Riley Rewind

Gay is a movie released in parts directed by Ray William Johnson and written by Anna Akana. The official release date was 12th December. It is shown in five parts, each episode being around 10 minutes long. It is currently on Ray's Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Plot

Act 1

On the night of prom at Benjamin Parker High School, a hysterical Riley Brown shoves her way through the dancing masses in the gymnasium and exits out into the hallway. Coughing, she opens the door to a closet and spots a bomb just as it denonates; she and the school are incinerated.

A few days earlier, Riley sits before the camera in a YouTube/VLog-like style and expresses her disappointment over her new glasses just sent to her, which turn out to be the wrong color. She is not the most popular girl in school (she considers herself a loser), and wearing these glasses to school would be disastrious. At school, while a few haughty cheerleaders torment a goth-looking girl behind her, Riley approaches Jimmy, "the cutest boy in her class", and asks him to prom; he declines, saying he is busy that night. Using her time-travelling abilities, Riley gives it a few more shots until on the last one, her nose begins to bleed and Jimmy, slightly disgusted, informs her of this and walks away. Riley shares to the camera during her efforts the situation with her abilities, that she can travel back but not forward and that she must live through the past until she picks up at the moment she originally rewinded in the present.

After her ultimately unsuccessful attempts, Riley is met by her best friend Jay, who jokes with her about asking Jimmy out. It is revealed that Jay is the only person whom Riley has told about her powers. As they chat, the cheerleaders harrassing the goth girl get particularly rowdy and the girl, whose name is Angela Vaughn, escapes after giving them the finger. Riley comments to the camera that she and Angela had only crossed paths the year before, and otherwise Angela is practically a ghost. She admits she would help her out, but claims that she has a rule about going back in time and saving everyone, which she says is also the reason why she doesn't go back in time to win the lottery or prevent murders.

Walking down the hall together, Jay and Riley are approached by two boys dressed in medieval knight armor, who step aside to allow "Lord" Trevor Cunningham to come forward. Trevor is known as the captain of the cosplay club and a collector of various types of fungi, a kind boy who has been crushing on Riley for quite some time. Offering Riley a rose, Trevor asks her out. Riley, considering her options, accepts reluctantly.

At the track, Jay and Riley chat with two girlfriends, who ask them if they can help out that night decorating for prom; Jay and Riley accept as their strict coach, played by Ray William Johnson, scolds them and orders them to run so fast that "the world spins backwards."

That night, the group of them sit at a table, seemingly taking a break from decorating. Riley heckles Jay, who is gay, to ask out Quinn, the male cousin of one of the girls at the track. Quinn, a flamboyant boy, struts over to the table and says that he will go to prom with anyone who has a cigarette. Riley, knowing Jay smokes, alerts Quinn of this in an attempt to get them to go outside alone. Jay bashfully walks off with Quinn. The two end up being dates for prom.

Elsewhere, in a bedroom with heavy metal music blaring, Angela Vaughn writes down on a piece of paper "Nobody Cares" as tears stream down her face. Capping the Sharpie, she turns around and ascends a stepstool. After a moment, she kicks the ladder away and she dangles limply in the air. She has hung herself.

Act 2

At school the next day, Riley sees a small poster announcing a memorial service for Angela. Riley is incredibly saddened, and recalls the time that they crossed paths the year before, when Riley's books were knocked out of her hands by an obnoxious cheerleader, who was subsequently tripped by Angela; Riley smiles at her gratefully. Considering it all in the present day, Riley contemplates going back in time to save Angela.

Riley sheds some more light on her abilities. She explains that if she time travels too often, then her body starts to break down: headaches, coughing, nose bleeds. Jay tries to talk some reason into her, pondering the future: "Even if you could save her, what about the future? What if she commits suicide again later on down the road? I mean, you just can't keep saving her the rest of your life." Riley says that she should at least try, and Jay agrees reluctantly, advising her to be careful. So, Riley rewinds herself back to when Trevor was asking her out. She accepts his request dismissively and runs off to find Angela.

Running up happily to Angela, Riley attempts to befriend her. Angela looks at her unsurely, claiming they have nothing in common. She denies her friend request and walks away, and Riley pesters her that entire day, even going as far as maintaining a conversation in the bathroom. Eventually, Angela threatens her with a restraining order. Trevor then comes up to her and notices she was talking to Angela, and informs her that really Angela is sensitive and that she enjoys vanilla cupcakes with sprinkles and cats. After, Riley asks her if she wants to go get some cupcakes after school, and Angela accuses her of being a lesbian. As a last resort, Riley comes out and tells her that she's not alone. However, Angela puts her down angrily and storms off.

