More American Graffiti is the 1979 sequel to American Graffiti, written and directed by Bill L. Norton and executive produced by George Lucas, which reunites several of the principal characters from the original film for a series of vignettes which take place on four consecutive New Year's Eves in the mid-to-late 1960s—a time of dramatic political, cultural, and personal change for the US and its people.
On New Year's Eve in 1964, drag racer John Milner (Paul Le Mat) is competing in the final race of Modesto, California's competitive racing circuit, and reunites with several of his friends, including Terry "The Toad" Fields (Charles Martin Smith) and his girlfriend Debbie Dunham (Candy Clark), newly-married couple Steve (Ron Howard) and Laurie Bolander (Cindy Williams), and Carol Morrison (Mackenzie Phillips), all of whom are splitting up and heading for different destinations. As the day progresses, John deals with a number of setbacks as he seeks to win the big race while trying to court an Icelandic woman named Eva (Anna Bjorn) who is visiting the racetrack with her friend... all while heading towards his uncertain fate.
One year later, Terry is serving as a Warrant Officer in Vietnam alongside an unlikely comrade, former greaser-gang leader Joe Young (Bo Hopkins). As the day progresses, Terry receives harsh treatment from his commanding officer for a mishap with a weapon discharge, and finds himself wishing to flee the war after a disastrous helicopter landing leaves someone close to him dead. The following year, Debbie, now dating a musician named Lance, gets roped into the counterculture of the mid-'60s, and strikes up an unlikely friendship with the rock band Electric Haze, led by frontman Newt (Scott Glenn). The final storyline takes place on New Year's Even 1967, when Laurie and Steve have an argument, prompting her to spend the day with her brother Andy (Will Seltzer)—who ropes her into attending an anti-war protest that turns unexpectedly violent, and requires Steve's help to escape from.
The film changed the setting from the End of an Era highlighted by the previous film to a new setting in the mid-'60s, touching on the themes of Innocence Lost, the Vietnam War and its opponents, and the emergence of the counterculture while also featuring shooting styles and film aspect ratios unique to each of the four stories, such as grainy "newsreel"-style footage for Terry's segment.
The film was a box-office underperformer, grossing between $8-15 million (as per Box Office Mojo), against a $3 million budget..
This film contains examples of the following tropes:
- 20 Minutes into the Past: Like the previous film (released in 1973 and set in 1962), More was released in 1979, and covers a period of time from New Year's Eve 1964 to the same date in 1967.
- The Ace: Milner himself has graduated to this, having achieved an undefeated record as dragrace champion within California in 1964. He narrowly manages to hang onto the title by the end of the film.
- Adaptation Distillation: The book adaptation of the film changes Milner's death to be caused by a different character than the vehicle shown driving towards him in the ending. The book version of the encounter has Milner's vehicle get rear-ended by another car, driven by Suzanne Somers' character (the "blonde in the T-Bird") from the first film, driving other passengers (Holstein and Falfa). As a result, Milner's car goes over a cliff and he perishes.
- American Title: Just like the first film, now with "More" American in the title.
- AM/FM Characterization: Several of the characters sing "Auld Lang Syne", a traditional New Year's hymn whose meaning reflects "ending". This is meant to tie the various vignettes together, with several characters singing it out loud, including Milner, who's listening to it in his car just moments before he presumably is involved in the crash that claims his life.
- Artistic Licence – Military: The film takes some creative liberties with Terry's storyline in Vietnam.
- Terry is portrayed as a capable Warrant Officer who has significant experience acting as a co-pilot (if not a solo pilot) in dustoffs and missions taking place in Vietnam. That might have made sense if his segment was set in 1966 or 1967, but his story is set on New Year's Day 1965. Historical records have noted that at the time, the only American troops in the region were military advisors and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) troops, with the first major conflict of the war (the Battle of Ia Drang) not occurring until November 1965. It's highly unlikely that there would be enough military operations, particularly a month after that battle, to necessitate what is shown to be near-constant helicopter dustoffs taking place in key hotspots. Yet, Terry is said to be shipping out on New Year's Eve 1964, at a time when there were no U.S. soldiers in Vietnam to begin with! The inference is that Terry's storyline is meant to be an Anachronism Stew of operations within the region in the mid-60s.
- As a U.S. citizen with glasses/poor vision, Terry would never have qualified for military flight school in the first place, making it extremely suspect that he not only managed to make it through, but was trusted enough to serve as a helicopter pilot on multiple dustoffs.
- Even with the excuse that Major Creech is The Alcoholic and not necessarily in his right frame of mind in the latter part of the day, cleaning a Latrine is a duty that would never be relegated to a Warrant Officer who also serves as a chopper pilot — not even an NCO would be tasked with such a duty. (The film attempts to excuse this by having Creech say that Terry "volunteered" for that duty). Terry outranks all other NCOs, including a First Sergeant, making the sequence of the latter bullying him into cleaning Creech's "favorite shithouse" extremely suspect.
