St. Elmo's Fire is a 1985 American coming-of-age film co-written and directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Andie MacDowell and Mare Winningham.

It centers on a clique of recent graduates of Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown University, and their adjustment to post-university life and the responsibilities of adulthood.

Recent Georgetown University graduates Alec, Leslie, Kevin, Jules, and Kirby wait to hear about the conditions of their friends: Wendy, a sweet-natured young woman devoted to helping others, and Billy, a former fraternity boy and now reluctant husband and father, after a minor car accident caused by Billy's drinking.

Kirby is telling Kevin of his love for Dale when Billy shows up, asking to spend the night as he cannot cope with his wife.

When Dale skips the party, Kirby drives to the ski lodge where she is staying and meets her boyfriend.

Kirby fetches Billy, who landed a job at a gas station courtesy of Kevin, to calm Jules down.

[3] According to Schumacher, "a lot of people turned down the script...the head of [one] major studio called its seven-member cast ‘the most loathsome humans he had ever read on the page.’"[1] The producers interviewed "hundreds of people" for the cast, including Anthony Edwards, Jon Cryer and Lea Thompson.

[12] The private Catholic, Jesuit Georgetown University would not permit filming on campus, with their administrators citing questionable content such as premarital sex.

"[11] David Denby called Schumacher "brutally untalented" and said that "nobody over the moral age of fifteen" will like the work of the Brat Pack actors in the film:[14] St. Elmo's Fire isn't drama, it's gossip, and peculiarly early-adolescent gossip— a movie designed to be picked apart on the telephone.

St. Elmo's Fire is so depressing a portent of Hollywood's teen sycophancy because it not only devotes itself to stupid kids, it accepts their view of the world without any real criticism....The sole survivor of the general disaster is Ally Sheedy, who manages to make something charming out of the yup petulance.

According to Janet Maslin, In the realm of films about close-knit bands of school friends, St. Elmo's Fire falls midway between The Big Chill and The Breakfast Club.

In the film's terms, which are distinctly limited, this will mean finding a more sedate hangout and learning to go there for brunch....St. Elmo's Fire is most appealing when it simply gives the actors a chance to flirt with the camera, and with one another.

When it attempts to take seriously the problems of characters who are spoiled, affluent and unbearably smug, it becomes considerably less attractive.

The site's critical consensus reads: "St. Elmo's Fire is almost peak Brat Pack: it's got the cast, the fashion, and the music, but the characters are too frequently unlikable.

[17] Rob Lowe won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor for his work in this film.

[18] In a 2015 retrospective review, Justin Gerber of Consequence of Sound said that he was "prepared to say it's the worst movie of all time, with all the necessary stipulations lined up and accounted for",[19] going on to criticize the characters, plot, set, direction, and even score.

Queenan went on to say that St. Elmo's Fire was one of those movies "that remind us that the eighties were far, far worse than any of us can recall today, and by helping these monsters get their careers off the ground, we will be paying for our sins for decades to come.

It outperformed other box office disappointments from Columbia Pictures that year, including Silverado, The Bride and Perfect.

"[24] Parr was inspired to write the lyrics not by the movie (which he had not seen) but by the Canadian athlete Rick Hansen, who, at the time, was traveling around the world, via his wheelchair, to raise awareness for spinal cord injuries, a trip called the "Man in Motion Tour".

The song "Give Her a Little Drop More,” which plays during the movie when the characters enter St. Elmo's Bar & Restaurant, was written by British jazz trumpeter John Chilton.

Another version of the "Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire" with lyrics, titled "For Just a Moment", was performed by Amy Holland and Donny Gerrard, and was included as the final song on the soundtrack album.

The video was directed by Kort Falkenberg III, who devised the concept with the film's director, Joel Schumacher.

"[27][28] Topher Grace and Gordon Kaywin of Sargent Hall Productions proposed the idea to Jamie Tarses; the three of them then recruited Dan Bucatinsky to write the pilot and Schumacher agreed to the concept.

It would hinge upon Andrew McCarthy, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Mare Winningham reprising their roles from the original movie.