The Majestic (film)

In 1951, in the heyday of McCarthyism, Peter Appleton is an up-and-coming young screenwriter in Hollywood. He learns from studio lawyer Leo Kubelsky and his own attorney Kevin Bannerman that he has been accused of being a communist, because he attended an antiwar meeting in his college years, a meeting he claims he only attended to impress a girl.

In an instant, Peter's new film, Ashes to Ashes, is pushed back for a few months, the credit is given to someone else, his movie star girlfriend Sandra Sinclair leaves him, and his contract with the studio is dropped. Peter gets drunk and goes for a drive up the California coast, where he accidentally drives his car off a bridge to avoid an opossum.

He regains consciousness on an ocean beach, experiencing amnesia. Peter is found by Stan Keller, who helps him to the nearby town of Lawson, California, and the local doctor, Doc Stanton, tends to his wounds. As the town welcomes him, Harry Trimble arrives and believes Peter to be his son Luke, who went missing in action (MIA) during World War II, sometime after D-Day. Due to his amnesia, Peter accepts being treated as Luke by the town, led by Mayor Ernie Cole. Peter warms to the town, including getting to know Harry and Doc Stanton's daughter, Adele, who, 9 1/2 years earlier, had become engaged to Luke the night before he went to war.

Peter adjusts to his new life and helps to renovate The Majestic, a movie theater that had become derelict due to hard times. Bob Leffert, a veteran of the war who knew Luke, does not believe Peter is Luke, and fears Peter may be setting the town up for heartbreak, given they had lost sixty other young men during the war. Despite this, Peter helps to restore the theater, invigorate the town, and encourages Mayor Cole to display a memorial, commissioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, that the town did not previously have the heart to display.

Meanwhile, Peter's disappearance leads House Un-American Activities Committee member Elvin Clyde to believe Peter is a communist, and he sends two federal agents, Ellerby and Saunders, to California to search for him, where they follow a lead about his car showing up on a beach.

When The Majestic shows his first movie Sand Pirates of the Sahara, and his screenwriting credit appears, Peter is jolted out of his amnesia. Harry suffers from a fatal heart attack before the reel change. After examining him, Doc reports that Harry's time is short. Peter cannot bring himself to acknowledge the truth, thus allowing Harry to die believing Peter is Luke.

After the funeral, Peter admits the truth to Adele, who had already suspected it. Before he can tell anyone else in town, federal agents Ellery and Saunders, as well as Leo and some police officers, arrive. When Sheriff Coleman asks if they need any help with anything, the federal agents reveal Peter's true identity to the whole town and issue him a summons to appear before a congressional committee in Los Angeles. During their meeting, Leo advises Peter to agree to reveal a list of other named "communists" in order to clear his own name. Later that night, the Majestic's usher Emmett admits that he knew Peter wasn't Luke after hearing Peter play a roadhouse boogie at the town festival, since Luke was more inclined to classical music, but kept quiet because he realized the town needed Luke in order to guide it out of its post-war grief.

The next day, Peter goes to the cemetery to return the Medal of Honor to its case in front of Luke's memorial. There he finds Adele. They argue over his decision to tell the committee what it wants to hear; she wants him to fight, as she believes Luke would have done. He stalks away, without having returned the medal.

At the train station, Adele's father gives Luke a package from her. Opening it on the train, he finds a copy of the Constitution, as well as a letter that Luke had written, in which he expresses his readiness to die for a real cause.

Peter changes his mind at the hearing in Los Angeles, which is watched by all of Lawson on television. He confronts Congressman Doyle in front of the committee. Peter gives an impassioned speech about American ideals, which sways the crowd, especially when he holds up Luke's Medal of Honor, and this compels the lawmakers to let him go free. As Peter discusses the result with his attorney Kevin, he learns that the girl for whom he went to antiwar meeting in college was the very same person who had named him to the committee.

