Arlene realizes what a terrible mistake she has made. Arlene feels that she must nevertheless give her ex-husband another chance, but shortly thereafter he becomes angry and violent and it appears that he has not in fact stopped drinking alcohol. At thirteen, Eugene ran away from home and returned home when he was 16, asking his mother to come with him but his father knocked him out and proceeded to burn him, resulting in a number of scars on his chest. He explains that his father was always abusive of him and his mother always took him back. Eugene is concerned not just about the abusive and violent nature of Trevor's father, but that the simple absence of a loving father is detrimental to Trevor's well-being. When Arlene later tries to explain her choice to Eugene, the audience learns how Eugene's burns were the result of terrible child abuse by his father. Their relationship grows in strength until Arlene's ex-husband, Ricky (Jon Bon Jovi), who claims he has 'changed' and has quit drinking, shows up unannounced and Arlene decides to give him another chance. After Trevor's apparently unsuccessful attempt to help Jerry, he decides to help Eugene by setting him up with Arlene, Trevor's own mother. When Chris asks him for more information, the man explains that, when he recently visited a hospital while his daughter was suffering an asthma attack, a gang member suffering from a stab wound actually took up a gun to force the doctors to look at the man's daughter before she collapsed, prompting Chris to begin his search again. The stranger's only explanation is that he is simply 'paying it forward'. Meanwhile, Chris (Jay Mohr), a journalist, is trying to find out why a total stranger gave him a brand new Jaguar S-Type car after Chris' old 1965 Ford Mustang was damaged in a car accident. Trevor and Arlene embrace in relief after Arlene apologizes profusely. They find Trevor at a bus station, about to be molested. Trevor runs away from home, and Arlene asks Eugene to help her find him. Later that night back at their home, Trevor confronts his mother about her alcoholism, and in a fit of anger she slaps him across the face. Eugene is also intrigued by Trevor's response to the social studies project. She then accuses and confronts Eugene at the school about the reason Trevor has allowed Jerry into their home.

Trevor's plan is to help Jerry by feeding and housing him so he can 'get on his feet.' The next morning, Trevor's mother, Arlene McKinney (Helen Hunt), a single mother recovering from alcoholism, becomes angry with Trevor after finding Jerry in their house. Trevor then comes up with the plan to 'pay it forward' by doing a good deed for three people who must in turn each do good deeds for three other people, creating a charitable pyramid scheme. On his way home from school later that day, Trevor notices a homeless man, Jerry (James Caviezel) and decides to make a difference in Jerry's life. His task is to come up with a plan that will change the world through direct action. A 12-year-old schoolboy in Las Vegas, Nevada named Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) is given a class project to complete by his social studies teacher Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey), a man with terrible burn scars on his face and neck.The synopsis below may give away important plot points.

Ever forward meaning