Mazes and Monsters (1982) Synopsis

A pathetic college student played by a 40 year-old-looking Tom Hanks loses touch with reality from playing the live action role playing board game Mazes & Monsters (M&Ms) - a cheap ripoff of Dungeons & Dragons.The movie opens on a scene at an old abandoned cavern called Pequod Caverns. There are police and reporters at the scene & the news reporter is doing a broadcast that a college student has apparently been reported lost/missing in the caverns while playing the board game Mazes & Monsters (M&Ms).Opening credits roll & a '6 MONTHS EARLIER' marquee flashes across the screen to let us know that what happens next happened 6 months before the opening scene.We get unnecessary back stories & glimpses into the main characters home life for JJ, a 16 year old 190 IQ genius who is a college sophomore with an uncaring, out-of-touch, superficial mother; Kate, who looks 45 years old, ponders life's meaning with her same age looking divorced mother; Daniel, a tall blonde should've been jock handsome male whose parents badger him to transfer to MIT & be more ambitious but he just wants to be a big game playing/making nerd, it's implied (badly) he's a lady's man; & Robbie (Tom Hanks), whose parents drive him to college, argue the entire time, reveal the mom to be a drunk & warn him to focus on his school work this time instead of playing "that awful game anymore". All 4 of them arrive to college.At lunch one day, JJ sees Robbie looking at a bulletin board with a flyer about M&Ms JJ posted & he invites Robbie to join him & his friends to play M&Ms & invite him to a party. Robbie hesitates & tries multiple times to decline. Robbie has transferred to this new college because he apparently lost touch with reality playing M&Ms so much at his old college that he neglected his classes, school work, life, & family and was kicked out.Robbie accepts the party invite where he meets Kate & they reveal they're both level 9 players of M&Ms. Kate calls over Daniel & JJ & they meet & greet & convince him to join their M&Ms league. The next night, they all start playing the game together. Robbie & Kate become close & soon start dating (as evidenced by the slow romantic theme music that plays over a montage of them hanging out, sharing, caring).While in her dorm room, Robbie reveals to Kate that his older brother Hall ran away from home one night when they were throwing him a birthday party. Hall asked Robbie for all the money he had so he could go to NY. Hall promised to keep in touch but as Robbie/Tom so badly expressed/acted during his retelling, Hall didn't keep in touch & Robbie feels guilty that he gave him the money that helped Hall leave them. He states that he's now hunted by bad dreams about his lost brother.JJ stops by Kate's dorm room & Robbie answers the door. JJ is taken aback & apparently hurt by this. He goes back to his dorm, declares to his parakeet that he's really lonely & contemplates how to best commit suicide so that he'll go down in infamy. He decides getting trapped & dying in the caverns would be a good way to be remembered. Yeah, that's just a logical reaction. Cut to: Robbie invites Kate to move in with him in his dorm room but she declines saying it's too soon. Cut to: JJ goes to the cavern to I guess scout his death location.....maybe !?Later on, the group are playing M&Ms & JJ intentionally gets his character killed off so he can recommend they start a new game with different rules. He purposes they play the game in the abandoned caverns to make it more real & life like. They protest that the caverns are too dangerous & unsafe but eventually give in & agree. JJ sets up the cavern & the next game night, they all don theater department costumes JJ acquired & head to the caverns.Inside, they follow JJ through the maze he set up. JJ acts as maze controller calling the game plays & the rest separate & explore different sections of the cavern. Robbie becomes panicked & scared & is besieged by a 7 foot green slimy plastic costume covered monster after JJ calls out that a maze monster has appeared. Robbie uses his dagger to "kill" the monster but only after he sissy cries out in fear for help from the others. The others find him & he professes that he has slain the monster & points to where the monster should have fallen. Camera pans to spot which of course is blank with no such monster. Indication 1 - Robbie is losing his grip on reality (again). As they're leaving, the rest are saying how great a time they had & were really scared but Robbie states