Apartment Zero

Adrian LeDuc is in his Buenos Aires revival theatre, watching the final scene of Touch of Evil. The screening reinforces his deep emotional attachment to cinema as both refuge and vocation. The theatre’s faltering finances hint at trouble to come.

As the theater loses more money, Adrian advertises for a roommate to help share the rent. He hopes a shared living situation will steady his finances and perhaps ease his loneliness. The move sets the stage for Jack Carney's entrance into his life.

Jack Carney arrives as the chosen roommate and quickly unsettles Adrian with his confidence and ease. The two men form a tense bond, with Adrian both drawn to and intimidated by Jack. Living together begins to blur professional boundaries with something more intimate.

Jack befriends several neighbors, including Laura, and Adrian grows increasingly jealous and paranoid. He worries Jack is spying on him through these social connections. Jack’s outward charm contrasts with Adrian’s growing insecurity.

Adrian discovers photographs of Jack in paramilitary garb and suspects a dangerous secret. He confronts Jack and becomes paranoid that his roommate is secretly spying on him. Jack calms him temporarily, but the suspicion lingers and tightens its grip on both.

Claudia’s committee uses Adrian’s theatre to screen footage of death squad members. Adrian is horrified to see the same sign appear in the film that is on Jack’s photos. Jack realizes Adrian’s suspicions have become a real threat.

Fearing exposure, Jack falsifies Adrian’s passport and plans to flee to California. The passport is expired, so he murders a young man to steal his passport, then botches pasting in his own photos. The desperate act seals their shared peril.

Meanwhile, Adrian is devastated by his mother's death. He drinks heavily and creates a disturbance in his apartment that unsettles the neighbors. The emotional blow deepens the tenuous grip on reality.

A TV report of a young man’s murder prompts the neighbors to suspect Adrian, and they confront and physically attack him in his apartment. Jack returns and tends to the badly injured Adrian, further entrenching his hold over him.

During Adrian’s mother’s funeral, Claudia recognizes Jack from the photos. Claudia is murdered by Jack, leaving Adrian terrified and torn between fear and attachment. The two men dispose of the body together.

They dump the body in a garbage landfill outside the city and briefly contemplate fleeing to California together. Adrian’s suggestion foreshadows a possible escape, but Jack remains complicit. The act underscores their dangerous co-dependence.

During a tense confrontation in the living room, Adrian reaches for Jack’s gun. A struggle erupts and the gun fires, ending with uncertainty about Jack’s fate. The immediate aftermath leaves Adrian shaken and begins the unraveling of their deadly bond.

Some days later, Adrian is having dinner when Laura shows up seeking Jack's address. He lies and tells her he hasn't heard from him, then pours two glasses—one for himself and one for Jack’s corpse—demonstrating the macabre, complete transformation. The final shot follows a vast crowd outside Adrian’s cinema as he stands in Jack’s leather jacket, a stark symbol of his complete switch in persona.