Donovan Leitch Jr.

In the rural desert town of Laramie, New Mexico, 16-year-old "Shade" Evans (Fairuza Balk) spends her free time at the local movie house, obsessed with melodramatic Mexican romances starring her favorite actress, Elvia Rivero. One day after a matinée, Shade meets her 18-year-old sister, Trudi (Ione Skye) , at the diner where their divorced mother, Nora (Brooke Adams), works. Nora sighs as Trudi insults the busboy by calling him a "wetback" after he accidentally spills her drink on their table while serving Trudi and Shade. When the busboy quits in protest, Shade, embarrassed by Trudi's racist behavior, announces that she does not like diner food and storms out. That night, Shade contemplates Nora's numerous failed relationships. Inspired by an Elvia Rivero movie, the adolescent girl decides to play matchmaker. However, as much as Shade would like to "find a man" for her mom, she remains curious about her biological father, John Evans. She telephones him, but hangs up as soon as he answers. Nora returns from a late shift, dismayed to see Trudi's empty bed. At 2:30 a.m., Trudi sneaks back, and Nora chastises her daughter for behaving irresponsibly. Shade covers her ears in an attempt to block out the argument. The next day, Trudi takes a job waitressing at the diner, intent on making enough money to move out. Shade goes to the movie theater to watch another Spanish-language Elvia Rivero picture, but in the middle of the movie, the screen goes blank. Shade wanders to the projection room, surprised to see Javier (Jacob Vargas), the busboy from the diner, now working as projectionist. He makes a biting remark about Trudi's racist behavior at the diner, but Shade retorts that he should focus on his new job, rather than hold a grudge against her sister. Javier laughs, charmed by Shade's fiery spirit. That night, Nora fends off the romantic advances of Raymond (Chris Mulkey), a local man with whom she had an affair years earlier. She returns his passionate kiss, but warns him that she has no intention of getting involved with a married man. Elsewhere in Laramie, Shade hangs out with her moody friend, Darius (Donovan Leitch). Her eyes widen as he interprets the lyrics to an Olivia Newton-John song. Meanwhile, Trudi sits alone in the diner after being rejected by the boy she has been dating. Her sniffling draws the attention of an English geologist named Dank (Robert Knepper), who offers to give her a ride home. En route, she makes scornful remarks about men, unaware that Dank finds her tirade amusing. The next day at the laundromat, Shade borrows change from a man named John (James Brolin), oblivious to his sidelong glances at Nora. Later that evening, Trudi joins Dank as he explores desert caves looking for phosphorescent rocks. After an intimate evening together where Trudi and Dank have sex in the cave, she confides she was gang raped the first time she had sex a few years ago. Afraid to report the crime, she decided to take a carefree attitude toward sex, becoming involved with any boy who showed interest. Trudi confesses that she never had a meaningful sexual experience until she met Dank. Later, the geologist announces that he needs to leave town for a few days. He assures the suspicious Trudi that she is special to him. When Trudi returns home the next morning, she and Nora get into another argument over Trudi staying out all night again. As Nora storms away, Hamlet Humphrey (David Lansbury), the local satellite dish installer, offers to listen to her problems, but she dismisses him. Meanwhile, Shade tells Trudi about her friend Darius, uncertain if she should reciprocate his "crush" on her. When Trudi advises making a bold move, Shade dresses up like Olivia Newton-John and attempts to seduce Darius, but he reveals that he is not attracted to her (implying he might be gay). Feeling foolish, Shade leaves and runs into Javier, who teases her about her appearance. That night, Shade arranges a blind date between Nora and Raymond. The two adults do not let on that they know each other, and struggle to keep from laughing during the awkward dinner. The teenager goes to bed disappointed in her day. A few weeks later, Trudi realizes that Dank is not coming back when he has not called or wrote to her. Then another week later, Trudi learns that learns that she is pregnant from her one-time sexual encounter with Dank at the cave. When Nora advises Trudi to get an abortion, she becomes outraged by her mother's insensitivity. Trudi decides to move to Dallas, Texas, and give the baby up for adoption. Sometime later, in an attempt to cheer up Shade, Nora suggests they get cable television. Hamlet Humphrey comes over to talk about the installation, but Nora changes her mind when she hears what it will cost. He flirts with her, and they make love. Meanwhile, Shade attends a party at her friend Tanya's (Julie Condra) house. A disc jockey musician visiting from Los Angeles, California, pressures Tanya to make out with him. Shade breaks up the tryst, but the boy and his friends refuse to