Picture this. You’re sixteen years old, and you’re looking 앞으로 to getting your driver’s license. However, fate (and what seems to be an unlucky combination of circumstances) steps in and makes it look like you’re in big trouble, as well as one heck of a crash course one night.
Well, that’s exactly what happens to Les Anderson and his friends, Dean and Charles, in the really awesome and inspiring 1988 film License to Drive.
“Think of your license as a credit card — sooner 또는 later, 당신 gotta break it in.”
Les Anderson (Corey Haim) is eagerly looking 앞으로 to getting his driver’s license — which means freedom for a teenager who takes the bus to school, and a way to possibly pick up girls.
One girl whom Les has his eye on happens to be none other than Mercedes Lane (Heather Graham). However, she seemingly already has a boyfriend named Paolo (Michael A. Nickles), who drives a Ferrari.
A few days later, Les is picked up 의해 his friend Dean (Corey Feldman), Dean’s mother (Jill Jaressi) and younger sister (Kimberly Hope), and they go to a birthday party for one of their classmates. While there, Dean engages in locker-room talk with Les and Charles (Michael Manasseri), asking if they ever wondered what kind of car some of the girls there would lose their virginity in; Charles replies that Dean never ceases to amaze him.
Soon, the trio sees Mercedes arrive; Les says that he’s “bumped into” her a million times, but she’s never bumped into him once.
At that very moment, when Paulo appears and attempts to convince her to leave with him, Mercedes refuses while heading over to the 펀치 bowl, saying, “Listen, 당신 don’t own me. Women have rights in this country — not like Kuwait 또는 Pakistan, where they worship their men.”
Wanting to get out of the argument, she tells Paolo, “Oh, and if you’re wondering about 다음 Saturday night, I just remembered — I already have a date.” When Paolo asks with whom, she points to Les.
The 다음 day, Les is picked up from school 의해 his Dad (Richard Masur), who is driving their Grandpa’s Cadillac (as Grandpa has taken Dad’s BMW, not wanting to drive his own Caddy over long distances). Les is at first embarrassed, but grows excited when his Dad explains that he thought he can drive the Cadillac for a little bit (with his Dad supervising, of course).
Reaching an upcoming corner, Les sees Mercedes walking down the street, and begs his Dad to let him drive the car 의해 himself, to impress her. Les’ Dad gives in, but Les’ plan to just drive Mercedes 집 takes another turn, when she tells how she’s going across town to see a friend. Wanting to impress her, Les drives her there.
On his way back home, Les comes across his Dad, who is very upset that Les broke his word.
The 다음 day, Les and his twin sister, Natalie (Nina Siemaszko), both take the driver’s test via computer. Though Natalie finishes quickly, Les becomes flustered, and eventually fails. Angered, he ‘boxes’ the monitor, causing all the computers to shut down.
As DMV attempts to recover the data, they allow Les to take a driving test, feeling that since his twin sister scored highly, he should also be good once the data is recovered.
Natalie also takes a driving test, wherein the instructor is very calming. Les is given an instructor, who only has one stipulation: if Les can keep the cup of coffee he has from spilling, he passes.
Les manages to make it through, and gets his license... but 초 later, the instructor in the computer room says that after recovering the results, Les has failed, and tears up his license in front of him!
After coming 집 to an enthusiastic family, Les lies to them, telling them that he’s a ‘free man.’ However, when his Mom (Carol Kane) does the laundry some time afterwards, she finds the ‘Failed Test’ paper in his pants pocket, and soon the entire family knows. Les’ father even grounds Les for 2 weeks for lying.
Les’ 프렌즈 even try to get him to come out because they think he’s gotten his license, but he lies, claiming he has other things to do. Later on that evening, Les gets a call from Mercedes, asking if he’s still going to take her out. Les lies, claiming he’s on his way (after making sure his parents are sound asleep).
Les manages to get his Grandpa’s Cadillac out of the garage, and picks up Mercedes. They initially attempt to go to a club, but Les is refused entrance 의해 the bouncer; while Mercedes does get in, she is surprised when she sees Paulo with another woman named Veronique (Charlie Spradling in an uncredited cameo). Paulo asks Mercedes what kind of drink she is having; she replies, “Nothing” and then angrily slaps Paulo, much to the amusement of Les. She then quickly grabs a nearby bottle of champagne, and returns outside. However, Les’ problems are increased when he and Mercedes take notice of a tow-truck beginning to tow away the Cadillac; Les manages to get the car untowed, but ends up paying over almost all the money he has — eighty dollars, to be precise.