- As Himself: Wolfman Jack briefly reprises his role as the announcer during a handful of sequences.
- Aspect Ratio Switch: Interestingly, the film has one of the most significant usages of this trope in cinema, with each segment getting its own specific aspect ratio that changes between segments (split-screen for Debbie's story, anamorphic for Steve and Debbie, 16mm "newsreel" for Terry and 1:85 screen size for John) and finally switches rapidly as the final shots of the film play out. Not surprisingly, this led to confusion from some viewers, particularly in the case of Debbie's story, when the split-screen ratio is played up to comical levels.
- Babies Make Everything Better: Defied; Laurie has given birth to twin boys prior to the 1967 story, but she's deeply unhappy with simply being a stay-at-home mother, and wants to get back into the workforce. This leads to an argument with Steve telling Laurie she should Stay in the Kitchen, prompting her to rebel by going to stay at her brother's house, though this doesn't last long.
- Back for the Dead: Joe Young, the leader of the Pharoahs gang seen in the first film, appears in Terry's unit. He manages to last long enough to impart some hope into the former (about finishing his tour in Vietnam) before he's unceremoniously shot and killed by a VC sniper during a disastrous helicopter landing.
- Bad Boss: Terry's commanding officer in Vietnam, Major Creech, is a Jerkass who's more concerned about saving face and presenting the best side of the U.S. Army to a visiting Congressman than actually protecting his own soldiers. He repeatedly belittles, insults and threatens Terry, even when the latter's life is in danger during a botched helicopter drop, and threatens to keep Terry on latrine duty for the rest of his military career. As such, it's not a big surprise when he gets an unwelcome wake-up call.
- Bar Brawl: Occurs during Debbie's segment, when she causes one to break out after breaking up with Lance and hitting him.
- Bittersweet Ending: Of the main characters, only Steve, Laurie and Debbie get unambiguously positive endings — with Steve and Laurie reaffirming their love for each other after a traumatic experience at an anti-war protest, and Debbie eventually taking on the lead singer spot in a country band, which she leads to great success. However, the film ends in a back-to-back sequence of Terry walking alone in a forest, having deserted the Army via Faking the Dead, and Milner driving towards the fateful car crash that would claim his life.
- Black Comedy: The Vietnam section of Terry's story begins with him trying (and failing) to shoot himself in the shoulder, simulating a wound inflicted by a Viet Cong soldier. Upon failing at his task, Terry begins slapping the rifle and discharges it, hitting a sniper's nest at a nearby U.S. Army embankment and causing a chain reaction of retaliation, all while Terry comically tries to avoid the barrage.
- Bolivian Army Ending: The final shot of the film shows Milner, humming "Auld Lang Syne" from the radio, driving over a hill as another car is seen traveling towards him from the far end of the frame. Both cars disappear off-screen (below the hill). While no sound of a crash is heard, the postscript confirms that the character died that evening from a car crash.
- But Liquor Is Quicker: Milner attempts to ply Eva with alcohol in his trailer while trying to put the moves on her. It doesn't work, despite his efforts.
- Butt-Monkey: Like the first film, Terry is treated as disposable and irrelevant by his superiors. Despite the fact that he's a capable helicopter pilot, he's stuck on Latrine duty for part of his story, with him having to carry a giant vat of fecal matter out for disposal after being forced into the job by Major Creech.
- The Cameo:
- During Milner's story, Carol (Mackenzie Phillips) appears briefly to wish Milner well during the final races of the season.
- In Debbie's story, she and Lance get pulled over by Bob Falfa (an uncredited Harrison Ford), who's now a SFPD officer.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Milner attempts to put the moves on Eva twice in his trailer, but is interrupted by various racers just as he's about to kiss her. She finally gets angered and storms off, despite his protests.
- Conscription: Terry is drafted for the Vietnam War, leading to a year of service overseas before he makes plans to flee.Terry: Uncle Sam says, "I need The Toad! Only way we're going to win is if we get The Toad in there!"
- Didn't Think This Through: Coupled with "What Now?" Ending. Terry's storyline sees him marching through the jungle, having just deserted the Army and been given a cache of supplies, singing Auld Lang Syne while dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and pants. As he walks through the jungle, he slowly trails off the singing and quiets down, implying that the gravity of what he's just done (having to live his life off the grid overseas, because everyone thinks he died) finally hits him.
- Doomed Appointment: Before heading back home for the day, Milner manages to corral Eva (over her friend's objections that they have to leave) long enough to tell her he likes her, and invites her to go to the Rose Bowl with him the following day, which she accepts before her friend pulls her away. In the following scene, Milner is shown driving home at night... and towards the fatal accident that would claim his life before midnight.
