CLASS OF 1984

Andrew Norris is the new music teacher at Lincoln High School, a troubled inner city school. As he arrives on his first day, he meets fellow teacher Terry Corrigan, who is carrying a gun. When Andrew asks about the firearm, Terry assures him he will learn why the protection is necessary. When they enter the school, Andrew is shocked to see everyone scanned by metal detectors and frisked. He spots a student with a straight razor, but the security guards let the student go because they are so overworked.

The halls of the school are covered with graffiti. Andrew learns he is expected to patrol the halls as a security guard during his off periods. In his first class, a group of five disruptive students are roughhousing and causing trouble. The leader of the gang is Peter Stegman, the only member of the group who is actually registered in that class. They all eventually walk out, and Andrew discovers the rest of the students want to learn, especially Arthur, who plays the trumpet, and Deneen, who plays the clarinet.

As Andrew gets to know the school and the area, he decides to put together an orchestra with his more advanced students. Peter's gang sells drugs and causes all kinds of mayhem, including the death of a student who buys PCP, climbs up a flagpole, and falls off. They follow Andrew home and taunt him one night, spraying a red liquid on his face. Andrew is frustrated, but the school principal is cynical and requires absolute proof of the gang's misconduct to act. The police act similarly.

At school, Andrew is confronted with more and more evidence of Peter's crimes. The two grow increasingly at odds. Eventually, after Peter kills Terry's animals in his lab, Andrew and Peter end up alone in a bathroom. Peter throws himself into a mirror and beats himself, claiming that Andrew attacked him. Trying to clear things up, Andrew visits Peter's mother at home. Frustrated that Peter still plays the victim and his mother will not hear Andrew, he hotwires Peter's car and drives it into a wall.

During lunch, the gang starts a food fight and forces their friend Vinnie to stab Arthur, causing him to be sent to a hospital. Vinnie is arrested and held in a youth detention center. Terry is driven insane after the incident with the animals in his lab and pulls a gun on his students, but is killed after crashing his car when trying to kill Peter and the others.

Andrew's orchestra is about to give its first concert. As his wife, Diane, gets ready at home, Peter's gang breaks into the house and gang rapes her. One of them takes a Polaroid of her being raped and has it delivered to Andrew on the podium just as he is about to start the concert. Horrified by the photo, he runs off the podium in pursuit of Peter's gang; Deneen conducts the orchestra in his absence.

Andrew and the gang chase each other through the school. Andrew kills them off individually, finally confronting Peter on the roof. Their last scuffle ends with Peter falling through a skylight, and after Andrew reaches a hand to help him, Peter attacks him, getting strangled to death in the ropes above the stage. His corpse falls into full view of the audience. An ending caption states that Andrew is never charged because the police could not find a witness to the crime.

Andrew Norris confronts Peter Stegman and his gang after they assault his wife. Norris kills the gang members one by one throughout the school and finally faces Stegman on the roof, resulting in Stegman's death.

The ending serves as a violent reckoning, turning Norris from a dedicated teacher into a man pushed to the edge by unchecked brutality. The film concludes with a grim commentary on institutional failure, as Norris is cleared of wrongdoing because no witnesses remain, underscoring the cycle of violence that can erupt in desperate environments.