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"Oh, and this one time, at band camp..."

American Pie is a 1999 teenage sex comedy film directed by Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz, written by Adam Herz, and featuring a large ensemble cast including Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Natasha Lyonne, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Seann William Scott, Tara Reid, Mena Suvari, Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, Alyson Hannigan, Eddie Kaye Thomas, and Shannon Elizabeth.

The film concentrates on five boys at East Great Falls High — Jim (Biggs), Kevin (Nicholas), Oz (Klein), Finch (Thomas), and Stifler (Scott) — who make a pact to lose their virginity before their high school graduation (save for Stifler, who has already done so). The title of the film has various meanings, referring on a surface level to a scene in the film in which Jim is caught masturbating with a pie after previously being told that a vagina feels "like warm apple pie", and also to the idea proposed by Adam Herz that the quest to lose one's virginity in high school is as "American as apple pie" itself.

The film ranked 49th on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" list, and 22nd on Entertainment Weekly's list of the "50 Best High School Movies". In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted American Pie the 6th greatest comedy film of all time.

The Weitz brothers' first film, American Pie was a huge box-office hit and spawned three direct sequels, beginning with American Pie 2 (2001) and then American Wedding (2003). The fourth installment, American Reunion (2012), featured the entire primary cast of the first two films reprising their roles for the first time in over a decade.

Following the American Pie trilogy chronicling the courtship and marriage of characters Jim Levenstein and Michelle Flaherty, the American Pie name became a brand name in a manner similar to the National Lampoon film series for a number of direct-to-video spinoff films: American Pie Presents: Band Camp (2005), American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile (2006), American Pie Presents: Beta House (2007), American Pie Presents: The Book of Love (2009), and American Pie Presents: Girls' Rules (2020).

Definitely not to be confused with the ultra-famous Don McLean song from the album American Pie.