At the track, Riley and Jay talk about Angela and Riley's bad luck until then. Quinn's cousin invites Riley to decorating prom but Riley says that she's busy. That night at the school, Quinn makes his remark that he'll go to prom with anyone who has a cigarette, and one of Riley's friends excitedly tells him that she has one. They are a date.

Act 3

Riley tells the camera that she has lost count as to how many times she has rewound in the past 24 hours in her attempts to befriend Angela and that her body now feels like it has been hit by a bus. She also recalls a strange occurrance during third period, in which two suited officials interrupt her class in search of her. She rewinds quickly and manages to cut class so that they do not get her. She fears that they are from the government.

At last, after numerous cupcakes and cat videos, Riley seems to have won Angela over. After school, Angela and Riley hang out by a car and Riley offers to hang out later around six. Later, she and Jay talk. Jay expresses his pride in her and Riley asks if he is excited for prom the next night. Jay claims prom is overrated and then says that he'll be going alone. Riley, confused, asks him about Quinn, until she realizes that, upon rewinding to save Angela, she made it so that Jay and Quinn never got together.

The two of them go to the school, just as Quinn and the girls are leaving. They approach them and Riley introduces Quinn to Jay and then asks him if he wants to hang out with them. Quinn declines but Jay asks if he would like to go to prom. Quinn's date says that they are going together, and Quinn and Jay have a brief argument over the fact that he is actually gay; Quinn claims he is as "straight as a stripper pole" and the three depart. Riley asks if she can go back and help him, but Jay tells her not to, saying that she has already gone through so much effort to save Angela and that what he and Jay had in one reality cannot be recreated.

Riley goes to Angela's house, only to find that she has already hung herself. She screams in horror and rewinds back to when she and Jay were talking at her house. She tries to hurry over to Angela's house but Jay stops her, again trying to talk reason into her. She cannot accept that this is how it's supposed to be so she goes back to her house, just to find her dead. She rewinds again and again and again but each time finds her dead. Upon the final time, a terrible pain racks through her head and she collapses, coughing up blood. To the camera she ponders if Jay is right, if this is how it's supposed to be. She questions the true purpose of her powers: Why can she time travel if Angela's fate is set in stone, if she cannot use them to help people?

At the beginning of the day, Riley examines the poster announcing Angela's memorial service. As she walks away, saddened, a boy with crutches approaches the poster, his eyes red from tears. He then looks up at the poster advertising prom the next night. He glares at it, his face tense.

Act 4

Riley's attempts at saving Angela have been futile. She says to the camera that prom is the last place that she wants to be. She says if she is indeed meant to help people with her powers, she "sure [is] a shitty one."

On the night of prom, Jay and Riley talk at her house while their girlfriends get ready. Jay tries to make her feel better and Riley apologizes to him about Quinn. Jay is confused, since Riley's rewinds have again made it so he and Quinn never got together. Riley explains the situation to him, though Jay, slightly exasperated, tells her that he just wants to see her smile and wants her to have a good time.

At prom, Riley is bored with Trevor and sends him off to get her a drink. Jay comes up to her and Riley points out Quinn for him, and Jay is blown away by Quinn's "stud-muffinness." Jay says that he should probably go introduce himself since it was a sure thing anyway, and Riley encourages him. As Trevor returns with the drinks and they go on a "stroll," Quinn and Jay have another argument over the former's sexual orientation.

Out in the hallway, Riley and Trevor discuss Angela. Quinn and Jay then come storming out of the gymnasium with Jay trying to get Quinn to admit that he's gay. As they pass, Quinn shoves into Riley and she spills her drink all over Trevor. She apologizes profusely and tries to find something to help dry him off in the nearby janitor closet. When she opens it, she spots the bomb. As it explodes, she manages to rewind just in time and she appears back at the start of prom when she is getting her picture taken with Trevor. She runs off, coughing, and opens the door to the closet as another pang shoots through her head. Quickly, she calls 911 and alerts them that there is a bomb at Benjamin Parker High School and that it is going to detonate in less than three minutes. In a panic, she asks quickly if the police are going to have enough time to deactivate the bomb and if she should be evacuating the school, but the 911 operator calms her. The woman on the phone asks what kind of bomb it is and Riley responds, exasperated, that she does not know. The operator than asks if her if it was she who placed the bomb and Riley becomes outraged. As the operator asks why she planted the bomb, Riley hangs up.

