Scott Favor x Mike Waters

Scott Favor x Mike Waters is the slash ship between Scott Favor and Mike Waters from the My Own Private Idaho fandom.

Canon
Mike Waters and Scott Favor are two young Seattle sex workers. Mike is gay and has severe narcolepsy problems. Since he was abandoned as a child in mysterious circumstances, he has always lived with the obsession of finding his mother, who often appears in his dreams. Scott is the rebellious son of the mayor of Portland, and spends much of his time making his father scandalized, as well as taking care of his friend Mike whenever he has a crisis. For example, at the beginning of the film they both find themselves together with another boy in the villa of a rich woman who took them to her house to have sex. When it's Mike's turn, he is seized by a crisis and Scott and the other boy take him out to a safe place to sleep until morning.

When Mike wakes up he no longer remembers what happened and where he is. He gets stopped by a friend of the woman who wants to take him back. But Mike refuses and passes out again. He then wakes up in Portland in Scott's arms. The both of them go to a bar, and there, Mike finds the courage to ask Scott how much money he earned while he was asleep. Scott gets surprised to hear this question and swears that he would never earn any money if Mike doesn't either. Here the true friendship that binds the two despite everything is shown.

Scott and Mike are accompanied by other sex workers and people dealing with addictions in the city, headed by Bob Pigeon, Scott's "spiritual father." All of them live in an old abandoned hotel where dogs and even a lovely old lady, who seems to be the housekeeper, find shelter. Precisely in this place, one afternoon, the police are sent by Scott's father in search of his son. And Mike and Scott come up with a plan on the spot. The two of them get in bed together and pretend like they just had sex, telling the police to leave them alone, in private. The policeman still gives him the message of his father who wants to see him. When Scott goes to visit his father, the two of them have an argument and Scott's father accuses him of being the cause for his chest pains.

Later, Mike yearns to find his mother, so he and Scott leave for Idaho to visit Mike's older brother, Richard. During the trip, they share an intimate moment together, where Mike confesses his feelings for Scott. In the middle of the night, around a campfire, just the two of them, Mike starts by asking Scott what he means to him. Scott replies that Mike is his best friend. Mike says that he already knows they're good friends, that that's good, but the sad look on his face lets Scott realize that he actually wanted to be something more, so he declares that he only has sex with men for money, not because he's attracted to them. But then, Scott claims that "two guys can't love each other." This makes Mike stutter, so he says "I could love someone even if I wasn't paid for it. I love you and... you don't pay me." After his declaration of love, there's a moment of silence between them, and Mike breaks it again telling Scott that he really wants to kiss him.

When he sees that his feelings are not reciprocated, Mike says goodnight and buries his head in between his legs, hugging himself tightly. However, he says "I still love you, though." The two of them stay apart like this for a few seconds, until Scott tells him to move closer to him. Mike nuzzles against Scott, and stays in his arm, as the only sound heard is the campfire's. Scott starts stroking Mike's hair and caressing his back, as Mike slowly falls asleep.

When Mike has confirmation that Dick is actually his father, he offers him the opportunity to find his mother and Mike does not hesitate to start the search for him, which will take him to Rome, always in the company of Scott. Once in Italy, the two discover that MIke's mother has disappeared into thin air. Distraught and disappointed, Mike bursts into tears and Scott comforts him in his arms once again.

From this point on, their story takes a different and almost dramatic turn, which leads to a strong change in Scott. He ends up falling in love with a Roman girl, named Carmela, who they met in the cottage where they thought they would find Mike's mother. The attraction between the two is immediately understood and it gets extremely annoying to Mike, who sees himself forced to suffer seeing their interactions. After a few days spent in that cottage, Scott announces to his friend that he has fallen in love with Carmela and wants to go on a trip with her, giving Mike the money from the sale of the bike so that he can return to Portland. Mike thus finds himself alone again to continue his desperate wandering.

Just in the scene in which Scott and Carmela get into the taxi, the boy opens a telegram just received announcing the death of his father, and therefore his succession. Upon his return home, Scott receives the inheritance of his newly deceased father and renounces his former life and friends, completely changing who he used to be. The last time the two of them meet each other is at the end of the movie when Scott attends his dad's funeral, while a few meters away Mike and all the other boys say goodbye to Bob with a particular funeral, between screams, shouts, songs and music. Mike and Scott's eyes cross for the last time before saying goodbye forever.

Fanon
is the most popular ship within the My Own Private Idaho fandom. This is due to the fact that the movie revolves around their relationship. This pair has become iconic in pop culture and amongst cinema fans who love the way in which their relationship is portrayed and the care that went into performing it by the actors. Their relationship has been very loved and acclaimed by queer fans of the movie since its release. And recently there has been a resurgence of more and more people, specially younger people, adoring these two's relationship, due to the fact that people are making edits and revisiting the movie.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TUMBLR

Trivia
"I cut that end bit, for a couple of reasons. First, it really tied everything up in a nice little bow. I think it works much better with the ambiguity. Second, I realized in editing, that the movie was about making your own families, not being tied to the one you're born with, and Mike's brother had been portrayed as kind of a dick, so maybe ending up with his family isn't for the best. Who knows who's in that car? It could be the love of his life, who takes him to Italy. I don't know."
 * River Phoenix wrote, and helped to direct the famous campfire scene.
 * The campfire speech when River Phoenix's character declares that he is in love with Keanu Reeves' character was written by Phoenix.
 * River Phoenix wrote the campfire scene in private, on little scraps of paper. Gus Van Sant was under the impression that he had been writing song lyrics, and was surprised when River told him he'd re-written the scene. Van Sant liked what River presented, but didn't know if Keanu Reeves would be up for it. River assured him that he'd already privately talked to Keanu about it, and he was fine with everything. Gus Van Sant says he had to give complete faith to River, since he was completely left out of the loop on the whole scene.
 * At the end of the movie, when Mike gets picked up in a car, Scott was originally the person who would pick him up. However, the director finally decided to leave the ending ambiguous, for the viewers to interpret.

- Gus Van Sant, "My Own Private Idaho" director.