The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert(1994)

Plot Summary

• It's 1994 in Sydney, Australia, and Tick Belrose is having a rough night. On stage as his drag persona Mitzi Del Bra, his sad ballad doesn't really hit with the audience.Someone actually throws a beer can at his head, triggering his friend Adam, in character as Felicia Jollygoodfellow, to deliver some sick burns to the offending audience member. While recovering backstage, Tick gets a call from a mysterious woman that triggers a flashback - he's in a hospital, wearing a chandelier - and she asks him a favor.After the show, Tick calls his friend Bernadette, who has some shocking news of her own - her partner Trumpet has just died during a slip-and-fall/asphyxiation accident while peroxiding his hair at home. After the funeral, Tick proposes an idea he thinks will be good for both of them: getting the hell out of town. His mystery caller asked him to do a month of shows at a resort in Alice Springs, in the middle of the outback. Bernadette eventually gets on board only to discover that Adam, her very favorite person in the whole world, will be coming along. But in spite of being insufferable, Adam has a silver lining: wealthy parents. Adam tells them that some time in the wild might cure him of his, you know, personality, and they buy him an old tour bus. Meet Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.Once they're on the road, our trio gets along for approximately 12 seconds, and then we begin to see that there might be a slight problem with this whole Bernadette and Adam thing. We also learn that the mystery woman is actually Tick's wife.They reach a town called Broken Hill a few days into their drive, and disembark fully kitted out to check into their hotel and then head to the bar (of course). The patrons of the local watering hole range from confused to hostile, especially one woman who is clearly just mad that they're prettier than her. But a stone-cold Bernadette threatens to light that woman's tampon on fire and then beats her in a drinking contest, which seems to settle things for everyone. In the morning, they find that not everyone came around, because someone has painted hateful graffiti on Priscilla.Wanting to shave off a few days, they make the very bad decision to take a shortcut via an unpaved road, which makes for a great opera number from a very silver Adam but apparently also makes for a gas tank and fuel line full of dust.Stranded in the desert, Bernadette goes off in search of help while Adam paints the bus lavender and Tick works on show choreography. After getting ditched by an everything-phobic ranch couple, they are found by an aboriginal man who takes them to a campfire party where they perform for their hosts accompanied by the didgeridoo and even give their rescuer, Alan, a drag makeover that he has a blast with. So apparently not everyone is an asshole, just colonizers.Back at the bus, they make a sex doll kite that brings Bernadette a lot of joy, to help flag down the tow truck guy that Alan hooked them up with.Tow truck guy is Bob, and as it turns out, he's a fan. He somewhat optimistically thinks that his town would just loooooooooove to see a drag show, but really they just want to see his wife shoot ping pong balls out of her nether regions. Cynthia is... complicated.In the aftermath of her performance, Cynthia takes off to live her truth and Bob decides that the best thing for everyone really is if he just comes along on the bus.Bob gets them back on the road, but unfortunately that road takes them to the mining town of Coober Pedy. They need a new gas tank, but they also need to stay in their rooms because even optimistic Bob knows they shouldn't push their luck with these blokes. Adam, of course, will not stand for that. High on a mystery pill and dressed to the nines, he crashes a kegger to antagonistically flirt with people who want to kill him. He takes a rough beating, but Bob and Bernadette find and save him before it gets worse.They keep limping along toward Alice Springs, bonding with Bob, and enjoying the period of time where Adam can't speak because of his injured jaw. They make it there to a warm welcome from the staff and Tick's wife Marion - and Bernadette straight-up passes out when Marion introduces Tick's 8-year-old son Benji.Tick is excited to spend time with Benji, but he's very scared that his son will judge him. After their show, though, he sees that Benji already knows, or knows enough, and enjoys watching him perform.As they settle in, Adam and Tick are shocked that Benji is just... cool with it all. He doesn't judge them, he sees the joy in what they do, he understands that people are gay, he wants to play Lego.After a day trip to fulfill Adam's childhood dream - hiking King Canyon in full drag - and finishing up their show run, they prepare to head out only to discover that Bob and Bernadette are going to stay and try to have a life together. Benji is coming to Sydney to spend some time with his dad and uncle Adam, and on the way they practice singing Mama Mia, leading us into our final sequence with them performing the famous ABBA show back on their home stage. All is finally well (and glittery) with the world. Emily Winsauer - Adventurelings: The Adventure Movie Podcast

Storyline

• Two drag-queens (Anthony/Mitzi and Adam/Felicia) and a transgender woman contract to perform a drag show at a resort in Alice Springs, a resort town in the remote Australian desert. They head west from Sydney aboard their lavender bus, Priscilla. En route, it is discovered that the woman they've contracted with is Anthony's wife. Their bus breaks down, and is repaired by Bob, who travels on with them. — Randy Goldberg <goldberg@nymc.edu> Three friends, three lives, one persuasion and a pink bus named Priscilla head into the Australian desert with their colourful, extravagant show in a road movie that brings culture clash to the forefront of a comedy of errors. A mixture of vast landscapes, narrow minds and a melancholy, reflective mood that with the help of a larger than life gal that is Priscilla she more than widens the comfort zones and finds not just new horizons but also finds that is lost. — Cinema_Fan Anthony, nicknamed Tick, is a Sydney-based drag queen who performs under the name Mitzi. After he gets hired to perform at a resort in Alice Springs, he invites two people along both for company and to be part of the show. They are fellow drag queen Adam, who performs under the name Felicia, and middle aged transsexual Bernadette, who was born male with the name Ralph, and whose much younger husband has just passed away. Tick believes this trip will be be a distraction for Bernadette, a former "Les Girls" in "his" younger days. This threesome is not a totally cohesive group, with overly boisterous Adam/Felicia being the one who will probably get on the others' nerves, he only being invited because Felicia does add an extra something to the stage. Adam largely uses his trans status to guilt his mother for money, which is how he is able to buy the highway coach that he names Priscilla, in which the three will travel to Alice Springs. They get into one misadventure after another based on their queer fish out of water status in many of the small outback towns through which they travel, those misadventures for which they not only need to provide support for each other in every sense of the word, but also solidarity. But perhaps more importantly, they help each other with the issues they are facing in their personal lives, Tick's biggest which are currently waiting for him in Alice Springs. — Huggo Sydney, Australia. Bernadette, a grieving, world-weary transgender woman, is going through a rough patch in her life. However, when her drag queen friend Mitzi receives a last-minute invitation to perform in the backwater town of Alice Springs, she gives herself a break and embarks on a long road trip into the vast Australian outback along with flamboyant cross-dresser Felicia. As the outrageous trio hits the road in their bright-lavender 1976 Hino RC320 bus, the performers attract lots of attention, receive help from total strangers, and crush gender stereotypes. The question is, are these fabulous companions ready to experience the thrill of a real, live Les Girls show? — Nick Riganas