The Old Guy From 17 Again

"Well, of form I want to live in the past. It was better there."

17 Again is a 2009 American comedy film.

Mike O'Donnell (Zac Efron) is the Big Human being on Campus. He's the star of the high school basketball team, his girlfriend is the hottest girl in schoolhouse, and he's about to exist offered a scholarship. But his life takes a turn for the worse after he discovers his girlfriend is pregnant.

Flash Forward twenty years, and Mike (Matthew Perry)'s life hasn't improved. His wife Scarlet (Leslie Mann) has kicked him out, his kids Alex (Sterling Knight) and Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg) both detest him, he's just been fired, and he's living with his geeky but much richer best friend Ned Gold (Thomas Lennon). After going to his old school to choice up his kids, Mike is approached by a mysterious janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray) whom he tells that he'd do anything to relive the Glory Days. On his fashion home, Mike sees the same janitor nearly to jump off a bridge. Rushing to save him, he topples over the edge and lands in a whirlpool.

When he crawls out and gets back to his friend'southward place, Mike discovers he's been turned into his 17-twelvemonth-old self. Now he has a chance to sneak into the lives of his family and go some other take a chance at the life he wanted.

Non to be confused for the yr 2000 picture Seventeen Over again (2000) starring Tia and Tamera Mowry and Tahj Mowry.

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This film provides examples of the post-obit tropes:

• The '80s: Mike was 17 in 1989.
• Aesop Amnesia: The girls who are touched by the abstinence voice communication Mike gave to their class still try to entice him with sexual activity later on. Though one could say that they became even more attracted to him because of the speech.
• Age-Down Romance: Mike is aged downwardly twenty years from 37 to 17. When he starts attending high school again in the nowadays day he'south a Chick Magnet (due to being played past Zac Efron). He has to deal with an Unwanted Harem of teenage girls including his own daughter, who are attracted to him and don't know his real age. This trope is one-sided: he is not interested in any of these girls, instead trying to win over his wife, who now thinks he'southward a high schoolhouse student who weirdly resembles her husband and Likes Older Women.
• All Guys Want Cheerleaders:
  • Averted with Scarlet and Maggie. Neither are cheerleaders despite the fact that they date the captains of the basketball team in their respective decades. The actual cheerleaders appear to exist Mike'south pals and/or background dancers.
  • Only and so of grade in that location's Alex who does have a major crush on the caput cheerleader Nicole, and really gets her.
• Almighty Janitor: With a title like 17 Again, it was inevitable.
• Aw, Expect! They Actually Practice Love Each Other: Mike finally proving to Scarlet who he is and that everything he has done was to help his family.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Mike O'Donnell wishes that he could go back in time to modify his life. Courtesy of a whirlpool, he does, by turning into his 17-yr-sometime self, which is not what he had in mind.
• Be Yourself: Ned's pursuit of the principal is ineffectual as long as he's playing upwardly his Man of Wealth and Taste persona; it'due south simply after he reveals himself to be a Lovable Nerd that they connect, equally she'south a cupboard nerd equally well.
• Bittersweet 17: A done-upward divorcee is returned to his 17-yr-old body in order to affect change in his life when it was virtually important.
• Bookends: Mike is playing basketball game, Ruddy walks into the room, he resumes playing basketball, she starts to leave, he abandons the ball and chases after her. The parallel plays out upwardly until the dramatic twirl, when he strains his back and has to put her downwards.
• Bratty Teenage Girl: Mike is not well respected at all by his girl Maggie, who speaks to him with impudence.
• Brainless Beauty: Most of the girls who chase after Mike.
• Swell Magnet: Alex is bullied by Stan even at his own home.
• Cannot Talk to Women: Alex is incredibly awkward with girls and can't hold a chat with his trounce Nicole without saying something weird, like complimenting her hair by comparison her to his dogs.
• Chick Magnet: 17-yr-old Mike manages to concenter the (unwanted) attention of multiple high school girls, including his ain daughter, in the present day. See Unwanted Harem beneath.
• Closet Geek: The master, Jane Masterson, who Ned Gilded spends the movie trying to win over, is a big fan of the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars franchises, and corrects Ned regarding Gandalf the Grey, from the old, being Gandalf the White in Two Towers.
• Cultural Translation: In the trailer, Michael says to his friend, "You look similar Clay Aiken!". In the Russian version of the trailer, his line was replaced with "Yous await similar Elton John!". Apparently, this is done because most Russian viewers don't watch American Idol and have admittedly no thought who the hell Clay Aiken is, while Elton John is quite famous. But the problem is that this guy does resemble Dirt and in fact doesn't await like Elton.

