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In 2005, Rent became not only a stage production but a film production. Director Chris Columbus started the movie with all of the main characters on a theatre stage singing the shows iconic song “Seasons of Love” to an empty auditorium. This really helped to set up what the audience was about to watch and give an almost celebratory feel that is constantly present in the rest of the film, whether it be celebrating someone’s life, or celebrating an engagement.
The film takes off with a clip of the streets of New York where we see homeless people either sitting or wandering around as we hear Mark’s famous opening lines, “December 24, 1989, 9 p.m., Eastern Standard Time. From here on in, I shoot without a script. See if anything comes of it, instead of my old shit.” The camera turns to Mark, filming with his camera as the title song, “Rent”, begins playing. As Mark begins to sing about the struggles of documenting real life, he is riding his bike back to what fans of the show can assume is the loft he shares with Roger. Cuts to Roger as we see him in their loft with a guitar in his hands singing about the struggles of writing a song after a while; during which the power blows. Mark gets home and shows Roger, who is messing with the fuse box the eviction notice. A now looming question is upon them.
“How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay last year's rent?”
With the power back on, they get a phone call from Collins, a friend of theirs and asks them to throw down the keys. But before he could reach the door of their loft, he was jumped and his jacket stolen. With no heat in the loft, Mark and Roger have no choice but to “light up a mean blaze with posters and screenplays.” Cut back to Collins who is in pain from his incident, unable to get up. Shot back to Mark and Roger on their balcony as the camera pans down to show the rest of the residence on Avenue A burning their eviction notices.
”How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay last year's Rent?”
Mark and Roger continue to burn their momentoes in a metal trash can order to stay warm.
“Zoom in as they burn the past to the ground
And feel the heat of the future’s glow.
How do you leave the past behind
When it keeps finding ways to get to get to your heart?
It reaches way down deep and tears you inside out until you’re torn apart.”
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As they continue their song they take their burning past and throw it over their balcony along with everyone’s eviction notices. Benny, who at this point appears to be a landlord, comes by to a mound of people in chaos, anger, and amusement. But as he exits his car, everyone has one thing to say to Benny.
“We’re not gonna pay.
We’re not gonna pay.
We’re not gonna pay
Last year’s rent
This year’s rent
Next year’s rent
Rent, Rent, Rent, Rent, Rent
We’re not gonna pay rent
‘Cause everything is rent.”
Benny asks Mark and Roger to come down and talk to him. As they begin to walk downstairs though, we see Roger make eye contact with a girl who lives below then. It doesn’t look like they know each other. We can tell that there is some sort of tension between the three characters and we can deduce from their conversation that Mark and Roger have kind of shunned Benny from the group because he married the daughter of the owner of their lot. We also learn that his father-in-law was upset a protest being held by a girl named Maureen Johnson, who we find out dumped Mark for a lawyer named Joanne and is protesting because Benny is turning her performance space into a digital cybernetic interactive studio. Benny wants Mark and Roger to convince Maureen to cancel her protest in exchange for continuing to forego their rent.
Cut to a man with drumsticks and a plastic tub performing on the street. He hears a noise and goes to figure out where it is coming from. He finds Collins who is hurt and bloody. The man offers his help to Collins and introduces himself as Angel. He then walks with Collins to get cleaned up and we learn that Angel is a part of a life support group for people with AIDS (which he has). We also learn that Collins as AIDS as well.
In this brief scene, you can see that these two characters immediately have a connection and that they could be possible love interests.
Cutting back to the loft, Mark decides to go find Collins and asks Roger if he wants to go with him and that maybe they could grab dinner while they were out. Roger tell Mark to zoom in on his empty wallet. Mark doesn’t pry any further. He just reminds Roger to take his AZT before heading out the door. Roger goes up to the rooftop of their complex and starts reminiscing about the life he used to have as he sings “One Song Glory.” We see flashbacks of him with his then-girlfriend April. We see that they were both drug addicts and that April and he tested positive for HIV. But as he sings, we hear his plea.
“One song, glory
One song before I go
Glory, one song to leave behind.”
He goes back to the loft and the girl who had met Roger’s eye came in asking him, “Would you light my candle?” Roger knows that she wants more than just him to light her candle so she could see and continues to try and keep her at bay. We learn that she is a junkie and that Roger had gotten through his drug addiction. Roger tries to hide her stash as she looks for it all over the loft, but she ultimately finds it and leaves, but not before telling him that her name is Mimi.
The next day, Mark finds out about Mimi, but Roger refuses to go any further with her. Collin’s shows up and brings the boys a bunch of snacks and booze and introduces them to Angel, who we discover is transgender.
Maureen ends up calling Mark, asking him to help Joanne fix her sound equipment. Mark goes down to the studio while Angel and Collins head to a life support meeting and Roger just stays at home.
