BRIGHTBURN

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Robert W

We first meet Tori and Kyle Breyer (Elizabeth Banks and David Denman)as they attempt to conceive a child. We see a number of books on shelves indicating this, though they appear to be unsuccessful. In the middle of their latest attempt, Tori feels vibrations from something crashing outside. At first, she brushes it off, but then a louder shake turns the lights off. They look out the window and see something has crashed outside.

We then flash forward to a video of a child, Brandon, as he grows up. After seeing some of these clips, Tori is playing hide and seek with a slightly grown-up version of Brandon.

Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn) is then at school, answering a question by a teacher. This gets the attention of a young classmate named Caitlyn (Emmie Hunter).

Back at the farm that night, as Tori paints, Brandon sleepwalks to the basement and finds a meteor, the one he presumably arrived on Earth in. He chants angrily as he attempts to get close to it. Tori calms him down.

The next morning, Brandon sets out to mow the lawn. Frustrated with starting the mower, he flings it a few hundred feet. He goes over to see the blade spinning on it. Curious, he jams his hand into it, stopping it cold without taking a scratch.

The family stops at a diner later on with Tori, Kyle, his aunt Merilee and his uncle Noah. When Noah attempts to give him a toy gun, Kyle chastises him. However, Brandon demands the gun. With that, the family leaves in the midst of their celebration, with a waitress looking on as they depart.

The next morning, Brandon isn’t even listening to Kyle. He notices that Brandon is chewing on a fork without taking any damage to his teeth.

Kyle takes Brandon hunting, showing him his rifle, and explaining how his body’s changing after Tori found some lingerie ads underneath his bed.

Later that night, Brandon is stalking Caitlyn while listening to a slow rock tune. She notices the music is coming from her laptop, and she shuts it. However, she’s nervous that he’s watching her from a nearby window. Suddenly, her mother (the waitress from earlier) bursts in, asking what’s wrong. She begins breathing nervously. Back at the farm, Noah and Tori are looking for Brandon. They find him.

The next day, at school, Tori talks with Brandon’s teacher as he does some mysterious drawings in his notebook. Tori asks about them, and he closes it and walks away.

Back at the farm, Kyle notices Brandon startling some chickens. He asks if he’s all right, to which he acknowledges he is. The two go inside. Later on, Tori and Kyle go outside to see all the chickens have been murdered. Tori thinks a wolf did it, but Kyle thinks it’s Brandon, noting he was out there earlier.

At school the next day, Brandon and his classmates take part in a “trust fall” exercise. Caitlyn is nervous about what took place the other night but doesn’t say anything. However, he falls to the ground after one classmate fails to catch him. He’s okay, but Caitlyn notes that she won’t help him because he’s a “pervert.” Brandon says it’s a lie. The coach forces her to help him up. But he takes her hand and suddenly breaks it, sending her screaming.

He’s then in the office, with Tori explaining to Caitlyn’s mother that he’s sorry and accidents happen. The mother, however, isn’t so sure. She demands the sheriff arrest him, but he refuses. He’ll be in special sessions in school instead. Meanwhile, Brandon just sits here, looking sad as they continue to argue. The mother insists that a psycho gave birth to him, but Tori defends him. The family leaves, but not before Brandon gives her a menacing stare.

Later that night, he hears Kyle and Tori talking about him. Tori then reads up on meteors, but then notices something happening in the barn — Brandon experiencing something glowing, possibly from the meteor. She rushes out to check on him, only to find him levitating in the barn. He continues to chant, “Take the world” as she approaches. He falls and cuts his hand on part of the meteor. She goes down to recover and talk him back down. He freaks out and explains that he came from the sky, and he yells that she lied to him and runs off. She goes and tells Kyle what he discovered with the meteor.

Angry as he walks along, Brandon screams and fires lasers from his eyes. Later, he visits Caitlyn in her bedroom as she types with her one good hand on her laptop. He tells her not to be scared, and that she knows just how special he is. She says her mother said not to talk to her, but he says he’s “gonna take care of that.” She cries as he suddenly departs, leaving a flower behind for her.

Meanwhile, at the diner, her mother is just closing up shop, but she notices something is off. She walks out and suddenly sees diagrams on the windows, similar to that of what Brandon drew in his book. The lights begin flickering. Suddenly, the windows shatter, and the mother removes a piece of glass from her eye. She looks around and doesn’t see anything, but knows someone is there. She grabs a baseball bat, only to see a shadow figure fly by at rapid speed. She takes a swing but doesn’t hit anything, then retreats to the cooler in the back, locking the door. She scrambles for safety, only for Brandon to burn through the door with his laser vision. He tears the door off and looks menacingly at her before he charges and presumably kills her.

The next morning, Brandon meets back up with his parents, telling them everything is fine with how things were explained. Back at the diner, a sheriff and his deputy investigate what happened, including what’s left of her body. The sheriff locates one of the diagrams on the window that Brandon drew.

