Elephant (2003)

Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (2003) is a haunting, minimalist drama inspired by the Columbine High School massacre. Shot in a docu-fiction style, the film quietly follows several students on an ordinary school day that suddenly spirals into tragedy. Its calm, observational tone and lack of a traditional narrative structure make it both unsettling and unforgettable.

Detailed Summary

A Normal Day Begins

The movie opens with students arriving at Watt High School. We follow different teenagers—John, Elias, Michelle, Nathan, Carrie, and others—going about their routines. Gus Van Sant uses long, slow tracking shots that trail behind the characters as they walk through hallways, giving the viewer an almost ghostly perspective of a day that feels ordinary.

Lives in Passing

Each character’s segment overlaps with others, showing how their paths intersect. Elias takes photographs for his portfolio, Nathan and Carrie are the quintessential “high school couple,” Michelle struggles with body image and social acceptance, and John has tension with his father. These moments appear trivial, but they highlight the ordinariness of life before disaster strikes.

The Shooters Arrive

Eric and Alex, two socially isolated students, are introduced at home. They play violent video games, practice piano, and later receive a delivery of semi-automatic weapons they ordered online. The film shows them planning the attack with a disturbing calmness. There’s also a scene where they shower together, implying an ambiguous intimacy that blurs the lines of their relationship.

The Calm Before Violence

Back at school, everything continues as normal. Some students chat in the library, others hang out in hallways. Van Sant prolongs this build-up deliberately, emphasizing how no one expects anything unusual to happen.

The Shooting

Eric and Alex enter the school wearing camouflage gear and carrying guns. The attack unfolds with chilling simplicity. Students panic as shots echo through hallways. The camera doesn’t sensationalize the violence; it often stays at a distance, showing the chaos in long, unbroken takes. Several students are killed without warning, including Elias and Michelle.

Movie Ending

The film’s ending is brutal and abrupt. Eric and Alex split up inside the school. Alex enters the kitchen where he finds Nathan and Carrie hiding in a freezer. He calmly points his gun at them and begins a game of “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” to decide who will die first. The screen cuts to black before revealing the outcome.

Eric, meanwhile, shoots John’s father earlier in the film and is last seen wandering through the halls, continuing the rampage. There is no resolution, no aftermath, no clear explanation—only the terrifying sense of randomness and finality.

Are There Post-Credits Scenes?

No. Elephant does not include any post-credits scenes. The film ends immediately after the final cut to black, reinforcing its uncompromising tone.

Type of Movie

Elephant is a drama and psychological art film with elements of crime and thriller, but it avoids the conventions of those genres. It is observational, slow, and meditative, more interested in atmosphere than traditional plot structure.

Cast

• Alex Frost as Alex
• Eric Deulen as Eric
• John Robinson as John
• Elias McConnell as Elias
• Jordan Taylor as Jordan
• Carrie Finklea as Carrie
• Nathan Tyson as Nathan
• Bennie Dixon as Benny
• Alicia Miles as Michelle

Film Music and Composer

The film features minimal score. Gus Van Sant deliberately avoided a heavy soundtrack, instead using Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” played by Alex in one scene. This choice adds a chilling irony—beauty and violence existing side by side.

Filming Locations

The movie was shot at Whitaker Middle School in Portland, Oregon, which had been closed prior to filming. Its empty, echoing hallways gave the film its haunting visual character and emphasized the isolation of its characters.

Awards and Nominations

• Palme d’Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival (won)
• Best Director at Cannes (won)
• Nominated for Independent Spirit Awards including Best Feature

Behind the Scenes Insights

• Gus Van Sant cast mostly non-professional actors, many of them real high school students, to add realism.
• Much of the dialogue was improvised; Van Sant gave actors situations rather than strict scripts.
• The long tracking shots were inspired by Béla Tarr’s filmmaking style.
• The film’s title is partly a nod to the proverb “the elephant in the room”—something obvious that nobody wants to address (in this case, school shootings).

Inspirations and References

The movie is heavily inspired by the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Van Sant avoids directly dramatizing Columbine, instead creating a fictional school to explore the broader themes of alienation, violence, and randomness.

Alternate Endings and Deleted Scenes

There are no official alternate endings, though Van Sant has mentioned that some improvised scenes were left out to maintain pacing. None change the core narrative or conclusion.

Book Adaptations and Differences

Elephant is not adapted from a book. However, it shares its title with Alan Clarke’s Elephant (1989), a short film about random killings in Northern Ireland. The thematic similarity—violence without explanation—is intentional.

Memorable Scenes and Quotes

Key Scenes

• John walking through the campus as other students cross his path, foreshadowing the tragedy.
• Alex practicing piano, moments before preparing for mass murder.
• The overlapping timelines, where the same hallway scene is shown from different perspectives.
• The chilling ending in the kitchen, frozen at the moment of life or death.

Iconic Quotes

• Alex (while playing piano): “You should try this.”
• Eric (about the attack): “It’s going to be like a video game, only real.”

Easter Eggs and Hidden Details

• The non-linear timeline echoes how memory works, suggesting that the film itself is a fragmented recollection of the tragedy.
• The shooters’ choice to shower together hints at suppressed intimacy, challenging simplistic explanations of school shooters.
• The lack of soundtrack during violence forces viewers to focus on the raw sounds of footsteps and gunfire.

Trivia

• The film was shot in just 20 days.
• Gus Van Sant won both Best Director and the Palme d’Or at Cannes, a rare double win.
• Many of the characters’ names are the same as the actors’ real names.

Why Watch?

Watch Elephant if you want a film that doesn’t offer easy answers. It’s not about sensationalizing violence, but about observing it with unsettling calmness. It’s thought-provoking, quiet, and haunting—a movie that lingers in your mind long after it ends.

Director’s Other Movies

• Good Will Hunting (1997)
• My Own Private Idaho (1991)
• Milk (2008)
• Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
• Last Days (2005)

Recommended Films for Fans

• Bowling for Columbine (2002)
• We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
• The Killing of America (1981)
• Paranoid Park (2007)
• Zero Day (2003)