THIS IS ADAM SYNOPSIS

Adam appears to be the quintessential American man—steady job, loving family, suburban home. But beneath the surface, his life is unraveling. Recently fired from his corporate job, he hides the truth from his wife, Mira, while retreating into hidden vices. Mira soon discovers his proclivity for gay porn, shattering their carefully maintained facade. Their teenage son, James, mirrors his father’s repression, posturing for acceptance even if it means bullying a vulnerable classmate. When a mysterious new girl, Lucia, enters James' life, her presence begins to shift his worldview. She becomes his quiet guide, nudging him toward empathy and introspection. Meanwhile, Mira, sensing deeper fissures in their marriage, begins tailing Adam in secret. Her worst suspicions arise, witnessing him spend his days at a gym with another man—an unsettling trigger from her childhood when she watched her own mother manipulate men into orbiting her as proof of worth and power.

As father and son face inner turmoil, the past presses harder into the present. Adam's inability to confront himself echoes his own father’s repressed legacy and his mother’s untreated mental illness. James, under Lucia’s influence, starts shedding his performative masculinity. He defends the boy he once bullied and begins to perceive the intergenerational traumas shaping those around him. In a heated confrontation, Mira presses the question of Adam’s sexuality, and he attempts dominance, but fails, redirects the blame, and retreats. Mira also flees, to the woods, slipping into a primal, feral fantasy of feminine independence. James is overwhelmed by his new perspective, and Lucia tends to him tenderly. James confesses love for her, and is pushed to confront that what he seeks isn’t romance, but the nurturing his absent parents cannot provide. Upon this realization, Lucia disappears—or perhaps was never truly there. Elsewhere, Adam dreams of killing his entire family.

Time passes. James, now alienated from friends and growing increasingly introspective, finds solace in the imagined company of his deceased grandmother, Beatrice. Adam and Mira, numbed by routine, live in parallel—Adam still hiding his truth, Mira still chasing after his secrets. When James’ school counselor raises concerns about his mental health, Adam explodes in denial. Unwilling to face their son’s inner world, Adam and Mira retreat to their own, avoiding confrontation. Adam visits his aging father, Odo, now rotting in a care facility, hoping to glean insight into his own mother's past condition. But Odo offers no wisdom—only filth, silence, and perversion. In a desperate bid to reclaim control, Adam trades alcohol and pornography for their old family hunting gear, reviving a ritual that once promised order amid chaos.

James, guided by Beatrice’s ghost, uncovers his grandmother’s old belongings. He begins to piece together his father’s childhood—moments of abandonment, fear, and emotional freezing amidst his mother’s episodes. Meanwhile, Mira loses herself in her fantasy of divine femininity in the woods. Back home, Adam forces James into a hunting trip, hoping masculinity can cure what emotion cannot. But James, desperate to speak openly, rebels—shattering a sliding door in protest. Adam, refusing to listen, dismisses him again. Mira, suspicious of Adam’s daily routine, confronts him at the gym only to discover he is actually employed there, managing staff. His deception isn’t adultery—it’s cowardice. But to Mira, the betrayal cuts just as deep. In a moment of regression, she recreates her mother’s coping mechanism—picking up a stranger and dragging him into her wilderness dreamscape, igniting a fire that destroys her divine feminine outpost.

In the early dawn, Adam awakens to find Mira gone and James missing. While he attempts to relive the past by hunting alone, James finds Mira freezing and broken in the woods, and carries her home. Adam, unable to stomach his own memories of hunting with his father, buys a dressed deer from a farm and presents it to Mira as his own trophy, a desperate bid to reclaim his manhood. Instead, she recoils in horror. James, still exploring family trauma with Beatrice’s guidance, relives Adam’s childhood memory of the day his mother was taken away. As gunshots crack through the suburban air, James races outside. But Adam isn’t aiming at anyone—he's firing wildly at their house, the symbol of their failed American dream. In that moment, Adam recalls his mother’s last words: “Don’t let them turn you into a monster.”

That memory breaks the cycle. Earlier that day, Adam had stormed into Odo’s room and scrubbed his father’s decaying body like a child, offering him the care and human dignity he never received himself. As police arrive to arrest Adam, Mira breaks through the crowd to open the door of the cruiser. James joins her. Adam has nothing left to offer except the truth he has long avoided. He looks at them both, broken, exposed, and finally says the only words that matter: “I need help.”