Weak Girl Decides to Face the Bullies To Achieve Her Dream After They Discover That She Is Autistic.
‘SPOILER ALERT’
The movie begins with Wendy, a 21 year old autistic girl. Because of her disorder, she lives away from her family, in a group home for people with autism.
Wendy lives a completely routine life, where everything must go in order, like at what time she wakes up and what color sweater she wears on which day. She has her own unique way of doing and remembering things, and is able to get by on her own with a little help from the group home.
Through the connections of the house manager, Scottie, she has managed to land a job at a bakery in the city. Every workday, her route to the bakery is always the same, and she never strays away from the fixed path.
Her job is fairly simple, and she is very efficient at it, but because of her lack of interpersonal skills, her relationship with her coworkers is a little awkward. Even when one of her male coworkers tries to flirt with her, it goes over her head.
In her fairly monotonous life, Wendy’s greatest joy is watching Star Trek movies, they are American science fiction movies that revolve around the exciting adventures of a starship and its dedicated crew, while exploring space. She is a die-hard fan of the franchise and can recite every obscure detail from the movies by heart.
Because of her love for Star Trek, when she sees an announcement on TV regarding a screenwriting contest for the movie, Wendy begins to spend all her free time typing out a script for Star Trek on her laptop.
She is very passionate about this project, as she spends all her time thinking about what to add to the script, and how to make it better.
A few days before the submission date, she manages to finish it. She prints it out, and it is a very thick stack of papers which she hands over to Scottie for her to read. Wendy wants her to test if the script is good enough.
Knowing how much Wendy has put her heart into writing this, Scottie brings the stack of papers back home and earnestly begins to read the script.
The scene shifts to Wendy’s older sister, Audrey, who is already married with an infant daughter to care for. She lives in their childhood home along with her small family. But due to their current financial condition, she has no choice but to move out and sell the house.
When Audrey makes her routine visit to Wendy, she brings up the topic of selling their house.
but just like the previous times, Wendy is completely against the idea. She has a great attachment to the house that she had spent her childhood in. She also dreams of leaving the group home to go back to live in her old house, along with her older sister.
Even though Audrey dearly loves her younger sister, she cannot take care of Wendy now, that she also has her infant daughter to care for.
Audrey attempts to reason with her, but she is adamant to return. Wendy misses being with her sister, and misses her old house, and although she endures living in the group home, she is not very fond of this place.
She has been anticipating the moment when she is finally able to return back home, so Audrey’s refusal to take her back greatly wounds her heart.
Wendy tries to plead that once she mails her Star Trek script, then it is surely to win the screenwriting contest. And with the contest prize of 100,000 dollars, she can buy back the house, and take care of her niece. However, Audrey still refuses, believing that winning the contest is just wishful thinking. Moreover, Wendy taking care of her daughter is impossible, as she can barely take care of herself.
Hearing her sister say these harsh words, Wendy starts having a sorrowful rampage, and Audrey flees being unable to witness her sister’s sorry state.
She feels heartbroken for causing her sister so much pain, but she is powerless to grant Wendy’s wishes.
At the same time, Wendy is inconsolable after her sister’s departure. Even though Scottie tries her best to coax her to come out of bed, Wendy remains curled up inside her blanket, refusing to speak a single word.
Seeing that Wendy needs some time to go over her emotions by herself, Scottie decides to leave her to her own devices for the night, and plans to come back tomorrow morning to check up on her again.
Once she leaves the room, Wendy immediately gets up from her bed with a face full of tears.
Even though Audrey does not believe that her script could win, Wendy has a one-track mind and is unable to let her ambition go. She fully believes that she can win the contest, but the biggest problem is how to mail the script to the movie studio.
The deadline is three days later but tomorrow, the postal services are closed and the day after tomorrow is a public holiday. She planned for Audrey to take her to the post office today, but due to the chaotic events of the day, the plan was unable to come into action.
However, Wendy is determined to mail her script one way or another. Since she has no other choice left, she must take this matter into her own hands.
She is afraid to venture out into unknown places by herself, and her mind cannot help but conjure many difficult scenarios. Even so, Wendy persists with her plan.
She stays awake all night in order to wait for the sunrise. And once the time comes, she changes her clothes, and packs her bag before heading downstairs. She takes some food from the fridge, before quietly sneaking out of the group home, while everyone else is still asleep.
She bravely steps out into the streets and makes her way to the bus station. She plans to head straight to Los Angeles, and deliver her script directly to the studio.
