Plot

An aging horror star contemplates retirement amid the modern culture of random violence, while a disturbed young gun collector embarks on an unprovoked killing spree.

Veteran horror film actor Byron Orlok is in Los Angeles for the premiere of his new and latest film. He has grown bitter, is tired of the film industry and wants to retire. Meanwhile, in suburbia, gun-crazy Bobby Thompson is growing restless, wanting to take his gun obsession to the next level and having homicidal thoughts.—grantss

Byron Orlok is an aging and bitter horror film star on the brink of retirement who now feels that he is an anachronism. Compared with actual violence, his films are now tame. Meanwhile, a young gun lover named Bobby Thompson goes on a killing spree in order to get even with his father.—Gary Couzens <gjcouzens@btinternet.com>

Peter Bogdanovich's first feature film is a thinly disguised account of ex-Marine Charles Whitman who, after murdering his mother and his wife, armed himself with a number of rifles and handguns and, on a sunny 1966 Texas morning, began a shooting spree that killed 14 people and wounded 32 people. Bogdanovich's version tells two stories concurrently, the first one about Byron Orlok, an aging and bitter horror film star on the brink of retirement who feels that his type of horror has become passé, and the second one about Bobby Thompson, a father-hating gun lover who goes on a rampage in order to get even with his father by first shooting at people from the top of a water tower and then from behind a drive-in theater screen.—alfiehitchie

A clip from the film "The Terror" is shown (the flooding scene at the end featuring actors Boris Karloff, Dick Miller, Jack Nicholson, etc.). The clip ends with the final fade out and it is revealed that it is being shown in a small screening room somewhere in Hollywood. The elderly star of the film, Byron Orlok (Boris Karloff), tells the producer, Marshall Smith (Monty Landis), that he has decided to retire from acting because he considers his performances no longer frightening in mainstream society. Marshall and the film's director, Sammy Michaels (director Peter Bogdanovich), try to convince him to appear in their next film, but Orlok refuses and plans to return to his native England to live out the rest of his life in peace. He refuses to even read the new script that Sammy gives to him. Orlok walks out with his young secretary, Jenny (Nancy Hsueh), who is Sammy's current girlfriend. Sammy follows him outside to persuade him to stay in Hollywood, but Orlok tells Sammy that he considers himself to be an anachronism because people are no longer frightened by horror films. "The world belongs to the young. Let them have it", says Orlok.

Across the street, a young man named Bobby Thompson (Tim O'Kelly) is seen buying a high-powered semi-automatic .303 caliber hunting rifle and pays with it by check. He goes out to the parking lot to his white convertible and places the newly purchased rifle in his car truck which has more than 12 firearms of various calibers. Bobby drives along a freeway listening to the car radio and munching on a Baby Ruth candy bar. He arrives home in a suburb of the San Fernando Valley, where he lives with his wife Ilene (Tanya Morgan) and his parents, and has dinner with them.

Across town, Orlok is dining with Jenny at a local restaurant when his manager, Ed Laughlin (Arthur Peterson), arrives and tries to persuade him to stay in town at least for a few days to attend the premiere of "The Terror" at a local Racine drive-in theater the following evening. But Orlok refuses and even refuses to speak to Marshall over a phone call that Ed tries to set up.

After dinner, Bobby and his father go out to a shooting range where they shoot at tin can targets. Bobby has a keen talent from shooting guns, apparently due to his recent military service. Since Bobby still lives with his parents, it is convenient for him and his father, Robert Thompson Sr., to go out shooting together. While his father is setting up more tin targets Bobby, for some odd reason, points his rifle at his father, seemingly intent on shooting him. Robert Thompson sees Bobby aiming the rifle at him and orders him to put the rifle down, because pointing a gun a people goes against everything that he has taught his son.

That evening, Orlok is in his hotel suite with Jenny who is setting up his schedule for his return to England the following day. Jenny also tries to persuade Orlok to stay at least for the premiere of his latest film, but Orlok tells her that he is through with the film industry and still refuses to read Sammy's script. Orlok then sends her home while he stays alone in his room to watch TV.

At the Thompson house that evening, the whole family is watching TV together when Ilene says that she has to go to her night job as a switchboard operator. Bobby follows her to the bedroom and wants to talk to her, saying that he has not been feeling well lately and has been getting "funny ideas". But since she is late for her job, she tells him that she does not have time to talk and leaves. He asks her not to take his car, but take his mother's car to work and she agrees. After Ilene leaves and his parents go to bed for the night, Bobby goes to his car and takes out one of his guns, a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol, before returning to the house.

At Orlok's hotel room, he orders room service and watches himself on one of his old films "The Criminal Code" that is playing as a late-night movie. Sammy arrives and demands that Orlok hand over his script and they both watch the film together. Over drinks, Sammy again tries to convince Orlok to appear in his latest film because the script that he wrote will cast Orlok as a real life person rather than a boogeyman. But the bitter Orlok announces that he is still fed up with the film industry and shows Sammy that people are more frightened by the latest newspaper headings about crimes committed by random people than horror films. Sammy gets so drunk that he attempts to leave, but collapses and Orlok puts him in his own bed. Soon afterwords, he also collapses drunk next to Sammy.

