I just re-watched John Tucker Must Die… and it is completely unhinged, even more so watching it as an adult than as a child. It came out in 2006 when I was 10 or 11 years old.
It was a movie I watched on repeat with my sisters back in the day because it was completely iconic.
My husband hadn’t seen it before, so I watched it with him as an adult to show it to him for the first time, and I realized just how much insanity this movie held. But in the best possible way. I have to talk about it.
The concept of John Tucker Must Die focuses on the most popular basketball player in high school name John, who is dating three beautiful girlfriends at the same time. He tells them they can’t publicly date because he’s not allowed to have a girlfriend during basketball season.
He’s able to enjoy overlapping relationships with girls from different social cliques on campus since they never interact with each other or publicize the relationship.
One of his girlfriends is Heather, a super confident cheerleader. He’s also dating Carrie, a preppy goody, two-shoes who works in on-campus journalism. And he’s also dating Beth, his super sexual vegan girlfriend who cares deeply about animal rights.
None of them has any reason to talk to each other or interact with each other until one day they end up in the same gym class, and the secret comes to the surface. They enlist help from the new girl on campus, named Kate (played by Brittany Snow) to seek revenge on him. At first, they continue their relationship with him, doing petty little pranks on him to break down his confidence, self-esteem, and popularity on campus.
But when he dumps all three of them in one day, they realize they need to send Kate in to become the perfect potential girlfriend for him, who will ultimately break his heart. The craziest detail of all in this movie is that their plan actually works… to a certain extent. The three of them know exactly what he likes, what he’s attracted to, what turns him on, and what gets him going.
They turned Kate into his ideal woman, who’s mysterious, hard to get, and a little bit bitchy –– which is perfect for John, who appreciates a chase. He doesn’t want an easy girl who throws herself at him. He’s the type of guy who likes to earn his position in a girl’s life. And that’s exactly what he does with Kate.
I want to dig into a couple of the moments that made me say what the fuck, moments that I feel aged terribly, and moments that made me feel like this movie is one of those classic and iconic early 2000s movies that can still be enjoyed by younger generations for years to come. Including the fact that the girlies in this movie mastered the concept of de-centering men way before that term was even coined.
WTF moments
The scenes that made me audibly say “what the fuck” to my husband include the moment Kate convinced John to scale the side of the building to meet her in her hotel room, where she was waiting for him in red lingerie, but she sent him into one of the coach’s rooms instead, knowing he was dressed in nothing more than a tiny little thong. I also thought it was insane that they spread the rumor that John had an STD to everyone at their school, even though it was a lie. I thought the scene when Kate and Beth made out with each other was jaw-dropping. Definitely made my jaw drop as a kid. And again as an adult. The scene when they spiked John’s sports drinks with estrogen to make him more emotional was complete insanity, and I don’t think that would fly in a modern movie today, to be honest. But, there was so much more to this movie than just the what the fuck moments.
Girlhood above all else
One of the greatest details that really stood out to me positively in this movie is the way the girls collectively chose to decenter men, specifically John Tucker, by leaning into girlhood. They leaned into the power of feminine friendship, having each other‘s back, and remaining unified in the face of Complete and total charm from a dude like John Tucker. I feel like the concept of de-centering men is pretty modern. I feel like the first time I ever heard of that was within the last few years on TikTok, and it’s definitely not something I considered or thought about when I was a kid watching this movie. I’m not saying girls were taught to always keep men at the center of our world, but it was normal to prioritize love, relationships, and dating above everything else. These days, I can’t even imagine the idea of supporting a woman who chooses to drop out of college for a boy. Or a woman who skips out on travel plans outside the country for a boy. I would never support that. I’m happily married, but I think it’s important that young women in the world know that there is so much life has to offer that goes beyond getting married and having babies. And that’s not something women have always been taught to think about or believe. There’s been a lot of indoctrination in the media Leading women to believe we should settle down as quickly as we possibly can to race against our biological clock to have babies. So, something I really do appreciate about John Tucker Must Die is that the girls didn’t care about desperately settling down with John Tucker. They weren’t fighting tooth and claw against each other to get his attention all for themselves. They clung to each other with the realization that he needed to be decentered out of their life. They knew having a happily ever after love story with John Tucker wasn’t going to be there, and I’ll be all. They each knew life had more to offer, and one of the things life was offering them in that moment was their newfound friendship with each other. All four of the main girls in the character lineup came from different social circles, yet they emotionally connected and had each other‘s backs. What I love about this movie is that it showed such a great representation of girlhood. When Kate briefly found herself getting charmed by John Tucker, especially after they went on that date night together on his private boat, the other girls reminded her that his intentions were rarely ever pure. He was the type of guy who was capable of cheating. He was the type of guy who didn’t blink twice when it came to hurting girls and breaking people’s hearts. And Kate realized for her own long-term happiness, she was better off nurturing, long, lasting female friendships that have the potential to last forever rather than a short-lived fling with John Tucker, the heartbreaker.
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