that as holy man Pradieu (his character) he has killed against his character's morals. They arrive back to the dorms & part ways but not before Robbie "blesses them all", apparently still in his holy man character. Indication 2 - Robbie is losing his grip on reality (again).Robbie has another dream about his lost brother Hall who now appears Yoda style as a cloaked figure espousing guidance on how Robbie is to achieve the next level of his M&Ms quest. The dream Hall (Yoda Hall) tells Robbie he must be celibate & walk alone in order to attain his next goal. This can't end well folks !Kate stops by Robbie's dorm & he breaks up with her stating that he "can't be with her anymore" (yeah his dream told him he has to be celibate remember). Kate says that it's all her fault just like her last boyfriend, deja vu. She meets Daniel for dinner & complains about her luck in love & guys leaving her. Daniel reassures her that she's fine. He asks if she wants Robbie back, she says no it's over & they're just friends. She asks if Daniel has noticed anything weird about how Robbie seems to be more involved in his M&Ms role. Daniel dismisses it & he & Kate flirt.Robbie dreams again about Yoda Hall who gives him more screwed-up guidance. Kate is driving at night & sees a hooded someone riding a bike towards the caverns. She does a U-turn (as naturally anyone would do in this exact situation) & follows them to the caverns. She goes in calling out for Daniel because at pitch black night on a dark road she was able to clearly see that it was him in the hooded sweatshirt riding a bike. She finds him & he admits that he was there cheating & trying to get a leg up on the others by figuring out the puzzles & surprises that JJ set up for them. They kiss & he admits he's fallen in love & she admits she was always so afraid to get involved with him because he was so attractive. Ahhhhh, they kiss. Fade out.Next scene, JJ is throwing a Halloween party. Robbie is now dressed in a cloak & he leaves the party & touches the door as to say "I bless you all but I must part as your ways are no longer mine". We next see Robbie walking out the front door of his college dorm into the night. Daniel goes to his room the next morning looking for him. He notices Robbie's wallet is still on the table. He meets up with Kate & JJ & they say they haven't seen Robbie either & wonder where he's gone without his clothes or wallet. Kate rushes back to her room & phones Robbie's mom. Kate says Robbie wasn't in class this morning & asks if he's home. Robbie's mom says he's at college & asks if he's skipped class before. Kate panics & hangs up abruptly.They head to Robbie's dorm room & find a large detailed map/maze with the words The Great Hall & Two Towers scrolled across the top . They wonder if he has joined another M&Ms league. Kate says it's because of the game that Robbie has disappeared & reminds them that she did tell them Robbie was acting strangely. They head to the caverns to find him but can't. They go to the police to report him lost. They're each interrogated by a detective who claims "the police knew Robbie played M&Ms because they found a maze/map in his dorm room". Found it when! The friends have just gone to the police to report him missing right then but Okay. The police detective surmises that Robbie has been killed by another player playing the M&Ms game (just another logical conclusion). Oh yeah, Kate & Daniel are now dating even though Kate looks old enough to be Daniel & JJ's mother.The friends head back to their dorms & ponder how to deal with this without being implicated as the murderers. JJ says he can give the police his maze map so they can better find Robbie but will do it in a way that doesn't divulge his identity. Kate says they are suspects because they cleaned up the caverns & hid their maps & M&Ms game.Cut to the caverns. We are now presented with the opening scene & are now back to real time & not flashback/6 months earlier time. The friends drive there & JJ slips his maze map under the windshield wiper of a police car. Cut to next day at police station. The detective tells the group of friends that they can't find Robbie, doubt they ever will, & that they believe he's dead by now.Back at their dorm, the 3 friends discuss Robbie's map. Kate realizes that the Great Hall shown on Robbie's map is not a place but is a person, Robbie's lost brother Hall. Cut to Robbie walking at night in a city that appears to be New York. He comes across 2 hoodlums who ask what he's holding. Robbie says it's his