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Cut to Mark walking in and meeting Joanne for the first time. The camera follows them as Joanne reluctantly allows Mark to help her with the sound system. Pretty soon, they start comparing their relationships with Maureen in “Tango: Maureen”.
“Mark: Has she ever pouted her lips
And called you ‘Pookie’?
Joanne: Never
Mark: Have you ever doubted a kiss or two?
Joanne: This is...spooky”
Mark fixes the sound system and joins Angel and Collins at life support and ends up filming a bit for his film. You see people talking about their fears and looking desperately for a solution.
Cut to Mimi dancing at her job and soon after, walking the streets to her loft. This is during the song “Out Tonight”. She eventually goes up to Roger’s place and is begging him to take her out. Roger pulls away and begins singing, “Another Day” where he is trying to get Mimi away from him. You can tell that he has enough baggage of his own and he is afraid of taking on someone else's. Mimi is trying to reach him.
“There is no future
There is no past
I live this moment as my last.
There’s only us
There’s only this
Forget regret
Or life is yours to miss
No other road
No other way
No day but today.”
But even with her persuading, Roger doesn’t give in and ends up hurting her feeling. Even though all of this, you can tell that Roger is into her. After this, Roger ends up going to a life support meeting with Collins, Angel, and Mark.
After the meeting, Roger and Mark go to help Maureen with final sound checks. Collins and Angel are alone together and end up declaring their love for each other in the song “I’ll Cover You.” Angel even buys Collins his iconic jacket which he wears for the rest of the film.
Cut to Roger finding Mimi just outside of Maureen’s show. He apologizes to her for being out of line and asks her if she wants to go have dinner with them after the show. She agrees and the whole gang goes to see Maureen perform her protest piece “Over the Moon” which ends with the cops stepping in.
Scene moves to Life Cafe. The group waits for Mark inside, unsure of where he is. He makes his way
into the cafe and tells Maureen that he sold his footage of the protest to a news station. The group finds a place to sit at the cafe and they see Benny. Benny starts to patronize them for the way they live their lives as he begins the song “La Vie Boheme”.
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| La Vie Boheme PC Here |
“Bohemia, Bohemia’s
A fallacy in your head
This is Calcutta
Bohemia is dead.”
The whole group decides to celebrate the Bohemian Life and begin to mock Benny in front of his investors.
During this, Roger and Mimi have a heart to heart and begin to open up and accept their feelings for one another. We learn that Mimi is also HIV positive. They decide to be together and rejoin their friends for one last round of “La Vie Boheme” and celebrate “...people living with, living, with, living with, not dying from disease!”
The next year of their lives, no one expected. Mark and Roger became squatters in their own loft thanks to Benny. This forces Mark to get a job he hates in order to have money to pay for rent. Joanne and Maureen are having many quarrels, and in the middle of their wedding shower, have an explosive argument and break up. Benny decides to give back the loft to Mark and Roger, free of rent, after talking with Mimi about it, but Mark gives him a check to pay for it. Roger starts to get jealous of Benny and starts becoming distant. Mimi stops taking drugs in order to be with Roger and Angel’s health worsens. Roger ends up catching Mimi buying drugs from a dealer and breaks up with her. She ends up going back to Benny, even though he is married. Angel eventually passes away in Collins’s arms.
The funeral is held on Halloween. Everyone speaks at Angel’s funeral and Collins reprises their love song “I’ll Cover You”. After the service, Mimi and Roger, as well as Joanne and Maureen get into an argument about Roger and Maureen being too afraid to love them. Collins has to stop them in order for them to realize what they are doing.
Maureen and Joanne seem to make up, but Roger pushes away from Mimi and heads off to Santa Fe.
Mark and Roger are being haunted by past ghosts in “What You Own”. Roger sees Mimi everywhere he goes and Mark is always hearing Angel. Neither of them are happy with their current lives and end up doing the scary thing, following their hearts. Mark quits his job to focus on his own film and Roger moves back to New York after finding his song.
Benny calls Mark and tells them that Mimi is missing. The whole group, especially Roger, are trying to find her but to no avail.
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“December 24, 1990, 10 pm Eastern Standard Time.” Collins comes to visit the boys again and ask them if they have any news of Mimi, which they didn’t. Soon after they pour themselves a drink, Maureen shouts for Mark to help them with Mimi. Joanne and Maureen had found her living in the street. Roger and Mimi share a tender moment and Roger plays his song for her before she goes. After telling her that he loves her, she passes away. But soon after, she comes back to life and tells them that Angel told her to go back and be with Roger. The movie ends with them all watching Mark’s film and reminding themselves of one very important lesson.
This lesson doesn’t just apply to them, it applies to all of us. We all need to realize that we have no clue what the future holds and we need to just go for it. There is no day but today.
Rosenthal, Jane (Producer), & Chris Columbus (Director). (2005). Rent [Motion Picture]. United States: Columbia Pictures.
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