1983 movie with tom cruise patrick swayze

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Outsiders

In a small Oklahoma town in 1964, the rivalry between two gangs, the poor Greasers and the rich Socs, heats up when one gang member accidentally kills a member of the other. In a small Oklahoma town in 1964, the rivalry between two gangs, the poor Greasers and the rich Socs, heats up when one gang member accidentally kills a member of the other. In a small Oklahoma town in 1964, the rivalry between two gangs, the poor Greasers and the rich Socs, heats up when one gang member accidentally kills a member of the other.

• Francis Ford Coppola
• Kathleen Rowell
• S.E. Hinton
• C. Thomas Howell
• Matt Dillon
• Ralph Macchio
• 432 User reviews
• 63 Critic reviews
• 45 Metascore
• 1 win & 4 nominations

• Ponyboy Curtis

• Dallas Winston

• Johnny Cade

• Darrel Curtis

• Sodapop Curtis

• Two-Bit Matthews

• Steve Randle

• Tim Shepard

• Cherry Valance

• Bob Sheldon

• Randy Anderson

• Buck Merrill

• Store Clerk

• Greaser in Concession Stand
• (as Tom Hillman)
• Soc in Concession Stand

• Little Girl
• (as Domino)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia In the poster for the film, the Greasers are laughing as Johnny is smirking. This candid shot was taken during the photo session where the actors were supposed to look tough at the camera. What happened was that when Leif Garrett went to the table, Ralph Macchio said, "Hey, Leif, that's for the talent." This comment cracked up the cast, and the photo was used.
• Goofs Dallas falling out of the chair at the Drive-in (at 07:18 in 91 m.) was an accident and was not rehearsed. Ponyboy looks at the camera expecting Francis Ford Coppola to say cut, but they kept the shot instead.

Ponyboy : Nature's first green is gold / Her hardest hue to hold / Her early leaf's a flower / But only so an hour / Then leaf subsides to leaf / So Eden sank to grief / So dawn goes down to day / Nothing gold can stay.

Johnny : Where did you learn that? That's what I meant.

Ponyboy : Robert Frost wrote it. I always remembered it because I never quite knew what he meant by it.

• Crazy credits Closing dedication: This film is dedicated to the people who first suggested that it be made... Librarian Jo Ellen Misakian and the students of the Lone Star School in Fresno, California.
• an extended opening scene where Ponyboy is attacked by the Socs when walking home from a Paul Newman movie. The principle Greasers are also introduced. Later, Ponyboy and Sodapop talk to each other in their bedroom.
• a scene where Ponyboy asks some farmers how to reach Jay Mountain. He claims that he's playing "army" and "needs to report to base."
• an alternate scene in the church where Ponyboy imagines that both Sodapop and Darry are present.
• a short scene where Ponyboy splashes some water on his face outside the church while Johnny is out buying supplies.
• a scene in the church where Ponyboy and Johnny become emotional over the events of the past 24 hours.
• extended reading of "Gone With the Wind" in the church.
• a short scene where Ponyboy finds Tim sitting on his couch in the morning.
• a small extension to Ponyboy and Two-Bit at the hospital where a doctor allows them access to Johnny's room after being denied entrance by a nurse.
• a short scene where Two-Bit and Ponyboy encounter Johnny's mother at the hospital.
• Following the death of Dally, Darry lashes out at the cops while Ponyboy faints. Later, we see Sodapop and Darry caring for him in bed while Ponyboy asks if someone is sick, not realizing that he is.
• A courtroom scene where Cherry, Randy, and Ponyboy all make statements. In the end, Ponyboy is acquitted and left in the custody of Darry.
• A scene where Ponyboy runs into Cherry at school, but she walks away from him. Ponyboy's teacher also informs him that he is flunking, but allows him to write a paper on a personal experience in order to raise his grade.
• A dinner scene where Sodapop becomes angry that he's always stuck in the middle between Ponyboy and Darry's tug of war and runs away. When they eventually catch him, they agree to stop fighting all the time.
• Connections Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Tom Cruise: The Star Next Door (1990)
• Soundtracks Stay Gold Sung by Stevie Wonder Music by Carmine Coppola Lyrics by Stevie Wonder Courtesy of Motown Record Corporation Recording Engineer: Gary Olazabal Assistant Recording Engineer: Bob Harlan

User reviews 432

• Aug 25, 2003
• Why is Dallas such an angry and violent person?
• What does Pony mean when he calls the Socs "White trash with Mustangs and madras"?
• Why is there a "complete novel" edit of the film, and why is there new music?
• March 25, 1983 (United States)
• United States
• The Outsiders: The Complete Novel
• Admiral Twin Drive-In, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
• Zoetrope Studios
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $10,000,000 (estimated)
• $25,837,195
• Mar 27, 1983
• $25,839,182

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 31 minutes
• Dolby Stereo

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The Outsiders

Film Details

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Brief Synopsis

Cast & crew, francis ford coppola, c. thomas howell, matt dillon, patrick swayze, emilio estevez, technical specs.

Coming-of-age drama about teenagers growing up in the 1950s Midwest. The youngest of three orphaned brothers gets into trouble with the law after he and his "greaser" friend are attacked at a park by the rich "socs."

Leif Garrett

Ralph Macchio

Daniel r suhart, tom hillman, gailard sartain, john c. meier, hugh wailkinshaw, william smith, glenn withrow, linda nystedt.

Sofia Coppola

Michelle meyrink.

Teresa Wilkerson Hunt

Brent beesley, darren dalton.

S. E. Hinton

Millie z alexich, mitchell amundsen, william asher, james austin, jean autrey, richard beggs, jeffrey block, marge bowers, martin bresin, karen a brocco, emmett brown, stephen h burum, david allan coe, ronald colby, carmine coppola, gian-carlo coppola, roman coppola, elliot davis, steve m davison, roger dietz, tony dingman, dennis dion, walt disney, gordon ecker, gary fettis, teri fettis, wayne fitzgerald, gray frederickson, jamie freitag, ralph gerling, anne goursaud, janet hirshenson, buddy joe hooker, teresa hunt, richard hymns, walla works inc, jane iredale, chris lebenzon, michael lehmann, barbara lucey, douglas t madison, michelle manning, david marconi, connie mccord, anthony r milch, michael minkler, ernie misko, kathleen misko, van morrison, anahid nazarian, lloyd nelson, bonna newman, dee dee petty, reid rondell, kathleen knutsen rowell, david smith, robert spurlock, dave stewart, robert swarthe, dean tavoularis, david valdes, jane vickerella, wayne wagner, laurel walter, james e webb, scott wilder, little stevie wonder, the outsiders on dvd.

When The Outsiders was first released, a critic from the Los Angeles Times noted that "audiences who are not (S.E.) Hinton experts may be treading water during the first 20 minutes, desperately trying to keep half a dozen identities and family relationships straight." Hinton initially began writing the book when she was 15 and finished it when she was 17; the novel is in many respects what one might expect from a 15 year-old author. Naive and romanticized, The Outsiders attempts to uncover something poetic in the alien world of troubled teenage boys who seem at once dangerous and sensitive. Though Hinton addresses a valid need for positive role models for teenagers, she has created idealized males who are hypersensitive, know their innermost feelings and do not hesitate to express them. Ponyboy is the most obvious example of this stylization, particularly in the scene where he reads a passage from his favorite book, Gone With the Wind , to his pal Johnny Cade (Ralph Macchio) while they hide out in a run-down church.

