The following article contains the lyrics from Tom Petty’s Free Falling followed by excerpts from IMDB’s description of the plot from the original The Karate Kid and the wikipedia entry for the film.
She’s a good girl, loves her mama.
Loves Jesus and America too.
She’s a good girl, crazy ’bout Elvis.
Loves horses and her boyfriend too.
Daniel meets a girl, Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue), a high school cheerleader … the nice and attractive popular girl of the school …
It’s a long day livin’ in Reseda.
There’s a freeway runnin’ through the yard.
And I’m a bad boy, ’cause I don’t even miss her.
I’m a bad boy for breakin’ her heart.
Daniel LaRusso has just moved from New Jersey to Reseda, CA (a neighborhood in Los Angeles) and is finding it hard to acclimatise to life in the new city. He is promised a swimming pool and a beautiful house but when they get there, it’s anything but. He meets a beautiful blond girl but encounters a gang of bullies who make his life hell. This further dampens misery into Daniel’s life as he just wants to go home. He is continually bullied and is afraid to show his face around the high school.
All the vampires walkin’ through the valley
Move west down Ventura Blvd.
And all the bad boys are standing in the shadows.
All the good girls are home with broken hearts.
School life isn’t so easy for Daniel, especially when he begins to like Ali, the nice and attractive popular girl of the school. Soon her jealous boyfriend and his gang, The Cobras, all of whom train at the local karate studio, are out to get Daniel, who is eager to prove himself courageous and not be scared off by the bullies, but also isn’t keen to blindly be punched up by the gang.
I wanna glide down over Mulholland.
I wanna write her name in the sky.
I wanna free fall out into nothin’.
Gonna leave this world for awhile.
Through the teaching, Daniel learns not only karate, but also important life lessons, such as the importance of balance, reflected by the belief that martial arts training is as much about training the spirit as the body. Daniel applies the life lessons that Miyagi has taught him to strengthen his relationship with Ali … Mr. Miyagi performs a mystical act on Daniel’s sprained leg, causing the pain to disappear. Still hobbling, Daniel performs a skillful move to beat his opponent, winning both the championship, the everlasting friendship of Mr. Miyagi, and the love of Ali.