After Mercedes apologizes for the whole mess, Les admits he should’ve given the car to the valet in the first place. Mercedes then says that she knows a place with plenty of free parking; so, they go to a lookout point high above the city. When Les asks Mercedes how she ever found the lookout point, she replies that someone she knew used to take her there sometimes; when Les is silent, she corrects him, saying, “My father used to take me here to show me how beautiful the world could be if 당신 could step away and see it at a distance.”
When Les offers to get a blanket for Mercedes to sit on and rushes over to the 트렁크 of the car, Mercedes smiles and remarks that he sure comes prepared. Les agrees, saying to himself, “Like a Boy Scout.”
However, during their time there, Mercedes finishes off the bottle of champagne, and ends up dancing on the 후드 of the car, and caving in the 후드 when she causes Les and her to fall on it! As he gets her back in the car, she ends up knocked out from her drinking escapade.
Les then goes over to Dean’s place, where Dean manages to take care of the dented 후드 의해 banging it back into proper condition. Both Dean and Charles are eager to see Les’ license, and claim that they should head to a place called Archie’s Atomic. Les tries to convince them not to go there, but is coerced into it.
After a harrowing incident on the freeway (involving a passed-out Mercedes waking up Dean from his little catnap when she falls over into his lap and causing him to get an idea involving her and Charles’s flash camera in the backseat), the group ends up at Shakey’s. There, when Dean wakes up to find himself on the floor of the backseat and Mercedes on 상단, 맨 위로 of him, he then puckers up his lips, all ready to 키스 her; however, she unknowingly ruins the mood for him when she says she thinks she’s going to throw up. Charles manages to get Mercedes out of the car and into Shakey’s in an attempt to sober her up with a soda. Dean then makes this really awesome speech to Les:
“Les, you’ve had to stand and watch as all the pretty girls drove off in some older jerk’s car — humiliation! I know — I’ve been through it. But that’s all over now! Les, that thing in your wallet — that’s no ordinary piece of paper. That is a driver’s license! And it’s not only a driver’s license. It’s an automobile license. And it’s not only an automobile license. It’s a license to live — a license to be free, a license to go wherever, whenever and with whomever 당신 choose.”
At the insistence of Dean, they put Mercedes in the car trunk, and decide to head off to Archie’s Atomic, where Dean is sure they can meet some 더 많이 girls.
They arrive, and the place seems exciting. But after they get some dinner, Charles accidentally ends up denting the door of a guy’s Pontiac GTO when he tries to retrieve the salt shaker he’d accidentally knocked onto the ground. The driver then attempts to smash the group’s windshield with a crowbar, causing Les to quickly take off (much to Dean’s frustration).
They end up almost being found out when going 의해 a protest area (where Les’ sister Natalie and her boyfriend Karl are), before getting pulled over at a police checkpoint. Les gives over his school bus pass, but the situation almost takes a turn for the worse when the officer finds a sleeping Mercedes in the car trunk.
However, the police checkpoint is dismantled when word comes that the protest has become a riot! The boys then decide to head home, but are sidelined when a drunken driver gets into the Cadillac, and drives off; luckily, they managed to get Mercedes out of the 트렁크 before this. With that, they all then pile into the drunk’s VW Bug.
For Les, the night only gets worse as the driver veers all over the road, scratching up the car and causing severe damage to it in the process; luckily, he manages to get into the car and stop it before it almost flies into a pit.
Les manages to get his 프렌즈 home, and get Mercedes back to her place; when he tells her it’s a long story, she asks if it has a happy ending. She claims she had a nice time, and kisses him.
Les gets the car into the garage, just as his parents come downstairs, and his Dad finds him sleeping inside it. After Les wakes up and gets out of the car, his Dad is about to give Les a huge lecture:
“We had a college fund set aside for 당신 — that’s gone now! 당신 had free room and board, two trusting parents and a social life — all gone! 당신 had a TV, a stereo, baseball, 테니스 racket, a skateboard, a bicycle — all gone! 당신 even had sunlight and a window in your room!”
He tells Les in a vulgar manner that he’s lucky his mother didn’t go into labor. However, his wife corrects him, saying “Robert! I am in labor!” Dad initially repeats what he had told Les before saying “What?” and then turns back to his wife when he realizes what she means. Needing someone to drive, Dad relents and decides to allow Les to get back behind the wheel.
