Reviews & Ratings for
Assassination Nation (2018)

The film opens with a montage of trigger warnings that show brief scenes depicting topics including bullying, blood, abuse, classism, death, drinking, drug use, sexual content, toxic masculinity, homophobia, transphobia, guns, nationalism, racism, kidnapping, murder, attempted murder, the male gaze, sexism, swearing, torture, violence, gore, weapons, and fragile male egos.

In a town called Salem, Lily Colson is a high school senior who regularly hangs out with her three best friends, including Bex Warren and sisters Em and Sarah Lacey. The girls go to a party where Bex hooks up with her crush Diamond, while Lily hangs with her boyfriend Mark while simultaneously texting someone named "Daddy" behind his back. After sex, Diamond tells Bex to keep their hookup a secret, as Bex is transgender.

During the party, Marty, a casual hacker, receives a message from an unknown hacker about Mayor Bartlett, a known anti-gay candidate. He reveals pictures of Bartlett engaging with male escorts and dressing up in women's clothing, which Marty forwards to the entire town. During the press conference in which he's supposed to address the facts, Bartlett instead kills himself with a revolver in front of the crowd. Principal Turrell, Lily's kindhearted and heart-warming school principal, is the next to be hacked, with pictures of his 6-year-old daughter in the bath making people view him as a pedophile. During the meeting with angry parents, he refuses to resign because he knows he will set things right for all his students in his school, even when their secrets are gravely at stake.

As the police question Marty about the hacks, a massive data dump of half the people in Salem is posted. Lily's classmate Grace discovers that her best friend Reagan has sent nude pictures of her to her boyfriends, and bashes in Reagan's skull with a baseball bat during her cheerleading practice, causing the other cheerleaders to run away. "Daddy" is revealed to be Em and Sarah's neighbor Nick Mathers, who Lily used to babysit for. Lily's lewd pictures and videos that she sent to Nick are made public when his information is leaked. As a result, she is exposed and humiliated by Mark, and then disowned by her family. As she walks down her street, shunned, homeless, and miserable, she is harassed by a man in a truck who films and harasses her, before chasing her with a knife. She manages to incapacitate him with a shovel and make a hasty retreat to Em and Sarah's house.

One week later, most of the town have donned masks and taken up arms to get revenge on those they think have wronged them. A masked Nick and other men capture Marty, who they torture into admitting that the source of the hacks came from Lily's IP address. Before executing Marty, they upload a video of his forced confession. The masked assailants track Lily to Em and Sarah's house, where all four girls are staying, break in, and kidnap Em and Sarah. Their mother, Nance, intervenes, trying to keep the marauders at bay, but she is shot and killed. Em and Sarah are put into the back of a police car. Bex successfully kills one of the attackers with a nail gun and escapes, while Lily hides in Nick's house. Nick at first pretends to help her but then reveals a knife in his hand, intending to execute her for exposing the town of their secrets, but not before revealing that her friends will share the same fate with her and Marty.

Lily fights Nick off and slits his throat with a makeshift weapon. Downstairs she discovers a large cache of weapons, which she uses to ambush and shoot the police officer holding Em and Sarah hostage and free her friends. Meanwhile, after escaping the Lacey residence, Bex attempts to look for help only to be ignored by the residents of the town. She is kidnapped by Diamond's friend Johnny, who tries to force Diamond to publicly hang her in retribution for Diamond's humiliation, but Bex successfully convinces him to spare her. Johnny attempts to kill Bex himself, but Lily, Em, and Sarah arrive, rescuing Bex and executing her assailants. Johnny finally surrenders and Diamond joins the girls soon after. In an effort to clear her name, Lily makes a video urging other women and men in Salem to stand up and fight back against their tormentors, and a great battle commences.

After the final battle, the film cuts to Donny, Lily's younger brother, revealed as the criminal mastermind behind the hacks. He now faces a life sentence for cyberterrorism, murder, and invasion of privacy. When asked why he did it by his parents, Donny shrugs and says that it was "for the lulz." The credits roll over the Salem High marching band the next morning, performing Miley Cyrus' "We Can't Stop" while walking down a street surrounded by dead bodies and destroyed vehicles.