The Trip 1967

Peter Fonda’s Paul Groves, a television commercial director, takes his first dose of LSD amid the heartbreak and ambivalence of divorce from his beautiful but adulterous wife. His journey begins with a ‘guide,’ John (played by Bruce Dern), but fear drives him to abandon the guide.

As the trip unfolds, he experiences repetitive visions of dark hooded figures mounted on black horses pursuing him along a beach, a surreal thread that threads through his entire night. The experience heightens his senses as he wanders the Sunset Strip, slipping between neon-lit nightclubs and the intimate spaces of strangers and acquaintances, prompting him to question the roles that advertising, sex, and women have played in his life.

He encounters a young woman named Glenn, who is drawn to people who explore LSD. Glenn, Salli Sachse, has learned from Paul that he will be taking the drug and keeps a watchful eye on him. A second guide appears, Max, [Dennis Hopper], offering a gentler, friendlier counterpoint to the trip’s intensity.

Glenn drives Paul to her Malibu beach house, where their encounter unfolds, interwoven with a kaleidoscopic riot of abstract images and the constant undertone of pursuit. The sequence blends physical intimacy with the drug’s hallucinatory logic, creating a tapestry of light, color, and sudden fear that mirrors Paul’s inner conflict about love, fidelity, and personal freedom.

The chase comes into sharper focus as the pursuers reveal themselves to be Sally Groves, [Susan Strasberg], and Glenn. As the sun rises, Paul returns to his ordinary state of consciousness, visibly transformed by the journey, and steps out to the balcony to take a breath of fresh air, now faced with a changed perspective on his life.

Glenn asks him whether the LSD experience was constructive, and Paul defers his answer to “tomorrow.”

tomorrow