Whether intentional or not, scenes like the above clearly evoke the angst-ridden emotions of Rebel Without A Cause (1955); an idea repeatedly reinforced by the presence of Sal Mineo look-alike, Ralph Macchio. Originally prompted to make The Outsiders by an elementary school librarian and her students who sent Coppola a petition to bring the novel to life, the director set out to make a nostalgic fifties film. In an attempt to heighten the film's emotional impact, Coppola uses nature as a dramatic force; sudden storms, sunsets and sunrises are conjured up swiftly and disappear just as quickly, much like the turmoil in the teenagers' lives. And whereas Nicholas Ray used Cinemascope in Rebel Without A Cause to express the alienated viewpoint of his young protagonists (remember the sequence in the police station when you can't see the heads or faces of any of the adult characters?), Coppola goes a step further in The Outsiders and eliminates all adults from the narrative, all the better to study these scarred but passionate teenagers in their own element.

The theme of teenage alienation was driven home dramatically by Coppola during the rehearsal process. After a massive "cattle call" of over 300 male teens, which was eventually whittled down to a primary cast of "Greasers" and "Socs", the two groups were then separated. "'Socs' were treated like princes," says Coppola, "and 'Greasers' the opposite. Only occasionally did they meet, in a competitive sport, so we could fan their distrust and dislike." For weeks, the latter group prepared meals together, improvised playing a family, practiced tai chi, and played touch football - activities that bonded the "Greasers" together and separated them from their snooty counterparts. Though the process worked, there were rumors that Coppola was having financial problems, which might explain the unusually long pre-production phase for the actors. Rob Lowe recalls "Apparently there were problems with financing...(Coppola) was on the phone with his wife saying, 'Don't let them in the gate! Don't - wait, hold on a second - Action!'"

The Outsiders earned Coppola mixed reviews when the film was finally released. Praised for his beautiful technique, as much as he was criticized for his romanticized portrayal of teen life, evidence of Coppola's genuine achievement lies in these uneven reviews. The novel, despite its unsophisticated and often sentimental viewpoint, struck a chord with young readers because it was written by one of their own. So, in all fairness, it should be pointed out that the failings of the movie are really the failings of the novel. But as one insightful critic noted, "none of this will make the slightest difference to any true Hinton fan, who will find the impassioned hyperbole exactly right for this magnetic classic."

Director: Francis Ford Coppola Producer: Gian-Carlo Coppola, Gray Frederickson, Fred Roos Screenplay: S.E. Hinton, Kathleen Rowell Art Direction: Gary Fettis Cinematography: Stephen H. Burum Costume Design: Marjorie Bowers Film Editing: Anne Goursaud Original Music: Carmine Coppola Principal Cast: C. Thomas Howell (Ponyboy Curtis), Matt Dillon (Dallas Winston), Ralph Macchio (Johnny Cade), Patrick Swayze (Darrel Curtis), Rob Lowe (Sodapop Curtis). C-92m.

By Bill Goodman

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States on Video November 30, 1999

Released in United States September 1991

Released in United States Spring March 25, 1983

Re-released in United States September 9, 2005

Shown at San Sebastian International Film Festival September 19-28, 1991.

Released in United States September 1991 (Shown at San Sebastian International Film Festival September 19-28, 1991.)

Re-released in United States September 9, 2005 (as "The Outsiders: The Complete Novel"; Coppola's director's cut reintegrates 22 minutes of character-building footage, including a new beginnning and ending more true to the book as well as a new rock-n-roll soundtrack featuring six songs from Elvis Presley; New York City)

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The Outsiders (1983) review — Hollywood star-making all in one film

Challenge yourself with today’s puzzles.

★★★★☆ Often overlooked as part of the director Francis Ford Coppola’s “Eighties slump” (see also The Cotton Club , Tucker: The Man and His Dream ), this classic gang movie, set in 1960s Oklahoma, is one of the director’s best. It’s beautifully shot, written and paced, but the cast, really, is the thing.

With Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze and Matt Dillon in their professional infancy, the movie has become a precious artefact and an illustration of Hollywood star-making. The actors already show the screen personas that they would become famous for. Lowe is the gang’s lothario, Swayze the wise mother hen and Cruise the stunt-obsessed maniac — in an early scene he somersaults from a car roof shouting: “Check this out!” His career

Related articles

'The Outsiders' Overview

S. E. Hinton's Groundbreaking Coming-of-Age Story

Corbis / Getty Images

• M.A., Classics, Catholic University of Milan
• M.A., Journalism, New York University.
• B.A., Classics, Catholic University of Milan

The Outsiders is a coming-of-age novel written in 1967 by S. E. Hinton. The story, narrated by its 14-year-old protagonist, deals with socioeconomic disparities and impositions, violence, friendship, and the need of a sense of belonging.

Fast Facts: The Outsiders

• Title: The Outsiders
• Author: S. E. Hinton
• Publisher: Viking Press
• Year Published: 1967
• Genre: Young-Adult
• Type of Work: Novel
• Original Language: English
• Major Themes: Group vs. individual, rich vs. poor, empathy, honor
• Major Characters: Ponyboy Curtis, Sodapop Curtis, Darry Curtis, Johnny Cade, Cherry Valance, Bob Sheldon, Dally Winston, Randy Adderson
• Notable Adaptations: 1983 movie adaptation directed by Francis Ford Coppola, featuring actors Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, and Diane Lane, among others
• Fun Fact:  More than 50 years after it was first published, the book still sells 500,000 copies a year.

Plot Summary

The story in The Outsiders centers on two rival gangs: the rich and posh Socs and the greasers from the "wrong side of the tracks." The story is narrated from the point of view of Ponyboy Curtis, a precocious 14-year-old greaser who has a literary bend and college potential. The events in The Outsiders gradually escalate, starting with two greasers befriending two Soc girls, followed by a fight in which a Soc boy is killed and the death of a greaser, leading up to the final “rumble” between the two factions. Despite the emphasis on violence, the characters in the novel undergo significant personal growth, learning to see individuals beyond the social group they belong to. 

Major Characters

Ponyboy Curtis. The narrator and protagonist of the novel, he is a 14-year-old greaser who likes books and sunsets. Following the death of his parents, he lives with his two older brothers, Sodapop and Darry.

Sodapop Curtis. The middle Curtis child, he is a happy-go-lucky fellow who dropped out of high school and is content working at a gas station.

Darry Curtis. The eldest Curtis child, he sacrificed his ambitions to become the legal guardian of his two younger brothers after their parents' death. He is strict with Ponyboy because he sees his potential.

Johnny Cade. The most frail and quiet of the greasers, Johnny comes from an abusive household. He worships Dally, and the other greasers are very protective of him

Dally Winston. With a past among the gangs of New York and a stint in prison, Dally is the most violent of the greasers. However, he has a strong code of honor and is also very protective of Johnny.

Bob Sheldon. A Soc who is heavily spoiled by his parents and is also Cherry’s boyfriend, Bob is a violent individual who beat up Johnny quite badly prior to the events of the novel. Johnny ends up killing him when he tries to drown Ponyboy.

Cherry Valance. Soc girl and a popular cheerleader, Cherry bonds with Ponyboy over their mutual love of literature. She is one of the characters who sees beyond the divide of the two groups.

Randy Adderson. Bob's best friend and a fellow Soc, Randy is one of the characters who sees the futility in the ongoing fight between Socs and greasers.

Major Themes

Rich vs. Poor. Rivalry between the greasers and the Socs stems from socioeconomic differences. However, those differences do not automatically cause members of the two groups to become natural enemies.

Honor. While generally undisciplined, greasers abide by their idea of an honor code: they stand up for one another when facing enemies or authority figures.

Empathy. In The Outsiders, empathy enables characters to resolve conflicts. In fact, the conflict between the Socs and the greasers is based on class prejudice and appearance, but beneath that façade, they all have their fair share of issues. Once they come clean about their lives, the characters make progress in their own personal development.

