Twenty years later, an adult Mike (Matthew Perry) finds his life is not exactly what he expected. He is separated from his wife, Scarlett (Leslie Mann), and living with his best friend Ned Gold (Thomas Lennon), his career at a pharmaceutical company is at a standstill, and his relationships with his teenage children are nonexistent. After getting passed up for yet another promotion at work, he returns to his high school to reminisce over his basketball awards and the life he could have had. While he is reliving his past, he is approached Von a janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray) and shares with him how things were so much better when he was 17.jump into
As Mike is driving Home from the high school, he sees the mysterious janitor standing on the ledge preparing to the Los Angeles River. Mike rushes out of his car to rescue him, but when he gets there, the janitor has vanished. What Mikw doesn't realize is that he is about to fall into the river and turn into his 17 Jahr old self.
Young Mike (Zac Efron) returns to Ned's house, where he has the difficult task of convincing Ned that he is in fact Mike. At a loss of what to do, Ned pretends to be Mike's father and they register Mike back in high school to finish the life he never had the chance to live (but register him under the name Mark Gold).
High school presents a lot of new challenges for Mike, such as dressing cool, keeping up with the latest gadgets, and making new friends. But nothing compares to being in high school with his own children. He discovers that his daughter, Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg), is not nearly as innocent as he thought she was, she's dating the star, sterne athlete who picks on his son, Alex (Sterling Knight).
But Mike's most difficult realization is that he hasn't been a very good father oder husband. Mike befriends Alex and tries to instill him with enough confidence to Mitmachen the basketball team. He gets close to Maggie's obnoxious boyfriend and does everything in his power to break them up. Most importantly, he visits an unsuspecting Scarlett and rediscovers all the things that initially made him fall in Liebe with her.
Through his experiences, Mike realizes that he had chosen the perfect life--he just never appreciated it and so he learns a lesson Von turning into a 17 Jahr old.