- Draft Dodging: Steve and Laurie end up getting roped into attending an anti-war protest where participants are shown burning their draft cards, in keeping with the mid-60s timeframe of U.S. citizens actively seeking ways to avoid the Vietnam War.
- Drives Like Crazy: In Debbie's storyline, she and Electric Haze take their Volkswagon sedan on a joyride which sees them mounting a curb and driving along for a city block.
- End of an Era: The film, as a whole, deals with the hopeful optimism of the early 60s fading and a much more uncertain period following, with Steve and Laurie in particular dealing with a contentious anti-war protest that turns violent.
- Epic Fail: Despite the fact that Terry wildly shot off a weapon accidentally in a forest in Vietnam, one of the shots manages to land squarely in the center of a sniper's nest barricade, causing a chain reaction of the military setting off retaliatory strikes (an hour's worth, no less) as Terry comically dances around the bullets and mortar strikes. And somehow, despite carpet-bombing the area with napalm, they manage to level everything in the forest except for Terry, who walks out waving a white flag of surrender.
- Fake Band: "Electric Haze", the band seen in Debbie's segment, was expressly created for the film (and featured real musicians, including Sir Douglas Quintet frontman Doug Sahm), who perform several cover songs during the film.
- Fake-Out Twist: Milner's fatal accident on New Year's Eve is seemingly shown as the chute failing to deploy during the semifinal race of the California dragrace circuit, causing his dragcar to smash through a shed and go careening into a field... except that he ends up walking away without a scratch. That night, however, he isn't so lucky...
- Foregone Conclusion: Throughout the film, multiple characters make reference to mutual friends who have died, with Terry outright stating at one point that John Milner died from a car accident. The final scene of the film shows the jubilant Milner, having won the final drag race of the season, driving down into the San Fernando Valley towards another vehicle, with both cars disappearing offscreen due to a dip in the road, and the postscript reiterating that he died due to a collision with a drunk driver.
- Glory Days: Milner's storyline deals with him still trying to hang on to his past as The Ace, having to overcome multiple setbacks during the final race of the Modesto tournament, and being forced to confront the passage of time — his friends are moving on (or shipping out to Vietnam, in Terry's case) and he's trying to figure out his path in life. While he wins the championship, he is ultimately killed by a drunk driver on the end of the day, with the plot treating his death as the End of an Era for the hopeful early 60s.
- The Ingenue: Eva, coupled with Innocent Blue Eyes. She's a naive Icelandic girl, being dragged around by her friend, who is mostly at the mercy of Milner and his fellow racers throughout the film, with several of them trying to seduce her.
- Innocence Lost: While the first film was a Coming of Age Story that revolved around the main cast dealing with their last night of the summer before going their separate ways, More deals with various characters losing their innocent worldview on New Year's Eve, in keeping with the mid-to-late 60s being a much more turbulent era. Steve and Laurie deal with a traumatic anti-war protest (where they and their friends nearly get arrested) in 1967, Debbie ultimately ditches her hippie persona after watching her boyfriend cheat on her one too many times, and Terry the Toad deserts the U.S. Army after a disastrous military operation leaves one of his friends dead and him traumatized by the ensuing firefight and rescue. Milner is the only one of the group who ends the story as victorious as he started it, winning the dragrace circuit and set to start a relationship with a pretty blonde he met earlier in the day... until the final shot of the film reveals that he died that night.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Major Creech's attempts to keep Terry on latrine duty "for the rest of his sorry career" lasts all of a few hours before Terry fakes his death by blowing up a nearby outhouse, causing Creech (and the accompanying Congressman) to get doused in feces.Congressman: It's a dirty war.
- The Lost Lenore: Terry is this for Debbie, who believes him to have died in Vietnam. Despite the fact that she's moved on, she still reminisces about him during her storyline.
- Mood Whiplash:
- During an anti-war protest that turns violent (with people shown being beaten and bloodied on-screen), Laurie, Andy and Vicki flee from the pursuing officers hellbent on beating them... and blunder into a bathroom, where they run into a police officer on the can, who tries and falls to stop them as they sprint back out.
- Invoked in-universe, when Terry comments on the ridiculousness of his unit holding a jubilant celebration just after Joe was fatally shot in the chest during their helicopter landing.
- Party Scattering: The bulk of the characters seen in the original film manage to reunite one last time on New Year's Day 1964, with Terry being shipped off to Vietnam, Debbie eventually losing touch with the rest of the group (as she believes Terry is dead and goes to San Francisco), and Milner would die by the end of the day.
