YMMV / Apt Pupil

• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Todd gets away with it all by blackmailing his guidance counselor, and goes on to college. Bad enough, if less ghastly than a shooting spree, but in the wake of the rise of Neo-Nazism in the US, it's downright sinister.
  • Todd outright says that if his school counselor tells anyone about what happened then Todd would accuse him of sexual advances could be is this in light of the numerous allegations of sexual abuse and rape committed against underage men towards Bryan Singer, some of which happened on this film.
• Nightmare Fuel: The scene in the film where Todd makes Dussander wear a replica Nazi uniform and do a Nazi march. At first, Dussander plays along just to shut Todd up...but then old habits kick in and Dussander begins goose-stepping and saluting like it's 1940 again, showing how deep the indoctrination still is, while Todd is shouting marching orders at him. When it's over, even the unrepentant Nazi Dussander is shaken, warning Todd "Boy...you play with fire."
• Overshadowed by Controversy: This film is largely overshadowed by reports that Bryan Singer allegedly preyed upon and sexually abused young cast members on the film, which were revisited when an investigative article published in The Atlantic in early 2019 detailed accusations that Singer molested an extra.
• Tear Jerker: The old Jewish man who shares Dussander's hospital room notices that his roommate looks familiar, then has a full-blown panic attack when he realizes that it's the same man who murdered his entire family in a concentration camp some forty years ago, still alive and at large. He hurries out of the room as fast as a geriatric old man is capable of and collapses into a nurse's arms, bawling his eyes out.

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