Arriving at a 십자가, 크로스 street, the family is thrown into turmoil when the 앞으로 drive on the car breaks, with the only option being to go in reverse (as the Cadillac has been so extensively damaged it can no longer be put into drive). At the insistence of his family (and an encouraging smile from Rudy), Les throws the car in reverse, and manages to get his family safely to the hospital.
Les’ Dad is shown to be impressed 의해 his son’s driving skills, and even attempts to assure Les, telling him not to worry about the Cadillac, that they’ll get it fixed and maybe Grandpa won’t notice. However, the father-son moment between them is ruined when they turn back to see a giant I-beam from a nearby construction site fall off of a 기중기, 크레인 that had stopped working and crash onto the Cadillac, while Les and his father look on in shock.
Some time later, Grandpa (Parley Baer) comes back for his car; the family is ready for him to get mad about it when he sees it. However, much to their puzzlement, he starts laughing instead. Les’s father speaks for the whole family when he says, “Dad? Dad, what is it? Why are 당신 laughing?”
Grandpa puts a set of car keys in his hand and says, “Here, I had a little trouble with your car, too.”
Then, as if on cue, a tow truck pulls up — with Dad’s BMW shown to be smashed, much to Les’ father’s surprise.
As Grandpa laughs (in a “kids say the darnedest things” way) and applauds a little after Rudy makes the vulgarly blunt statement that Grandpa himself had said a few moments 이전 (causing Mom to hit Rudy on the shoulder), Dad then turns to Les and says, “Uh, Les, 당신 know how 당신 said when 당신 got your license, 당신 wanted a BMW? Well, here 당신 go — it’s all yours” before adding “Take good care of it” while laughing a little.
However, Les replies, “Uh, thanks, Dad; it’s very generous of you. But, 당신 know, I don’t need the BMW anymore.”
Mercedes then pulls up in her car — a white Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet — and honks the horn a little, before calling Les’ name with a smile and a wave.
Les then adds, “I already have a Mercedes” before tossing the keys to the BMW back to his dad, who catches them. After hopping over the front door of Mercedes’ car, Les waves to the family and tells them not to wait up; he then laughs a little as he lowers himself into the driver’s 좌석 and turns on the radio. As the song Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car 의해 Billy Ocean begins playing, Les drives off down the road with Mercedes; the film fades to a blue screen, and the credits begin to roll.
From my perspective, the film License to Drive is a good one for those who recall their days of being sixteen and getting their driver’s license.
Well, that’s exactly what happens to Les Anderson and his friends, Dean and Charles, in the really awesome and inspiring 1988 film License to Drive.
“Think of your license as a credit card — sooner 또는 later, 당신 gotta break it in.”
Les Anderson (Corey Haim) is eagerly looking 앞으로 to getting his driver’s license — which means freedom for a teenager who takes the bus to school, and a way to possibly pick up girls.
One girl whom Les has his eye on happens to be none other than Mercedes Lane (Heather Graham). However, she seemingly already has a boyfriend named Paolo (Michael A. Nickles), who drives a Ferrari.
A few days later, Les is picked up 의해 his friend Dean (Corey Feldman), Dean’s mother (Jill Jaressi) and younger sister (Kimberly Hope), and they go to a birthday party for one of their classmates. While there, Dean engages in locker-room talk with Les and Charles (Michael Manasseri), asking if they ever wondered what kind of car some of the girls there would lose their virginity in; Charles replies that Dean never ceases to amaze him.
Soon, the trio sees Mercedes arrive; Les says that he’s “bumped into” her a million times, but she’s never bumped into him once.
At that very moment, when Paulo appears and attempts to convince her to leave with him, Mercedes refuses while heading over to the 펀치 bowl, saying, “Listen, 당신 don’t own me. Women have rights in this country — not like Kuwait 또는 Pakistan, where they worship their men.”
Wanting to get out of the argument, she tells Paolo, “Oh, and if you’re wondering about 다음 Saturday night, I just remembered — I already have a date.” When Paolo asks with whom, she points to Les.
The 다음 day, Les is picked up from school 의해 his Dad (Richard Masur), who is driving their Grandpa’s Cadillac (as Grandpa has taken Dad’s BMW, not wanting to drive his own Caddy over long distances). Les is at first embarrassed, but grows excited when his Dad explains that he thought he can drive the Cadillac for a little bit (with his Dad supervising, of course).
Reaching an upcoming corner, Les sees Mercedes walking down the street, and begs his Dad to let him drive the car 의해 himself, to impress her. Les’ Dad gives in, but Les’ plan to just drive Mercedes 집 takes another turn, when she tells how she’s going across town to see a friend. Wanting to impress her, Les drives her there.