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    Series-Wide 

  • All Men Are Perverts: One of the most consistent aspects of the entire film series is that the dudes are trying to get laid and will go through great lengths to do so.
    • In the first film, Jim, Kevin, Oz, and Finch are on a Quest for Sex to lose their virginities before college. Jim masturbates with an apple pie and the guys goad Jim into secretly live-streaming the Foreign Exchange Student Nadia while she changes in his room, which he does and accidentally sends the link out to every person in their school...cue a montage of all of the male students excitedly tuning in. This is deconstructed as it is strongly implied that the only reason they want to get laid is because of the assumption that Everyone Has Lots of Sex in high school and those who don't are considered losers by boys. Oz's relationship with Heather is jeopardized when she sees him, Stifler, and the other guys on the lacross team joke about Oz getting it on with her at prom, making her feel used. The end of of the film sees all four of the male characters realize that getting laid is not as important as finding someone special.
    • Subverted in the fourth movie for Oz, when he is way too dull to keep up with his sexually adventurous girlfriend.
    • Reunion deals with the pull between old high school glory and the need to mature and be an adult, and ultimately decides that it's up to the individual of which to embrace, or if they want to find a compromise.
  • Breakout Character:
    • Steve Stifler and the entire Stifler family basically has become synonymous with the entire franchise.
    • Jim's dad fits this too. He appears in all of the movies, including the spin-offs. Each time there's something new revealed about his past, eventually coming to reveal that he was basically the creator of the Bible from the first movie.
    • Finally there is Michelle. It's easy to forget because her scenes are so memorable but she doesn't have much actual screentime in the original film. It is only the second film on that turns her from a near-One-Scene Wonderinvoked into a prominent character.
  • Casanova Wannabe: Oz at the beginning of the first movie, who is nicknamed Nova by his friends for being good with women, only to be laughed at and rebuffed when he tries to get with a college chick using cheesy one liners.
  • Caught with Your Pants Down:
    • In the first movie, we have the pie scene. Also, the intro involves Jim's parents walking in while he's trying to watch a scrambled porno. A tube sock preserves what little dignity he has left. Noah lampshades it when, in a later scene, he finds condoms in Jim's nightstand.
      Jim's Dad: Well, they're safer than a tube sock.
    • And again in the intro of the second movie when Jim's parents come to visit him on the college campus only to walk in just as he having sex with a girl. Doesn't help that said girl's parents suddenly show up too. Also in the second movie, Jim mistakes superglue for lube and glues himself to... himself. And his other hand to the porn movie he was wanking to.
    • And again in the intro to the third movie, Jim's Dad interrupts Michelle giving Jim head under the table. In a restaurant. It's safe to say that pretty much all of the movies start with this. The third movie also had Jim and Stifler getting caught engaging in what appeared to be bestiality, and Stifler having sex with Jim's grandmother.
    • Eric Stifler, Naked Mile, Grandmother. That is all.
    • The fourth movie has Jim getting caught jerking off by his son and shutting his laptop on his dick, then walking into the bathroom finding Michelle masturbating in the bathtub.
    • Nadia and her boyfriend/date walk in on Michelle and Jim doing it at the reunion.
  • Character Development: Oddly for a teen franchise, the bullying jock Steve Stifler slowly turns into a protagonist through this trope.
  • Great Big Book of Everything: The Sex Bible. It is a bit unusual, in that, unlike most examples of the trope, it has clearly been updated, expanded and revised over time.
  • Hidden Heart of Gold: It will take some industrial power tools to dig through all that selfish, spiteful, sex crazed macho bullheadness, but once you do you will find that Steve Stifler has a loyal, sensitive and very kind heart... just don't expect him ever admit having one.
  • I Banged Your Mom:
    • The first film has arguably the most well known example in pop culture (Bonus points for helping popularize the term MILF) when Finch gets lucky with the aforementioned mother of Steve Stifler near the end when all four of the boys get laid after prom. Cue big laughs from the audience/viewer and Steve fainting from this revelation! Finch later goes on to have sex with Stifler's mom twice more; once in the second movie and yet again in the third.
    • Thirteen years after the first film, Stifler finally gets even with Finch at the reunion in the fourth movie when he strikes up a conversation with the latters own mother and naturally, one thing leads to another...
