# Guess the movie from the plot outline
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 11, 2003, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862 "2003-01-11T00:30:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/1 "2003-01-11T00:30:35Z")
OK, we’ve had: guess the movie from…
- Opening line
- Closing line
- Line in the middle
- Scene description
How about guessing the movie from the plot outline? Kind of like condensing the entire movie into one sentence.
For example:
“White guy and a black guy wrongly jailed for bank robbery, escape using an elaborate plan involving a rodeo, only to be proven innocent.”
Answer: Stir Crazy.
I start with:
S1: “Cop flies to Los Angeles, spends a lot of time barefoot, wishes a German guy Happy Trails.”
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/2 "2003-01-11T00:35:48Z")
Die Hard
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### Author:  [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/3 "2003-01-11T00:55:12Z")
“Three guys start small business, advertise on TV, hire some help.”
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### Author:  [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/4 "2003-01-11T01:25:05Z")
Oooh! Oooh! I got one…
Boy meets girl, boy gets girl briefly, boy loses girl because boy is “deep” and “complicated”, boy overcomes some type of personal obstacle and/or saves day, boy gets girl back, and all live happily ever after!
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### Author:  [@RadioWave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadioWave)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/5 "2003-01-11T01:27:18Z")
SmackFu: **GhostBusters!**
Felon instigates mass treasure hunt.
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### Author:  [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/6 "2003-01-11T01:27:27Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by SmackFu \*
> \*\*“Three guys start small business, advertise on TV, hire some help.” \*\*
Ghostbusters
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### Author:  [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/7 "2003-01-11T01:28:56Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by RadioWave \*
> \*\*
> Felon instigates mass treasure hunt. \*\*
It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
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### Author:  [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/8 "2003-01-11T01:37:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by RadioWave \*
> \*\*SmackFu: **GhostBusters!**
>
> Felon instigates mass treasure hunt. \*\*
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World. Im not sure of the amount of mads.
A kid dreams of being brilliant, befriends a tycoon, dances at opening night of a play.
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### Author:  [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/9 "2003-01-11T01:58:25Z")
A man tries to encourage his parents to have sex by a plan to stage his own attempted rape of his mother.
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### Author:  [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/10 "2003-01-11T02:39:37Z")
We did this already a while back. Anyway I’ll post the same clue I did back then:
A man dresses as a clown and amuses his lover’s husband.
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### Author:  [@Jadis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jadis)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/11 "2003-01-11T02:40:56Z")
> [@](#):
>
> _Originally posted by KidCharlamagne_
> A kid dreams of being brilliant, befriends a tycoon, dances at opening night of a play.
Billy Elliot
Mine:
A high school boy with mental problems narrowly escapes death while sleepwalking and talking to a giant psycho bunny, and later discovers time travel.
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### Author:  [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/12 "2003-01-11T02:47:26Z")
With the help of a gourmet cook, a woman looks for a clothing manufacturer.
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### Author:  [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/13 "2003-01-11T02:58:38Z")
A woman commits suicide following an unwanted pregnancy.
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### Author:  [@robertliguori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robertliguori)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/14 "2003-01-11T03:08:18Z")
Impending natural disaster demolishes expensive-looking sets, is averted just in time.
Heh heh heh…
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### Author:  [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/15 "2003-01-11T03:27:04Z")
_giant psycho bunny_
Donnie Darko
An elderly aristocrat becomes obsessed with the fiancee of the real estate agent negotiating his house purchase.
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### Author:  [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/16 "2003-01-11T03:29:48Z")
**robert** : Dante’s Peak?
S2: “Cop is assigned to protect a witness, witness gets shot, cop tracks down bad guys, fireball at gas station, cop solves case.”
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### Author:  [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/17 "2003-01-11T12:16:25Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Jadis \*
> \*\*Billy Elliot
>
> \*\*
NOPE. Guess again.
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### Author:  [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/18 "2003-01-11T13:27:20Z")
1. Two soda jerks plan to write a radio script, and wind up nabbing a man who murdered the radio network chief.
2. A middle-aged real-estate man resolves to get the Washington Senators to win the pennant even if he has to sell his soul to the Devil to do it.
3. A band of ridiculous musicians, working at a fire station, hires a goofy inventor whose product actually works.
4. Three disreputable theatrical people, aided by a playwright, hoodwink a hotel executive so they can put their play on.
5. An unsuspecting family buys a house without knowledge of the bizarre entities that lurk in it. (extra hint: a William Castle movie.)
6. One stubborn juror in a murder case carefully endeavors to persuade his colleagues to switch over to his position.
7. Prisoners of war locate a traitor among them by tripping him up in his knowledge–or rather lack of it–about time-zone differences.
8. A young London landowner makes a bet with a “gentleman” who is really a high-toned con artist. The young man travels with a domineering butler, a bumbling cook, and a usually-clueless chauffeur in order to win–and finds romance on the way.
9. A hard-boiled police sergeant and his partner get the goods on a local syndicate member who had a subordinate, who wasn’t reporting his collections, killed with a shotgun.
10. A peanut vendor working for a baseball team that almost never wins games, secretly manages the team to success with his little boy as the ostensible “manager.”
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### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/19 "2003-01-11T13:28:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by KidCharlemagne \*
> \*\*A kid dreams of being brilliant, befriends a tycoon, dances at opening night of a play. \*\*
_Rushmore_ – ?
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### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-movie-from-the-plot-outline/147862/20 "2003-01-11T13:31:53Z")
**dougie\_monty** ’s posts (some of them).
1. One stubborn juror in a murder case carefully endeavors to persuade his colleagues to switch over to his position.
_Twelve Angry Men_
2. Prisoners of war locate a traitor among them by tripping him up in his knowledge–or rather lack of it–about time-zone differences.
_Stalag 17_
3. A young London landowner makes a bet with a “gentleman” who is really a high-toned con artist. The young man travels with a domineering butler, a bumbling cook, and a usually-clueless chauffeur in order to win–and finds romance on the way.
_Around the World in Eighty Days_ – ?
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