Group vs. Individual. At the beginning of the novel, characters rely on belonging to a certain group for their identity. However, the dramatic events that unfold in the novel encourage several characters to question their motivations. Ponyboy, a greaser, has enlightening conversations with Socs such as Cherry and Randy, who showed him that there was more to individuals than their belonging to a specific social group.

Literary Style

S. E. Hinton wrote The Outsiders when she was just 16. The prose is quite simple and relies a lot on the physical description of the characters, whose beauty is a little idealized. However, she is quite insightful in portraying the conflicts between the two rival gangs, especially as they are rooted in socio-economic class differences. 

About the Author

Born in 1948, S. E. Hinton is the author of five young adult novels, two of which— The Outsiders and Rumble Fish —have been made into major motion pictures directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Hinton is credited with creating the Young Adult genre.

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Arts & Culture | January 31, 2023

S.E. Hinton Is Tired of Talking About ‘The Outsiders.’ No One Else Is

The author reflects on her classic 1967 novel, its 1983 film adaptation and its legacy today

Patrick Sauer

History Correspondent

In late October 2022, a big-time streaming star returned to the city where it all began for him. Ralph Macchio (most recently of “ Cobra Kai ” fame) was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to promote his memoir, Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me . Hosted by Magic City Books , the live conversation in the Art Deco auditorium at Will Rogers High School featured another pop culture icon: S.E. Hinton , the writer whose teenage words would forever be emblematic of young adult literature and whose most famous creation, The Outsiders , helped launch Macchio’s career some 40 years earlier.

Prior to the event, Hinton was quietly going about her business, wandering the school’s halls absent-mindedly. “It was funny when I first came into the building,” she said near the end of a phone conversation last Halloween, a week and a half after her appearance with Macchio. “It’s been a long time, so I was kind of looking around … and a woman came up and asked me, ‘Is this your first time inside the school?’ I said, ‘No, not really.’”

More than half a century ago, Susie Hinton (soon to be known by her gender-neutral pen name) was a student at Will Rogers, where she received a D in creative writing because class assignments were nowhere near as important to her as working out the plot and characters of The Outsiders . The story would come to define her life—even though these days she would rather discuss just about anything else.

“I am very tired of talking about [it],” says Hinton, now 74. “I don’t give speeches about it anymore. The thought of getting into it one more time is almost paralyzing. You’re lucky. This may be the last interview on The Outsiders I’ll ever give. … Oh god, for once, I’d like to discuss Rumble Fish .”

While Rumble Fish is certainly a fine book (and a terrific artsy film ), it isn’t ranked 32nd in PBS’s “ The Great American Read ” poll of the top 100 English-language novels. Over its 56-year lifespan, The Outsiders has sold more than 15 million copies , been published in more than 30 languages and never gone out of print. The 1967 book is a foundational text in the young adult fiction canon, and the 1983 movie version (featuring Macchio as 16-year-old Johnny Cade) plays an outsized role in bringing tourists to Hinton’s lifelong home of Tulsa.

Hinton has nine books to her name , from children’s picture books to a horror novel to a collection of intertwined short stories with adult characters to the coming-of-age works that built her literary career. But none of the others matches the ongoing cultural phenomenon that is The Outsiders . It’s still an English class staple, taught (and occasionally banned ) in middle and high schools across the country. The heartfelt movie adaptation has staying power, too. One of its ramshackle filming locations, the Curtis brothers’ home, opened to the public in 2019 as the Outsiders House Museum . And in 2021, the film underwent a 4K restoration that reinstated several beloved scenes from the book that failed to make the original cut.

Hinton may have said all she has to say about The Outsiders , but it remains an American classic, as relevant and beloved today as when it was published more than five decades ago.

The origins of The Outsiders

Writing was an oasis from a rough upbringing Hinton rarely mentions but did describe to the New York Times in 2005. As author Dinitia Smith wrote:

Ms. Hinton’s, father, Grady, was a door-to-door salesman, her mother, Lillian, an assembly-line worker. “My mother was physically and emotionally abusive,” Ms. Hinton said. “My father was an extremely cold man.”   It’s clearly a difficult admission to make, and one she has almost never made. The family attended a “fundamentalist, hellfire and brimstone” church, she said. “It turned me off religion.”

By the time she was 15, Hinton had already been churning out stories and poems for eight years. She wrote about what she knew: the ongoing battles between the haves and have-nots. In interviews over the years, Hinton described herself as an observer who grew up in North Tulsa “greaser” (slang for their greased-back hairstyles) territory but wasn’t beholden to any one group. She was a tomboy who loved to read and yearned for honest teenage representation.

The genesis for The Outsiders was an incident in which a friend of Hinton’s was jumped by a carload of upper crust “Socs” (short for “Socials”) and beaten up for being a greaser. The escalation in the high school cliques’ long-running rivalry fueled a creative burst that found the 16-year-old finishing the first draft in a week in 1966.

“What I was talking about was real,” Hinton says. “Books at that time for teenagers were ‘Mary Jane goes to prom,’ but [they] didn’t include sneaking in the liquor, which was the main point. Nobody was writing about what was going on in my high school: the social and class warfare.”

The Outsiders is a coming-of-age novel told through the eyes of 14-year-old Ponyboy, the youngest of the three orphaned Curtis brothers. He’s a sensitive, Robert Frost -reciting soul whom Hinton once described as “the closest I’ve come to putting myself into a character.” She aimed for realism, so the Socs and greasers smoke and drink, chase girls, and fight.

The book covers two weeks in the chaotic lives of Ponyboy and his best friend, Johnny. The plotting is concrete and relatively sparse. In short order, Johnny kills a Soc who was trying to drown Ponyboy, forcing the greaser friends to go on the run. Seeking shelter in an abandoned church, the boys bond over cigarettes, sunsets and a yearning for life without socioeconomic unrest. Deciding to return home to the face the music, the outlaws become heroes, rescuing children from a burning building at great personal cost.

By the book’s end, three characters are dead, including Johnny and Dallas Winston, a rebellious East Coast transplant who goes down in a hail of police bullets. The violence is frank, as is the utter lack of nurturing adult figures. But what stands out is how much these tough, wrong-side-of-the-tracks teenagers care for one another. They share a depth of feeling and a fraternal love among young American men that hadn’t been displayed before Hinton put her experiences on paper.

“I’ve known many men in my life with an availability of compassion underneath that they’re afraid to show, which is not the case with Susie’s main characters,” says Rilla Askew , an author who has written multiple novels set in her home state of Oklahoma, including the award-winning Fire in Beulah . “They have a tenderness and a decency about them, and it’s probably not a coincidence that it was a young female author writing young male characters.”

Bringing the book to the public

Not long after Hinton finished the manuscript, a friend of a friend advised her to send it to an agent named Marilyn Marlow. In response, Marlow wrote that the novel, originally called A Different Sunset (other rejected titles include The Switch-Blade Boys and The Leather Jackets ), had “captured a certain spirit.” On Hinton’s last day of high school in 1966, she learned Viking Press wanted to publish her book. It came out in 1967—Hinton’s freshman year at the University of Tulsa—with “S.E.,” a gender-neutral name suggested by editor Velma Varner , on the cover. Susie Eloise went out and bought herself a Camaro.

The Outsiders: 50th Anniversary Edition

Celebrating 50 years of the novel that laid the groundwork for the young adult genre, this is the ultimate edition for fans of "The Outsiders."

Initially marketed as a dime-store paperback alongside books by pulp fiction writer Mickey Spillane and the like, The Outsiders saw sluggish sales. Eventually, Viking caught on that the book was selling well where teachers were teaching it. Students and educators kept sales growing year after year through word of mouth, proclaiming that this was the book in which teenagers could see themselves.

