A young man with a talent for music has begun a career with much promise. He meets an aspiring singer, Apollonia, and finds that talent alone isn't all that he needs. A complicated tale of his repeating his father's self destructive behavior, losing Apollonia to another singer (Morris Day), and his coming to grips with his own connection to other people ensues.
Written by
John Vogel
Plot Synopsis:
-------------------

The film opens at the First Avenue nightclub in Minneapolis where the band 'The Revolution' is playing their song "Let's Go Crazy". The lead singer, The Kid (Prince) has an energetic style that the people seem to dig. Arriving at the nightclub is aspiring performer Apollonia (Apollonia Kotero), who wants to see the manager. He's not there, so one of the ladies that works there takes down Apollonia's information. After The Revolution is done playing, Morris Day and The Time begin to play, the former having a rivalry with The Kid.

The Kid lives at home with his mother (Olga Karlatos) and his father (Clarence Willliams III), a mixed race couple. The father physically abuses the mother, and strikes back at The Kid whenever he tries to defend her.

The next day, Morris and the club's owner Billy (Billy Sparks) discuss getting a new group to replace The Revolution since people are getting tired of The Kid's schtick. Morris wants to organize an all-girl group, and Billy appears to be on board.

The Kid pursues Apollonia. He takes her for a ride on his motorcycle and rides to a nearby lake, where he tells her he will help her break out if she gets into the water of Lake Minnetonka. Apollonia strips down to her underwear and jumps into the water. The Kid then says that it's not Lake Minnetonka. He gets on his motorcycle and begins to ride away, leaving Apollonia naked and pissed off. However, he stays and lets her climb back on.

Two members of The Revolution, the assistant guitarist Wendy (Wendy Melvoin) and keyboardist Lisa (Lisa Coleman), frequently write music for the band and ask The Kid to give it a listen, but he never does and he continues to refuse to use their music, which causes tension between the band. The Kid mocks their sentiments using a puppet.

Morris approaches Apollonia to join the girl group. He buys some fancy champagne and tries to convince her that The Kid can't help her kick-start her career since he can hardly get his own career off the ground. As The Kid performs, he watches the two of them sitting together. With The Revolution, he sings "The Beautiful Ones," which brings Apollonia to tears.

After the show, The Kid brings Apollonia to his home. He plays a record track in his room that sounds like a woman moaning erotically, but he tells Apollonia that the woman is crying, and he is just playing the track backwards. The Kid then passionately kisses Apollonia and they make love for the first time.

A few days later, Morris eventually persuades Apollonia into joining the group. She goes to The Kid's home and gives him the news. He reacts by angrily slapping her the same way his father does to his mother.

The Kid learns from Billy that he plans to cut one of the acts for the club. This leads The Kid to go on a motorcycle ride to have time with his thoughts (while "When Doves Cry" plays). This is cut between moments of memories he shared with Apollonia. When he returns home, he finds his mother on the front steps crying. He enters his home to confront his father. The Kid finds him in the basement smoking a cigarette and playing the piano. He learns that his father has composed several musical pieces of his own, but he claims to have not written them down. When he asks his son if he has a girlfriend, The Kid says 'yes', and his father tells him not to get married.

Back at the First Avenue, The Revolution performs "Computer Blue", with The Kid acting out like he's getting a blowjob on stage. The audience doesn't appear to be digging his music. Apollonia and Morris show up. The band starts playing the very provocative "Darling Nikki", which makes Apollonia uncomfortable and humiliated. After she leaves, The Kid goes into his dressing room and starts taking out his anger. Billy enters and criticizes him, comparing him to his father and his own failed musical career.

Soon, the girl group, Apollonia 6, make their debut at the club. Their song, "Sex Shooter", is a hit, and Billy continues to hint at The Kid that they'll be taking his spot. After the show, Apollonia and Morris (who is drunk) are walking together. The Kid comes to get her on his motorcycle once Morris starts to get fresh. They ride by a bridge, where The Kid starts getting aggressive with Apollonia. She leaves him.

