Chronicle Chronicle is an American-found footage fiction
action film released in the year 2012. The plot of the film follows a trio of high school seniors,
Andrew, his cousin Matt, and friend Steve, who after discovering a mysterious object in the
woods develop superhuman powers. At first, they implement their powers for fun until they turn
into a dark nightmare causing the trio to lose control over themselves.
The film starts with a troubled and introverted teenager, Andrew Detmer who has recently bought
a camera to document his life. As he gets ready for school, his father Richard who has a
drinking problem tries to barge into his room. The frightened Andrew turns on his camera and uses it
as a threat to keep Richard away from him. Andrew also takes care of his loving mother Karen who is
fighting cancer. Andrew’s cousin, Matt Garetty arrives to pick him up for school and the two
boys jam their way to school. Upon arriving at school, Matt goes away, leaving Andrew alone.
Andrew is a socially awkward, lonely kid at school who has no one to hang out with.
Seeing him videotape his life at school, some bullies beat him and try to destroy his
camera. After school, Matt picks up Andrew and invites him to a party so he can make friends.
At first, Andrew refuses as he does not like to attend parties but upon Matt’s insistence,
he agrees to come. Matt advises him to leave his camera at home as it makes people uncomfortable
but Andrew chooses not to listen to Matt’s advice. Later at home, while Andrew is using his computer,
Richard storms into his room and throws him to the ground for not letting him into the room
earlier unbeknown that the camera is rolling. At night, Matt picks up Andrew for the party.
Upon entering the party, he isolates Andrew by asking him to go mingle and make friends. Casey,
a beautiful girl from school bumps into Andrew and is fascinated to see him filming as she also
films for her blog. Soon into the party, a drunk guy bursts onto Andrew for trying to
film his girlfriend and in the heat of the moment throws his drink on Andrew’s face.
Dejected, Andrew leaves the party and while he fixes his camera, a popular
student at school named Steve approaches him. Steve asks Andrew to join him and Matt across
in the woods where they have found a huge hole to film it. Andrew agrees and, on their way,
Steve tells him that several girls are also present at the site obsessing over the large hole.
Upon arriving at the mouth of the hole, Andrew flips out after hearing weird noises coming out
of it. Despite Andrew’s reluctance, Steve jumps inside the hole to discover what’s underneath.
The drunken Matt follows Steve inside the tunnel. Having no other choice, Andrew also
jumps in with his camera and flashlight turned on. The three of them go deep inside the hole only to
discover a glowing crystalline object. The trio is astonished to see the mysterious object.
While Andrew keeps insisting on returning back, Steve and Matt do not budge and are excited
to see what the object really does. Steve approaches the object and as he touches it,
the object starts reacting violently. It starts changing colors after which suddenly Steve’s nose
starts bleeding, Matt is thrown against a wall, and Andrew’s camera shorts out.
The scene cuts to weeks later when the three of them have become close friends and spend
most of their time together. They have developed telekinetic powers and use them to play and record
pranks. They are able to make any objects fly and feel over the moon to be able to do such stunts.
Soon the friends decide to revisit the hole to see how they acquired the telekinetic powers.
However, upon reaching the site, they are bummed to see that the hole has collapsed and due to
instability, the ground is being taped off. Andrew has gotten a new camera ever since
his old one was destroyed. Steve questions him about why he always carries the camera
so Andrew reveals that he wants a barrier between him and the world which is why he likes to film
everything. The two friends share their family problems to feel better. While Steve feels bad
for his parents who keep fighting, Andrew is sick of his alcoholic father. Later, Andrew spends time
using his telekinetic powers to lift his camera in the air and also take his mother for an outing.
The three friends try to annoy the students at school using their telekinesis.
