Genre: Drama
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writer: Chad Taylor
Cast: Adam Driver, Jessica Chastain, Finn Wolfhard, Rooney Mara, Sarah Gadon, Angourie Rice, Michael Stuhlbarg, Brian d'Arcy James
Plot: 35-year-old Dane Rigley (Adam Driver) is a maintenance supervisor at a car manufacturing plant in Duluth, Minnesota. He lives a relatively quiet life with his pregnant wife Beth (Sarah Gadon) and their two dogs. He sticks to a set schedule every week, including an evening trip to the therapist (Michael Stuhlbarg) every Thursday.
On an otherwise ordinary day, Dane finds himself in a dramatic situation when bad road conditions cause a school bus to overturn on the highway. Dane, the closest one to the accident, uses his own car to re-direct oncoming traffic away from the bus and leaps into action to rescue the kids and driver (with the engine beginning to catch on fire). He continues doing this before emergency services provide, and several onlookers catch Dane’s heroic actions on video. Dane is given his appreciation from the fireman and paramedics, but once he is cleared to go, he goes about his day as normal and makes it to work (his first time late since starting there).
15-year-old Blaze Hollander (Finn Wolfhard) struggles with going about his days, between trying to avoid former friends he's lost over the years at school and the neglect of his mother Janet (Rooney Mara) at home. Between her meth addiction and growing list of scumbag boyfriends, Janet finds less and less time for her son (whom she had at 16) and they slowly grow apart. Blaze finds a bright spot when his teacher, who values Blaze’s untapped potential, recommends him to be the student tour guide for new girl Ragan (Angourie Rice) through her first day at the school. He is enamored with her, not just because of her looks, but they also discover they share the background of broken homes.
Cassandra Edwards (Jessica Chastain) is an online journalist from Chicago. Since it’s within driving distance, she is tasked by her boss (Brian d’Arcy James) to profile Dane in her story on his heroic deeds. At this point, we see the extent to which videos of Dane have went viral and the many news outlets that have covered it. After taking in the city, she visits Dane’s home. He rejects her request for an interview, despite her resiliency. She informs him of his status as a social media celebrity and the benefits of him capitalizing upon that. Again he rejects her. When she gets back to her hotel, she informs her boss over the phone of Dane’s response.
Months have passed and Blaze and Ragan are now in a committed relationship. At home, Janet’s new boyfriend assaults her verbally and physically as Blaze watches on. After he leaves, Blazes insists that he can stand up for his mom but she demands he stay out of it. Blaze becomes generally angrier and more aggressive after this, negatively affecting his relationship with Ragan. They start to grow apart and the final straw is when he finds himself about to hit her (as his mother’s boyfriends had done before). She breaks up with him, leaving him in shambles. As he leaves her house, he steals her cat and tortures it as a release for his anger.
With no first-hand account from Dane himself, Cassandra starts to research using ancillary sources and begins to uncover more about his life. After recognizing an inconsistency in his records, she discovers that he changed his name 17 years ago. Meanwhile, Blaze steals his guns from his friend’s dad and packs them up in his duffel bag. In his storage shed back home, Blaze has accumulated a collection of weapons and made-at-home bombs. He writes a letter reasoning with his lack of empathy for the world and his general indifference toward continuing life as is. He writes in detail about his how he’ll execute his plan. As he writes this, we are given glimpses of him walking into his school, in tactical hunting gear, weapons in hand. Once Cassandra finds out Dane’s name was Blaze Hollander before, she stumbles upon a treasure trove of articles about the troubled teenager. As Blaze puts the finishing touches on his letter, SWAT police burst into his shed and put him under arrest as his mother watches on in agony from afar.
To uphold her journalistic integrity, Cassandra informs her boss of this game-changing news and the plentiful views/clicks this would provide excites him. She pleads with him that, even though they want to be first, she wants to get the full story from Dane himself. Upon visiting, this time Beth answers the door and warns that she’ll contact the police. Cassandra is adamant that she knows about Dane’s past and it’d be in his best interest to cooperate to help tell his own story. When she sits down with Dane in his home, he is open about his life course over the last twenty years. He had horrible thoughts and motives as a teenager, riddled with narcissistic personality disorder and depression, and was luckily stopped before destroying other lives. Over the past 18 years, he went through a juvenile detention center, scheduled regular therapist visits, changed his name and finally reached an equilibrium of anonymity. In the middle of their interview, Cassandra gets a notification that her employer has went around her back and published the information about Dane’s backstory without her knowledge. They turn on the TV and the news channels are covering this new development in the viral celebrity story.
A media feeding frenzy swarms Dane’s life, even more rigorously than before. He bites his tongue and is willing to take any criticism that comes his way, but is worried the stress this has caused on his pregnant wife. Janet, now 50 and married, is interviewed on a morning talk show about the decision to report her own son to the authorities and their lack of communication over the years since. Cassandra chews out her boss for his decision to publish without her consent and goes for a mind-clearing walk in the city on her own.
At this point, Dane’s image has been reframed as a villain on the internet. With pressure from all over the globe and nation, Dane’s boss tells him he has no choice but to let him go (even though the employers already knew about his criminal background). Animal control services take away their pet dogs with the revelation of his past animal abuse. Despite being six months pregnant, Beth must go job hunting to provide at least some source of income for the family.
Dane’s stoicism and pent-up emotions are finally released in his latest session with his therapist. He tries to reason with his current situation, which he has been actively trying to avoid for his entire adult life. Cassandra visits Dane’s household once more, adamant that she tried to prevent this from breaking loose. Dane says that he accepts the situation that he has put himself into. Beth has gotten a new job and with his head down, he reasons that they will be able to make it through this.
Cassandra, alone in her hotel room, starts to write a new profile of Dane for her own personal blog (in voiceover form). She ponders whether our society allows room for transformation and change or it we are defined by our most distinct moments. It is important that she not downplay the foiled plan since he wasn't able to go through with it – all signs point to his intention to actually carry it out. However, she reasons, lives were also saved by someone sharing the same body as the demented kid but perhaps a different mind. Without publishing, she closes the laptop and ventures out to the balcony for a cigarette overlooking the cold city.
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