THE DRAMA

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film opens at a cafe, where Charlie Thompson (Robert Pattinson) sees Emma Harwood (Zendaya) reading a book. He quickly googles it to try and spark a conversation with her, but she doesn’t hear him. He tries to talk to her again but she reveals that she is deaf in her right ear and couldn’t hear him since she was listening to music. They agree to do over their introduction.

Charlie and Emma become a couple and are now set to be married two years later. Charlie is writing his wedding speech with his buddy Mike (Mamoudou Athie), while Emma is with Mike’s wife Rachel (Alana Haim) and their coworker Alice (Hannah Gross) and talking about how Charlie is the first guy that Emma has really ever had any feelings for. Charlie goes over some stuff with Mike, like how he is sort of put off by Emma’s laugh and having to be told by Mike not to talk about their sex life.

In the week leading up to the wedding, Charlie and Emma go through a few things. They get into an argument with their dance instructor for not taking things seriously. On their way home, they see their DJ Pauline (Sydney Lemmon) smoking heroin on the streets.

The couple are later joined by Mike and Rachel as they sample wines for the wedding, but the venue staff are annoyed at them treating the place like a bar. When Charlie and Emma bring up Pauline and consider firing her, Rachel suggests a game they call “The Dog Story”, which is about discussing the worst thing they have ever done. It is named because Mike used an ex-girlfriend as a human shield against a street dog in Mexico. Rachel says her thing was that she locked her “slow” neighbor in the closet of an abandoned RV and left him there until a search party had to go find him. Charlie can only come up with that he cyberbullied a kid when he was 14 and made his family move. Emma then confesses that, at the age of 15, she nearly committed a school shooting, and this explains why she is deaf in one ear, because she was practicing and put the gun too close to her head. This hits a nerve with Rachel, who says her cousin was confined to a wheelchair after a shooting.

Charlie starts to grow anxious and has second thoughts about the wedding. He tries to talk to Emma about it, and she recounts how, as a teenager (played by Jordyn Curet), she was bullied and planned to use her father’s rifle to kill her classmates. However, another shooting happened at the mall, claiming the life of one of Emma’s classmates. She would join the other students in anti-gun protests, finally finding other friends and disposing of her dad’s gun. Despite Charlie acting like he is understanding, he still shows discomfort, like throwing away a coffee mug that has a gun design on it.

Rachel tells Emma and Charlie that she’s not going to the wedding anymore despite being the maid of honor, especially since it’s implied Emma got Rachel kicked off a project at work. Charlie goes to talk to her, as he has begun trying to find ways to defend and reconcile with Emma’s confession. He relays a slightly altered story to Mike and Rachel that Emma told him about a neighbor of hers who died in a car accident when they were kids, though Charlie makes it seem like Emma’s mindset was broken over the death of a close friend. This makes Rachel reconsider.

Outside the building, Charlie runs into Rachel’s cousin Sam (Anna Baryshnikov), the one who was paralyzed. He awkwardly tries to introduce himself to her and makes her uncomfortable, saying that she “would love Emma”.

Later at work, Charlie talks to his coworker Misha (Hailey Benton Gates). He asks her hypothetically how she would feel if her boyfriend planned a school shooting when he was a teenager. She says she would probably call the police. Charlie breaks down and goes to a nearby office to cry. Misha goes to console him but he ends up kissing her and almost tries to have sex with her (which she seems to go along with), but he stops himself and apologizes for his behavior.

Emma and Charlie later meet with Pauline to discuss what they saw. She claims she wasn’t smoking heroin and calls Emma a cunt for this, so Pauline gets fired.

The day of the wedding arrives, and Charlie and Emma are married. During the reception, Emma’s father Roger (Damon Gumpton) gives a speech and alludes to the missing rifle. Rachel then gives a passive-aggressive speech to both Charlie and Emma.

During the break, Emma overhears Misha talking about a school shooting, thinking that Rachel talked to her about it. She grabs Misha and brings her to see Charlie. Misha inadvertently reveals that Charlie kissed her, which stuns Emma. They return to the reception, where Charlie gives a painfully awkward speech to Emma about loving her, but he still makes a comment about her laugh and their sex life. Then he mentions trying to cheat with Misha, leading her boyfriend Blake (Michael Abbott Jr) to get up and headbutt Charlie, leaving him with a bloody nose and black eyes. Emma goes home with her parents.

Charlie returns to his empty apartment and dances alone to a song that Emma knows cheers him up. He then goes alone to the diner near his place that he and Emma loved going to. He sits down, and Emma arrives moments later to join him. Before he can apologize for his actions, Emma talks to Charlie as though they are meeting for the first time, giving them a chance to start over. They take each others’ hands and smile.

In the days leading up to their wedding, Charlie and Emma's relationship is challenged when Emma confesses during a game that she nearly committed a school shooting when she was 15 due to excessive bullying. This alienates their friend Rachel, the maid of honor, while Charlie becomes uncomfortable and starts to reconsider the marriage. They encounter other problems, like firing their DJ because she was smoking heroin.

Charlie talks to Rachel and gets her to reconsider not attending the wedding. He also breaks down in front of a coworker, Misha, whom he then kisses and tries to have sex with before stopping himself.

On the day of the wedding, Rachel gives a passive-aggressive speech to Charlie and Emma. Emma later hears Misha mentioning a school shooting since Charlie asked her hypothetically how she would feel if her boyfriend Blake planned a shooting. This causes Emma to inadvertently find out about Charlie kissing Misha. Blake finds out and headbutts Charlie.

After the disastrous wedding, Charlie and Emma find each other at their favorite diner, and they appear to try to start over with their relationship.