Plot Summary

This story is about Jimmy Stark (James Dean), who is a young man that arrived to a new town where he met Judy (Nathalie Wood) and Plato (Sal Mineo). Jimmy is a problematic man that has been travelling from one town to another because of his behaviour and his problems with the justice and the alcohol. Since the moment Jimmy arrives to his new High School he is involve in troubles with a local gang that its leader is Buzz (Judy’s boyfriend).

Jimmy wants to fit in this gang, so that Buzz arranges a nocturnal “Chickie Run” with Jimmy, that is a car race that ends in a cliff where the cars are eventually destroyed, so that the winner is the last person that jumps off its car. Unfortunately Buzz can not jump off his car and dies. Jimmy feels guilty for Buzz’s death and for the rest of the evening he thinks a lot in what he has recently done. Trying to find answers Jimmy asks his subjugated father what is the best thing to do, but his father does not help him at all and Jimmy goes for a walk.


Jimmy, Judy and Plato go to an abandoned huge house that looks like a castle. They look like a perfect family until the other gang members get there looking for Jimmy because they want to be sure that he will not say anything about what has happened in the cliff.
Scared and confused Plato goes to the Planetarium looking for a place to hide from the other gang members. Jimmy and Judy follows him and get to the planetarium, too. This is the place where happens a terrible confusion. The Police thinks that Plato is guilty for Buzz’s death and want to catch him. Jimmy helps Plato but after a discussion, The Police shot Plato causing his dead.


Images Taken from: Filmreference.com