She is 15. He is 17. The love every parent fears.

Based on a novel by Scott Spencer, Endless Love details the doomed romance between 17-year-old David (Martin Hewitt) and 15-year-old Jade (Brooke Shields). Banished from Jade's home by her daddy Hugh (Don Murray), David obsessively cooks up a scheme to get back into the family's good graces. Since this plan involves setting Jade's house on fire, one can easily predict that the puppy-love romance is in for a bumpy ride. Jailed for arson, David heads directly to Jade the moment that he's released, with tragic results. Posting respectable earnings thanks to the popularity of Brooke Shields, Endless Love was also the film debut of Tom Cruise, billed 18th in the cast list. A young James Spader lends a supporting role. ~

Endless Love is a 1981 romantic drama film directed by Franco Zeffirelli, starring Brooke Shields and Martin Hewitt. It also was Tom Cruise's first motion picture role. The screenplay by Judith Rascoe was adapted from the novel by Scott Spencer. The original music score was composed by Jonathan Tunick.
The film was a moderate box-office success, and the film's theme song by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, also called "Endless Love", became a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and was the biggest-selling single in Ross' career.
As of 2011, the film has yet to be released in the United States on DVD (Region 1).


The novel and film differ in several respects. The novel begins with David burning down the Butterfield's house in 1967. The death of Hugh takes place near the end of the film, but only in the middle of the novel. After that, in the novel Jade and David reunite and live together in Vermont for several months before he is re-arrested. Then David is held in psychiatric hospitals for several years, during which time Jade marries and moves to Europe and David has sexual relationships with several other women. At the end of the novel, it is 1977 and David is released and living with an unnamed woman while Jade remains married and in Europe.


Release Date: July 17, 1981


Distrib: Universal


Boxoffice: $31,184,024 2013: $89,065,200