spells that he guards with his life. They chase him into an alley. As one of the hoodlums approaches him, Robbie hallucinates & sees the man as the M&Ms monster he killed in the cavern. Robbie brandishes his "dagger"/knife & stabs the monster/hoodlum. The other guy runs off. Robbie stumbles dizzying out of the alley & sees himself in a reflection of a glass storefront. This was apparently enough to bolt him back into reality. He races to a payphone & calls Kate crying & fearful. He tells her he's in NY, can't remember how he got there, has blood on his knife, & thinks he's killed someone. He gets to NY without any money as he left his wallet in his dorm room! Kate tells him to go to JJ's place & gives him the address. He just told her he can't remember how he even got to NY but she figured he should be able to remember the strange address she's giving him. The 3 friends jump into Kate's car heading for NY.Instead of going straight to the address Kate gave him that no reasonable person could expect him to remember, Robbie wonders around NY, comes across more seedy looking guys, stumbles into the subway & down into dark tunnels that he relates to being "THE MAZE". He starts freaking out, hearing growls, & panicking. Classic signs of anxiety attack & schizophrenia. He comes across a homeless man & professes that he's the holy man Pardieu. The homeless man says he's the king of France. Robbie begs his majesty's pardon, says he's been on a long journey, bows, & begins conversing with the "king". Robbie asks about the giant dragon above. A subway train is heard & Robbie says "yes, the giant dragon that's him just now". He's clearly gone full insane that quickly! Robbie asks the homeless man/king about the Great Hall, Two Towers & how to get there. The "king" tells him he only knows about the two towers, this being a hint.It's now day, cut to the 3 friends arriving to JJ's NY apartment. Robbie is seen wondering around NY. The 3 friends look at maps to try to find out where a "holy man" might go. JJ stupidly remembers that the two towers are the twin towers & they rush off to them. They run around the building looking for Robbie. Boom! There he is riding an escalator. They catch up with him just as he steps into an elevator & the door closes. They take another elevator up to the observatory because why wouldn't they even though they didn't see the floor Robbie went to. They rush to the roof to find Robbie climbing over the deck rail about to jump. They call out to him but he doesn't answer until they call him Pardieu (his game character). Robbie says he's going to join the Great Hall. They forbade him to do so saying he doesn't have enough game points. "Game, game??" Robbie asks. "Yes game!", they all proclaim. "OHHHHH JJ, WHAT AM I DOING HERE!!!", Robbie exclaims in poorly acted bewilderment & confusion. He asks why can't he remember, the 3 friends go to hug him, sappy slow melodramatic music begins to play, & they all hug.We're presented with another marquee of '3 MONTHS LATER'. The 3 friends are driving, Kate says it feels good to finally be writing her novel about their experiences, JJ is complimented on his getting into the theater's director program gig, Daniel says he'll be happy as a computer software captain of industry (what his parents wanted him to do all along). Kate wishes Robbie was back at school but says his mom says he hasn't finished "seeing" his doctor. They arrive to Robbie's home & are greeted by his mom. She says he didn't get much visits & that she doesn't blame them for what happened to Robbie. She says he was fragile & got caught up in the game before. They go out back to find Robbie looking out over the lake. They greet him but he calls them by their game names asking how they are there & aren't they dead. He speaks in M&Ms speak & tells them he's had many adventures. He asks them to join him on another quest. The friends look at Robbie with horror, sadness, & pity.It's clear to them that he has lost his mind, is gone into his M&Ms world, & won't be returning. Daniel says he's the maze controller and.... JJ quickly takes over & begins a new quest tale. They all say "aye" & agree to join the quest & they walk with Robbie.Kate's voice-over is heard as she relates that they joined Robbie this one last time. Played one more game with him. Then sadly parted ways leaving him to his self-induced mental breakdown.There is never any mention whatsoever of the hoodlum Robbie killed. No mention of how he got to NY without any money & without even realizing he was there.

