The Doors

December 8, 1970. In a dark recording studio, Jim Morrison (Val Kilmer), lead singer for the rock band, The Doors, drinks whiskey while recording spoken-word versions of his poetry. The engineer (a cameo appearance by Doors drummer, John Densmore) plays a pre-recorded music track and Jim begins to recite his work "An American Prayer". Jim is also celebrating his 27th birthday.

In a flashback to the 1950s, a young Jim and his family are seen driving across a desert in New Mexico. They pass the scene of a car accident involving two families; one family are American Indians. An elderly Indian man (Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman) lies dying on the side of the road; he seems to stare directly at Jim while his mother tells him the scene is just a bad dream. Jim watches until his family has driven out of sight.

The film then jumps to 1965. Jim is seen hitchhiking to California and is picked up by a motorist. In Los Angeles, Jim attends UCLA Film School. His student film, a black and white, artistic and surreal collection of haunting images and spoken poetry, is heavily criticized by both his classmates and his professor (a cameo by director Oliver Stone). His classmate and future bandmate, Ray Manzarek (Kyle MacLachlan), tells Jim that his movie is commendable, despite the criticism. When the professor asks Jim to defend the film, Jim says simply "I quit."

Jim takes up residence in Venice Beach and meets Pamela Courson (Meg Ryan), his future wife. Jim shares his love of philosophy and poetry with her and the two spend a romantic evening on a rooftop having sex. Jim later meets Manzarek on the beach, interrupting him while he meditates. Jim sings Ray some poetry he has written that he believes can be recorded as a song ("Moonlight Drive"). Ray is astounded and the two set out to form a band, the name being inspired by Aldous Huxley's memoirs, "The Doors of Perception". They recruit John Densmore (Kevin Dillon) as their drummer and Robby Krieger (Frank Whaley) on guitar. Their first rehearsals are held in Ray's apartment, where they perform "Break on Through". Robby plays a song he had been working on which becomes "Light My Fire". The band soon finds themselves on LA's famous Sunset Strip, performing as an opening act in one of the Strip's many clubs. At first Jim is unable to face the crowd while trying to build his confidence. The band is approached by a talent agent who wants to sign them. The same man later tries to talk to Jim alone, thinking he could be signed without his bandmates. Jim is none too caring over this.

One year later in 1966, the band bonds further while on a trip to Death Valley to attempt peyote. Everyone experiences different hallucinatory visions while the film's soundtrack plays the strains of "The End". The scene changes to another performance by the band where Jim is singing the Oedipal interlude of the song, which offends the club owner who throws them out. Outside, they are approached again by a talent agent. With him is the band's future producer, Paul Rothschild (Michael Wincott). They are given a chance to record an album in six days. The band agrees. Rothschild is impressed with the band's professionalism and energy, believing the album will be a hit.

Having achieved some measure of success, the band is asked to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show where they will perform "Light My Fire" Before the performance, Sullivan's producer (Sam Whipple), asks the band to alter the song slightly, changing "Girl we couldn't get much higher", a potential reference to doing drugs. Jim is none too willing to comply but agrees. However, during the performance, Jim does not comply (clearly defiant to sing the song as it is), drawing the anger of the producer, who angrily says the band will never perform on the show again.

In 1967 in New York City, at a party thrown by Andy Warhol at The Factory, Jim meets Nico (Kristina Fulton), a sometimes singer with The Velvet Underground, and Warhol himself (Crispin Glover). Warhol gives Jim a telephone that he claims can be used to speak with God. Later, at their hotel, Jim cavorts in the elevator with Nico, while Pamela staggers around in a drug-induced depression.

The band is interviewed by the press - one of the reporters is Patricia Kennealy (Kathleen Quinlan). Jim speaks cryptically about his parents (saying they died in an automobile accident years before) and about life in excess and using drugs. Jim later has sex with Kennealy in her loft but is mostly unable to perform. She entices him with cocaine and consumption of his own blood which drives him into an animalistic frenzy. Jim later is unable to perform sexually with Courson. Jim asks Pamela if she will die for him and dangles himself out the window. Pamela becomes nearly hysterical and manages to get Jim back in the room where he is able to finish having sex with her.

December 9, 1967. Backstage at a concert in New Haven, Connecticut, Jim has a feverish encounter with Kennealy, who reveals that she knows Jim's parents are still alive and that she talked to his father on the phone, a Navy admiral who currently lives in Florida. Jim tries to convince her that they are at least figuratively dead, but she still tells him never to lie to her again. A policeman (Titus Welliver) appears, asking who they are. Kennealy tries to explain who Jim is, however the cop becomes hostile when Jim resists arrest, shoving the cop, and the cop sprays the singer in the eyes with mace. The rest of the band comes to his aid, Manzarek tells Kennealy to leave Jim alone, believing she got him in trouble. During their performance that night, Jim suddenly stops singing and recounts the incident to the crowd while mocking the police. The police captain walks on stage and arrests Jim, stating that his language as broken state obscenity laws. Jim is arrested on-stage by the cops whom provided security for him, and are now roughing him up as the crowd goes wild with rage. A near-riot is averted when other policemen arrive on the scene to disburse the crowd. Jim is seen posing for the famous mug shot.

