At a parking garage, a woman parks and gets out of her car. She pulls up her hoodie and waits, looking around nervously. Someone sends her a text and when she reads it, she reaches briefly into the tire well and texts back. Another message comes in and she quickly walks away.
A teenager, Kenny, is scraping off dirty dishes at the restaurant where he works. A waitress, Melissa, calls him out to deal with a spillage, and he goes to deal with it. When a mother and little girl at a table leave, Kenny picks up the toy the girl left behind and gives it to her. Once they leave, Kenny goes out to the back to eat on his break, and two of his co-workers are discussing a dirty text one man's girlfriend sent to him. When they see Kenny watching, they tell him to take off and he quickly leave
Kenny goes home and goes up to his room. He discovers that his sister Lindsay has taken his laptop and gets it from her, and she says that it froze after she tried to download some program for free films. Kenny goes back to his room and reboots the laptop, and downloads a free malware removal program to fix it. As he does, someone accesses the laptop's webcam.
Later at the restaurant, Melissa, briefly talks to Kenny. When Melissa leaves later, she says that she'll Kenny the next day, and the cooks mock Kenny once she leaves. Kenny ignores them, goes home, and puts a lock on his door to keep Lindsay out. As he goes downstairs, his mother Sandra is preparing for a night out and asks what he thinks of her newly dyed hair. He assures her it looks nice and Sandra tells him to watch Lindsay. Her date arrives outside and she quickly leaves.
Once he warms up supper, Kenny eats in the den and watches TV while Lindsay sits and texts. He goes to his room, locks the door, and brings up some porn. Kenny then wanks off, unaware that someone is watching via the webcam. Afterward, he discovers that someone has sent him an email that says "We saw what you did." There's a video of him wanking off attached, and Kenny quickly covers the webcam. Another email comes in telling Kenny to reply with his phone number or they'll post the video to all of his contacts. Kenny finally does so and then a text comes in telling him to keep his location service on and his phone charged, and says that he'll be activated when the time comes. Kenny asks if they want money, and they simply say to tell no one and they're watching. Kenny looks around his room nervously and then sits on his bed, shaking.
The next day, Kenny is in the kitchen nervously watching his phone. Sandra asks if he's okay, and he say that he is. Once she leaves for work, Kenny goes to the restaurant and Melissa says hi to him. As he goes to his locker, a text comes in telling that he's been activated. It tells him to go to a parking garage at noon, and the sender doesn't care if he's at work. Kenny tells Melissa that he's sick and has to go, and quickly runs off when she says he can go. He rides there on his bike as fast as he can, and is told to wait.
A man on a moped arrives and gives Kenny a box with "4525" on it. He warns that it's fragile, take a photo with his phone to confirm he delivered it, and says that he can't help Kenny. The man tells Kenny to do whatever they say and then they'll let him off. He drives off and Kenny gets a message to confirm the number on the box. Once he does, he's told to deliver the package to a room at an address. When he discovers that he can't ride carrying the package, Kenny leaves on foot.
Kenny takes a bus to the address and opens the package. Inside is an "I love you" cake. He arrives at the building--an apartment building--and goes to the room. The man inside, Hector, immediately says that it's the wrong room, Kenny texts his controller, who says to tell Hector that "Mindy sent him." the teenager does so, and Hector immediately opens the door. He asks where Mindy is, and Kenny hands him the cake. Hector drags Kenny inside and Kenny says that the phone people told him what to say. The man tells him to show him the messages, and Kenny shows him. Hector demands to know who they are, and Kenny says that he has no idea and he does what they say.
Hector's phone rings and he reads the text. He goes into the bathroom and vomits, and Kenny sees an expensive department store bag on the bed. He asks his controller if he can go, and after a minute is told "No." The controller tells Kenny to take Hector's photo, and he does so when Hector comes out and gets a drink from the refrigerator. The man says that they're saying that they just need to follow their controllers' instructions and everything will be okay, and that they have to do it together. He has a map with coordinates that they're supposed to take the cake to, and they need to take a car in the carpark outside. Instructions come in from Kenny telling him to go with Hector, and they take off together.