Meanwhile, at the Thompson house, Bobby is sitting alone in his bedroom chain smoking when Ilene returns home. His tone of voice is now very cold and he asks her not to turn on the lights because he has a headache. When she asks him what he wanted to talk to her about and why he is perplexed, he no longer wants to talk and asks her to go to bed.

The next morning, after his father has apparently left for work, Bobby types out a note and when Ilene walks in the room, he suddenly takes out his .45 caliber pistol and violently shoots her dead. When Bobby's mother runs into the room, he shoots her dead too. He then shoots an unfortunate grocery delivery man who enters the house. Bobby hides the bodies in rooms throughout the house, hides the bloodstains and leaves, leaving behind a note saying that he has killed his wife and mother and will continue killing until he is caught or killed.

In Orlok's hotel suite, a hungover Sammy wakes up, sees a sleeping Orlok next to him and jumps, waking Orlok up. Sammy says that he was having a nightmare and woke up to see Byron Orlok. As Orlok gets up to answer a knock on his front door, he passes a mirror and he, too, jumps upon seeing his own reflection. Jenny has arrived with Orlok's itinerary with his plane tickets to New York, as well as his tickets for the ship to take him back to England. However, Orlok finally agrees to make the final promotional appearance at the Racine Drive-In that evening for the premiere of his latest film.

Across town, Bobby arrives at another gun store and asks for 300 rounds of ammunition for his new rifle, as well as box of 12-gauge buckshot for his double-barreled shotgun. Despite the fact that Bobby looks a little jittery and of the unusually large quantity of ammunition requested, the clerk sells him the ammunition. When the clerk asks Bobby about the order, Bobby tells him that he is going out to "shoot some pigs."

In Orlok's hotel suite, he, Jenny, and Sammy, along with a brash radio disc jockey named Kip Larkin (Sandy Baron) discuss his appearance at the drive-in theater for that night and Orlok decides to rehearse to them a ghost story that he plans to tell the audience after the film's premiere.

Meanwhile, Bobby drives to an industrial center and, after parking his car, pulls out of the trunk all of his guns in a large pouch and enters an abandoned amusement park that sits next to an oil storage tank facility, where he scales a cinder block wall and climbs up the stairs of one of the oil tanks that sits alongside a busy freeway. Bobby lays out all of his rifles and pistols that he brought with him as if displaying them for himself and then eats a sandwich and drinks soda pop that he also brought before taking aim with his new high-powered rifle at motorists traveling along the road and opens fire, killing and/or wounding many, after which some cars veer off the road. An oil company worker investigates the shooting, but Bobby kills him too with a blast from his shotgun as he is reloading. When Bobby hears police sirens and sees police cars approaching on the freeway, he grabs most of his guns and runs down the stairs and back to his car, but drops several of his weapons, including his .45 caliber pistol, an unused .44 caliber Magnum revolver, his shotgun, a rifle and some boxes of ammunition. As Bobby drives away, a police car appears and give chase, but he eludes it by driving into the very same drive-in theater that is showing Orlok's latest film "The Terror" that night. After reloading and having a meal from the concession stand, Bobby carries his remaining guns in his U.S. Army pouch and walks through a door leading to the screen.

When it gets dark and the film finally begins, Bobby climbs up the structure and begins to shoot the viewers through a small hole in the screen. He first shoots a man in a telephone booth and then shoots people in their cars one by one. He even shoots and kills the projectionist. Just then, Orlok arrives for his special appearance and the limo parks close to the screen. Meanwhile, many viewers start to leave because they realize that there is a sniper present. A traffic jam ensues. When Bobby pauses to reload, he accidentally knocks over his last few boxes of ammunition. Panicking, Bobby climbs down the screen and tries to retrieve the ammo from a drain, but without any success.

Some male viewers take guns from the trunks of their cars and charge towards the screen. Seeing the vigilante mob approach, Bobby runs to an area at the side of the screen and opens fire randomly. One of his shots seriously injures Jenny as she gets out of the limo. The police soon arrive, as does Sammy, and they try to find both Orlok and the sniper. Orlok walks angrily towards the screen as Bobby finally runs out of ammunition for his rifle and opens fire with one of his smaller pistols. He gets confused when he sees Orlok's character on the screen walking towards him and, at the same time, sees the real Orlok walking toward him as well. Bobby first shoots Orlok, but misses and only grazes his forehead with the bullet. Bobby takes aim and shoots at the Orlok on the screen. Blinded by police searchlights zeroing in on him, Bobby fires widely until he runs out of ammo. When Bobby takes out another one of his pistols, Orlok rushes up, knocks the gun out of Bobby's hand with his walking cane and beats Bobby with it, as well as literally slapping him into submission. Bobby then cowers in fear as Orlok says, "Is that what I was afraid of?" Two policemen run up to the screen and arrest Bobby. As he is being led away, Bobby says to his police captors, "I hardly ever missed, did I?" Bobby is taken away in a police car while Sammy tends to Orlok and takes him away in the limo as the crowd of people and cars file out of the drive-in theater.

The film's final scene shows the deserted drive-in theater the morning after which is now empty, except for Bobby's white car sitting alone in the empty lot as the closing credits silently roll.