Puzzles

Synopsis

JOHNNY SCOFIELD is a high school football quarterback now laid up in the hospital with a broken spine. His recovery is in question but his hard-working mother and father have put their hopes on his winning a football scholarship and won’t accept any other possibility. His football buddy, TONY, provides upbeat companionship. Johnny enjoys jigsaw puzzles whose patterns are like football to his brain. He stews silently, needing to grapple with his future, but unable to find anyone to discuss it. His girlfriend, MARILYN, abandons him and he puts the awkward issue of romance behind him. The family anticipates a specialist to run medical tests again. Johnny cooperates although he knows he has to make them face that he will never play football again. Angry for giving in to his father, he agrees to their purpose to fly to check out the college.

He and Tony enjoy the trip despite the awkwardness of getting him into the seat from his wheelchair. Shortly after takeoff there is an explosion and the plane is ripped apart. In shock but calm, Johnny determines that he is uninjured and that his seat has become lodged into a piece of the wing. He sees that he can maneuver the wing by leaning forward. He manages miraculously to land in a lake, but plunges deep in its waters. He frees himself but without the use of his legs starts drowning. He wakes to discover that he was dreaming. He sits in the bed and weeps. As spring comes Johnny focuses his therapy on getting out of the hospital. When the new specialist agrees that his spine will never heal Johnny tells his parents he will not go to college. He learns how to manage his daily living and goes home. When the Rotary Club buys him an accessible van, Tony convinces him to go camping.

Johnny ventures off by himself and at the lake he observes a canoe capsize. His football instincts allow him to race his wheelchair down the beach and fling a life preserver and rope in a mighty toss that reaches the kids. He uses the wheelchair to pull them to safety. They are from a camp for hearing impaired children. When the camp offers him a job Johnny goes to meet Tony at the mall to discuss the offer. There he runs into Marilyn and mentions the job. He tells her he was considering college because they have a wheelchair basketball team. She encourages him to join her there. He reminds her that her friends await. She says friends are always there. He realizes in a flash it’s like football: it only makes sense being a quarterback when there is a receiver. And with that he knows that he will not join her at college because learning where you are needed is more important and that for now means the camp for children with disabilities. Tony appears and Johnny shares his new purpose.