A day in the lives of a group of average teenage high school students. The film follows every character and shows their daily routines. However two of the students plan to do something that the student body won't forget.
Written by
Anonymous
Plot Synopsis:
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The story is about two high school students, Alex (Alex Frost) and Eric (Eric Deulen), two close friends and students in a suburb of Portland, who calmly plan and perform a mass execution of their classmates and school administrators in the course of one day. Eric and Alex are seemingly ordinary, and very much a part of the fabric of the high school and its array of student actions. In fact, it's hard to distinguish them from all the other students. Alex plays classical piano whereas Eric plays video games. They calmly watch Nazi programs on TV and purchase firearms over the Internet. They seem just as ordinary and interesting as any of the other students. They analytically draw up plans for their merciless killing spree, indicating that they have enough bombs and ordinance to last the afternoon. They walk through the school, killing several of their school peers, and there is no rescue from the authorities.

The school this was filmed at (Whitaker Middle School, formerly Adams High School in Portland, OR) was torn down in 2007 due to asbestos and black mold. The school had already been shut down when the film was shot.
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Based on a short story written by friend of Gus Van Sant and fellow writer/director Harmony Korine.
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Almost all the kids in this film are non-actors, and their real first names are used.
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Much of the film was improvised.
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There are approximately 88 shots in this film. More than half of those shots are in the last twenty minutes of the film.
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Most of the shots in the movie are very long and Steadicam-based. The shot of the three girls walking through the cafeteria is 5 minutes and 19 seconds long.
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The characters that appear in the video game played by Eric are from Gerry (2002).
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This film is heavily influenced by the Alan Clarke TV drama from 1989 of the same name (_"Elephant" (1989)_). Both films chronicle senseless killings and contain many long and wandering takes of its main characters.
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When we see Alex and Eric sleeping, we can see the cover of the book Eric has been reading: US Army Technical Manual #31-201-1, which covers the making and use of Incendiary devices.
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Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
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The "So foul and fair a day" line is a quote from Macbeth.
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Despite what many critics and analysts have suggested since its release, the final film was not intended to be a pseudo-documentary about the Columbine massacre. While there's no doubt that the film was inspired by the tragedy, director Gus Van Sant meant for the film to be more of a reflection on the nature of violence and the effects of indifference. There's also a rumor that Van Sant's original intent was to make a TV film based on factual accounts of Columbine, but this rumor has remained unfounded. The film's minimalist approach, improvisational style and use of non-actors has helped to fuel these rumors over the years.
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The original script draft was written by Laura Albert.
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The gun that Alex uses is a Bushmaster Carbon 15 Type 21 semi-automatic varmint rifle, and the gun that Eric uses is an Interdynamic KG-9 assault pistol.
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The show "19-2" features a school shooting and is filmed with long takes.
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Towards the end of the film, Alex drinks from a random glass in the abandoned cafeteria. This is a nod to an image from the CCTV surveillance footage from the actual Columbine Highschool massacre, where Eric Harris can be seen drinking from a glass found on a lunch table.
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Gus Van Sant borrowed the title from Alan Clarke's film of the same name, and thought that it referred to the Chinese proverb about five blind men who were each led to a different part of an elephant. Each man thinks that it is a different thing. What Clarke's title actually referred to was the idea of the "elephant in the room", where something is so obvious that to miss it would be the equivalent of not seeing a huge elephant in an ordinary room, yet is still not recognized out of either stupidity or willful ignorance. In this film, the "elephant in the room" is the homicidal rage of Alex and Eric, which leaves them free to precipitate the last-scene massacre at their school.
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This film, Gerry (2002) and Last Days (2005) form Gus Van Sant's "Death Trilogy", which he edited himself. This film centers on death at the hands of a stranger.
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At one point Alex and Eric watch a documentary about Hitler on TV. The Columbine High School massacre, upon which this film is based, occurred on April 20th 1999, the 110th anniversary of the birth of Adolf Hitler.
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When Nathan and Carrie are signing out, Nathan says 'excuse me miss,' once, then when it cuts to the black screen the same audio plays again.
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The shot guy's (Nate's) blood is too high on the door in a later scene when Benny comes to that room to help the girl (Acadia).
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When the three girls are getting their trays in the cafeteria, there is a male student standing to the left. The microphone pole casts a shadow on the back of his neck.
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When a student is shot in the chest the bullet exits through his back. However, when he falls over there is no blood or entry wound where he was shot.
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The delivery and pacing of the dialogue the Librarian gives to the student changes in different versions of the scene.
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When John is going out from the school (first scene, the dog one) Alex and Eric are coming to the school with the bags of weapons, they all are walking in the concrete path. In the second scene (which is supposed to be the same) they all are on the grass section, but when the camera returns to John, magically he's on the concrete path again.
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The shirt that Nate is wearing when he is shot is not the shirt he is wearing when the GSA is having a discussion.
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When John runs from the school (past the dog) check out the concrete pathways. The first time they are pretty much dry. The second time it looks like it has just been raining - they are very wet.
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When Nate is first shown at the GSA meeting, he is seen wearing a tan shirt, then later when he walks to the door and is shot, he is wearing a blue shirt. When you see him laying on the floor after Benny enters the classroom, he's wearing a tan shirt again.
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There's too much time between the two guys (Alex and Eric) encountering the blond guy (in the yellow T-shirt) and arriving in the library - in an earlier scene they are arriving just after the guy with the camera.
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As Michelle is show pushing a trolley of books in the library over to a shelf just after the photographer walks in, you can see the yellow and white tape markings on the floor that indicate where she is supposed to stop the trolley and were she is to stand to stack the shelf.
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At the beginning of the film, when John tells his dad that he wants to take over driving he walks over to the drivers side of the car. When he opens the door to get his dad out, 2 members of the crew can be seen in the reflection of the wing mirror.
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When Nathan is walking from the football field to the school, you can see tracks in the grass from the dolly used in a previous take. However, the tracks do not follow the same path as the take shown in the film.
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Alex and Eric order the gun online, which is illegal as you would either have to have it sent to a federally licensed gun dealer, or they would have to have a federal firearms license (FFL).
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When Elias exits the darkroom, the director takes a lot of care to show how real photographers shake their film and tap it on the counter twice. Yet, developing film takes much longer than the scene shows, and involves several steps of different chemistry. The film has to dry in a contained area where dust cannot cover it, and you definitely cannot cut the film while it is still wet and go straight to making a print. The negative would be ruined.
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When Eli is developing his roll of film, the width is too wide for 135 mm film; it looks more like 120/220 film.
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When Nate walks into the halls during the shooting, he stands in front of the classroom door. When he is shot the bullet exits, as is clear from his wounds. However, the door shows no sign of being hit by the exiting bullet.
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