SENIOR YEAR
*CUT TO THE CHASE*NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy
The film starts with Stephanie Conway (Rebel Wilson) asking her father Jim (Chris Parnell) to help her record a livestream video to social media. She begins explaining everything that led up to an incident from the night before, going all the way back to when she was a teenager.
In high school, Stephanie (here played by Angourie Rice) had moved to the US from Australia at the age of 14 in 1999. While throwing a birthday party at a popular bowling alley, Stephanie was with her parents plus her only two friends, Martha Reiser (Molly Brown) and Seth Novacelik (Zaire Adams). She became infatuated with popular boy Blaine Balbo (Tyler Barnhardt), but he was already with popular girl Tiffany Blanchette (Ana Yi Puig), and they both laughed at Stephanie’s dorky friends. From there, Stephanie becomes focused on becoming popular.
By the time she is a senior in high school, Stephanie has become cheerleading captain and is dating Blaine, even though Seth has a crush on her, and Tiffany is now her rival. Her mother has also long since passed away. Stephanie is obsessed with becoming prom queen alongside Blaine, as she emulates a former cheerleading captain/prom queen, Deanna Russo (Alicia Silverstone). During a pep rally, the cheerleaders gather for a move that involves throwing Stephanie into the air, but the team fails to catch her and she ends up falling hard.
20 years later, Stephanie finally wakes up but is now 37. She is stunned to see that she is an adult, but is later met by Jim and Martha (now played by Mary Holland), who are both happy she is awake. When she is being driven home, they pass by Deanna’s old house, which is where Stephanie wanted to live. Blaine (now played by Justin Hartley) lives there but he is married to Tiffany (now played by Zoe Chao). Both of them express surprise at Stephanie being awake. Seth (now played by Sam Richardson) later stops by and leaves a yearbook from their graduating year, with a memorial page for Stephanie made in one section.
Feeling like she has a chance to get what she always wanted, Stephanie convinces Martha – who is now the principal of their old high school – to allow her to enroll for the final month of classes so that she can graduate and go to prom. Jim and Martha show Stephanie their support despite knowing how weird it sounds. She quickly befriends teens Janet (Avantika Vandanapu) and Yaz (Joshua Colley). She also finds out that Blaine and Tiffany’s daughter Bri (Jade Bender) is the popular girl at school. Seth is the school librarian to Stephanie’s surprise, and prom king/queen elections have been removed because Martha discourages popularity contests and competition.
Stephanie continues her obsession with being popular once she is gifted an iPhone and tries to get followers on social media. She hangs out with Janet and Yaz, and other students who were not invited to one of Bri’s ultra-exclusive parties, so Stephanie shows them how to do a dance from a Britney Spears song.
The school hosts a PTA event ahead of prom, which Tiffany is in charge of organizing, and because of her involvement, tickets cost more than they should. Stephanie and the other cheerleaders do a provocative dance that she taught them, which gets Blaine’s attention. He approaches Stephanie after the performance and offers to reconnect with her.
Martha later chastises Stephanie for the cheerleader dance before going into why she put her rules into effect. She was a closeted lesbian in high school and felt like she never fit in because of it, which made Stephanie becoming popular more upsetting for her because she feels like she was pushed aside.
Stephanie later goes with Seth to a screening of “Deep Impact” since Blaine and Tiffany will be there. Stephanie deliberately annoys Tiffany and gets her to cause a scene that gets Tiffany kicked out. Seth acknowledges that Stephanie is just using him to get Blaine’s attention, but he still enjoys spending time with her.
The prom elections are reinstated, and Tiffany begins to push for Bri to win just to spite Stephanie. Stephanie then invites the other students to a prom afterparty at Martha’s house. Seth accompanies Stephanie to the prom, where they join Janet and Yaz. Tiffany rigs the elections for Bri to win, but she dropped out after seeing how obsessed her mom was about it, so Stephanie wins prom queen alongside Bri’s boyfriend. Tiffany is pissed. Things are looking fun for everyone, but Seth is upset when he sees Blaine trying to make a move on Stephanie and thinks she is still into him.
The students later go to the afterparty, but Tiffany calls the cops and gets Stephanie in trouble with Martha when she goes home and finds out. Martha yells at Stephanie. Meanwhile, Bri confronts Tiffany about calling the cops, leading to Blaine admitting that their marriage is miserable and that Tiffany is still obsessed with being popular over Stephanie and everyone else. Stephanie is driven home and is surprised that her driver is Deanna. After Stephanie says she always thought she went on to have a perfect life, Deanna admits that her life after prom night was awful since her husband left her for a younger woman and she had no prospects, but she is doing better now and is working toward a degree and career.
Stephanie does some self-reflecting and thinks about how silly her goals were. She thinks about how Martha and Seth were always there for her. She talks to Jim, who reassures her that people love her whether or not she is popular. Stephanie finishes her video from earlier so that Martha and Seth can see it and see that she is sorry. Tiffany also stops by to Stephanie’s house where they finally bury the hatchet, but Stephanie reminds Tiffany to be a better mom to Bri.
The students all graduate, with Stephanie joining them. The cheerleaders then do Stephanie’s dance and include her and Tiffany in it. Stephanie and Seth also finally kiss, with everyone cheering them on.
Stephanie Conway was always obsessed with being popular and becoming prom queen. After a cheerleading accident leaves her in a coma, Stephanie wakes up 20 years later and resolves to finish her senior year since one of her old best friends, Martha, is now school principal.
Stephanie befriends teens Janet and Yaz as she gains followers and popularity again, while still feuding with her old rival Tiffany, who married her old boyfriend Blaine and has a popular daughter, Bri. Although Tiffany tries to rig prom elections so Bri can win, Bri drops out and Stephanie wins, but Martha and other best friend Seth are upset with her because she is once again pushing them aside in favor of popularity.
After realizing her mistakes, Stephanie makes up with Martha and Seth, starts a relationship with Seth, buries the hatchet with Tiffany, and graduates with all her new friends.