• Earthworks Yourself Deeper: Happens quite often with Mike.

  Mike: [absent-minded-mindedly] You're an excellent dancer.
  Scarlet: Excuse me?
  Mike: [backtracking] Uh... I mean... yous look similar you can actually motility. [barely refrains from facepalming]

• Distracted by the Sexy: Scarlet's start run-in with 17-year-one-time Mike. She's then dumbstruck over how much he looks like a younger version of her husband that she ignores her friend'southward advice to cease interim like a fool. She eventually has to be physically stopped from going over to smell him. Information technology helps that she'south as well quite drunk, having just returned from a "happy hour" with her friend.
• Flexibility Equals Sex Power: Lauren, 1 of Maggie's friends, flirts with Mike by bragging she's so flexible she got kicked off the cheerleading squad.
• Fountain of Youth: Mike falls into the river, and comes out of it in his 17-year-old trunk.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: "Margaret Sarah O'Donnell!"
• Geeky Turn-On: Afterwards trying lavish schemes to win over the heart of Principal Jane, Ned finally captures her heart when he speaks Elvish to her... and she replies in the same way.
• Genre Savvy: Ned is particularly well-versed on what kind of fiction tropes would've triggered Mike's transformation, as shown when he tries to figure out:

  Ned: Are you now, or have you always been, a Norse god, vampire, or time-traveling cyborg?
  Mike: You lot've known me since, what, first grade? Peradventure I would have told you.
  Ned: Vampire wouldn't tell... cyborg wouldn't know.

• Gilligan Cutting: When Mike convinces Ned to pose as his dad and enroll him in high school. Used in both the motion-picture show and the trailer.
• Girl Posse: Maggie has a trio of friends who hang effectually her composed of Jamie, Samantha and Lauren.

• Jerk Jock: Maggie O'Donnell is going out with Stan, captain of the basketball team, bully, and petty douche.
• Kissing Cousins: Technically, Maggie attempts to invoke this relationship with "Mark Gilt", supposedly the son of her uncle Ned. Although "Mark" and Maggie wouldn't really exist related as Ned and Mike are merely friends, not siblings. The kids just call him Uncle Ned.
• Likes Older Women: Due to his attraction to Cerise, this is how 17-year old Mike's tastes would announced to anybody else.
• Manchild: Ned is an excellent instance. Withal property on his geeky interests, spends all day playing video games, refused to get out unless Mike absolutely needs him to, eats entirely junk food, has piffling social skills, and doesn't have any other companion aside from Mike. The just reason he doesn't accept his parents looking over him was because he is rich, which may or may not be inherited money or existence a Self-Made Man. Justified as he was bullied in high school.
• Mirror Reveal: Mike drives home later on falling into a river, looks into the mirror while showering the mud off of his clothes, and sees his transformed teenage cocky in the mirror, causing him to freak out.
• Mistaken for Gay: Maggie concludes that (17-year-old) Mike is gay later on he is obviously squicked by her advances.

