''Bubble Boy'' is a 2001 American

black comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the old ...

directed by Blair Hayes, starring

Jake Gyllenhaal Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal (; ; born December 19, 1980) is an American actor. Born into the Gyllenhaal family, he is the son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, and his older sister is actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. He ...

in the title role. It was inspired by the 1976 movie ''

The Boy in the Plastic Bubble ''The Boy in the Plastic Bubble'' is a 1976 American made for television drama film inspired by the lives of David Vetter and Ted DeVita, who lacked effective immune systems. It stars John Travolta, Glynnis O'Connor, Diana Hyland, Robert Reed, ...

''. A musical by the same name was written by the same authors and first performed in 2008.

Plot

Born without an immune system, Jimmy Livingston lives in a sterilized dome in his bedroom in his home in California, earning him the nickname "Bubble Boy" by his neighbors. His overbearing and devout Christian mother only exposes him to '' Highlights'' magazine and ''

Land of the Lost Land of the Lost may refer to: * Land of the Lost (1974 TV series), ''Land of the Lost'' (1974 TV series), the original 1974 children's television series * Land of the Lost (1991 TV series), ''Land of the Lost'' (1991 TV series), the 1991 remake of ...

'' for entertainment. When he is a teenager, Jimmy is immediately taken with Chloe who moves in next door and the two become friends, despite his mother's discouragement. When Chloe leaves for

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...

to marry her boyfriend Mark in three days' time, Jimmy realizes that Chloe cares for him and builds a mobile bubble suit, determined to stop the wedding. Along the way, Jimmy is picked up by a cult called Bright and Shiny but is abandoned in the desert when he offends them. He finds a new ride with Slim, a biker who speaks fondly of his old flame "Wildfire" upon hearing Jimmy's story. The Livingstons pursue Jimmy, along with the cult members whose leader Gil believes "The Round One" to be the group's messiah. Jimmy leaves a distracted Slim behind in Las Vegas and continues on using a scooter he wins at a casino. Encountering his parents on the road, Jimmy is struck by their vehicle and bounced aboard a train belonging to Dr. Phreak, who shows "freaks" to the public for money. When Phreak tries to recruit Jimmy, Jimmy knocks him unconscious which allows the freaks to go their own way. They choose to trail Jimmy along with the other parties in pursuit. Jimmy is picked up by Pushpop, an Indian ice cream truck driver, but has to continue on foot when they hit a cow on the road. Winning $500 in a mud wrestling competition, Jimmy pays taxi driver Pappy for a ride but is cornered by the cult members. He slips away during the group's skirmish with the freaks and Slim's gang. After Pappy appears to have died at the wheel, Jimmy tries to call Chloe from a gas station in New York only to reach her fiancé Mark, who rudely convinces him that Chloe doesn't love him. Discouraged, Jimmy intends to return home with his parents, but encouragement and an opening provided by his father Morton allows him to escape on a plane piloted by Pappy's twin brother Pippy. When Pippy becomes lifeless over Niagara Falls Jimmy survives the fall and arrives at the church in time to stop the wedding. Abandoning his bubble suit, he embraces and kisses Chloe before collapsing. At Morton's insistence, Mrs. Livingston confesses that he had already developed an immune system when he was four and has been perfectly fine all along. She had kept him isolated only due to her overprotective nature. Jimmy and Chloe are married with all the people encountered during his adventure in attendance. Recognized as the former "Wildfire", Mrs. Livingston re-embraces her rebellious side and prepares to depart with Slim on his bike along with Morton. Jimmy and Chloe discover Pippy and Pappyboth of whom merely fell asleep instead of dyingas they ride off to begin their honeymoon.

Cast

as Jimmy Livingston *

Swoosie Kurtz Swoosie Kurtz ( ; born September 6, 1944) is an American actress. She is the recipient of an Emmy Award and two Tony Awards. Kurtz made her Broadway debut in the 1975 revival of '' Ah, Wilderness''. She has received five Tony Award nominations ...

as Mrs. Livingston aka “Wildfire” *

Marley Shelton Marley Eve Shelton (born April 12, 1974) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Wendy Peffercorn in David Mickey Evans's coming-of-age comedy '' The Sandlot'' (1993), the Customer in Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez's neo-noi ...

as Chloe *

Danny Trejo Danny Trejo ( ; born May 16, 1944) is an American actor. He has appeared in films including ''Desperado'', ''Heat'', and the ''From Dusk Till Dawn'' film series. With frequent collaborator and his second cousin Robert Rodriguez, he portrayed ...

as Slim *

John Carroll Lynch John Carroll Lynch (born August 1, 1963) is an American character actor and film director. He first gained notice for his role as Norm Gunderson in '' Fargo'' (1996). He is also known for his television work on the ABC sitcom '' The Drew Carey ...

as Morton Livingston *

Verne Troyer Verne Jay Troyer (January 1, 1969 – April 21, 2018) was an American actor, comedian, YouTuber, and stunt performer. He was best known for his role of Mini-Me in the ''Austin Powers'' film series. He had cartilage–hair hypoplasia and was ...

as Dr. Phreak * Dave Sheridan as Mark *

Brian George Brian George (born 1 July 1952) is a British actor. He is best known for his roles as Pakistani restaurateur Babu Bhatt in ''Seinfeld'' (1989–1998), the Indian gynecologist father of Raj Koothrappali in ''The Big Bang Theory'' (2007–2019 ...

