Revenge of The Nerds - Plot

Plot

Best friends and nerds Lewis Skolnick (Robert Carradine) and Gilbert Lowe (Anthony Edwards) enroll in Adams College to study computer science. The Alpha Betas, a fraternity to which many members of the school's football team belong, carelessly burn down their own house and seize the freshmen dorm for themselves. The college allows the displaced freshmen, living in the gymnasium, to join fraternities or move to other housing. Lewis, Gilbert, and other outcasts who cannot join a fraternity renovate a dilapidated home to serve as their own fraternity house. Also, Gilbert meets a cute but geeky accordion player named Judy.

The Alpha Betas and their associated sorority, the Pi Delta Pis, harass the nerds by throwing a rock through their window. The campus police refuse to get involved, so the nerds appeal to the Greek Council (which handles matters related to the fraternities and sororities on campus). Its president Stan Gable (Ted McGinley), the leader of the Alpha Betas, rejects their complaints as the nerds are not a part of any fraternity. The nerds attempt to join a national fraternity, but all but one reject them. They meet U.N. Jefferson (Bernie Casey), the head of the black fraternity Lambda Lambda Lambda (Tri-Lambs). Although Jefferson notes that the applicants are nerds, due to the Tri-Lambs' rules, they receive probationary membership.

The nerds prepare a party and invite Jefferson, but the party is nearly ruined before it starts when the Pi Delta Pis, after promising to be their dates, do not appear. However, thanks to Judy's sorority sisters (the Omega Mus, a sorority consisting largely of overweight or geeky women) and a supply of marijuana, the party is successful. The Alpha Betas and Pis unleash pigs in the nerds' house, then taunt and moon them; Jefferson sees firsthand the harassment the nerds face. The nerds, finally pushed too far, seek revenge. First, they perform a panty raid on the Pi Delta Pi house, using the distraction to drill holes in the ceiling, and mount a large television transmitter on the roof of the sorority house, in order to install view-adjustible video cameras, the transmission of which they can watch and maneuver via remote control on their television, to spy on the sorority girls while they undress. Then, the next day, the nerds sneak into the football team's locker room and put industrial-strength liniment in the players' athletic supporters, resulting in a painful and humiliating football practice. The nerds' ingenuity impresses Jefferson, who officially makes them the Adams College chapter of Lambda Lambda Lambda.

However, it does nothing to deter the Alpha Betas, as they continue to harass the nerds. The new Tri-Lambs realize they need to win control of the Greek Council by winning the annual Greek Games during homecoming. They use their intelligence to compete well with the Alpha Betas during the athletic portion of the event, ultimately finishing second. They then use topless photos taken from their Pi Delta cameras to easily win the charity sales and costume events, during which Lewis seduces Stan's girlfriend Betty Childs (Julia Montgomery) by posing as Stan (their costumes were similar, but Stan's included a mask). The nerds' elaborate, computer-driven musical production wins the final event of the Greek Games, and the Lambdas nominate Gilbert to succeed Stan as president of the Greek Council.

The Alpha Betas are enraged, a fact made worse when Betty dumps Stan for Lewis (because he is much better in bed). Their coach (John Goodman) critizizes them in anger at the locker room, pushing them over the edge, and they vandalize the Tri-Lambs' house. Gilbert attempts to denounce the act at the homecoming pep rally, but Stan and two other Alpha-Betas attack him, and the sadistic Coach Harris turns on the school's dean when he intervenes. The assault is stopped when Jefferson and a group of angry Tri-Lambs from other chapters arrive on the scene. Gilbert makes an inspiring speech about how it feels to be mistreated just for being different, and Lewis invites anyone who has "ever felt stepped on, left out, picked on, put down" to come and join them. Betty, Judy, U.N., and many members of the assembled crowd, whether nerds or not, do so. The Tri-Lambs get the Alpha Beta house until theirs is repaired, while the Alpha Betas must live in the gymnasium. The film ends with the nerds celebrating their victory, accompanied by "We Are the Champions".