On their last evening of summer vacation in 1962, high school graduates Curt Henderson and Steve Bolander meet their friends, confident drag-racing king John Milner and unpopular but well-meaning Terry "The Toad" Fields, at Mel's Drive-In in Modesto, California.

En route to the high school sock hop, Curt sees a beautiful blonde woman driving a white Ford Thunderbird who mouths "I love you", leading him to desperately search for her throughout the night.

Leaving the dance, he is coerced into joining a group of greasers called "The Pharaohs" in stealing coins from arcade machines and hooking a chain to a police car, ripping out its back axle.

The thieves beat him up until John intervenes, and Terry eventually admits the truth to Debbie and reveals he rides a Vespa scooter; she suggests it is "almost a motorcycle" and says she had fun, agreeing to meet up with him again.

He lies to suspicious friends that she is a cousin he is stuck babysitting, and they have a series of petty arguments until another car's occupants harass her as she attempts to walk home alone, and John decides to protect her.

Terry starts the race and John takes the lead, but Bob's tire blows out, causing his car to swerve into a ditch and roll over before bursting into flames.

A postscript reveals the friends' fates: In 1964, John was killed by a drunk driver; in 1965, Terry was reported missing in action near An Lộc, South Vietnam; Steve is an insurance agent in Modesto; and Curt is a writer living in Canada.

[9]After Warner Bros. abandoned Lucas's early version of Apocalypse Now (during the post-production of THX 1138), the filmmaker decided to continue developing Another Quiet Night in Modesto, eventually changing its title to American Graffiti.

[10] Lucas and his colleague Gary Kurtz began pitching the American Graffiti treatment to various Hollywood studios and production companies in an attempt to secure the financing needed to expand it into a screenplay,[5] but they were unsuccessful.

[12] Lucas was dismayed when he returned to America in June 1971 and read Walter's script, which was written in the style and tone of an exploitation film, similar to 1967's Hot Rods to Hell.

[12] The cost of licensing the 75 songs Lucas wanted was one factor in United Artists' ultimate decision to reject the script; the studio also felt it was too experimental—"a musical montage with no characters".

Lucas also intended to end American Graffiti showing a title card detailing the fate of the characters, including the death of Milner and the disappearance of Toad in Vietnam.

[13] This forced Lucas to drop the opening scene in which the Blonde Angel, Curt's image of the perfect woman, drives through an empty drive-in cinema in her Ford Thunderbird, her transparency revealing she does not exist.

[19] Production proceeded with virtually no input or interference from Universal since American Graffiti was a low-budget film, and executive Ned Tanen had only modest expectations of its commercial success.

However, Universal did object to the film's title, not knowing what "American Graffiti" meant;[19] Lucas was dismayed when some executives assumed he was making an Italian movie about feet.

Charles Martin Smith, who, in his first year as a professional actor, had already appeared in two feature films, including 20th Century Fox's The Culpepper Cattle Co. and four TV episodes, was eventually cast in the role.

[21] Although Cindy Williams was cast as Laurie Henderson and enjoyed working with both Lucas and Howard,[22] the actress hoped she would get the part of Debbie Dunham, which ended up going to Candy Clark.

"[19][23] Although American Graffiti is set in 1962 Modesto, Lucas believed the city had changed too much in ten years and initially chose San Rafael as the primary shooting location.

[24] Petaluma, a similarly small town about 20 miles (32 km) north of San Rafael, was more cooperative, and American Graffiti moved there without the loss of a single day of shooting.

[24] Lucas mimicked the filmmaking style of B-movie producer Sam Katzman (Rock Around the Clock, Your Cheatin' Heart, and the aforementioned Hot Rods to Hell) in attempting to save money and authenticated low-budget filming methods.

Le Mat, Harrison Ford, and Bo Hopkins were claimed to be drunk most nights and every weekend, and had conducted climbing competitions to the top of the local Holiday Inn sign.

Despite unanimous praise at a January 1973 test screening attended by Universal executive Ned Tanen, the studio told Lucas they wanted to re-edit his original cut of American Graffiti.

These include an encounter between Toad and a fast-talking car salesman, an argument between Steve and his former teacher Mr. Kroot at the sock hop, and an effort by Bob Falfa to serenade Laurie with "Some Enchanted Evening".

[47][48] In celebration of its 50th anniversary, a 4K restoration of the film updated with a brand new 5.1 sound mix was re-released domestically on August 27 and 30 before a Ultra HD Blu-ray release on November 7, 2023.

[50] Gene Siskel awarded three-and-a-half stars out of four, writing that although the film suffered from an "overkill" of nostalgia, particularly with regards to a soundtrack so overstuffed that it amounted to "one of those golden-oldie TV blurbs," it was still "well-made, does achieve moments of genuine emotion, and does provide a sock (hop) full of memories.

"[51] Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "American Graffiti is such a funny, accurate movie, so controlled and efficient in its narrative, that it stands to be overpraised to the point where seeing it will be an anticlimax.

"[52] A.D. Murphy from Variety felt American Graffiti was a vivid "recall of teenage attitudes and morals, told with outstanding empathy and compassion through an exceptionally talented cast of unknown actors".

[56] Dave Kehr, writing in the Chicago Reader, called the film a brilliant work of popular art that redefined nostalgia as a marketable commodity, while establishing a new narrative style.

The consensus reads: "One of the most influential of all teen films, American Graffiti is a funny, nostalgic, and bittersweet look at a group of recent high school grads' last days of innocence.

[38] In 1995, American Graffiti was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.