Does anyone else remember that obscure kids’ movie Josh and S.A.M.? I found myself thinking about it recently and how it made me cry as a child. It made me go down a rabbit hole and realize eight-year-old me probably started crying because it wasn’t the fun adventure I was expecting.
Josh and S.A.M. (1993) tried to ride the wave of early ‘90s, kid-focused blockbusters like Home Alone and The Wizard, the latter featuring Fred Savage and Nintendo’s iconic Power Glove. Trailers sold it as the next big, rebellious, road-trip adventure, capitalizing on the booming coming-of-age trend that year. But unlike The Sandlot or Free Willy, which debuted alongside it, Josh and S.A.M. lacked the star power of James Earl Jones, Dennis Leary, or a theme song by Michael Jackson. Marketing leaned into the fantasy: two kids on the run, outsmarting adults, swiping their parents’ credit cards to order unlimited pizza, and living every ’90s kid’s dream of freedom without rules. One teaser even frames it as a badass outlaw tale about kids racing to the Canadian border. Unfortunately, this is all Kangaroo Jack levels of misleading advertisement. But unlike Kangaroo Jack’s promise of a talking Macropod, the teaser for Josh and S.A.M. is technically accurate, even if the film itself is far from badass. In reality, it’s a surprisingly bleak and depressing ride.
After their parents’ divorce, 12-year-old Josh (Jacob Tierney) and his 7-year-old brother Sam (Noah Fleiss) hit a breaking point. Tired of being shuttled between their estranged mom and newly remarried dad, the boys steal a car and set off on a cross-country road trip to Canada. Things take an unexpected turn when they pick up a drifter named Alison (Martha Plimpton), who joins their journey. Even stranger, Josh has convinced Sam that he’s not just a kid, he’s a “Strategically Altered Mutant” on a secret mission.
That last bit causes a lot of mayhem, as Sam becomes hellbent on making it to Canada, stubbornly convinced he can do things like drive a car or that he possesses enhanced memory and pinpoint precision, which makes him unafraid of danger like RoboCop or a Terminator. They assault a guy, steal his car, and head for the border to escape parents, the law, and, in Sam’s case, the Pentagon. Cut to a seven-year-old boy in the driver’s seat going 90 miles per hour through an orchid field, barely able to look over the wheel but convinced he can’t die.
This may be alarming to watch, but it also becomes depressing once you realize Sam’s newfound identity is just a coping mechanism for his parents’ separation. During their first night on the road, Sam tells Josh he used to think about dying and being with their grandmother, but now believes it’s because he was “programmed” that way, like the other S.A.M.s. The moment lands hard as Josh suddenly understands that if he shatters Sam’s fantasy, there may be nothing left keeping his little brother going.
After a series of misadventures, including assault (which the kids mistake for murder), car theft, police evasion, and a brief team-up with a drifter, the boys finally reach the Canadian border. Sam, still believing he’s a “Strategically Altered Mutant,” is ready to cross over and disappear from the reaches of the Pentagon. But in a moment of emotional clarity, Josh comes up with another lie to get his brother on a flight back home to Orlando, where Sam finally learns the truth. Josh stays in Canada, still under the belief he’s wanted for murder, until he calls the man and realizes he’s alive. So Josh goes home, where he’s confronted by Sam, and punches him before forgiving him. The end. (Fun fact: A young Jake Gyllenhaal makes a brief appearance in the film, playing the younger of Josh and Sam’s two unwanted stepbrothers.)
Josh and S.A.M. bombed horrifically upon release, earning just $1 million on an $18 million budget. Initially slated for the spring of 1993, the film didn’t get released until November. Not a single actor or crew member showed up at the premiere, aside from Tierney and Fleiss’ own families. MGM, the current rights holder, has never released a DVD or Blu-ray, so VHS is the only way to watch the film physically. Josh and S.A.M. is also available on Prime Video in SD for $14.99, while some nostalgic fans have uploaded the film in upscaled HD and 4K on YouTube.
Now that I’m older, this movie’s flaws are as plain as day and stood no chance against the onslaught of terrific kids’ movies coming out in 1993. It’s boring in some parts, and some of Sam’s actions drive me to the point of irritation. To return to this film today would be a choice driven by pure nostalgia or to confirm that this movie little to no one remembers, wasn’t just a figment of your childhood imagination.
Getting butts into seats with the promise of a little kid power fantasy, only to reveal it’s ultimately a story about what divorce does to children, is pretty predatory. It really caught me off guard, even though my family had never gone through a divorce. But I was an annoying younger brother with an older brother he didn’t want to hang out with at the time. Maybe I understood Sam’s plight and why he’d let his imagination run on autopilot to shield himself from reality. Or perhaps I was just a really sensitive kid.