On his way back home, Les comes across his Dad, who is very upset that Les broke his word.
The 다음 day, Les and his twin sister, Natalie (Nina Siemaszko), both take the driver’s test via computer. Though Natalie finishes quickly, Les becomes flustered, and eventually fails. Angered, he ‘boxes’ the monitor, causing all the computers to shut down.
As DMV attempts to recover the data, they allow Les to take a driving test, feeling that since his twin sister scored highly, he should also be good once the data is recovered.
Natalie also takes a driving test, wherein the instructor is very calming. Les is given an instructor, who only has one stipulation: if Les can keep the cup of coffee he has from spilling, he passes.
Les manages to make it through, and gets his license... but 초 later, the instructor in the computer room says that after recovering the results, Les has failed, and tears up his license in front of him!
After coming 집 to an enthusiastic family, Les lies to them, telling them that he’s a ‘free man.’ However, when his Mom (Carol Kane) does the laundry some time afterwards, she finds the ‘Failed Test’ paper in his pants pocket, and soon the entire family knows. Les’ father even grounds Les for 2 weeks for lying.
Les’ 프렌즈 even try to get him to come out because they think he’s gotten his license, but he lies, claiming he has other things to do. Later on that evening, Les gets a call from Mercedes, asking if he’s still going to take her out. Les lies, claiming he’s on his way (after making sure his parents are sound asleep).
Les manages to get his Grandpa’s Cadillac out of the garage, and picks up Mercedes. They initially attempt to go to a club, but Les is refused entrance 의해 the bouncer; while Mercedes does get in, she is surprised when she sees Paulo with another woman named Veronique (Charlie Spradling in an uncredited cameo). Paulo asks Mercedes what kind of drink she is having; she replies, “Nothing” and then angrily slaps Paulo, much to the amusement of Les. She then quickly grabs a nearby bottle of champagne, and returns outside. However, Les’ problems are increased when he and Mercedes take notice of a tow-truck beginning to tow away the Cadillac; Les manages to get the car untowed, but ends up paying over almost all the money he has — eighty dollars, to be precise.
After Mercedes apologizes for the whole mess, Les admits he should’ve given the car to the valet in the first place. Mercedes then says that she knows a place with plenty of free parking; so, they go to a lookout point high above the city. When Les asks Mercedes how she ever found the lookout point, she replies that someone she knew used to take her there sometimes; when Les is silent, she corrects him, saying, “My father used to take me here to show me how beautiful the world could be if 당신 could step away and see it at a distance.”
When Les offers to get a blanket for Mercedes to sit on and rushes over to the 트렁크 of the car, Mercedes smiles and remarks that he sure comes prepared. Les agrees, saying to himself, “Like a Boy Scout.”
However, during their time there, Mercedes finishes off the bottle of champagne, and ends up dancing on the 후드 of the car, and caving in the 후드 when she causes Les and her to fall on it! As he gets her back in the car, she ends up knocked out from her drinking escapade.
Les then goes over to Dean’s place, where Dean manages to take care of the dented 후드 의해 banging it back into proper condition. Both Dean and Charles are eager to see Les’ license, and claim that they should head to a place called Archie’s Atomic. Les tries to convince them not to go there, but is coerced into it.
After a harrowing incident on the freeway (involving a passed-out Mercedes waking up Dean from his little catnap when she falls over into his lap and causing him to get an idea involving her and Charles’s flash camera in the backseat), the group ends up at Shakey’s. There, when Dean wakes up to find himself on the floor of the backseat and Mercedes on 상단, 맨 위로 of him, he then puckers up his lips, all ready to 키스 her; however, she unknowingly ruins the mood for him when she says she thinks she’s going to throw up. Charles manages to get Mercedes out of the car and into Shakey’s in an attempt to sober her up with a soda. Dean then makes this really awesome speech to Les:
“Les, you’ve had to stand and watch as all the pretty girls drove off in some older jerk’s car — humiliation! I know — I’ve been through it. But that’s all over now! Les, that thing in your wallet — that’s no ordinary piece of paper. That is a driver’s license! And it’s not only a driver’s license. It’s an automobile license. And it’s not only an automobile license. It’s a license to live — a license to be free, a license to go wherever, whenever and with whomever 당신 choose.”
At the insistence of Dean, they put Mercedes in the car trunk, and decide to head off to Archie’s Atomic, where Dean is sure they can meet some 더 많이 girls.
