The Majestic (film) - Plot

Plot

Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey), an up-and-coming young screenwriter, is in a meeting of Hollywood executives who are dreaming up ways to radically change the plot of a movie he has written. Not long after, he learns that he has been accused of being a Communist because he attended an antiwar meeting in college years before, a meeting he claims he only attended to impress a girl. In an instant, his new film is pushed back for a few months, the credit is given to someone else, his movie star girlfriend leaves him, and his contract with the studio is dropped.

He gets drunk and accidentally drives his car off a bridge and into a river. He is knocked unconscious and wakes up on an ocean beach with amnesia. He finds himself in a small town called Lawson after being discovered by Stan Keller (James Whitmore) who takes him to the local doctor named Doc Stanton (David Ogden Stiers). The townsfolk believe him to be Luke Trimble, one of the town boys killed in World War II 9 years before, and embrace him as a symbol of hope. "Luke" is at first mildly hesitant to embrace this life but he eventually settles in to "his old life", and with his "father" Harry (Martin Landau) and his "girlfriend" Adele Stanton (Laurie Holden), starts to restore The Majestic theater, an old movie house that had been closed because of hard times.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Congressional committee member Elvin Clyde (Bob Balaban) is convinced that Appleton's disappearance is proof that he is a Communist. Clyde sends two federal agents to search for him. Back in Lawson, not everyone believes that "Luke" is back. Bob Leffert (Karl Bury), a one-handed veteran who knew the real Luke and did not like him not only is convinced that Peter is not Luke, he also believes that this stranger is setting the town up for more heartbreak.

A few days later, the town throws a welcome home party for "Luke" headed by Mayor Ernie Cole (Jeffrey DeMunn). The town then asks him to play the piano which he used to do when he was a kid. But instead of playing one of the classics he was taught to play, he eventually falls into a roadhouse boogie tune. On his way home, he runs into Bob, who confronts him about the suspicions he has had about "Luke", and then punches him when Peter makes a remark about how the war must have damaged him more than is readily apparent. Peter, Harry, Adele, and the other staff members of The Majestic and the rest of the townsfolk work together to restore the theater to its former glory. In the process, Peter also convinces the town to finally display a memorial that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had commissioned after the war, but that the town did not have the heart to erect.

Peter recovers from his amnesia when The Majestic shows a movie he wrote called "Sand Pirates of the Sahara." At the same moment, Harry suffers a massive heart attack before the reel change, halting the movie. Doc tells Peter that Harry's condition is fatal and that he will die soon. At Harry's death bed, Peter lets him die believing that he is really his son.

Immediately after Harry's funeral, Peter tells Adele that he has regained his memory and knows that he is not Luke. Adele admits that she suspected it. Before he can break the news to the other townspeople, however, federal agents Ellerby (Daniel von Bargen) and Saunders (Shawn Doyle) confront him publicly, having tracked him down after two boys discovered his car washed up on the beach. When Sheriff Cecil Coleman (Brent Briscoe) asks if he can help the federal agents with something, the agents present Peter with a summons to appear before Congress.

That night, the theater closes early after no one shows up to watch the shows. Peter talks with Emmett (the theater's usher), who tells him that he realized that Peter wasn't Luke the moment he heard Peter "pounding out that fine roadhouse boogie" tune on the piano, which Luke could never learn to play. He kept that knowledge to himself, realizing that the town needed "Luke" to be the town's hope for the future. Peter then leaves ownership of the theater to Emmett and Irene, the theater's vendor. Peter's agent advises him to "admit" and then denounce his past associations with the Communist Party, and presents him with a list of named "Communists" that he could read before the committee to clear his name. Initially, Peter reluctantly agrees to this plan, but an argument with Adele and a letter he finds in a pocket-sized copy of The Constitution (that was sent to Adele as part of Luke's personal effects) that was written as a sort of "goodbye letter" from the real Luke (voiced by Matt Damon) trying to explain to Adele that he knows he might die for a real cause, inspire Peter to instead confront the committee.

At the hearing headed up by Congressman Doyle (Hal Holbrook) which is televised with the citizens of Lawson also watching, Peter makes an impassioned speech about American ideals, which wins the crowd over. Fearing a political backlash, the lawmakers let him go free. Peter then finds out that it was in fact the girl that he went to the college meeting with years before that named him to the committee (it is revealed that she had since become a producer for Studio One). Soon after, Peter sits in with the same group of unseen studio executives that were heard at the film's opening, brainstorming changes to the plot of the same film yet again. Finally, exasperated, Peter walks away from them, and his career, in disgust.

Peter then returns to Lawson, fearing an unwelcome reception. To Peter's surprise, he receives a hero's welcome from the town's citizens, who have come to respect Peter as an individual. The epilogue shows that Peter has resumed ownership and management of The Majestic. Still photos in the residence above the movie house reveal that Adele and Peter have gotten married and have a son.