They even try to scare off the customers at a grocery store by sliding trolleys,
lifting objects in the air, and throwing a boy against a counter rack. Later, they go to a diner
where Steve and Matt exasperate the waitress with their powers. While standing in a parking lot,
Steve telekinetically changes the location of a parked car to prank its owner. Although his
nose starts to bleed, the trio enjoy having fun and playing games. However, their pranks go too
far when Andrew telekinetically pushes a jeep off the road which crashes into a nearby pond.
Steve jumps into the pond to save the driver’s life and the three of them manage to save him.
Despite Andrew’s reluctance, Matt calls the cops for help and later he and Steve berate Andrew
for putting a man’s life at stake. Matt decides to set rules and declares that they must restrict the
use of their powers against human beings or when they are angry as it can prove to be dangerous.
Later, Matt as a caring cousin explains to Andrew that he needs to be more careful
while using his powers as they can not only cause others harm but also himself. The duo
then drive to meet Steve at an abandoned area where they are astonished to see him flying.
Fascinated, Matt and Andrew quickly learn to fly and the trio can’t stop flying in the clouds.
Andrew films everything on his camera to keep a record of it while also enjoying
himself with his friends. The trio even play baseball in the clouds but all of a sudden,
a plane hits Steve plunging him downwards. Andrew saves him from the abrupt fall and the friends are
ecstatic to record the scene on the camera. At night, Andrew is unable to sleep as he
has had the best day of his life flying around. Later, while studying at the library together,
he expresses his desire to fly to Tibet because of its beautiful and peaceful nature.
Steve and Matt agree to go to Tibet and fulfill Andrew’s wish after they finish
graduating. Later, Matt stops by Casey’s house to hand her a charity form for African drought,
implying to her that he has become a really global and careful person. However, Casey does
not pay much attention to him and sends him back. Meanwhile, Steve and Andrew share a heart-to-heart
conversation on a rooftop. Steve talks about how his mother’s betrayal has made his father
quiet and dazed. He then encourages Andrew to enter the school talent show with him. At first,
Andrew hesitates but then agrees to it. Before leaving for the talent show, Richard questions
Andrew about how he has been going to school as Matt no longer comes to pick him up. However,
Andrew does not utter a word about his superpowers and keeps lying that Matt drives him to school.
At the talent show, Andrew impresses the audience by disguising his powers as a magic act. Matt
records the entire show while the fellow students go crazy over Andrew’s magic tricks. Later, the
three friends drive to an after-house party where Andrew is considered a new hero and applauded
by the students. A pink-haired girl named Monica tries to hit on the drunken Andrew and they end up
upstairs to have some fun. Meanwhile, Matt tries to hit on Casey and Steve tries to record Andrew
with Monica. However, Andrew’s night with Monica ends up being ruined after he throws up on her.
Steve films the aftermath of the scene and mocks the humiliated Andrew, driving him mad.
Soon Richard finds out that Andrew has splurged $500 on his camera, using the money kept for
Karen’s medicines. Infuriated, Richard goes through the camera’s recent footage where
Andrew is being humiliated by Steve and confronts Andrew about it. He tells Andrew that he is an
embarrassment to him and that he is careless for spending the money on his stupid camera.
Andrew boils with anger after Richard humiliates him and beats him to a pulp. He feels overwhelmed
due to his mother’s deteriorating health and out of frustration, uses his telekinetic
powers to throw Richard across the room. Meanwhile, Matt is away with Casey and
experiences a nosebleed after sleeping with her. The nosebleeds indicate that he might be
overusing his powers or that his friends might be in trouble. On the other hand,
the angry Andrew flees home and ends up in the clouds alone in the middle of a lightning storm.
Steve tracks him down and tells Andrew that he has been having nosebleeds. However, after seeing
Andrew’s face bruised, he understands that he had picked a fight with his father. Steve tries to
console Andrew and convinces him to return back home as it is not safe to be out in the storm.
