Our Hero, Balthazar (2025)
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2025-09 to 2026-08
A wealthy teenager travels to a remote trailer park to confront a potential school shooter in an attempt to prevent a future attack.
The story
Balthazar Malone, the son of an affluent New York City family, creates social media content regarding gun violence. After receiving a cryptic response from a user named 'deathdealer_16', Balthazar becomes convinced the user is planning a school shooting. To impress a student activist and navigate his own complex motivations, Balthazar begins a digital and physical pursuit of the individual. He eventually travels to a trailer park in Texas to meet the person behind the username, initiating a tense confrontation between two very different young men from opposite ends of the socio-economic spectrum.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Balthazar Malone, a wealthy New York teenager, becomes obsessed with a social media user, 'deathdealer_16', whom he believes is planning a school shooting. He uses AI to catfish the user into a meeting and travels to a Texas trailer park to find them. There, he meets Solomon Jackson, a marginalized youth living in poverty. The two spend time together, with Balthazar pretending to be a friend while Solomon deals with his own struggles, including a predatory father, Beaver, who runs a fraudulent supplement scheme. The tension peaks when Balthazar realizes the extent of the scam and Solomon's desperation. After a violent confrontation at a bar and a subsequent argument at the trailer, a struggle leads to a stray bullet mortally wounding Solomon's grandmother. Balthazar flees and eventually kills Solomon during a chase. He returns to New York and gives a televised interview, framing the entire ordeal as a heroic fight for his life, while the evidence in Solomon's room makes it appear as though Solomon was the aggressor.
- First release year
- 2025
- Runtime (minutes)
- 96
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Oscar Boyson
- Writers
- Oscar Boyson · writer; Ricky Camilleri · writer
- Cast and characters
- Jaeden Martell · Balthazar Malone; Asa Butterfield · Solomon Jackson; Chris Bauer · Beaver Jackson, Solomon's abusive father; Jennifer Ehle · Nicole Malone, Balthazar's wealthy mother; Anna Baryshnikov · Taylor; Noah Centineo · Anthony, Balthazar's life coach; Becky Ann Baker · Elaine, Solomon's invalid grandmother; Avan Jogia · Supes; Pippa Knowles · Eleanor, Balthazar's classmate and love-interest
- Genres
- black comedy-drama
- Themes
- gun violence; social media influence; class disparity
- Tone and mood
- black comedy
- Setting
- New York City and a trailer park in Texas.
- Premise and plot tags
- thriller; social media; political
- Reception
- The film received generally favorable reviews from critics.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 72 · scale: 100 · review count: 7
- Production trivia
- The film was released in the United Kingdom in July 2026.; The UK release required cuts for indecent images of children.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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