Our Hero, Balthazar plot recap, spoiler-light
Balthazar Malone is a wealthy New York teenager who creates exaggerated social media videos about gun violence to impress an activist named Eleanor. When a user named deathdealer_16 makes concerning remarks, Balthazar suspects a school shooting is imminent and catfishes the user using an AI persona named Terra. To leave for Texas, Balthazar falsely accuses his life coach of molestation.
Deathdealer_16 is actually Solomon Jackson, an impoverished and isolated young man living in a trailer park with his disabled grandmother. Solomon is desperate for the approval of his abusive, con-artist father, Beaver, and has recently lost his job. When Terra fails to meet him at the bus station, Balthazar reveals himself and ends up being invited back to Solomon's trailer.
There, Solomon shows off his gun collection and mass shooting plans, though Balthazar quickly becomes fascinated with the firearms. They bond briefly over target practice, drug use, and an encounter with Solomon's indifferent father, but mounting tensions threaten to boil over into real-world violence.