They arrive, and the place seems exciting. But after they get some dinner, Charles accidentally ends up denting the door of a guy’s Pontiac GTO when he tries to retrieve the salt shaker he’d accidentally knocked onto the ground. The driver then attempts to smash the group’s windshield with a crowbar, causing Les to quickly take off (much to Dean’s frustration).
They end up almost being found out when going 의해 a protest area (where Les’ sister Natalie and her boyfriend Karl are), before getting pulled over at a police checkpoint. Les gives over his school bus pass, but the situation almost takes a turn for the worse when the officer finds a sleeping Mercedes in the car trunk.
However, the police checkpoint is dismantled when word comes that the protest has become a riot! The boys then decide to head home, but are sidelined when a drunken driver gets into the Cadillac, and drives off; luckily, they managed to get Mercedes out of the 트렁크 before this. With that, they all then pile into the drunk’s VW Bug.
For Les, the night only gets worse as the driver veers all over the road, scratching up the car and causing severe damage to it in the process; luckily, he manages to get into the car and stop it before it almost flies into a pit.
Les manages to get his 프렌즈 home, and get Mercedes back to her place; when he tells her it’s a long story, she asks if it has a happy ending. She claims she had a nice time, and kisses him.
Les gets the car into the garage, just as his parents come downstairs, and his Dad finds him sleeping inside it. After Les wakes up and gets out of the car, his Dad is about to give Les a huge lecture:
“We had a college fund set aside for 당신 — that’s gone now! 당신 had free room and board, two trusting parents and a social life — all gone! 당신 had a TV, a stereo, baseball, 테니스 racket, a skateboard, a bicycle — all gone! 당신 even had sunlight and a window in your room!”
He tells Les in a vulgar manner that he’s lucky his mother didn’t go into labor. However, his wife corrects him, saying “Robert! I am in labor!” Dad initially repeats what he had told Les before saying “What?” and then turns back to his wife when he realizes what she means. Needing someone to drive, Dad relents and decides to allow Les to get back behind the wheel.
Arriving at a 십자가, 크로스 street, the family is thrown into turmoil when the 앞으로 drive on the car breaks, with the only option being to go in reverse (as the Cadillac has been so extensively damaged it can no longer be put into drive). At the insistence of his family (and an encouraging smile from Rudy), Les throws the car in reverse, and manages to get his family safely to the hospital.
Les’ Dad is shown to be impressed 의해 his son’s driving skills, and even attempts to assure Les, telling him not to worry about the Cadillac, that they’ll get it fixed and maybe Grandpa won’t notice. However, the father-son moment between them is ruined when they turn back to see a giant I-beam from a nearby construction site fall off of a 기중기, 크레인 that had stopped working and crash onto the Cadillac, while Les and his father look on in shock.
Some time later, Grandpa (Parley Baer) comes back for his car; the family is ready for him to get mad about it when he sees it. However, much to their puzzlement, he starts laughing instead. Les’s father speaks for the whole family when he says, “Dad? Dad, what is it? Why are 당신 laughing?”
Grandpa puts a set of car keys in his hand and says, “Here, I had a little trouble with your car, too.”
Then, as if on cue, a tow truck pulls up — with Dad’s BMW shown to be smashed, much to Les’ father’s surprise.
As Grandpa laughs (in a “kids say the darnedest things” way) and applauds a little after Rudy makes the vulgarly blunt statement that Grandpa himself had said a few moments 이전 (causing Mom to hit Rudy on the shoulder), Dad then turns to Les and says, “Uh, Les, 당신 know how 당신 said when 당신 got your license, 당신 wanted a BMW? Well, here 당신 go — it’s all yours” before adding “Take good care of it” while laughing a little.
However, Les replies, “Uh, thanks, Dad; it’s very generous of you. But, 당신 know, I don’t need the BMW anymore.”
Mercedes then pulls up in her car — a white Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet — and honks the horn a little, before calling Les’ name with a smile and a wave.
Les then adds, “I already have a Mercedes” before tossing the keys to the BMW back to his dad, who catches them. After hopping over the front door of Mercedes’ car, Les waves to the family and tells them not to wait up; he then laughs a little as he lowers himself into the driver’s 좌석 and turns on the radio. As the song Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car 의해 Billy Ocean begins playing, Les drives off down the road with Mercedes; the film fades to a blue screen, and the credits begin to roll.
From my perspective, the film License to Drive is a good one for those who recall their days of being sixteen and getting their driver’s license.