Balthazar Malone, played by [Jaeden Martell], is a teenager from a privileged New York City family who spends his evenings making social media videos that dramatize the threat of gun violence in schools and critique the perceived inaction around it. He leans into heightened emotions for the camera, treating each post as a performance that could shape how others see the world he inhabits. When one of his clips draws a sardonic reply from a user named “deathdealer_16,” the dynamic grows more complicated: a private exchange in direct messages fuses fear with curiosity, and Balthazar begins to worry that this mysterious interlocutor might be plotting a real school shooting.
During a private, drill-like simulation organized by a corporate training company, Balthazar’s fascination shifts in another direction when he becomes captivated by Eleanor, an outspoken student activist who publicly condemns American gun culture. To win her attention, he shows her his posts, recounts his conversations with the person behind deathdealer_16, and even shares raw footage of a recent Arkansas school shooting. He moves to kiss her, but her reaction is cool and rooted in contempt rather than romance, and she leaves him unsettled and alone.
In a desperate bid to keep the connection alive, Balthazar embarks on a risky cat-and-mouse game, adopting the persona of Terra through AI tools to appear as a separate young woman. The exchange with deathdealer_16 continues, filled with sexually charged messages, and the two arrange to meet in person. Yet when his life coach, Anthony, tries to pull him back from the edge, Balthazar makes a troubling accusation against Anthony in order to justify his own absence from responsibility, a lie that will echo through the rest of the plot.
Solomon Jackson, the other central figure in this intertwining story, is introduced as a different kind of troubled young man. Solomon, living in a Texas trailer park with his disabled grandmother, is socially isolated and volatile, an outsider whose anger and insecurity have kept him on the margins. He has recently reconnected with his absent father, Beaver, a drug addict and former porn actor who has dragged Solomon into a pyramid-scheme venture selling testosterone supplements. Solomon’s attempts to earn his father’s approval are thwarted when the scheme yields no real sales, and rent at the trailer park rises, compounding his stress. He also loses his job at a gas station after a coworker’s complaints, leaving him with little stability but a growing sense of purpose online through Terra, the same person “Terra” who has captured Balthazar’s interest.
Solomon’s online conversations give him a new sense of possibility, and he convinces himself that Terra’s sister is ill and that Terra will soon return. When Balthazar happens to cross Solomon’s path, he pretends Terra has sent him a message to inform Solomon that Terra’s sister is ill. Solomon briefly buys into the ruse, but the deception falls apart when Balthazar’s cover is blown, and the two men realize they are bound together by increasingly dangerous lies and mutual curiosity. Intrigued and unsettled by his new friendship, Solomon invites Balthazar to come home with him and meet his father at the trailer.
At the trailer, Solomon quietly displays his obsession, gathering guns, notebooks filled with planned shootings, and various mementos from his prior ideological “phases.” He introduces his father’s supplement business to Balthazar, who is not easily impressed, and he pushes Solomon to sign an order as leverage—threatening that he will act out a mass shooting if the order isn’t completed. The two men try to connect in surprising ways: Solomon attempts to teach Balthazar how to cry on cue, while Balthazar tries to prove to Taylor that he has “friends,” though Taylor mocks both of them and the obsession with a cartoon character named Jimmy Phantasm.
A stark turning point comes when Solomon guides Balthazar to a local school to show off his plan. While holding Solomon’s rifle, Balthazar entertains the idea of targeting a janitor, a moment that reveals how raw and dangerous their fantasies have become. Solomon struggles with the impulse, admitting that the shooting fantasies are a form of posturing rather than a concrete plan—yet the emotional momentum is already out of control. Balthazar uses the moment to text Eleanor, and Solomon pretends to have dissuaded him from going through with the act. Eleanor, however, is not fooled and tells him to stop contacting her.
The two men later drink and take 2C-B, muting the world’s boundaries as they go shooting again. They eventually meet Beaver, Solomon’s father, in a bar where Beaver tries to press Solomon into handing over more money and keeps up his cold, manipulative charm. This interaction exposes the grift at the center of Beaver’s world, and Balthazar’s presence only heightens the tension. Beaver’s business partner, Supes, whose cousin was killed in the Arkansas shooting, forcibly ejects both boys from the bar. Beaver follows, still pursuing money and control.
The next day, at Beaver’s business conference, the plan to exert pressure intensifies. Solomon is intent on making good on the dangerous fantasies that have consumed him, and he brings Balthazar along to the scene with a gun strapped to his hip. The confrontation grows hot as Beaver attempts to coerce Solomon into a violent outcome, and the two men end up in a tense standoff with Beaver outside. Inside, the situation spirals, and Beaver’s fear and anger threaten to explode at any moment.
As events escalate, tragedy strikes back at the trailer: the rifle discharge in the living room wounds Solomon’s grandmother, a wound that upends everyone’s plans in a flash. Balthazar flees with a pistol, while Solomon, now more unhinged than ever, pursues him through the trailer park. In the heat of pursuit, Balthazar shoots Solomon in the head as police close in, ending a night of cat-and-mouse games and broken loyalties. The evidence in Solomon’s room, which reads like Solomon’s own truth, points to the other side of the story, and Balthazar is quietly returned to New York City to face the consequences of his actions.
Back in the city, Balthazar speaks to a television audience about his experiences, presenting his confession as a part of young Americans’ “fight for their lives.” The film closes on a note that invites reflection: the line between performance and reality, between outrage and responsibility, has blurred in ways that leave everyone touched by the story to question what they would do when fear, power, and desire collide.
- Jaeden Martell as Balthazar Malone is introduced in the opening arc, with his actions and reactions driving the early tension.
- Asa Butterfield as Solomon Jackson provides the other axis of the narrative, his online personas and real-world pressures converging toward a devastating crescendo.
- Anna Baryshnikov as Taylor anchors the social counterpoint in Solomon’s world, offering a stark contrast to the two male leads.
- Chris Bauer as Beaver embodies the parental figure whose complicated ambitions and flaws push the story toward its most volatile moments.
- Avan Jogia as Supes appears in the orbit around Beaver’s world, a figure whose presence amplifies the consequences of the characters’ choices.
- Noah Centineo as Anthony represents the human counterforce—the life coach whose interventions attempt to steer the story back toward responsibility.