• Nerds Speak Klingon: The wealthy but nerdy Ned tries several lavish schemes to win over the heart of the principal, but all fail. He finally captures her heart when he speaks Elvish to her... and she replies in the same way.
• Overprotective Dad: Mike stands up for his girl on multiple occasions. Hell, one of his attempts to protect his girl ends up on YouTube.
• Papa Wolf: Don't make fun of Mike's son, Alex while the latter is watching.
• Parental Incest: Mike's girl falls for him briefly, admitting without knowing that he's her dad. Thankfully it goes no further than that.
• Parents every bit People: Both of the O'Donnell parents are shown as flawed and sympathetic. Justified by the fact Mike and Cherry were both teenage parents, and unprepared to deal with raising kids. Mike needing to become over this is the whole betoken of the movie.
• "The Reason You Suck" Spoken communication: Mike gives one to Stan the first time they talk, utterly annihilating him in front of the unabridged lunchroom. Information technology begins with a Stealth Insult, followed by three cited Freudian Excuses for Stan's Jerk Jock personality.
• Sexy Soaked Shirt: When Mike returns home and looks in the mirror, he sees his seventeen-year-old self completely soaking wet... and wearing a complete arrange.
• Shout-Out:
  • Mike claims to be the illegitimate son of his all-time friend, Ned - or, every bit they repeatedly refer to him, "a bastard". Guess what touchstone of nerd culture also centers around Ned'southward bastard?
  • When Ned and "Mark" walk into court in the trial of Mike and Scarlet'southward divorce:
  • When Ned mistakes the newly transformed Mike for a thief.
  • When Mike wakes upwards after taking a punch from Stan in his girl's bed, he recounts the events then far as a horrible nightmare he had, simply to realize information technology wasn't a dream and his girl is hit on him.
  • Mike is tricked into the magical whirlpool that turns his age dorsum when he sees his "spirit guide" evidently committing suicide off the bridge.
• Single Woman Seeks Skillful Human: Maggie gets the hots for 17-year-old Mike, whom she doesn't realize is her father, considering he comforts her when Stan breaks up with her because she didn't want to have sex.
• Stacy'southward Mom: Mark, actually Mike in a 17-year-old body, isn't actually a teen attracted to an older woman, just that'south what Mike claims when his son, Alex, catches him talking about her.
• Ready Right What In one case Went Wrong: Subverted. Mike/Marker thinks this is what he is supposed to practice, regarding making his own life meliorate by getting the scholarship; merely then he realizes that he could be improving his children's lives instead. Eventually, he makes the same conclusion which he did 20 years before, and reunites with Scarlet.

• The Talk: Mike gives an abstinence talk in health form. Ironically, it would accept been even more effective if he was an adult, every bit he is a poster male child for what happens to your life considering of teen pregnancy.
• That Was Non a Dream: In a Shout-Out to Back to the Futurity, Mike deliriously tells his daughter that he dreamed he was 17 again.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: Literally. Teen!Mike makes himself a huge sandwich, then leaves after just one bite.
• Time Marches On: Compare the 1989 cheerleaders with the afterward ones. Also, guys fighting in schoolhouse would take been mutual plenty dorsum in 1989, merely everyone recording the fight on their paw-held devices and uploading it to YouTube present is kind of a new characteristic.
• Time-Shifted Histrion: Mike, Ned and Cherry have different actors for their teenagers and adult versions, although Ned and Scarlet teen versions are just seen in the opening.
  • Teen Mike is played past Zac Efron, while his adult version is played by Matthew Perry
  • Teen Ned is played by Tyler Steelman, while his adult version is played by Thomas Lennon
  • Teen Scarlet is played past Allison Miller, while her adult version is played by Leslie Isle of mann
• Trust Password: Subverted. Mike gives several to Ned when trying to prove his identity, and Ned gives reasons why each ane could've been faked. It takes looking at a picture of them both during their high school days to convince him.
• Unwanted Harem: Several school girls and eventually, his girl and his somewhat dislocated wife, fall for Mark, really Mike.
• Wild Teen Party: Marker hosts a massive political party at Ned's house later the basketball game.
• Writers Cannot Practise Math: The present seems to accept place in 2009, which would exist 20 years after Scarlet's pregnancy, which would make Maggie xix years old—yet she's still in high schoolhouse; hence, no actual "now" date is given subsequently the Time Skip. Likewise, though Vanilla Ice wasn't entirely unheard of in 1989, it wasn't actually until the next year that he hit information technology big and would have been known well enough for Mike's bus to call him "Vanilla Ice" while telling him to knock off his antics with the cheerleaders.
  • A theory for this is included in the WMG page; Scarlet may accept miscarried their get-go child, which reinforces the reasons their marriage is nonetheless in trouble as they tried to innovate children to fix an already strained human relationship.
  • Or... non. The movie was released in 2009, but Scarlet specifically mentions Mike's been complaining about their situation for 18 years, then more probable the story'due south "present" is actually ready at one-time during the 2007-2008 school year.
• You're Not My Father: Maggie says to Marker that he's non her father later on Mark forbids Maggie from moving in with Stan. She has no idea that he actually is her father.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/SeventeenAgain

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