  • Informed Attractiveness: Stifler's mom. Actress Jennifer Coolidge was even able to play a Hollywood Homely character a couple of years later in Legally Blonde with the only real visual change being a marginally less flattering haircut.
  • Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: A rare pre-YouTube example, in which Jim accidentally sends the website of Nadia's stream to the entire school. And given what happens once he joins the video... yeah. Coincidentally, in American Reunion, it is revealed to have gone viral on YouTube.
  • Jerkass: Steve Stifler starts out as this, but after some Character Development, he turns into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • Jerk Jock: Stifler, who plays on the lacrosse team in the first film and is a callous, insensitive guy to women who also virgin shames all of his guy friends.
  • Lousy Lovers Are Losers: Butt-Monkey protagonist Jim ends up climaxing early when trying to sleep with Nadia. She gives him a second chance... but he ends up coming early again, much to her dissatisfaction. Made even more humiliating by the fact the incident was being recorded on a webcam. This even gets a Call-Back in the sequel American Reunion when Jim is teased about the incident by both Selena and Kara (and is acknowledged that the video is now on YouTube).
  • Nerds Are Pervs: The film's a high school Sex Comedy about a group of friends on a Quest for Sex to fulfill their destiny as men to lose their virginities before college, so all of the main characters are Hormone Addled Teenagers trying to get laid. But for this trope:
    • Protagonist Jim is Jewish and Nerdy, turns into an awkward, silent mess around girls he's interested in, boasts about his high SAT scores at a party, and opens the film (after the Cold Open where he's Caught With His Pants Down) discussing how hot Ariel from The Little Mermaid is. He also infamously "has sex" with an apple pie after he asks his friends what third base feels like and one replies, "like warm apple pie."
    • Chuck Sherman, so nerdy that the idea of him getting laid before Jim and his friends is the motivation behind their Quest for Sex, is a Casanova Wannabe who has been spreading lies that he slept with a girl at Stifler's party, and many others. When she gets wind of this, she publicly exposes him at prom, revealing he's not only a virgin, but he also once tried to have sex with a grapefruit.
    • Michelle, the band geek that Jim eventually takes to prom who goes on and on about inane stories of her time at band camp, reveals herself to be a sexually dominant super freak, who shares how she used her own flute to masturbate in an infamous Wham Line and only agreed to be Jim's prom date because she knew he'd be an easy lay. In fact, according to her, all band geeks are sex-obsessed Covert Perverts who use band camp as a place to hook up with each other. She gets flanderized in the sequels, in which she becomes a full blown Dominatrix.
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten:
    • Jim's ahem, premature performance on webcam, which the entire school witnesses.
    • Oz's run on Celebrity Dance-Off, where he lost to Gilbert Gottfried, and almost everyone that recognizes him in Reunion mentions.
  • A Party, Also Known as an Orgy: Just about any party in the series. Stifler's parties are described in the first film as a place where people go just to hook up.
  • The Pornomancer: If Stifler's claims are true, then he's had sex with a significant percentage of the girls he went to high school with.
  • Real Life Writes the Plot:
    • Michelle's fast way of talking came from the fact that Alyson Hannigan really had to pee before her call-back audition.
    • Jim had to be written out of the golf conversation between Kevin and Finch because Jason Biggs had fallen ill after taking too many zinc supplements.
  • Running Gag:
    • The primary one is having all movies open with the protagonist (Jim in the theatrical films and whoever leads in the direct-to-video films) caught in an awkward sexual moment, like Jim's parents walking in on him masturbating in the first movie. See Caught with Your Pants Down.
    • The second running gag is Stifler accidentally ingesting some kind of bodily substance. In the first film, it's Kevin's ejaculate in a beer.
    • Finch has sex with Stifler's mom in every film.
  • Sensual Slavs: Nadia, an Eastern European Foreign Exchange Student, who is treated as Ms. Fanservice and has the film's only scene with explicit nudity. She also has no qualms about masturbating in the bed of a guy she barely knows after snooping around when left to her devices and finding his Porn Stash.
  • Sex Comedy: The success of the first American Pie movie caused the resurrection of the teen sex comedy genre in the late-1990s (the genre had previously been popular in the 1980s, but fizzled out by the end of the decade).
  • Sir Swears-a-Lot: Stifler has such a filthy mouth.
    Stifler: Observe the fucking Stifmeister. What is his defining characteristic?
    Jim: He uses the 'F' word excessively.
    Stifler: Thanks, man.

