The Kings of Summer, 2013

March 17, 2022 | SOPHIA BOWNE

Joe Toy is a high schooler who lives with his father, Frank. Ever since Joe’s mother passed away, tensions rose between him and Frank, resulting in stricter rules being placed on Joe. Joe’s older sister, Heather, and her fiancée, Colin, visit for a family dinner and a game of Monopoly. Joe and Frank get into a fight, resulting in Joe leaving the family get-together to attend a party with his friends. At the party, Joe meets up with his crush, Kelly, but he finds out that she is already in a

relationship. The party is abruptly ended, causing everyone to scatter. Amidst all the panic, Joe gets separated from his friends and winds up with an unusual classmate, Biaggio. They get lost in the woods on their walk home, and upon walking into an open, moonlit glade, Joe gets an idea.

Joe plans to remove himself from his father’s house and build a house with his best friend, Patrick, who also happens to be having issues with his parents. Since Joe is too shy to ask Biaggio to leave, the odd fellow joins in building the house with them. Joe mainly wants to follow through with his plan because he is tired of his overbearing father – he wants to have his own roof so he can make his own rules. The three boys draw out floor plans, plunder materials from construction sites, and spend time building the house until they all sneak away from home and move into their creation. Of course, with the discovery of the boys’ disappearances, the community thinks they may have been kidnapped. With further inspection, though, they conclude that the boys willingly left their homes with a few thousand dollars, food, and tools.

While out in the woods, the boys make up laws that they are all required to swear by to continue living in the house. They swear to never speak about what they are doing to any adult. They swear to “be their own men” – they see this enterprise as their beacon of freedom and manhood. Lastly, they swear to boil their own water and to hunt for food so they can be entirely self-sufficient. Unsurprisingly, hunting is the first rule that is broken. Joe and Biaggio are in charge of hunting for animals, but with no hunting experience or viable hunting equipment, they are unsuccessful. However, they luckily stumble upon a Boston Market on the outskirts of the woods, where they buy chickens and fool Patrick into thinking they were hunted. The whole chicken scheme does not last too long, and Patrick eventually discovers the truth, but Joe and Biaggio are easily forgiven.

Weeks of adventure and tomfoolery pass by, and Joe starts to miss Kelly. He secretly invites her to their house, joyful in the news that she is now single. Kelly ends up bringing two of her friends with her to their little get-together, and she immediately sparks a connection with Patrick. Joe does not see this as a threat though, and more so sees it as Kelly playing hard to get. However, when Kelly asks Patrick to go on a walk, not knowing Joe is still awake, the realization

sets in – she likes Patrick, and the feeling is mutual. Jealousy ensues, and Joe sabotages Patrick in a monopoly game the next evening. The two of them argue about Kelly, and it results in her leaving and the two buddies fighting it out. Patrick breaks a section of the house and storms off after Kelly. Joe even asks Biaggio to leave, even though he had been the most loyal to him the entire time. Joe and Patrick’s competition for Kelly ultimately caused their bitter quarrel.

Patrick and Biaggio return home, leaving Joe in the woods by himself. Joe starts to run out of money for chicken, so he decides to try and hunt again; he succeeds in killing a rabbit. Joe’s disappearance is still being covered by the media, revealing that the boys had been in the woods for four weeks. A guilty Kelly comes forward to Frank and discloses Joe’s location. Upon their arrival, Joe is cornered by a venomous copperhead snake. They surprise Joe, which startles the snake, which goes for Kelly. Out of nowhere, Biaggio approaches the snake with the intent to kill it and save his friends, but he is bitten, and they rush him to the hospital. At the hospital, Joe cleans himself up and finally reconciles his friendship with Kelly. Even though they are not dating, they still care for each other. Joe and Patrick are slow to talk things out. On the car ride home, with both of their parents’ cars stopped at a red light, they seem to have reconciled when they flip off each other and laugh – just like old times.

The film offers a glimpse into a “state of nature” scenario. The three boys initially make agreements, but with the freedom to do as they please out in the wilderness, the agreements soon become invalid. Without following the set agreements, the boys got into quarrels and in a way lost their sense of morality. In returning to civilization, the boys were able to regain their sense of morality by obeying their parents and the laws of the state that they live in.

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