When The Kid returns home, he sees that the place is a mess, and his mother is gone. He goes down to the basement, and his father attempts suicide by shooting himself in the head with a shotgun, but the wound only grazes his head. The medics take him away. The Kid starts raging out in the basement, whereupon he discovers his father's compositions. The following morning, he picks up a tape of a song that Wendy and Lisa wrote, "Slow Groove". It inspires him to start composing.

That night, The Time plays their set to a satisfied crowd. After the performance, Morris goes by The Revolution's dressing room and tauntingly asks The Kid, "How's the family?" His buddies laugh, but Morris quickly regrets what he said.

The Revolution goes up to play. Before the song, The Kid announces that they're playing a song written by Wendy and Lisa, which he dedicates to his father. The song is "Purple Rain". It thrills the crowd so much that even Billy sheds a tear. Once the song ends, The Kid goes backstage and plans to hop on his motorcycle, but he hears the enthusiastic cheering and goes back, where the other musicians congratulate him and cheer him on. He sees Apollonia as well, who appears to have forgiven him. He returns to the stage and plays "I Would Die 4 U". This is cut between scenes of him visiting his father at the hospital with his mother, as well as Apollonia visiting The Kid in the basement.

The film concludes with a shot of The Kid giving the audience one more intense look.

Scenes of Wendy and Lisa kissing, suggesting a same-sex relationship, were deleted from the final version. They had a lesbian relationship in real life.
------------------------

Morris says a total of 13 words to the Kid. The Kid never says a word to Morris.
------------------------

The story is based loosely on Prince's own life.
------------------------

The songs were pre-recorded, but Prince and the Revolution played live along with the tracks to capture the feel of a true live performance.
------------------------

Prince's protègèe, Vanity, was originally slated to be cast as the Kid's love interest. She left the film prior to shooting, and the girl group "Vanity 6" became "Apollonia 6".
------------------------

When The Kid's father is playing the piano, the music is actually being played by Prince.
------------------------

An early, simpler version of the unpronounceable symbol that Prince changed his name to during his dispute with Warner Bros. Records is painted on the side of his motorcycle's gas tank. It also appears on a wall of the overpass his motorcycle rides under during "When Doves Cry."
------------------------

Clarence Williams III, Olga Karlatos, and Apollonia Kotero were the only professional actors in the entire cast.
------------------------

Purple Rain was shopped around to numerous production companies, including Indigo Films, which was owned by Jim Brown and Richard Pryor. Brown himself expressed his disappointment about not acquiring the project in the Spike Lee documentary Jim Brown: All American (2002).
------------------------

In the original script, The Kid takes Vanity to a barn, and they make love during "When Doves Cry.' Rain patters strongly against the barn, and deep thunder rolls, the lyrical inspiration for the song "Raspberry Beret." The song is found on "Around the World In A Day," which was released after "Purple Rain."
------------------------

Albert Magnoli admitted that the "Never get married" scene between the Kid and his father moved him to tears.
------------------------

The "father's song" played by the father after he beats The Kid's mother and The Kid walks up to him, is heard later in the movie as the guitar solo in Computer Blue.
------------------------

The Kid's treatment of Wendy and Lisa in the film is pretty much how Prince treated them in real life.
------------------------

William Blinn's first draft of the script was titled "Dreams". Prince didn't like the story and wanted the word "purple" in the title.
------------------------

Two takes of "The matter with this house..." sequence were filmed. According to the director's commentary, the film lab lost the camera negative for the scenes and had to use footage from a work print to include in the film. This explains the loss of picture quality during the scene.
------------------------

The Kid tells Wendy and Lisa, "Nobody cares about your music." Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman later released five albums on their own. None of them were commercial successes in the U.S.
------------------------

