Brightburn is a 2019 American supervillain horror film directed by David Yarovesky, written by Mark Gunn and Brian Gunn, and produced by James Gunn and Kenneth Huang. It stars Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn, Matt Jones and Meredith Hagner. It follows Brandon Breyer, a young boy of extraterrestrial origin reared on Earth who realizes he has superpowers. Upon learning of them and being brainwashed by the ship he arrived in, Brandon rejects his humanity and turns to evil, opting to terrorize his hometown, including his parents. The film is produced and financed by Screen Gems, Stage 6 Films, The H Collective and Troll Court Entertainment.
Plot[]
In 2006, a spaceship crash-lands in Brightburn, Kansas, on a farm owned by Tori and Kyle Breyer, who have been having difficulties conceiving a child. Inside the ship is an infant child that the couple adopts and name Brandon. They hide the spaceship in their barn's cellar to hide the truth from him.
12 years later in 2018, the ship begins transmitting an alien message, drawing Brandon to it. He sleepwalks to the barn and tries to open the locked cellar, chanting the craft's message, but Tori intervenes and takes him back to the house. The next day as he attempts to mow the lawn, Brandon has difficulty starting the lawnmower and inadvertently launches it into the air, tossing it more than 100 ft (30 m) away. He approaches it, as it is overturned and still running. Curious about his newfound abilities, he stops the motorized blade with his hand.
Brandon displays extremely high intelligence at his school, which other students tease him about, but a girl named Caitlyn consoles him. While celebrating Brandon's 12th birthday at a diner where Caitlyn's mother Erica is the waitress, his parents' friends Noah and Merilee gift him a hunting rifle, which Kyle refuses to let Brandon have. Brandon insists he should have the rifle and acts insolently, causing a scene, so Kyle and Tori take him home immediately. The next morning Kyle suspects something is wrong with Brandon when he finds him absentmindedly chewing and mangling his fork at breakfast. Tori finds photos of lingerie and swimsuit models, surgical diagrams, and graphic photos of human organs in Brandon's room.
Brandon, Kyle, and Tori take a camping trip, and Kyle attempts to give Brandon the "talk" about sexuality because he is exhibiting signs of puberty. Encouraged by his father's advice, Brandon sneaks away from the campsite and travels to Caitlyn's house, hiding in her room until she notices him.
Returning home, Kyle observe their chickens in their coop terrified by Brandon, who is standing over them. Later that night, Kyle finds the chickens slaughtered with the coop's locked door torn off its hinges. Kyle insists Brandon was responsible, but Tori insists it was a wolf attack.
During a trust fall exercise at school, Brandon falls towards Caitlyn, but she does not catch him, accusing him of being a pervert. When she is forced to help him up, Brandon crushes her hand in retaliation. He is suspended and required to meet with his aunt Merilee, the school counselor, but Erica demands that Brandon be arrested. That night at home, Brandon is drawn to the ship again, and he breaks the lock on the cellar door. Tori interrupts him as he levitates above the open cellar, chanting the ship's message, and he falls and cuts himself on the spaceship, the first time he has ever been injured. Tori reveals the truth about his arrival on Earth, and Brandon angrily leaves, finally understanding the ship's message: "Take the world." In his rage, Brandon develops heat vision. Brandon visits Caitlyn with flowers, who tells him that her mother has forbidden her from talking to him. Wearing a red mask and cape, Brandon stalks Erica while she is closing the diner and murders her. Police investigate the scene, finding a symbol looking like two Bs back-to-back drawn on a window, and Erica is nowhere to be found.
The following day at school, Brandon is meeting with Merilee, who informs him that she is required to report his progress to police, but he threatens her not to do so. That night, Brandon stalks Merilee through her house until she goes to bed. Noah arrives home from the bar with Kyle and friends to find a masked Brandon hiding in the closet and threatens to tell his parents, prompting Brandon to lash out. Terrified, Noah tries to escape in his truck, but Brandon lifts and crashes the vehicle, killing Noah. He uses Noah's blood to draw the same symbol from Erica's murder on the road. Brandon returns home shirtless, telling his parents that other students tore his shirt while playing soccer late after school, but refuses to give it to Tori.
Merilee calls Kyle and Tori, and they rush to the hospital to learn from a grieving Merilee that Brandon had gone to her house, contradicting Brandon's story about playing soccer. The next morning, Tori and Kyle inform Brandon of Noah's death, but Brandon has no reaction, which alarms Tori and angers Kyle. When Kyle accuses Brandon and grabs him, Brandon violently shoves him. Kyle finds Brandon's blood-stained shirt and shows it to Tori, but she refuses to believe Brandon killed Noah.
Kyle plans a hunting trip as an attempt to kill Brandon. While Brandon is examining deer tracks, Kyle shoots him, but the bullet bounces off his head. Brandon kills Kyle with his heat vision. Meanwhile, the town sheriff arrives at the Breyers' house and asks Tori to see Brandon. Tori tells the sheriff that Kyle and Brandon aren't home, so he shows Tori the symbol found at the scenes of Erica's and Noah's deaths. Tori claims ignorance, having seen Brandon drawing the symbol before, but then finds Brandon's notebook with disturbing drawings of his murders and his message to "take the world", which brings her to the realization that Kyle was right about Brandon. She attempts to call Kyle, but Brandon answers the phone and informs her that Kyle is gone.
Brandon returns home and destroys the house as Tori calls the police, but Brandon brutally murders the sheriff and his deputy. Remembering that the ship can injure Brandon, Tori runs to the barn. In the cellar, she finds Erica's mutilated body nailed to a wall and surrounded by symbols in blood. Tori arms herself with a piece of the ship to stab Brandon during an embrace but fails when Brandon anticipates the attack. Enraged, Brandon flies Tori through the barn roof and above the clouds and drops her to her death. An airplane flies towards Brandon, and the scene goes dark. The next day, police, paramedics, and FBI are at the farm investigating the airplane crash, which killed everyone onboard. News coverage reports that Brandon is the only surviving resident of the area.
During the credits, Brandon begins his worldwide attacks which news reports cover. A conspiracy theorist named Big T discusses assorted destruction in Brightburn, the existence of other super-beings, and pleads with humanity to take action.
Cast[]
- Elizabeth Banks as Tori Breyer: Brandon's adoptive mother and Kyle's wife
- David Denman as Kyle Breyer: Brandon's adoptive father and Tori's husband
- Jackson A. Dunn as Brandon Breyer / Brightburn: a superpowered alien who is adopted by the Breyer family
- Matt Jones as Noah McNichol: Brandon's uncle and Merilee's husband
- Meredith Hagner as Merilee McNichol: Tori's sister, Brandon's aunt, and Noah's wife who works as the school counselor.
- Abraham Clinkscales as Royce: a young boy who bullies Brandon
- Christian Finlayson as Fauxhawk: one of the kids who bullies Brandon
- Jennifer Holland as Ms. Espenschied: Brandon's school director
- Emmie Hunter as Caitlyn Connor: Brandon's love interest
- Becky Wahlstrom as Erica Connor: Caitlyn's mother who dislikes Brandon
- Gregory Alan Williams as Sheriff Deever: a local sheriff of the small town
- Anne Humphrey as Deputy Aryes: Deever's partner
- Steve Agee as EJ
- Stephen Blackehart as Travis
- Michael Rooker as the Big T: a conspiracy theory blogger who reports on the super-powered beings
Rainn Wilson cameos in a photograph during the credits as his character Crimson Bolt from James Gunn's Super. Mike Dunston, Terence Rosemore, and Elizabeth Becka appear as a gym teacher, a reporter, and Brandon's school principal.