“I think The Outsiders is the biggest of all my books because I wrote it at the right time in my life,” Hinton says. “By the time I wrote [the companion novel] That Was Then, This Is Now four years later, I could well remember what it was like being 16, but it’s still not the same as being 16. The Outsiders still resonates because it captures how teenagers feel—the mix of over-the-top emotions and idealism.”

After years of turning down offers from film studios, Hinton eventually sold the rights to The Outsiders to Francis Ford Coppola , an Oscar-winning director in need of a hit. Soon, a large cast of fresh-faced young actors—a future “who’s who” of Hollywood—descended upon Tulsa. The movie would find a whole new audience for Hinton’s debut novel and permanently alter the city for the better.

Bringing The Outsiders to the screen

In 1972, Jo Ellen Misakian was a parent with a new job as a librarian at the Lone Star School in Fresno, California. She gave the book to her 13-year-old son, later telling the New York Times , “I had been so frustrated because the kids, the boys especially, didn’t read. Somehow, The Outsiders caught on.” Misakian decided the book should be turned into a movie, so she contacted a Fresno Bee newspaper columnist who pointed her to Parade magazine’s movie editor. The editor, in turn, suggested contacting Hinton, who never responded.

Undeterred, Misakian wrote a letter to Coppola, who had recently produced The Black Stallion , a 1979 film adapted from the classic 1941 children’s book. She pitched him on The Outsiders with an enclosed paperback copy of the novel. Luckily for her, she mistakenly sent it to his New York City office, where he received almost no fan mail. Coppola handed the book off to producing partner Don Roos, who found the cover illustration tacky and didn’t crack it for weeks, but eventually decided to give it ten whole pages on a flight to see if it was any good. Roos read it cover to cover. Not long after, he flew to Tulsa to meet with Hinton. She wasn’t dazzled by Coppola’s cinematic pedigree, including films like The Conversation , The Godfather and Apocalypse Now , but as Roos explained when The Outsiders was released in March 1983, “she likes horses and felt The Black Stallion showed we had some affinity for young adult fiction.”

Coppola began filming in March 1982, secure in knowing The Outsiders could be completed on the cheap. He’d just blown $26 million, a huge sum at the time, directing One From the Heart , a wayward musical that grossed a mere $636,796 at the box office and eventually bankrupted Coppola’s Zoetrope Studios . The director found salvation in the Socs and the greasers, once saying , “I used to be a great camp counselor, and the idea of being with half a dozen kids in the country and making a movie seemed like being a camp counselor again. It would be a breath of fresh air. I’d forget my troubles and have some laughs.”

A wide-net call that auditioned virtually every known Hollywood actor— a grueling process for all—produced a cast that is, in hindsight, remarkable for its talent: Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, C. Thomas Howell, Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and Diane Lane. The nimble, stripped-down nature of shooting The Outsiders allowed for a lot of back and forth and a lot of down time, creating a real bond between the actors (or the greasers, anyway).

“It always does something when you take a group of people out of their own element and stick them in a new space. It forces them to turn to each other for support,” says 56-year-old Howell , who played narrator Ponyboy Curtis and will soon appear in the Netflix series “ Obliterated .” “On the weekends, we were playing football and basketball against the Socs. Coppola set it up in good nature, but subconsciously and psychologically, it was creating a real competitive atmosphere and a dislike that wasn’t malicious by any means but definitely gave us a needed sense of rivalry.”

Photojournalist David Burnett saw the insular vibes firsthand after being asked to take publicity stills. Photos that weren’t used for promotion at the time were placed in a reject box and stashed away in a file cabinet. Some 35 years later, Burnett, now 76, heard about the opening of the Outsiders House Museum in Tulsa and offered to dig up and donate some snapshots. This, in turn, led to Burnett’s new book, The Outsiders: Rare and Unseen , a collection of long-shelved stills of the bright young cast. Burnett, whose illustrious career has taken him all over the globe, shooting events like the liftoff of Apollo 11 , the Iranian Revolution and a Bob Marley tour , has fond recollections of his week in Oklahoma.

“It was a very low-key operation, so I just hung around, and every time an actor had a break, I’d ask them for five minutes to get a few shots,” he says. “Nobody knew who these guys were, so they were happy to do it. They were all striving to do something interesting and career-building in ways they didn’t even realize.”

The Outsiders: Rare and Unseen

Photography by David Burnett. This book showcases never-before-seen photos from the set of the 1983 film.

Burnett adds, “If The Outsiders were filmed today, they would be bulkier and in peak physical shape, but what the movie called for was a cast of skinny, innocent-looking, young working-class boys. Tom Cruise didn’t even hide his gnarly teeth . [These were] different times. Being part of it was a real pleasure.”

Howell recalls Hinton’s presence as an important part of the process. She offered wardrobe and hairstyle tips, answered questions about Tulsa back in the day, gave personal insights, offered character motivations, explained the differences in the everyday lives of Socs and greasers, and generally acted as the group’s den mother. She still keeps in touch with most of her “guys,” which is why she acquiesced to Macchio’s overtures to join him on stage last fall.

Though neither Hinton nor Coppola received a screenplay credit—it went solely to Kathleen Rowell , an early drafter of the project—the duo shaped the story and the scenes to keep it authentic to the author’s world.

As a reward for getting the book into Coppola’s hands, Misakian and her Fresno community got their own early screening attended by cast members including Howell, Macchio and pop star-turned-Soc Leif Garrett . Misakian received a standing ovation, calling the experience a fairy tale—and her story didn’t end there.

In September 2021, the name “Jo Ellen Misakian” went up in lights on Tulsa’s Circle Cinema marquee, where the librarian appeared as a guest star at a special screening of the movie she made possible. Misakian also autographed the celebrity wall inside the Curtis brothers’ home, a gathering place for Hinton devotees that was rebuilt by a former hip-hop luminary repaying The Outsiders for helping to save his life.

Preserving The Outsiders ’ legacy

Located in North Tulsa’s Crutchfield neighborhood at 731 North St. Louis Avenue, the 1920s Craftsman bungalow looks more or less the same as it did when Coppola used it as the home of Darry, Sodapop and Ponyboy Curtis. It’s a simple one-story dwelling, a cream-and-white wooden abode featuring a concrete porch dotted with midcentury metal porch furniture to ride out those steamy Oklahoma nights. A rusty chain-link fence surrounds the modest property, where the 1949 Plymouth Special De Luxe driven by Two-Bit Matthews (played by Estevez) rests on the lawn and personalized donation bricks encourage guests to “ stay gold .”

In 2009, Danny Boy O’Connor , whose defunct hip-hop group House of Pain hit it big with “ Jump Around ” in 1992, was touring in Tulsa when inspiration struck. He paid a cabbie $100 to drive him around in search of Outsiders filming locations. Discovering that the Curtis brothers’ house still existed led him to found the Delta Bravo Urban Exploration Team (“Delta Bravo” sounded less corny than “Danny Boy,” he thought), a group of online friends who make pilgrimages to pop culture and true crime sites to photograph them for posterity. It was a way to reconnect with his life, which had spiraled into the abyss after House of Pain broke up in the mid-1990s.

O’Connor was born into a rough Brooklyn life. His father was in and out of prison and would eventually die drunk on the street, he says. After remarrying, his mother moved her son to Los Angeles for a fresh start, but two years later, his alcoholic stepfather died of cirrhosis of the liver. It was the type of upbringing that would culminate in the hip-hop artist burning through millions of dollars on alcohol and drugs.

The young O’Connor found solace in The Outsiders ’ story of orphans and brotherly sensitivity. Unable to afford the house when he first encountered it, he sprang into action and bought it when he saw it go up for sale in 2015.