Morris' pick-up lines to Apollonia, before the Revolution performs "The Beautiful Ones", are paraphrased lines from "Chili Sauce", the third track from The Time's third album "Ice Cream Castle". The album also contains "Jungle Love" and "The Bird", which are featured in this film. He also says, "What time is it," the title of the Time's second album.
------------------------

Apollonia Kotero was married at the time of filming. She was sworn to secrecy about it, so people would really think she and Prince were a couple.
------------------------

The success of this project benefitted just about every division of Warner Brothers. The box office grosses helped the film division, the soundtrack sales helped the record division, the home video release helped that division, and the promotional videos aired on MTV constantly helped the music video division.
------------------------

Three different Honda motorcycles portray Prince's motorcycle. He rides a highly stylized 1981 Hondamatic CB400A automatic with spoked wheels and custom faring, handlebars, seats, and sissy bar. Stunt riders rode 2 manual CB400s made to look like his bike.
------------------------

Albert Magnoli filmed a second love scene that wasn't included in the final cut of the film. It contains the illusion of purple rain. A snippet of this scene is included in the theatrical trailer and the "When Doves Cry" montage. This scene, and other deleted footage, are outlined in the film's screenplay found on various websites.
------------------------

According to the director's commentary, three versions of the love scene were filmed: a "G" rated version, a "PG" rated version, and an "R" rated version, which was used in the film.
------------------------

Morris Day apparently had a substance abuse problem throughout production, and was high during most of filming. He often had to be almost literally dragged out of his room to the set.
------------------------

Albert Magnoli told Rolling Stone that when the concept was first brought to Warner Bros., they suggested that John Travolta should play Prince.
------------------------

By the time the film was released, Morris Day and Prince were not on speaking terms due to "creative differences."
------------------------

The third verse of 'Darling Nikki' was omitted from the final film. It appears on the movie's soundtrack album.
------------------------

The original screenplay, found on various websites, contained an extremely explicit sex scene between Vanity and The Kid during the "ride of rage" sequence. It's unknown if the scene was actually filmed when Apollonia replaced Vanity as the leading lady. This adds to the mystery of a long-rumored early edit of Purple Rain that was given an X rating by the MPAA.
------------------------

Prince's management offered James Foley the job of director by after seeing a rough cut of Reckless (1984). He said he was too busy and declined, but recommended his editor, Albert Magnoli.
------------------------

While shooting the Lake Minnetonka scene, Apollonia Kotero actually jumped into freezing cold water. It snowed an hour after filming. Four takes in she developed hypothermia. Prince was afraid she would freeze to death, but she wanted to keep going. Her takes were moved to Los Angeles, California.
------------------------

The audio from the three songs in the final concert, which included "I Would Die 4U", "Baby I'm A Star", and the title song "Purple Rain," were recorded live on August 3, 1983, at the First Avenue club in Minneapolis, as part of a fund raiser for the Minnesota Dance Theater. It also marked the official debut of Prince's new band The Revolution. The concert scenes were re-enacted later.
------------------------

A few days before the premiere, Prince had a nightmare that Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert despised the film, with Ebert ripping the film apart. He said, "I dreamed those two guys on the TV were reviewing the movie and that fat guy was tearing me up!" Siskel and Ebert both loved the film in their reviews.
------------------------

Prince did most of his own bike riding next to a camera truck.
------------------------

Jennifer Beals was offered the role of Apollonia. She turned it down in order to study at Yale.
------------------------

Brown Mark is the only member of the Revolution who never speaks in the film.
------------------------

Aside from Prince and his onscreen parents, almost every character in the movie is named after the actor who plays him or her.
------------------------

Some people thought this was the only Prince film that he didn't direct himself. Albert Magnoli later revealed that he'd ghost-directed Prince's concert film Sign 'o' the Times (1987).
------------------------

Prince cast Apollonia Kotero, a virtual unknown at the time, after he saw her in Tales of the Gold Monkey: Force of Habit (1983). She played a saucy island girl who was sleeping with a German priest.
------------------------

