to get to live high school all over again and say things she always wanted to say (such as telling off rude girls and informing an algebra teacher she knows, for a fact, that she will never need algebra in her life). She uses this opportunity to repair an estranged relationship with her younger sister, Nancy (Sofia Coppola
Sofia Coppola
Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and producer.In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing...
). One thing Peggy is not happy about is that she’s still dating Charlie. She breaks up with him and has a one-night stand with Michael Fitzsimmons (Kevin J. O'Connor) — the guy in school she always wished she’d slept with.
Peggy Sue soon sees that this Charlie (at 18 years) is not the same as the adulterous Charlie she left in 1985 - and Peggy starts to fall in love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
with him all over again, though the relationship still has its problems. Meanwhile, she contacts the young (ever geeky) Richard and asks for his advice on time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
. He seems to believe her as they discuss events and inventions that do not yet exist. Her inquiries into time travel lead to her grandfather, who agrees to try a strange séance
Séance
A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...
ritual with his Masonic Lodge
Masonic Lodge
This article is about the Masonic term for a membership group. For buildings named Masonic Lodge, see Masonic Lodge A Masonic Lodge, often termed a Private Lodge or Constituent Lodge, is the basic organisation of Freemasonry...
buddies to send her forward in time.
Peggy is kidnapped by Charlie. He takes her to a greenhouse of sorts, while everybody at the Lodge thinks the ritual worked. He tells Peggy Sue that he loves her and gives her the locket she wore at the beginning of the film. Realizing that she cannot cheat fate, Peggy Sue kisses Charlie and they begin to make love, which would again lead to Peggy getting pregnant and marrying him. In the next moment, Peggy Sue is transported back to present day.
Peggy Sue wakes up in a hospital, with Charlie at her side. However, the idea that she may have dreamed the entire ordeal is called into doubt when she sees that Michael has dedicated a book to her and their night together. Charlie, meanwhile, is deeply regretful of his adultery and tells Peggy Sue he wants her back. She looks at Charlie with new eyes and it seems there's hope for them possibly reconciling their differences, then recalling something her grandfather told her ("It's your grandmother's strudel that has kept the family together.") Peggy Sue offers to bake Charlie a strudel.
Cast
- Kathleen TurnerKathleen TurnerMary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...
as Peggy Sue Bodell - Nicolas CageNicolas CageNicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
as Charlie Bodell - Barry MillerBarry Miller (actor)Barry L. Miller is an American actor. He won Broadway's 1985 Tony Award as Best Actor for his performance as 'Arnold Epstein' in Biloxi Blues....
as Richard Norvik - Catherine HicksCatherine HicksCatherine Mary Hicks is an American stage, film, television actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Annie Camden on the long-running television series 7th Heaven and as Karen Barclay in Child's Play.-Personal life:...
as Carol Heath - Joan AllenJoan AllenJoan Allen is an American actress. She worked in theatre, television and film during her early career, and achieved recognition for her Broadway debut in Burn This, winning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play in 1989.She has received three Academy Award nominations;...
as Maddy Nagle - Kevin J. O'Connor as Michael Fitzsimmons
- Jim CarreyJim CarreyJames Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...
as Walter Getz - Lisa Jane PerskyLisa Jane PerskyLisa Jane Persky is an American actress.Persky was born in New York City, New York, the daughter of Jane Holley and Mort Persky...
as Delores Dodge - Lucinda JenneyLucinda Jenney-Career:Jenney began her acting career in 1984 with Hearts and Diamonds. Several roles followed throughout the eighties, appearing in the 1986 comedy The Whoopee Boys, the award-winning Peggy Sue Got Married, with Kathleen Turner and Nicholas Cage. She appeared as 'Iris' in the Oscar-winning film...
as Rosalie Testa - Wil ShrinerWil ShrinerWil Shriner is an American actor, comedian, director and game show host.-Life and career:Shriner was born in New York City, New York, the twin brother of soap opera actor Kin Shriner and the son of Eileen “Pixie” McDermott and Herb Shriner, a Hoosier humorist who had several shows in the early...
as Arthur Nagle - Barbara HarrisBarbara Harris (actress)Barbara Harris is an American actress who was a Broadway stage star and later became a film actress. She appeared in such films as A Thousand Clowns, Plaza Suite, Nashville, Family Plot, Freaky Friday, Peggy Sue Got Married, and Grosse Pointe Blank...
as Evelyn Kelcher - Don MurrayDon Murray (actor)Donald Patrick "Don" Murray is an American actor.-Early life and career:Murray was born in Hollywood, California on July 31, 1929, the only child of Dennis Aloisius, a Broadway dance director and stage manager and Ethel Murray, a former Ziegfeld performer...
as Jack Kelcher - Sofia CoppolaSofia CoppolaSofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and producer.In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing...
as Nancy Kelcher - Maureen O'SullivanMaureen O'SullivanMaureen Paula O’Sullivan was an Irish actress.-Early life:O'Sullivan was born in Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland, the daughter of Roman Catholic parents Mary Lovatt and Charles Joseph O'Sullivan, an officer in The Connaught Rangers who served in The Great War...
as Elizabeth Alvorg - Leon AmesLeon Ames (actor)Leon Ames was an American film and television actor. He is best remembered for playing fatherly figures in such films as Meet Me in St. Louis , as Judy Garland's father, and in Little Women ....
as Barney Alvorg - Helen HuntHelen 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 Beth Bodell - Glenn WithrowGlenn WithrowGlenn Withrow is an American actor, director, producer and writer.-Personal life:Withrow was born in Highland Heights, Kentucky in 1953. He is married to actress Hallie Todd...
as Terry - Marshall CrenshawMarshall CrenshawMarshall Crenshaw is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist best known for his song "Someday, Someway".-Biography:...
as Musician at the reunion
Production
In his February 15, 2007 appearance on Late Night with Conan O'BrienLate Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
, Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
stated that he based Charlie's unusual voice on Pokey from The Gumby Show. He said Coppola (his uncle) and the studio were unhappy with his voice and almost fired him.
Release and reception
Peggy Sue Got Married opened with $6,942,408 and ended up grossing $41,382,841 in the U.S. It was the first box-office success for Coppola since Apocalypse NowApocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American war film set during the Vietnam War, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The central character is US Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard , of MACV-SOG, an assassin sent to kill the renegade and presumed insane Special Forces...
.
Peggy Sue Got Married ranked number 17 on Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
's list of "50 Best High School Movies."
This film appeared on Siskel and Ebert's best of 1986 lists. http://www.innermind.com/misc/s_e_top.htm#SE1986
American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
Lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs - Nominated
- AFI's 10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....
- Nominated Fantasy Film
Title song
The title songPeggy Sue Got Married (song)
"Peggy Sue Got Married" is a song written and sung by Buddy Holly. It was released in 1959 as a 45-rpm single with "Crying, Waiting, Hoping". It refers to his song hit "Peggy Sue". It was one of the first sequels of the rock era...
, played over the opening credits, is a Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...
sequel to "Peggy Sue". It is unusual because it is the rarely-heard original version recorded by Holly in his New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
apartment, accompanied only by his own guitar, essentially a demo or practice tape. The version normally heard was overdubbed for commercial posthumous release, adding background vocals and an electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
track that drowned out Holly's own playing.