Apt Pupil

If you don't believe in the existence of evil, you've got a lot to learn.

A clean-cut, all-American high school student named Todd Bowden discovers that his elderly neighbor, Arthur Denker, is in reality a fugitive Nazi war criminal named Kurt Dussander. After threatening to turn him in, Bowden reveals that he is fascinated with the activities of the Nazis in WWII, and blackmails Dussander into entertaining him with gory tales of the death camps. He even orders a detailed replica uniform which he forces Dussander to wear. As he spends more time with the old man, the boy's grades suffer, he loses interest in his girlfriend, and he conceals his bad grades from his parents. In turn, the Nazi blackmails the young boy into studying to restore his grades, with threats to expose the boy's subterfuge and his dalliance with Nazism to his parents. Dussander even pretends to be Todd's grandfather in order to get him special permission to raise his grades. Talking about the war crimes affects both the old man and the young man, and both seem to gain satisfaction from attempts to kill animals in Dussander's oven. Dussander even appears to take great pride in Todd's unbelievable turnaround, going from near dropout to straight A's in a matter of weeks.

One night, Dussander tries to kill a hobo who has seen him in the uniform and tried to blackmail him, but he has a heart attack and calls Todd, who finishes the job, cleans up, and calls an ambulance for Dussander. At the hospital, Dussander is recognized by a death camp survivor sharing his room, and is arrested, pending extradition to Israel. Todd graduates valedictorian and gives a speech on the theme of Icarus, with the thesis that "All great achievements arose from dissatisfaction. It is the desire to do better, to dig deeper, that propels civilization to greatness." In a montage, this is juxtaposed with Dussander's home being searched and the hobo's corpse being found in the basement.

Todd is briefly questioned about his relationship with Dussander, but manages to convince the police that he knew nothing of the old man's true identity.