Recently I have grown fond of movies that center around high school life. These are the years that are like an an introductory crossroads to our lives. You learn tremendous things from the people you meet throughout your school life; the experience you have with them helps you become intuitive and wise. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s Do Revenge stole my heart with its story-telling, wit, and courage that most high school films lack.
The film is scintillating, witty, and entertaining to hold you in its gaze without throwing any cringe-worthy punch lines. Despite showing the grandeur of rich white American high school life, the film is ballsy enough to comment and satirize things that center around teen girls. Robinson has done a remarkable job in giving space to the characters to develop their actual color and boldly admit to being who they are. Maya Hawke, in particular, caught my attention with her innocent face and the chameleon-like trait she portrays here. The film also stars Camila Mendes, Austin Abrams, Sophie Turner, and Talia Ryder.
Do Revenge Movie Synopsis:
Drea has the perfect boyfriend – Rosehill’s golden boy, and is even besties with the elite groups of the school. She is also an A-grade student, which makes her worthy of the perfect future with a scholarship at Yale followed by a secured life as a Howard law graduate. However, her efforts of 17 years of meticulously planning her life go for a toss when her boyfriend leaks her topless video.
At the same time, Eleanor, a shy girl with past trauma of her own, joins the Tennis club where Drea is spending her behavioral-probation time. After learning about each other’s trauma-stricken experiences, both plan for a sinister revenge game that changes everything in the coming season of school time.
Do Revenge Plot Summary:
The devasting experience in school makes Drea understand that being vulnerable in front of people will not do her any good. She learns her lesson the hard way and as her headmaster advises her; tries to process her anger in a better way than punching the school’s golden boy.
We are also introduced to the second lead of the film – Eleanor. While overspeeding her car showing her rebellious personality, she talks to her mother over the call, who is delighted about her daughter’s decision to join the tennis club. Although her mother pushes her to make new friends at the club, Eleanor is happy just being friends with her pet lizard – Oscar Winner Olivia Colman.
Sun basking and reading Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train (the screenplay of the film is inspired by the book’s film adaptation by Hitchcock) on the side field of a tennis court, Eleanor notices Drea impairing the new joiner’s determination to play. The uncrushed spirit of Drea makes Eleanor instantly realize they will be best friends one day.
I think teenage girls are eviler than adolescent boys. They wouldn’t even think twice about hurting people back if someone hurt them. The film at this point makes sure we know this and learn from it. Eleanor understands how to get Drea’s attention; hence, she tells her that Erica showed everyone the leaked video. And just like how the stars would have it, Erica’s life is upside down when she is arrested for possessing drugs.
While bidding goodbye to Erica for rehab, Drea makes sure everyone knows what she can do if someone dares to demean her. Later, when her car gets broken, Eleanor offers her a lift. And even though she is initially reluctant to engage with her, she agrees to tag along. We then learn that Eleanor was defamed for being a predator to young girls after she tried to come out to a girl she liked in her school.
Bonding after learning about each other’s past and realizing they have nothing else to lose – the girls become good friends. In the meantime, school reopens, resuming the extravagant life of the Rosehill students.
On one side, Eleanor meets Gabi, who introduces her to nincompoops and elite groups of people from a distance. At the same time, Drea’s return surprises her best friend, Tara – who forgot about her after the scandalous event. Max, on the other hand, continues to be a prick to Drea as he embarrasses her in front of the whole school by publicly apologizing for the misfortune she had to go through.
Even though Drea had been putting on a lovely façade of keeping her chin up the whole time, when Max tried to break her esteem like that, she finally breaks down. To avoid people’s hollowness and terrible sympathies, Drea corners herself in the school washroom, which is her favorite spot. Eleanor follows her and tries to express that she is there for her. However, Drea just wouldn’t let anyone take undue advantage of her feelings.
When Eleanor shares her brief encounter with the girl who ruined her preteen life, Drea understands that both of them are going through somewhat similar turmoil. Because they have to endure the ordeal of all the shame, unwanted guilt, and pity of all these people who don’t value them for their truer selves, they start manifesting verbal desire to hurt them. Drea’s mastermind soon picks up a hint from her conversation with Eleanor, and both devise a cunning plan to bring the people down who caused them immense pain and cost them their happiness.
