- The bells are ringing. We see birds and fields and then quickly are thrown in the midst of a busy school hallway.
- A tedious-seeming day unfolds as the students sit in chemistry, Latin, and trigonometry. All seem to bore them deeply.
- Then they arrive in English. The guys laugh and throw spitballs as they wait for Mr. Keating.
- He enters, whistling, and they grow silent as he walks past them and to the door.
- Mr. Keating tells them to follow him, much to their confusion.
- He takes them to the hallway and reads them some poems: "Oh Captain, My captain" and then "Gather Ye Rosebuds."
- It's all about "Carpe Diem," says Mr. Keating, or: seize the day.
- He's all about YOLO, basically.
- Mr. Keating then walks the guys over to a wall of pictures of past Welton graduates, emphasizing that these young boys are now old, or even dead.
- "Seize the day," he repeats, "Make your lives extraordinary," as we pan over the faces in the pictures.
- The boys leave class, and Cameron remarks that Mr. Keating was pretty weird. But the other boys seem intrigued.
- As they hit the showers, we learn that Knox has a dinner "at the Danbury's" that night, and the other boys make fun of him a little.
- The rest of the guys plan to meet for study group, though Todd doesn't seem to want to join them.