But along the way, she finds that the group home pet, a small dog, is following her along the way. Since it refuses to go back, Wendy decides to just take it with her, as it is small enough to fit inside her bag.
She finds the bus to Los Angeles with great effort, and successfully buys a ticket for herself. However, the bus has a sticker clearly declaring that no pets are allowed, but Wendy still sneaks in her dog by hiding it inside her bag.
Back at the group home, Scottie is beyond worried when she finds out about Wendy’s disappearance. By the time she begins looking for her, it is already too late, as Wendy’s bus has already driven off.
During the ride, Wendy feels like it is a novel experience to see the world for herself, and she feels a little proud to be able to take this step.
However, she is also someone who is smuggling a dog in a bus where it shouldn’t be in. She keeps the dog pretty well hidden during the first half of the journey, but the cover blows up when the dog has to pee. As the toilet on the bus is not functioning, the dog jumps out of its seat and pees all over the floor.
Since Wendy broke the rules by bringing in a pet, the bus driver kicks her out of the bus and into the streets. With no idea where to go or what to do, Wendy carefully starts walking in the direction of the bus.
She ends up wandering into a small town where she meets a woman in a run-down shack. The woman is holding her little baby in her arms, and Wendy is reminded of her own niece. She instantly lets her guard down and starts interacting with the women. When the woman discovers that she is heading to Los Angeles, she offers Wendy a ride as her family is heading there too.
But once Wendy steps away to fill her water bottle, the woman’s malicious intentions surface, as she sneakily steals all the cash from Wendy’s wallet. When she returns back, the woman’s boyfriend forcefully snatches her iPod and the pair drive off, leaving Wendy feeling betrayed.
She stumbles through town before she starts feeling hungry, the meager lunch she took from the group home is not enough to sustain her hunger for too long. After finally finding a small convenience store, she picks out some food items to eat.
But to her utter surprise, she realizes that all the money in her wallet is gone, with the exception of a few coins.
She decides on a bag of snack bars, but since her autism disorder is fully visible with how she acts, the cashier tries to cheat her into paying a lot more than what it is worth. Thankfully, she is saved by an elderly woman who reprimands the cashier for his behavior.
She explains that she has a grandson who is similar to Wendy, making her sympathize with her. She lets Wendy accompany her on the senior citizen’s bus, to help her find her caretakers after taking her somewhere safe.
Back at the group home, Scottie has figured out where Wendy might have gone. And her suspicion is proven right, when she goes to question the employees at the bus station with the help of the police. She also discovers that Wendy was left on the side of the road by the bus driver.
She reveals everything to Audrey about the situation, and Audrey is understandably filled with worry.
Even after the long years of separation, she still loves Wendy dearly, and cannot stand the thought that she is in the middle of nowhere with no one to help her. So, she decides to go look for her little sister herself.
At the same time, inside the senior citizen’s bus that Wendy is on, the one driving the bus is a senior citizen himself. Because of the dark and long road, he ends up nodding off and gets into a small car accident, then Wendy hits her head and passes out.
When she wakes up again, she finds herself inside a hospital. She discovers that she is suffering from a minor head injury, and the doctors recommend that she stay here for two more days to monitor her condition.
However, Wendy feels fine and does not want to waste a second lying on the hospital bed. She has a mission and that is to send her script to the film studio. But the hospital staff refuses to discharge her.
Figuring out that she cannot leave this hospital the ordinary way, she forms an escape plan. After deceiving the nurse who is taking her to the second floor, she pretends to jump out of the window, but hides in the bathroom cabinet instead. When all the attention is drawn away from the bathroom, she quickly changes out of her patient clothes, and makes a run for it before grabbing her bags.
Although she can’t find her dog, she cannot afford to waste any time, so she leaves after promising herself that she would come back for it.
As she is escaping from the hospital staff who are after her, she cannot find the chance to zip her bag in her flustered state. This mistake costs her dearly, as her script falls off the bag while running away and scatters to the ground.
In her haste, she is only able to retrieve half of the papers, and the rest are left behind as she decisively runs away with a heavy heart.
She must submit the script, but now half of the script is gone and there is no way that she can win the contest in this state.
Just as she is about to lose all hope, she quickly gathers herself up, and assures herself that she can figure out a way. She goes through a dumpster and manages to fish out a stack of printed papers.
She then crosses out the printed side, and proceeds to write her script on the back side of the papers.
