Big (1988)

Big is a 1988 American romantic comedy film about a boy who makes a wish "to be big" to a magical fortune-telling machine and is then aged to adulthood overnight. It stars Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, and Robert Loggia. The film was written by Gary Ross, with Justin Schindler and Anne Spielberg and was directed by Penny Marshall, who replaced Steven Spielberg. It is heavily inspired by,[citation needed] though not an actual remake of, the 1987 Italian film Da grande. Big is one of four age-changing comedies that were released in the late 1980s. It surpassed the success of Like Father Like Son (1987) starring Kirk Cameron and Dudley Moore, Vice Versa (1988) starring Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage, and 18 Again! (1988) starring George Burns.

After being humiliated and told he is too short for a carnival ride while attempting to impress a teenage girl, 12-year-old Josh Baskin (David Moscow) from Cliffside Park, New Jersey goes to a fortune-telling machine called Zoltar Speaks, and wishes that he were "big." By the next morning, he is shocked to discover that he has been transformed into a 30-year-old man (Tom Hanks). Fleeing from his mother, who thinks he is a strange man who has kidnapped her son, Josh rents a cheap hotel room in New York City with the help of his best friend, Billy Kopecki (Jared Rushton), and gets a data entry job at MacMillan Toy Company. By chance, Josh meets the company's owner, Mr. MacMillan (Robert Loggia), checking out the products at FAO Schwarz and impresses him with his happy-go-lucky childlike enthusiasm. They end up playing duets together on a foot-operated electronic keyboard, performing "Heart and Soul" and "Chopsticks." This earns Josh a promotion to a dream job: testing toys all day long and getting paid for it. He soon attracts the attention of the beautiful, ambitious 27-year-old Susan Lawrence (Elizabeth Perkins), a fellow toy executive. A romance begins to develop, much to the annoyance of Susan's competitive boyfriend, Paul Davenport (John Heard). As Josh becomes increasingly entwined in his "adult" life by spending more time with Susan, and his new ideas becomes valuable assets to MacMillan Toys, Billy begins feeling annoyed and neglected, feeling that Josh has forgotten who he really is. Susan asks Josh to come up with proposals for a new line of toys. Josh is intimidated by the need to formulate the business aspects of such a proposal, and Susan insists that she will handle the business end; that Josh need only rely on his affinity for toys to come up with a good idea. Nonetheless, Josh soon begins to feel overly pressured by this new life. When he expresses doubts to Susan and attempts to explain that he is really a child, she interprets this as fear of commitment on his part, and dismisses his explanation in frustration. Longing to return to the life of a child, Josh eventually learns from Billy that the Zoltar Speaks machine is at Sea Point Park. In the middle of presenting their proposal to MacMillan and other executives, Josh leaves. After Susan realizes something is wrong, she leaves as well and encounters Billy, who tells her where Josh went. At the park, Josh finds the machine and makes a wish. He is then confronted by Susan, who, seeing the machine and the fortune it gave Josh, realizes Josh was telling the truth and becomes despondent at realizing their relationship is over. Josh tells Susan she was the one thing about his adult life he wishes would not end, and suggests she use the machine herself to join him back in childhood. She declines, indicating that being a child once was enough, and takes Josh home. After sharing an emotional goodbye, Josh reverts to his child form. He is reunited with his mother, and later, with Billy.