"Bullied"

“25 words or less” – A suicidal teen plotting a high school massacre has a change of heart when a caring teacher takes an interest in his artistic talent

Full Summary:

Nathan Simpson, a scrawny nerdy-looking teenager with glasses and a bad haircut, is awkward. He spends each morning staring into his bathroom mirror before school, telling himself that “today is the day that he will get a girlfriend. Today is the day that he won’t get made fun of.” Not a day goes by when the high school junior doesn’t get picked on. Made fun of by both boys and girls alike, and his overbearing dad at home, Nathan has no place to hide from the cruelty of the world around him.

Tired of living like that, Nathan decides to take his own life so he goes home after another day of insults at school, ties a rope around a tree branch in the backyard, the noose around his neck, and tries to hang himself. As he struggles, the tree branch breaks under the stress of Nathan’s weight and he falls to the ground alive.

Hiding the real reason for his neck wound the next day at breakfast, he tells his parents that he got into a fight. His dad’s advice? “If someone is messing with you, fight back!” These dangerous words immediately change Nathan’s behavior when he decides to heed his father’s advice and not take the torment anymore. No longer a sweet, naïve kid; Nathan turns into a brooding figure hellbent on getting revenge against all the other students that have done him wrong.

It first starts with graphic drawings of macabre violence during class – the high school blowing up with a fireball rising above, a teenager shooting up a classroom full of students and other assorted pictures. These drawings soon lead to something more sinister as Nathan begins researching the Columbine shooting and how to build a bomb on the internet. One night he begins to set his “payback” plan into motion and buys guns through Craigslist. That payback plan is to massacre his fellow students during the upcoming school dance.

On the night of the dance, Nathan’s mother is ecstatic to see that her son is actually going to participate in a social school event. But Nathan only has one thing on his mind – revenge. When he gets to school that night, he immediately goes to the bathroom and prepares for his final act. With two handguns stuck in his waistband, Nathan walks down the long hallway towards the gymnasium filled with dancing students.

Just as Nathan reaches out for the door handle to enter the gym, one of his teachers, Mr. Walden, walks out and greets him. The teacher leads him to his classroom and confronts him with his notebook filled with graphic, violent drawings which Nathan had dropped the previous day. Mr. Walden struggles with whether or not he should report him to the authorities before he does something destructive, but in the end, recognizing his artistic talent, he gets Nathan to sign up for a special arts program being held at the local community college with the promise that he stops drawing violent images and gets his life together.

In the arts program, Nathan finally finds a purpose in life and begins to use his creative outlet for good. Even better, he meets a pretty girl in the program who offers to become his partner on art projects. Bridget immediately takes an interest in Nathan and he takes an interest in her as well. One day during class she asks him out on his first date. That Saturday night they go to an art gallery where they both have their first kiss in the middle of the exhibit. It turns out that Saturday is the day that Nathan finally gets a girlfriend.
Bullied Screenplay