50 First Dates

Plot

Henry Roth, a marine veterinarian at Sea Life Park Hawaii on Oahu, dates only tourists to avoid commitment. His friends include Ula, a marijuana-smoking Islander; Alexa, his androgynous assistant; Willy, his pet African penguin; and Jocko, a walrus. One day, his boat breaks down, and while waiting at the Hukilau Café, he meets art teacher Lucy Whitmore, who is constructing architectural art with her waffles. Assuming she is a local, he initially avoids her but returns the next day.

They connect over breakfast, and Lucy agrees to meet him again. The following day, Lucy does not remember him. To spare her, her father Marlin and brother Doug re-enact Marlin's birthday daily. Despite Sue's warning, Henry tries to have breakfast with Lucy multiple times.

After unintentionally offending her, he follows her home and meets Marlin and Doug, who tell him not to speak to her at breakfast. Henry then devises daily schemes to meet Lucy on the road, successfully impressing her over multiple first dates. Marlin and Doug permit this when they notice Lucy singing the Beach Boys' 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' in her painting studio on days Henry met her, the first major change in her routine since the crash.

Production

Columbia Pictures bought a spec script titled Fifty First Kisses from George Wing in October 2002, with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore in negotiations. Barrymore wrote Sandler a letter suggesting it as their next film together since The Wedding Singer. Sandler joined the cast in December 2002 and became co-producer under Happy Madison Productions with Steve Golin's Anonymous Content. Sandler recommended the script to Peter Segal while they worked on post-production for Anger Management; Segal agreed to direct, leaving only two days of break before filming.

The studio changed the original title to 50 First Dates because marketing found that 'kisses' was turning off guys. Uncredited rewrites were done by Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel, Tim Herlihy, and Allen Covert. Sandler reworked the script, transforming it from drama to comedy, moving the setting from Seattle to Hawaii, and rewriting interior café scenes. Segal found those scenes claustrophobic and derivative of My Dinner with Andre, encouraging Sandler to move the location to Kualoa Ranch.

Sandler said shooting in Hawaii was the best possible place for many reasons, including its beauty for a romantic comedy.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack contains cover versions of songs originally recorded in the 1980s and 1990s, mostly reggae-style covers. It reached number 30 on the Billboard 200 and number 1 on the Top Soundtracks chart and Top Reggae Albums chart in the United States. Despite being prominently featured in the film, neither the Beach Boys' 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' nor Israel Kamakawiwoʻole's 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World' was included on the soundtrack.

The soundtrack was produced by 311's frontman, Nick Hexum. 311 provided a cover of the Cure's 'Lovesong' for the soundtrack, heard over the end credits. Other songs in the film include the Beach Boys' 'Wouldn't It Be Nice', the Cure's 'Boys Don't Cry', the Flaming Lips' 'Do You Realize??', Wyclef Jean's 'Baby', Israel Kamakawiwoʻole's 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World' medley, Bob Marley and the Wailers' 'Could You Be Loved' and 'Is This Love', No Doubt's 'Underneath It All', Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider's 'Ula's Luau Song', Snoop Dogg's 'From tha Chuuuch to da Palace', 311's 'Amber' and 'Rub A Dub', and the Ventures' 'Hawaii Five-O', among others.

Depiction of amnesia

Anterograde amnesia is the inability to create new memories following brain injury, with damage to the hippocampus in the medial temporal lobe often determining how severe the condition is. According to clinical neuropsychologist Sallie Baxendale in The BMJ, the film 50 First Dates continues a long movie tradition of showing an amnesic syndrome that does not match any real neurological or psychiatric disorder. Actual amnesic syndromes usually come from a stroke, a brain infection, or neurosurgery; it is very rare for amnesia to result from external physical trauma like a car accident.

One case involves British woman Michelle Philpots, who suffered traumatic brain injuries from two car crashes in 1985 and 1990. She later developed epilepsy in 1994, which caused her anterograde amnesia. She cannot remember anything after 1994 and also experiences short-term memory loss lasting minutes. Each morning she wakes up thinking it is still 1994, and her husband, whom she met before the crashes, must use a photo album to prove they married in 1997.

In 2010, researchers described another woman who developed a similar memory problem after a car crash. She reported normal memory for events on the same day, but memories from the previous day disappeared each night. However, neuropsychological tests showed some improvement in recalling tasks she had unknowingly done the day before. Although she said she had not seen 50 First Dates before her 2005 crash (though she watched it many times afterward), she named Drew Barrymore as her favorite actress, leading researchers to think her condition may have been shaped by some knowledge of the film's story.

Did You Know?

• The film was released on DVD and VHS on June 15, 2004, by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, and in 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on June 23, 2026, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
• During the end credits, the film featured a dedication to the memory of Sandler's father Stanley, who died at age 68 from lung cancer on September 9, 2003.