    American Pie 

  • An Aesop: Despite being a movie about a Quest for Sex, it ultimately says that losing one's virginity, especially in high school, really isn't that important.
  • Aggressive Submissive: Jim pursues Michelle, but she ends up the dominant one in their sex scene.
  • Bait-and-Switch Comment: The trailers had spoiled Michelle's shocking band camp story, so the audience was left expecting it every time she began a sentence "This one time at band camp...", only to have her describe some tame event. Until things finally pay off in the endnote .
  • Becoming the Mask: Oz pretends to be a sensitive guy interested in singing to seduce girls. Finally, he becomes one.
  • Between My Legs: Showing Jim's reaction through Nadia's legs as she takes off her underwear.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Michelle's stories from band camp. First, a whole bunch of annoying stories, then one about Spin the Bottle, and then one about using her flute to make her sing.
  • Brick Joke:
    • Early in the film, Oz tells Jim that a vagina feels like "warm apple pie". Later, Jim notices that his mother has prepared an apple pie. Guess what he does.
      Jim's Dad: We'll just tell your mother that...we ate it all.
    • During the post-prom party, Stifler checks to make sure his beer hasn't been tainted (recalling the "pale ale" incident).
    • Jim's webcam striptease for Nadia. Only Jim's dad watches this time without Jim's knowledge.
  • Celebrity Cameo: Among other people, the members of blink-182 watch Jim and Nadia's webcast.
  • Cargo Ship: Both in-universe:
    • "This one time, at band camp..."
    • Ahem... the pie.
    • Sherman's date at the prom mentions that Sherman is actually a virgin and once tried to screw a grapefruit.
  • Copycat Cover: As a nod to the original film and overall series, the poster for American Reunion (2012) mimics the poster for American Pie (1999).
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Stifler's Laxative Prank, simply because Finch spread a rumor that he defeated Stifler in a fight.
  • Don't Try This at Home: A young man who imitated the infamous pie scene burned... *ahem* himself, badly.
  • Food End: Jim, Finch, Oz, and Kevin eat breakfast at the Dog Years Diner and toast the "next step" in their respective lives.
  • Foreshadowing: It's mentioned in the rumors spread about Finch that he slept with Stifler's mom. Guess how Finch ends up losing his virginity?
  • Genre Relaunch: American Pie temporarily brought back the teen sex comedy genre, which had been popular in the early-to-mid 1980s before fading into obscurity.
  • The "I Love You" Stigma: Vicky tells Kevin "I love you" after receiving her acceptance letter. Kevin does not tell her the same and he tells his friends that he is worried about it. He finally gets over it to say it back to her as they're about to have sex.
  • Ignored Epiphany: The girl Stifler tries to seduce before he accidentally drinks a cup of semen initially rebuffs his advances by correctly speculating that he's just seducing her for his own enjoyment and bragging rights and that it won't mean anything to him. However, he quickly and easily convinces her that she's wrong and she is prepared to have sex with him before he throws up on her.
  • Informed Ability: Nadia being a Czech exchange student. We never hear her speak a word of it, and she has very little accent (though she very well could have learned it early enough in her life to be this fluent).
  • Jizzed in My Pants: Perhaps the most famous movie example happens to Jim. Twice in as many minutes.
  • Laxative Prank: It's played on Finch, courtesy of Stifler.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Nadia. And for some (especially older men), Stifler's mom.
  • Not Staying for Breakfast: This happens to Jim when Michelle ditches him after some post-prom nookie, because she didn't want to put him through the awkwardness of saying goodbye.
  • Poor Man's Porn: Jim gets caught by his parents looking at scrambled porn.
  • Quest for Sex: The conflict is the main characters vowing to each other that they'll get laid by the time Prom comes along at their high school. However, it ultimately shows that this quest is making everyone miserable, because they have no idea how to get laid and/or are so stressed out about it that they can't perform.
  • Race for Your Love: Oz runs from the lacrosse pitch to perform a competition duet with Heather.
  • Right Through His Pants: Mocked at the beginning of the movie, when Jim is trying to watch porn while avoiding looking at the male star.
  • Say My Name: Come on, you know the scene...
  • Sex as Rite-of-Passage: The whole point of the movie.
  • Sexy Shirt Switch: Nadia puts on one Jim's shirts when he catches her masturbating. By the end of the scene, that's all she wears.
  • Shout-Out:
    Stifler's mom (with "Mrs. Robinson" in the background): Mr. Finch, are you trying to seduce me?
    • Also, to Carrie in Jim's powder blue tux/ruffled shirt combo.
  • Shrouded in Myth: Finch and his rumors.
  • Speed Sex: And how! Jim gets so excited at the thought of having sex with Nadia that he climaxes twice before they even get to the actual sex, leaving Nadia unsatisfied.
  • Spit Take: "...and this one time, at Band Camp, I stuck a flute in my pussy."
  • The Talk: Played painfully straight.
  • Their First Time: Ultimately, the pact between Jim, Kevin, Oz, and Finch is fulfilled:
    • Jim ends up scoring with Michelle, though she leaves before dawn. They will finally make their connection in the second film.
    • Kevin and Victoria have an awkward first time together, and they break up the next morning. It takes a while for Kevin to accept Victoria as simply being a friend.
    • Oz and Heather have a very romantic first time, and come out of the party with the strongest relationship, though Oz plays coy to the others initially when they debrief at Dog Years.
    • Finch has a hot liaison with Stifler's mom, and it begins a long-lasting but ultimately star-crossed FWB arrangement.
  • Unbuilt Trope: Despite inspiring decades worth of Quest for Sex movies, near the end the notion is ripped to shreds at the prom. Finch and Jim have made themselves into laughing stocks given their attempts to woo women have blown up in their face. Oz has genuinely fallen in love and is disgusted that his pre-Character Development ideas are being hung over his head, and Kevin does love his girlfriend Vicky, he's too insecure to go through with losing his virginity and admit he loves her, believing it all has to be perfect. So at the prom, he's unbelievable smug that he's not alone, but when he finds out they can't and won't go through with it, he tries to force them. Jim even says at the prom that he's "not gonna stand around busting [his] balls over something that, quite frankly, isn't that damn important."
  • Wham Line: "And this one time, at band camp, I stuck a flute in my pussy."

