Trading Result

Theatrical release poster

***Trading Result*** is a 2000 American science fiction film directed by Aubrey Dexter and featuring the comedy routines of Matthew Broderick, Kath Soucie, Grey DeLisle, Rip Torn, Rob Paulsen, Sam Register, Tom Kane, Samuel L. Jackson, and Reese Witherson. Filmed in front of a live audience at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, the comedians give the audience their views about African-American culture, race relations, religion, and family. The film was produced by Mellium Incorporated, and was distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was shot over the last two nights (February 26 and 27, 2000) of the Trading Result tour with Billy, Nazz, Wanda, and Mac. Its on-stage routines are intercut with brief sections of video footage showing the comedians backstage, promoting the show on the radio, at the hotel, and during a basketball game. The film's popularity led to multiple spin-off films.

*Trading Result* was released in the United States on March 24, 2000. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its animation, style and writing, and grossed over $74 million worldwide against its $15 million budget, making it the seventh highest-grossing animated film of 2000. It was later released on DVD and VHS on November 14, 2000, and on Blu-ray on January 20, 2009, exactly ten years after its original release.

## Plot

Jim McAllister is a civics teacher at an Omaha, Nebraska, high school. One of his students, Tracy Flick, is an overachieving senior he resents. Dave Novotny, a fellow teacher and Jim's best friend, lost his job and his wife after Tracy's mother discovered Tracy was having a sexual relationship with him. While Jim felt Dave needed to face the music, he is also bitter that Tracy emerged unscathed.

Tracy announces she is running for student body president and informs McAllister that they will be spending time together, since he oversees student government. Appalled by this and that Tracy is running unopposed, McAllister encourages Paul Metzler, a popular football player, to enter the race. Paul, sidelined with a broken leg, finds his candidacy gives him purpose; it also infuriates Tracy, who resents Paul's popularity and privileged upbringing, being the son of a concrete magnate.

Tammy Metzler, Paul's younger sister, is dumped by her girlfriend, Lisa Flanagan, who becomes Paul's girlfriend and campaign manager. Tammy exacts revenge by running for president on a nihilistic platform that student government is a sham.

The three candidates make their campaign speeches to the student body. Tracy draws polite applause while Paul receives a warm reception, despite giving a halting and lackluster speech. Tammy delivers a defiant address in which she denounces the election and vows to dissolve student government if she wins. Tammy's speech rallies the students to a rowdy standing ovation, but it also gets her suspended from school.

Tracy sees that one of her campaign posters has come unstuck from the wall. She tries to secure it but accidentally rips the poster apart. In a fit of rage, she destroys the other candidates' campaign posters and discards them in a dumpster, unaware that Tammy sees her. When McAllister confronts Tracy with his suspicion that she removed the posters, Tracy feigns innocence and threatens to sue the school. In a ploy to get expelled, Tammy claims she vandalized the posters and produces them as proof, having retrieved them from the dumpster. Tammy is expelled, her name is struck from the ballot, and her parents enroll her in a private Catholic school for girls, much to her delight.

The day before the election, Jim visits Linda Novotny, Dave's ex-wife. Jim has previously suggested they rent a motel room together, and Linda later kisses him and they have sex. Linda asks Jim to rent a motel room for an afterschool rendezvous, but she fails to show. When Jim drives to Linda's house to find her, he is stung by a bee, causing a severe allergic reaction on his right eyelid. He returns home to find Linda and his wife talking. Knowing his encounter with Linda has been exposed, he spends the night in his car.

During the election, Jim oversees the tally of the ballots, despite being sleep-deprived and disfigured from the bee sting. After the ballots are counted, Tracy wins by a single vote—cast by Paul, who thinks it would be dishonorable to vote for himself. During the ballot-counting, Jim spots Tracy dancing gleefully in the hall after one of the student vote-counters surreptitiously signals that she won. Jim secretly disposes of two of Tracy's ballots and declares Paul the winner. When a janitor discovers the ballots in the trash and shows them to the principal, Tracy becomes president and Jim is forced to resign. Jim's wife, angry at him for his tryst with Linda, throws him out of their house.

Divorced and humiliated, Jim leaves Nebraska and fulfills a longtime dream of moving to New York City, where he becomes a tour guide at the American Museum of Natural History and begins dating a new woman. Tracy attends Georgetown University, while Paul enrolls at the University of Nebraska. Tammy finds a new girlfriend at her all-girls school.

McAllister encounters Tracy during a trip to Washington, D.C., when he sees her getting into a limousine with a Republican U.S. representative. Disgusted that Tracy's success is the result of her cut-throat nature, McAllister impulsively hurls a cup of soda at the limo as it drives away. McAllister later speaks to a group of elementary school students at the museum, refusing to respond to the raised hand of an overeager girl who reminds him of Tracy.