leave. Meanwhile, the man from the laundromat drives past and notices the altercation. He stops and threatens the musicians, before offering to escort Shade home. On the way, he reveals that he is John Evans, her father. Shade is stunned, and in the morning confronts Nora with the news. A few days later, Shade locates her father at his house outside of town, and asks for money. The request provokes an outburst from John's girl friend, and Shade leaves, embarrassed. John follows and presses a roll of cash into her hand. Shade stops by Javier's house, curious to meet his family. Javier welcomes her with a few good-natured jokes, and later whispers passionately in her ear in Spanish. They kiss. In the ensuing weeks, Shade and Javier spend long afternoons together in the desert. As the teenagers fall in love, so do Nora and Hamlet. Shade is unimpressed with her mother's boyfriend until he reveals an admiration for Elvia Rivero. Several months later, Nora, Hamlet, and Shade go to Dallas to support Trudi through the delivery of her baby. Shade wants her sister to return to Laramie, but Trudi says she is looking forward to starting a new life in Dallas. Driving home, Shade notices a roadside business selling phosphorescent rocks. She asks Hamlet to drop her off and leave her while he and Nora drive back to Laramie. Confronting the vendors, Shade learns that they acquired the rocks from Dank, who died in a mine cave-in months earlier while collecting specimens. In the final scene, Shade walks back to Laramie through the desert, reflecting on the relationships between lovers, mothers, and daughters. Shade realizes that Dank always loved Trudi and vows to eventually tell her the truth of what happened to him someday.

A meteorite crashes near the town of Arborville, California. An elderly transient (Billy Beck) discovers, within the sphere, a jelly-like substance (the Blob) that attaches itself to his hand. Three high school students, Brian (Kevin Dillon), the rebellious biker whose next false step will take him to major jail, as this day is precisely his 18th birthday, Meg (Shawnee Smith) the pretty high school girl, and Paul (Donovan Leitch) the successful football player, encounter the man and take him to a hospital. After Brian leaves, Paul witnesses the lower half of the transient's body melting (or dissolving or being digested) from exposure to the Blob. As he calls for help, the Blob drops on top of him. Meg arrives to see Paul being dissolved by the growing Blob and while trying to free him his arm is torn from his body, Meg is thrown against a wall and knocked unconscious and the Blob oozes out of the hospital and oozes into a nearby manhole into a sewer. After Brian and Meg have unsatisfactory encounters with the police who refuses to believe the teens that something is going on, they meet at a diner where Meg tells Brian about the Blob. Brian's disbelief is shattered when the diner's handyman is grabbed and pulled head first through the sink drain by the Blob. It pursues them to the diner's walk-in freezer where it retreats because it cannot tolerate extreme cold. After eating the diner's owner and the town's sheriff, the Blob reenters the sewers. Meg and Brian return to the police station, where the dispatcher tells them Deputy Briggs (Paul McCrane) is near the meteor-landing site. They discover a military operation led by a scientist, Dr. Meddows (Joe Seneca), who orders the town quarantined. Brian escapes a military van and collects his motorbike. Meg is taken to town where she learns her younger brother Kevin (Michael Kenworthy) is missing. Meg learns he and his friend Eddie (Douglas Emerson) have sneaked into the local theater to see a slasher film thanks to Eddie's usher brother Anthony (Jamison Newlander). The Blob infiltrates the theater and attacks the staff and then the audience... growing with each person it absorbs and digests. Meg just manages to rescue Eddie and Kevin. Meanwhile, Brian eavesdrops on Meddows speaking to his assistant Jennings (Robert Axelrod) and learns that the Blob is a biological warfare experiment created during the Cold War. Anthony then reports that he witnessed The Blob chasing Meg, Kevin, and Eddie into the sewers. Brian overhears Meadows decide to trap The Blob in the sewers, and that he is willing to let Meg, Kevin, and Eddie die to do so. Brian is discovered listening in and evades military personnel by driving his motorcycle into the sewers. In the sewers, Meg, Eddie, and Kevin flee from the Blob. Kevin escapes to the surface by scaling a pipe and squeezing through a grate while Eddie is devoured. Meg is saved by Brian, who confronts Meddows in front of the townsfolk and Briggs. After failing to convince everyone Brian is contaminated and must die, Meddows attempts to shoot Brian, but is killed by the Blob as it drags him into the sewer with one of its tentacles. The Blob then bursts from the sewers in a massive and sicking glob of reddish-like jello proceeds to feast upon the population, proving impervious to the military's attempts to stop it (getting shot