However, Andrew does not listen to him and just then Steve is suddenly struck by lightning and
killed. At Steve’s funeral, Matt is pissed at Andrew for filming the graves and asks him why
he has been avoiding his calls. Andrew does not give him a straight answer, driving Matt angry. In
his fury, Matt tries to snatch his camera to have a proper conversation but Andrew telekinetically
lifts the camera in the air. Matt questions Andrew about the cause of Steve’s death but Andrew does
not reveal anything and instead flies off. The next day, Andrew returns back to Steve’s
grave and begs for forgiveness. He expresses how his supernatural powers are taking the best of him
and amplifying his anger issues excessively. Later, he returns back to school where he is
once again hated and bullied by the students for the after-party vomiting incident.
Andrew is unable to resist his anger and channels it to rip teeth out of a bully’s mouth in front
of the students, leaving everyone surprised. Later, he takes the ripped teeth to the toilet
and flushes them to get rid of the evidence. The power of his telekinesis starts taking over
Andrew’s mind and he begins to identify himself as an apex predator which is the strongest animal in
the ecosystem. He makes himself believe that he is made to use his powers to hurt those weaker
than him and should not feel guilty about it. Matt finds out about Andrew’s teeth-ripping
stunt a few days later and goes straight to meet him. He reminds Andrew about the
rules that they had set initially, making Andrew angry. When Matt tries to punch him in the face,
Andrew uses his powers to stop the punch and then leaves to get medications for his mother.
However, at the pharmacy, Andrew is unable to get the medications as they cost a lot of money which
Andrew couldn’t afford. Desperate to get his mother the meds, Andrew disguises himself with
Richard’s firefighter gear in Richard’s absence and goes to steal money. He tries to rob the guys
on the street and when they recognize Andrew, he uses his powers to beat each one of them brutally.
He then grabs money from their wallets and flies away. However, soon Andrew realizes that the money
will not be enough to buy the meds so he goes to rob a gas station. After robbing, he mistakenly
causes an explosion that sends him to a hospital. In the hospital, Richard arrives to see his son.
While Andrew is unconscious, Richard informs him that Karen died last night while he was
out looking for him. He blames Andrew for Karen’s death and becomes hysterical while asking Andrew
to sit up and apologize. As Richard is about to hit him, Andrew awakens and abruptly grabs
his arm before blowing out the wall of the room. On the other hand, while Matt is busy
celebrating a birthday party, he experiences a nosebleed and realizes that Andrew is in trouble.
Just then, he finds out through a news channel about a mysterious explosion at the community
hospital. Matt freaks out and rushes to the hospital with Casey to make sure Andrew is fine.
Upon arriving at the scene, he sees Andrew flying out of the hospital room while holding
his father by his neck. The crowd flips out seeing two human beings in the air
and just then, Andrew drops Richard to the ground. But before Richard could fall,
Matt flies up and saves him by lowering him to the ground. Casey loses her wits seeing Matt
flying and tries to question him but Matt puts her back in the car and drives away.
However, Andrew interrupts their way by crashing Matt’s car. Matt leaves Casey at a safe spot and
flies away to stop Andrew from showing off his craziness. However, devastated by the loss of his
mother, Andrew does not listen to anything Matt says to him. After causing huge destruction across
the city, the two of them end up on a street where the police surround them. Seeing the havoc around,
Andrew boils with anger and channels it to destroy the buildings around him. Matt
realizes that Andrew’s rage is uncontrollable and that he can go to any limit to channel his
anger. Having no other choice, Matt stabs Andrew in the heart with a spear from a nearby statue.
The police then start approaching Matt but before they could catch him, Matt flies away. The scene
cuts to Matt landing in Tibet with Andrew’s camera. He videotapes himself while apologizing
to Andrew. He makes it clear that from now onward he will be using his powers for a good cause and
also find out what happened to them in the large hole. The film ends with Matt pointing the camera
at a Tibetan monastery in the distance and telling Andrew that he made it to his desired destination.
This movie has a rating of 7.0 on IMDb. The budget of this movie was around $12 million and at the
box office, it earned $126.6 million. I hope you all liked this video. If yes, then make sure to
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