The Faculty

Infobox Film
name=The Faculty


director=Robert Rodríguez
writer=Kevin Williamson David Wechter (story) Bruce Kimmel (story)
starring=Jordana Brewster Clea DuVall Laura Harris Josh Hartnett Shawn Hatosy Salma Hayek Famke Janssen Piper Laurie Bebe Neuwirth Robert Patrick Usher Raymond Jon Stewart Elijah Wood
producer=Elizabeth Avellan
music=Marco Beltrami
cinematography=Enrique Chediak
editing=Robert Rodríguez
distributor= Dimension
released=December 25, 1998
runtime=104 minutes
language=English
budget=$15,000,000 (estimated)
amg_id=1:174235
imdb_id=0133751

"The Faculty" is a 1998 horror/science-fiction film, written by Kevin Williamson, writer of "Scream" and its sequel, and directed by Robert Rodríguez, director of "Desperado" (sequel to "El Mariachi") and "From Dusk till Dawn". The film stars Elijah Wood, Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Usher, Josh Hartnett, Shawn Hatosy and Salma Hayek, Robert Patrick, Famke Janssen.

Plot

"The Faculty" is about a fictional high school, Herrington High School (said to be located somewhere 'in the middle of Ohio'), at which the faculty and staff become taken over by alien parasites. In turn, the faculty then infects the students with the organism. A rag-tag group of six students resists, including: Zeke Tyler (Josh Hartnett), a loner repeating his Senior year because he didn't care about graduating, whose parents travel constantly so as to 'get away from their big bastard mistake,' and who sells, among other illegal items, a cocaine-like drug of his own creation to his fellow students; Stan Rosado (Shawn Hatosy), a jock who decides his Senior year to quit the football team and focus on his academics; Stan's girlfriend Delilah Profit (Jordana Brewster), a popular, yet vindictive girl who is the editor in chief of the student paper; Casey Connor (Elijah Wood), an outcast picked on by the students at Northern Schools, who has a crush on Delilah, and who is intelligent and a photographer for the school newspaper; Stokely 'Stokes' Mitchell (Clea DuVall), a female outcast and literary buff who claims to be a lesbian in order to prove her independence from people, and has a crush on Stan; and Marybeth Louise Hutchinson (Laura Harris), the new girl at school, who came from Atlanta to live with relatives because her parents died in a car crash, and who has a crush on Zeke.

The aliens who take over the school do so by injecting a parasitic organism into the ear, which takes over the brain and creates what appears to be a different version of the person - one that desires to spread the parasite as much as it can. The faculty sends the entire student body to the nurse, Rosa Harper (Salma Hayek) for ear inspections, where they are taken over by the parasite. Before this, however, Casey has figured out their plot (he and Delilah are hiding in the teacher's lounge closet when they first see the nurse attacked by Coach Willis (Robert Patrick) and Mrs. Olson (Piper Laurie) and then taken over by the parasite), and he warns Delilah, Stokely - turning to her to seek information on fictional examples of invasions such as "The Body Snatchers" - and Stan. Joined by Zeke and Marybeth, who overhear them talking of aliens in the science lab, they are all convinced of Casey's theory when Mr. Furlong (Jon Stewart), the science teacher, enters the room and attempts to infect them with the alien. Zeke pulls out a pen filled with his drug, and jams it into Furlong's eye, which then dries out the alien inside of him, as the drug is a diuretic and the aliens require water to cope with life on Earth; an older teacher made a poor host as she lacked the necessary water for the alien to exist.

Thus, they all leave the school, which has become completely infected (the entire student body stares at them), and go to Zeke's house with a sample of the parasite, where they verify that Zeke's drug is diuretic/desiccant and dries the alien out. Stokely speculates that destroying the queen alien will kill all the parasites, without killing their victims. Soon, the group becomes suspicious of each other, each of them citing such actions as Stan's recent shift from football to academics and Casey's sudden courage as potential evidence that they aren't who they say they are. In a scene that parallel's John Carpenter's "The Thing," they each take turns snorting the drug to prove that they have not been infected. When Delilah's turn came, she refused, revealing that she had already been infected. She then destroys most of Zeke's supply of the drug, as well as his equipment for producing it, before getting away by bursting through the wall. With the remainder of his drug, The remaining five go to the school (where the entire town is watching the school football game). They succeed in killing Principal Drake (Bebe Neuwirth), but the other hosts remain unaffected. Stan subsequently becomes infected when he goes onto the field to investigate. Because they ran out of their supply of the drug, Zeke and Casey decide to go to Zeke's car for more. Marybeth and Stokely wait inside the school gym for their return. While Casey serves as a decoy, Zeke goes to his car. There, he encounters Miss Burke (Famke Janssen), who is infected; he decapitates her by driving into a bus, though she survives and reattaches her head.

