I frequently describe this script as "Fight Club for millennials."
YOUTH ON FIRE is a coming-of-age, dark-comedy/drama, in the vein of FIGHT CLUB and HEATHERS, which are major influences (along with a little bit of CLUELESS, LORD OF THE FLIES, and ANIMAL FARM).
The follwing is the story synopsis, which includes SPOILERS:
Oxygen. Fuel. Heat. The three elements needed to make a fire. And it all starts with a spark…
Our heroes, three soon-to-be college grads, are those elements: bursting with the potential to ignite, but in need of that spark of motivation.
CASTOR POLLACK: Overachieving, under-skilled, eager to tell anyone who’ll listen how his lack of job offers is everyone’s fault but his. SARAFINA WYNGAARD: bored with her effortless successes; afraid joining the wage-slaves means not finding whatever she’s meant for. KENNETH GRIES: too busy being handsome to worry about the next step, since Dad will be telling him where to put his foot anyway.
After hosting a hormone-driven, booze-soaked celebration of their class’s impending graduation, the three share memories over a joint. But getting blazed gets literal when a dropped blunt leads to an inferno that destroys Castor and Kenneth’s loft. Made to feel like criminals when they make an insurance claim, the three return to campus with an idea.
Intoxicated on righteous indignation… and maybe a few beers… the three burn down their college’s oak statue of its mascot. They’re witnessed by fellow students, who not only approve… they want in.
The three move in with Castor’s shady uncle, and set to work leading a revolt against the academic system that spurned them, cataloguing it all in their manifesto: THE ARSONIST’S COOKBOOK. The movement spreads… across campus, across the state, then across the nation. Things burn: mascots, effigies of deans, anything in academia seen as a symbol of Millennium Kid oppression. In the middle of it all, Kenneth falls in love with being in the spotlight, and Castor and Sarafina start to fall for each other.
But, as fires tend to, things get out of hand. Sarafina’s enjoyment of arson escalates to what some would call a mania. Cut off by his father, Kenneth charges dues from members, in contradiction to the group’s ideals. An FBI strike force is assigned to the case, and draws in on the three. Targets barely related to the “establishment” become targets: churches, offices, homes.
Innocents are hurt. What was meant to be a statement becomes anarchy.
Castor sees how flawed their creation has become. He calls a meeting to discuss ending it. Kenneth is too addicted to celebrity to stop, though Sarafina agrees with Castor—and detonates firebombs in the apartment, attempting to kill them all. She knows that with the way things are going, the end is near. But she seeks to end it on her own terms.
Sarafina flees, and Castor escapes; Kenneth isn’t so lucky. Caught in the fire, he’s horrifically burned. He barely survives, only to end up in the custody of the FBI strike force hot on the kids’ tails.
To end this madness, Castor must evade the cops and his own brainwashed acolytes, take responsibility, and face the woman he loves, killing this cult before she does something to hurt herself or others.
