Nerdy high schooler Jerry Mitchell is assigned to write an article for the school paper about the infamous new delinquent transfer student, Buddy Revell. When Jerry accidentally invades Buddy's personal space and touches him, Buddy challenges Jerry to an afterschool fight in the parking lot, which Jerry tries to avoid at all costs.
Acting
Richard Tyson's genuinely menacing Buddy Revell
Direction
Joanou's relentless ticking-clock tension
Editing
Precision-cut panic montages that never let up
Director
Phil Joanou
Casey Siemaszko
Jerry Mitchell
Richard Tyson
Buddy Revell
Stacey Glick
Brei Mitchell
Jonathan Wise
Vincent Costello
Jeffrey Tambor
Mr. Rice
Philip Baker Hall
Detective Mulvahill
John P. Ryan
Mr. O'Rourke
Mitch Pileggi
Duke Herman
Paul Feig
Hall Monitor
Yeardley Smith
Cheerleader
Scott Schutzman Tiler
Bruce Chalmer
Guy Massey
Scott Cranston
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Richard Tyson was 32 playing a high school senior; his menace came from actual maturity, not acting.
This bombed in 1987 because it dared to make the nerd unsympathetic and the bully somewhat justified—decades ahead of its time.
US
