Film / The Swap

Ellie: You seriously think girls have it easier?
Jack: Don't think, I know.
Ellie: Puh-leeze!
Jack: Seriously, you ever had to "man up"?
Ellie: You ever had to change clothes for Skirt Day?
Jack: Uh...huh?????
Ellie: Exactly. I wish I had your life, mine would be so much better.
Jack: For reals? Take it. Then I'd get yours. I wouldn't mess that one up.
Both: Deal!

The Swap is a 2016 Disney Channel Original Movie. The film is based on the young adult novel of the same name written by Megan Shull, and is written by Charlie Shahnaian and Shari Simpson and directed by Jay Karas. It stars Peyton List and Jacob Bertrand.

High school Sophomores Ellie O'Brien (List) and Jack Malloy (Bertrand) have been going through tough times with their families, and both have big events coming up that weekend — Ellie's rhythmic gymnastics tournament, and Jack's hockey tryouts. When meeting up in the nurse's office, they get in a texting argument culminating in them wishing they had each other's lives, which results in them switching bodies. It isn't long for the two to realize their phones are really magical totems sent down by their ancestors which are powered by emotion, and they work to balance each other's lifestyle and keep their body swap a secret, while simultaneously finding a way to switch back before the swap becomes permanent.

As a bit of trivia, both List and Bertrand would reunite in another teen-oriented comedy-drama, albeit one a lot less family-friendly than Disney's efforts: The Karate Kid's Netflix-based revival, Cobra Kai.

This provides examples of:

• Alpha Bitch: Aspen, the fashionable new girl from New York who mocks Elle for being a “freak” and alienates her from Sassy.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Elle, who had curly red hair in the book is played by the blonde Peyton List for the movie.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Sassy is a minor example. In the book, she has no qualms against trashing Elle to her face whereas in the movie, she has a conversation with Aspen in which she hesitates to cut a friendship off with Elle. She also apologizes at the end of the film.
• An Aesop: Don't make assumptions about what other people or other genders go through. There is always more going on than you are prepared to deal with.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For
• Beta Bitch: Tori to Sassy in the book, even getting a bag of chips and opening it for her when she’s hungry.
• Book Ends: Ellie and Jack's "Freaky Friday" Flip is caused when they texted they wished they had each other's lives to be better. To swap back, they texted that their lives are much better now.
• The Casanova: Sammy, Jack’s friend in the book, who is said to be a bit of a player.
• Celestial Deadline: Ellie's old phone (and the totem) will lose its service at 12:00 noon on her gymnastics show and Jack's hockey game, which will render it ineffective.
• Curse Escape Clause: Sort of, though the body swap isn't really a curse. Apparently, the only way out is to make peace in the life you get and the one you left behind.
• Be Careful What You Say: Apparently, this covers text messages too.
• Book Ends: Ellie and Jack's body swap occurs when they "wish their lives were so much better". To swap back, they have to end their texts with "My life is so much better."
• Daddy's Girl: What Ellie seems to have been, before the divorce.
• Disappeared Dad: Ellie's parents are divorced, and she lives with her mom and her dad appears to be mostly out of the picture.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Ellie and Jack when they realize how better each other's life is, which is the key to switching back, and they rush to make it just in time.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: The main premise of the movie. Bonus Points for making it a gender swap as well.
• Here We Go Again!: Almost happens at the end, but is quickly averted by Jack and Ellie. Clearly they have no intentions of ever going through that again.
• Girl Posse: Sassy has one in the book who provide her an audience when she wants to be the center of attention.
• Hidden Depths: To both sides of the gender equation. There's more to being a guy or a girl than either Jack or Ellie realize. That may have more to do with the individuals involved, but the various gender dynamics and expectation do play a key role.
• Jerk Jock: Porter, who bullies Jack for being the Coach’s son. Jack’s dad and brothers also qualify.
• Missing Mom: Jack's mother died a year before the beginning of the movie, and it's clearly still having a major impact on his relationship with his father.
• My Beloved Smother: Ellie's mother, Summer, seems to be very overprotective of her only child.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: The scene where Ellie and Jack are switching bodies is presented as Ellie being enveloped in a blue tornado as Jack gets enveloped in a pink one.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Jack and Ellie seem to turn out this way by the end of the movie. Given how their parents are getting along, they may end up as family. Comes as a bit of a surprise though given who's telling the story. Disney has a long and proud history of pairing their leads up romantically.
• Power Perversion Potential: Sticking a heterosexual teenager in a body of the opposite gender, three guesses what's most likely to happen. Actually subtly addressed by Disney for once. Jack in particular shows great respect to Ellie's body, wearing a bathing suit in the bath tub and reassuring Ellie he was "raised to be a gentleman" after he has to go to Ellie's physical exam.
• Race Against the Clock: The second half of the movie becomes this after Ellie's mom assigns her a new phone. She and Jack have to switch back before Ellie’s current phone aka her totem loses its service at noon on Ellie’s gymnastics show and Jack’s hockey game, or they’ll be stuck in each other’s bodies forever.
• Race Lift: Sassy Gaines who was a white blonde girl in the books is played by the mixed Kiana Madeira in the books.
• "Reason You Suck" Speech: Given by Jack (in Ellie's body) to Sassy for how she's been treating Ellie.
  • Later done again by Ellie (in Jack's body) to Jack's Dad and, by extension her own Dad for the way both of them treat their families.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Aspen to Sassy, who becomes crueler to Elle under under influence.
• Tickle Torture: Jack (in Ellie's body) has to endure this while getting her foot scrubbed with the pumice stone at the salon with her mother. Summer appears rather shocked as her "daughter" pleads to the technician for mercy, as if Ellie doesn't normally react this way during a pedicure.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The first trailer plays up all the texting scenes, most of which don’t occur until the end of the movie. Another trailer spoils the scene where Ellie and Jack manage to switch back their bodies.
• Transformation Sequence: Ellie and Jack switching bodies occurs this way.
• Voices Are Not Mental: When Ellie and Jack switch bodies, their voices don't, but they do have each other's thoughts.
• With Friends Like These...: Ellie continues clinging to her friendship with Sassy for old times sake despite how Sassy constantly belittles and insults her.