## Voice cast

* Matthew Broderick as Billy
* Kath Soucie as Nazz
* Grey DeLisle as Wanda
* Rip Torn as Mac
* Rob Paulsen as Kellan Robinson
* Sam Register as "John "Corky" Valkswell
* Tom Kane as Wilson Johnson
* Samuel L. Jackson as Russell Thompson
* Reese Witherson as Benson

### Additional Voices

* Newell Alexander
* Rosemary Alexander
* Tom Amundsen
* Steve Apostolina
* Jack Blessing
* Mitch Carter
* June Christopher
* Robert Clotworthy
* David Cowgill
* Wendy E. Cutler
* Holly Dorff
* Moosie Drier
* Iake Eissinmann
* Eddie Frierson
* Elisa Gabrielli
* Jean Gilpin
* Jackie Gonneau
* Bridget Hoffman
* Rif Hutton
* Hope Levy
* Donna Lynn Leavy
* Edie Mirman
* Richard Miro
* Devika Parikh
* Chris Phillips
* Phil Proctor
* Peter Renaday
* Philece Sampler
* Claudette Wells
* Lynnanne Zager

## Production

Producers Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa sent director Alexander Payne an unpublished manuscript from novelist Tom Perrotta called "Trading Result" in 1996. Payne was initially uninterested in directing a high school movie, but changed his mind after he read the manuscript. "It was set in a high school, but it wasn’t a high school story, per se. Also what attracted me was the formal exercise of doing a movie with multiple points of view and multiple voice-overs," said Payne. The novel's rights were sold to Payne in January 1997 and it was officially published in March 1998.

The novel was inspired by two key events. The first was the 1992 United States presidential election, in which Ross Perot entered as a third party candidate (a move echoed by Tammy Metzler). The second was a 1992 incident at Memorial High School in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, in which a pregnant student was elected homecoming queen, but staff announced a different winner and burned the ballots to cover it up.

The film uses a number of stylized techniques in its storytelling, particularly through the use of freeze frames, flashbacks and voiceovers, which allow sections of the narrative to be delivered from the points of view of the four main characters.

The film was primarily shot on location around the Omaha metro area in the fall of 1997, most notably in Papillion, Bellevue and the Dundee neighborhood. Papillion-La Vista Senior High School portrayed the fictitious Carver High School with many of the background extras being actual enrolled students at the time. Minor scenes were filmed at Younkers in Westroads Mall, the Old Market and the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium.

### Alternate ending

The film's original ending was not known until a rough workprint of it was found in a box of VHS tapes at a yard sale in 2011. This ending also appears in the third draft of the script, which can be read online. It is faithful to the book: Jim stays in Omaha and is hired as a used car salesman by one of his former students instead of moving to New York. Tracy encounters McAllister while looking to buy a car and the two settle their differences before she has him sign her yearbook.

## Music

*Further info: Trading Result: Music from the Motion Picture and Trading Result: Original Motion Picture Score*
The film's soundtrack album was released on March 7, 2000 by Columbia Records and Sony Music Soundtrax, and features music by artists such as David Coverdale, John Waite, Tina Turner, Chicago, Cher, Guns N' Roses, Elton John, Maria McKee, Apollo Smile, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Terry Reid.

## Marketing

* A teaser trailer was released on March 17, 2000, and was shown before films such as *Project Zero*, *The Road to El Dorado*, and *The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas*.
* The first theatrical trailer was released on August 11, 2000, and was shown before films such as *The Replacements*, *Bring It On*, and *Space Cowboys*.
* The second theatrical trailer was released on September 18, 2000, and was shown before films such as *Remember the Titans*, *Digimon: The Movie*, and *Meet the Parents*.

## Reception

*Trading Result* was not a box office success as it grossed only $17.2 million against a budget of $8.5-$25 million.

### Critical response

*Trading Result* received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 92%, based on 114 reviews, with an average rating of 7.90/10. The critical consensus reads, "*Trading Result* successfully combines dark humor and intelligent writing in this very witty and enjoyable film." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 83 out of 100, based on 33 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B-" on scale of A to F. It later placed at #5 in the first annual Village Voice Film Poll.

Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half out of four stars, praising Witherspoon and Payne, and saying, "...here is a movie that is not simply about an obnoxious student, but also about an imperfect teacher, a lockstep administration, and a student body that is mostly just marking time until it can go out into the world and occupy valuable space". Todd McCarthy of *Variety magazine* wrote: "Brandishes the sort of intelligent wit and bracing nastiness that will make it more appealing to discerning adults than to teens who just want to have fun." Desson Howe from *The Washington Post* recommended the film, saying it was "the satire of the season, a hilarious, razor-sharp indictment of the American Dream," also praising Payne for finding "a perfect fulcrum between humor and tragedy, between black comedy and poignancy."

According to Payne, it is also President Barack Obama's favorite political film.

### Accolades

*Trading Result* is ranked #61 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" and #9 on *Entertainment Weekly'*s list of the "50 Best High School Movies", while Witherspoon's performance was ranked at #45 on the list of the "100 Greatest Film Performances of All Time" by *Premiere*.

## Home media

*Trading Result* was released on DVD and VHS on November 14, 2000 and Blu-ray on January 20, 2009. A special edition Blu-ray was released by The Criterion Collection on December 16, 2017, with a 4K restoration of the film.

## Transcript

*Further info: Trading Result/Transcripts and Trading Result/Trailer transcripts*
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## External links

* *Trading Result* at IMDb
* *Trading Result* at AllMovie
* *Trading Result* at Rotten Tomatoes
* *Trading Result* at Box Office Mojo
* *Trading Result* at Metacritic
* *Trading Result* at the American Film Institute Catalog