At the same time, Marybeth reveals herself to be the queen alien by changing into a large aquatic creature; when snorting the drug, she blocked up her nostrils and tipped out the drug while everyone was distracted by Delilah. Casey returns before Zeke, and he and Stokely must run from the transformed Marybeth. Zeke returns with more of the drug, only to find that Stokely, too, has been infected. After confirming that Casey remains human, the two of them try to fight Marybeth in the locker room, but Zeke is knocked out, leaving only Casey. In an attempt to talk Casey into surrendering, Marybeth delivers a speech about how she crashed onto Earth, came to their school, found all of them alienated and unhappy, and started infecting them in order to create a better life for the entire world, one of harmony and acceptance, and then attempts to seduce him by appearing naked. Casey rejects her advances, running through the back of the gym's bleachers after triggering them to collapse against the wall, and the alien (having chased him) becomes trapped. Casey then stabs the drug into her eye, killing her.

After this, these five adolescents are completely changed: Zeke applies his genius to schoolwork and joins the football team (and seems to be dating Miss Burke); Stan and Stokely become boyfriend and girlfriend; Stokely changes her appearance and is happy now; Delilah and Casey become boyfriend and girlfriend; Casey is more accepted at school (with various papers talking about his extraterrestrial encounter, despite the official denial of the FBI), and Delilah is no longer vindictive. In the background of the final scene, students are seen bullying another student in the same way they picked on Casey, signaling that some things still don't change.

Cast

*Jordana Brewster as Delilah Profitt
*Clea DuVall as Stokely 'Stokes' Mitchell
*Laura Harris as Marybeth Louise Hutchinson
*Josh Hartnett as Zeke Tyler
*Shawn Hatosy as Stan Rosado
*Salma Hayek as Nurse Rosa Harper
*Famke Janssen as Miss Elizabeth Burke
*Bebe Neuwirth as Principal Valerie Drake
*Robert Patrick as Coach Joe Willis
*Usher Raymond as Gabe Santora
*Jon Stewart as Professor Furlong
*Piper Laurie as Mrs. Karen Olson
*Christopher McDonald as Mr. Frank Connor (Casey's father)
*Elijah Wood as Casey Connor
*Summer Phoenix as F%#K You Girl
*Jon Abrahams as F%#K You Boy
*Harry Knowles as Mr. Knowles

oundtrack

Infobox Album
Name = The Faculty: Music from the Dimension Motion Picture
Type = Soundtrack
Artist = various artists


Released = December 8, 1998
Recorded =
Genre = Industrial
Britpop
Alternative metal
Alternative rock
Length =
Label = Sony
Producer =
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|2|5 [http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:wnfrxqwjldde link]
Chronology = Robert Rodriguez film soundtrack
Last album = "From Dusk Till Dawn" (1996)
This album = "The Faculty" (1998)
Next album = "Spy Kids"
(2001)The score is composed by Marco Beltrami, who had previously scored the teen-slasher-horror film, "Scream", as well as "Mimic". Both Beltrami's score [ [http://www.soundtrack.net/albums/database/?id=2443 SoundtrackNet : The Faculty Soundtrack ] ] and songs by various artists used in the film were released as albums. The "music from the motion picture" album features songs by various indie and alternative rock groups.

Track listing

# "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" - Class of '99
# "The Kids Aren't Alright" - The Offspring
# "I'm Eighteen" - Creed
# "Helpless" - D Generation
# "School's Out" - Soul Asylum
# "Medication" - Garbage
# "Haunting Me" - Stabbing Westward
# "Maybe Someday" - Flick
# "Resuscitation" - Sheryl Crow
# "It's Over Now" - Neve
# "Changes" - Shawn Mullins
# "Stay Young" - Oasis
# "Another Brick in the Wall" - Class of '99

Filming locations

"The Faculty" takes place in fictional "Herrington, Ohio" but was filmed at the following locations:
* Austin, Texas
* Dallas, Texas
* Lockhart, Texas

DVD release

"The Faculty" was one of the few Robert Rodriguez films not to receive special treatment on DVD. Missing are traditional extras typical for a Robert Rodriguez DVD including "10 Minute Film School", audio commentary and making-of featurettes. Fans attribute this to the fact that this was the only Rodriguez film that he didn't write himself, aside from collaborations "From Dusk till Dawn" (written by his friend and frequent collaborator Quentin Tarantino) and "Sin City" (by the film's co-director Frank Miller), leading many to believe that he only directed it because of a contractual obligation with Miramax.Fact|date=August 2007

The absence of deleted scenes or a director's cut version of the film on DVD is especially disappointing to fans since several scenes involving an additional character named Venus, played by Kidada Jones, were shown in previews but cut from the film.Fact|date=August 2007

Trivia

* The car Zeke drives is a 1970 Pontiac GTO.
* The film was named Parasite パラサイト (Parasaito) in Japan.
* The film's VHS and DVD cover features Usher, but not Shawn Hatosy (who plays Stan), making it seem like Usher's character is a main protagonist.
* The character portrayed by Jon Stewart is named Edward Furlong, which is the name of the actor who played John Connor in "". Coincidentally, Robert Patrick, who played the T-1000 in "Terminator 2", also stars here as coach Joe Willis.
* According to the commentary track for the special edition DVD of "Sin City", Robert Rodriguez stated that he met Jessica Alba when she auditioned for a role in this film.
* The Game Obscure was inspired by the Story from the Movie.

References

External links

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