The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is a 2002 American comedy-drama film directed by Peter Care and written by Jeff Stockwell and Michael Petroni based on Chris Fuhrman's 1994 semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel of the same name. The film stars Emile Hirsch, Kieran Culkin, Jena Malone, Jodie Foster and Vincent D'Onofrio.

The film is about a group of Catholic school friends in the Southern United States in the 1970s who engage in a series of pranks and general mischief. The boys also collaborate on a comic book they call The Atomic Trinity. Interspersed within the film are segments of animated footage based on the comic book.

Fuhrman died of cancer before completing the final revision of the novel. The film, dedicated to his memory, received positive reviews from critics.

DETAILED PLOT

Set in the early 1970s in the suburban town of Savannah, Georgia, the film follows the lives of protagonist Francis Doyle, and three of his friends, Tim Sullivan, Wade Scalisi and Joey Anderson. The four boys all attend a private Catholic school named St. Agatha's, which they detest. The boys rebel by smoking pot, drinking, obsessing over girls, listening to hard rock music and playing pranks on their teachers, such as stealing their school's statue of St. