Grom: Boyhood

The film opens with a flashforward showing 12-year-old Igor Grom returning home bloodied, while a narration begins. It establishes the 1990s, alternate St. Petersburg, as a city of crime and upheaval. The image of Igor framed by the era foreshadows the personal costs of his father’s police work.

Anubis conducts a bold assault on a St. Petersburg criminal gang to glean information about the operation. The raid signals the scale of Anubis' influence and the danger closing in on the city.

Konstantin Grom and his partner Fyodor Prokopenko interrogate the only surviving gangster. The gangster resists, and Konstantin uses intimidation, nearly killing him to extract information. Fyodor warns him, and Konstantin even threatens Fyodor with his own gun when Fyodor tries to reason. The gangster is revealed to be under the influence of a drug.

Konstantin reports the interrogation results to Elena Khmurova, the chief of police. She urges him to drop the Anubis case and focus on his own son, whom he barely sees due to work. The conversation highlights the political pressure surrounding the investigation.

Later, Konstantin joins his colleagues smoking outside the building. Yuri Smirnov is introduced as a charismatic operative who dual wields guns. The scene underscores the camaraderie and the simmering tension within the force.

Fyodor Prokopenko orders Igor to apologize for his prior behavior during the interrogation, giving him 30 seconds to comply. Konstantin is reluctant to force the gesture. Fyodor then reminds Konstantin of Igor's English Language School Olympiad, prompting the father to abruptly decide to go home.

At home, Konstantin tries to bridge the gap with Igor, who resents his father for missing important moments. Konstantin offers his son a shawarma and mentions the Disneyland tickets he won at school. Igor asks for money to go to Disneyland, but his father refuses due to financial hardship.

Desperate to earn money, Igor secretly steals a bullet from Konstantin’s service pistol and demonstrates a dare behind the garages. He plans to shoot a heated bullet into a jar of pickles without using the pistol. The plan backfires when the bullet shatters the window of a massive bandit in a crimson jacket, forcing Igor to part with his money.

Ignat suggests they help journalist Alexei Prischurov obtain dirt on St. Petersburg’s elite, allegedly connected to Anubis. Although hesitant at first, the boys agree to pursue the job. In the evening, they head to the Anubis-designated meeting place for the elite to gather material, with Konstantin and Smirnov going undercover and Prischurov supplying a video camera.

During the gathering, Igor recognizes one zealot of Anubis by a hand mark in the shape of an X, left the day before with a pink marker. The mark indicates a return time of 10 PM, heightening the stakes for the children and their parents. The tension escalates as the night unfolds.

A high-stakes confrontation reveals that Anubis is Elena Khmurova. She confesses the murders were to facilitate police work and to 'cleanse' the city, with the 'dark magic' being an illusion caused by a drug. Smirnov kills Khmurova, and Konstantin tries to shoot Smirnov but is out of cartridges because Igor had taken one earlier; Smirnov shoots first, and Konstantin fights back with his strength, ultimately dying from his wounds. Igor witnesses the death and blames himself for not stopping it.

In the present, adult Igor lives with his girlfriend Yulia. He dreams of speaking with his father and asking for forgiveness for the stolen bullet. Konstantin appears in the dream and advises his son to let go of the past and move on.

Upon waking, Igor reads his old diary, finding a ticket to Disneyland and a photo of his father attached to it. In a trembling voice, he suggests to Yulia that they go to Disneyland together, signaling a desire to hold onto hope and memory.

In the post-credits scene, Dr. Veniamin Rubinstein conducts a therapy session with Sergei Razumovsky and manages to awaken Razumovsky's evil subpersonality. Razumovsky’s eyes shift from blue to yellow as the subpersonality speaks of escape plans and threatens the therapist, while Rubinstein quietly takes notes for future study.