Movies - Midnight Madness

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	Movies - Midnight Madness

Midnight Madness is a 1980 cult comedy film from Walt Disney Pictures, starring David Naughton. The film is about a group of college students who participate in an all night puzzle solving race. This is Michael J. Fox's first film role.

Tagline: The most fun you'll ever have... in the dark.

DVD Tagline: A Wacky College Adventure

The film did poorly at the box office and was panned by critics, but later gained a cult following, and has served as the inspiration for many real-life puzzle and alternate reality games.

The game

Leon, a genius, summons five college students to his apartment and challenges them to participate in his latest game creation: The Great All-Nighter. He tells them about his game and instructs them to form teams. At first, the leaders refuse to play, however, rivalries between them lead all five to change their minds by the game's start time.

The game works like this:

# Teams are given an initial clue to solve. # When the clue is solved, it will lead to a location. # At that location they must find and solve another clue leading to another location and eventually the end.

Leon, as "game master," keeps track of the teams locations with a giant map, and various radio equipment. The teams also supposed to call and check in at each clue (though many of the teams end up skipping at least one location).

Starting at sundown, the five teams meet and are given envelopes with the first clue. They travel around Los Angeles, deciphering new clues in various locations, including the Griffith Observatory, a piano museum, the Pabst Blue Ribbon brewery, a restaurant, a mini golf course, the Los Angeles International Airport, and a video arcade. The first team to reach the final destination wins the game.

The movie focuses mainly on the struggle between the yellow and blue teams. The adventures of the other three teams are subplots, as well as the situation at Leon's apartment ("Game Control"). Here, along with his female assistants (Candy and Sunshine), Leon monitors the progress of the game. Already unpopular with his landlady, Mrs. Grimhouse, for the amount of noise he makes, Leon faces eviction if any of the other tenants complain. Several of them do show up to complain, but as Leon explains the mechanics of the game to them, they become fascinated with it and help run it, much to the annoyance of Grimhouse.

The game culminates in race-to-the-finish at the Bonaventure Hotel, followed by a huge party.

Teams

Teams are made up of characters who are broad stereotypes. They wear matching sweatshirts, and ride in vehicles that also match their team color.

The Green Team, also known as "Meat Machine," are made up of jocks. During a clue hunt at the Pabst Brewery, one member falls into a beer vat and apparently drinks his way out. The team vehicle is a VW Beetle.
The White Team is made up of debate team nerds, lead by Wesley (the only named member). Wesley is played by Eddie Deezen
, who was typecast in nerd roles. The White Team ride matching mopeds.
The Red Team is made up of the members of an unpopular sorority. Two of the members are a set of overweight twins (many of the jokes involving the red team come at their expense) and the other two are feminists. The Red Team twins abandon the game when their truck stops at a carnival. The other team members follow a trail of empty food stalls, and find them spinning the scale at a "Guess Your Weight" booth. The Red team's vehicle is a pickup truck.
The Yellow Team are the main focus of the film. Led by Adam (Naughton), The yellow team picks up an additional member, Adam's troublesome younger troubled brother Scott (Fox), partway through the game. Adam learns that his brother is only acting out to get his attention. They also force the shy Flynch, whom Adam has been counseling, to play the game rather than allow him to go on a date with an ugly girl. The team vehicle is a Jeep.
The Blue Team are all selfish, rude, unattractive, and cheat at every opportunity. They are led by junk food addicted, overweight, snob Harold (played by character actor Stephen Furst
), who is intensely jealous of the popular Adam. Also, Melio (played by future Hollywood director Andy Tennant
) purposely instigates fights between Harold and his girlfriend. "Blade," a Mexican-American who is constantly brandishing his switchblade knife, never speaks. The team vehicle is a van equipped with a computer that can solve clues, however this device is destroyed early on.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Midnight Madness ]

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