Blue Crush is a 2002 American sports film directed by John Stockwell. It tells the story of three friends: Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth), Eden (Michelle Rodriguez) and Lena (Sanoe Lake), who have one passion: living the ultimate dream of surfing on Hawaii's famed North Shore.
A Direct to Video film titled Blue Crush 2 was released in 2011, but despite the title, it is completely unrelated to this film besides sharing the premise of three female friends who are surfers.
This film features examples of:
- Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults: While Anne Marie is in the bathroom, she overhears the wives & girlfriends of Matt's friend talking about her and Matt's relationship, and how he's only with her because he "likes to slum". The girl who looks embarrassed to be caught gossiping gets her shoes.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Between Anne Marie and Matt, one of the last shots in the movie.
- Big Fun: Several of Matt's teammates, most notably Man in a Bikini Leslie.
- Bratty Teenage Sister: Penny, particularly when she blames Anne Marie for their mother's abandonment while refusing to leave a party that definitely isn't appropriate for a 14-year-old.
- The Cameo: From a number of professional female surfers, most notably Keala Kennelly.
- Career Versus Man: Anne Marie becomes conflicted between spending time with her Love Interest Matt or training for the surfing competition.
- Friendly Rivalry: Surf legend Keala Kennelly encourages Anne Marie to chase the best wave of the day at Pipe Masters, despite being in the contest herself.
- Gossipy Hens: The wives and girlfriends of Matt's football teammates.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Anne Marie and Matt's first makeout gets interrupted by a phone call to him.
- Jerkass: Drew and his Surfer Dude crew are sexist jerks who constantly harass Anne Marie in her for daring to take up surfing and not Stay in the Kitchen. They are also irrationally aggressive towards Matt when they learn he and Anne Marie started dating, as they consider him an outsider who came to Hawaii to "steal their girls."
- Kick the Dog: During their fight on the water, Eden yells at Anne Marie about her letting her fear of drowning in the competition get to her and compares her constant hesitating to the mother who left her, causing Anne Marie to leave in tears.
- Missing Mom: Anne Marie and Penny's mother abandoned them when Anne Marie was 7 or 8 and Penny was just a toddler, prompting Anne Marie to look after her little sister.
- Ms. Fanservice: It's a film about surfers, the vast majority of them female, so there's a lot of young, fit women in bikinis that easily qualify as this.
- Not What It Looks Like: When Anne Marie hears Matt's affectionately speaking to a girl on the phone, it leads her to think he's married, but he later explains the girl was actually his niece.
- N-Word Privileges: Anne Marie's guy friends have no problem calling Matt haole (a term for anyone who isn't a Native Hawaiian, particularly a white person), but Drew objects strongly when Matt sarcastically calls him "brah."
- Out of Job, into the Plot: Anne Marie is fired as a hotel maid for yelling at a guest about the disgusting state of his room. This allows her to meet Matt, which kicks off the main plot in which she has to balance earning money by training football players with preparing for the big competition.
- Parental Abandonment: Anne Marie and Penny's mother abandoned them to live in Las Vegas with her boyfriend.
- Product Placement: Mostly for Billabong.
- Promoted to Parent: Anne Marie has to look after her 14-year-old sister Penny after their mom left them.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The movie was inspired by "Life's Swell," an article by Susan Orlean in Outside magazine, profiling teenage female surfers in the Hawaiian town of Hana.
- The Runner-Up Takes It All: Anne Marie doesn't advance very far in the Banzai Pipeline competition, but she does get an offer to join the Billabong women's surf team and makes it to the cover of a major surf magazine.
- Scenery Porn: The film puts its Hawaii location to good use.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: We see Anne Marie and Matt kissing in his hotel room as the camera pans away. When we come back to them, Anne Marie is asleep in bed with only a Modesty Bedsheet on, implying they slept together.
- Sexy Surfacing Shot: One scene has a Male Gaze focused shot Anne Marie coming out of the ocean in a mismatched two-piece while carrying her surfboard to the beach.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Anne Marie looks drop-dead gorgeous in the evening gown that Matt picks for her.
- Shower Scene: There's a brief but gratuitous scene of Anne Marie showering in Matt's hotel room.
- Smithical Marriage: Invoked: Anne Marie doesn't bother correcting the room service attendant who calls her "Mrs. Tollman" on the phone.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Drew and his Surfer Dude crew often mock and belittle the female surfers just for being women, telling them that they shouldn't be surfing or entering the competition.
- Toplessness from the Back:
- The morning after Anne Marie and Matt sleep together, the Modesty Bedsheet only covers her waist, but since she's sleeping on her stomach only her naked back is visible.
- During Anne Marie's Shower Scene, she has her bare back facing the camera the entire time.
- Training Montage: There's a montage of the girls teaching the football players about surfing basics.
- Trauma Button: Anne Marie is plagued with memories of a head injury that nearly killed her when she wiped out while surfing. Those memories flashback every time she catches a sufficiently powerful wave.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Penny smokes weed, drinks alcohol, hangs out with sleazy older men in clubs and propositions some of the guys Anne Marie becomes friends with. And she's only 14.
- Untrusting Community: Anne Marie's Surfer Dude friends are none too pleased with her bringing Matt to a "local spot."
- Uptown Guy: Annie Marie struggles to make ends meet while working as a hotel maid while Matt is a rich and successful professional quarterback.
- Vicariously Ambitious: Eden, through Anne Marie. The two were rivals until Anne Marie definitively beat Eden in a competition, and since then Eden has focused on training Anne Marie for bigger competitions.