At the same time, Scottie and Audrey get the information about Wendy’s whereabouts, but are only able to reach the hospital once she has already run away. Scottie recognizes Wendy’s script lying on the ground in an instant but the person herself has long since escaped.
Still, they do not give up on searching for Wendy, when they finally have a lead. So, the two of them go their separate ways in order to search every nook and cranny possible.
But soon the day turns to night, and there is still no sign of her. So, they decide to rest up in a hotel before resuming their search the next morning.
That night, Wendy is able to find her way to the bus station, where she asks to buy a ticket for Los Angeles. But it is already late at night and the earliest bus will only depart tomorrow morning.
She decides to wait for the night, but soon finds out that the ticketing station is closing soon. She has no choice but to spend the night outside the building, and sleep on a bench.
As soon as the station opens up the next morning, she is the first in line to buy the ticket. But the meager coins left inside her wallet are not nearly enough to purchase the ticket.
Even after the employee rudely denies helping her out, Wendy’s determination to reach LA has not dimmed.
Since she cannot board the bus like normal, she manages to hide inside the luggage compartment underneath the bus.
For the entire ride, she is huddled inside the small space, but she endures it all for the sake of her script.
After a few hours on the bus, she finally reaches Los Angeles, but before she could make it any further, the police spot her and recognize her as someone on the missing person’s notice.
As soon as the police see her, they start chasing after Wendy, but noticing the cops come after her, she gets spooked and breaks into a sprint. Seeing her run farther and farther away, the police do not let her go and get into the car before going after her again.
They corner her in an alleyway with a dead end for Wendy. However, she is still unwilling to cooperate with them, so she hides behind a stack of pallets.
Thankfully, one of the cops is able to understand Wendy’s disorder. Moreover, being a fan of Star Trek himself, he is able to communicate with her as a fellow nerd.
The other policewoman is stunned to see them talk in a foreign language, that is the Klingon language from Star Trek.
At last Wendy decides to place her trust in the policeman, and obediently lets him lead her to the police station. Then they quickly contact Scottie and Audrey.
While waiting for them to arrive, Wendy takes this moment to explain her story to the policeman, who is very enthusiastic to listen to her words. He feels that her script is truly excellent, and believes that she has a good chance of winning the contest.
Wendy is very happy to find a like-minded person, and is happier to hear his encouragement.
Moments later, Scottie and Audrey reach the police station completely haggard. They breathe a huge sigh of relief when they finally reunite with Wendy again, and are beyond glad to see that she is safe and sound.
At that time, they have come to realize just how important the competition is to her. But Wendy has almost given up, because the submission time is soon, and she has more than a hundred pages to write.
However, Scottie and Audrey have a big surprise for her. They have collected all the pages of the script that she had lost and bring it to her.
Wendy is elated, and a new fire starts burning inside her heart. If they are fast enough, then she can still make it in time to submit her script.
After saying her goodbye to the police officer, all of them get inside the car and speed towards the movie studio. Everyone who has read Wendy’s script is able to tell just how great it is, including Scottie’s son who is also a fan of Star Trek.
If they can make it in time, then Wendy winning is not just a far-fetched dream.
After a short ride, they finally reach the movie studio. Wendy ventures out into the place alone, while the rest of them proudly watch her walk away independently.
Among the myriad of buildings in the studio headquarters, she manages to locate the building where the mails are sorted out. But when she attempts to drop off her script, an employee stops her in her tracks and says that they do not accept personal drop offs.
Wendy begs him to make an exemption for her, but he rudely refuses to do so. She has worked so hard to get here to drop off her script, so how can Wendy give up so easily?
She distracts the employee with her words, and puts her script among the rest of the mail right under his nose. Since there are so many deliveries, and the employee does not know who Wendy is, he has no chance to be able to single out her package.
Delighted with her success, Wendy joins the rest of her friends with pride clearly visible on her face. The others are also overjoyed to see that Wendy has accomplished her mission, after enduring so many hardships.
A few weeks later, Wendy gets a response from the studio that her script was unfortunately not chosen as one of the winners. She takes the rejection in stride and does not let it affect her. After her short adventure, it feels as if nothing has changed, but at the same time, she feels as if everything about her has changed.
Wendy still stays at the group home, and her career as a writer has gone nowhere, but she has found a new confidence within herself that is urging her to make progress.
Audrey and Wendy have also grown closer together, and she starts visiting her niece.
Wendy finds peace within herself, and strives to live a better life along with her friends and family.