What plan do Drea and Eleanor forge to bring down their enemies?
Since nobody knows they know each other, Drea proposes Eleonor pretend to play someone very hard to please in order to earn Max’s attention. Once he is in her loop, she will automatically get introduced to the group that was once close-knit with Drea. And even though Eleanor’s inner closeted personality doesn’t allow her to be someone like that, she gives in – because, in return, she gets to take down the girl who defamed her as a kid.
Knowing that both of them share an almost Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction energy, or in their term Glenergy, the girls move on with the second & third step to their master plan – a makeover followed by trapping the first rat – Max.
Once Eleanor gets Max following her everywhere, she starts behaving the way Drea taught her to – considering the latter knows what intrigues her ex-boyfriend in a girl. When Max invites Eleanor to his annual summer party at his beach house, the girls carefully prep for the next course of action. Drea wants Eleanor to spy on Max while he is busy partying so they can collect evidence on him being the scoundrel that he is in reality.
Drea takes an interest in the gardening program that Carissa is running and soon learns that she is not just growing vegetables in the greenhouse. She tries to closely follow Carissa’s moves, in order to learn more about her. While Eleanor is assisting Drea in executing her master plan, the latter has already plotted a revenge strategy for her new friend.
While half the school is partying at Max’s house, the other group is relaxing at the beach. At this point, Drea is attracted to Carissa’s best friend, Rush, who entertains her with genuine love and feelings. Eleanor, on the other hand, finds her way to Max’s room and gets her hand on his phone. She looks it up and finds out that he has been cheating on his current girlfriend – Tara, with the internet witch. However, when she is about to take pictures of the chats he exchanged with the girl, Eleanor finds herself hiding from the possible make-out session between Max and Tara.
Tara is a considerably sweet girl by heart, and being in a relationship with her ex-best friend’s ex-lover keeps haunting her. Hence, she mentions this to Max, but he doesn’t genuinely seem to be affected by this. Noticing her new boyfriend’s coldness, she immediately rejects him and storms out of the room. Soon, Max notices that Eleanor is hiding in the room, and he asks her to join him at his favorite place in the house. During their conversation, Eleanor effortlessly gets Max to unmask himself and talk about real things he wants to do. Seeing her genuinely take notice of what he has to say, Max gets enchanted by her.
The next day, Eleanor and Drea slide into Rosehill farm to get hold of their next plan – steal shrooms from Carissa’s greenhouse and dose everyone at the dinner that the latter has been working on for months. So far, their plans have been coming along perfectly as post-dinner the students started to behave erratically. This alerts the school headmaster who also received an anonymous tip (from Drea) to detain Carissa for growing drugs on the school property.
Later that night, when the girls triumph over their evil actions to pin down people who hurt them, Drea suggests looking up everything Max has been doing. When Eleanor hacks his phone, she finds collective data that indicates that he is a big-time liar and attention seeker. This upsets Drea, but she has learned to grow a tough exterior that she doesn’t want her friend to see. Eleanor explains that being vulnerable is alright, and she can trust her and live through the experience of her emotions as they come at this moment.
Consequently, Valentine’s day is right around the corner, and the school’s editorial team has spoken to Max and printed his version of everything that happened after the leaked video. He presented himself in such a way that the entire school now believes that he is, after all, an accidental feminist.
On the other hand, while Drea’s life is busier with her new form of love connection with Rush, she is soon summoned by the headmaster for her dropped academic performance. She learns this will jeopardize her entry to Yale as they are considering revoking her scholarship.
At the same time, after a failed attempt to bury Max’s image to the ground, Tara helps plot rumors all around the school that she and Max are in an open relationship. Although it has a crazier response from the entire school, it doesn’t go well with Drea, who had imagined a better outcome to her plan. Witnessing how things drastically took turns against her plan, Drea is angrier than ever. She is fuming at how Max continues to win.
Why does Eleanor turn her back on Drea?
