Detroit Rock City

Detroit Rock City

Hawk (Edward Furlong), Lex (Giuseppe Andrews), Trip (James DeBello), and Jam (Sam Huntington) are four rebellious teenagers who love rock and roll and idolize KISS. The group are elated to have tickets to see KISS in Detroit the following night. Having discovered a secret cache of KISS albums, Jam's ultra-conservative and religiously hysterical mother, Mrs. Bruce (Lin Shaye), races up to the house where the boys are hanging out and drags Jam home. Jam's mother discovers the tickets the next day and destroys them in front of Jam and the others. She then pulls Jam from his school and has him transferred to a Catholic boarding school.

While in class, the three remaining boys hear a radio contest for tickets to the show. Trip leaves class to call the contest line and ends up winning the tickets. The boys then ditch school to bust Jam out. At the Catholic school, Hawk disguises himself as a pizza delivery guy and delivers a pizza spiked with hallucinogenic psilocybin mushrooms to Father McNulty. The priest gets high, allowing the group to whisk Jam away.

On the freeway, Trip throws a slice of pizza out of the window, where it hits the windshield of a tailgating Trans Am, driven by two Italian-American Disco fanatics, Kenny and Bobby, along with their girlfriends Christine (Natasha Lyonne) and Barbara (Emmanuelle Chriqui). The enraged Kenny forces the station wagon off the road and proceeds to pull Hawk out of the car and rub his face on the cheese-covered windshield. The bullying upsets Christine who leaves, walking down the freeway. Hawk then knees Kenny in the groin and knocks him out, leaving Bobby to contend with all four boys who suddenly pull out weapons (A metal KISS belt buckle, a wallet chain, and Jam's drumsticks). They leave the disco fans tied to the guardrail with KISS makeup on and drive the Trans Am into a ditch. They come upon Christine walking down the freeway and offer a ride to the city.

Upon arrival, the groups discovers that Trip did not stay on the phone long enough to give the radio station his information, forcing the station to give the tickets to the next caller. Back outside, Lex notices that the car has been stolen. They suspect Christine, who they left sleeping in the car. Hawk then suggests that the boys go their separate ways in order to find KISS tickets, and agree to meet in the same place in an hour.

Hawk finds a scalper who suggests that he enter a strip contest to raise money for tickets. He doesn't win, but is offered payment for his company by an older woman (Shannon Tweed). They go to her car and she takes his virginity. Afterwards, Hawk declines the money she offered, but she insists. When Hawk locates the scalper again he runs off, indicating he's all sold out, much to Hawk's dismay.

Trip goes to a local convenience store in the hopes of mugging a younger child to get tickets. He grabs a kid in Ace Frehley makeup, but the kid has an older brother, Chongo; a hulking jock who, with his gang of thugs, threaten to beat him up unless Trip pays them $200.00. Trip plans to rob the convenience store with a fake gun (in reality a Stretch Armstrong toy), but ends up thwarting a real robbery attempt at the store, earning him a $150.00 reward and a passionate kiss from the cashier (Kristin Booth). Trip meets the thugs in an alleyway behind the store. The kid takes Trip's wallet and has Chongo punch Trip in the stomach.

Lex sneaks backstage with the KISS loading crew, but is soon discovered, causing him to flee from arena security. He is eventually caught and tossed over a fence. He is then menaced by a group of vicious dogs, but earns their trust when he plays frisbee with them. In a nearby building he discovers a chained-up Christine and his car in a chop shop with two car thieves. Lex then uses his newly befriended dogs to chase the two thugs into a back office room, saving Christine and his mom's car. Lex and Christine share a passionate kiss.

Jam encounters his mother leading an anti-KISS rally. Mrs. Bruce grabs him and drags him to a church across the street for confession, taking away his drumsticks. He is seen by Beth (Melanie Lynskey), a girl from his school who is in the process of moving with her parents. She rushes into the church and into the confessional booth. There she reveals to Jam that she's been in love with him since freshman year, but never had the courage to tell him. Jam and Beth then make love, losing their virginity to one another. Jam, now imbued with new confidence, goes back to the rally. Jam finally stands up for himself, berating his mother for her domineering ways, her lack of understanding and her hypocrisy at telling other people how to live their lives when she can't even relate to her own son. Jam then demands his drumsticks back and Mrs. Bruce acquiesces, though she's broken one of them.

When the boys meet up again, at Jam's suggestion, they beat each other up in order to say that muggers took their tickets. Upon arrival at the concert the guards are skeptical despite the boys nursing bloody wounds, but suddenly Trip points out the kid and his thugs from the convenience store, who are just entering the concert hall. The guards finds Trip's wallet (with his KISS Army picture ID and the $150.00 he got as reward for thwarting the robbery) on the kid's person. The tickets are taken from the kid and handed to Trip and security escorts the kid and his goons off the premises.

Astonished and elated, the boys enter the concert hall and KISS plays the title song of the movie, "Detroit Rock City". Jam catches a drum stick thrown by drummer Peter Criss as the film ends.