    American Pie 2 

  • Ass Shove: Michelle does this to Jim with a trumpet as a form of sex play.
  • Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption
    • Per Oz, who when this takes place is having phone sex with his long-distance girlfriend:
    "I've got a -" [BEEEP!] call waiting."
  • Auto Erotica: Finch and Stifler's mom at the end.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: For a brief moment, Stifler and Jessica entertain the idea that this might just be the reason for the animosity between them.
  • Betty and Veronica: Jim is the Archie to Michelle's Betty and Nadia's Veronica.
  • Brick Joke: During the "lesbians" scene, when Stifler is being forced to grab Finch's ass, Finch comments that he is comfortable enough with his sexuality to allow Stifler to do it, while Stifler, on the other hand, is completely disgusted. Near the end of the movie, when the "lesbians" reveal they aren't lesbians after all, an intrigued Stifler says that he'll do anything to sleep with them, including grabbing other guys' asses and making out with everybody because he is "comfortable with his sexuality."
  • Concert Kiss: Jim and Michelle.
  • Corpsing:
    • Natasha Lyonne was genuinely cracking up at the line asking how many women she's slept with.
    • The lesbian scene has lots of shots that omit Finch (despite him being there too) because Eddie Kaye Thomas kept bursting out laughing at Seann William Scott's antics.
  • Covers Always Lie: Shows Jim curiously looking at Nadia, who's on his right, as if he's more interested in her instead of Michelle, who's on his left since Jim leaves Nadia for Michelle.
  • Girl on Girl Is Hot: A huge scene is based entirely around this, to the point that people randomly listening over two-way radios are getting into it.
  • Guy on Guy Is Hot: Re the aforementioned scene, the sexy girls only agree to perform lesbian acts with each other if three of the guys perform homoerotic acts with each other in return. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Latin Lover: Oz spends much of the film worried about his girlfriend living in a house of these while on study abroad.
  • Love Epiphany: Jim, when he realizes that he loves Michelle in the midst of talking to Nadia.
  • Ms. Fanservice: The two "lesbians."
  • The Reveal: Stifler's Mom's first name. It's Jeanine.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: The scene where Kevin finally makes peace with Vicky breaking up with him is accompanied by the song "I Will" by Lucia, which is all about leaving an abusive relationship.
  • A Threesome Is Hot: Happens to Stifler at the end of the movie.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: Spoils pretty much all the funniest scenes, in fact.
  • Tying Up Romantic Loose Ends: Nadia ends up with The Sherminator (although presumably it was a one night stand, since in the fourth movie she is seen with a different date).
  • Urine Trouble: Stifler thinks champagne is being poured onto his head when he's actually being urinated on from the balcony.

