Movie
Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass
Narrative tropes
Revenge Is Sweet
highTom's betrayal of the mutual celebrity-pass agreement is the inciting incident that drives every plot beat. The narrative frames Gail's counter-exercise of her pass as righteous rebalancing (validated by the psychic, enabled by loyal allies), positions the audience to cheer her quest, and delivers the act with Jon Hamm as a victory. Four signals are present: (1) the wrong done to Gail propels the entire story; (2) formal or official redress is structurally absent, making personal action the only available response; (3) the revenge is achieved and treated as cathartic/clarifying rather than troubling; (4) Gail faces no meaningful consequences for pursuing it. The core pattern is partially met — the payoff tilts toward self-discovery rather than pure triumphant destruction of the wrongdoer, which softens the match, but the revenge-quest framing and its satisfying completion are load-bearing.
About this trope: Vengeance is portrayed as justified, satisfying, and morally righteous. The audience is invited to cheer as the protagonist destroys those who wronged them.
Movies that share these tropes
Full plot (spoilers)
Gail Daughtry (Zoey Deutch) is a small-town hairdresser in rural Kansas, two weeks away from marrying her devoted high school sweetheart Tom (Michael Cassidy). During a lighthearted conversation, the couple each name a "celebrity sex pass" — the one celebrity they could sleep with consequence-free. Tom picks Tilda Swinton; Gail picks Jon Hamm. After a chance encounter with Jennifer Aniston at a book signing, Tom takes the pass seriously, sneaking back to sleep with Aniston and upending the relationship. Devastated by the betrayal, Gail impulsively flies to Los Angeles with her flamboyant best friend Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley). There, a psychic tells her the only way to restore balance — and possibly save her marriage — is to "even the scales" by exercising her own pass with Jon Hamm. Complicating matters, Gail accidentally swaps briefcases with Ludovica (Sabrina Impacciatore), an Italian criminal mastermind whose henchmen immediately begin hunting Gail for the case's contents. To reach Hamm, Gail and Otto recruit Caleb, a talent agency assistant, and Vincent, a paparazzo, and eventually enlist actor John Slattery (John Slattery himself) after an emotional appeal. The group devises a scheme to pitch Ludovica's financial documents as a film concept in order to get access to Hamm, surviving a showdown at an abandoned Western backlot and defeating Ludovica's team in the process. Gail ultimately achieves her goal with Jon Hamm. Returning home, she realizes she cannot go through with marrying Tom. In a farcical finale, Hamm arrives in a hot air balloon to propose; Gail turns him down but agrees to keep things casual, and the two drift away together.
Sources: Wikipedia, Web search aggregated results (Sundance.org, IndieWire, Flickering Myth, IMDb listing)