Rollercoaster is a 1999 teen drama film directed by Scott Smith. It is about five teens who escape a group home and travel to a defunct amusement park, hoping to find a notorious kid-friendly security guard who will run the rides for them. Although pursuing a fun-filled day, two of the teens, a couple expecting a baby, have formed a suicide pact and plan to use the amusement park to carry it out.
It was filmed at Playland Amusement Park in Vancouver, Canada.
Plot
The film opens with a brown station wagon driving recklessly around an amusement park parking lot. When the car stops, four teenagers exit the vehicle: Stick (Brendan Fletcher), Darren (Kett Turton), Chloe (Crystal Buble), and Sanj (Sean Armstrong). Sanj makes a comment about how his driving caused no damage to the car, at which point Darren begins kicking the grill in. Stick and Sanj soon follow in the act, laughing furiously as they do so. After damaging the car, Darren opens the rear hatchback to let out his younger teen brother, Justin (Brent Glenen). The group walks through the parking lot, speaking of their sexual experiences. Stick begins to pick on Justin, who seems shy and quiet, claiming that he has told the group counselor of their misbehavings in the past.
The group reaches the front gates of the amusement park and hops the fence. It is revealed that they are on a mission to find a kid-friendly security guard that can run the amusement rides for them. The group walks through the park, making fun of their group counselor, whom they stole their car from.
Darren and Chloe, who are a couple, sit down on the merry-go-round with Justin and tell him that they are not running away, like they have told him before they left the home. It is revealed that Chloe is pregnant with Darren's baby and they have formed a suicide pact that they will carry out later that night.
The teens, fueled by alcohol that they have been sharing, begin to play around on the rides. Stick pulls Justin into the bushes adjacent to the footpath, and gets him to strangle him intentionally for the thrill of getting high. After Stick recovers, the teens go to the park bleachers, where Stick talks to Darren about his suicide plans and asks Darren if he really loves Chloe. Darren claims that the whole thing is for Chloe and that he is just there to support her.
While playing around on the bleachers, they are found by the security guard, Ben (David Lovgren). The kids make fun of him and ask him to run the rides for them, referencing their friend Sawchuck who informed them of the park. The security guard agrees to let them roam around without touching anything, but says he will not run any rides. The security guard leaves and the teens vow to give him something to watch.
After playing around on the roller coaster, Ben catches Justin in the glass mirror house. Ben takes Justin back to his office and threatens to call the group home the teens came from. Justin pleads for him not to, and Ben puts the phone down. Meanwhile, Darren and Sanj have decided to smoke marijuana in one of the park restrooms, which Ben takes notice of on the security camera. Ben duct-tapes Justin to the chair and runs out of his office to apprehend them. He catches Sanj, Darren, and Cloe and gives them an ultimatum: clean up the park trash or leave.
Stick, however escapes being caught by hiding in a restroom stall. Ben returns to the bathroom and begins talking to Stick in a sexual manner. He then forces the stall that Stick is hiding in and begins making sexual advances on Stick, who fights back. The assault eventually ends with Ben forcing Stick to give him oral sex. Justin, still duct taped to the chair in the security office, sees the events unfold, and tries to escape, knowing that he would have been the victim if Ben had not noticed the kids in the bathroom.
After the event, Ben tries to make casual talk with Stick and tells him "when your friends are done, you come back and see me okay?" Ben then leaves the restroom and returns to security office to find Justin tipped over in his chair. He grabs Justin's belongings and frees him from his constraints. Ben then leads Justin to the Octopus ride. Ben joyfully leads Justin to one of the cars and starts the ride. The other kids take notice and rush over to the ride. Ben claims that he is running the rides because the kids cooperated by cleaning up. After another ride on the Wave Swinger, Stick, looking distraught and much quieter than usual, rejoins the group.