By Steven Hartman · June 17, 2024
Graduation is a rite of passage, and these graduation movies show that the end of one era is the beginning of a new and uncertain adventure.
In the following films, the story follows the lives of characters nearing or just past their graduation from high school or college, capturing the chaos, anxiety, and fun they face as they come of age. From Academy Award-nominated scripts to outrageous comedies, these films are snapshots of those on the edge of adulthood.
Check out these 11 screenplays that highlight all of the feelings around graduation day.
Screenplay by: Buck Henry
Dustin Hoffman, in the film that made him a star, plays a recent college graduate who doesn’t quite know what to make of his life. Ben (Hoffman) suddenly finds himself being seduced by Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), which leads to the two having an affair. Things get increasingly complicated when Mr. Robinson insists that Ben court his daughter (Katharine Ross).
Caught between a jealous Mrs. Robinson and her daughter, the girl he’s falling for, Ben must figure out how to navigate life’s complexities and try to get the ending he wants.
Download the script!Read More: Quarter Life Crisis: Movies To Help You Navigate Your 20s
Screenplay by: Larry McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich
What’s it like growing up in a dying town? As a group of high schoolers gets closer to graduation, they must contend with their futures as they see their community slowly dwindling through economic hardship. Watching people leave for better opportunities in bigger cities, this group must decide whether to stay and take care of their inherited pool hall and second-run movie theater or see what kind of life lies beyond the border of their small town.
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Screenplay by: Cameron Crowe
Lloyd (John Cusack) doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life, but he’s a nice guy with a good heart. Diane (Ione Skye) is the beautiful valedictorian of the school that he falls for. After graduating high school, Lloyd gets the courage to ask her out, and they begin a summer romance as both try to figure out the next steps of their lives.
The complications of their differing lives and the grown-up decisions they have to make show the origins of Cameron Crowe’s prolific writing career and his directorial debut.
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Screenplay by: Richard Linklater
On the last day of school, a group of high school seniors haze the incoming class of freshmen and spend their day getting stoned and drunk as they dodge authority figures. The film, which features a murderer’s row of future stars, really follows a young soon-to-be freshman who becomes the target of the worst hazing because his sister asks the upperclassmen to go easy on him.
Just like many of the films about high school, it’s a coming-of-age tale where young kids realize life isn’t always as easy as they thought it would be.
Download the script!Read More: Walk the Talk: Movies Defined by Great Dialogue
Screenplay by: Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler
Some concepts don’t make any sense, but for some reason, they just work. That’s Billy Madison.
The title character, played by Adam Sandler in his first starring role, is a rich lovable loser who spends his days drinking with his buds by the pool and his nights wasting away with childish pranks. He’s a spoiled man-child who learns that his father’s hotel empire won’t be inherited by him.
Determined to prove that he’s smart enough to take over the hotel business, Billy embarks on a challenge of completing every grade from kindergarten to senior year with the promise of the company should he complete the task.
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Screenplay by: Adam Herz
Four boys, getting close to concluding their time in high school, make a pact to lose their virginity before graduation. Each one has a plan as well as a potential girl he wishes to pursue.
The main character in this raunchy ’90s comedy is Jim (Jason Biggs), who struggles with understanding sex and how best to court the opposite sex. Whether it’s awkward conversations with his father (Eugene Levy), mutilating a pie to understand… well, never mind, or getting bad advice from clueless friends, this coming-of-age tale was the start of several sequels and spin-offs.
Download the script!Read More: Sequelitis: The Curse of Cinema (And the Best and Worst Sequels Ever Made)
Screenplay by: Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith
Another high school movie involving love and end of high school is 10 Things I Hate About You. The film turns the dating concept on its head when the strict father of two teenage girls makes a promise that Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) can date when her antisocial sister Kat (Julia Stiles) has a boyfriend.
The romantic-comedy becomes a conflict-riddled journey of hiding secrets, lies, and falling in love, all leading up to prom and graduation day. Read the script and see how they adapted Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew into a major motion picture–it’s also an inspiration for taking public domain content and adapting it into your own material.
Download the script!Read More: The Top 10 Shakespeare Films
Screenplay by: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
Two best friends who seem to spend nearly every waking moment together lie about their ability to score booze for a party in order to impress some girls. These two boys go on an adventure across the San Fernando Valley that will test their friendship, their desire to be with the girls they want, and get them into unexpected danger. Being a high school movie, the main objective is to lose their virginity before graduation with the two girls they’ve been fawning over and promised liquor to.
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Screenplay by: Daniel Gerson, Robert L. Baird, and Dan Scanlon
Two students enter Monsters University: one is a wide-eyed, eager-to-please monster who dreams of bringing in the scares, the other is a furry monster who plans to ride his family’s coattails to graduation. Because this is a prequel to the classic Pixar film Monsters, Inc., the audience knows these two very different monsters will become friends, but the prequel follows them as they take part in college and fraternity life designed to train future scarers and weed out those whose talents are better suited for different positions in life.
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Screenplay by: Greta Gerwig
Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) has had enough of living with her overprotective martyr of a mother and can’t wait to graduate and move as far away as possible for college. Both being strong-willed, there always seems to be conflict, leading Ladybird to want to move to New York for school ASAP. But as she comes of age in her senior year at a Catholic school, Lady Bird must navigate all the feelings that come with that final year, including falling in love, finding oneself, and preparing for an uncertain future.
Download the script!Read More: The Oddly Relatable Characters in Greta Gerwig Movies
Screenplay by: Katie Silberman, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, and Susanna Fogel
Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) spent their high school days studying and working hard to accomplish their academic goals. When they realize that the seemingly less smart kids have gotten into the same great schools, they begin to question their choices.
Now, on the eve of their high school graduation, the two girls decide to finally put work aside and play hard. This movie has all the hallmarks of a high school buddy comedy, including parties, love, and making bad choices while you’re young.
Download the script!—
Writing movies that take place in high school and college is a great way to approach topics in relatable ways. Most people recognize the anxiety, uncertainties, joy, and nostalgia that come with impending graduation day, so characters in these situations can help the audience engage better with your story.
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