Friends in High School: Rescue of the Dead

***Friends in High School: Rescue of the Dead*** is a science fiction comedy-horror dark fantasy film written and directed by Bryan Martinez Rodarte. Serving as a sequel to FiHS: TVoM, the film continues the Pizza Manager Arc, and finishes out the arc in a final standoff against Michelle.

## Synopsis

The Pizza Manager Arc comes to a close in this final epic film, Friends in High School 4.

## Plot

The movie begins with a small recap of the previous three films (“We Own It”).

James begins gathering supplies to build a Time Machine to hopefully travel back in time, and save his friends. He recruits The Group to help him as well. However, before he can enact his plan, Michelle arrives and freezes him, stopping him from doing anything. Michelle takes the Time Machine, and tells James, “There’s nothing you can do, James. I have won. Admit it.”

As James quietly sobs to himself, he hears a voice that sounds vaguely familiar to him. “James! James! Can you hear us?!” James quietly states, “You’re not alive. You’re not alive, why can I hear you?” The voice suddenly sounds audible. “James! It’s me, John.” James suddenly yells out, “You’re not John! You died!” John then says, “I mean, you’re not wrong, but it’s weird. We’re in another dimension. It’s nothing like the afterlife. It’s like, literally another world, but everything is surprisingly normal.” Ronan chimes in, “I saw a sign as we got teleported here. It says this place is called ‘The Life Graveyard.’” “So what do you guys want me to do?” asks James. John responds, “I have life power. Ready?” Before James can ask, he is unfrozen.

James begins asking questions, but John only responds, “Get that Time Machine.” James affirms himself, and heads out to stop Michelle and bring back all his friends.

James makes it to Michelle’s home, and quietly sneaks in, and takes the Time Machine back. In a montage, he travels back to the moment James became friends with everyone, and resurrects everyone, bringing back the Manager Group. They all regroup, and turn to face Michelle, who has shapeshifted, and transformed into an Eldritch being nicknamed “Eldritch Michelle.”

Eldritch Michelle punches down, knocking everyone back. James’ ears ring as he gets up, and sees the chaos ensued. Suddenly, he begins levitating, and realizes he possesses god-like superpowers now. Eldritch Michelle sees this, and tries to kill James, but he stops the punch, and throws them back. The Manager Group gets up, and sees the chaos. Eldritch Michelle decides to target the Manager Group, and scoops up Ronan, and crushes him in their arms.

Everyone believes Ronan to be dead, until Eldritch Michelle releases him, and Ronan has become a sentient creature, which follows Eldritch Michelle’s commands. He is nicknamed “R0nan,” and both he and Eldritch Michelle fly up, ready to take over the universe. The Manager Group initially gives up, but James gives a motivational speech, and uses his powers to make everyone else fly, and enhance their strength, and they all fly up, ready to take down Eldritch Michelle once and for all.

Eldritch Michelle and R0nan begin powering up a space station to blast a giant laser and destroy the planet. The Manager Group suddenly appears, and begins retaliating. R0nan fights back, and manages to subdue the Manager Group. James thinks of Ronan, and the fun memories they had. This sends a shockwave that throws R0nan back, and James and the Manager Group once again attack (“Zero”). During the song, the Manager Group places bombs on Eldritch Michelle’s body in hopes of destroying them.

Finally, Eldritch Michelle notices all the bombs, and begins freaking out. R0nan is killed, and Ronan is released from his mental prison. The Manager Group try to escape, but Eldritch Michelle keeps everyone captured, hoping to kill everyone alongside themself. James tries, but keeps failing to escape. Ronan whispers in James’ ear an idea, but James tells him, “No! We just saved you. I can’t lose my best friend!” Ronan tells him, “If you ever wanna visit me, just erase yourself from existence. I’m kidding.” James laughs, but is interrupted as Ronan punches Eldritch Michelle. The Manager Group escapes, with Ronan saying a final goodbye. James can only watch as Eldritch Michelle explodes in a giant fiery explosion, destroying them and killing Ronan.

A few days later, Ronan’s funeral is held, with the Manager Group in attendance. James has realized that his powers were only temporary, taken away when Eldritch Michelle was destroyed. The Manager Group decides to all quit, which the district manager doesn’t take lightly, and shuts down the store for good. They all decide to part ways, and a majority even move out of Georgia. John and Natalia move to Colorado to begin new lives. Kodaius moves to California to begin an engineering career there, and takes Jeff with him. Brandon heads to Texas to continue his music career there. Finally, Zackary moves to New York to help his family. James remains in Georgia, and returns full-time to school. The Group meets with him, and asks him, “Whatchu been up to?” The movie ends with James only responding, “Things.”

## Trivia

* This film once again takes insipiration from the machinima web series, SMG4.
	+ The return of the Manager Group mimics the return of the SMG4 crew in the episode SMG4: A Totally Normal S̷͍͖͉̙͚͎̑̃̿͑̆̇̚͠M̸͇͇̦̮̌̿Ğ̴̫̗̖͎͔̳4̶̞͇̰̎̀́̚ Episode.
	+ The battle against R0nan and Eldritch Michelle is almost identical to the episode SMG4: War of the Fat Italians 2021, even down to having the song from that episode included in the film.