All the Right Moves

Stefen "Stef" Djordjevic (Tom Cruise) is a Serbian American high school defensive back who is gifted in sports and is a B student academically. He is seeking a college football scholarship to escape the economically depressed small Western Pennsylvaniatown of Ampipe and a dead-end job and life working at the mill, just like his grandfather, father (Charles Cioffi), and his brother Greg (Gary Graham). He dreams of becoming an electrical engineer after he graduates from college. Ampipe is a company town whose economy is dominated by the town's main employer, American Pipe and Steel, a steel mill struggling through the downturn of the early 1980s recession. Stef gets through his days with the love of his girlfriend, Lisa Lietzke (Lea Thompson), and his strong bond with his teammates. In the big football game against the undefeated Walnut Heights High School, Ampipe appears headed to win the game, when a fumbled hand-off in the closing seconds, along with Stefen's pass interference penalty earlier in the game, lead to Walnut Heights' victory. Following the game, Coach Vern Nickerson (Craig T. Nelson) lambastes the fumbler in the locker room, telling him he "quit" the game. When Stefen retorts that the coach himself quit, the coach kicks him off the team. In the aftermath, disgruntled Ampipe fans vandalize Coach Nickerson's house and yard. Stefen is present and is a reluctant participant, but is nonetheless spotted by Nickerson as the vandals flee. From there, Stefen deals with personal battles, including dealing with the coach blackballing him among colleges because of his attitude and participation in the vandalism. Stefen gets in an argument with Lisa, and his best friend Brian (Chris Penn) declines a scholarship offer to USC and plans to marry his pregnant girlfriend. After Stefen and Lisa reconcile, Lisa decides to talk to Nickerson's wife to try to help. After witnessing another football player, Vinnie Salvucci (Paul Carafotes), get arrested during class for armed robbery, Nickerson begins to question how his actions might affect Stefen's future. After a confrontation in the street where Stefen calls Nickerson a hypocrite for always touting the "together, together" mentality of the team and then abandoning him, Nickerson realizes how he was wrong for blackballing Stefen. He has accepted a coaching position on the West Coast at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and offers Stefen a full scholarship to play football there, the best engineering school in California, which he accepts.