“If I didn’t save the [house], I knew I was going to be miserable for the rest of my life,” says O’Connor. The property was in terrible condition, he recalls, likening its look to the home of the serial killer in David Fincher’s Se7en . He didn’t have the $150,000 it would take to turn it into a livable home; despite the fact that his only memorabilia from the film was a poster, he decided to turn it into a museum. Preserving the Curtis brothers’ home became his reason for being, a chance to give back and be of service in his new surroundings. Before he undertook the project, however, he needed to connect with Hinton.

“Danny called and asked if we could meet up. I didn’t know anything about his musical career, or even what he looked like, but I knew by the end of lunch that we were going to end up close friends,” Hinton says. “He asked if I had any interest in buying the house. I said, ‘God no, I can barely keep up with my own house,’ but I told him to go ahead if he wanted to.”

Hinton gave more than her blessing. She made the first large donation, $10,000, and provided O’Connor with a brown leather jacket worn by both Dillon and Howell in the film. O’Connor’s original estimate was that it would take six months to get the museum up and running. It took more than three years and $175,000, but for all involved, it was a labor of love.

Today, the 1,400-square-foot interior is filled with furniture, memorabilia, paintings, foreign editions, Burnett’s photographs, multiple switchblades, wardrobe pieces like Estevez’s sleeveless Mickey Mouse shirt (and a faux chocolate cake to boot), and Ponyboy’s desk. An obscure period detail honors another famed Oklahoman: a 1958 record album of Mickey Mantle’s favorite hits (fortunately not sung by the Yankee slugger).

In August 2019, the Outsiders House Museum officially opened its doors, welcoming school groups during the week and the general public on the weekends. O’Connor estimates that some 20,000 people visited in 2022—a sizable uptick from the previous pandemic-plagued years. Private tours allow docents like Donnie Rich to explain their personal connections to the book. As a teenager who didn’t do the reading for class, Rich says he knocked on Hinton’s door in an unsuccessful attempt to secure her help with a book report on what he calls the “Oklahoma Bible.” The museum also hosts concerts, movie screenings and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. True Curtis brother diehards can even crash across the street at the Greaser Hideout Airbnb or, for the full experience, in the still-vacant lot where Macchio’s Johnny slept under a pile of newspapers.

“Danny has done a great job with the Outsiders House,” says Hinton. “People come from all over the United States, and even the world. He said teenage girls have walked in and burst into tears. It floors me.”

For O’Connor, the museum has been a life-changing experience, offering a sense of direction as well as a literal place to live. He relocated from Los Angeles to be the full-time keeper of The Outsiders ’ flame. He was integral in the publishing of Burnett’s photo book and recently signed a contract with Penguin to write the film’s oral history. Nearly everyone from The Outsiders , extras and big stars alike, have dropped by the museum (excluding Cruise, at least so far). So have fanboys like musician Jack White, Leonardo DiCaprio (while filming Martin Scorsese’s upcoming Killers of the Flower Moon ) and the members of Green Day. O’Connor is such a fixture around Tulsa that Mayor G.T. Bynum gave him a key to the city.

Hinton’s life today

Apart from a few years spent in Northern California, Hinton never left Tulsa. She still lives in the house where she and her husband, David Inhofe, a software engineer by trade, raised their son, Nick Inhofe, who now works as an audio engineer in the movie business. She’s down to earth and not wild about discussing herself (Hinton makes it abundantly clear there will “never be a memoir”), but she also chats with fans on Twitter and in the neighborhood writ large. Tulsa provided all she ever needed, and she’s comfortably woven into the fabric of the community, walking unknown through the halls of her alma mater before bringing the local house down.

“I still get recognized sometimes at the grocery store. It’s not a J.D. Salinger situation. I haven’t got the temperament for that or the talent to deserve it,” says Hinton, adding dryly, “You might not know it from reading my books, but my sense of humor is a strong part of my personality.”

Teresa Miller can attest to Hinton’s fun-loving, grounded personality, as well as her central role in the local literary scene. In 1994, Miller founded the Center for Poets and Writers at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. She spent two decades running it and hosting the PBS television show “ Writing Out Loud .” Along the way, she and Hinton became professional colleagues and close friends—but before they even met, Miller, 70, was thrilled that somebody had upended the standard perception of who Oklahomans are.

Miller explains, “I come from a little Cherokee community called Tahlequah and began working in Tulsa before moving here decades ago, so I’ve lived both a rural and urban life. Growing up, Oklahoma was known for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical and The Grapes of Wrath , both of which my father hated because of the Okie stereotypes.”

She adds, “ The Outsiders changed that. It took the Oklahoma story to a different level. [Hinton] showed Tulsa as a regular city with regular city problems and handled it in a unique but universal way. She wrote a [novel about] Oklahoma that had nothing to do with singing cowboys or the Joads . It didn’t eliminate the stereotypes … but The Outsiders and Susie’s subsequent books changed how the outside world viewed us and even how we viewed ourselves.”

It certainly changed how Okie transplant O’Connor sees himself. It’s become his life’s work—and he’s just getting started. Renovations are underway at the iconic DX gas station featured in the film, and he’s aiming to raise enough money to restore other abandoned locales like the Rexall Drug Store . He also has designs on something bigger for his favorite author.

“I want to open, for lack of a better name, the S.E. Hinton Museum, which she absolutely hates,” says O’Connor. (Hinton replies, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”)

The former hip-hop star adds, “I was lost after House of Pain. [Hinton’s] brilliant work gave me purpose. Bringing her legacy to the people is what I’m meant to do.”

If O’Connor’s vision ever comes to fruition, it will honor Hinton’s full literary career, not just the book that put her on the map. At the end of the day, though, the author understands the significance of The Outsiders .

“I’m known best for the first thing I’ve written, but it’s better than not being known at all,” she says. “I just don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

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Patrick Sauer | | READ MORE

Raised in Billings, Montana,  Patrick Sauer  is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer who primarily covers sports, history and sports history. His work has appeared in the New York Times , Smithsonian , Defector , Los Angeles Times , Montana Quarterly and countless publications that no longer exist.

The Outsiders (1983)

S.E. Hinton's best-selling classic, starting Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Diane Lane, Matt Dillon, Lowe, and Emilio Estevez. Directed by Ford Coppola.

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Academy Award-winning director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather films) directs an all-star cast in the big-screen adaptation S.E. Hinton's classic coming-of-age novel The Outsiders. Early 1960s. Tulsa, Oklahoma. The city is divided between teenagers who have grown up with wealth and privilege and the rough-edged "greasers" from the wrong side of the tracks. The greasers yearn for the life they see on the other side of town, but the rich kids want to keep them in their places. Then, one greaser dares cross the line to talk, and to dream of more, with a girl from across the tracks . . . an action that can only lead to conflict on a hot, steamy night.

Cast and crew

Francis Ford Coppola

S.E. Hinton

C. Thomas Howell

Matt Dillon

Ralph Macchio

Patrick Swayze

Emilio Estevez

Glenn Withrow

Leif Garrett

Darren Dalton

Michelle Meyrink

Gailard Sartain

William Smith

Tom Hillmann

Hugh Walkinshaw

Sofia Coppola

Teresa Wilkerson Hunt

Linda Nystedt

Brent Beesley

Daniel R. Suhart

Kathleen Rowell

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Francis Ford Coppola shares The Outsiders audition footage, with young Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, and more

The audition process for the 1983 film asked each actor to read lines for every role.

Francis Ford Coppola is celebrating The Outsiders with an adorable blast from Hollywood's past.