Eleanor can see how the rage and hunger for pulling down Max have engulfed Drea’s vision and their friendship. And even though she tries to explain it, Drea seems to only be concentrated on strategizing more evil plans. At this point, Eleanor mentions to Drea that it’s her birthday the next day; however, Drea ignores it and wants her friend to help her in getting her revenge over anything else.
Taking time off from Drea, Eleanor meets Gabi (Max’s sister) and realizes they both have a strong connection. After learning Gabi understands and sees her through, Eleanor admits her fondness for her. Later, Max & Tara throw a surprise birthday bash at Eleanor’s house that completely sweeps her off her feet. When Drea discovers this, she decides to crash the party with Rush. It makes things uncomfortable as Max and Tara wonder how these girls know one another.
Eleanor takes Drea outside, and both get into a heated argument where Drea reminds her that these people will not take two seconds to throw her out if she revolts against them. Eleanor points out how selfish Drea has been all this while and ignores her, considering they have been dealing with everything together. In a spiff of anger, she also tells Drea that there isn’t enough evidence for her to blame Max for leaking her video.
Taken aback by what she heard, Drea leaves and Eleanor realizes that Gabi overheard everything. When she tries to explain, Gabi points out that this is not her real personality and the sooner she realizes the better it will be for her. Later that night, Drea discovers someone removed the spark plug of her car again. She soon realizes that Eleanor is behind all this and has been putting up with a fake story to be her friend all this time.
To find out more, Drea meets Carissa at the rehabilitation center to get to the bottom of finding out about Eleanor. After speaking with her, she learns that only Drea teased and spread rumors about Eleanor as a kid. All this time, Eleanor had been framing her so she could take revenge against Drea for ruining her life. Eleanor also leaked Drea’s topless video, and all this time, Drea was, after the wrong person and teamed up with a girl that the film now reintroduces as a psychopath.
Do Revenge Movie Ending, Explained:
The film now shows both sides of the story. On one side, we know Drea got bamboozled. And at the same time, Eleanor declares that teenage girls are indeed psychopaths. She still thinks that Drea is the same person who would do anything to be on the top at all times. Eleanor is not guilty of leading her friend’s life to hell. Are we sympathizing with the wrong girl here after learning Eleanor’s story?
In the next moment, we see the two friends-now foes coming face to face with one another. Eleanor (or Nora) explains that she has had the upper hand the entire time because narcissists (Drea, in this case) are too focused on themselves to realize they have been played. There seems no end to the game Nora continues to play with Drea.
She wants Drea to go to the admissions party and push her friends to do the craziest thing they have ever done. Nora plans to leak all this information and pin it on Drea – finally getting her revenge. She also tells Drea that Rush knows everything and leaves.
On her way to telling the truth, Drea meets with an accident. Eleanor visits Drea and explains that this accident will help her get back to her friends, who will give her a free pass to the admission party. Later, at the hospital, Rush pushes her to give up everything and come clean to the headmaster. However, the time is not suitable to give up.
Then, the big day of the event finally arrives. Drea and Eleanor reach the party with plans of their own. While at the party, Drea starts bullying Eleanor in front of her friends. The two of them move out and discuss that they are both hurting from the bitterness. In a rage, Drea throws the secret camera that Eleanor had asked her to wear so as to record the wrong happenings at the party. However, she also confesses in front of Eleanor that she has had a change of heart and she no longer wants to be this person fighting over things that are in the past.
While the girls confront one another with their feelings, Max overhears everything. He tries to blackmail them by threatening to show all the conversations that had with each other over destroying him to everyone at the party. At this point, the film clearly establishes that young boys are plain dumb and the perfect example of narcissists who won’t absolve anything that hurts their weak male ego. Thanks, patriarchy!
Once Max is through blabbering his agendas and gone, Eleanor shows Drea that she had been recording everything he had said using her backup camera attached to her crop top. Back at the party, while everyone is having a gala time and Max is in the other room, the music stops abruptly. When Max comes out to check what stopped the music, he finds everyone looking at the recordings of his conversation earlier with the girls.
While he tries to explain himself with his continued lies, everyone immediately dismisses him. The girls win and return to their old friendship as everything comes to a full circle.
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