Chronicle (film)

Friendless Seattle teenager Andrew Detmer endures frequent abuse from bullies and his alcoholic father Richard, while also coping with his loving mother, Karen, who is dying of cancer. He begins to videotape his life. His cousin, Matt Garetty, invites him to a party to help him mingle, but this fails as his filming causes an altercation with an attendee who throws his drink in Andrew's face. Popular student Steve Montgomery finds a crying Andrew outside the party, and asks him to record a large hole they have found in the woods. A drunken Steve and Matt enter, and Andrew reluctantly joins. The trio head through a small tunnel before discovering a glowing crystalline object, which causes inexplicable phenomena as they approach it. As the object begins to react violently, the camera shorts out.

Weeks later, Andrew has bought a new camera, and he records himself, Matt, and Steve as they display telekinetic abilities. As the group practices with them, they realize their abilities become stronger the more they are exercised. They develop a close friendship, and begin using their abilities to play and record pranks. However, one day, Matt and Steve are horrified when Andrew telekinetically pushes a rude motorist tailgating them off the road and into a nearby pond, and barely manage to save the man's life. Matt realizes how easily they can cause harm now and insists that they restrict the use of their powers, particularly against living things.

After discovering they can fly, the friends agree to fly around the world together following graduation, with Andrew in particular desiring to visit Tibet because of its peaceful nature. Steve encourages Andrew to enter the school talent show, where the latter amazes his fellow students by disguising his powers as a magic act. The three celebrate at a house party, where Andrew relishes his newfound popularity, but he eventually gets drunk and accidentally vomits on a classmate, humiliating them both when they go upstairs to have sex.

As his mother's condition rapidly becomes worse, Andrew becomes increasingly withdrawn and aggressive. When his father continues to abuse him in an argument and eventually strikes him, Andrew violently repels him and flees the house. Steve and Matt suffer nosebleeds due to their psychic connection, and the former flies to find Andrew sobbing in the middle of a storm. Steve attempts to console him, but the latter grows increasingly frustrated before Steve is suddenly struck by lightning and killed. At Steve's funeral, Matt confronts Andrew about what happened. Andrew denies responsibility, but later privately begs for forgiveness at Steve's grave.

Due to the incident at the party, as well as Steve's death, Andrew loses his friendship with Matt and is once again ostracized at school. At one point, when a bully mocks him, he rips three teeth out of the bully's mouth in front of the other students. Andrew begins to identify himself as an apex predator, rationalizing that he should not feel guilt for using his powers to hurt those weaker than him. Having no money to pay for his mother's medication, Andrew disguises himself using Richard's firefighter gear and uses his powers to steal money. While robbing a gas station, he inadvertently causes an explosion that puts him in the hospital. At his bedside, a saddened Richard informs an unconscious Andrew that Karen has died. He goes on to say that she died while he was out looking for Andrew, and it is Andrew's fault. As his father is about to strike him, Andrew abruptly grabs his arm and blows out the wall of the room.

While at a birthday party, Matt experiences a severe nosebleed and senses Andrew is in trouble. He and his girlfriend, Casey, go to the hospital, where Andrew flies out of the hospital room, dangling his father before dropping him. Matt flies up and saves Richard, before confronting his cousin to reason with him. However, Andrew is too far gone in his rage and attacks Matt. Their fight takes them across the city, crashing through buildings and hurling vehicles. Eventually, the duo exhaust themselves and wind up in a plaza, where police surround them. Andrew's rage reaches a breaking point and he begins to destroy everything around him. Unable to get through to his cousin and left with no other choice, Matt uses his powers to impale Andrew with a spear from a nearby statue, killing him. The police surround Matt, but he regains consciousness and flies off.

Sometime later, Matt lands in Tibet with Andrew's camera, tearfully vowing to use his powers for good and find out what happened to them. He points the camera at a Tibetan monastery in the distance before flying away, leaving it behind.

• Dane DeHaan as Andrew Detmer
• Alex Russell as Matt Garetty
• Michael B. Jordan as Steve Montgomery
• Michael Kelly as Richard Detmer
• Ashley Hinshaw as Casey Letter
• Anna Wood as Monica
• Bo Petersen as Karen Detmer

DeHaan and Wood, whose characters feature in an embarrassing "almost" sex scene in the film, had already been a couple for five years (since high school) when the film was shot, marrying a few months after its release.[4][5]

Chronicle opened in 2,907 theaters in the United States and Canada on February 3, 2012.[12] Box office watchers expected the film to gross $15 million for its opening weekend, the Super Bowl weekend, while Fox projected to receive around $8 million.[13] By its first day the film had earned an estimated $8.65 million[13] and finished the weekend as the top film with $22 million, surpassing The Woman in Black ($21 million) and The Grey ($9.5 million)[12] to become the fourth highest Super Bowl debut.[12] Chronicle opened as a number one hit internationally, opening in 33 foreign markets such as Australia, China, and the United Kingdom, where it earned the most with $3.5 million.[14] The film grossed $64.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $62 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $126.6 million.[3] Chronicle was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on May 15, 2012. The film was released on DVD and a special "Lost Footage" edition for Blu-ray, which contains additional footage that was not shown in theaters.

Following its successful release, steps toward production of as sequel were taken.[26] Fox hired Landis to write the script for it, but the involvement of Trank as director was unclear.[27][28] It was reported in October 2012 that Fox was not happy with the script,[29] but in April 2013, Landis said that Fox liked the script – which would be darker in tone – and production was moving along.[30] However, in July 2013, Landis stated that new writers had taken over to write the film,[31] and in March 2014, Fox hired Jack Stanley to write.[32]

Trank commented in 2020 that following the experience of making Chronicle, he was never on board with a sequel. While he thought the sequel script was "fine", he felt that it had "nothing to do with why I wanted to do" the original film, and he did what he could to stall progress on it. "I really didn't ever want to see Chronicle 2 happen. That was my worst nightmare. First of all, I'm not doing it. Second, if somebody else does it, then you know it's gonna be a piece of shit."[33]

• Carrie, the first published novel by Stephen King
• Akira, a manga series is adapted into an anime film of the same name.
• Modern Problems, another film where a man is granted the power of telekinesis after a phenomenon event

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