Bad under pressure, Riley searches on the Internet how to disactivate a bomb, but there is no connection. She then reaches out and considers pulling one of the wires, but then draws back. Needing more time, she rewinds further and arrives back at her house when she was talking to Jay.

Upon arriving, her head pains her terribly again and she alerts Jay that, in an hour and a half, a bomb is going to go off at the school. Jay, not wasting time, says, "Let's go."

At the school, they find that the closet is empty and that the bomb has not yet been planted. Suddenly, the strict physical education teacher played by Ray comes out of a room and Riley shoves Jay into the closet. The coach approaches her and says to her reproachfully, "Prom's not for another hour, Brown." Riley comes up with the excuse that she had come to see if her dress matched the school, and Ray's character, staring at her for a moment, says to himself, "Girls..." and walks off, shaking his head.

Drawing Jay from the closet, Riley listens to him as he gives a solution to this problem. Ultimately, he suggests that they wait for the person who planted the bomb to arrive, so that they may apprehend him or her and ensure they and the school are completely safe in the future. After he says this, they hear someone coming, and they hurry over into the doorway leading to the gymnasium.

Peering out into the hallway, they see the handicapped boy who was looking at Angela's poster open the closet door. He removes his duffle bag he is wearing and extracts the bomb. Setting it in place, he activates it. All that can be heard is its beeping as it counts down to detonation.

Act 5

The handicapped boy plants the bomb in the closet. Riley, speaking to the camera, says that this will not be one of those times when you wish you could go back in time and do something differently, when you are filled with remorse and regrets. Acting fast, she runs up to the boy and shoves him into the closet as he stands up and closes the door behind him. She and Jay hold the door close on him and she tells him that she knows what he is doing, asking him who he is. Jay threatens the boy with the police but the boy claims that he has no idea what they're talking about. Eventually, as Riley counts down to when they are going to call the police, the boy says, "Angela Vaughn."

He expresses his anger at the school, that they tormented her into killing herself and that no one cares. He says that they deserve to die, not Angela. Riley asks, "You knew her?" but the boy says that he never got the chance, but he wishes he had. Riley realizes that he liked her, that he did care, and when she asks him who he is and there is silence, Jay says that he has his phone out. As he begins to count out 9-1-1, he says that he is Edward Baker.

Riley tells Jay that she is going to go back, but Jay tries to stop her. He wants to just turn Edward into the police, and points out the ludicrousness of pairing a homocidal boy with a suicidal girl, but Riley is certain that it will fix everything. Suddenly, she coughs up blood, and Jay tells her that she could die if she rewinds again. Riley acknowledges that Jay is right, but says that people will die if she does not do this. She would not be able to live with herself if she allowed that to happen, and so she rewinds further than she has rewound before.

She appears in her bedroom before the camera and collapses out of her seat. She looks at her watch again and goes back further, all the way until she is standing before her locker before asking Jimmy out. Terribly weak, her nose bleeding, she turns to the group of cheerleaders tormetning Angela and stumbles toward them. She collapses into their circle as they exclaim in disgust.

She moans as blood drips from her mouth onto the stone ground. Angela stoops down to see if she is okay and she whispers, "Edward." Angela calls out, asking if there is an Edward, and Edward, who was standing behind them at the time, steps forward. Angela asks if he knows Riley, but he says he does not. She then asks for his help to bring her to the nurse's office but, upon seeing that he is handicapped, says that she can ask someone else. Edward, perfectly able and happy to help, says that he can do it, and together they assist Riley to the nurse.

In the end, everything turns out great. Angela and Edward go to prom together, Quinn and Jay go to prom together, and Riley and Trevor go to prom together as well. As the school nurse had quite a hard time diagnosing the symptoms surrounding Riley's time travel injuries, Riley is excused from physical education class for the rest of the semester. Because she sparked a romance between the girl who wanted to kill herself and the boy who wanted to kill everybody, she ironically saved very many lives. She also admits that she's starting to like her new glasses, and that she might wear them to school. As she says that it is technically her civic duty now that she's a superhero to face any challenge that comes her way, the door to her bedroom opens and the suited men from her third period class burst in. Before she can rewind away, the man leading them grabs her watch, telling her that there will be no more rewinding.