as Pushpop *

Patrick Cranshaw Joseph Patrick Cranshaw (June 17, 1919 – December 28, 2005) was an American character actor known for his distinctive look and deadpan humor. He is best known for one of his last roles, that of Joseph "Blue" Pulaski, a fraternity brother, i ...

as Pappy and Pippy *

Ever Carradine Ever Dawn Carradine is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Tiffany Porter and Kelly Ludlow on the ABC television series ''Once and Again'' and '' Commander in Chief'', respectively and as Naomi Putnam and Janet Stein on the Hulu ...

as Lisa *

Beetlejuice ''Beetlejuice'' is a 1988 American fantasy horror comedy film directed by Tim Burton, written by Michael McDowell, Larry Wilson, and Warren Skaaren, produced by The Geffen Company, distributed by Warner Bros., and starring Alec Baldwin, ...

as Lil' Zip *

Fabio Lanzoni Fabio Lanzoni (; born March 15, 1959), known mononymously as Fabio, is an Italian-American actor, fashion model, and spokesman. Lanzoni is known for his wide-ranging career including appearing as a romance novel cover model throughout the 1990 ...

as Gil *

Zach Galifianakis Zachary Knight Galifianakis (born October 1, 1969) is an American actor and comedian. He appeared in ''Comedy Central Presents'' special and presented his show '' Late World with Zach'' on VH1. Galifianakis has starred in films including ''T ...

as Bus stop man *

Arden Myrin Arden VanAmringe Myrin () is an American actress and comedian. Myrin was a cast member on the Netflix series '' Insatiable'', playing the role of Regina Sinclair, and starred in the world premiere of Steve Martin's play ''Meteor Shower'' at the ...

as Lorraine *

Pablo Schreiber Pablo Tell Schreiber (born April 26, 1978) is a Canadian-American actor. He is best known for his stage work and for portraying Nick Sobotka on ''The Wire'' (2003), William Lewis on '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' (2013–2014), Mad S ...

as Todd *

Matthew McGrory Matthew McGrory (May 17, 1973 – August 9, 2005) was an American actor. At , he was recognized as the tallest actor by Guinness World Records. He portrayed physically imposing characters throughout his career, including Tiny Firefly in the horro ...

as Human Sasquatch / Clark *

Stacy Keibler Stacy Ann-Marie Keibler (born October 14, 1979) is an American retired professional wrestler and actress, former cheerleader, dancer, and model. She is specifically known for her work with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and World Wrestling E ...

as Working girl * Madajah McCullum O'Hearn as Red Hot

Reception

The film opened #13 at the U.S. Box office, taking in US$2,038,349 in its opening weekend. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

it has an approval rating of 31% based on 84 reviews, with an average rating of 3.76/10. The site's consensus states that "''Bubble Boy'' bounces along with lame, offensive jokes that are more tasteless than funny." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

it has a score of 41% based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The film has been considered a "cult comedy." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Musical adaptation

In 2013, Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio adapted ''Bubble Boy'' into a

stage musical Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

featuring original songs, for which an

original cast recording Originality is the aspect of created or invented works that distinguish them from reproductions, clones, forgeries, or substantially derivative works. The modern idea of originality is according to some scholars tied to Romanticism, by a notion t ...

was released on

Ghostlight Records Sh-K-Boom Records is an independent record label and producer of recorded and live entertainment, which was founded in 2000 by Kurt Deutsch with the mission of bridging the gap between pop music and theater. In 2004 Sh-K-Boom created their secon ...

in 2017 featuring

A.J. Holmes Andrew James Holmes (born November 14, 1988 in California) is an American actor, singer and composer working in musical theater, and a member of StarKid Productions. He is known primarily for playing the role of Elder Cunningham in ''The Book of ...

Alice Ripley Alice Ripley (born December 14, 1963) is an American actress, singer, songwriter and mixed media artist. She is known, in particular, for her various roles on Broadway in musicals, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning ''Next to Normal'' (2009 To ...

and

Richard Kind Richard Bruce Kind (born November 22, 1956) is an American actor and comedian, known for his roles as Dr. Mark Devanow in ''Mad About You'' (1992–1999, 2019), Paul Lassiter in ''Spin City'' (1996–2002), Andy in ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' (2002 ...

, produced by Paul,

Justin Goldner Justin Goldner is an American music producer, songwriter, arranger and session musician based in New York City, originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His performances have been featured on Grammy, Latin Grammy and Tony award-winning projects ...

Kurt Deutsch Kurt Deutsch is an actor, director, record producer and film producer. He is the Senior Vice President for Theatrical & Catalog Development for Warner/Chappell Music, and President of Sh-K-Boom Records, a division of Warner Arts Music. Sh-K-Boom/ ...

References

External links

* * * {{rotten-tomatoes, bubble_boy, Bubble Boy 2000s road movies 2001 black comedy films 2001 comedy films 2001 directorial debut films 2001 films American black comedy films American road movies Films produced by Beau Flynn Films scored by John Ottman Films set in New York (state) Films set in the Las Vegas Valley Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in the Las Vegas Valley Films with screenplays by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio Touchstone Pictures films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films Films about disability