Happy Campers 2001

When the rule-enforcing camp director at Camp Bleeding Dove is struck by lightning, the counselors are left to steer their campers—and themselves—through the last days of the session. Among them are Wichita, Brad Renfro a brooding and intellectual teen; Wendy, Dominique Swain guileless and unabashedly religious; Talia, Emily Bergl an outcast and former college friend of Wichita’s; Pixel, Jaime King a waifish hippie who baths in the camp lake; Jasper, an openly gay man; the brutish Adam, Jordan Bridges; and Donald, Justin Long a nerdy and unconfident virgin.

Wichita, Brad Renfro initially finds himself repulsed by Wendy’s opposite beliefs, but attraction grows as they begin to court each other, a private romance watched by the rest of the group. Wichita, an atheist, starts to question his faith after he discovers a childhood photo of himself tucked into the background of one of Wendy’s Mount Rushmore family pictures; he keeps this discovery to himself, choosing silence over confession. As their bond deepens, the two finally acknowledge their feelings, and Wendy loses her virginity to Wichita after an allergic bee-sting triggers a dangerous reaction.

Meanwhile, Talia, who harbors feelings for Wichita, grows disillusioned when he confesses that he simply wants to be friends. Her suspicion deepens when she learns that Wichita and Wendy are now involved. Donald, pushed by the others, tries to pursue Talia, but she resists his advances. In a bid to test Wichita’s sincerity, Wendy enlists Pixel to tempt him in the woods. Wichita overhears the scheme, and when he is pressed, he kisses Pixel in front of her. Wendy, overwhelmed by the moment, flees in tears, convinced that Wichita’s feelings were not genuine.

On the penultimate day of camp, Wichita reveals that he had purposely failed Wendy and Pixel’s test, admitting that his emotions were more complicated than either of them understood. That same day in the woods, Adam confronts Pixel about their sexual relationship, and she bluntly tells him it was just a fling. Back in the mess hall, Donald and Talia spark a riot with the campers, who surge into the woods in body paint and hurl condoms fashioned into water balloons at Adam, Pixel, Wichita, and Wendy.

The next morning, as Wendy and Pixel prepare to leave, Wendy notices that half of her Mount Rushmore family photo has been torn off—the piece Wichita had secretly taken and eaten to destroy any trace of it. As the campers and counselors prepare to depart, the children confess how much they meant to each of them. On the bus ride home, Wendy is seated next to Wichita, with Donald snapping a photo of them—captured with a camper between them—which later appears on the cover of the following year’s camp staff manual.