A Walk to Remember

In Beaufort, North Carolina, popular and rebellious high school senior Landon Carter and his friends have partaken in underage drinking on school grounds. They lure a new student, Clay Gephardt, to a factory in the hopes of "pranking" him, with the façade that this is an initiation task into their elite friendship group. However, Clay becomes seriously injured, which is brought to the attention of the school principal through law enforcement. In an effort to avoid law involvement, the school principal gives Landon the choice of being expelled from the school or completing several service projects which include weekend tutoring, janitorial duties, and participation in the school play. Choosing the latter, Landon is further acquainted with Jamie Sullivan, the local Baptist minister's daughter. He never befriended her due to the status quo at the high school, though he has known her most of his life.

Landon begins to struggle with the play and reluctantly seeks guidance from Jamie, who agrees to help him on the condition that he won't fall in love with her, but Landon dismisses it as a foolish idea. They begin practicing together at her house after school. A bond begins to form between the two until Landon is rude to Jamie at school to impress his friends, and Jamie realizes that Landon wants to keep their friendship a secret from others, so she decides to distance herself from him.

On the opening night of the play, Jamie astounds Landon and the audience with her voice and beauty. When Jamie finishes singing towards the end, Landon impulsively kisses her just before the curtain closes. Afterwards, Jamie avoids Landon until his friends play a cruel prank on her, led by Belinda, his resentful ex-girlfriend who wants them to reconcile despite Landon's lack of interest. In opposition to his friends, he defends her and she eventually warms up to him again. Landon asks Jamie to go on a date, to which Jamie reveals that she's not allowed to date. Landon visits the church in order to ask her father for permission. Jamie's father is initially hesitant but agrees.

Their first date is a success, and it leads to another. Their relationship strengthens as they genuinely fall for each other, and all seems well. During a date, however, Jamie confesses that she isn't making any plans for the future because she has leukemia and hasn't been responding to treatment. Jamie's condition grows worse and she gets sent to the hospital. Landon drives off to beg for help from his estranged father who is a doctor, asking him to help Jamie. Landon drives back in tears after feeling disappointed by his father's inability to help. Upon learning of her condition, Landon's friends come to him and apologize for their past treatment of Jamie and offer their support. While she is admitted, Jamie gives Landon a book that once belonged to her deceased mother and tells him that Landon is her angel. Unbeknownst to Landon, Jamie is given private home care by Landon's father to relieve her father's financial burden.

Landon builds a telescope for Jamie to see a one-time comet in the springtime, and with help from Jamie's father, he finishes it in time to give Jamie a beautiful view of the comet. It is then that Landon asks her to marry him. Jamie tearfully accepts, and they get married in the church where her mother was married. Landon reflects that their last summer together was spent as husband and wife, and that she had died soon after.

Years later, Landon returns to Beaufort to visit Jamie's father, revealing that he had been accepted into medical school. Landon laments that Jamie was never able to witness a miracle, to which Jamie's father replied that the miracle was Landon himself. Hereafter, Landon expresses sorrow over Jamie's passing, but describes their love like the wind: he can't see it, but he can feel it.

While there are many similarities to the novel by Nicholas Sparks, many changes were made. On his personal website, Sparks explains the decisions behind the differences. For example, he and the producer decided to update the setting from the 1950s to the 1990s, worrying that a film set in the 50s would fail to draw teens. "To interest them," he writes, "we had to make the story more contemporary."[8] To make the update believable, Landon's pranks and behavior are worse than they are in the novel; as Sparks notes, "the things that teen boys did in the 1950s to be considered a little 'rough' are different than what teen boys in the 1990s do to be considered 'rough.'"[8]

Sparks and the producer also changed the play in which Landon and Jamie appear. In the novel, Hegbert wrote a Christmas play that illustrated how he once struggled as a father. Due to time constraints, the sub-plot showing how he overcame his struggles could not be included in the film. Sparks was concerned that "people who hadn't read the book would question whether Hegbert was a good father", adding that "because he is a good father and we didn't want that question to linger, we changed the play."[8]

A significant difference is that at the end of the novel, unlike the film, it is ambiguous whether Jamie died or simply disappeared into the shadow world. Sparks says that he had written the book knowing she would die, yet had "grown to love Jamie Sullivan", and so opted for "the solution that best described the exact feeling I had with regard to my sister at that point: namely, that I hoped she would live."[9]

The film's soundtrack was released by Moore's first label Epic Records and Sony Music Soundtrax on January 15, 2002.[10] It features six songs by Moore and others by acts Switchfoot, Rachael Lampa and many more.

The lead single "Cry" was originally released on Moore's self-titled third studio album in 2001. The soundtrack also includes two versions of Switchfoot's song "Only Hope" including the version Moore sang in the film.

Moore's manager, Jon Leshay, the musical supervisor for the film, "instantly wanted" Switchfoot's music to be a vital part of the film after hearing them. He later became Switchfoot's manager.[11] When they were approached to do the film, the band was unfamiliar with Moore or her music (despite her status as a pop star with several hits on the charts). Before their involvement with A Walk to Remember, Switchfoot was only recognized in their native San Diego and in Contemporary Christian music circles, but have since gained mainstream recognition, with their double platinum fourth album, The Beautiful Letdown (2003) which included hits such as "Meant to Live" and "Dare You to Move".

The soundtrack was re-released on October 21, 2003[12] as a special expanded edition and featured three songs that were not originally included on the first release of the soundtrack but were featured in the film. The song "Only Hope" by Moore had dialogue added that featuring Shane West as his character Landon Carter taken from the scene from where the song is featured in the film, as well as West's narration at the end of the film.

A Walk to Remember was released by Warner Home Video on DVD on July 9, 2002. The DVD contains two commentaries (one featuring Shane West, Mandy Moore, and director Adam Shankman; the second featuring screenwriter Karen Janszen and author Nicholas Sparks), the music video for Moore's single "Cry", and the film's theatrical trailer.[27][28] A "Family-Edited Version" was later released on December 24, 2002.[29]

In the HBO television series Entourage, the character of Vincent Chase was credited as having a small supporting role in the film. In the fictional Entourage universe, Chase has an on-set relationship with Moore during the filming of A Walk to Remember.

• Love Story (1970), a film with similar theme

• A Walk to Remember at IMDb
• A Walk to Remember at Box Office Mojo
• A Walk to Remember at Rotten Tomatoes
• A Walk to Remember at Metacritic