Mean Girls(2004)

1h 37m
- Comedy

Release Date: Apr 30, 2004 | Wide

84%
66%
A-
7.1

Cady Heron is a hit with The Plastics, the A-list girl clique at her new school, until she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels, the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George.

Releases

Original Release | Apr 30, 2004

2024 Re-release (20th Anniversary) (Fathom Entertainment) | Oct 3, 2024

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Box Office Results

All Releases (2)
Total US & Canada:
$86,058,055
Total International
$44,098,156
Total Worldwide:
$130,192,622

Total US & Canada:
$86,058,055
Total International
$44,067,774
Total Worldwide:
$130,135,898

Current Showtimes

Your Location or

(U.S. Only)

Director & Top Cast

Mark Waters
Director

Lorne Michaels

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Dolby Digital,DTS

Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States,Canada

Language: English,German,Vietnamese,Swahili

Summaries

Plot Summary

Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is the 16-year-old home-schooled daughter of zoologist parents (Ana Gasteyer and Neil Flynn). They have returned to the US after residing in Africa for many years. Cady is unprepared for her first day of public high school. With the help of Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damien (Daniel Franzese), Cady learns about the various cliques. She is warned to avoid the school's most exclusive clique, the Plastics, the reigning trio of girls led by the queen bee Regina George (Rachel McAdams). However, the Plastics take a shine to Cady and invite her to sit with them at lunch and go shopping with them after school. Later that day, Cady becomes infatuated with her classmate Aaron; Gretchen warns her that as Regina's ex, he is off-limits. Upon realizing that Cady has been accepted into the Plastics, Janis hatches a plan to get revenge on Regina, using Cady to infiltrate the Plastics.Having ingratiated herself with the Plastics per Janis' plan, Cady learns about the "Burn Book", a top-secret notebook of Regina's filled with vicious rumors, secrets, and gossip about all the other girls (and teachers) in their class. Cady soon falls in love with Regina's ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett), whom Regina successfully steals back from Cady in a fit of jealousy. At a Halloween house party, instead of talking to Aaron on Cady's behalf, Regina kisses him in front of her and resumes their relationship.Hurt and frustrated, Cady continues with Janis' plan which involves cutting off Regina's "resources", which include separating her from her boyfriend Aaron, destroying her beauty, and turning Regina's fellow Plastics, insecure rich girl Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) and sweet but ditsy Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried), against her.At first, the trio's plans backfire, and worse, even increases Regina's popularity. Cady then starts pretending failure at math to get Aaron's attention and soon choreographs Aaron's breakup with Regina by confessing Regina's infidelity with another boy. Cady also convinces Regina to eat high-calorie nutrition bars (called Kalteen) by claiming that they actually help one lose weight. She also turns Gretchen against Regina by making her think Regina thinks of Cady as a better friend instead of her. After violating the Plastics' dress code rules by wearing sweatpants, the only thing that fit her, Regina is banished, and Cady becomes the new "queen bee".In her efforts to get revenge on Regina, Cady gradually loses her individual personality and remakes herself in the image of Regina. Her act soon becomes reality, and she becomes as spiteful as Regina, abandoning Janis and Damien in the process and focusing more on her image.With her parents out of town, Cady throws a house party. Drunk, she admits to Aaron that she doesn't really need math tutoring, and he renounces her as being no better than Regina. Janis confronts Cady for throwing a party instead of attending her art show and declares that she has become as plastic as she pretended to be. Meanwhile, Regina discovers Cady's sabotage and pastes her own photo in the Burn Book to frame Cady, Karen, and Gretchen.Regina strikes back, spreading the entire contents of her Burn Book around the school, inciting a riot. To avoid suspicion, Regina also inserts a fake slander of herself in the book in order to focus blame on Cady, Gretchen, and Karen. The riot is eventually quelled by Principal Duvall (Tim Meadows). Principal Duvall and math teacher Ms. Norbury gather the female junior students in the gym to talk through their social issues.Math teacher Ms. Norbury (Tina Fey), who also appeared in the Burn Book in which Cady slandered her by saying that she sold drugs, makes the girls realize that all of them are guilty of hurting their peers. She has each girl confess and apologize to the rest of the girls. When Janis' turn came, Regina made an insulting joke about her sexuality, to which the crowd laughs at. Janis retaliates by confessing her plan to destroy Regina with Cady's help and openly mocks Regina with the support of the entire school. Regina storms out, pursued by an apologetic Cady, and gets hit by a school bus in her haste. Rumors circulate that Cady intentionally pushed Regina in front of the bus.Now without friends, shunned by Aaron, and distrusted by everyone at school (even being distrusted by her own mother), Cady decides to make amends by taking full blame for the Burn Book. Though severely punished by her confession, her guilt dissolves and she returns to her old personality.As part of her punishment and her reformation, she joins the Mathletes, which Damien and Regina both described earlier as "social suicide," in their competition. There, Cady has an epiphany while competing against a very unattractive girl, realizing that even if she made fun of the girl's appearance it would not stop the girl from beating her.At the Spring Fling dance, Cady is elected Spring Fling Queen, but in her acceptance speech, she declares her victory is meaningless: they are all wonderful in their own way and thus the victory belongs to everyone. As a symbolic gesture, she breaks her tiara and distributes the pieces to her classmates. Cady makes up with Janis and Damien, reconciles with Aaron, and reaches a truce with the Plastics.The Plastics disband by the start of the new school year: Regina joins the lacrosse team as a way to channel her anger positively, Karen becomes the school weather girl (claiming that her breasts can always tell when it is raining), Gretchen joins the "Cool Asians" clique and is their biggest follower, and Cady dates Aaron as well as hanging out with Janis, who starts a relationship with Cady's fellow Mathlete Kevin, and Damien. Now reasonably well-liked, Cady reflects that the "Girl World" she lives in is at peace.

