13: The Musical is a film adaptation that follows a 12 year old as he moves from NYC to Indiana after his parents divorce, as he navigates his upcoming bar-mitzvah and making new friends. The movie is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Evan Goldman is a 12 year old who is made to shift to Indiana after his parents divorce, leaving his previous life behind just before his 13th birthday.
He and his mother move into his grandmother’s home and begin life afresh, albeit with a rocky and unwilling start. Evan begins to ignore all of his fathers calls as he is upset because of the sudden changes he has had to face because of their decision to get divorced.
Evan comes across his childhood friend Patrice, who comes to return a book back to his grandmother. She shows Evan around the town, which is unfortunately a place with not much to do around.
Patrice is a young, environmentally conscious activist, intent on filing a petition that Evan promises he would help her out with while planning for his bar mitzvah.
A bunch of other characters is also introduced with songs and dance, each going through their own teenage thoughts and feelings.
Evan gravitates towards the popular crowd, and doesn’t heed Patrice’s advice to stay away. He leaves her alone and rushes to be friends with Kendra and Brett, on the opposite end of the school social ladder.
A love triangle forms up between Kendra, Brett and Kendra’s best friend, Lucy, while Evan works on planning his own big party for his bar mitzvah, but now without Patrice helping out.
Attempts at getting a first kiss for Brent and Kendra form another important plot point, and Lucy tries to put a spoke in all their plans and she even tries to bribe Evan using his bar mitzvah as bait.
Evan ideates on a way to foil their attempts with Archie’s help, and a huge group goes to watch a movie together, only to get interrupted by their parents.
The whole plan falls apart, and his peers put the blame on Evan, turning him into a social outcast. It was Patrice who told Evan’s mother because she felt that he was using Archie to aid his plans for his big party.
At the same time, Lucy goes to comfort Brett and kisses him. Kendra sees this happening and is upset and distraught that her best friend would do such a thing.
Everything goes wrong for the core characters at this point, as the teenagers grow, and learn to battle loneliness, friendship and their feelings.
13: The Musical ending explained in detail:
Does Evan make up with his dad?
After everything goes wrong, Evan finally answers his father’s calls and seeks his advice.
The two apologise to each other and his father shares his wisdom on the importance of maintaining relationships, especially after hurting loved ones.
They talk about fixing mistakes and learning to forgive loved ones, raising hopes for a happy reconciliation between the father-son duo.
This also prompts him to make amends with his friends, and he voices out another idea to get Kendra and Brett back together.
Do Evan and his new friendships get a happy resolution?
After his talk with his father, Evan overhears Brett complaining about Lucy to the rest of his friends, and jumps in to try to make things right.
He convinces Brett to speak to Kendra and apologise, and the plan works. Everyone realises that Evan was just trying to help, and Lucy was the one at fault.
Evan apologises to Patrice as well, and he drops a scrapbook full of their memories at her doorstep, hoping to finally make things right between the two of them. She attends his bar mitzvah, and they make up.
Lucy and Kendra make up right before Evan’s bar mitzvah as well, leading to a happy ending for all the major friendships in the film.
What happens at Evan’s bar mitzvah?
Evan’s big day finally comes to life and he is joined by his parents, his grandmother, his rabbi from NYC and all of his friends.
He completes his duties and also learns about the meaning of friendship as he celebrates. The party ends with everyone coming together, and dancing- the ideal end to the day as Evan had imagined for himself.
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