The Cure is a 1995 movie about the AIDS virus. It is not necessarily a gay movie but it does highlight the association of AIDS with homosexuals. Erik a teenage boy lives with his somewhat carefree mother who separated with the father. Next to their house a mother has moved in with her son who suffers from AIDS. The son's name is Dexter and he contracted the HIV virus after a blood transfusion. Erik gets teased at school and called derogatory homosexual names because of living near the boy. Most of the boys believe only gay people get HIV/AIDS and so is the majority of the population.
Erik is a loner who spends most of his time playing video games or with battle toys. He hears Dexter coughing next compound and asks him to keep away. Dexter explains that he cannot spread it through the air. Eventually Erik comes around and climbs the fence to meet Dexter. He is surprised Dexter is so small for an eleven year old boy. They begin playing together and Erik takes him to the store where they buy candy. On the way back some boys from school harass Erik after seeing him with Dexter. They insist Dexter is gay and Erik explains that he got AIDS from a blood transfusion. Erik manages to stand up to the boys.
Erik decides to find a cure to Dexter's illness. He starts by feeding him all sorts of candy. Later he boils leaves and flowers for him to drink. One day at the store they come across a newspaper headline about a doctor Fishburn from New Orleans who has discovered the cure for AIDS. They plead with Dexter's mother to take them but she refuses. By now Erik has been staying late at Dexter's house. He has to cheat his mother he has been with other friends because she does not want him around Dexter fearing contraction. Erik goes back to the bush and boils some more plants to find a cure. Unfortunately the plant turns out to be poisonous and Dexter's mother rushes to Erik's house in the night to ask which plant it was. Erik hands him the details. Erik's mother is upset and complains Erik is going to have them both dead. He calls Dexter's mother and orders her to keep the two apart.
Erik plans an escape to New Orleans with Dexter. The two leave in a makeshift raft on a tributary of the Mississippi river. They later realize their raft is to slow and pay for a boat ride with strangers. The two men pick two women on the way. It later turns out they are not going to New Orleans. Erik steals their money and runs off with Dexter to a bus station. The two strangers spot them there and chase after them. After being cornered Dexter pulls a knife and threatens to infect one of them with AIDS. He runs off together with his friend fearing infection. Dexter and Erik return to the station and take a bus.
When they alight the bus they find Dexter's mother waiting. By now Dexter is not feeling well. She takes him to hospital where Erik visits frequently. They spend lots of quality time playing and watching movies until Dexter eventually dies.
Dexter's mother drives back home with Erik while mourning. On arriving Erik's mother violently pulls him from her car and begins beating him. Dexter's mother calls her into the house. She warns her about hitting Erik and informs her about Dexter's death. Erik is left with memories of Dexter including one of his shoes which he washes up the river they used to float.