Jim and Pamela throw a Thanksgiving 1968 dinner party for their friends back in California. Pamela is upset with Jim for not staying sober for the gathering like he had promised; Jim had earlier dropped a tab of LSD. Jim convinces Pamela to take a tab herself and she spends the rest of the day in a largely depressed state. One of the guests is Patricia Kennealy, a name that Pamela recognizes immediately. She confronts both Jim and Patricia about their sexual relationship and becomes furious with Jim, throwing food at him in front of their guests. Jim stomps on the burnt duck Pamela had been roasting and demands she kill him with a kitchen knife. Their friends are able to pull them away from each other.

Jim and Pamela have a furious fight when Jim finds her with another man while they shoot heroin. Jim locks Pamela in a closet and sets the door on fire. Pamela is able to escape the closet and house. In a Celtic hand-fasting ceremony, (the high priestess is played by the real Kennealy) Jim marries Patricia after a short trip to Las Vegas. Jim is also seen partying heavily and getting into a car accident when he runs into a police car.

Jim is later in the studio trying to record "Touch Me" for the Soft Parade album; his performance at the microphone is substandard. Their producer, Paul Rothschild, tells Jim that his life of excess is affecting his performance and that Janis Joplin suffered the same fate and died of alcoholism. On a small television in the studio, Jim sees a commercial for a car that features a pop version of "Light My Fire". The band tells him that they decided to sell the song to the auto company during a time when Jim was in minimal contact with them. Jim becomes enraged and hurls the television across the room, nearly hitting Ray, and then cheerfully apologizing. Later, while Pamela performs oral sex on Jim as he sings the title track for the album, everyone in the control booth leaves quietly, unimpressed with Jim's continuing lackluster performance.

March 1, 1969. Backstage in Miami where the band is due to perform, the band awaits the arrival of their frontman. Densmore looks out on the crowd and hears a reporter recording a story about what he believes is the end of the band itself, criticizing the Soft Parade album. The band is told that Rothschild is bringing Jim to the venue. When he arrives, his bandmates are angry with him for being late and plainly intoxicated. Jim gives Robby a tab of LSD and they go onstage. Not long into the show, Jim sees a vision of a bonfire and a young American Indian girl and the elderly man he had seen dying on the road years before. Jim stops singing and tells the crowd that they're slaves and begging them to undress in public. The band stops playing, clearly annoyed and angry with Jim's attitude. Already agitated at Jim's tardiness, the audience begins to shout back at him. Jim shouts mostly nonsensical gibberish and tells them he will expose himself. When he unzips his pants, the police present at the venue, attempt to arrest him but he evades them and runs into the crowd, singing "Dead Cat, Dead Rats" and launching into "Break on Through". The crowd wildly follows him.

The incident is a low point for the band, resulting in the Doors cancellation of their future concerts, resentment from the other band members and Jim's trial the following year for indecent exposure. At his August 1970 trial, Jim is found not guilty of lurid behavior, but convicted of indecent exposure and using profanity and is sentenced to eight months in prison. However, Jim is allowed to remain free on bail while the verdict is being appealed. Jim meets with Patricia, who tells him she's pregnant and that he's the father. She's unsure of whether she wants to keep the child or have it aborted. Jim suggests she find someone else to be a father to the child, citing his own irresponsible nature and the stress the trial is causing him. When Patricia angrily reminds him of their pagan wedding, Jim claims he was too stoned to remember.

At an intervention of sorts, Jim is confronted by his bandmates and friends who share various bits of news with him: several women are claiming Jim got them pregnant, their recording company is thinking of dropping the band, the Woodstock Festival is being planned and the promoters want The Doors on the bill. Jim takes all this in with television news reports of the Vietnam War and the antiwar protests at home and tells everyone he thinks he's having a nervous breakdown.

When the last of his appeals for his 1970 indecent exposure conviction is denied, Jim and Pamela decide to flee to Paris, France where Jim can relax and focus his creative writing energy. After The Doors make a comeback with their early 1971 album, "L.A. Woman", Jim decides to quit the band and focus on his poetry. At a birthday party for Ray's young daughter, Jim talks with the rest of the band who play "Riders on the Storm" for him. Jim comments that it "sounds pretty good for four guys who were barely talking to each other" the day they recorded it. Jim gives everyone a small printed version of his work "An American Prayer" and the band say their goodbyes, despite having hardly spoken. Densmore even tells Jim him he will actually miss him. Robby tells Jim he "got to make music with Dionysus" the Greek god. Jim gives Ray's daughter a small doll of himself and passes out. Ray wakes him up some time later and reminds him that his flight is leaving soon.

On July 3, 1971, Pamela finds Jim Morrison dead in a bathtub in their apartment in Paris. The final scenes of the film are of graves of other poets, composers, writers & performers all buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. A rock version of Remo Giazotto's "Adagio in G minor" plays in the background with a voiceover by Morrison. The camera finally moves toward Morrison's own grave, showing the graffiti that covers other gravestones nearby, finally settling on his marker, a simple stone adorned with a bust. (The objects left in tribute were removed and the graffiti cleaned off the surrounding graves in 1994 at the behest of Jim's parents.) Just before the credits roll, the screen whites out and text appears saying "Jim Morrison is said to have died of heart failure. He was 27. Pam joined him three years later (from a heroin overdose) in August 1974, and she was also age 27 when she died."

During the closing credits, the band is shown recording the song "L.A. Woman" in the studio, surrounded by their friends.