diddly films
The Boy in the Plastic Bubble Diddly Meter : 3.5/ 5
Tagline: He is forced to choose between confinement and life, or love and death. Opening Credits: On rainy Saturdays during college, after far-too-many cans of Milwaukee’s Best Light, my friends and I would often stumble into Second Time Around, a local used record & DVD store. Dayton, Ohio, where we went to school, is a city that spends most of its time trying to reclaim the phrase “First in Flight” that was stolen from them when the famous Daytonians Orville and Wilbur Wright chose to ditch their hometown and instead change history in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It’s a town that is now so centered on the college surrounding it that you could barely find a day when the University of Dayton wasn’t sprinkling the front page of local newspaper, the Dayton Daily News. It was, quite simply, a boring Southwestern Ohio town. That’s why I was so surprised with the selection at Second Time Around. You could find some really obscure movies there, many of which will be reviewed on this website. My friend Johnny and I were extremely excited one day when we found “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble,” starring John Travolta. The $1 DVD came with a cover that was graced with a fantastic picture of pre-Saturday Night Fever John, his first time proving the effect that feathered hair and dimples could have. The movie also came with a quiz, meant to be taken after viewing. An early Travolta film AND a QUIZ about an early Travolta film – what could be better than that? It was a definite purchase. Feature Presentation: Here’s the rundown: It’s 1959 and Mr. and Mrs. Lubitch, a young white suburban couple, are having trouble producing a baby ‘bitch. They’ve tried before without luck and, praying they wont lose another kid, decide to try one more time. When they find out they are, in fact, preggers, they only slightly jump for joy, for they know it could turn out to be a “defected child.” Sure enough, out pops the soon-to-be Travolta, a baby completely lacking immunities who is forced to live inside a bubble the rest of his life. At that point “defected" was an understatement – they knew they were completely fucked. Little Todd Lubitch spends the first two years of his life living inside a glass tube in a hospital room. His parents visit every day, “hugging” him through protective gloves that were positioned in various holes throughout the glass. A very Asian-looking toddler, Todd seems content in his tube. His mother, on the other hand, feels cheated out of motherhood and decides to bring her boy home. And Todd Lubitch coming home is BIG NEWS. When the car arrives home, Todd and his father are swarmed by the press. Mr. Lubitch, overwhelmed with the disaster that is his son, gets upset and begins pushing the journalists. It is then that we get our first glimpse of the heroine of the film, Gina Biggs, the blonde daughter of the Lubitches’ next door neighbors. As if to confirm what we’re all thinking, she points at Todd and calls him a monster. Mr. Lubitch, in an effort to reassure the “paparazzi” or just make himself feel better, screams at those standing by: “My son is not a freak!” The film then cuts to the teenage era of Todd’s life. Our main character has yet to develop any immunities but has acquired a large number of brightly colored biker shorts. He’s still confined to, not a bubble (to clarify, there are no bubbles in this movie), but a 2-room plastic complex that is basically a glorified incubator stocked with tables, a bed, a refrigerator and a record player. Todd spends most of his days reading and dancing to the worst 70s music I've ever heard. He also is a creepy stalker to the now rebellious, cigarette smoking teen Gina. Although she disses him around her friends, you can tell she's compassionate to his situation.  In order for Todd to attempt a normal life, Todd begins to monitor classes at the local high school with a '70s version of a web cam. Basically they set up a large TV screen at the front of the classroom for Todd to watch classes. Being the goofball that he is, Todd makes fun of the teacher behind his back and gains respect from his fellow classmates. Since Gina is a moron and pothead and is failing all her classes, Todd tutors her and the two eventually form a bond. That bond develops into love and makes Todd question his sheltered life within a bubble palace. Someone then has the brilliant idea of allowing Todd to attend school in a orange colored moon suit that allows him to breathe sufficiently outside. Gina and her gang invite Todd to join them as they go smoke up on the football field and there ensues a horrific close encounter with air akin to the Martin Lawrence Bad Boys strip club suffocation scene. As Todd plays around with his new friends on the field, his suit malfunctions and he starts losing air. He is rushed away, so close to death that its not even funny....except that it is.  After this incident, Todd has had enough. He's sick of living in a bubble, of not experiencing and enjoying life. In the final moments of the film, Todd first raids Jesus' wardrobe and grabs a long, white Jerusalem-circa-1 B.C. outfit then decides once and for all to stay trapped in his bubble or face the world. Should Have Happened Ending: John Travolta steps out of the bubble and dies. Literally. Of some unknown disease. Henry Winkler then stars in Grease, Leif Garrett in Saturday Night Fever. Both films bomb at the box office. Future celebrities, having no one's lead to follow, do not become scientologists. Everyone is happy.
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