SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
A Yale Law student drawn back to his Appalachian hometown reflects on his family’s history and his own future.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Hillbilly Elegy Plot Summary and Synopsis
The movie opens in Jackson, Kentucky, in 1997. J.D. is looking back to this time, his teenage years. He is visiting his family with his grandparents and Mom, Bev. They go back home to Ohio.
Fourteen years later, J.D. is attending Yale and working three jobs. He is dating a young woman, Usha. She has a summer internship in Washington D.C. and J.D. hopes to get one there as well. He attends an event to network in hopes of landing the internship. He gets a call from his sister, Lindsay because his mom is in the hospital after overdosing on heroin. Lindsay is overwhelmed by the situation as she works and has three children. She asks J.D. to come home, which he feels conflicted about as it is interview week at Yale.
He remembers growing up and the conflicts he had with his mom, who is mentally and emotionally unstable. He was a fan of Joe Montana and collected his cards. As they are driving, his mom tells him she wants to move them in with her boyfriend. Bev starts driving like she wants to get in a wreck and then beats J.D. He runs out of the car to a house and calls the police who come and arrest Bev.
Back in 2011, J.D. starts to drive to Ohio. In 1997, his grandparents come to pick him up as J.D. lies to the police about his mom hitting him and they let her go. In 2011, he arrives at the hospital as his mom is yelling at the nurse. She will be discharged because she has no health insurance. J.D. is called and offered an interview for the following morning.
In 1997, his grandfather dies and the family has a funeral. Bev works as a nurse and steals drugs. She gets high, acts erratic, gets fired, and later breaks down over her father’s death. In 2011, J.D. and Lindsey find Bev a bed at a drug rehabilitation facility and J.D. remembers how it’s never worked for her in the past. J.D. pays for her rehab, but Bev ultimately refuses to be admitted.
In 1997, J.D., Lindsey, and Bev move into her boss’s and new husband, Ken’s house. Bev won’t quit taking drugs. J.D.’s grandmother falls and is hospitalized with pneumonia. He starts vandalizing and acting out with his new step-brother, Travis, and his friends. They wreck a car. In 2011, Bev’s boyfriend throws her stuff out of his apartment. In 1997 J.D.’s grandmother takes him to live with her and helps him to avoid trouble and succeed in school. He grows up, joins the Marines, goes home when his grandmother dies and uses the G.I. Bill to go to college.
The Ending
In 2011, J.D. gets his mom a motel room and some food and drives back to Yale for his interview.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).