Pump Up the Volume
Mark runs a pirate radio station and causes an uproar when he speaks his mind and enthralls fellow teens.
- Director: Allan Moyle
- Genre:Comedy / Drama / Music
- Runtime:102 minutes
Cast
Michael J. Fox : Marty McFly / Seamus McFly
Christopher Lloyd: Dr. Emmett Brown
Mary Steenburgen: Clara Clayton
Thomas F. Wilson: Buford ‘Mad Dog’ Tannen / Biff Tannen
Lea Thompson : Maggie McFly / Lorraine McFly
Official Site:-
Mark Hunter (Slater), a high school student in a sleepy Arizona suburb, starts an FM pirate radio station that broadcasts from his bedroom transmitter in the basement of his parent’s house. Mark is a loner, an outsider, whose only outlet for his teenage angst and aggression is his unauthorized radio station. His pirate station’s theme song is “Everybody Knows” by Leonard Cohen and there are glimpses of cassettes by such alternative musicians as The Jesus and Mary Chain, Camper Van Beethoven, Primal Scream, Ice-T, Bad Brains, Concrete Blonde, Henry Rollins, and The Pixies. By day, Mark is seen as a loner, hardly talking to anyone around him; by night, he expresses his outsider views about what is wrong with American society. When he speaks his mind about what is going on at his school and in the community, more and more of his fellow students tune in to hear his show. Nobody knows the true identity of “Hard Harry” or “Happy Harry Hard-on,” as Mark refers to himself, until Nora Diniro (Mathis), a fellow student, tracks him down. The radio show becomes increasingly popular and influential; one student, an overachiever, jams her various medals and accolades into a microwave, which explodes, injuring her, and another student commits suicide after Harry attempts to reason with him. Eventually, the radio show causes so much trouble in the community that the FCC is called in to investigate. During the fracas, it is revealed that the school’s principal (Annie Ross) has been expelling “problem students”, namely, students with below-average SAT scores, such as an unwed mother, in an effort to boost the district’s test scores while still keeping their names on the rolls (a criminal offense) in order to keep the government money.
Realizing he has started something huge, Mark decides it is up to him to end it. He dismantles his radio station and attaches it to his mother’s old jeep, creating a mobile transmitter. Pursued by the police and the FCC, Nora drives the jeep around while Mark broadcasts. His voice disguiser breaks, and with no time left to fix it, Mark decides to broadcast his final message as himself. They finally drive up to the crowd of protesting students, and Mark tells them that the world belongs to them and that they should make their own future. The police step in and arrest Mark and Nora. As they are taken away, Mark reminds the students to “talk hard.” As the film ends, other students start their own independent stations, which can be heard broadcasting across the country. Read more
Watch full Pump Up the Volume online streaming for free