A pathetic college student played by a 40 year-old-looking Tom Hanks loses touch with reality from playing the live action role playing board game Mazes & Monsters (M&Ms) - a cheap ripoff of Dungeons & Dragons.The movie opens on a scene at an old abandoned cavern called Pequod Caverns. There are police and reporters at the scene & the news reporter is doing a broadcast that a college student has apparently been reported lost/missing in the caverns while playing the board game Mazes & Monsters (M&Ms).Opening credits roll & a '6 MONTHS EARLIER' marquee flashes across the screen to let us know that what happens next happened 6 months before the opening scene.We get unnecessary back stories & glimpses into the main characters home life for JJ, a 16 year old 190 IQ genius who is a college sophomore with an uncaring, out-of-touch, superficial mother; Kate, who looks 45 years old, ponders life's meaning with her same age looking divorced mother; Daniel, a tall blonde should've been jock handsome male whose parents badger him to transfer to MIT & be more ambitious but he just wants to be a big game playing/making nerd, it's implied (badly) he's a lady's man; & Robbie (Tom Hanks), whose parents drive him to college, argue the entire time, reveal the mom to be a drunk & warn him to focus on his school work this time instead of playing "that awful game anymore". All 4 of them arrive to college.At lunch one day, JJ sees Robbie looking at a bulletin board with a flyer about M&Ms JJ posted & he invites Robbie to join him & his friends to play M&Ms & invite him to a party. Robbie hesitates & tries multiple times to decline. Robbie has transferred to this new college because he apparently lost touch with reality playing M&Ms so much at his old college that he neglected his classes, school work, life, & family and was kicked out.Robbie accepts the party invite where he meets Kate & they reveal they're both level 9 players of M&Ms. Kate calls over Daniel & JJ & they meet & greet & convince him to join their M&Ms league. The next night, they all start playing the game together. Robbie & Kate become close & soon start dating (as evidenced by the slow romantic theme music that plays over a montage of them hanging out, sharing, caring).While in her dorm room, Robbie reveals to Kate that his older brother Hall ran away from home one night when they were throwing him a birthday party. Hall asked Robbie for all the money he had so he could go to NY. Hall promised to keep in touch but as Robbie/Tom so badly expressed/acted during his retelling, Hall didn't keep in touch & Robbie feels guilty that he gave him the money that helped Hall leave them. He states that he's now hunted by bad dreams about his lost brother.JJ stops by Kate's dorm room & Robbie answers the door. JJ is taken aback & apparently hurt by this. He goes back to his dorm, declares to his parakeet that he's really lonely & contemplates how to best commit suicide so that he'll go down in infamy. He decides getting trapped & dying in the caverns would be a good way to be remembered. Yeah, that's just a logical reaction. Cut to: Robbie invites Kate to move in with him in his dorm room but she declines saying it's too soon. Cut to: JJ goes to the cavern to I guess scout his death location.....maybe !?Later on, the group are playing M&Ms & JJ intentionally gets his character killed off so he can recommend they start a new game with different rules. He purposes they play the game in the abandoned caverns to make it more real & life like. They protest that the caverns are too dangerous & unsafe but eventually give in & agree. JJ sets up the cavern & the next game night, they all don theater department costumes JJ acquired & head to the caverns.Inside, they follow JJ through the maze he set up. JJ acts as maze controller calling the game plays & the rest separate & explore different sections of the cavern. Robbie becomes panicked & scared & is besieged by a 7 foot green slimy plastic costume covered monster after JJ calls out that a maze monster has appeared. Robbie uses his dagger to "kill" the monster but only after he sissy cries out in fear for help from the others. The others find him & he professes that he has slain the monster & points to where the monster should have fallen. Camera pans to spot which of course is blank with no such monster. Indication 1 - Robbie is losing his grip on reality (again). As they're leaving, the rest are saying how great a time they had & were really scared but Robbie states that as holy man Pradieu (his