The Archies follows 17-year-old Archie and his friends’ efforts to prevent self-serving adults from destroying their town’s precious park. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
The Archies is set in a small hill station called Riverdale in 1964. The Indian town is home to those Anglo-Indians who did not leave for England after India got its independence. In the center of the town lies Green Park.
When the children of the town turn five, they are made to plant a tree in Green Park. This is why it is considered that the park contains the history of the town. However, a rich businessman named Hiram Lodge wants to destroy it to redevelop the town.
Apart from a plaza in the town square, he wants to build a hotel in place of the park. He gets the support of the head of the town council, Dawson, in return for sponsoring his election campaign. Dawson now needs to get the council to approve the redevelopment projects.
Mr. Lodge’s arrival brings Veronica, his daughter, to Riverdale. Veronica dated Archie before she left town two years ago. When the two of them meet again, they realize that they still like each other. It is not just Veronica who likes Archie. Her best friend, Betty, who is Archie’s neighbor, also likes him.
Archie’s gang also includes Reggie, a boy whose father wants him to work for the newspaper that his grandfather started; Dilly, a genius who likes Reggie but never confesses his feelings; Estel, a talented hairdresser; and Jughead, a boy who works at a local cafe and loves to eat.
Archie wants to leave Riverdale, so he applies to a college in England. He might leave the town soon, but that does not stop him from dating. Archie is in love with Veronica as well as Betty, and he pursues them both at the same time, despite Jughead’s warnings.
The construction of the plaza gets approved, and Mr. Lodge starts buying the shops in the town square to build it. This leads to Betty’s father losing his bookstore, and Betty gets upset with Veronica because of Mr. Lodge’s involvement. However, the two friends reconcile soon after, as Veronica’s parents help Betty’s father get a good job.
The redevelopment starts changing the town in a lot of ways. Small businesses, such as the local cafe where Jughead works, start losing business because of the new stores and restaurants.
Estel leaves her job to work at the new hair salon, where she is offered double her previous salary. As she is not treated with respect at her new workplace, Estel quits her new job and goes back to her old one.
At the same time, Mr. Lodge bribes the council members to vote in favor of constructing a hotel in place of Green Park, and the permission is granted. The townspeople then find out about the construction of the hotel.
It does not take them long to figure out that someone has bribed the council people, as the redevelopment is in the interest of a few large corporations. Due to this, Reggie decides to interview Dawson and takes Archie with him.
At the town council, another councilman, Mr. Gomes, who is not in favor of the construction of the hotel, tells Reggie and Archie that the permission can be revoked if more than 50% of the town’s population signs a petition opposing the council’s decision.
Reggie writes an article to save the park, urging the townspeople above the age of 18 to send their signatures to Reggie and his friends. Reggie’s father likes the article and agrees to publish it in his newspaper.
Meanwhile, Archie gets into Batterton College and prepares to leave for England. His friends take him to a lake house to throw him a farewell party. There, Betty sees Archie kissing Veronica and is left heartbroken. She then decides to get over him.
At the same time, Reggie admits to Dilly that he is aware of his feelings for him and, like a good friend, promises to keep the conversation between them. When the teens return home, Reggie comes to know that his father did not publish his article.
His father took this decision because Mr. Lodge threatened to stop publishing advertisements in his newspaper if he published the article. Reggie and Archie think that Veronica told her father about the article and accuse her of betraying her friends.
An upset Veronica tries to convince her father to not build the hotel on the park’s land, but she fails. Archie and his gang must now find some other way to get the signatures needed to save the park.
The Archies ending explained in detail:
Why is Archie not leaving?
It is time for Archie to leave for England. Archie’s father tells him about how his grandfather tried to give back to society. The conversation about their homeland, their identity, and their responsibility changes Archie’s mind.
He does not want to leave Riverdale anymore. He wants to stay back and preserve the place that is very important to this town. Archie and his gang distribute petitions among the adult population of the town in the hope of getting 4,500 signatures.
Despite their best efforts, they only manage to get 1,200 signatures. People like Betty’s parents, who are indebted to Mr. Lodge, do not sign the petition. The gang still needs 3,200 adults to sign it.
Who does Archie end up with?
Archie and Reggie find out that Veronica did not betray them and go to her house to apologize, but Veronica refuses to meet them. On Christmas, Veronica finds herself all alone, as she is angry with her friends and, as always, her parents are not there for her.
Veronica then goes to Betty’s house, where she is welcomed with open arms. Betty is her only friend who never doubted her and is now comforting her. Betty then tells her about kissing Archie when she did not know that Veronica still liked him.
This does not make Veronica angry. In fact, she tells Betty that she would have stayed away from Archie if she knew about her friend’s feelings. The two girls realize that Archie has been lying to both of them and leading them on.
They confront Archie, but they forgive him when they find out that he was not trying to play them both; he was just confused about his feelings. As their friendship is more important to them than Archie, neither of them is going to date him.
How do Archie and the gang save the park?
Archie and his friends come up with a new plan. They are going to organize a fest at the park, where they will provide goods, food, and entertainment in exchange for signatures. The group uses the radio that Dilly made at home to invite the townspeople.
Veronica expects her father to start cutting the trees in the park before the planned date, so she makes her friends sleep there at night. As expected, the woodcutters come, but the teens do not let them enter the park. Dawson cannot even use force, as Mr. Lodge does not want his daughter to get hurt.
The fest brings a lot of people to the park. Archie and his friends keep sending the signatures to Mr. Gomes throughout the day. When the town council is busy counting the signatures, Dawson hides a bunch of petitions.
However, Mr. Gomes accidentally finds them. The total number of signatures collected turn out to be 5,600, way more than the number needed to revoke the permission.
Although Veronica’s father loses to his daughter and her friends, he is so impressed by Veronica that he finds his victory in her success. Archie and his friends make their parents proud and become their town’s most famous students after saving the park that is important to every resident of Riverdale.
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