Upamanyu Biswas
The 2018 teen romance, ‘Midnight Sun,’ depicts a love story between a 17-year-old girl, Katie Price, who suffers from a genetic condition known as xeroderma pigmentosum, and Charlie Reed, her longtime crush. Due to Katie’s health issues, she is home-schooled by her father while Charlie attends the local Purdue High School, from which he graduates in the film’s beginning. The school is vital to Charlie, as it helps him realize his swimming dreams. He uses the pool’s services to practice day after day, albeit with a subdued attitude. As his final swimming event lines up at Purdue, the school’s impact broadens upon the narrative, eliciting even Katie to come to visit with her medical condition.
The Fictional Roots of Purdue High School
Directed by Scott Speer, Purdue High School in ‘Midnight Sun’ is a fictional high school created by Eric Kirsten, who penned the screenplay. Although the school appears briefly, it illustrates the difference in schooling experienced by Katie as compared to her peers. The young teenager spends most of her time cooped up in her room under dark tinted windows, devoid of any contact with anyone except her father and Morgan. On the other hand, Charlie, her crush, graduates from Purdue while being serenaded by his friends due to his popular status. The school also plays a massive part in Charlie’s swimming aspirations, helping him develop his skills when Katie and him go through a small break in their relationship.
Although Purdue High School doesn’t exist in real life, a similarly named institution can be traced to the Purdue Polytechnic High Schools in Indiana, a group of higher-level educational institutes run under one umbrella banner. The campuses owned by PPHS include the PPHS Schweitzer Center At Englewood, PPHS Broad Ripple, PPHS South Bend, and The Lab. The organization focuses on STEM-based courses and offers more application-centered learning. While the Purdue from ‘Midnight Sun’ and PPHS may share similar names, their makeup is entirely different. In the case of the former, the school is primarily comparable to any other typical public high school, whereas, in contrast, PPHS is a post-secondary education facility for those seeking university levels of education.
Filming for ‘Midnight Sun’ took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, a popular destination for several film and TV show productions due to its accessibility to diverse locations. The scenes for Purdue High School were shot in the iconic city with its striking skyline and brilliant seaport. Despite its short appearance within the film, the school is a crucial backdrop, particularly when Charlie aces his swimming event and gets his scholarship for the University of California, Berkeley, where he hopes to pursue his goals. The school’s impact, however, remains entirely confined to the world of fiction as it never manages to solidify itself as a place in reality.
Read more: Is Midnight Sun a True Story?
