Three O'Clock High (1987)

A single ordinary school day can turn into a nightmare with one wrong move. Phil Joanou's teen comedy "Three O'Clock High" stars Casey Siemaszko as Jerry Mitchell, a mild-mannered high school student whose day goes horribly wrong when he's assigned to interview Buddy Revell (Richard Tyson), a hulking, notoriously violent new transfer student, for the school paper. When Jerry makes the mistake of touching him, Buddy challenges him to a fight in the parking lot at 3 o'clock sharp. Terrified, Jerry spends the rest of the day racing around campus in a desperate search for a way out, from trying to get himself thrown in detention to paying another student to scare Buddy off, using money he swipes from the school store he manages. Jeffrey Tambor is hilarious in a brief role as the store's faculty adviser. Along the way, Jerry lands in trouble with the school's self-important security guard (Mitch Pileggi) as well as the principal and the guidance counselor. Tangerine Dream's pulsing score adds to the mounting tension as the clock ticks toward the big showdown.