A Pitch For ‘She’s All That 2'

I love She’s All That. I think it’s one of the most important movies ever made and also the best teen romance movie. A lot of people will stan for 10 Things I Hate About You, but they’re wrong.

I watched She’s All That the other day and started thinking about what a sequel would look like, keeping the same tone of the first movie of course. Where would our lovely characters be 20 years later?

THE PLOT

It’s been 20 years since graduation, and everyone is coming back for the first time for a reunion. Nobody went to the 10 year reunion because they forgot to schedule one. As they all gather for one weekend in their old city, old crushes come back, new relationships form, and a secret comes out.

CHARACTERS

Zack Siler: Zack is one of the few people who stayed in the town after graduation. He never went to art school with Laney because he was gonna “take a semester off.” When he comes back for the reunion, he sees Laney for the first time in 20 years. He’s embarrassed that he sells insurance now and still lives in his glory years because he was too afraid to take the leap.

Laney Boggs: Laney works for Buzzfeed now as a graphic designer and lives the typical “everything moves so fast in New York I don’t have time for a man or to breathe” life. She comes home at the very last minute and sees that she’s outgrown Zack, but something inside of her still loves him.

Dean Sampson, Jr.: Died a few years ago from not being able to hear a train coming. All respect goes to Paul Walker, whose presence in everything is missed.

Taylor Vaughan: Sells Avon now in a small town in North Dakota. Her life never panned out after high school and her dad lost everything in the 2008 financial crash, so she was forced to marry a real estate agent who relocated her to North Dakota. When she comes back, she has her eye on Zack Siler.

Brock Hudson: Still living large from his MTV days. He’s become a beloved internet meme and still shows up on Real World/Road Rules Challenge and occasionally hosts the TRL revival. He comes back to the reunion because he now has a live streaming reality show and wants to film his reunion with Taylor Vaughan.

Preston: Preston is one of the most famous writers in the country. He is well respected, revered, and acclaimed. He writes about economics and social issues and occasionally dabbles in screenplays. I’m Team Preston through and through.

HOW DOES THE MOVIE PLAY OUT?

So they all gather for a weekend reunion, Zack sees Laney and they talk about everything that went wrong. They realize that they were nothing but a high school crush, and those things never work out. Laney realizes Zack is still stuck in the 90s, and hasn’t come to terms with not being “the man.” But she still falls for him all over again because he reminds her of a simpler time when her life wasn’t about deadlines. But at the end, after they dance to “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None The Richer, she tells him she has to go back to her life and that she hopes he has a good one. They kiss one more time before she leaves.

Taylor spends the movie trying to impress Zack, but then she sees Brock and realizes there’s more money to be made there. Brock sees Taylor and realizes there’s money to be made off of her for his live streamed reality show. Naturally they fall for each other before blowing up and Brock hamming it up for the camera, forcing tears. Another big payday for him, back to the Dakota’s for Taylor.

Towards the end of the movie, before she gets in her Lyft, Zack tells Laney about another bet he made about her back in high school. It was a bet he made with himself. He told her he bet himself they would end up together forever, getting married. But he was too scared to follow her to art school. He chose the easy life because he’s never faced hardship. But…the bet was still on if she allowed it.

Laney thanks Zack for helping her realize who she is, but she had outgrown him and everyone else. She was done being the girl helping advance everyone else’s life, she has to be selfish for herself.

At the end, Laney creates a beautiful masterpiece, a collage of everything that made her who she was, and it forms a face, Zack’s face. Zack goes back to selling insurance, but he’s happy now because he’s no longer wondering, “what if,” he knew they would never work out because it wasn’t ever part of his DNA to become an artist traveling the world.

Preston gets inspired after observing everyone throughout the weekend and writes a screenplay. He sells it in the end but he still hasn’t come up with a title. He thinks for a moment and then has it, he writes on the screenplay, “She’s All That.”