Genre: Drama/Crime
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Writer: Alex Conn & Chad Taylor
Cast: Nick Robinson, Colin Firth, Ming-Na Wen, Sarah Paulson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jacob Tremblay, Albert Brooks, Dacre Montgomery
Plot: A teenage girl, Claire Murphy (Chloe Grace-Moretz), stands in front of the mirror, trying out different forms of smiles and lines of small talk – as if she is auditioning for a play. She puts on her make-up while simultaneously checking out messages on her phone and social media. Her friend picks her up and in the car they chat about the party they are going to. They wonder about what kind of alcohol will be there and talk about their nerves regarding if their crushes are there or not. When they arrive at the party, they don’t know everybody so they keep chatting to each other as they walk in, making inside jokes that they both laugh at. As they walk in, they pass Elliot (Nick Robinson), who is looking at them but does not say anything.
A narrator (Sarah Paulson) talks in the first-person and introduces herself as Elliot Rodger. On screen, a young Elliot (Jacob Tremblay) sits in front of his parents in silence. The narrator explains who his parents are - his mother (Ming-Na Wen) from Malaysia and his father (Colin Firth) a British filmmaker from a formerly prestigious family who lost their wealth in the Great Depression. While this moment - his parents' divorce when he was 8 - would prove to be a pivotal moment in his childhood (for many reasons), this is not the earliest important memory he has from his adolescence.
Elliot’s dad takes him on a tour through set on a film he is working on. The narrator explains that this was not long after they moved to L.A. Young Elliot is awe-struck by the studio lot – the sets, the lights, and most importantly, the stars. He sees the way below-the-line workers respond to every demand from the actors and the way fans fawn over them. They are the epitome of success – financially wealthy and more importantly, good looking. It was on this set visit that he meets his dad’s screenwriter friend Dale (Albert Brooks), who helped him get a job on the film.
At school, Elliot made his first true friend, Claire Murphy. The narrator chimes in to say how ironic it is that his first friend was a girl. They have fun as kids do, playing house and talking nonsense. When Elliot gets home one day, his parents inform him that he is switching schools and he throws a temper tantrum. They take him to Dr. Willa Sterling (Sarah Paulson), a child therapist.
The film jumps to current day where Willa is sitting at her office desk. She gets a phone call from her husband asking why she isn’t home yet. She doesn’t say the true reason and makes up a small lie. They briefly argue about what is for dinner before saying “I love you” and hanging up. Back to her computer.
The divorce of his parents was devastating for Elliot, for multiple reasons. Now in 3rd grade, Elliot is starting to make more friends (or try, at the very least). When his dad is out of town for work, Elliot’s mom (who can’t drive) arranges for a friend’s mom to take him home. Elliot’s mom is living in a poorer neighborhood and this deeply embarrasses Elliot. He requests that he stay at his dad’s (much nicer) house more often, which makes her cry.
In his sophomore year of high school, Max (Dacre Montgomery) – an Australian foreign exchange student – moves in with Elliot’s father. Max and Elliot (Nick Robinson) form a quick bond given that neither has friends (at least in America). Although initially shy, Elliot becomes enamored with Max’s coolness. Max asks Elliot’s father if Elliot can go to Australia with him for a few weeks when he goes back home and the approval is given.
In Australia, Elliot witnesses Max in his natural habitat and bloom overnight into a social butterfly and lothario, of sorts. He has sex with multiple girls in his first day back and Elliot is impressed. Max takes Elliot out on the town and he becomes frustrated by his inadequacy around women. Max tries to set him up with a girl but it fails.
Upon getting home from Australia, Elliot learns that his mom is now dating again and a rich restaurateur, at that. Without having met the man, Elliot begs for her to make sure it lasts so that he proposes to her. This confuses his mother. She asks if his dad gave him his weekly allowance and he says yes. In his room, we learn that Elliot has been storing his allowance money in his closet.
