Apt Pupil
A gifted high‑school student obsessed with Nazi history coerces a reclusive neighbor he suspects is a fugitive war criminal into recounting his atrocities, sparking a deadly psychological battle that threatens to consume both their lives.
“If you don't believe in the existence of evil, you've got a lot to learn”
Synopsis
In 1984, Todd Bowden, a gifted high school student with a strong interest in the history of Nazism, encounters an elderly man who bears a striking resemblance to Kurt Dussander, a fugitive Nazi war criminal. A month later, Todd makes the decision to visit the man at his home.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 39
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by John OttmanShot by Newton Thomas SigelDesigned by Richard Hoover
Box Office
1998 · Box office
📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.6× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$8.9M
Opening weekend: $3.6M — 40% of its US run. Front-loaded — most of its money arrived opening weekend.
Opening week (7-day): $4.8M — 54% of its US & Canada run.
Peak 1,448 theaters
Also known as
- Der Musterschülerde
- Un élève douéfr
- L'allievoit
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Cast & Crew
39 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Ian Mckellen
as Kurt Dussander
Brad Renfro
as Todd Bowden
Joshua Jackson
as Joey
Bruce Davison
as Richard Bowden
Mickey Cottrell
as Sociology Teacher
Elias Koteas
as Archie
Michael Reid Mackay
as Nightmare Victim
Joe Morton
as Dan Richler
Ann Dowd
as Monica Bowden
David Schwimmer
as Edward French
Jan Triska
as Isaac Weiskopf
James Karen
as Victor Bowden
Supporting cast
18Michael Byrne
as Ben Kramer
Marjorie Lovett
as Agnes Bowden
David Cooley
as Gym Teacher
Heather Mccomb
as Becky Trask
Blake Anthony Tibbetts
as Teammate
Katherine Malone
as Student
Grace Sinden
as Secretary
Anthony Moore
as Umpire
Kevin Spirtas
as Paramedic
Danna Dennis
as Nurse
Michael Artura
as Detective Getty
Donna Marie Brown
as Mother
Mark Flythe
as Darren
Warren Wilson
as Newscaster
Jill Harris
as Reporter
Norbert D Singer
as Hospital Administrator #1
Mildred Singer
as Hospital Administrator #2
Mary Ottman
as Doctor
Directors
1Writers
2Producers
3Other crew
4Parents Guide
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