  sixteen candles is a 1984 american coming-of-age comedy film starring molly ringwald, michael schoeffling and anthony michael hall. it was written and directed by john hughes. == plot == high school sophomore samantha "sam" baker struggles to get through the day on her 16th birthday, which her entire family has forgotten about because her older sister, ginny, is getting married the next day. she is also plagued by infatuation with a popular and attractive senior, jake ryan. at school she fares no better when she finds out that a completed "sex quiz," which she tried to surreptitiously slip to her friend, never reached her friend and, unbeknownst to either of them, was picked up by jake. sam panics because the quiz contains sensitive information such as she is a virgin and saving herself for jake. she has a whole new set of problems when she arrives home to discover all four of her grandparents are staying at the baker home during the wedding. worse, one set of grandparents has brought along a bizarre foreign exchange student, long duk dong. the grandparents force sam to take him along to her school's senior dance that night and, to sam's amazement, it takes "the donger" only five minutes to find an unlikely girlfriend &mdash; the tall, large-breasted jock, marlene, nicknamed "lumberjack." they are found slow dancing in the gym. a subplot involves a geeky freshman who tries to win a bet with his friends by continually (and unsuccessfully) trying to bed his love interest, sam. the character is referred to on several occasions in the movie as either "ted" or "farmer ted" but is credited simply as "the geek." on the way home on the school bus, sam blows him off by saying, "go to hell." in the school auto shop during the dance, sam and ted begin talking and sam confesses her love for jake. upon hearing this, ted tells her that jake had been asking about her at the dance, and they agree that sam should just go and talk to him. as she's leaving, ted reveals the wager to sam, who agrees to loan him her panties to help him win. later (after a $1 admission peepshow
1980s_comedy_films 1980s_teen_films 1984_films American_coming-of-age_films American_films American_teen_comedy_films Directorial_debut_films English-language_films Films_directed_by_John_Hughes Films_shot_in_Illinois Universal_Pictures_films