SLC Punk!

The film outlines the daily life of a punk named Stevo in Salt Lake City, Utah in the fall of 1985. Stevo's best friend, "Heroin" Bob, is also a punk. The nickname "Heroin" is ironic, as Bob is afraid of needles and actually believes that any drug (with the notable exception of alcohol and cigarettes) is inherently dangerous.

Stevo and Bob go from party to party while living in a dilapidated apartment. They spend much of their time fighting with members of other subcultures, particularly rednecks. Stevo has a casual relationship with a girl named Sandy, while Bob is in love with Trish, the manager of a head shop.

The two of them are shaped by their experiences with their parents. Stevo's parents, now divorced, are former hippies who are proud of their youthful endeavors; however, Stevo is revolted by what he perceives as their "selling out" by becoming affluent Reagan Republicans, which they lamely try to justify. Stevo's grades are excellent, and when his father sends an application to Harvard Law School and Stevo is accepted, he nevertheless rejects it because of his beliefs. By contrast, Bob's father is a mentally ill alcoholic who mistakes his son and his friend for Central Intelligence Agency operatives and chases them away with a shotgun when they to visit him on his birthday.

Stevo begins to see the drawbacks of living the punk life. Sean, a fellow punk, was a drug dealer who once attempted to stab his mother while under the influence of an entire 100-dose sheet of acid; in the present, Stevo finds him panhandling on the street with some obvious mental issues.

While Stevo understands that his relationship with Sandy is casual, he is still enraged when he discovers her having sex with another man and savagely beats him, later loathing himself because his action contradicts his own belief in anarchism. His social circle also begins to drift away, as his friend, Mike, leaves Salt Lake City to attend the University of Notre Dame. Soon after, Stevo attends a party and falls in love with a rich girl named Brandy (Summer Phoenix), who points out that his clothing and hair are fashion as opposed to true rebellion. Rather than being offended, Stevo takes the criticism thoughtfully, and they passionately kiss.

At the same party, Bob complains of a headache (induced by Spandau Ballet's "She Loved Like Diamond" playing on a stereo), and is given Percodan, which he consumes after being told the pills are simply "vitamins" that will help his headache. The accidental drug overdose kills him in his sleep. When Stevo discovers Bob's body, he breaks down completely. At the funeral, he appears with a shaved head and changed clothing, having decided he is done with being a punk. He plans to go to Harvard, and earlier narration suggests that he eventually marries Brandy. He notes in his closing narration that his youthful self would probably kick his future self's ass, wryly describing himself as having been ultimately just another poseur.

The film was shot in an aggressive, highly kinetic style, with sweeping crane shots, fast dolly moves, and jump cuts.

Most of the film was shot on location in Salt Lake City, with a scene taking place in Evanston, Wyoming. Numerous scenes took place in locally well-known areas:

• The high school, which Heroin Bob calls "Southeast High", is West High School near downtown Salt Lake City.
• The scene where Heroin Bob chastises Stevo for using acid takes place at Presidents Circle at the University of Utah.
• Stevo introduces the "poseurs" and gives his "Who Started Punk Rock?" speech at the now-defunct Cottonwood Mall in Holladay, Utah. Sean's "women's clothing" job interview takes place inside a Cottonwood Mall storefront.
• Stevo and Sandy drop acid at Memory Grove Park, a World War I memorial park.
• Many exterior street scenes occur just north of the Frank E. Moss Federal Courthouse in the downtown area.
• The ECP concert was shot at the old Deseret News Paper Mill at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, posing as The SLC Indian Center.
• The scenes depicting Heroin Bob's funeral were shot inside and outside The Cathedral of the Madeleine. The cathedral is located just east of downtown Salt Lake City.
• The apartment where Stevo and Heroin Bob live was the Big D Construction building, across from Pioneer Park.
• The store where they bought the "Wyoming Beer" is 'Porter's Fireworks and Liquor' on the outskirts of Evanston.

1. "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" - The Suicide Machines (originally performed by Lynn Anderson)
2. "Sex and Violence" - The Exploited
3. "I Love Livin' in the City" - Fear
4. "1969" - The Stooges
5. "Too Hot" - The Specials
6. "Cretin Hop" - Ramones
7. "Dreaming" - Blondie
8. "Gangsters" - The Specials
9. "Kiss Me Deadly" - Generation X
10. "Rock N' Roll" - The Velvet Underground
11. "Gasoline Rain" - Moondogg
12. "Mirror in the Bathroom" - Fifi (originally performed by The English Beat)
13. "Amoeba" - The Adolescents
14. "Kill the Poor" - Dead Kennedys
15. "Look Back and Laugh" - Minor Threat

Eight Bucks Experiment, the band portraying fictional English band ECP, were featured on a European release of the soundtrack.[4] The three songs they recorded live for the punk concert scene were sent back to the band after filming. They self-released the songs on the One Of These Days EP through their Blue Moon Recordings label website.[5]

In April 2013, director James Merendino announced that a sequel to SLC Punk! titled Punk's Dead would begin filming later in the year and would be released in 2014 with most of the original cast reprising their roles. The film was successfully funded by an Indiegogo campaign launched on October 27, 2013, and completed on January 15, 2014. Merendino said of the sequel, “I made SLC Punk! when I was a kid, and accordingly, the story is naive, and, as just a coming of age story, not finished. The characters are facing big questions, 18 years later, as outsiders, punk rockers… What relevance do they have in a world where all statements have already been made? In the years since I made SLC Punk!, it has found a rather large and supportive following who have been very kind to me. So in making a sequel, I feel I owe it to those people to really do it right."[15]

In May 2014, the film was announced to be shooting in June, with its cast officially announced to include Devon Sawa, Michael Goorjian, Adam Pascal and James Duval returning as Sean, Heroin Bob, Eddie and John the Mod, respectively, with Ben Schnetzer appearing as Heroin Bob's son, Ross, Machine Gun Kelly as Crash, and Hannah Marks and Sarah Clarke will portray the female leads.[16] Also in May, Matthew Lillard and Jason Segel, who starred in the original film announced through social media that they will not be reprising their roles.[17][18]

In 1998 SLC Punk! was adapted into a comic book, illustrated by Dean Haspiel.[19]

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• SLC Punk! at IMDb
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• SLC Punk! at Rotten Tomatoes
• SLC Punk! at Metacritic