"Trevor Adams (Ben Foster) is an atypical student at a typical American high school. Bright and articulate, he is nevertheless perceived as an outsider by almost everyone, including most of his fellow students and the adults in his life. The fact that he made a bomb threat against the football team the previous year, further alienates him as a student at risk for further violence. "
"As the new school year begins, Trevor documents with his video camera a world that seems increasingly hostile. Welcome to the nightmare, he narrates, upon returning to school. Despite his isolation, there are those at the school who believe in him.
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"Val Duncan (Tom Cavanagh) is the school's charismatic young drama teacher who recognizes Trevor's potential for creativity as well as violence. He offers him the lead role in a controversial new play, Bang Bang You're Dead, the story of a teenager who loses his way in life and resorts to murder. Reluctant to expose himself to more mockery, Trevor is about to decline until Jenny (Jane McGregor), an attractive new girl in school, agrees to play the female lead.
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"In a school divded by cliques, Jenny finds Trevor's defiant individuality fascinating. She quickly learns of his troubled past and despite that, they become friends. Trevor is also befriended by a subversive group called the Trogs, who challenge the popular jocks' sense of self-entitlement and supremacy. The conflict between the Trogs, who are led by Sean (Randy Harrison), and the jocks quickly escalates as pranks turn to dangerous provocations.
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"Val assigns his students to each make a video about the real-life drama in their own lives. When parents learn of Val's plan to stage Bang Bang You're Dead, which they wrongly misinterpret as glorifying violence, Val is forced to move the school production off school grounds.
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"Amidst this highly charged atmosphere, Trevor shows his film assignment during Val's video class. The dark and disturbing film is filled with images of real guns being fired by masked actors and the implied shooting of a member of the football team. The students praise Trevor's technique and his unflinching questioning of authority but Val is deeply troubled. He turns to his trusted colleague, Ellie (Janel Moloney), a math teacher, who confirms his worst fears, the video is a death threat that must be reported to authorities.
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"Trevor is arrested by the police, and faces certain expulsion until his home videos are shown during the school hearing. They document a place that the gathered adults hardly recognize, an environment filled with hate and fear, where many students are fed constant diets of humiliation, verbal abuse and physical assault. The videos prompt promises of quick reform and punishment for the perpetrators.
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"For Sean, however, the promises come too late. After a particularly humiliating incident at the hands of the jocks, he discloses to Trevor the ultimate retribution against the school. The Trogs plan a massacre in the school cafeteria. In a fateful moment, Trevor must confront the consequences of violence and the true meaning of friendship"
