Red, White and Blue is a 2023 short film (24 minutes) directed by Nazrin Choudhury.
Brittany Snow stars as Rachel, a waitress at an IHOP-style diner in Arkansas. As the film opens, Rachel is staring at a pregnancy test that is showing positive. Rachel immediately decides that an abortion is necessary, but she lives in Arkansas, a state that has banned abortion after Roe v. Wade was overturned. She now has to take time off of work and drive over seven hours to a clinic in Illinois. Worse, Rachel is a single mom with two children who is struggling to make ends meet as it is, and the gas and hotel room required will not be free, and there is obvious time pressure to terminate the pregnancy before it's too late.
A kindly stranger gives Rachel $200 to help her get the abortion. She drops her younger son Jake off with a friend and, with her daughter Mandy in tow, makes the drive to Illinois. But all is not as it seems.
Tropes:
- Chekhov's Gun: The viewer assumes that Rachel, looking at the results of a pregnancy test, has just taken it while on a bathroom break at work—but the film also shows that her children sometimes stay at the restaurant while she's working. In fact it was Maddy who just took the test.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The other woman in the hallway at the diner, who is shown looking at Rachel while Rachel is looking at the pregnancy test. The other woman puts two and two together, figures out that Rachel needs an abortion, and gives her a $200 tip.
- Empathy Doll Shot: In the flashback where Rachel is rushing back into a home filled with cops after her daughter was attacked, there's a closeup of her stepping on a stuffed animal.
- Flashback: A flashback after The Reveal shows that Maddy was impregnated by a stranger who broke into the apartment and raped her.
- Flirtatious Smack on the Ass: A customer at the diner smacks Rachel on the butt as she passes. She looks to a man behind the counter, presumably her supervisor, who shrugs. It shows what kinds of petty humiliations Rachel has to deal with at work.
- A Friend in Need: Rachel is facing a pretty serious problem, with no way to find the money she needs to go to Illinois and get the abortion. Then a kindly older woman, a customer at the diner who has figured out what is going on, gives her a $200 tip.
- In Medias Res: The film starts with Rachel looking at the results of a pregnancy test. This immerses the viewer in the story immediately, and also sets up The Reveal.
- Kitchen Sink Drama: A poor waitress struggles to afford and arrange for an abortion in a country where that is much more difficult after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
- Oh, Crap!: The nurse at the clinic, when she is taking Rachel's information and asks for a birth date, and Rachel gives a date in 2013.
- Rape as Drama: The reason the abortion is necessary. Maddy was raped.
- The Reveal: It isn't Rachel who is pregnant and needing an abortion. It's her 11-year-old daughter Maddy, who was raped.
- Rewatch Bonus: Knowing The Reveal explains things about the story, like why Rachel is not shown actually taking the test, or why she takes her young daughter with her on the trip to Illinois rather than leaving Maddy with a babysitter like she did with Jake.
- Significant Background Event: The camera passes by bills with headings like "Final Notice" stuck on the refrigerator, demonstrating that Rachel was struggling to make ends meet even before this expense.
- Struggling Single Mother: Rachel is struggling to pay the bills as it is, as a waitress with two children, so having to come up with the money to drive to Illinois and get an abortion is a major problem. She is desperate enough to break open a child's piggy bank to count up the change.
- Time-Passes Montage: Rachel and Maddy's trip to Illinois, as shown by stops at the gas station and rest stops, and eating snacks in the car.
