Apt Pupil is a 1998 film adapted from a story in Stephen King's novella collection Different Seasons. It was directed by Bryan Singer and starred Brad Renfro as Todd and Ian McKellen as Dussander.
The story revolves around Todd, an American high school student in The '80s, discovering that his elderly next-door neighbor is in fact Kurt Dussander, a Nazi SS officer wanted for war crimes. Todd, who has a perverse interest in Nazi war crimes, blackmails Dussander into telling him stories of his time as the commandant of a concentration camp, leading to a series of mind games between the two as exactly which one is in control of the situation gradually becomes unclear...
Tropes in the film version:
- Adaptational Alternate Ending: The original ending dealt with Todd murdering his guidance counselor and going on a 5-hour shooting spree in a populated area before getting shot to death by the police. In the film, Todd just blackmails the guidance counselor by threatening to accuse him of molestation to keep his connections to Kurt Dussander secret and goes off to college.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Although he is still a Jerkass obsessed with Nazi crimes in both versions, Todd is a lot less nasty in the film version than he is in the novella. In the book he is a budding sociopath who fantasizes about raping a captive woman in a concentration camp and, together with Dussander, becomes a Serial Killer of hobos before he murders his guidance counselor and finally goes on a killing spree that ends in his death. In the film Todd comes across as more disturbed and immature than Ax-Crazy and sadistic, doesn't have anything as explicit as a rape fantasy during his dreams about the camps (imagining himself as an inmate instead), he and Dussander only kill one homeless person who found out that Dussander was a former Nazi (and only after Dussander locked them together in the basement and the hobo shambled towards him looking like a zombie), and Todd simply blackmails his guidance counselor and goes to college after Dussander dies.
- Artistic License – Military: Discussed. Dussander points out that the replica uniform Todd got him is incorrect. He held the SS rank of Sturmbahnführer (major) but the insignia designate him to be an Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant-colonel).Dussander: I see I've been promoted.
- Driven to Suicide: Dussander commits suicide by air embolism rather than let himself be extradited to Israel to answer for his war crimes.
- He Knows Too Much: Dussander starts putting on his SS uniform even when Todd is not around to blackmail him. Unfortunately, a homeless person sees him through his window. Dussander then kidnaps and holds the man captive in his basement, later coercing Todd to murder him.
- Karma Houdini: Todd in the film version, which removes his final killing spree. It's left ambiguous whether he does manage to beat the rap for his involvement with Dussander, with the film ending after he states his intention to blackmail Ed into keeping quiet, by claiming he's made inappropriate advances towards him in exchange for good grades.
- Lighter and Softer: The film is far less explicit and violent than the book.
- Nazi Grandpa: Arthur Denker, whose real name is Kurt Dussander. Ian McKellen can play a pretty terrifying ex-Nazi in hiding. Admittedly he's trying to forget his past crimes, but the scene where he's forced to play dress-up for the bratty kid blackmailing him shows that the whole "blood and honor" devotion is still bubbling beneath the surface. Having to recount his past murders inspires Dussander to start killing again.
- Retired Monster: Young Todd Bowden discovers his quiet German neighbor Arthur Denker is actually Nazi war criminal Kurt Dussander and decides to blackmail him. This turns out to be a very, very bad move on Todd's part.
- Spared by the Adaptation: The film adaptation spares the lives of both Todd himself and his guidance counselor. In the novella, Todd kills him before going on a shooting spree that ultimately ends with Todd being taken down by the police.