More than 40 years after its release, the 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton's classic novel remains highly regarded, in part because of the many young cast members who would go on to achieve major success. In honor of those star-making performances, the film's director shared footage of the auditions that started it all — including the likes of Patrick Swayze , Tom Cruise , Emilio Estevez , Diane Lane , Ralph Macchio , Matt Dillon , and Rob Lowe .

"42 years ago we cast The Outsiders in a unique way," Coppola wrote in an Instagram post Wednesday. "We had all the actors together on a soundstage and would alternate different actors reading for different roles."

He continued: "It was interesting because each of them was watching their competition, so while it could've been a volatile situation, it turned into a very positive one. There emerged the natural respect and sense of colleagueship among them. The result worked beautifully and reminded me of my days as a camp counselor."

As promised, the footage features the actors reading the parts of various characters from the coming-of-age story, including roles they wouldn't go on to play. Anthony Michael Hall appears in one audition tape, reading for the role of main character Ponyboy — ultimately, it was C. Thomas Howell who booked the part.

A few of the stars chimed in with comments on Coppola's post, reminiscing about the experience. "The people that came to these auditions… so many went on to have great careers," Howell wrote. "Amazing."

"These auditions and this film experience still inform me today," Macchio wrote, thanking the Oscar-winning filmmaker, while Lowe added, "Feels like this was just yesterday!" 

Everett Collection

The film, like the novel, revolves around rival teen gangs in a rural Oklahoma town: the poor Greasers and the wealthy Socs. After Ponyboy and Johnny (Macchio) get into a deadly brawl, they're forced to go into hiding as both gangs come to terms with the consequences of their violent lives. 

The Outsiders stars previously spoke of the intense audition process, filled to the brim with up-and-coming talent, while reflecting on the experience for EW's 2021 oral history of the movie . 

"Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn, Dennis Quaid, Mickey Rourke… it was a movie everybody wanted to be in," Macchio recalled. "Leif Garrett was probably the most famous guy who walked in."

Garrett, who eventually landed the role of Bob Sheldon, remarked, "It was all day long, and it was a process of elimination. I really wanted to be Ponyboy, because that's the role. But I wasn't right for it. I'm not that greasy."

Coppola concluded, "It was competitive. But it only spurred them on."

Footage of the auditions was also included as bonus material in previous home-video releases. You can watch the clips shared by Coppola above.

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Related content:

• Stay gold with your first look at The Outsiders Broadway musical
• Angelina Jolie hires 15-year-old daughter as assistant for Broadway production of The Outsiders
• S.E. Hinton on The Outsiders ' 50th anniversary: 'I could never be that un-self-conscious again'
• An oral history of The Outsiders

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The Outsiders review – Coppola’s Brat Pack melodrama carries you away

Patrick Swayze and Rob Lowe star in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 movie that comes crashing back on screen

L ike a rock’n’roll power chord, Francis Ford Coppola ’s 1983 teen gangs melodrama The Outsiders comes crashing back on screen, in a longer “complete novel” cut. It is a movie with the heartfelt old-fashioned urgency of a Hollywood film from much further back, with the Brat Pack in this film the equivalent of the Dead End Kids who made Angels With Dirty Faces in the 1930s. And The Outsiders feels very different from the companion-piece Rumble Fish that Coppola made afterwards with much of the same cast, co-written again with novelist SE Hinton.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma in the early 1960s, there are two gangs, the greasers and the socs – derived from “socials”, the posher, Wasp kids whose parents can afford to join social clubs. There is a not-so-hidden racism in the socs’ loathing of the greasers who are often from an Italian background. One of the greasers, Ponyboy Curtis (C Thomas Howell) is poignantly in love with a sweet girl, Cherry Valance ( Diane Lane ), who hangs out with the socs. But this isn’t exactly a tale of star-crossed lovers and the gangs aren’t both alike in dignity. Class and caste divides them: they are the outsiders and the insiders.

The greasers are the heroes: tearaway Dally ( Matt Dillon ), Johnny ( Ralph Macchio ), Darry (Patrick Swayze), Sodapop (Rob Lowe) and Steve (Tom Cruise). When Johnny and Ponyboy kill a soc in self-defence, seasoned tough guy Dally gives them cash and tells them how to make a getaway. They hop on to a freight train to the country and hide out in a dangerous abandoned church, where they become heroes in the press for saving some schoolchildren who strayed into the building which then caught fire. Johnny ends up in hospital with tragic and sacrificial burn injuries: this may be the poetic justice which cancels out his killing a soc. And while they are hiding out there, these kids’ existence achieves a kind of Mark Twain drama and poignancy as they while away the pastoral days, quoting Robert Frost and reading an old paperback book: of all things, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind.

This is a film that carries you along and there is an added savour in seeing those cherubic faces which have since settled into middle age.

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Francis Ford Coppola Shares Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze Outsiders Auditions, 42 Years Later

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Francis Ford Coppola has released audition tapes from The Outsiders , featuring adorably young versions of Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, Emilio Estevez, and Ralph Macchio reading lines together for the 1983 movie.

Francis Ford Coppola Releases The Outsiders Audition Tapes

“42 years ago we cast The Outsiders in a unique way,” 84-year-old Coppola wrote in the caption of his Instagram post along with a video compilation of the auditions.

“We had all the actors together on a soundstage and would alternate different actors reading for different roles. It was interesting because each of them was watching their competition, so while it could’ve been a volatile situation, it turned into a very positive one.  There emerged the natural respect and sense of colleagueship among them. The result worked beautifully and reminded me of my days as a camp counselor.”

Also Read: When Tom Cruise Was Mistaken for a Hippie

Based on the 1963 novel by S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders follows a gang of teenagers in Oklahoma who call themselves “Greasers” and are constantly at odds with their more buttoned-up rivals, the “Socials”. But when one of the Socials dies in a fight between the two groups, the Greasers must go into hiding — and some end up meeting very sad ends.

Howell starred as the Greaser main character, Ponyboy, opposite Macchio as Johnny Cade, who utters the famous line, “Stay gold, Ponyboy” in reference to the Robert Frost poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay.”

Lowe played Soda Curtis, Swayze played Darry Curtis, Dillon played Dally Winston, Estevez played Two-Bit Mathews, and Lane played Cherry Valence. The movie served as a breakout for many in the cast.

The Outsiders was distributed by Warner Bros. Francis Ford Coppola is known for directing The Godfather (1972) as well as The Godfather Part II (1974), The Godfather Part III (1990), Apocalypse Now (1979) and Rumblefish (1983). His next upcoming film will be Megalopolis starring Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza and Shia LaBeouf.

Main Image: Rob Lowe (L) and Patrick Swayze (R) in The Outsiders. Credit: Warner Bros

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The Outsiders Star Matt Dillon Visits Broadway Show, Poses with Producers Angelina Jolie, Daughter Vivienne

Preview performances for the musical adaptation are currently underway, with an opening night of April 11

Bruce Glikas/WireImage

Matt Dillon is staying gold on the Great White Way.

The actor, who starred as Dallas "Dally" Winston in the 1983 film The Outsiders , stopped by the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in New York City on Wednesday, April 3, for a performance of the story's Broadway musical adaption, which is currently playing in previews.

Dillon, 60, posed for multiple group photos with the cast and crew, which included two of its producers: Angelina Jolie and her 15-year-old daughter Vivienne .

The star posed in the middle of a large group shot with Vivienne seated below him, while Jolie, 48, was pictured near the right of the photo.

A smaller group snap featured several of the musical's core cast — Sky Lakota-Lynch, Kevin William Paul, Brent Comer, Joshua Boone, Joshua Schmidt and Brody Grant — along with Dillon and Jolie.

