Better Off Dead
Overview
 
Better Off Dead is a 1985 American teen
Teen film
Teen films is a film genre targeted at teenagers and young adults in which the plot is based upon the special interests of teenagers, such as coming of age, first love, rebellion, conflict with parents, teen angst, and alienation...

 romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...

 starring John Cusack
John Cusack
John Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Point Blank, The Thin Red Line, Stand by Me, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, Serendipity, Runaway Jury, The Ice Harvest,...

 and written and directed by Savage Steve Holland
Savage Steve Holland
Savage Steve Holland is an animator and film director who wrote and directed the cult films Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer , starring John Cusack. He also directed the film How I Got Into College , and animated the "Whammy" on the game show Press Your Luck. He later went on to create and...

. It tells the story of high school student Lane Meyer who is suicidal
Suicide crisis
A suicide crisis, suicidal crisis, or potential suicide, is a situation in which a person is attempting to kill him or herself or is seriously contemplating or planning to do so...

 after his girlfriend
Girlfriend
Girlfriend is a term that can refer to either a female partner in a non-marital romantic relationship or a female non-romantic friend that is closer than other friends....

 breaks up with him.
The story takes place in the fictional town of Greendale in "the state of Northern California" and centers on high-schooler Lane Meyer (John Cusack
John Cusack
John Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Point Blank, The Thin Red Line, Stand by Me, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, Serendipity, Runaway Jury, The Ice Harvest,...

), whose girlfriend Beth (Amanda Wyss
Amanda Wyss
Amanda Wyss is an American film and television actress.-Movie career:Discovered by an agent as a teen while starring in the play The Bad Seed at a local Los Angeles theatre, she went on to work in commercials and landed her first television role, recurring on Universal's When the Whistle Blows as...

) dumps him for the arrogant and bullying captain of the high school ski team, Roy Stalin.
Quotations

I know its bacon... but what have you done to it?! Joanne Greenwald... the girl with the antennae on her face?

I'm real sorry your mom blew up, Ricky.

She only speaks French, Roy. She doesn't speak imbecile.

[why he can't pay the paper boy] Uh, my brother, this morning, got his arm caught in the microwave, and my grandmother, she dropped acid and freaked out and hijaked a schoolbus full of...penguins.

I gotta go, the Christmas tree is on fire. [hangs up the phone.]

I've been going to this high school for seven and a half years! I'm no dummy!

This is pure snow. It's everywhere! Do you have any idea what the street value of this mountain is?

Dying when you're not really sick is really sick, you know. Really!

[giving skiing instructions] Go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way, turn.

Beth Truss: She dates the basketball team. Not certain members of the team, Lane, the whole team!

 
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