A meek and impressionable antifascist activist is courted by a dangerous undercover intelligence agent as part of a government operation to coerce isolated young men into acts of terror.
Synopsis
The first act follows Luke as Charlie sidles into his life, seducing him into a bromance using pitchers of beer, video games, and hand-to-hand combat training. There are red flags — a violent altercation at the beach and an ill-fated mission to sabotage police cruisers — but Luke turns a blind eye.
In the second act, Charlie brings Luke to an antifascist meeting and introduces him to an activist named Antigone. The meeting goes south when Charlie is publicly accused of being an infiltrator and sex pest. In an attempt to distance himself from Charlie, Luke lies about his whereabouts and sneaks off to a freeway blockade with his friend, Niko. When Charlie catches wind, he tracks them down and frightens them by firing blanks from a moving car. These extreme and noisy tactics draw scrutiny from Charlie’s FBI handler, Layton.
In the third act, Charlie presents Luke with his scheme to bomb a building using hobby drones loaded with C-4, and under threat of death, Luke agrees to help. Meanwhile, Luke recruits Niko to hide in the woods and document the mission to prove Luke was set up. On the big night, Niko accidentally blows his cover and is swiftly neutralized by Charlie. Luke aborts the drone attack and flees to an empty amusement park, where Charlie inevitably hunts him down. When Charlie is on the brink of killing his patsy, Antigone arrives. After revealing she’s an even deeper cover agent with orders to eliminate both the rogue agent and his subject, Antigone shoots them both.
In the conclusion, Luke and Niko are dead and their murders are covered up. Antigone and Layton move on to the next job. Charlie escapes to central Asia where he joins a burgeoning right wing paramilitary group — keeping it moving, as always.
Comps
Snowfall, Deep State, Empty Metal