Mean Girls(2024)

Plot Summary

• Sixteen-year-old home-schooled Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) moves back to the United States from Kenya with her mother (Jenna Fischer) and attends North Shore High School. Cady is a very simple girl who is good at math. She loves nature and is open minded to make friends with all sorts of people. Her mother felt that she was being selfish by continuing her research in Kenya at the cost of Cady's education and future. Cady's mother takes her old job back at Northwestern University.At her first day at school, Cady was forced to have lunch in the toilet as nobody would allow her to sit in their group. Cady befriends Janis Imi'Ike (Auli'i Cravalho) and Damian Hubbard (Jaquel Spivey), who introduce her to the various cliques (jocks, corny horny band freaks, classic burnouts, grade grubbers and theatre mess), warning her to avoid one known as the "Plastics," who consist of the insecure gossiper Gretchen Wieners (Bebe Wood), unintelligent and bubbly Karen Shetty (Avantika Vandanapu), and manipulative "Queen bee" Regina George (Renee Rapp). Regina has the looks and the money, plus she is proud of her all-natural breasts. Regina invites Cady to join their group as she is an international student and looks pretty; Janis uses this as an opportunity to convince Cady to infiltrate the group for her. Janis hates the plastics but doesn't say why. Gretchen tells Cady that she cannot wear the same top 2 days in a row and can only wear ponytails once a week. Wednesdays are pink dress day.The teachers include Mr Rapp (Connor Ratcliff) English Literature, Madame Park (Ashley Park) French, Ms. Norbury Math, and Coach Carr (Jon Hamm) Physical Education.Cady becomes attracted to Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), a senior in her calculus class and Regina's ex-boyfriend. Aaron believes that Cady's out-performance in the Math class is making the rest of the students look bad. Cady is smitten with Aaron and decides to change her image to attract his attention. Kevin Ganatra (Mahi Alam) from her Calculus class is the captain of the Mathletes. He wants to recruit Cady for his team, but she refuses when Regina forbids it. Janis wants to know how Regina has this power over all the girls in school that they obey her every command.When Cady tells Gretchen and Karen that she likes Aaron, they warn her that he is off-limits as he has dated Regina. Cady goes to Regina's house with the Plastics, and Regina's mother (Busy Philipps) finds her old "Burn Book", a scrapbook the Plastics filled with cruel content about students and staff at the school. According to the Burn Book Janis is a lesbian. Gretchen doesn't like when Regina mistreats her, but she silently obeys her commands. Cady can see Gretchen's pain.Cady tells Janis and Damian about the Burn Book, and they explain that Janis and Regina were once friends but fell out after Regina outed Janis as a lesbian to the school. The Regina made the entire school make fun of the BFF doll that Janis gave her earlier. When Janis found out she was livid and burned the doll that Regina gave her with her Bunsen burner. Janis looked like a crazy person and was suspended from school for the rest of the year as the adults did not know anything about what was going on.Cady begins to intentionally fail math to get closer to Aaron, who invites her to his Halloween party. Janis objects to this, but Cady says that her tactic worked. Regina discovers Cady's crush on Aaron and, in a fit of jealousy, flirts with Aaron before kissing him in front of Cady. Realizing Janis was right about Regina, she agrees to commit to her plan to ruin her reputation.Cady tricks Regina into eating weight-gain Kalteen Bars to lose weight and replaces her face cream with lard. They turn on the sprinkler at one of Regina's award functions to embarrass her, but Regina ends up rocking her wet and sexy look and becomes hotter than ever. She also starts a new trend for running mascara. The trio target Gretchen's insecurities by having a Candy Cane-Gram sent to Cady on Regina's behalf, making Gretchen believe Regina has replaced her as her best friend. Gretchen reveals Regina's secrets to Cady, including her cheating on Aaron with football player Shane Oman. Gretchen says that Regina had one of her ears moved and gave the shoes to Cady to make fun of her, as she knew Cady won't be able to walk in them.Cady tells Aaron about Regina cheating on him, and he catches him red handed and breaks up with Regina. Regina's reputation takes a further hit after a disastrous performance at the Winter Talent Show (Regina falls flat on stage on account of being too fat and overweight) leads to viral embarrassment. With Regina's social status plummeting, Cady becomes the new "queen bee". Gretchen tells Regina in a full cafeteria that she is not allowed to sit with the Plastics anymore.Meanwhile Norbury tells Cady that she had failed her last 5 quizzes, and the strange thing is that all her work is right, but her answers are wrong.Janis invites Cady to her art show, but she lies, saying she has to travel with her mother to Madison. However, Cady convinces her mother to let her stay home and secretly throws a house party (when Gretchen suggests that she can invite Aaron if she hosts a house party), where she drunkenly admits to Aaron that she has been deliberately failing math to get closer to him. He rebukes Cady for becoming as manipulative as Regina and storms out. When she follows him, she is confronted by Janis, who calls her out on being as catty as Regina. Cady accuses Janis of being obsessed with her, so she responds that Cady has become fully Plastic, renouncing their friendship.As Regina was not invited to the party and discovers that Cady lied about the Kalteen Bars, she adds herself into the Burn Book as an alibi and deliberately drops it in the school hallway. Upon the discovery, a riot breaks out among the junior girls over the rumors inside. Principal Duvall (Tim Meadows) and math teacher Ms. Norbury (Tina Fey) call the junior girls into the gymnasium to find the book's source. Ms. Norbury stages a cathartic intervention, encouraging the girls to apologize to each other about their treatment of others. Janis speaks out and reveals the whole plan to take revenge on Regina (conspiring with Cady), who storms out in anger. During a confrontation with Cady in the school parking lot, Regina is hit by a bus. The school opinion turns in favor of Regina, and they all blame Cady for pushing Regina in front of the bus.Cady realizes the damage she has done and takes full responsibility for the book (and for writing that Ms Norbury is a drug pusher, which landed her in jail), leading her to be suspended for three weeks and placed on absolute final warning. Ms. Norbury offers Cady a way to earn extra credit by joining the Mathletes at state championships, so Cady redeems herself by helping the team win.At the Spring Fling, Cady reconciles with Regina and is elected Spring Fling Queen but snaps the plastic crown and gives pieces out to the girls, telling them they are all special in their own way. She apologizes to Janis and Damian, who accept her back as their friend, and makes amends with the Plastics and Aaron.

Storyline

• From the comedic mind of Tina Fey comes a new twist on the modern classic, MEAN GIRLS. New student Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is welcomed into the top of the social food chain by the elite group of popular girls called "The Plastics," ruled by the conniving queen bee Regina George (Reneé Rapp) and her minions Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and Karen (Avantika). However, when Cady makes the major misstep of falling for Regina's ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), she finds herself prey in Regina's crosshairs. As Cady sets to take down the group's apex predator with the help of her outcast friends Janis (Auli'i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), she must learn how to stay true to herself while navigating the most cutthroat jungle of all: high school. — Paramount Pictures