Ten Thousand Saints

Ten Thousand Saints is a 2015 American drama film written and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini. It is based on the novel of the same name by Eleanor Henderson. The film stars Asa Butterfield as Jude Keffy-Horn, the protagonist of the story.

The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2015.

The film was released in a limited release and through video on demand on August 14, 2015 by Screen Media Films.

Sixteen-year-old Jude Keffy-Horn is living in Vermont with his adoptive mother Harriet and adoptive sister Prudence. In December 1987, Jude and his best friend, Teddy, spend their time doing drugs and dreaming about moving to New York City to escape their small home town. Jude’s permissive hippy father, Les, lives in New York City where he grows and sells marijuana. Les' girlfriend Diane has a daughter Eliza who buses to Vermont for New Year's Eve.

Teddy and Jude meet Eliza at the bus station and take her to a New Year's Eve party. Jude is beaten up outside the party, while Teddy and Eliza talk and have sex in a locked bathroom after Eliza introduces Teddy to cocaine, which they both snort. When they part for the night, Teddy asks Eliza to find his straight edge brother Johnny in New York City and check on him since Johnny doesn't have a phone. Eliza heads back to NYC on the bus while Teddy and Jude head home, stopping to huff Freon. When Harriet awakens she finds Jude unconscious and Teddy dead and frozen after both of them pass out in the yard.

Eliza finds Teddy’s half-brother in Alphabet City, Johnny, and discovers he is not only straight edge but also a Hare Krishna devotee. She tells him to call home because Teddy is worried. When he calls, his drug addict mom answers and tells him about Teddy's death.

Eliza discovers she's pregnant with Teddy's baby, and when she tells Johnny and Jude, they decide to keep it a secret. Even though Johnny is a still closeted gay, he eventually proposes to Eliza out of guilt and loyalty to his deceased half-brother. They tell her mother that the baby is his and that they are going to be married. Since Eliza is under 18 and her mother refuses to sign for her to be legally married, the two have a marriage ceremony in the Hare Krishna temple.

They borrow Les' van and, because her mother is still against the pregnancy, take Eliza to stay with Harriet while Johnny's band Army of One goes on tour. Jude becomes the new guitar player when Rooster, the original guitar player (whom it is implied Johnny has had a secret relationship with) quits. They come back from tour, and Johnny goes back to New York City, leaving Eliza feeling abandoned. She also confides in Jude that she thinks Johnny may be in love with someone else. Jude, while on tour, overhearing a telephone call between Johnny and Rooster, realizes it is Rooster whom Johnny wants to be with. Realizing it is not his secret to tell, he does not tell Eliza but stops feeling guilty for being in love with her. After realizing they care for each other, Jude and Eliza start a relationship.