Rope

Manhattan apartment. Brandon and Phillip strangle classmate David with rope. Thrill killing. Hide body in chest. No motive but intellectual superiority. Murder as art. Opening with the crime itself. Evil established immediately.

Brandon: "Murder can be an art form." Theme of intellectual arrogance leading to evil, Nietzschean superman philosophy perverted, and consequence of treating humans as inferior.

Dinner party about to start. David family and friends invited. Body in chest. Brandon excited, Phillip nervous. Planning to serve buffet from chest containing corpse. Ultimate thrill: hiding murder in plain sight. Arrogance extreme.

Guests arrive. David father, aunt, fiancée Janet, friend Kenneth, teacher Rupert. David missing but they proceed. Brandon manipulates conversation toward murder. Phillip increasingly anxious. Rupert suspicious. Game beginning.

Will they be caught? Should they confess? Brandon wants Rupert to figure it out - his intellectual equal. Phillip wants everyone to leave. Debate about murder, superior men, means justifying ends. Rupert articulates philosophy they twisted.

Rupert notices inconsistencies. Why is David absent? Brandon too eager discussing murder. Phillip drinking heavily. Rope from murder visible. Entering investigation within dinner party. Social gathering becomes crime scene.

Rupert was their teacher, taught Nietzschean philosophy. They took ideas to murderous extreme. His theories corrupted. He must confront what his teaching inspired. Mentor/student relationship poisoned. His responsibility in their evil.

Dinner continues. Brandon plays cat and mouse with Rupert. Phillip near breakdown. Maid clears dishes from chest. Books placed on chest. Close calls with discovery. Promise: real-time tension of maintaining facade during party.

Rupert finds David hat. Leaves party but suspicious. Kenneth and Janet leave. David family leaves worried. Only Brandon and Phillip remain. False victory: party ending, they succeeded. But Rupert knows something. Returns unexpectedly.

Rupert confronts them. Questions not adding up. Brandon defensive, Phillip panicking. Rupert pieces together clues. Rope, hat, absence, their behavior. Net closing. Will he discover body before they can stop him?

Rupert opens chest. Finds body. Horror and betrayal. His students murdered based on his philosophy. They did it to impress him. Complicit in ideology that led to murder. Everything he taught twisted into justification for evil.

Rupert devastated. Brandon proud, defends murder as logical extension of superman philosophy. Phillip confesses, begs forgiveness. Rupert realizes his ideas have consequences. Philosophy that seemed abstract enabled murder. Soul-crushing recognition of guilt.

Rupert condemns them absolutely. "You have given my words meaning I never dreamed of." Fires gun out window to alert police. Synthesis: ideas have power and responsibility. Abstract philosophy becomes concrete evil. Must face consequences.

Police sirens approaching. Brandon accepts fate with arrogance. Phillip broken. Rupert waits with them, implicated morally if not legally. David family will learn truth. Murder solved but innocence lost for everyone. Grim victory.

Three men waiting for police. Body in chest open. Rope visible. Intellectual exercise became nightmare. Philosophy student became killer. Teacher became enabler. All trapped by ideas taken too far. Darkest Hitchcock. Moral horror.