character) he has killed against his character's morals. They arrive back to the dorms & part ways but not before Robbie "blesses them all", apparently still in his holy man character. Indication 2 - Robbie is losing his grip on reality (again).Robbie has another dream about his lost brother Hall who now appears Yoda style as a cloaked figure espousing guidance on how Robbie is to achieve the next level of his M&Ms quest. The dream Hall (Yoda Hall) tells Robbie he must be celibate & walk alone in order to attain his next goal. This can't end well folks !Kate stops by Robbie's dorm & he breaks up with her stating that he "can't be with her anymore" (yeah his dream told him he has to be celibate remember). Kate says that it's all her fault just like her last boyfriend, deja vu. She meets Daniel for dinner & complains about her luck in love & guys leaving her. Daniel reassures her that she's fine. He asks if she wants Robbie back, she says no it's over & they're just friends. She asks if Daniel has noticed anything weird about how Robbie seems to be more involved in his M&Ms role. Daniel dismisses it & he & Kate flirt.Robbie dreams again about Yoda Hall who gives him more screwed-up guidance. Kate is driving at night & sees a hooded someone riding a bike towards the caverns. She does a U-turn (as naturally anyone would do in this exact situation) & follows them to the caverns. She goes in calling out for Daniel because at pitch black night on a dark road she was able to clearly see that it was him in the hooded sweatshirt riding a bike. She finds him & he admits that he was there cheating & trying to get a leg up on the others by figuring out the puzzles & surprises that JJ set up for them. They kiss & he admits he's fallen in love & she admits she was always so afraid to get involved with him because he was so attractive. Ahhhhh, they kiss. Fade out.Next scene, JJ is throwing a Halloween party. Robbie is now dressed in a cloak & he leaves the party & touches the door as to say "I bless you all but I must part as your ways are no longer mine". We next see Robbie walking out the front door of his college dorm into the night. Daniel goes to his room the next morning looking for him. He notices Robbie's wallet is still on the table. He meets up with Kate & JJ & they say they haven't seen Robbie either & wonder where he's gone without his clothes or wallet. Kate rushes back to her room & phones Robbie's mom. Kate says Robbie wasn't in class this morning & asks if he's home. Robbie's mom says he's at college & asks if he's skipped class before. Kate panics & hangs up abruptly.They head to Robbie's dorm room & find a large detailed map/maze with the words The Great Hall & Two Towers scrolled across the top . They wonder if he has joined another M&Ms league. Kate says it's because of the game that Robbie has disappeared & reminds them that she did tell them Robbie was acting strangely. They head to the caverns to find him but can't. They go to the police to report him lost. They're each interrogated by a detective who claims "the police knew Robbie played M&Ms because they found a maze/map in his dorm room". Found it when! The friends have just gone to the police to report him missing right then but Okay. The police detective surmises that Robbie has been killed by another player playing the M&Ms game (just another logical conclusion). Oh yeah, Kate & Daniel are now dating even though Kate looks old enough to be Daniel & JJ's mother.The friends head back to their dorms & ponder how to deal with this without being implicated as the murderers. JJ says he can give the police his maze map so they can better find Robbie but will do it in a way that doesn't divulge his identity. Kate says they are suspects because they cleaned up the caverns & hid their maps & M&Ms game.Cut to the caverns. We are now presented with the opening scene & are now back to real time & not flashback/6 months earlier time. The friends drive there & JJ slips his maze map under the windshield wiper of a police car. Cut to next day at police station. The detective tells the group of friends that they can't find Robbie, doubt they ever will, & that they believe he's dead by now.Back at their dorm, the 3 friends discuss Robbie's map. Kate realizes that the Great Hall shown on Robbie's map is not a place but is a person, Robbie's lost brother Hall. Cut to Robbie walking at night in a city that appears to be New York. He comes across 2 hoodlums who ask what he's holding. Robbie says it's his spells that he guards with his