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Based on S. E. Hinton 's beloved 1967 coming-of-age novel, The Outsiders movie takes   place in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the 1960s and follows brothers Ponyboy Curtis ( C. Thomas Howell ), Darrel Curtis ( Patrick Swayze ), Sodapop "Soda" Curtis ( Rob Lowe ) and their group of friends some time after the death of the Curtis brothers' parents. Its plot largely revolves around conflicts between the group of greasers and more affluent teenagers in the city, known as Socs.

The Francis Ford Coppola -directed movie also stars Ralph Macchio as Johnny Cade, Emilio Estevez as Keith "Two-Bit" Mathews, Tom Cruise as Steve Randle and Diane Lane as Cherry Valance.

Jolie is one of the lead producers on the musical, a project she was inspired to take on after Vivienne saw the out-of-town tryout at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. The teenager will be involved closely in the production, Jolie said in August.

"Viv  reminds me of my mother  in that she isn’t focused on being the center of attention but in being a support to other creatives," Jolie said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE. "She’s very thoughtful and serious about theatre and working hard to best understand how to contribute."

Nancy Moran/Sygma via Getty

Last month, PEOPLE shared the exclusive first listen and music-video premiere of one of the musical's most poignant songs: "Stay Gold," a phrase that will be familiar to fans of  The Outsiders .

Inspired by  Robert Frost ’s poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay," it's a line told to protagonist Ponyboy (played in the Broadway adaptation by Grant) by close friend Johnny (played by Lakota-Lynch) during one of the story's most pivotal moments.

The musical cites both the novel and film as source material. Aside from writing the score, Justin Levine is also credited as the co-book writer with Adam Rapp. Levine provided music arrangements and orchestrations, too, with additional orchestrations by musical director Matt Hinkley.

Danya Taymor directs, with choreography by Rick Kuperman and Jeff Kuperman.

Tickets for  The Outsiders, which officially opens April 11, are on sale now at  outsidersmusical.com .

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‘The Outsiders’ star Matt Dillon visits Broadway show — poses with producers Angelina Jolie, her daughter Vivienne

Stay gold, Ponyboy. 

Matt Dillon, 60, who starred in the 1983 movie “The Outsiders,” stopped by the Broadway musical adaptation (in previews) Wednesday night. 

Angelina Jolie, 48, and her daughter, Vivienne, 15, are among the show’s producers, and also posed for snaps with Dillon, along with cast members Sky Lakota-Lynch, Kevin William Paul, Brent Comer, Joshua Boone, Joshua Schmidt and Brody Grant. 

In the photos, Dillon is all smiles with the young cast, while Vivienne looks poised and also smiles. 

Vivienne is one of Jolie’s children with her ex-husband, Brad Pitt, 60, who she split from in 2016. The couple also have Knox, 15, and Shiloh, 17, along with adopted kids Maddox, 22, Zahara, 19, and Pax, 20. 

Jolie has kept a low profile since her bitter divorce from Pitt , not appearing in many movies since 2019’s “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.”

About Vivienne producing the play, Jolie told People , “Viv reminds me of my mother in that she isn’t focused on being the center of attention but in being a support to other creatives,” she said, referring to actress Marcheline Bertrand , who died of cancer in 2007 at 56. 

“She’s very thoughtful and serious about theatre and working hard to best understand how to contribute,” Jolie added. 

Based on the 1967 novel by S.E. Hinton, “The Outsiders” is set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the ‘60s. It follows conflicts between poor teens who are divided into groups known as “greasers” and more affluent teens, known as “Socs.” 

The movie, which was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starred C. Thomas Howell as Ponyboy Curtis; Patrick Swayze as his brother, Darrel; Rob Lowe as their other brother, Sodapop; and their friends Johnny Cade (Ralph Macchio) and Dallas Winston (Dillon, who was only 19 at the time of filming). Tom Cruise and Emilio Estevez were also in the movie, making it a “who’s who” of big ’80s stars before they were famous.

“Stay gold, Ponyboy” is a famous line that Johnny says to Ponyboy during the bittersweet ending. 

“She is wonderful, She was on the sets… and she really understands the way kids think – especially male kids,” Dillon said about author Hinton, during a 1983 interview about the movie.

“She was the first person to ever write a book that really understood teenagers. Well, of course ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ I shouldn’t forget; it was very honest. I read it and I liked Holden Caulfield because he was so tough and so simple. And with Hinton, I got the same feeling,” he said.

“The Outsiders” on Broadway officially opens April 11. 

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36-year-old tom cruise movie with 9% on rotten tomatoes has the perfect remake cast after $216m hit.

One critically-panned box office hit from Tom Cruise is ripe for a remake, and the perfect cast can be found in the leads of 2023's rom-com success.

• Casting the leads from 2024's successful rom-com, Anyone but You, could elevate a remake of Tom Cruise's 1988 Cocktail movie.
• The success of 2024's Road House remake suggests modern remakes of divisive '80s classics can work today.
• Glen Powell's Top Gun role proves he could successfully replace Tom Cruise in a potential Cocktail remake.

With Road House (2024) paving the way for more modern remakes of cult classic ‘80s thrillers, the potential for Tom Cruise’s 1988 movie Cocktail to be remade could work better by casting the leads from 2023’s big rom-com success. The 1980s was an incredible decade for entries in the so-bad-they’re-good action/thriller subgenre , with movies like Patrick Swayze’s Road House failing to impress critics but remaining beloved for their lack of self-seriousness and entertainment value. The cast of 2024’s Road House remake maintains this sentiment in the remake of the 1989 film, with its divisive success making additional remakes of movies of this vein more likely.

While not as fondly remembered as Road House , another ‘80s hit that falls into this category is Tom Cruise’s 1988 movie Cocktail . The movie follows Cruise’s Brian Flanagan, a business student working as a successful bartender, whose relationships with his coworker Doug (Bryan Brown) and romantic interest Jordan (Elisabeth Shue) lead to a series of unexpected twists and turns. Though the film holds a meager 9% score on Rotten Tomatoes, it was a smash box office smash, earning $171.5 million against an estimated budget of $20 million (via Box Office Mojo ). Following Road House ’s success, it could finally be time to give Cruse's Cocktail the modern remake treatment .

Road House Proves Jake Gyllenhaal Is Perfect For Upcoming Reboot Of 30-Year-Old Jean-Claude Van Damme Action Movie

Glen powell & sydney sweeney would be perfect for a cocktail remake after anyone but you, the two actors could fill the shoes of tom cruise and elisabeth shue.

One crucial factor contributing to the success of Doug Liman’s 2024 Road House remake was its compelling lead cast, with action star Jake Gyllenhaal taking over Patrick Swayze’s character from the original while UFC champion Conor McGregor assumed the cartoonish villain role . Similar to Road House ’s remake requiring an actor with Swayze’s star power and charisma, a Cocktail remake would need an actor with comparable allure to ‘80s-era Tom Cruise for Brian Flanagan . Likewise, with Elisabeth Shue having been one of the biggest female stars of the ‘80s, a Cocktail remake would need an actress of similar popularity and appeal to step into the role of Jordan Mooney.

Anyone but You (2024) and Cocktail (1988) are available to rent or purchase from digital retailers like Amazon Prime Video and YouTube.

If Cocktail does get a remake, these casting requirements can easily be found in the leads of the 2023 hit movie Anyone but You . Though also divisive among critics, Anyone but You was a certified box office smash as it went on to earn over $216 million against a $25 million budget. In addition to a witty script and fun premise, much of Anyone but You ’s success can be attributed to the casting and chemistry of Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney as the two romantic leads. In 2024, Powell and Sweeney aren’t too off from the cards that Cruise and Shue brought to the table back in 1988 for Cocktail .

