Plot
In September 1961, two years after the events of the prior film ("Alma Mater" from the original stage musical), Principal McGee and her secretary Blanche react in horror as students arrive at Rydell High to start a new academic year ("Back to School Again"). Among them are the trendy "bad-girl" Pink Ladies and the laid-back, motorcycle-riding ruffian T-Birds. Stephanie Zinone, the new leader of the Pink Ladies, feels she has "outgrown" her relationship with ex-boyfriend Johnny Nogerelli, the arrogant, chauvinistic and rather immature bully leader of the T-Birds.
Clean-cut British student Michael Carrington (a cousin of Sandy Olsson from the previous film) is introduced to the atmosphere by former Pink Lady Frenchy, who offers to orient him. She has returned to Rydell to obtain her diploma so she can start her own cosmetics company (as preluded with "Beauty School Dropout" in the previous film). Michael eventually meets Stephanie, and quickly becomes smitten with her.
At the local bowling alley, a game between both cliques ("Score Tonight") turns hostile between Johnny and Stephanie, culminating in him kissing her friend Paulette Rebchuck. In retaliation, Stephanie kisses the next man who walks in the door, who happens to be Michael. Bemused by the unexpected kiss, Michael asks her out the next day at an audition for the upcoming school talent show, but learns she has standards for her ideal suitor ("Cool Rider"). Attempting to appropriately attain her affection, Michael starts covertly selling completed homework assignments and term papers to the academically-challenged T-Birds to save enough money for a motorcycle. Meanwhile, substitute teacher Mr. Stuart leads a rousing biology lesson ("Reproduction").
Rival motorcycle gang the Cycle Lords, led by Leo "Craterface" Balmudo, surprises the T-Birds at the bowling alley. Before a fight ensues, a lone, mysterious "Cool Rider" arrives, defeats the enemy gang, and disappears into the night ("Who's That Guy?"), astounding Stephanie. Meanwhile, T-Bird Louis DiMucci attempts to trick his sweetheart, Pink Lady Sharon Cooper, into losing her virginity to him by taking her to a fallout shelter and faking a nuclear attack ("Let's Do It for Our Country").
While Stephanie is working at her after-school job as an automobile mechanic at her family's gas station/auto garage, the Cool Rider surprises her with a romantic twilight motorcycle ride to a hilltop. Before he can reveal his identity, the T-Birds and Pink Ladies interrupt them, and he vows to reunite with her at the talent show. Johnny, enraged by Stephanie's new romance, threatens physical violence towards the Cool Rider if her new relationship continues. The Pink Ladies depart haughtily, ignoring the T-Birds' self-confidence ("Prowlin'").
At school, Stephanie's dismal grades in English lead her to accept Michael's offer of help. Johnny, having witnessed their encounter, demands that Stephanie denounce her association with the Pink Ladies to preserve his honor. Although she is still enchanted by the mysterious Cool Rider, her romantic interactions with Michael pressure him into questioning his facade ("Charades").
Stephanie and the Cool Rider reunite at the talent show but the T-Birds abruptly ambush them and pursue him to a closed-off construction site on their respective motorcycles, with the Pink Ladies following in a car. The site conceals a deadly drop, and the biker's absence suggests that he has gone over the edge and perished, devastating Stephanie. Prior to "Prowlin'", the T-Birds sabotage the competing Preptones by tying them to a shower pole in the boys' locker room. During the Pink Ladies' performance ("Girl for All Seasons"), an emotional Stephanie obliviously enters a dreamlike, fantasy world, where she reunites with her mystery biker ("(Love Will) Turn Back the Hands of Time"). She is named winner of the contest, and she and Johnny crowned Queen and King of the upcoming graduation luau.
The Cycle Lords gatecrash the luau the following day ("Rock-a-Hula Luau (Summer Is Coming)"), but the Cool Rider reappears, overpowers them, and reveals himself as Michael. Initially shocked, Johnny subsequently presents him with a T-Birds jacket, officially welcoming him into the gang, and Michael and an overjoyed Stephanie cement their relationship with a passionate kiss. All the couples pair-off happily, and after the senior class graduates ("We'll Be Together"), the credits roll in yearbook-style, as in the original film ("Back to School Again").
