I Wanna Hold Your Hand 1978

February 1964 brings the Beatles’ televised debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, broadcast from New York City, and a day of eager schemes, fearsome ambitions, and close shaves for a tight-knit group of teens in Maplewood, New Jersey. Janis Goldman, Susan Kendall Newman, a folk-music purist who can’t stand the Fab Four, finds her social circle split between fascination and antagonism as her friends Rosie Petrofsky, Wendie Jo Sperber, and Pam Mitchell, Nancy Allen, chase very different thrills. Grace Corrigan, Theresa Saldana, bold and driven by the moment, plots to snag exclusive photos by staging a limousine run to the Beatles’ hotel, enlisting Larry DuBois, Marc McClure, a teen who has access to limos through his family, and, unexpectedly, Tony Smerko, Bobby Di Cicco, another wary skeptic of the band.

On the morning of February 9, the group lands in the shadows of a hotel that’s already buzzing with screaming fans. Grace and Rosie slip inside, using a service elevator, while Pam hides in a basement closet and watches as the group moves to rehearse at the Ed Sullivan Theater. Grace gets off on the 11th floor, and Rosie makes her way toward the Beatles’ rooms, dodging security and getting caught up in a whirl of backstage intrigue. Pam, meanwhile, hides under John’s bed after the Beatles return to their room, savoring the thrill from a distance. A guard offers a window into backstage access for a price, and Grace tries to buy her way deeper into the action, even contemplating a drastic ruse to photograph the band up close.

The plan to finance the mission unfolds with risky improvisation. Larry asks Grace to join him at the school’s Valentine’s Day dance, yet Grace stays fixated on the prize. To fund her entry, she takes on a dangerous role—she aims to replace a sex worker at the hotel with a prostitution client, only to seize the opportunity to photograph the man’s private moment instead. The man resists, but Larry, who has been sipping in the hotel bar, intervenes just in time, knocking the man out and rescuing Grace.

Back outside, Janis befriends Peter Plimpton, Christian Juttner, a boy who dreams of seeing the show but is held back by his father’s conditions for three tickets—one that costs a haircut in exchange for admission. Janis recruits Tony to steal from Peter’s dad, splitting the tickets so that Peter, Janis, and Tony each get one. For Peter, the motive is pure: he wants to witness the show; for Tony, the plan is more complex, a way to disrupt the televised broadcast if possible. The stakes rise as a radio DJ begins handing out show tickets to listeners who answer trivia about the Beatles correctly, an opportunity Rosie seizes by finally getting through and winning two tickets. Pam, too, faces a test of commitment when Eddie, her fiancé, arrives to pick her up; she ultimately decides she’s not ready for marriage and dashes toward the theater, assisted by a road manager’s ticket that Neil Aspinall once handed to her.

The tension peaks as Tony makes a bold move. He snatches a fire axe from a doorway and climbs to the theater’s roof, making his way toward the transmitter to sabotage the broadcast. Janis races to stop him, but Tony’s resolve remains intact until a thunderstorm’s lightning suddenly knocks him from the transmitter, altering the fate of the plan in a single flash of fate.

Meanwhile, outside the theater, Larry parks the limo in a back alley and Grace secures a last-minute chance to reconnect with backstage access by bribing a policeman who’s about to arrest Larry for improper parking and missing paperwork. With the funds gone, Grace experiences a momentary despair, only to be buoyed by Larry’s later offer to still take her to the dance. The story threads toward a chaotic, joyous finale: the Beatles, by some twist of fate, end up in Larry’s limo as a mob of fans swarms the alley, and Grace finally gets the chance to photograph the iconic group up close.

In the end, the day’s wild combination of ambition, rebellion, and chance leads to a bittersweet victory. The Beatles’ impending performance becomes a backdrop for the teens’ stubborn dreams and impulsive schemes, and Grace, Rosie, Pam, Janis, Larry, and Tony all find themselves shaped—by luck, mischief, or lightning—in ways they hadn’t anticipated. The film closes on the intoxicating energy of the moment, with the Beatles’ music and the teens’ photographs capturing a defining intersection of pop-culture history and adolescent longing, anchored by a shared pull toward the stage, the crowd, and the dream of being seen.