Zero Day

An ordinary day at a high school in Portland, Oregon, is shown through the perspective of several students. Among them are John, who has a strained relationship with his alcoholic father; Elias, a photography student who is building a portfolio of other students; Michelle, an outcast who struggles with her body issues; Nicole, Brittany, and Jordan, three bulimic teens who gripe about their parents; popular athlete and lifeguard Nathan and his girlfriend, Carrie; and Acadia, a close friend of John and a member of the school's gay–straight alliance (GSA). Unbeknownst to anyone, two other students, Alex and Eric, are preparing to carry out a mass shooting and bomb attack at their school. Their motives are vague and inconclusive, with several scenes showing them being bullied and exposed to violent media. Flashbacks throughout the film show them preparing for the massacre by ordering weapons online and formulating an attack plan, which is to detonate bombs in the cafeteria during lunch hour and shoot people as they try to escape. On the day of the shooting, the pair makes their way to school in Alex's car, armed with a rifle, a shotgun, and several pistols. John encounters them outside the school and is told by Alex to leave. Realizing what is about to happen, John tries to warn students and teachers outside, then goes looking for his father after finding his car outside the school. Inside the school, the bombs that Alex and Eric had planted fail to go off, so they decide to start shooting indiscriminately. The pair heads to the library and opens fire on the students there, killing Elias (who photographs them right before they start shooting), Michelle, and others. Other students and teachers in the building hear the gunfire and begin to evacuate. The gunmen then split up and head to opposite ends of the school. Alex enters the girls' bathroom where he surprises Nicole, Brittany, and Jordan, presumably shooting all three. While attending a GSA meeting, Acadia witnesses a student being shot dead in the corridor and becomes frozen in fear before being rescued by Benny, a student athlete who helps her out a window before deciding to find the gunmen. Outside the school, John finds his now-sober father, who tries to comfort him as they observe the attack. In the corridor, Eric encounters Mr. Luce, the principal, and chastises him for treating children like himself and Alex poorly. Benny encounters the two and is shot dead. Eric then seemingly lets Mr. Luce go, only to kill him moments later. Alex and Eric reunite in the cafeteria, now strewn with overturned chairs, backpacks, bodies, and half-eaten lunches. The pair have a brief conversation about who they've shot, which ends when Alex suddenly shoots Eric mid-sentence. Showing no emotion over killing Eric, Alex heads to the kitchen and discovers Carrie and Nathan hiding in a freezer. He tauntingly recites "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" to them to decide whom he should kill first, though the screen cuts to black before he makes his decision.