The following contains spoilers for Do Revenge, now streaming on Netflix.
The makings of a successful teen movie are pretty simple nowadays: have an engaging plot, interesting characters, iconic one-liners, a few surprising plot twists, and an avalanche of Easter eggs from other successful teen movies. The flawless execution of all of those elements has been lacking in a lot of the modern adaptations of teen movies. For example, Netflix never should have remade She's All That into the gender-swapped remake He's All That that premiered on the streaming platform in 2021. It did not live up to the nostalgia and genius of the original. But Netflix finally got the successful modern teen comedy formula correct with its new release Do Revenge by paying homage to the golden eras of teen movies -- the '90s and 2000s.
The '90s and 2000s consistently churned out highly quotable, hilarious, re-watchable teen movies. These movies can really be described in one simple word: timeless. Do Revenge proves just how timeless some of the hottest releases from those periods are by putting a modern twist on them, from taking '90s fashion cues from Clueless to re-creating the infamous mean girl clique The Plastics from Mean Girls. Every generation has an iconic teen movie featuring the meanest popular girls. Do Revenge, starring Camila Mendes (Riverdale) as Drea and Maya Hawke (Stranger Things) as Eleanor, has the potential to join the list of classic mean girl comedies as Generation Z's version of Heathers or Mean Girls. The new comedy manages to stand on its own with a plot that has one major unexpected twist and all the classic teen movie references to reel in an older audience as well. A list of all the clever nods to some of the most classic teen movies of the '90s and 2000s in Do Revenge follows.
Do Revenge Takes the Fashion Right Out of Cher Horowitz's Clueless Closet
Do Revenge is set at a prestigious school, Rosehill Country Day High School, based in Miami. It is quickly established by the protagonist, Drea, to be the top school for those who want an Ivy League education. Funny enough, the uniforms at Rosehill Country Day look like they were taken straight out of Cher Horowitz's closet in Clueless. Cher's iconic yellow plaid outfit is recreated in a dreamy pastel-colored uniform featuring a seafoam green color and a light lavender color with plaid skirts for girls and plaid ties for boys. In fact, all the bright and bold outfits that Drea and even Eleanor wear after her makeover could be taken straight out of Cher's closet.
But the Clueless references don't end there. Midway through the movie, Drea is holding a pen with a pink fluffy ball on the top, just like Cher's, when she gets upset after learning that her ex-boyfriend Max, who released her sex tape, is being painted as the victim in the situation and that her classmates are eating up the story. She leaves the class in a hurry, and when she exits the building, viewers see that she was in Horowitz Hall in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment.
Max Is More Ruthless Than John Tucker in John Tucker Must Die
Speaking of Max, not only did he release Drea's sex tape because he was sick of her getting all the attention in their relationship, but he's also a serial cheater, a misogynist and a compulsive liar. As Drea puts it in a classic one-liner describing how easy it will be to manipulate Max, "Narcissists are too busy thinking about themselves to realize they're being played." Basically, Max is a more ruthless version of John Tucker in John Tucker Must Die. Therefore, it is very fitting that Drea's revenge plot against him is executed by the second protagonist, Eleanor.
John Tucker Must Die's entire premise is about three girls who were cheated on recruiting a new girl to get the ultimate revenge by making him fall in love with her and then break his heart. Drea knows that Eleanor isn't into guys, so the plan in Do Revenge isn't exactly the same. But Drea does want revenge on Max and to expose him as the jerk he is, so she recruits Eleanor to infiltrate her old friend group, the populars.
Tara, Meghan & Montana Are Do Revenge's Version of The Plastics
Ah, the populars. Every high school in a teen movie has them. Everyone wants to be them, fears them, and hates them at the same time. The best popular clique in the 2000s was featured in Mean Girls, and there hasn't been another mean girl group to truly rival them until Tara, Meghan and Montana were introduced. Do Revenge's resident popular group was led by queen bee Drea before Max leaked her sex tape, taking away her social status and her friends in one fell swoop. After Drea's queen bee demise, her so-called best friend, Tara, aka the Regina George of the group, took over the clique and even started dating Drea's ex.
Tara's lackey Meghan and Montana are the equivalents of Gretchen and Karen, respectively. Montana even has the same innocent and dimwitted but lovable personality that Karen has. Another Mean Girls reference that can't be missed is when Eleanor's love interest, Gabbi, gives her a tour around the school on her first day, and she points out and describes the cliques as "the Instagram witches, the farm kids, the horny theater kids and the cream of the incredibly entitled crop," aka "Rosehill's royal court." This parallels Mean Girls' cafeteria scene where Janis explains the cliques to Cady in a similar manner with categories like "desperate wannabes, burnouts, sexually-active band geeks and the worst," aka "The Plastics."
However, the biggest and most important Mean Girls nod comes when Drea and Eleanor reveal the text messages that prove that Max is a serial cheater to the entire school. What ensues is the complete and utter chaos that Regina George revealing the contents of the Burn Book caused. A satisfied Drea continues to sip on her drink and watch the destruction unfold much like Regina did when the entire school fell apart. Regina George may have become the Alpha mean girl in the 2000s, but she was definitely not the first Alpha mean girl.
Drea & Eleanor's Revenge Vibes Are Reminiscent of Heathers
The first Alpha mean girl title goes to Heather Chandler because, before the influence of Mean Girls came along, Heathers was the teen movie with the best mean girl crew. Technically, Heathers came two years before the '90s began, but the parallels are just too hard to ignore. The three Heathers had one favorite hobby other than being mean that made a brief cameo in Do Revenge: croquet. After Drea and Eleanor get revenge on Eleanor's target, Carissa, Drea goes to see Carissa in rehab, and Carissa plays croquet while she explains to Drea that Eleanor isn't who she says she is. This sets up the biggest plot twist of the movie that will have viewers re-watching it over and over again, trying to figure out potential clues to the plot twist.
Another nod to Heathers that can't be ignored is when Drea jokes with Eleanor that they should kill Max, hinting at how Veronica's boyfriend J.D. went on a revenge killing spree in Heathers. A concerned Eleanor asks if she's serious, but then she laughs and confirms she wasn't serious at all. Drea and Eleanor have the same revenge vibes as Veronica when she wants to scare the ruthless queen bee, Heather, into being nicer, but not the same thirst for murder that Veronica's boyfriend J.D. has when he makes sure they actually kill her. While Heathers has a lot of darkness, so does Do Revenge, just not the same kind of murderous darkness. One of the best parts about both movies is that they share the same bright color aesthetic as Clueless despite the darkness portrayed in them.
Drea & Russ' Paintball Fight Parallels 10 Things I Hate About You
Kat and Patrick's paintball fight followed by a steamy kiss in 10 Things I Hate About You is directly paralleled in Do Revenge when Drea's love interest, Russ, takes her to his dad's old warehouse. Drea is still struggling with her pariah status after Max leaked her sex tape, and Russ explains to her that throwing paint at canvases helped him channel his rage at being caught in the middle of his parents' divorce. He urges her to try it because it might help her deal with her situation too. Drea listens intently then she throws a paintball at the canvas directly behind him, splashing him with paint in the process. What ensues is a paintball fight followed by a steamy first kiss that definitely rivals the chemistry Kat and Patrick share in their paintball scene.
To see these teen move nods, Do Revenge is now streaming on Netflix.