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10 Things I Hate About You is a romantic comedy loosely based on William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, and is also known for being among Heath Ledger’s best-known roles outside of his iconic portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight.
The film was released in 1999 and directed by Gil Junger. Alongside Heath Ledger, the film starred Julia Stiles as the female lead, as well as Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Larry Miller in major roles. With the movie recently climbing to the number 9 spot on Amazon Prime Video, per Screenrant, it’s worth taking a look back at what happens in it.
10 Things I Hate About You Is A Loose Shakespeare Adaptation
The movie borrows its basic premise from Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew, which details the story of an unruly girl who is brought to heel because she is outmatched by one of her suitors. In the film, the sisters Bianca Statford (Larissa Oleynik) and Katherine Stratford (Julia Stiles) have something of a sibling rivalry going on, with their overbearing father, Walter (Larry Miller), wanting to stop Katherine from attending the out-of-state Sarah Lawrence College and interfering in Bianca’s love life.
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Eventually, Walter concedes to allowing Bianca to begin dating only if Katherine manages to get a boyfriend first. Unfortunately for Bianca, Katherine’s an abrasive girl with no interest in boys. Seeing her father’s condition for the act of sabotage it truly is, Bianca conspires with the new student Cameron James (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the geeky Michael Ekman (David Krumholtz) and the affluent Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan), to set Katherine up with a guy, which eventually comes to pass after Joey bribes Australian delinquent Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) to go out with her.
Bianca’s Elaborate Scheme Starts To Show Its Cracks
Initially, Bianca is attracted to Joey’s affluence and wants to date him for his status. Her plan to get Patrick to woo Kat has a rough start, as she tries to rebuff his advances, but eventually Patrick gets coached on Kat’s personality and wins her over.
However, when Bianca, Katherine, Cameron, Patrick, and Joey all attend a party together alongside Bianca’s friend Chastity (Gabrielle Union), the cracks start to show, as Katherine is very upset to see Joey and begins getting drunk and coming on to Patrick. Her overtures are too much for Patrick to deal with, souring her mood even further.
Meanwhile, Cameron realizes that Bianca was just stringing him along while intending to date Joey this entire time. However, she comes to regret her plan after realizing that Joey is rather unlikable. She ultimately decides that Cameron is the right man for her after all, and the two kiss.
Joey Becomes The Main Antagonist Of The Final Act
Joey still intends to bed Bianca and claim her as a conquest, and to that end, he keeps bribing Patrick into keeping his relationship with Kat alive so that she goes to the high school prom. Kat suspects some manipulation behind Patrick’s overtures to win her back, and is initially reluctant to go to prom until Walter and Bianca pressure her.
Meanwhile, Bianca grows resentful of Cameron’s lack of initiative and plans to get back together with Joey until Kat reveals her history with him. It turns out that Joey had dated Kat and slept with her in the past, only to toss her aside later. Kat deeply regretted this experience, as she only went along with everything because of peer pressure, which is why she developed an aversion to romance.
As a result, Bianca decides to go to prom with Cameron after all, which deeply upsets Joey, who decides to take Chastity as his prom date just to spite both Bianca and Kat. At the prom, he vindictively reveals that Patrick only went out with Katherine because he paid him to, which breaks Kat’s heart and causes her to leave.
He then physically assaults Cameron and Michael, blaming them for taking Bianca away from him. In response, she hits back and makes it clear that she doesn’t want anything to do with him ever again. Bianca and Kat reconcile the next day, and Bianca commits to dating Cameron. Walter also softens up and allows her to move out of state for college.
Kat realizes that she still misses Patrick after all, so she wrote the poem “10 Things I Hate About You” and read it aloud in English class. It turns out that Patrick misses her too, as he catches up with her and reveals that he spent all of Joey’s bribe money to buy a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar to impress her. As a result, the two get back together, this time for good.
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