    American Wedding 

  • Betty and Veronica: Cadence is the Archie to Finch's Betty and Stifler's Veronica.
  • Brick Joke: When Finch is helping Jim locate Michelle's wedding dress, he asks Jim to let him speak to the people inside the store because they are his "people." Stifler inquires, "They're gay?" Finch retorts that they're "styled", "cultured", and "sophisticated", to which Stifler responds, "So they're gay." Later on when Stifler ends up in the gay bar and is trying to prove that Even the Guys Want Him, he tells Bear, "I've got style... I'm cultured... I'm sophisticated."
  • Call-Back: During the bachelor party, the police stripper asks the guys if they want her and the other stripper to make out, but before Stifler can excitedly say yes, he remembers what happened with the "lesbians" of the last movie, so he says "Fuck no."
  • Cock Fight: Finch and Stifler fight over Cadence by pretending to be a Handsome Lech and a Nice Guy, respectively, after getting different ideas as to what she wants in a guy.
  • Corpsing: January Jones can be seen trying not to laugh when Stifler is thrusting behind Mrs. Flaherty to piss off Jim, even though Jones' character, Cadence, is not supposed to be aware of what's going on.
  • Cringe Comedy: Watching Stifler and Finch attempt to swap personalities to impress Cadence is cringeworthy to say the least. And then there's the scene with the wedding ring and the dogs...
  • Demoted to Extra: Kevin, displaced by Stifler.
  • Did Not Get the Girl: Finch.
  • Four-Man Band: With the absence of Oz.
  • Gay Bar Reveal: The bar where Stifler shows off his dancing skills turns out to be a gay bar. This being Stifler, he didn't realize which kind of bar it was until the others told him to look around and pay attention: "Oh my God! What the fuck is going on?"
  • Idiot Hero: Stifler.
  • Insult Backfire: The final exchanges between Stifler and Finch at the end of the movie.
    Finch: Grandmother Fucker.
    Stifler: Yeah? Well, you're a Mother Fucker!
    Finch: (proudly) Yes I am.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Stifler points out that he's been looking out for Jim's sex life ever since high school, because the first tits Jim ever saw were because of him (as Stifler gave Jim the idea for the Nadia video), and the first girl Jim ever hooked up with (Michelle) was at Stifler's post-prom party, at his cottage. The Stif-Man showed him the way!
    "Finch, he does make a good point." "Yeah, he does... you never heard me say that."
  • Ladykiller in Love: Stifler with Cadence.
  • Lost Wedding Ring: Resulting in one of the series' most squick-tastic scenes.
  • Love Triangle: Stifler, Cadence, and Finch.
  • Market-Based Title: Known as American Pie: The Wedding in Britain.
  • The Millstone: Stifler, before he redeems himself at the end.
  • Mistaken for Gay: Stifler, when he unwittingly finds himself in a gay bar, and isn't aware what's going on until he's told to take another look around.
  • Ms. Fanservice: The two strippers, Officer Crystal and Fraulein Brandi.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Stifler when he boasts to Finch about his impending sexcapade with Cadence, only to discover that she's right behind him.
    • Also when Stifler realizes that he accidentally fed the wedding ring to the dogs.
  • Product Placement: Every major character drives a then-new Toyota. In Michigan.
  • Put on a Bus: Oz, Vicky, Jessica, Heather, Sherman, and Nadia are all absent from this film.
  • Road Apples: A later stage of the wedding ring rescue.
  • Sequel Non-Entity: Oz. Word of God says they simply had nothing for him to do, so the character just wasn't included. Though it's hinted he was in L.A. at the time of Jim's wedding as an in-Universe explanation.
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Cadence to Stifler, who takes a level up in kindness.
  • Supporting Protagonist: Jim, sidelined by Stifler's antics despite his wedding being the main storyline.
  • Where Everybody Knows Your Flame: Stifler shows off his dancing skills in one of these.