Merilee, who’s also a counselor, tries to talk to Brandon, but he’s despondent in terms of explaining what’s going on. The session pretty much goes nowhere, and Merilee considers talking to the police about his behavior. Later, at a bar, Kyle talks with his friends about what went down with Caitlyn’s hand, and he starts to think his son is a monster. Tori, back at home, is doing things in the bathroom as the lights flicker on and off quickly.

Brandon shows up at Merilee’s house later on and says he needs to talk to her. He says not to talk to the police, as it’s “not good for anyone.” She tells him to go home, and he leaves supposedly. But he later stands outside her window and watches her text Noah. He comes back in the house in his costume, but Noah returns and finds him in the closet. He escorts him out and threatens to tell his parents. They start to load up on Noah’s truck, and when he tries to force Brandon into it, he’s thrown up against the garage door.

He gets up and drives away in his truck, fearful, but he is convinced Brandon is following him. Suddenly, the truck starts swerving out of control and loses power. He attempts to restart it, but Brandon appears in front of him as he screams. He lifts the truck off the ground, levitating it in the air and then suddenly sending it crashing down. Noah viscerally breaks his jaw in the process as Brandon goes over to him. As he lays there dying, Brandon draws out another one of his symbols in the ground in his blood.

Brandon returns home, saying he was playing soccer the whole time. He explains how he was bullied, and that’s how he lost his shirt.

That night, Kyle has a nightmare that shows him how Tori first found the baby in the meteor and chooses to adopt him. However, it startles him when its eyes suddenly light up with lasers.

The phone awakens him, and Kyle and Tori are called to the hospital, where Merilee is. She explains Noah was killed, and they comfort her. She explains that Brandon came to visit beforehand, which concerns Kyle. The next morning, they give Brandon the news about Noah, but all he says is, “Okay.” Kyle now wonders what’s up with that and accuses Brandon of being there. Tori tries to calm him down, but he just gets angrier. Suddenly, Brandon shoves him into the pantry, breaking the doors in the process. Tori sends him away.

Later, Kyle finds Brandon’s shirt and notices a little blood on it, but manages to take it away without him noticing. He apologizes for earlier, but Brandon just says “okay” again. Later, Kyle explains to Tori what he found, but she refuses to accept what he’s saying. Meanwhile, the sheriff takes a close look at the accident and notices similarities with the diagram from the window and what was drawn on the ground.

Kyle looks through old birthday cards of Brandon’s and tries to comfort Tori that night. The next day, he opts to take Brandon on a hunting trip. As they go, the sheriff visits Tori to explain what he’s found with the photos. She doesn’t acknowledge them, but he says he’ll be back.

In the woods, Brandon and Kyle follow some deer tracks, and Kyle lets him walk ahead. Back at the house, Tori finds Brandon’s notebook and notices the same diagram from the window and the road, along with other drawings like his outfit and glass in the waitress’ eye, and several dead people along with the words “TAKE THE WORLD.” She panics.

Back in the woods, Brandon investigates the tracks as Kyle attempts to shoot him. The bullet fires, but just bounces off of Brandon’s head. He shows a startled look as Kyle attempts to reload. Once he does, however, Brandon vanishes. Kyle runs in a panic, but Brandon, now hooded again, flies around and appears around him. He finally tackles him and forces him to sit up. Kyle tries to apologize, but Brandon suddenly fires his laser eyes that shoot through his skull, killing him.

At the house, Tori frantically tries to call Kyle but to no avail. Brandon finally answers, and Tori asks where Kyle is. Brandon explains, “He’s gone” and that he’s coming home. He hangs up and begins flying through the house at a rapid pace, destroying it in the process. She calls 911 as he continues to fly around her.

The sheriff and his deputy are called in after the 911 call is cut short. They show up to see the house is devastated from Brandon’s destruction. Tori starts to come out of the house as the sheriff calls out to her. However, before she can talk with him, Brandon rushes him and rips him to shreds. Panicking, Tori and the deputy make their way inside the house.

Tori goes upstairs to hide as the deputy cocks her gun, looking for Brandon. She calls for backup. She walks around the house and sees Brandon appear in front of her – and then suddenly behind her. The sounds of her being torn apart by him can be heard by Tori. She continues to be quiet as Brandon looks around for her. She makes her way out the window and crashes to the ground.

Tori makes her way to the barn, where the meteor is located. She remembers earlier where Brandon was injured in his fall and rips off a shard from the meteor. She finds the body of the waitress as she hides the shard and calls for Brandon. He shows up, hooded and all, and she explains that he means everything to her. She goes to take his hood off, and he looks at her innocently. The two embrace and she prepares to stab Brandon with the shard.

However, he catches her hand, forcing the shard out of it. Angry, he flies her into the air, several hundred feet into the air. He gives her one last look, holds her out, and drops her to her death. As he levitates in air, an oncoming plane comes towards him, and the screen fades to black.

The next day, wreckage from the plane is shown on the ground, with no survivors from the crash. It’s reported that the plane crashed into the farmhouse, with Kyle and Tori inside. Brandon sits there, eating a cookie with an innocent look on his face.

During the end credits, we see cities devastated and millions dying by Brandon’s hands.