In this autobiographical coming-of-age tale, a group of teenage boys chase a dream night at a Beatles concert in 1966 L.A.—a wild ride from West LA to Elysian Park, running red lights, driving on the wrong side of the road, ignoring speed limits,  risking injury or worse just to get there. It's a time capsule of youth and a prelude to a tragic loss that would change everything.

SYNOPSIS:

Getting There is an autobiographical coming-of-age story centered around two pivotal events in the writer’s youth: attending the 1966 Beatles concert in Los Angeles with the emphasis on how they got there. And, his best friend, Mike Ingram, and Mike’s sudden death just one year later at the age seventeen.

The film opens in the summer of 1967. The narrator drives to San Clemente to meet Mike for a few final days of freedom before school starts. When he arrives, Mike’s sister runs out in tears: “He’s dead.” Moments before his arrival, Mike’s body was found. The screen fades to black.

Title card: One year earlier.

The story flashes back to the summer of 1966—arriving on Saturday with the concert being that Friday. The week spent in San Clemente is filled with beach days, surfing, late-night parties, flirting with local girls, marijuana, booze and playing rock and roll. Amid this sun-soaked freedom, the boys plan their trip to see the Beatles in Los Angeles. They leave on Friday at 3:00 p.m., assuming five hours will be plenty of time to reach the concert by 8:00. They were wrong.

What follows is a slow arduous ride through Southern California: burgers, fries, laughter, ribbing in the car, a scuffle with greasers, and a rising panic as traffic thickens and time runs out. By the time they make it to West L.A. to grab some jackets at the writer’s house, there are only 12 minutes left to the first act. What comes next—is a chaotic, desperate high-speed run down Olympic Boulevard, running red lights, weaving through traffic, driving on the wrong side of the road, completely ignoring speed limits—still haunts the narrator to this day.

But they make it to Dodger stadium in Elysian Park. . They see the Beatles.

Upon their return to San Clemente, Mike’s band plays that next night. The narrator recalls, with chilling clarity: “That was the last time I ever saw Mike Ingram alive.”

Title card: September 1967.

We return to the present. The narrator reflects on the deep grief that followed—breaking the news to Mike’s bandmates, the devastation of his parents, the funeral, returning to high school without him.

notes:

The film is narrated by the writer in the first person singular as an adult, reliving these formative memories in past tense, while all action and dialogue is told in the third person singular and in present tense. It’s a story not only about loss, but about the depth of teenage friendship, the unspoken rivalries and admiration between boys, and the moments that shape them before they know they’re being shaped.

Mike Ingram was smart, fearless, athletic, and incandescent person . The narrator, forever in his shadow, admired him, envied him, and honestly there was no way to match him. He just tried to keep up with him any way he could.

Eerily their relationship is not unlike the characters in the John Knowles 1959 novel, A Separate Peace—.

The film ends with the narrator returning to high school for his senior year—older, quieter, and profoundly changed.