    American Reunion 

  • Accidental Misnaming: Stifler's boss continually calls him "Staphler".
  • Actor Allusion:
    • During Jessica's cameo, she announces that "I'm a lesbian now." Natasha Lyonne played a lesbian character in But I'm a Cheerleader the same year the original American Pie was released, and she did again in Orange Is the New Black. With an added Call-Back as Stifler says "I Knew It!!", given that in American Pie 2:
    Stifler: How many girls did you sleep with this year?
    Jessica: Wouldn't you like to know?
    Stifler: Fuck yeah I would.
  • Advertised Extra: Natasha Lyonne is on the poster for the fourth film, when she only has a cameo.
  • Ambiguously Gay: John. He and Justin haven't been hanging out because their friendship doesn't go both ways; also, he seems to likes shirtless men.
    • Camp Straight: However, the directors' commentary for the DVD states he is straight.
  • Ascended Extra: John, who sets up the main storyline by planning the reunion.
  • Ass Shove: Stifler's mom tells Jim's dad about a time, when she walked in on Stifler shoving her hairbrush up his ass. And not the handle side first. In her room.
  • Black Comedy Rape: Oz gets practically this done to him by his Ecstasy tipping girlfriend, just as Heather walks in...
  • Both Sides Have a Point: Jim, Kevin, Finch, and Oz were right to call out Stifler on his behavior, as not only did he needed to learn to be a better friend but also to stop dwelling on his "High School" years. However, Stifler points out that they never really treated him as a friend to begin with nor really bothered to convey to him the problem they had with his behavior beforehand.
  • The Bus Came Back: Everybody but Jim's Mom, who is dead.
  • Call-Back: Being about the characters' high school reunion, we get many:
    • The poster looks almost exactly like the one for the first movie, with the characters (now thirteen years older) in the same positions.
    • The film opens with the camera panning across Jim's room as we hear what appears to be sexual activity, but is something entirely different.
    • Jim's tube sock makes a reappearance (again with unfortunate results).
    • The camera following Stifler as he does an evaluation of his workplace is reminiscent of those he did for his house parties in the first two movies.
    • Jim finds the dirty magazines his dad gave to him (with the pages stuck together).
    • Finch is reintroduced while riding a moped, in contrast to his scooter from the first movie.
    • Jim is reminded only too well about the incidents of Speed Sex, from both Selena and Kara (and is acknowledged that the video is now on YouTube).
    • Selena tells Jim, Kevin, Finch, and Oz that they were all probably "desperate virgins back then." The guys briefly decline before sharing a look with each other (because they all were virgins at the time).
    • Jim wakes up bottomless after a night of partying and finds a completely destroyed pie. He and his dad share a look, knowing only too well what happened...
    • When Oz reunites with Heather and her new boyfriend at the beach, Stifler runs up to him and interrupts like he did in the first movie when Heather was about to ask Oz to prom, even calling Heather "choir chick" again.
    • Stifler throwing a party like the one at the end of the first movie, and Jim and Michelle attempting to recreate the events of it.
    • While making out with Selena, Finch spots a picture of Stifler's mom on the wall. He briefly recalls the three previous flings he had with Stifler's mom and looks between the two, as if trying to choose, before ultimately deciding to move on and be with Selena.
    • After Jim and Michelle have sex in the music room, Jim holds up a flute and asks if he was better than the flute (referring to the Wham Line before their first night together in the first movie).
    • The movie ends with the gang (now including Stifler) having hot dogs at Dog Years and toasting to "the next step."
  • The Cameo: Neil Patrick Harris pops up as the host of Celebrity Dance-Off, a Dancing with the Stars parody which Oz was a contestant on.
  • Canon Discontinuity: The Direct to Video spin-offs are effectively ignored in the first ten minutes — Stifler never went into directing porn movies, and while Michelle and Jim do have a son, he's far too young to be the one mentioned in the spinoff series.
  • Character Aged with the Actor
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: No mention at all of Michelle's sister Candence, or mention of what happened with her and Stifler. Michelle's parents are also absent.
  • Coitus Interruptus: During the reunion, Nadia accidentally walks in on Jim and Michelle having sex in the music room.
    • Stifler's mom also claims she had walked-in on Stifler having sex more times than she can count.
  • Dead Sparks: Subverted for Jim and Michelle - they do still clearly love each other and really want to reignite the passion of the early days, but the stresses of adult life and the birth of their son understandably put a damper on that. Jim's father gives him advice on how to avert this.
  • Deconstruction: Stifler himself is deconstructed. His pranks now come across as violent felonies rather than funny, the gay jokes he makes now just seem homophobic, and he himself just comes off as rather pathetic.
  • Destructo-Nookie: Jim and Michelle have one in the music room after making up with each other.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: "They splashed us..." Some younger guys on the beach steal bikini tops. The gang chases them. Stifler then destroys their jetskis. That adds up to about $25,000 damage.
