Having escaped the mundane clutches of education, three best mates enter a social vacuum of drinking and drugs. They're reckless, seem to be ready to spit in the eye of the world. Hungering for something real, young tearaways try to step out of the fictional universe of violent video games, TV shows and Internet porn.
What is to be a real man? Ideas of masculinity in the movie revolve around aggression, control and misogyny. Dropping pills in a church, smashing up a classroom, trashing a teacher's car, fighting in a club and looking for a hookup are the only proof of adulthood and independence Matthew, Kearney and Rez are able to find. These actions along with the scene of the funeral in the beginning make the viewer anticipate tragedy.
The first hit comes at unawares. The dark crawls to the surface of neon lights and carelessness. It is not seen until it's too late. The party of life soon turns sour after the lads witness death. A girl gets knocked down by a car.
Common traumatic experience makes discord between friends obvious as it drags out the worst, or better to say, the deepest hidden, in them. As "alpha" male Kearney (Finn Cole) finds power in violence, withdrawn Rez (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) shuts himself even more scared of his own numbness and emotionlessness. Matthew, sensitive as his newly acquired girlfriend Jen (Anya Taylor-Joy) likes to call him, gets burnt out by the repressed emotions and inner conflict between friendship and morals.