Much of Anyone but You ’s success can be attributed to the casting and chemistry of Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney as the two romantic leads.

Powell already had rom-com experience with films like Set It Up ahead of Anyone but You , but made a bigger name for his action roles in movies such as Top Gun: Maverick , Devotion , Hit Man , and, now, the upcoming Twisters sequel movie . Meanwhile, Sweeney has proven widely popular with audiences after her roles in Euphoria , The White Lotus , and Immaculate , and both actors prove increasingly bankable with each new release. With the original Cocktail movie’s negative critical and audience response making it ripe for improvement , Powell and Sweeney could provide the star power a remake would need to successfully adapt the same-named 1984 novel.

Sydney Sweeney's New Record-Breaking Movie Confirms Her Box Office Dominance (Just Ignore THAT Movie)

Remaking cocktail sounds better than anyone but you 2 for powell & sweeney, anyone but you doesn't need a direct sequel.

Following the success Anyone but You , Sweeney and Powell announced they were reading scripts and searching for their next collaboration together. While some have thrown around the idea of returning to Bea and Ben’s story with a potential Anyone but You 2 movie , the original movie being based on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing makes a sequel unnecessary. Rather, it seems more likely that Powell and Sweeney’s “sequel” will be a completely different film that pairs them as romantic leads.

It seems more likely that Powell and Sweeney’s “sequel” will be a completely different film that pairs them as romantic leads.

This was a common tactic for 1990s romantic comedies, which would see romantic leads like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan or Julia Roberts and Richard Gere reunite in another rom-com instead of making a direct sequel to their past success. Consequently, with Sweeney and Powell searching for their next film collaboration, a remake of Cocktail could provide a fitting follow-up to Anyone but You . With Powell playing Brian and Sweeney playing Jordan, the duo would just need to find a new Doug to enhance their existing chemistry, potentially creating the perfect recipe to improve upon Cruise’s original movie.

Road House 2024's Success Proves Remakes Of Divisive '80s Thrillers Can Work Today

The bar is set lower, but it needs to maintain '80s movie's tone.

Remakes of 1980s hits don’t always work out, with some proving to be unnecessary if the original was already a hit and a product of its time. However, there are some notable exceptions, with Amazon’s 2024 Road House movie being one of them. The Road House remake’s Rotten Tomatoes score is already better than the 1989 original (59% compared to 43%), and smashed records for Prime Video’s movie premiere viewership numbers to prove its popularity among audiences. Though many fans of the original may reasonably remain more loyal to Swayze’s 1989 iteration, it’s difficult to deny the entertainment value and success of the remake.

Considering Cocktail has a much less beloved reputation than 1989’s Road House , remaking the Tom Cruise film isn’t apt to come with as much apprehension or high expectations. With an already divisive original movie, there isn’t as big of a risk of “ ruining ” the original, as the bar is relatively lower when aiming to improve upon certain aspects of the first film that didn’t initially land with critics and audiences. Of course, with cult classics, it helps if the remake maintains the tone of the original, such as 2024’s Road House protecting the campiness and lack of self-seriousness of the 1989 film.

Top Gun: Maverick Highlights How Glen Powell Could Replace Tom Cruise's Brian In Cocktail

Powell and cruise's characters share similar qualities in top gun.

A potential Cocktail remake wouldn’t be the first time that Glen Powell has stepped into an ‘80s-based Tom Cruise property. Powell starred in Cruise’s 2022 hit Top Gun: Maverick as Hangman , who served a role similar to Val Kilmer’s Iceman from the 1986 original movie. Consequently, it’s already clear that Powell has qualities similar to Cruise in that era, which would make him taking over a character that Cruise originated easier to grasp.

The greatest way to make [a Cocktail remake] more enticing would be to get Tom Cruise to return as well.

Similar to Hangman or Maverick, a character like Brian Flanagan has an air of cockiness and confidence that contrasts with his need to prove himself. Powell’s past movies have demonstrated that he could take on this type of character successfully, having to balance the cockiness and heroism of his Top Gun character with the earnestness and rom-com lead chops of his Anyone but You role. While Powell and Sweeney potentially starring in a Cocktail remake would already give it a leg up, the greatest way to make it more enticing would be to get Tom Cruise to return as well.

Source: Box Office Mojo

Anyone But You

Anyone But You is a romantic comedy by director Will Gluck starring Sydney Sweeny and Glen Powell. Sweeny and Powell star as Bea and Ben, two strangers with an incredible first date that goes sour following one incident at the tail end. Thinking the worst is behind them, the two are roped into a destination wedding in Sydney, Australia, where they'll have to pretend to be a couple despite absolutely hating each other.

Netflix Acquires Sam Raimi's Horror Film Starring 'Yellowstone' and 'American Horror Story' Stars

'Don't Move' follows a serial killer who terrorizes a grieving woman.

The Big Picture

• Netflix acquires horror-thriller Don't Mov e produced by Sam Raimi, starring Kelsey Asbille and Finn Wittrock.
• The film follows a woman injected with paralytic agent by a serial killer in an isolated forest.
• Raimi excited to bring the twisted tale to life with the production team in the upcoming horror-thriller Don't Move.

The next Sam Raimi -produced film , Don't Move , has been acquired by Netflix for worldwide distribution, Variety reveals. Starring Kelsey Asbille and Finn Wittrock , the official film synopsis teases a horror-thriller when a seasoned serial killer injects a grieving woman with a paralytic agent while the two of them are isolated deep in the forest. As the agent gradually takes over her body, she must run, hide, and fight for her life before her entire nervous system shuts down.

Raimi serves as an executive producer on the film, whose script was written by T. J. Cimfel and David White ( Intruders ) and directed by Brian Netto and Adam Schindler ( 50 States of Fright ). Raimi also serves as a producer on another upcoming horror-thriller, Locked , which follows a thief who breaks into a luxury SUV, only to realize that he has slipped into a sophisticated and deadly trap. The film stars Bill Skarsgård and Anthony Hopkins . Speaking about Don't Move (via Indie Wire ), Raimi was excited about bringing the story to life, saying:

“Alex and the team at Hammerstone as well as our friends at Capstone are the ideal production partners as we bring this compelling and twisted tale to light. I am delighted to collaborate again with our co-directors Adam and Brian on this incredibly frightening and tense story full of so many twists and turns – it will deliver a fantastic horror punch to the audience!”

Raimi is most known for his directorial work in the 2004 Tobey Maguire -led Spider-Man film. His 2009 horror film Drag Me To Hell has been lauded as one of the scariest horror films of the late 2000s. His other collaboration with Skarsgård is set to debut in theaters on August 26. In the film Boy Kills World , Skarsgard stars as Boy, a deaf person who goes on a vengeance mission after his family is killed. Other cast members include Famke Janssen , Jessica Rothe , Isaiah Mustafa , Andrew Koji , Michelle Dockery , Brett Gelman , Yayan Ruhian , Nicholas Crovetti , Cameron Crovetti , Quinn Copeland and Shalto Copley .

About Kelsey Asbille and Finn Wittrock

Asbille is most known for her role in Yellowstone as Monica Dutton, the wife of John Dutton's ( Kevin Costner ) son Kayce ( Luke Grimes ). She also recurred in the fourth season of Fargo as Swanee Capps. Wittrock is most known for his various characters in Ryan Murphy 's productions, especially in American Horror Story , beginning in Season 4 as Dandy Mott. In features, he had a part in Ava DuVernay 's Origin . He will be seen in Downtown Owl as Coach Laidlaw opposite American Horror Story costar Lily Rabe in her directorial debut. Downtown Owl will be available on digital to buy or rent on April 23.

Don't Move does not have a premiere date yet but stay tuned to Collider for further updates.