Dead Man on Campus
| Dead Man on Campus | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Alan Cohn |
| Produced by | Gale Anne Hurd |
| Screenplay by | Michael Traeger Mike White |
| Story by | Anthony Abrams Adam Larson Broder |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Mark Mothersbaugh |
| Cinematography | John A. Thomas |
| Edited by | Debra Chiate |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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96 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $14 million |
| Box office | $15,064,946 |
Dead Man on Campus is a 1998 black comedy film starring Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Tom Everett Scott. It centers on the urban legend that a student gets straight As if their roommate commits suicide (see pass by catastrophe). Two friends attempt to find a depressed roommate to push him over the edge and receive As. To boost ticket sales in the theater, the film's US release was timed with the start of the new college school year in late August 1998. It is the first film by MTV Films to have an R rating. The film was shot at University of the Pacific in . The Curve, also known as Dead Man's Curve, which came out in the same year, uses a similar plotline.
Josh (Tom Everett Scott) gets into college on a scholarship, and Cooper (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) is assigned as his roommate. Cooper does little work and instead spends all the time partying and consistently fails his courses, but his father continues to pay his tuition. The normally studious Josh is led astray by Cooper's lifestyle, and spends the first half of his first semester partying instead of studying, and consequently flunks all of his midterms. To his horror, he then finds out that a condition of his scholarship is a passing grade average each semester, and that with his poor midterm score, he needs an A+++ (which is impossible) in all of his courses or he will lose his scholarship.
Meanwhile, Cooper's father finally realizes Cooper is not trying to pass his course at all, and threatens to pull his funding if he does not get a passing grade this semester, leaving him in a similar position. They find out about an obscure academic rule that states that if a student's roommate commits suicide, then the roommates get perfect grades for that semester, regardless of any previous academic standing. It is based on the assumption, as Cooper says, that the remaining roommates will be so depressed and traumatized by the death, they will not be able to participate in classes, and that it would be cruel and unethical to then fail them. Cooper and Josh set out to find roommates who are likely to commit suicide; their first potential roommate, Cliff O'Malley (Lochlyn Munro), is more likely to get himself (and any one with him) killed than commit suicide. They soon realize that he will likely get them killed or arrested and jump out of his moving car when he is being chased by the police.
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