In the carpark, Kenny and Hector find the car: the one that the woman left earlier. The keys are in the tire well and Hector tells Kenny to navigate and that they have to be there by 2. As they drive, Hector figures that they have some blackmail material on Kenny. He says that he was waiting for a prostitute, and he talked to a woman named Mindy on a website. Hector sent her naked photos of himself, and their controller got everything. If the information gets out then his wife would leave him and custody of their children. Kenny breaks into tears and explains what they have on him.
Hector doesn't see the problem, and then says that the gas-empty light is on. They stop for gas and Hector tells Kenny to pay and gives him his wallet so that they can save time. Kenny goes inside to pay and when he opens Hector's wallet, condoms fall out. The attendant takes the card and Kenny pays. As he goes out, he sees Hector talking with a woman, Karen. Kenny gives Hector his wallet back, and Hector claims that Kenny is his nephew. She explains that she's head of the PTA at the school that Hector's children go to, and Hector claims that he has to drop Kenny off at the station. Karen asks for a lift to somewhere nearby but in the wrong direction, and Hector has no choice but to agree. She sees the cake and Hector claims that it's a gift for his wife, Penny.
As they drive, Karen asks about Penny. Meanwhile, Kenny and Hector get texts saying that their GPSs are going the wrong way. Karen makes small talk and Kenny stumbles through a conversation with her. A warning comes in telling them to be at the location in 20 minutes, and Hector speeds up. He narrowly avoids hitting a pedestrian, and brakes at where Karen is going. She gets out and Hector speeds away.
They get to the address and a text comes in telling them to look in the cake. Hector digs into it with his hand and finds a gun, hat, and sunglasses in a zip lock bag. Their controller tells them that they have five minutes to decide who is the robber and who it the driver, and Kenny and Hector look at the bank at the address. Hector immediately says that he's the driver, and tells Kenny that in a robbery, the staff is trained to hand over the cash, no argument. He figures that they have no choice and he'll kill himself if he loses his family. Hector describes what Kenny did and how everyone will see it, and it'll be on the Internet forever. He promises that he won't drive away, and slaps the hat on Kenny when the teenager insists that he can't. Kenny takes the gun, insisting that it's not real, and yells at Hector to shut up.
Kenny goes into the bank and approaches a clerk at the teller window. He draws the gun and tells her to hand over the money. The clerk fills his bag and passes it back, and Kenny backs out. When he gets out, he discovers that Hector and the car are gone. However, Hector pulls up and opens the door, and drives off after Kenny gets in. He explains that someone was watching him and it freaked him out.
The car comes to a stop for a stopped truck, and they hear police sirens in the distance. Once the light turns red, Hector continues on and a police car goes by them. Kenny texts their controllers, and they give them an address to take it.
Hector follows the directions and pulls off onto a field. He's instructed to take the car away and destroy it... just him alone. Kenny receives a text to immediately take money to a nearby drop point alone. Hector assures him that he's done everything so far and once he drops the money off, he'll be all right. As Kenny goes, Hector apologizes about yelling at him earlier and tells him to take care. They shake hands and Kenny continues on.
Kenny walks into the nearby forest and goes to the drop point. There's a man standing there with a box on the ground next to him. When he sees Kenny, the man takes a drone out of the box and activates it. It lifts into the air, camera on, and the man asks if Kenny has the prize money for the fight. Kenny has no idea what he's talking about, and the man explains that they're going to fight and the winner takes the money. Kenny wonders how they know when it's over, and the man says that his life is over if the information that they have on him gets out. Kenny says that he just looked at some photos, and the other man says that he did too... and asks how young the subjects were. He realizes that they were both looking at underage subjects, and receive texts telling them to fight to the death.
When Kenny draws the gun, the man backs away and begs him not to shoot. The teenager puts the gun to his head and pulls the trigger, but nothing happens. The man charges Kenny and tackles him, and they fight.
Hector returns home and looks in on his daughters. He gets a picture of a troll face from his controllers. Hector goes into his bedroom and finds Penny looking at everything he did on her laptop. She says Mindy's name.
Kenny staggers out of the forest.
The woman who left the car in the park--=a CEO-- looks at her racist emails published on the Internet, and receives the same troll face.
Kenny, covered in blood, goes back to the wall.
The moped men's wife yells at him after his information goes out.
As Kenny walks down the road, Sandra calls. When Kenny answers, she demands to know why he was looking at kids. The troll face message comes up on his phone, and Kenny turns to see the police arrive.
Written by Gadfly on Oct 30, 2016