Wet Hot American Summer

2001 American comedy film

Wet Hot American Summer is a 2001 American satirical comedy film directed by David Wain from a screenplay written by Wain and Michael Showalter. The film features an ensemble cast, including Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Molly Shannon, Paul Rudd, Christopher Meloni, Michael Showalter (and various other members of the sketch comedy group The State), Elizabeth Banks, Ken Marino, Michael Ian Black, Bradley Cooper (in his film debut), Amy Poehler, Zak Orth, and A. D. Miles. It takes place during the last full day at a fictional summer camp in 1981, and spoofs the sex comedies aimed at teen audiences of that era. The film was a critical and commercial failure, but has since developed a cult following, and many of its cast members have gone on to high profile work. Netflix revived the franchise with the release of an eight episode prequel series starring most of the film's original cast, on July 31, 2015; and an eight episode sequel series, set ten years after the original film, on August 4, 2017.

The film shows the last full day of a 1981 summer camp in Camp Firewood, located near Waterville, Maine, concentrating on the experiences of the camp counselors, most of which are students aged around 16. The interleaved story threads meet in the evening at the camp talent show:

Cook Gene, a Vietnam War veteran, clumsily tries to hide his various sexual fetishes. But after being encouraged by a talking can of vegetables, he proudly admits them all in front of the packed food hall, to great applause. Zealous drama instructors Ben and Susie try to organize a talent show to be held on the last evening. Ben is in love with counselor McKinley. They have passionate sex and are later symbolically married by Beth in a ceremony by the lake. Beth forces Ben and Susie to give the last slot of their talent show to strange outsider Steve. He surprises everyone when during his time on stage an intense storm breaks out inside and outside the venue, seemingly created only with the power of Steve's mind. He receives a wild ovation. Counselor Coop is secretly in love with counselor Katie, but she is dating attractive but obnoxious and inconsiderate lifeguard Andy, who cheats on her, e. g. with counselor Lindsay. Katie has decided to find a girl for Coop and when they spend time together during the day, Katie develops feelings for him. Eventually they kiss, but Katie soon returns to Andy and tells Coop that they made a mistake. A devastated Coop is found by Gene, who performs a rigorous training regimen with him. A newly buff Coop impresses Katie at the talent show and she declares her love for him. But when both bid farewell the next morning, she explains that she has returned to Andy again, even though she knows he is a terrible boyfriend, because he is very attractive and she is only interested in sex at the moment, leaving Coop speechless. Camp director Beth is attracted to Henry, an associate professor of astrophysics who vacations near the camp. She asks him to come over and teach the campers about space. After rudely rejecting her first, he changes his mind and does science projects with a group of nerdy children, bonding with them and getting closer to Beth, eventually sleeping with her. Henry and the children discover that a piece of Skylab will deorbit this evening and will probably impact the camp. They build a contraption to pinpoint the precise location: the talent show venue. Henry thinks he can modify the machine so that it can influence the path of the space debris. After he and the children use the modified machine near the talent show during the storm, the debris lands harmlessly on the grass. Counselor Victor tries to give the impression that he has sexual experience, but is secretly a virgin. He is promised sex by the promiscuous Abby this night, but is told by Beth to go on a rafting trip with several campers and Neil. He abandons them at the river, steals the van and tries to return to Abby. He crashes the van, but reaches the camp on foot in the evening, where Abby has forgotten about him. When Neil and the children get lost on the river, Neil abandons them on the raft to look for Victor. He finds him at the camp and brings him back to the river, just in time to save the children. Arts and crafts instructor Gail has a nervous breakdown during class. The children perform a group therapy session with her, during which she admits that she is not yet over her ex husband Ron. With the help of the children, especially Aaron, she finally finds the courage to reject Ron when he arrives during the talent show and asks her to come back to him. The next morning, Gail and Aaron declare their love for each other.

The film is based on the experiences Wain had while attending Jewish camps, particularly Camp Wise in Claridon Township, Ohio and Camp Modin in Belgrade, Maine. Showalter also drew on his experiences he had at Camp Mohawk in the Berkshires in Cheshire, Massachusetts. During one scene, the counselors take a trip into Waterville, Maine, which is not far from the camp. It is also a parody of, and homage to, other films about summer camp, including Meatballs (1979), Little Darlings (1980), Sleepaway Camp (1983), and Indian Summer (1993). According to Wain, they wanted to make a film structured like the films Nashville, Dazed and Confused and Do the Right Thing—"films that take place in one contained time period that have lots of different characters." the film had been promoted as costing $5 million, in an attempt to attract a better offer from a distributor.

Principal photography lasted 28 days in May 2000, and, according to director David Wain, it rained on every day of shooting.

Wet Hot American Summer received mostly negative reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 38%, based on 76 reviews, with an average rating of 4.85/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Wet Hot American Summers incredibly talented cast is too often outmatched by a deeply silly script that misses its targets at least as often as it skewers them." Metacritic gives the film a score of 42 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Roger Ebert rated the film with one star out of four. His review took the form of a tongue in cheek parody of Allan Sherman's "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh". In contrast, Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman awarded the film an "A", and named it as one of the ten best films of the year. Newsweeks David Ansen also lauded it, calling it a "gloriously silly romp" that "made me laugh harder than any other movie this summer. Make that this year." The film has gone on to achieve a cult following. NPR host Jesse Thorn said on the April 29, 2014 episode of Bullseye:

The film is followed by two Netflix series, with one serving as a prequel and one as a sequel. The prequel, First Day of Camp, was released on July 31, 2015, while the sequel, Ten Years Later, was released on August 4, 2017.

The professional wrestler Orange Cassidy, who has the gimmick of a slacker character, is largely based on Paul Rudd's portrayal of Andy in the film, even going as far as to have "Jane" by Jefferson Starship (which is used in the film's opening credits) as his entrance music.

Events were held around the country to celebrate the film's 10 year anniversary in 2011 and 2012, including a screening of the film in Boston, an art show in Santa Monica of works inspired by the film, with a reception hosted by Wain, a screening at the Los Angeles Film School with a Q&A with Wain, a 10th anniversary celebration event with the members of Stella in Brooklyn, and a reading of the script at the San Francisco Comedy Festival, with much of the original cast.

During a 2015 interview with Variety, Wain and Showalter stated that they wrote a pilot for a possible Fox television series based on the film. Wain described the series as a "22 minute Fox sitcom with commercials and nothing Rated R, so it was a little bit odd." The pilot was not picked up for a series.

Alongside the prequel series, a making of documentary, Hurricane of Fun: The Making of Wet Hot, was released on Netflix on July 24, 2015, consisting of behind the scenes interviews and footage shot during the filming of the movie.