Ren McCormack is a fictional character from the musical drama film Footloose, portrayed by Kevin Bacon in the 1984 film and Kenny Wormald in the 2011 remake respectively. A young man from Chicago, IL (Boston, MA in the '11 remake) who is forced to move to a small semirural town called Bomont, Utah (Georgia in the '11 remake) and live with maternal relatives after his father abandons him and his mother (his mother died of leukemia in the '11 remake) where dancing and rock-n-roll music is against the law and a criminal offense, much to his outrage and disgust. Ren goes through an odyssey of ostracism from the Godfearing townsfolk (mostly adults) for being a "city slicker" along with deliberate misinformation and lies about him spread from the troublesome Chuck Cranston. But with the help of Ariel Moore, the daughter of the town's pastor and his future love interest, Ren creates a petition with the help of his classmates in hopes to permanently abolish the law against dancing and rock music to challenge the town's backwards and dishonest religion so they can have a school prom.