Minutemen (film) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Minutemen
Film poster
Screenplay by	John Killoran Bill Tobin
Story by	David Diamond David Weissman
Directed by	Lev L. Spiro
Starring	Jason Dolley Luke Benward Nicholas Braun Chelsea Staub J. P. Manoux Steven R. McQueen Kara Crane
Theme music composer	Nathan Wang
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Douglas Sloan
Running time	90 minutes
Production company(s)	Salty Pictures
Distributor	Disney-ABC Domestic Television
Budget	$5 million
Release
Original network	Disney Channel
Original release	January 25, 2008 (2008-01-25)

Minutemen is a 2008 science-fiction Disney Channel Original Movie. The movie was the most viewed program on American cable TV for the week, with 6.48 million viewers.

The film was written by John Killoran (writing the teleplay) and David Diamond and David Weissman (writing the story) and directed by Lev L. Spiro, who received a Directors Guild nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programs for it. Andrew Gunn, Ann Marie Sanderlin and Doug Sloan are the executive producers. The movie was originally slated for release in March 2008, however, the movie premiered on Disney Channel in United States on January 25, 2008.

Plot

On the first day of high school, best friends Virgil (Jason Dolley), Derek (Steven R. McQueen), and Stephanie (Chelsea Kane) each decide to try out various activities around the school. However, while Derek tries football and Stephanie tries cheerleading, Virgil's high school career takes a turn when young genius Charlie Tuttle (Luke Benward) interrupts football practice as he tears across the field on a rocket car. As the football team begins harassing Charlie, Virgil comes to his defense only to get bullied as well. Virgil and Charlie are forced to dress like cheerleaders and are hung from the school mascot's statue by their underwear.

Three years later, Virgil and Charlie are still outcasts because of the incident despite Derek claiming that he had tried to stop the bullies from humiliating them. Charlie informs Virgil that he has invented the time machine. After befriending grease junky Zeke (Nicholas Braun), the time machine is built, and they test the time machine out by attempting to purchase a winning lottery ticket in the past. Forgetting that they are underage, they ask a local street performer to buy it for them but are forced to return to the present early. This, in turn, causes the street performer to win the lottery using the numbers they provided. After this failure, Charlie comes up with the plan to only use the machine to undo embarrassing mistakes made by their classmates dressed in white snowsuits to protect themselves from the portal's cold temperature.

The group later become known as the "Snowsuit Guys" (though they themselves prefer to be called the "Minutemen") and are named local heroes by the students, but labeled as troublemakers by the principal because of them accidentally breaking his model of the school. However, they soon realize that the teenagers they saved have started changing and the formerly bullied have now become bullies themselves. It is then revealed that in order for the time machine to work, Charlie had to hack into NASA and steal old files. Charlie warns Zeke and Virgil to refrain from using the Time Machine for the time being. Virgil arrives at school and sees Stephanie with a broken leg due to a cheerleading injury that caused her to lose her scholarship to her dream college, so he convinces a reluctant Charlie and Zeke to save Stephanie from falling off her cheerleader's pyramid, leading her to confront him after he accidentally talks to her in his disguise. After Derek experiences a humiliating loss at the state championship, Stephanie asks Virgil to help him out; in turn, the former friends are reunited. After hanging with the popular kids, Virgil begins to abandon Charlie and Zeke in favor of Stephanie and Derek. However, Stephanie eventually learns that Derek is cheating on her with his tutor Jocelyn, and Derek pleads with Virgil to go back in time to stop Stephanie from finding out, but Virgil is unsure as he has discovered he now has feelings for her.

The FBI comes to town after monitoring suspicious activity. After consulting with the government's top scientists, Charlie learns that their continuous trips in the time machine have damaged the space-time continuum, thus creating a black hole. With only hours to live, the trio is forced to venture into the hole and close it.

Once they have entered the black hole, they are transported back to their first day of high school, as the key component from the time machine was in Charlie's rocket cart. Virgil realizes that he can undo the events that caused him to lose his popularity. Charlie truthfully tells him that although Virgil hates this day, it's his favorite day as it's the day he finally got a real friend. Charlie and Zeke leave Virgil to make a decision, but as Virgil watches the incident unfold, he discovers that Derek didn’t defend him at all. Instead, he had betrayed him in favor of gaining popularity by suggesting to also put lipstick on the two. Having come to his senses, Virgil then reunites with Charlie and Zeke after picking up the rocket car.

The trio race back to the black hole just as it closes. They are then thrown back in time to the day they first time traveled. As they walk through the school, nobody suspects a thing and have no clue of the group’s heroic actions. Virgil stands up to Derek for his treachery and wins Stephanie's heart. Unfortunately, Charlie comes up with a new scientific idea involving teleportation and the film ends with Virgil and Zeke dragging Charlie away as he rambles about his plan.

Cast

• Jason Dolley as Virgil Fox, a social outcast after an embarrassing event
• Luke Benward as Charlie Tuttle, a young genius and outcast who is Virgil and Zeke's best friend
• Nicholas Braun as Zeke Thompson, a "bad boy" outcast who is Charlie and Virgil's best friend
• Chelsea Staub as Stephanie Jameson, Virgil's only former friend who still likes Virgil. Virgil has a crush on her
• J. P. Manoux as Vice Principal Tolkan.
• Steven R. McQueen as Derek Beaugard, Virgil's former best friend who is now dating Stephanie. He chose popularity over Virgil, but once he find out about Virgil's time-travelling, he starts to use him for his own advantage
• Kara Crane as Jeanette Pachelewski, a quirky girl who harbors a crush on Charlie
• Dexter Darden as Chester, an outcast who becomes popular due to the actions of the "Snowsuit Guys"
• Kellie Cockrell as Jocelyn Lee, a stuck-up popular girl who Derek cheated on Stephanie with
• Molly Jepson as Amy Fox, Virgil's annoying younger sister
• Larry Filion as F.B.I. agent (uncredited)
• Dwayne Hackett as store manager (uncredited)

Featured music

The first single of the movie, "Run It Back Again" by Corbin Bleu was released January 22, 2008 on Radio Disney Jams, Vol. 10 and its music video premiered on Disney Channel. Another single titled "Like Whoa" from Aly & AJ began airing January 19, 2008 around the world, as a music video on Disney Channel. The song could be purchased on album, Insomniatic.

See also

In Spanish: Minutemen (película) para niños