THE GYPSY MOTHS

A skydiving team called the Gypsy Moths visits a small town in Kansas (Benton) to put on a show for the Fourth of July weekend. Their leader, Mike Rettig, is accompanied by his partners, Joe Browdy and Malcolm Webson.

The skydivers stay at the home of Malcolm's uncle and aunt, John and Elizabeth Brandon. Mike becomes romantically involved with Elizabeth, and her husband overhears them having sex. Malcolm falls for local student Annie Burke, a boarder in the Brandon house, while Joe takes an interest in a topless dancer.

Mike eventually asks Elizabeth to leave town with him, but she declines. During the next skydiving exhibition, Mike performs a spectacular "cape jump" stunt but fails to pull the ripcord, intentionally falling to his death. Although nobody wants to discuss it, they suspect that he committed suicide. That night, Annie consoles Malcolm, and they have sex. Before the team leaves for good, they have to bury Mike. To pay for the funeral, Malcolm does the same stunt that killed Mike. He leaves by train that night, without attending Mike's funeral.

Mike performs a dangerous skydiving stunt but fails to pull his ripcord, resulting in his death, which the others suspect is suicide. Malcolm repeats the same stunt to pay for Mike's funeral and leaves town afterward.

The ending underscores the film's themes of risk, alienation, and the emotional cost of living on the edge. Mike's apparent suicide, witnessed but unspoken by those around him, exposes the personal turmoil beneath his daredevil persona. Malcolm's decision to perform the same stunt and then leave without attending the funeral highlights the transient nature of the skydivers and the unresolved grief left behind in their wake.