Although Albert Magnoli and William Blinn shared the writing credits, it is not known how much of Blinn's material was used. Magnoli estimates that only two or three of Blinn's scenes are in the final cut of the film.
------------------------

Morris and Jerome's "What's the password" conversation is reminiscent of Abbot and Costello's classic "Who's on first" routine.
------------------------

Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman used the intro music from the song "Purple Rain" as the basis for their single, "This is The Life", from the soundtrack for Dangerous Minds (1995).
------------------------

One of the production assistants was a young Lee Daniels, future director and producer of the hit Fox series Empire.
------------------------

A dance group known as Game Boyz dance on the balcony during the Time's "Jungle Love" performance. Three of the group's members, Tony Mosley, Kirk Johnson, and Damon Dickson, became members of Prince's band the New Power Generation. They were also background dancers in Graffiti Bridge (1990).
------------------------

Following the performance of "Darling Nikki," Billy Sparks tells the Kid, "Nobody understands your music but you, Kid," a line that seemed to predict Prince's later commercial decline.
------------------------

The scene in which The Kid brings Apollonia to his basement includes a shot of a Pegasus statuette. The back-cover art of Prince's second album depicted Prince on a winged horse.
------------------------

Originally, The Kid's father was to die of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. At the last minute, the director and the producers decided to let the father live.
------------------------

When Jerome and Morris are walking around the block, discussing the problems with the girls' group, Morris says "That Apollonia babe we saw last night," and his lips don't move in sync with the dialogue. He's actually mouthing "Vanity" instead of "Apollonia", indicating that the scene was filmed before Vanity backed out of the shoot.
------------------------

After The Kid hits Apollonia in the face, she cries. The dialogue overdubs "Just leave me alone" while she is clearly still crying.
------------------------

Morris and Apollonia's conversation in the car outside of the club is dubbed over Morris talking to Jerome.
------------------------

When Apollonia says "I'm thinking about buying a guitar", the boom mic is visible.
------------------------

The note card application Apollonia fills out in the first club scene lists her experience as "Singer & Dancer." When it's posted on the board in later scenes, that section is blank.
------------------------

Near the river, Prince's motorcycle tire changes from a street tire to an off-road tire.
------------------------

During the "Purple Rain" performance, Prince's shirt starts to unbutton. After he runs to unlock his bike and make his getaway, it's buttoned up.
------------------------

When Apollonia fills out the note card, she lists her height as 5'7". The following day, a closeup of the card shows her height as 5'6".
------------------------

Apollonia's application card says she is at the Royal Hotel. Later in the film, when Prince reads the card, which is pinned to the notice board, her address is the Huntington Hotel, the handwriting is completely different, and the notice board pin is in a different position. When The Kid then walks away from the notice board, the card is one seen earlier.
------------------------

During the "Let's Go Crazy" sequence, when Morris examines himself in a mirror, he takes a step to the side, revealing a stage hand in a white cap in the mirror. He realizes he's in the shot and takes a step to the side.
------------------------

When Apollonia follows The Kid through the mall after he gets her anklet, a white flash is visible, presumably the publicists taking production photos.
------------------------

The Kid's motorcycle has an automatic transmission. Sometimes when The Kid does crazy bike tricks, the clutch is visible, indicating a stunt rider on a manual bike.
------------------------

At the end of "When Doves Cry", a palm tree is visible in the background as Prince drives up his street. The film is set in Minneapolis.
------------------------

When Prince is doing ventriloquism backstage, he's clearly not saying anything.
------------------------

In the Lake Minnetonka scene, after Apollonia starts to get dressed after getting wet, her makeup is perfect. When she gets back on Prince's motorcycle, he says "don't get my seat all wet". She kisses him, and before they ride off her hair is wet and unstyled. In the next shot, filmed from behind, her hair is totally dry and styled.
------------------------

0