Footloose (1984) on Netflix
Ren McCormack moves from Chicago to Bomont, Utah, a town where a ban on dancing is in force. He falls for Ariel, the daughter of the minister who backs the ban.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb6.6/10103,196 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes55%
Trailer
Plot summary
A move takes Ren McCormack and his mother Ethel from Chicago to Bomont, Utah, where they stay with Ren's aunt and uncle. Ren meets the Reverend Shaw Moore at church, along with the minister's wife Vi and their daughter Ariel. At school he befriends Willard Hewitt and finds that Bomont's council has outlawed dancing and rock music inside the town limits; the police fine him for playing his music too loud. Ren falls for Ariel, and her boyfriend Chuck Cranston answers with a challenge: a tractor game of chicken. The reverend, judging Ren a bad influence, forbids Ariel from seeing him.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Footloose (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Paramount hired Michael Cimino to direct Footloose, his first film since Heaven's Gate, but after a month on the job the studio fired him for extravagant production demands, including asking for an extra $250,000 for his work, and hired Herbert Ross instead.
- In February 1980 the real town of Elmore City's high school junior class made national news by asking permission to hold a junior prom, and it was granted: the school board tied 2-2 and president Raymond Lee broke the tie with "Let 'em dance."
- Tom Cruise and Rob Lowe were both slated for the lead: Cruise was unavailable because he was filming All the Right Moves, Lowe auditioned three times but an injury stopped him taking the part, and Christopher Atkins claims he was cast as Ren but lost the role.
- Kevin Bacon was offered the lead in the Stephen King film Christine at the same time he was asked to screen-test for Footloose, and took the gamble; after seeing Bacon's earlier film Diner, the director persuaded the producers to cast him.
- For his warehouse dance scene, Kevin Bacon said he had four doubles: a stunt double, a dance double, Peter Tramm, and two gymnastics doubles.
- Madonna and Haviland Morris auditioned for Ariel, the minister's daughter played by Lori Singer, and Valerie Bertinelli and Jennifer Jason Leigh were also considered for the part.
- For "Holding Out for a Hero", Dean Pitchford listened to songs Jim Steinman had written, such as his work with Meat Loaf, then wrote the first two lines himself, about good men and gods, to spark Steinman's creativity.
- Kevin Bacon says that at weddings DJs play "Footloose" and people clap for him like "a trained monkey", so he asks DJs not to play the song.
