The Graduate - Plot

Plot

Benjamin Braddock, who will soon turn 21, returns to his parents' home in Southern California after graduating from a college on the East Coast. At his graduation party, all his parents' friends want to know about Benjamin's upcoming plans for graduate school or a career, something about which Benjamin is clearly uncomfortable and anxious. His parents ignore his anxiety and are only interested in talking about his academic and athletic successes and their plans for him to attend graduate school.

Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father's law partner, asks Benjamin to drive her home from the party. She invites Benjamin inside and attempts to seduce him, removing her clothes. She tells Benjamin, who becomes increasingly nervous, that she finds him attractive and wants him to know that she is available to him anytime. Mr. Robinson arrives home but neither sees nor suspects anything. He advises Benjamin that he should relax and enjoy his youth while he still can. A few days later, Benjamin contacts Mrs. Robinson and clumsily organizes a tryst at a hotel, and the two begin an affair.

Benjamin spends the summer floating in a pool by day and meeting Mrs. Robinson at the hotel at night. Through their encounters, Benjamin discovers that they have nothing in common but also learns that Mrs. Robinson was forced to give up college and marry someone she did not love when she became pregnant with her daughter, Elaine.

However, under increasing pressure from his parents to begin a career or enroll in grad school, Benjamin is set up on a date with Elaine, whom Benjamin last saw in high school, by his father and Mr. Robinson. Although Mrs. Robinson has made it clear to Benjamin that he is to have nothing to do with Elaine, Benjamin eventually succumbs to the pressure and takes Elaine out on a date. During the course of their date, Benjamin goes out of his way to mistreat and be rude to Elaine, even going as far as taking her to a lewd strip joint, in order to sabotage the evening. As Elaine begins to sob, Benjamin explains his motives and that he only asked her out on a date as an obligation from each of their fathers. The two reconcile and each discover that they are able to discuss their current worries and their plans for future happiness.

Upon Benjamin's arriving at the Robinsons' home to take Elaine out again, Mrs. Robinson threatens to reveal to Elaine her earlier relationship with Benjamin. However, Benjamin preemptively blurts out the details of his affair to Elaine before Mrs. Robinson can make good on her threat. Upset and heartbroken, Elaine returns to Berkeley and severs all communication with Benjamin.

Benjamin resolves that he must marry Elaine, and follows her to Berkeley. There, he interrupts a date between Elaine and a classmate, Carl. Later that evening, Elaine confronts Benjamin, asking what he is doing there after having raped her mother while she was drunk. Benjamin reveals his side of the story to Elaine and that he was the one who was pursued by Mrs. Robinson, which further upsets Elaine. Benjamin tells Elaine he will leave her alone, but Elaine asks him to remain.

The following day, Elaine confronts Benjamin again and asks him to kiss her. Although Benjamin wants to marry Elaine and presses her to obtain a blood test so they can wed, Elaine laments that she has already told Carl that she might marry him. Mr. Robinson, who has learned about his wife's affair with Benjamin, goes to Benjamin's apartment in Berkeley and berates him, threatening to have him prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law should Benjamin ever come near Elaine again. He forces Elaine to drop out of school and takes her away to marry Carl. Elaine leaves Benjamin a note saying that although she loves him, her father's anger would never lead to Benjamin's acceptance as Elaine's husband.

Benjamin races back to Pasadena looking for Elaine but finds Mrs. Robinson, who tells him he cannot stop the wedding. Benjamin learns from Carl's fraternity brothers that the wedding is taking place in Santa Barbara. En route to the church, his car runs out of gas, forcing him to run the final few blocks to the chapel, arriving just as Elaine and Carl are about to kiss. Watching from the loft at the back of the church, Benjamin bangs on the glass window and screams, "Elaine!" several times, attempting to stop the ceremony. With some hesitation, Elaine returns a cry of "Ben!" and rushes toward Benjamin. A brawl breaks out as everyone tries to stop her and Benjamin from leaving. Elaine manages to break free from her mother, who claims "It's too late!", to which Elaine replies, "Not for me!" Benjamin and Elaine escape the chapel, by using a wooden cross on the double chapel doors, thereby trapping the people in. Then they flag down a bus. After making their way to the back seat of the bus as it pulls away, Elaine in her wedding dress and Benjamin in tattered clothing, they both initially appear ecstatic about their dramatic escape. Gradually however, this exhilaration disappears with Benjamin just looking forward and Elaine occasionally looking at Benjamin. In the closing shot, Elaine and Benjamin are shown through the rear window sitting at the back of the bus as it travels down the road.