Movie Motto: "Talk Hard!"

Starring: Mark Hunter (Christian Slater) and Nora DeNiro (Samantha Mathis). In the movie PUMP UP THE VOLUME, Mark Hunter has just moved to Arizona from the East Coast. He starts school at Hubert Humfrey High School (HHH) & is a shy, smart, yet unpopular student. His English teacher believes he's a talented writter; however, Once it hits 10pm, he's "Happy Harry Hard On," a hard talking, sarcastic, and popular DJ. He has gained the respect of the students at HHH and they send him fan/hate mail and many listen to his show every night. He has a favorite listener who has recieved the name, "the Eat Me Beat Me Lady," for letters she writes to him, which he reads over the radio. The Eat me beat me lady writes her intense letters "always on the same red paper, in black same black hand writting"

Mark, being the son of a school commissioner, has access to records and letters written about the school and the students. He has a copy of all the phone numbers of the teachers at HHH and makes it his quest to see what's hidden by the Principal of HHH.

Nora reveals Mark by taking notes from his show gathering hints like: He eats lunch in stairs, sits alone reading a book, and chews Black Jack gum. She first meets Mark Hunter in the library when he returns a book entitled "How to talk dirty and influence people," by Lenny Bruce with a late charge of .25 cents. She ultimately goes searching for people sitting on the stairs and finds Mark sitting reading a book. She appouches him saying, "Got a stick of gum?, Black Jack?" then asks, "Are you really as horny as a ten-peckered owl?" She then introduces herself as Nora. Mark, being the shy guy that he truly is, gives his name and scampers away. As Nora continues her investigation she follows Mark to a Post Office. As Mark comes out reading her letter, she appears from behind, and reveals herself as the Eat Me Beat Me Lady, and reads the letter from memory that he holds in his hands.

After Mark failed to tell a student not to kill himself, he ends up on the run from the FCC. He asks Nora's help him finish what he's started and they hop into his moms jeep that he's converted into a mobile Radio Station. Nora drives as Mark reveals the principals secret to having a school with the highest test scores in he state. A severe bump renders Mark's voice harmonizer (disguising his voice) and Mark and Nora end up with no choice but to drive down the hill and into the crowd of students: his identity revealed.

Quotes:
Happy Harry Hardon: You ever get the feeling that everything in America is completely fucked up. You know that feeling that the whole country is like one inch away from saying 'That's it, forget it'. I mean think about it. Everything is polluted. The environment, the government, the schools you name it.
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Happy Harry Hardon: Is it bigger than a baby's arm....
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Happy Harry Hardon: one day I woked up and I realised I was never going to be normal and so I said fuck it, I said so be it and Happy Harry Hardon was born.
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Happy Harry Hardon: Then why not do something crazy? It makes a hell of a lot of sense than blowing your fucking brains out you know. Go nuts, go crazy.

Facts:
*Lala Sloatman (Janie) and Ahmet Zappa (Jamie) are real life cousins, but played girlfriend/boyfriend in the movie.
*Christian Slater became physically ill several times during filming due to all the cigarette smoking he had to do.

Movie Goofs:
* Revealing mistakes: There is one shot of the exterior of Hubert Humphrey High where you can clearly see what the name "Saugus" painted on the building. It is the library of the real school, Saugus High School, in Santa Clarita, CA.
* Continuity: Hard Harry uses a voice disguiser, but in the recordings of his show, his voice is unmasked.
* Continuity: When a tape of one of Harry's radio shows is played later at school, it sounds different than the original recording.
* Continuity: The record in Mark's hand as he gets a stamp from his father's study.
* Continuity: Everyone wears the same clothes on two different days.
* Continuity: When Mark reads the letter from Malcolm, it's a page long, handwritten, when the actual letter was only a sentence long and written on computer.
* Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Mark is driving around in the jeep, his lips don't match what he's saying.
* Continuity: During Mark's last broadcast, we see all three FCC vans leave the school field. In a subsequent long shot of all the students cheering and dancing, all three vans are in the field again.
* Revealing mistakes: When the Hunters go to listen to Happy Harry Hardon, the stereo is never turned on; the model shown lights up its tuning window when turned on.
* Errors in geography: In the opening credits of the movie we see several letters addressed to Hard Harry in Paradise Valley, Arizona clearly written with a zip code of 34012, a few minutes later Hard Harry says to send him mail using the zip code 84012. The actual zip code is 85253.

Inspired by True Events?!
This quote was found: HERE.
"i loved this film as a kid and imagine my surprise when i did some research and found that this film was inspired by real life events written about in the montreal gazette in 1987. the boy, now a man, Dan Sandor, ran a pirate raadio station from his home in suburban Montreal and instead of being the voice of a generation he was instead called by litle old ladies requesting Perry Como in the mid afternnon, among other, more curent requests. He subsequently got in some trouble for it and hence the newspaper articles. if only 'my bad' was a legit excuse then!
This man is now running the biggest non-union talent agency in Canada and is running for city council as well, still fighting for the rights of the unheard and unrepresented, and I am proud to say, is my agent and a great guy. I can't imagine a better agent for a huge film freak like myself.
just thought you'd all like to know a little piece of film trivia and Canadiana.
talk hard!"

If you like Pump Up the Volume, the following films may interest you
• The Breakfast Club
• Say Anything
• Dead Poets Society
• This Boy's Life
• Flirting
• Rebel Without a Cause
• Stand and Deliver
• School Ties
• Heathers
• The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love

Soundtrack Songs...
1. Everybody Knows - Concrete Blonde
2. Why Can't I Fall In Love - Ivan Neville
3. Stand - Liquid Jesus
4. Wave Of Mutilation (U.K. Surf) - The Pixies
5. I've Got A Secret Miniature Camera - Peter Murphy
6. Kick Out The Jams - Bad Brains
7. Freedom Of Speech - Above The Law
8. Heretic - Soundgarden
9. Titanium Expose - Sonic Youth
10. Me And The Devil Blues - Cowboy Junkies
11. Tale O' The Twister - Chagall Guevara

Slater's Cell Phone Debacle. (Big Download, 38 minutes, Blackout prank call)
D...A...N...D...E.. .L...L...
..................dan....dell?
dandell!
...
i have a blue phone and there's a picture of a street on it... it's the MOST expensive one -- i got everything!
no, YOU call ME.. and um.. leave a message on my machine
..
who are you?
..
MONKEY!