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The Sure Thing (1985)

PG-13 | | Comedy, Drama, Romance | 1 March 1985 (USA)
The Sure Thing Poster
A college student plans a cross-country trip to get laid, but ends up traveling with a young woman. They hate each other, so naturally...

Director:

Writers:

(as Steven L. Bloom),

Stars:

, , | See full cast & crew »
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Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
... Walter 'Gib' Gibson
... Alison Bradbury
... Lance
... Jason
... Gary Cooper
... Mary Ann Webster
... Professor Taub
... The Sure Thing
Marcia Christie ... Julie
Robert Anthony Marcucci ... Bobby
... Sharon
Lorrie Lightle ... Lucy
... Jimbo
Krystal Richards ... Girl in Photo
... Mastin
See full cast »
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Storyline

College freshman Walter (Gib) Gibson decides to go cross country to visit his friend in California during winter break. Awaiting there is a bikini-clad babe whom his friend assures him is a "sure thing". Meanwhile, Allison, a cute (but somewhat retentive) girl at Gib's college has also decided to head out to Cal. to see her boyfriend during break. Gib and Allison are thrust together on a road trip from hell, and somewhere along the way, they find each others company to be tolerable. Now, what will become of Gib's "sure thing?" Written by anonymous

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Plot Keywords:

road trip | dream | woman removes her clothes | college | california | See All (47) »

Taglines:

A sure thing comes once in a lifetime... but the real thing lasts forever. See more »

Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Certificate:

PG-13 | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
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Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

1 March 1985 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Der Volltreffer  »

Filming Locations:

 »
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Box Office

Budget:

$4,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,124,782, 3 March 1985, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$18,135,531
See more on IMDbPro »

Company Credits

Production Co:

,  »
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Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Color:

(Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
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Did You Know?

Trivia

The film 's "Sure Thing" title also formed part of two of the movie's taglines, they being "A sure thing comes once in a lifetime...but the real thing lasts forever" and "He's onto a sure thing . . . but ends up on the funniest journey to romance you've ever seen". See more »

Goofs

While in the blue car they are supposed to be driving west to California yet at the end of the first day there is a shot of the car coming toward the camera with the sun setting behind it which means the car was driving east. See more »

Quotes

Gary Cooper: Hi, I'm Gary Cooper, but not the Gary Cooper that's dead.
See more »

Connections

Featured in Casting 'The Sure Thing' (2003) See more »

Soundtracks

Tears
Written by Vinnie Vincent (as Vincent Cusano) and Adam Mitchell
Performed by John Waite
Courtesy of EMI America Records
Published by Ten Speed Music, Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. and Streetbeat Music
See more »

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User Reviews

 
Stands up to time pretty well, actually...
21 February 1999 | by – See all my reviews

Just for the heck of it, I pulled out my copy of The Sure Thing and watched it again. It's held up well since I first saw it on video in 1986. Yeah, the music is a little old, and Jason, Alison's boyfriend, still grates on me because I looked like him, but in all other respects it has held up well. What carries it is that it's the classic John Cusack Movie, where Cusack is just being... John Cusack. Totally real, totally unpretentious. You can see it in everything else he's done, even things of totally different style, like "Eight Men Out" and "The Grifters." He just rules the screen and the production ends up recalling pictures like "His Girl Friday" and "It Happened One Night." This has stood up to nearly fifteen years of viewing pretty well. Compare and contrast other stuff of that era, like "St. Elmo's Fire," and "Fast Times At Ridgemont High." Or any Tom Hanks movie of the period.

I've now come back five years after originally posting this review (it's now May, 2007) and I say, this film STILL stands as a classic Cusack, even after I have (in the interim) loved "Pushing Tin," "Being John Malkovich" and of course the amazing "High Fidelity." And to this day, I have been known to say, in bars, "BARKEEP! Bring this man...a TROUGH... of spritzer!"

And just remember...

"Credit cards work on a completely different kind of lock!"
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