I have a '99 Saturn SL1 5 speed manual transmission. i was teaching my son to drive. he was at a stop sign and put it in first and when he tried to go, there was a bang, the shifter shot back into neutral and now the car wont go at all. i can freely shift from gear to gear, the clutch feels as though it is working, and when i step on the gas, the rpms go up, it just doesnt go anywhere

With an assistant check to see if the shifting cables are moving the arms on the transaxel, if not then it may be a broken cable. The most likley is there is something broken in the drive line, [ clutch, input shaft to Trans, final drive gear[s] in Trans, Axel shaft, etc.] First look to see if the the axels are bad. Then you can check the final drive by jacking up one front wheel [ making sure the other is firmly on the ground ] and try to rotate the lifted one, it shouldn't spin. You can see if the clutch or the input shaft is bad by putting the car in gear and seeing if you can push the car with out the engine rotating. Any of the problems will be costly to repair, axel and cable the least.