After having been Max’s understudy, Elliot becomes more social. He gets invited to a party, a chance that he jumps at. At the party, Elliot becomes jealous of the guys who all the girls are talking to. He thinks his fortunes change when Claire – his pre-school crush – surprisingly arrives at the party. However, they briefly make eye contact and she keeps walking on by, laughing. The narrator reasons that she was making fun of him to her friend and this angered him.
Elliot goes home crying and screams into his pillow. He gets on his computer and starts to Google “how to lose your virginity”. He learns of the subcultural term “involuntary celibate”, mostly straight white males who feel biologically pre-disposed to being rejected by girls – and that the girls are to blame for their lack of sex. This is because of the “80/20 rule” that 80% of girls are attracted to only the top 20% of guys. He starts to click with everything he reads about this ideology.
Meanwhile, Willa takes a break from reading and grabs a drink of water.
When his father has Dale over for dinner, Elliot feels comfortable enough to complain about his girl troubles. Dale says that Elliot should compliment girls more often but Elliot, having turned a new leaf with his new philosophy, becomes angry and lashes out against Dale, asking why can’t girls compliment him. Elliot’s dad scolds him and makes him start seeing Willa again.
The narrator explains that Elliot’s worst nightmare eventually became a reality: he would start college as a virgin. So he did something about: he gets a new haircut and outfit style and has his dad buy him a new BMW car. He arrives early to his first class of the day, expecting all the girls to fawn over him. Instead they all take their seats without noticing him and Elliot is devastated. He clinches his fist so hard his palm starts bleeding from his fingernails.
Claire walks to a coffee shop for a blind date. She is cat-called on her way but clinches her teeth and focuses on the music playing through her headphones. When she meets her date, a black fellow college student, and they hit it off really well. In the background, we can see Elliot standing in line, frequently looking back at the couple. Once he checks out, he heads outside before throwing his coffee at the window next to where they are sitting and murmuring something racist under his breath before he runs off.
At home, Elliot collects the thousands of dollars he has saved in his closet. He spends it on getting guns and takes them out to the firing range. He also starts a YouTube channel where he records his thoughts. His estranged parents contact each other and worry about some of his behavior (not even knowing about the guns). They decide to call the cops to check on his welfare. The narrator’s voice trembles when her script says that all the police had to do was check his apartment and they would have found the guns. But they didn’t. And they determined that he was not a threat.
Willa tries to call Elliot’s father but gets no answer.
Elliot parks his car at the beach and records a video of himself proclaiming today to be his “Day of Retribution”. He talks about his lack of intimacy with females and how it has ruined his life. And since girls have supposedly ruined his life, he will take it out on them. He says he will slaughter an entire sorority house before cruising the streets of Isla Vista and killing every person he sees. All the cool kids. He uploads the video to YouTube and sends his written manifesto to a number of people, including his parents and his therapist.
Willa gets a hold of Elliot’s mom, in a panic, and asks if she has read the e-mail. She has not. When Willa tells her of it, she says she is going to contact Elliot’s dad immediately while Willa says she will contact the police.
The film cross-cuts as his parents race to find him while Elliot starts to execute his plan. After having already killed his roommates, he drives to the sorority house he mentions in the video, the one where all the prettiest girls at the college live. After repeatedly knocking, there is no answer and he becomes frustrated before turning around and shooting outside people from a neighboring house instead.
He cruises down one of the main streets of the university and begins to shoot at pedestrians and nearby shops. Inside one of those stores, Claire just happens to be shopping and hurries to the back of the store after its windows are shot out by Elliot passing by. She is too shaken to walk home to her apartment so she calls a friend to give her a ride home. In her bed, she can’t sleep and so feels compelled to turn on the TV. She watches the overnight coverage of Elliot’s spree and she can’t get herself to turn it off. They then show a clip of one of his misogynistic YouTube rants and she scurries to the bathroom to vomit while the camera lingers on Elliot’s face on the screen as he blames women for ruining his life.
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