Jim, the World’s Greatest

Jim Nolan is a popular high school student by day and a night-shift worker at a fast-food restaurant to help his family. He balances football and classes with late shifts, shouldering responsibilities at home in a cramped, rough neighborhood.

The father is an alcoholic who often disappears, and when present, he physically abuses Jim's younger brother, Kelly. The dingy apartment and the threat it imposes shape Jim's protective instincts and anxiety for his brother.

Jim confronts his father about the abuse and the true source of Kelly's mistreatment. The father reveals that Kelly is not his son, stating that Kelly is his mother's son. Jim does not tell Kelly about the bombshell, choosing not to share the secret with his brother.

After another incident of Kelly's victimization and with the father's promise to stop, Jim insists the father leave the apartment and takes on the role of primary caregiver for Kelly. He becomes the main breadwinner and protector, trying to hold the precarious household together.

Some time later, the father sits in a tavern muttering about paying Jim a visit the next morning to talk things out and try to regain entry to the household. He plans to reconcile, even as the relationship remains fraught with fear and resentment.

When the father arrives at the apartment to meet Jim, he finds that Kelly is the only occupant because Jim is out working. The uneasy silence of the home underscores the fragility of the arrangement.

Jim returns to the apartment to find Kelly dead in the bathtub. He carries the lifeless body into the street in an emotionally distraught state, overwhelmed by grief and vengeance.

Convinced his father is responsible, Jim waits outside the pub where his father frequents with a large knife in hand, intending to kill him. He comes close to striking an innocent man who stumbles toward a car, revealing the volatile mix of grief and rage.

The father calls to meet at an abandoned location so he can plead for forgiveness and justify his actions. Jim arrives at the scheduled time with murderous intent but, frustrated and overwhelmed, drops the knife and sinks to the ground as his father appears, standing a short distance away.

The father stands emotionally broken in the meeting, stepping forward to address his son as Jim stares with a mix of anger, doubt, and possible sympathy. The scene ends with no clear resolution, leaving the future of their relationship uncertain.