Year: 2014
Runtime: 105 mins
Language: French
Seventeen-year-old Ricardo navigates a summer filled with teenage ambitions: losing his virginity, gaining access to bars, and acquiring a car, all while spending time with his friends. Driven to quickly earn money, he decides to leverage his Italian inheritance and resorts to criminal activity as a shortcut. However, his plans quickly spiral out of control, leading to unforeseen consequences.
Warning: spoilers below!
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Last updated: March 04, 2026 at 15:03
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After Ricardo and his friends fail to get into a bar following graduation, he sees an opportunity to create his own venue for underage teens. He views it as a path to independence, quick money, and notoriety among his peers. The plan pulls him deeper into adult nightlife and its consequences.
Earlier scenes show Ricardo constantly trying to access the bar, establishing his obsession with crossing into adult spaces.
After Ricardo is fired from the bar for accidentally damaging a BMW, he loses his job and faces pressure to earn money quickly. When he and his friends discover an expensive radio in a car, they steal it hoping to cash in. This theft marks the start of their descent into petty crime, driven by financial desperation and teenage recklessness.
The firing and argument with his father create financial pressure that pushes Ricardo toward desperate measures.
Believing that Dallaire tricked him into pursuing Marie-Josée while she was unfaithful, Ricardo lashes out and accuses Dallaire of setting him up. The accusation strains their already fragile friendship and represents Ricardo deflecting blame for his own poor decisions onto someone else.
Earlier tension between Ricardo and Dallaire builds as both pursue Marie-Josée, creating rivalry that explodes into blame.
After learning Marie-Josée has been unfaithful and facing mounting consequences for his reckless behavior, Ricardo rides his bike for three hours to Trois-Rivières in a desperate attempt to rekindle their relationship. The grueling journey reveals the depth of his obsession and stubborn refusal to let go, even when the relationship has already collapsed.
Earlier scenes show Ricardo's intense focus on Marie-Josée and his inability to accept rejection.
No, Ricardo does not end up with Marie-Josée. Their relationship fades after about three years and they eventually part ways. The film reveals this outcome as part of Ricardo's reflection on his reckless youth and the consequences of his choices.
Multiple betrayals and confrontations throughout the film build toward an inevitable breakup.
When Ricardo arranges a date with Sara as revenge against Marie-Josée, Sara reveals she is homosexual during the evening. This deflates Ricardo's expectations and complicates his feelings, as he had been pursuing her while simultaneously dealing with his girlfriend's infidelity.
Earlier scenes hint at Sara being different from other girls Ricardo pursues, though her sexuality is not explicitly foreshadowed.
After confronting Dallaire about Marie-Josée, Ricardo drinks heavily from his father's illegal wine. Police arrest him when they discover the stolen radios in his possession. Ricardo attempts to flee, which worsens his predicament and leads to formal charges.
The theft of the radios and Ricardo's pattern of reckless decisions build toward this inevitable confrontation with law enforcement.
After Ricardo is fired from the bar and causes damage to a BMW that burdens the restaurant's budget, he gets into a heated argument with his father. Following this quarrel, his father turns to illegal wine production as a precarious backup plan to support the family financially.
The argument between Ricardo and his father directly precedes the father's decision to pursue illegal activity.
Ricardo never sees Dallaire again after the events of that summer. Their friendship dissolves completely, representing one of the lasting negative consequences of Ricardo's reckless decisions and his tendency to blame others for his own mistakes.
The escalating rivalry over Marie-Josée and Ricardo's accusation about the stolen radios foreshadow the permanent breakdown of their friendship.
On prom day, Ricardo learns that one of his friends has been admitted to the NHL. This adds another layer of complexity to the story, showing how different paths are emerging for Ricardo and his friends as they graduate. While the film doesn't detail the friend's trajectory, it contrasts with Ricardo's downward spiral.
Earlier scenes establish the group of friends with different ambitions and talents, making the NHL achievement a logical plot development.
Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.
Impulsive adolescent decisions lead to messy, small-scale consequences.Explore other films where teenage characters make impulsive, often criminal, choices in search of quick money or status, only to face messy consequences. If you liked watching Ricardo's summer spiral out of control in 1987, you'll find similar stories of youthful rebellion and hard lessons here.
Stories in this thread typically follow a young protagonist who, driven by ambition or frustration, engages in increasingly risky behavior. Their initial success is short-lived, leading to a cascade of complications involving friends, family, and authority figures, culminating in a sobering but not devastating conclusion.
These movies share a specific tone of bittersweet nostalgia, where the thrill of rebellion is tempered by the inevitable consequences. They capture the high-intensity, fast-paced energy of adolescence, focusing on the immediate drama of poor decisions and their formative impact.
Stories where a turbulent summer adventure culminates in a reflective, mixed-feeling conclusion.Find more movies about transformative, chaotic summers that end with a mix of regret and nostalgia. If you enjoyed the fast-paced, impulsive energy and bittersweet ending of 1987, these selections feature similar journeys of teenage ambition, friendship, and consequences.
The narrative pattern involves a condensed period—often a summer—where the protagonist's life accelerates through a series of self-inflicted crises. Subplots around friendship, romance, and ambition intertwine and collide, leading to a climax that forces introspection and a mature, albeit wistful, understanding of their actions.
These films are grouped by their specific blend of a fast-paced, high-energy narrative with a medium-complexity plot and a distinctly bittersweet emotional resolution. They share a mood of nostalgic chaos, where the consequences feel both deserved and formative.
Don't stop at just watching - explore 1987 in full detail. From the complete plot summary and scene-by-scene timeline to character breakdowns, thematic analysis, and a deep dive into the ending - every page helps you truly understand what 1987 is all about. Plus, discover what's next after the movie.
Read a complete plot summary of 1987, including all key story points, character arcs, and turning points. This in-depth recap is ideal for understanding the narrative structure or reviewing what happened in the movie.
Discover the characters, locations, and core themes that shape 1987. Get insights into symbolic elements, setting significance, and deeper narrative meaning - ideal for thematic analysis and movie breakdowns.