Movie Movie Podcast

Boom. Two weeks in a row of remembering to do this in a timely manner. I texted Tigs some titles, but haven’t heard back so I’m going back a couple of weeks to when he gave me this one.

Midnight Crew

We open on a group of 4 teens hanging out on a dark cliff. They laugh together and cheer their drinks. They all look at their matching watches and start to countdown from 10. When they hit zero, they turn and run off shouting “Midnight Crew.” They hit the water below, pop up and yell triumphantly.

An alarm rings and Carter wakes up slowly. He stumbles to the bathroom getting ready for work without a hint of joy on his face. He smiles politely at the women at the front desk and jokes casually. He gets a little shit from his boss and sits at his desk to start his boring looking job in some city. The phone rings, it’s his mother. She tells him TJ died.

We flashback to the 4 teens that we learn are Carter, TJ, Kaylie, and Clyde. TJ and Kaylie seem to have some sort of sexual relationship, pretty casual. Though we can tell Carter has a thing for her. TJ and Kaylie drive off together and Clyde calls him out on his feelings about her. He shrugs it off when we hear a loud crash in the distance. They race off in the direction of the noise and find TJ had crashed his car. Both him and Kaylie are out cold.

His mother picks up Carter at the airport back in the present. She tries to tell him all sorts of goings on about his hometown but he seems uninterested. She questions why he didn’t come into town with Clyde since they live and the same city and he shrugs it off. They drive past the hospital and we flashback again.

Carter and Clyde sit in a hospital hallway both looking panicked. They are let in to see Kaylie first who is banged up, but are told TJ is still in surgery. His leg got mangled in the accident, which hits hard as we learn he was headed to college on an athletic scholarship. Kaylie seems really worried about him but Carter looks more worried about her.

Back in the present, Carter is arriving at the funeral with his family. He runs into Clyde and they both seem a bit awkward to each other, though Cylde warmly greets Carter’s family. Clyde calls Carter out for looking around for Kaylie.

Flashback again to the friends getting ready to head off to college. Carter talks a big game about moving past this town. Kaylie pushes TJ in his temporary wheelchair. There is clear tension between the four. TJ ends up getting mad at Kaylie for babying him. He’ll be sticking around and working at his father’s garage. Some fatalistic talk about how he’d end up there anyway.

Kaylie enters the funeral and heads over to Carter and Cylde. There is a bit of tension and we learn she is teaching at the elementary school they all went to. Carter notices that both Kaylie and Cylde are wearing their matching watches and hides his wrist. Kaylie places TJ’s in the coffin with him.

We cut to a dorm room and Kaylie and Carter are in bed together having had sex the night before. She seems upset as Carter talks more about moving on and different things. She yells at him about how they had an amazing childhood and that he’s running away from nothing. He says something rude about TJ and how he’s now addicted to pain pills. They fight over the accident as Carter blames TJ way more that she does. She storms out saying this was a mistake. Carter checks his answering machine and has a message from Clyde. We hear how it’s definitely not the first message he’s left without a response.

In the present the fight continues between the three of them after Carter says something about how she is stuck here. He gets shut down by the both of them and asked if he can really say he loves his life. Clyde tells him about how often he visits and probably see’s Carter’s family more than he does.

In the past Carter is visiting Clyde and TJ. A fight breaks out between Carter and TJ over Kaylie. TJ falls injured and Clyde tells Carter to leave. Carter says some hurtful things about them both. Outside Clyde tells him off saying he isn’t helping at all and that Kaylie is actually in town but didn’t want to be around him. That even though TJ has his issues he does accept them and their help, while Carter shuts them out.

Carter is in his childhood bedroom in the present. He finds his watch in a drawer but it is no longer ticking. His mother stands at his door while he stares at the watch. She gives him this big speech to make people cry

“Time doesn’t stop you know. It never does. Midnight hits and we think the clock restarts and we leave that time but it’s still there. No matter how far we you’re your family and your friends always wanted you to be whatever you wanted. You always seemed disappointed that the rest of us didn’t become what you wanted. Can you honestly tell me that you’re happy with who you became. I know for sure your friends are happy with who they are. Your watch stopped but theirs didn’t and midnight always comes.” This doesn’t make a ton of sense but you get the point.

He drives off that night and we see he’s heading to the cliff. In the distance we see the light of a car already there. He finds Clyde and Kaylie having a drink at their old hangout. He apologizes to them for blaming them for him not living up to his own dreams. He holds up his watch saying it is no longer in sync with theirs so he’s not sure if its actually midnight or not, but he wants to learn again.

He runs to the cliff and jumps off. He pops up, its pitch black and we can’t see a whole lot. We only hear his breathing as he starts to swim to shore. We then hear two splashes in quick succession and zooming in on his face we see him smile.