Peter attempts to return to his Hollywood screenwriting career, but finds he cannot deal with the ridiculousness of the studio executives' ideas, and leaves Hollywood.

After sending Adele a telegram, Peter returns to Lawson, fearing he will not be welcomed. Instead, he receives a hero's welcome from the town's citizens, who have come to respect him as an individual. Peter then resumes ownership and management of The Majestic, marries Adele, and they have a son together.

• Jim Carrey as Peter Appleton, a screenwriter who flees Hollywood after being accused of having communist sympathies; he loses his memory after a car accident and is mistaken for Luke Trimble, a soldier feared to be missing in action during WWII.
• Bob Balaban as Elvin Clyde, a member of Congress presiding over the Congressional hearing to interrogate Peter.
• Brent Briscoe as Cecil Coleman, the sheriff of Lawson.
• Jeffrey DeMunn as Ernie Cole, the Mayor of Lawson who is also a pharmacist.
• Amanda Detmer as Sandra Sinclair, Peter's movie star ex-girlfriend, who plays Emily in Sand Pirates of the Sahara.
• Allen Garfield as Leo Kubelsky, Peter's agent.
• Hal Holbrook as Congressman Doyle, a member of the Congressional hearing.
• Laurie Holden as Adele Stanton, the girlfriend of Luke Trimble and the daughter of Doc Stanton.
• Martin Landau as Harry Trimble, the father of Luke Trimble.
• Ron Rifkin as Kevin Bannerman, Peter's studio attorney
• David Ogden Stiers as Doc Stanton, the resident doctor of Lawson and the father of Adele.
• James Whitmore as Stan Keller, the elderly clock store owner who finds Peter on the beach following his car accident.
• Gerry Black as Emmett Smith, the usher and repairman of the Majestic.
• Karl Bury as Bob Leffert, a one-handed veteran and diner chef who knew Luke Trimble.
• Catherine Dent as Mabel, a waitress at a diner in Lawson.
• Shawn Doyle as Federal Agent Saunders, a federal agent searching for Peter.
• Brian Howe as Carl Leffert, the cousin of Bob Leffert.
• Chelcie Ross as Avery Wyatt, the owner of a hardware store in Lawson.
• Daniel von Bargen as Federal Agent Ellerby, a federal agent searching for Peter.
• Susan Willis as Irene Terwilliger, the candy server at the Majestic and a music tutor.
• Matt G. Wiens as Spencer Wyatt, the son of Avery Wyatt, who plays the clarinet in the town band.
• Mario Roccuzzo as Jerry, a bartender at a bar that Peter visits before his car accident.
• Bill Gratton as Daley
• Scotty Leavenworth as Joey, the kid who finds Peter's car on the beach.
• Earl Boen as Newsreel Announcer (voice)
• Bruce Campbell as Brett Armstrong, an actor who plays Roland the Intrepid Explorer, the main protagonist of Sand Pirates of the Sahara.
• Cliff Curtis as Ramón Jamón, an actor who plays The Evil But Handsome Prince Khalid, the main antagonist of Sand Pirates of the Sahara.
• Matt Damon as the voice of Luke Trimble, the soldier whom Peter is believed to be; his vocal cameo is heard as Peter reads his farewell letter.

Garry Marshall, Paul Mazursky, Sydney Pollack, Carl Reiner, and Rob Reiner provide vocal cameos as the unseen Studio Executives.

The original script by Sloane had the working title of The Bijou, and was the title when Carrey signed on in August 2000.[4]

The town of Ferndale, California[5][6] provided many of the interior and exterior locations for The Majestic.[7] The namesake theater was built as a false-front in the Ferndale municipal parking lot, and many Main Street buildings were modified by the film company.[7]

Train scenes were recorded on the California Western Railroad in Fort Bragg, California. The lighthouse used was Point Cabrillo Light.

• McCarthyism
• World War II

• The Majestic at IMDb
• The Majestic at Box Office Mojo
• The Majestic at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Majestic at Metacritic