life. They chase him into an alley. As one of the hoodlums approaches him, Robbie hallucinates & sees the man as the M&Ms monster he killed in the cavern. Robbie brandishes his "dagger"/knife & stabs the monster/hoodlum. The other guy runs off. Robbie stumbles dizzying out of the alley & sees himself in a reflection of a glass storefront. This was apparently enough to bolt him back into reality. He races to a payphone & calls Kate crying & fearful. He tells her he's in NY, can't remember how he got there, has blood on his knife, & thinks he's killed someone. He gets to NY without any money as he left his wallet in his dorm room! Kate tells him to go to JJ's place & gives him the address. He just told her he can't remember how he even got to NY but she figured he should be able to remember the strange address she's giving him. The 3 friends jump into Kate's car heading for NY.Instead of going straight to the address Kate gave him that no reasonable person could expect him to remember, Robbie wonders around NY, comes across more seedy looking guys, stumbles into the subway & down into dark tunnels that he relates to being "THE MAZE". He starts freaking out, hearing growls, & panicking. Classic signs of anxiety attack & schizophrenia. He comes across a homeless man & professes that he's the holy man Pardieu. The homeless man says he's the king of France. Robbie begs his majesty's pardon, says he's been on a long journey, bows, & begins conversing with the "king". Robbie asks about the giant dragon above. A subway train is heard & Robbie says "yes, the giant dragon that's him just now". He's clearly gone full insane that quickly! Robbie asks the homeless man/king about the Great Hall, Two Towers & how to get there. The "king" tells him he only knows about the two towers, this being a hint.It's now day, cut to the 3 friends arriving to JJ's NY apartment. Robbie is seen wondering around NY. The 3 friends look at maps to try to find out where a "holy man" might go. JJ stupidly remembers that the two towers are the twin towers & they rush off to them. They run around the building looking for Robbie. Boom! There he is riding an escalator. They catch up with him just as he steps into an elevator & the door closes. They take another elevator up to the observatory because why wouldn't they even though they didn't see the floor Robbie went to. They rush to the roof to find Robbie climbing over the deck rail about to jump. They call out to him but he doesn't answer until they call him Pardieu (his game character). Robbie says he's going to join the Great Hall. They forbade him to do so saying he doesn't have enough game points. "Game, game??" Robbie asks. "Yes game!", they all proclaim. "OHHHHH JJ, WHAT AM I DOING HERE!!!", Robbie exclaims in poorly acted bewilderment & confusion. He asks why can't he remember, the 3 friends go to hug him, sappy slow melodramatic music begins to play, & they all hug.We're presented with another marquee of '3 MONTHS LATER'. The 3 friends are driving, Kate says it feels good to finally be writing her novel about their experiences, JJ is complimented on his getting into the theater's director program gig, Daniel says he'll be happy as a computer software captain of industry (what his parents wanted him to do all along). Kate wishes Robbie was back at school but says his mom says he hasn't finished "seeing" his doctor. They arrive to Robbie's home & are greeted by his mom. She says he didn't get much visits & that she doesn't blame them for what happened to Robbie. She says he was fragile & got caught up in the game before. They go out back to find Robbie looking out over the lake. They greet him but he calls them by their game names asking how they are there & aren't they dead. He speaks in M&Ms speak & tells them he's had many adventures. He asks them to join him on another quest. The friends look at Robbie with horror, sadness, & pity.It's clear to them that he has lost his mind, is gone into his M&Ms world, & won't be returning. Daniel says he's the maze controller and.... JJ quickly takes over & begins a new quest tale. They all say "aye" & agree to join the quest & they walk with Robbie.Kate's voice-over is heard as she relates that they joined Robbie this one last time. Played one more game with him. Then sadly parted ways leaving him to his self-induced mental breakdown.There is never any mention whatsoever of the hoodlum Robbie killed. No mention of how he got to NY without any money & without even realizing he was there.

Published Time: 2022-08-26 20:04:09