The Prince of Pennsylvania

Rupert Marshetta is the black sheep son of a miner, precocious and misunderstood. He is frustrated with his parents, Gary Marshetta and Pam Marshetta, has dropped out of high school and doesn’t fit in with the other teens in his town. Rupert is also in love with an older woman, the free-spirited Carla Headlee, who operates a run-down roadside ice cream kiosk. Carla also has a young daughter with her ex-boyfriend Joe, a state trooper.

One day Gary tells Rupert he sees himself as the king of Pennsylvania, his wife as the queen, and Rupert as the prince who will inherit his kingdom. Both father and son know that Pam has been sleeping with young miner Jack Sike, who has a newborn baby with his wife. Gary owns land left by his father, but has no intention of selling it. An increasingly frustrated Rupert, who has no plans to follow his father into mining, schemes with Carla to kidnap his father for $200,000 (the amount the land is worth) and use the ransom money to escape the town and live together.

The duo successfully kidnap Gary and he is held in a trailer. He soon tells his mother, who agrees to go along, as Rupert says she can have half the money so she and Jack can abandon their families and run off together. However, Rupert and Pam learn that Gary sold the land for cash a week earlier, with no information as to where he put the money.

Rupert and Carla take Gary to the mine and hold him near a portable toilet. Rupert eventually thinks the money has been hidden in the toilet, which is chained closed. He prepares dynamite to blow open the toilet, but mine rescue workers and police arrive on the scene warning that the mine’s high levels of methane gas will trigger a massive explosion once the dynamite goes off. Although Gary is able to pull his son to safety, Carla is presumed dead in the blast.

The next day, Gary and Pam have reconciled. Rupert runs away, and is surprised to find that Carla is still alive, but only Joe knows; they, too, have reconciled, and are leaving for Sacramento to be closer to her daughter. A heartbroken Rupert hugs Carla goodbye and says he would rather be handcuffed to a fridge than talk to her ever again. After Carla and Joe drive away, Rupert walks along the road and encounters a lone female biker girl he befriended earlier; he accepts her offer of a ride to Pittsburgh.

Last Updated: November 22, 2025 at 16:00