The Graduate: Encyclopedia II - The Graduate - Synopsis

The Graduate - Synopsis

The film explores the life of Benjamin Braddock shortly after earning his bachelor's degree from an unnamed university, presumably Williams College. The movie starts at a party celebrating his graduation at his parents' house in suburban Los Angeles. Benjamin is visibly uncomfortable at the party attended by mostly his parents' friends. One family friend, Mrs. Robinson, asks Benjamin to drive her home, which he reluctantly does.

Arriving at her home, she asks him to come inside. Once inside, she exposes herself to him and offers to have an affair with him. Initially flustered, he flees. A few days later he calls her and their affair begins.

Benjamin is clearly uncomfortable with sexuality, but he is drawn into the affair with the older, but still attractive, Mrs. Robinson. Their affair appears to last most of the summer.

Meanwhile Benjamin is hounded by his father to select a graduate school to attend. Benjamin, clearly not interested in pursuing his studies, shrugs off his father's wishes and spends his time lounging and with Mrs. Robinson. His affair may serve as an escape from his lack of direction or ambition.

Mr. Robinson, unaware of his wife's budding affair, encourages Benjamin to call his daughter, Elaine. Benjamin's parents also repeatedly encourage him to date her. During one liaison, Mrs. Robinson extracts a promise from Ben to never date Elaine. Sensing that getting involved with the daughter of his lover could be disastrous, he tries to avoid it. However, because of the three parents' persistent intervention, he is essentially forced to date her. Therefore, he tries to ensure his date with her will be a disaster so she would not want to pursue a relationship with him. He takes Elaine to a strip club where she is openly offended and silently begins to cry.

After she storms out of the establishment, he is overcome with guilt and pursues her and apologizes. What follows is a relationship with the young Robinson, exactly what Benjamin (and Mrs. Robinson) was trying to avoid.

From here, Benjamin's life falls apart. His affair is discovered and, although he follows Elaine to the University of California, Berkeley, where she is a student, he is barred from seeing Elaine any further. She proceeds to become engaged to another man—one her parents find acceptable.

In the famous conclusion of the film, Benjamin undertakes a desperate drive to somehow head off Elaine's wedding. He is forced to stop for directions, his car runs out of gas, and he is ultimately forced to run the final few blocks. He arrives just as the bride and groom are exchanging vows, and stands looking down at the couple from an upper window. He begins rapping on the glass and screams "Elaine! Elaine!", but they do not garner much response at first, but when Elaine gives the return cry "Ben!" mayhem ensues.

After a violent struggle with Elaine's parents (Ben armed only with a large cross), Ben and Elaine escape on a public bus. The escaping couple sits smiling at the back of the bus, the other passengers stare at them in mute disbelief, and the movie closes with a shot through the back window of Ben and Elaine's smiles fading to an enigmatic neutral expression, and Simon and Garfunkel's soundtrack. This scene has been parodied numerous times, in Wayne's World 2, The King of Queens, Family Guy, Daria, and The Simpsons.

The film is consistently in the Internet Movie Database's top 250 films, ranked #9 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Years, 100 Laughs, #7 on their list of 100 Years, 100 Movies, and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Synopsis", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki