Line #4 Film/PleaseStandBy


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/please_stand_by.jpg]]
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3	''Please Stand By'' is a 2017 {{dramedy}} film directed by Ben Lewin.
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5	Wendy Welcott (Creator/DakotaFanning), a young autistic woman living in a group home in UsefulNotes/{{Oakland}}, has written a 427-page ''Franchise/StarTrek'' script, which she plans to enter in a Creator/{{Paramount}} screenwriting contest with a $100,000 prize.
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7	After she misses the mail-in date, she runs away from the group home and travels to UsefulNotes/LosAngeles to deliver the script herself.
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9	----
10	!!''Please Stand By'' contains examples of:
11	* ActorAllusion: Alice Eve previously played Kelvin timeline [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Carol Marcus]] in ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness''.
12	* AlliterativeName: Wendy Welcott.
13	* AndStarring: Creator/AliceEve gets this citation in the opening billboards.
14	* AsHimself: Wendy's four housemates are all played by autistic actors with the same names as their characters.
15	* BathroomBreakout: Wendy escapes from the hospital by going into a bathroom, opening the window, and then hiding under the sink so the nurse will think she jumped. Once the bathroom is unguarded, she escapes through a door.
16	* BatmanGambit:
17	** To escape the hospital, Wendy outwits the nurse by making it look like she escaped through the window by opening it and then hiding in the sink. Once the nurse leaves, she picks up her things.
18	** When a clerk at Creator/{{Paramount}} stonewalls her, Wendy asks him if he knows her name. Once he said no, she drops her script and promptly leaves.
19	* BilledAboveTheTitle: Creator/DakotaFanning and Creator/ToniCollette get this treatment.
20	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Wendy ultimately does not win the contest, but she's proud of her personal growth during the ordeal and she finally meets her niece at the end.]]
21	* CanineCompanion: The group home's dog, Pete, follows Wendy for several blocks after she leaves. She decides to carry him to L.A. in her bag.
22	* CelebrityParadox: Wendy being a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fan is integral to the movie's plot, yet she doesn't seem to notice that her elder sister Audrey (Creator/AliceEve) looks like Carol Marcus in ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness''.
23	* ClosetGeek: A cop played by Creator/PattonOswalt speaks Klingon to Wendy to get her to turn herself in. When his partner asks him what language he was speaking, he tries to avoid the question and tells her to forget about it.
24	* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Wendy wears different, particularly colored/designed sweaters everyday; Orange on Mondays, Lavender on Tuesdays, Blue on Wednesdays, Polka dots on Thursdays, Yellow on Fridays, Purple on Saturdays, and Red on Sundays.
25	* DisappearedDad: Wendy's mother raised her and her sister all by herself.
26	* EvilDetectingDog: Pete growls at a couple right before they rob Wendy.
27	* FakeoutEscape: Wendy escapes from a hospital by going into a bathroom, opening a window, and hiding under a sink so the nurse will think she jumped. Once the bathroom is unguarded, she leaves through the door.
28	* GenderBlenderName: Wendy's support worker Scottie (Creator/ToniCollette).
29	* HollywoodAutism: Averted! Dakota Fanning specifically met with many different autistic people and studied the condition in great detail; confessing in an interview that she learned about the many misconceptions about it, and realised the best option was to focus on making Wendy a specific individual rather than a symbolic representation of everyone with autism. And despite having poor social skills and living in a facility, as well as having certain meltdowns, she still has a job and aspires to be a writer. There are also other autistic people living in the home, with distinct differences to further emphasise the variations that can happen with the condition. And rather than being stereotypically obsessed with math and science, Wendy is a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' nerd; acknowledging the significant neurodivergent fan base the franchise has. There's also the fact that Wendy is only in the home because Audrey is ignorant of how to properly care for her, when their mother had been able to previously.
30	* ImpliedLoveInterest: There are strong hints that Nemo (Creator/TonyRevolori) has a thing for Wendy but this aspect is not touched upon nor is it outright confirmed.
31	* {{Jerkass}}: The bus driver who kicks a young autistic woman off the bus and strands her on the side of the road because she brought a dog on board.
32	* NerdsSpeakKlingon: Wendy, naturally, is adept at the language. Later in the film, Officer Frank (Creator/PattonOswalt) is able to gain Wendy's trust by speaking to her this way.
33	* OutlawCouple: Wendy runs into them after being kicked out off the bus to LA. They robbed her most of her money and her [=iPad=].
34	* PluckyGirl: ''Nothing'' deters Wendy from going to Creator/{{Paramount}} studios to submit her script entry.
35	* PromotionToParent: Audrey is Wendy's legal guardian ever since their mother died. She was forced to leave Wendy at a group home after she got married, but she still looks after her.
36	* RoadTripPlot: About an autistic young woman from UsefulNotes/{{Oakland}} sneaking out of her home to travel to UsefulNotes/LosAngeles to personally deliver her script while her elder sister and her guardian follow in search for her.
37	* SingleTear: Wendy's older sister Audrey (Creator/AliceEve) sheds one while watching home videos of herself and Wendy, and later when Wendy reminds her that their mother is dead.
38	* SoulSuckingRetailJob: Wendy works at Cinnabon. Her job involves some baking, which she likes, but her main duty is standing at the door with a tray of samples, saying "Welcome to Cinnabon. Would you like a cinnabon?" to everyone who walks by.
39	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Against all odds, Wendy manages to make it to Paramount studios with only minutes to go for the contest deadline. [[spoiler: The grumpy mailman won't accept her script because she didn't mail it in, so she has to send it in the chute with the slim possibility that he won't know which one is hers to disqualify it. Even then, she doesn't win the contest. And with a three-hundred page script and her being a first time writer, it's unlikely she would have]].
40	* TimeShiftedActor: Wendy and Aubrey are respectively played by Farrah [=MacKenzie=] and Madeleine Murden in the home videos.
41	* TimeTravel: Wendy's script has Spock traveling back and forth through time to save the Federation.
42	* TitleDrop: Several times due to it being Wendy's SurvivalMantra.
43	* UncertainDoom: Wendy, her elderly friend and the similarly elderly driver got into a car accident midway through the film. Only Wendy is shown at the hospital, with no mention of what happened to the other two.
44	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Pete the dog follows Wendy when she sneaks out of the home, and she reluctantly decides to take him with her. Too bad the bus she has to take doesn't allow animals on board, and her trying to hide him anyway just results in her being kicked off.
45	* WakingNonSequitur: When Wendy wakes up in the hospital after a bus crash, her first words are "Welcome to Cinnabon. Would you like a cinnabon?"

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