    • Finch arrives on a motorcycle that he claims to have won while betting on the World Cup. However, Finch actually stole it from his boss at Staples, for which he is arrested. His motive was not being given a raise that he'd been promised.
  • Fan Disservice: Jim's dick pressed against a clear pot lid after waking up pantless in the kitchen.
  • Hand-or-Object Underwear: Jim covers himself with the lid of a pan. Then he's reminded that it's made of glass...
  • Hired for Their Looks: Stifler tells a group of pretty women, "Ladies, you'd better be working hard - you weren't hired for your looks. Actually you were." He then points to another woman and says, "Not you."
  • I Never: Oz and Heather play this with their respective dates.
  • I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Neil Patrick Harris cameos. He co-stars with Alyson Hannigan on How I Met Your Mother and with John Cho in the Harold & Kumar films.
  • Innocent Fanservice Girl: Kara.
  • Insult Backfire: Finch and Stifler's reunion goes like this:
    Stifler: So, finally come out of the closet?
    Finch: How is your mom, by the way?
  • Jerkass: AJ, Dr. Ron, Mia, and Stifler's boss.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Stifler.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Stifler finally gets revenge on Finch for sleeping with his mom when he just so happens to meet Finch's attractive mother.
  • Market-Based Title: Known as American Pie: The Reunion in Britain.
  • Maybe Ever After/Pair the Spares: At the end, Jim's Dad meets Stifler's Mom. The Stinger shows her discretely pleasuring him in a movie theater.
  • Missing Trailer Scene: In the trailer, there is a scene where Stifler asks two girls on a beach where the thief who took their tops went.
  • Mr Fan Service: Oz. Even one of the guys says to him "you have an amazing body".
  • Ms. Fanservice: Kara and Mia. Also Michelle in her fetish gear.
  • Really Gets Around: Oz's girlfriend Mia. No wonder he goes back to Heather.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
    • Stifler gives one to his boss in, saying that even though he has money, he's still a loser... who's poorly-endowed.
    • The other guys in turn give one to Stifler earlier on for being trapped in the past and always finding a way to ruin things.
  • Remember the New Guy?:
    • Several never before mentioned characters turn up out of the blue, such as Selena (Michelle's Band Camp BFF), Loni 'Blowjob' Lipstein (a former... intimate of Stifler), Mitch and Adam (members of the lacrosse team and good buddies with Stifler and presumably Oz) and Kara, the girl Jim used to babysit.
    • While Kara's a harder case to argue, several of the younger actors that appear as non-speaking extras in the original film could stand in for the roles in later films. For example, in the first appearance of Michelle and the band geeks (when they come to Stifler's door and he tells them to leave), there is a young Ambiguously Brown woman. There are several teammates who don't speak in the rugby scenes.
  • Sequel Reset: After seemingly making peace with the guys in Wedding, Stifler is back to his old self in this film, and goes through the whole Jerk with a Heart of Gold transformation again. He is finally accepted by the guys as one of their own near the end of the movie when they realize that, even though Stifler is a dick, he's a "fun dick", and "their dick."
  • Shaking the Rump: Kara's mom does this a few times in front of Oz (she saw him on Celebrity Dance-Off and is a huge fan of his), even going so far as to provocatively performing this move directly on him!
  • She's All Grown Up: How Jim sees Kara, the girl next door he used to babysit.
  • Sideboob: Discussed.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance : When Jim and Michelle have their eyes-meet-across-the-room moment and their makeup speech, the song playing in the background is "The Freshmen" by the Verve Pipe—a song about a young man's girlfriend having an abortion (and possibly date rape).
  • Take This Job and Shove It: Happens when Stifler finally decides he's had enough of his Bad Boss and gives him a brutal "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  • Team Power Walk: The guys entering the reunion dance, with Stifler as the newest addition to their group.
  • Technology Marches On: Lampshaded and invoked when the gang needs to talk their way into a suburban family's home. Stifler knocks on the door and tells the man of the house that their car has broken down and he needs to call AAA. The man says "None of the three of you have cell phones?". After the gang gets inside the house, a defensive Stifler says that when he used to do this, cell phones didn't exist.
  • Teeny Weenie: Stifler compares his boss' penis to "a leprechaun's pinky".
  • Transparent Closet: After 13 years, Jessica announces that she's a lesbian... to no one's surprise.
  • What Did I Do Last Night?: After reuniting with his old friends, Jim wakes up in the kitchen of his family home, pants-less and surrounded by random types of food scattered all over the place. In a deleted/extended version of the scene, Michelle finds a desecrated apple pie just as Jim's Dad walks in and asks what happened to it. Jim and his father exchange a panicked look, remembering the incident from 1999.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Stifler gives the other guys one of these, calling them out for how much they hurt his feelings by not making an effort to stay in touch with him.


Alternative Title(s): American Pie 2, American Wedding, American Pie Presents Band Camp, American Pie Presents The Naked Mile, American Pie Presents The Book Of Love

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