multiple times while in the sewer and blown up, which only angered it). In the ensuing panic, the town's Reverend Meeker (Del Close) proclaims the scene to be the prophesied end of the world, when a failed flamethrower attack on the Blob sets him ablaze. Meg saves him with a fire extinguisher, and in the process blasts the Blob with it. The monster backs off, and she realizes that it cannot stand cold. The surviving humans retreat to the town hall and hold the Blob at bay with furniture-barricades and fire extinguishers, but it is a losing battle, as a result with the Blob engulfing half of the building and devouring Briggs. Brian goes to the town's garage and gets a snow maker truck that has canisters of liquid nitrogen attached. Just as the Blob is about to devour Meg and her family, Brian drives to town hall and shoots snow at the creature, which is angered and knocks the truck over. As the Blob surges toward Brian, Meg lures it away from him towards the canisters which she has rigged with an explosive charge taken from a dying soldier. She tries to get clear, but snags her foot between two pieces of metal, leaving her dangling upside down. Brian regains consciousness and runs over to free her. The Blob is about to overrun them when the charge goes off, blowing up the canisters and covering the Blob with liquid nitrogen. The creature is flash-frozen, shattering into a mass of crystallized pieces. Moss Woodley (Beau Billingslea) has its remains hauled away to the town ice house. In the final scene, there is a tent-meeting church service in a field, where Meeker, disfigured by his burn injuries, is now crazed, preaching a doomsday sermon sounding like the Blob's attack. Afterwards, when an old woman asks him when the time of reckoning will come, he replies "Soon... Madame... soon. The Lord will give me a sign", and holds up a glass jar containing a fragment of the Blob that he took from the ice house... which is slowly moving.

Robin Shea (Rebecca De Mornay) is a convict in a New Mexico prison. She manages to escape, but mistakenly hitches a ride in the limo of James Tiernan (Frank Langella), a politician who was visiting the prison as part of his campaign for governor. He returns her to the prison in secret. While changing back into prison clothes, Robin meets Billy Moran (Vincent Spano) a carpenter and handyman who is doing work in the compound under supervision that is supposed to keep him isolated from the female inmates. Billy helps Robin temporarily hide from the guards, and they have sex. Robin learns who James Tiernan is from a political ad on television where he talks about his strong stance on prison issues. She manages to call him at his campaign headquarters, asking for help on her upcoming parole hearing. James gives her advice, one suggestion of which is that she get married. Robin approaches Billy, offering him five thousand dollars to marry her for a year so she can get out of prison. Billy accepts, they are married and Robin is released not long after. Robin moves in with Billy, who also lives with his older brother Peter (Donovan Leitch) and Billy's unruly six-year-old son Timmy (Jamie McEnnan). Initially there is a clash of personalities due to the contrast between Billy's serious demeanor and Robin's wild-child nature. Billy is interested in having a real relationship with Robin, who instead insists that their marriage is just an arrangement, and that she wants to focus on her musical career. Robin starts up a band, which Peter joins, and also meets up again with James, who uses Robin as a poster child for successful prison reform on his campaign. Robin spends more time with the family, getting close to Peter and Timmy, which upsets Billy. Robin suggests they see other people, which Billy accepts. Billy has sex with another woman, while Robin has sex with James, who is married. Afterward the pair confront each other jealously over their being with other people. The next morning Robin reconciles with Billy, helping him out when his jeep breaks down and spending time with him at work restoring an old museum. They have sex in Billy's workshop, and are interrupted by a group of tourists, who take pictures of the pair. At first Robin's public indencency is hushed up due to her status as James' poster child, but when James sees the pictures he is jealous, and orders that Robin's parole be revoked. The police come for Robin when she is performing with her band at a bar. Robin flees to James' house for help, but he turns her away. Robin goes back to Billy's house, where he has packed up her things and prepared money for her. Billy promises to help her no matter what she wants to do, and Robin decides she's tired of running. Billy and Robin secretly crash James' political dinner. Robin takes to the stage with her band, praising James' assistance in "helping" her. Her passionate performance earns them a standing ovation, which in turn helps James' image. James agrees to help Robin, and she no longer has to go back to prison. Robin and Billy return home together, happily married.