Storyline

Lindsay Lohan stars as Cady Heron, a 16 year old homeschooled girl who not only makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett), the ex-boyfriend of queenbee Regina George (Rachel McAdams), but also unintentionally joins The Plastics, led by Regina herself. Join Cady as she learns that high school life can and will be really tough. — Bash Cleesattel After moving to a high school, a young female does everything that she can to become friends with a group of females but everyone else warns her not to. After ignoring all of the warnings, she quickly gets into a feud with the leader of the group which the whole high school gets involved with. — RECB3 Her parents being zoologists, Cady Heron has never known what "high school" truly meant. She lived her first 15 years in the African jungle, home-schooled, living life with only her parents and the animals of the wilderness, knowing all the rules of survival. But when she leaves Africa, she has to learn the rules of high school, which is a jungle in itself. It doesn't take long before she meets two sweet teenagers, Damian and Janis. But in terms of high school they are known as the "out crowd." Soon she meets the Plastics, the three crude, beautiful, popular girls, consisting of Regina, the unofficial leader, Gretchen, who would do anything for Regina, and Karen, "one of the dumbest people you will ever meet." After just a few minutes they let her into their group, but Cady wants to keep her first friends and isn't really sure. But Damien and Janis think it might be fun to play a game with the Plastics, so they convince Cady to keep her relationship with them, only to learn all their darkest secrets and then laugh at them. Things do not go as planned when Cady falls in love with Regina's ex-boyfriend Aaron. When Regina finds out, she seeks revenge on Cady by taking Aaron back. What began as a game to discover secrets turns into a plan to destroy Regina, as Cady, Janis, and Damian plot together to bring Regina's status down. However, as Cady spends more time with the Plastics, she, too, begins to become one. — Michelle K. P. Cady Heron moves to a new home from the bush country of Africa. She goes to a new school where she meets Janis and Damian. Her new friends warn her to stay away from the Plastics: the A-list, popular, crude, and beautiful clique headed by Regina George with Gretchen and Karen. When Cady sees Aaron Samuels, she falls in love. When Regina discovers this, she seeks revenge by taking and dangling Aaron in front of Cady. Now Cady, Janis, and Damian plot to bring Regina's status down. However, as Cady continues to spend more time with the Plastics, she begins to become one of them. — Max Alexander 1 more All