- Police Brutality: Steve and Laurie's journey to the anti-war protest, where the cops are shown brutally beating protestors and chasing the group around a college campus. Steve himself gets pummeled by an officer late in the film, which provides the impetus for the protestors to initiate a second riot that allows the couple to escape.
- Pom-Pom Girl: Vicki is a college cheerleader who stopped cheering for the school to cheer anti-war slogans at peace protests, complete with pom-poms and a Peace symbol painted on her shorts.
- Random Events Plot: Like the original film, the sequel initially introduces the main cast in one scene together before splitting them up (permanently, as it turns out) for four completely different stories that have nothing to do with each other beyond the theme of Innocence Lost, and taking place on New Year's Eve over four separate years.
- John Milner is competing in the final dragrace of the season in California, and powers through various hurdles threatening his ultimate victory (including rejection of a brand deal and lampooning by his fellow competitors) as he attempts to woo an Icelandic girl, Eva, he's developed instant feelings for.
- Terry "The Toad" is drafted for the Vietnam War, and spends the entirety of his plot coming up with a scheme to get out of active service — particularly after a helicopter landing goes horribly wrong and results in the death of one of his friends.
- Steve and Laurie Bolander are facing marital troubles, with the latter going to stay at her brother's house, and gets wrapped up in a plot where Steve has to rescue them from an anti-war protest.
- Debbie, now cruising around San Francisco with a new boyfriend, Lance, is trying to chart a new course in life after meeting up with a band, Electric Haze, and realizing she could pursue her dream as a singer.
- Rewrite:
- According to the postscript of the original film, John Milner died in a car crash in June 1964. In order to fit in with the theme of New Year's Eve explored over four consecutive years, the fatal accident happens on Dec. 31, 1964. Additionally, the book novelization of the original film posited that the character died in a different fashion — being rear-ended by a vehicle driven by the "girl in the T-Bird", who was driving Officers Holstein and Falfa home, and caused Milner's car to go over a cliff. The film changes this to an implied head-on crash with a truck in the San Fernando Valley.
- The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue in both the original film and the sequel state that Terry went missing in action in Vietnam in 1975, suggesting he was either captured as a POW or died and was never found. This film states that the military brass in Vietnam (and Terry's family, who the brass plan on writing to) know Terry is dead, via a Faking the Dead scheme he cooked up to desert the war, making his postscript fate nonsensical.
- Running Gag: Two years after leaving high school, Milner still has trouble talking to women, which is played up to a comical degree when he tries (and fails) to talk to Eva multiple times during the course of his storyline.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Confronted by the harsh reality of the Vietnam War (which has already claimed several of his fellow soldiers), Terry immediately beats feet from the war effort, via a Faking the Dead scheme.
- Stylistic Suck: Terry's story is filmed in a grainy, "newsreel"-style format that is emblematic of news footage filmed in Vietnam with the time, complete with plenty of shaky-cam, out-of-focus and sped-up footage. It's intended to clash horribly with the other segments, which are shot with much clearer (and expansive) camera formats.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: Joe Young is sitting in his seat aboard Sinclair and Terry's helicopter, checking to see if the coast is clear, when he's suddently shot by an unseen VC soldier. While Sinclair rushes to attempt to provide medical aid (and Terry freaks out while still trying to maintain control of the chopper), the character dies in moments. They don't even manage to bring his body home, as the chopper is destroyed when it crashes in a nearby river.
- Tempting Fate: Sgt. Bob Sinclair is an arrogant, pompous pilot who brags about how he's going to dare the Viet Cong to attack him by putting a U.S. flag on his helicopter, and then refuses to keep his helicopter out of enemy fire despite Terry's protests to change his course of action. All this gets him is a dead soldier under his command on the same day (Joe, who's fatally shot after they linger too long in the combat zone) and a crashed helicopter.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Bob Falfa goes from a slightly-jerkish drag racer in the first film to an even more offputting traffic cop in this film.
- Trolling Translator: One of Milner's fellow competitors attempts to "translate" Eva's sentences by telling Milner that the former wants to go to a hotel with the teammate instead, causing Milner to lose his cool several times.
- The Unintelligible: In-universe, the Icelandic Eva is this to Milner. He doesn't understand a word she's saying (despite making attempts to glean words and phrases from her), and she tends to talk in rapid-fire Swedish.
- What a Drag: Milner's storyline revolves around his participation in the final race of a dragcar racing season held in Modesto, California, for which Milner himself has become The Ace.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Carol (Mackenzie Phillips), a significant character from the original film, shows up long enough to make a cameo at Milner's dragrace tournament on New Year's Day 1964... and seemingly disappears completely from the narrative afterwards, with no word given on her status from any of the other characters.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The postscript from the original is repeated at the end of this film verbatim — with the new addition of Debbie and Laurie's whereabouts after the film.
