Rolls and Rivalry

Hazel Buchanan, a high school senior and captain of the Glen Vale color guard, the marching band section that performs choreography with flags and props, arrives at band camp expecting a routine start to her final season. Instead, she discovers that Max Coleman, her childhood crush, has transferred back to Glen Vale and joined the percussion section. Hazel and Max spent years together as kids while their parents played Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) every Sunday downstairs, and Hazel developed strong feelings for him before his family moved away three years ago. When Hazel approaches Max to reconnect, the conversation goes badly: She warns him about the percussion section's antagonistic culture, and he snaps at her, telling her to stay out of it.

Hazel throws herself into her role as captain, but she faces steep challenges. Faith, the guard's new director, cannot attend most practices because of her full-time job, leaving Hazel to run rehearsals alone. The ten-member guard includes disengaged seniors, inexperienced newcomers, and only one enthusiastic freshman, Li Xiang, who quickly becomes someone Hazel feels protective of. At home, Hazel's mother, a former first-chair trumpet player and two-time Most Valuable Member (MVM) winner, pressures Hazel to lead the guard to Superior ratings, the highest possible competition score, and win the senior MVM award. Hazel's father is supportive but less intense.

Rivalry between color guard and percussion ignites immediately. During a drill down, a marching exercise testing knowledge of field commands, Hazel bets Max and Brody, the percussion section leader, that she will outlast them. Hazel and her best friend, Nova Walsh, the clarinet section leader, tie as the last two standing, winning the guard Popsicles from percussion. Max delivers them unfrozen, claiming the bet never specified otherwise. Seeking a bonding activity, Hazel hosts a section dinner and introduces the guard to D&D character creation. Members create characters with enthusiasm, and Li reveals unexpected artistic talent by sketching each one.

When Max fills his section's Water Balloon Day balloons with vinegar, Hazel and Brody raise the stakes with a new bet: Whichever section earns a "best in show" competition award first wins. At the end-of-camp family performance, Hazel notices Max standing alone on the field during the Family March, with no family present.

The dynamic shifts when Max's mother, Melanie, rejoins the parents' Sunday D&D game, forcing Max to spend evenings at Hazel's house. On the backyard trampoline, Hazel bets Max that if he fails a front flip, he must reveal something real about his life. He falls and confesses that his parents have separated. He explains that Hazel's mother helped convince Melanie to leave Max's controlling father, and that he resented Hazel's family because her seemingly perfect home life contrasted painfully with his own. Hazel assures him she knew nothing and admits the pressure her parents place on her makes her life far from perfect. They reach a fragile truce.

Hazel decides to start a D&D campaign. She cautiously invites Max, who admits he was jealous and took his anger out on her. He apologizes sincerely, and Hazel agrees to include him alongside Li, Nova, and Felix Jackson, a quiet sophomore percussion player struggling to fit in with his section. Max surprises Hazel by playing Axolotl, a dragonborn fighter they created together in junior high; in D&D, dragonborn are a dragon-like humanoid race. The group bonds, and Hazel agrees to continue the campaign.

Mr. Hicks, the band director known as "Sire," entrusts Hazel with the key to the guard's outdoor equipment shed, but she loses it before the first football game, and Sire's disappointment damages her confidence. The band's first regional competition then ends in disaster: They place last and fail to qualify for state, needing a Superior rating at one of their two remaining competitions. Hazel overhears Max confronting Brody about humiliating younger players, and Max seeks Hazel out afterward. Their moment of mutual support marks a genuine shift in their relationship.

Inspired by Max's advice, Hazel moves rehearsals to the school auditorium, where mirrors help members self-correct, and introduces a DJ rotation tied to D&D characters. Max challenges Brody for section leader, citing his pattern of ridiculing younger players, and wins the position. Their ice cream outing afterward grows flirtatious. During a band-wide staring game called Glare, Nova tells Hazel that Max has been looking at her every round. When Hazel looks back, they lock eyes.

At the county fair, Hazel reconciles with Li about the D&D campaign and then spends the evening alone with Max at a nature preserve. They climb to a rope netting platform in the treetops. Despite her fear of heights, Hazel trusts him. Max tells her she is unlike anyone else and that he hopes to win her over. Hazel replies that he won her over when she was twelve. They kiss.

Hazel and Max begin secretly dating, agreeing to keep the relationship hidden from their sections. Nova figures it out and warns Hazel to be careful. Tension builds when Max expresses relief about the secrecy, framing it as protecting his splintered percussion section. Before a halftime show, Brody displays a banner depicting each guard member's face photoshopped into a toilet bowl. The stunt backfires: Sire suspends the involved players, and Hazel rallies her guard to deliver their best performance of the season. Max insists afterward that he had no involvement, and Hazel tells him she trusts him without needing proof.

At the final regional competition, the color guard wins Best Overall Auxiliary, the competition's top color guard award, a feat not accomplished in 17 years. The band earns a Superior rating, qualifying for state. Elated, Hazel tells Max she wants to announce their relationship. When percussion members find them holding hands, Max panics and denies they are dating. Brody reveals that Max still has the equipment shed key he stole from Hazel and that the percussion section had planned to use it to sabotage the guard's equipment. Max pleads that he never went through with the plan and that his feelings for Hazel stopped him, but she cannot reconcile his declarations with his pattern of deception. She walks away.

When the guard learns about the breakup, they rally around Hazel. At the MVM awards ceremony, Li wins the freshman award, and Nova wins the senior award. Max privately tells Hazel he confessed to Sire about stealing the key and returned it, knowing the admission would cost him any chance at MVM. At home, Hazel confronts her mother, who missed the ceremony due to a scheduling error. Hazel breaks down, not over the award but over the fear of disappointing her mother. Her mother insists she only wants Hazel to be happy and admits her intensity was an attempt to recreate the joy she felt during her own band years. They reconcile.

On the Friday before state, the guard presents Hazel with a plaque reading "Best Color Guard Captain in the History of the Universe." Max then uses a megaphone to announce to the entire band that Hazel is his favorite person. He leads a performance of "I Want You to Want Me" by Letters to Cleo, the song they bonded over during a car ride, with Nova and other musicians playing while guard and percussion members march in formations shaped like a heart, a nacho chip, and the number 20, a reference to the best possible roll on a D&D die. Max tells Hazel he loves her. She tells him she loves him too, and they kiss in front of the cheering band.

At the state competition, the band earns Superior ratings across all categories. Hazel's parents and extended family attend alongside Melanie. Hazel embraces her mother tightly, their earlier conversation having lifted the weight between them. Max suggests they could continue in college marching band, and Hazel privately considers starting a winter guard, an off-season indoor color guard ensemble, reflecting on how the season transformed her section from reluctant participants into a genuine team.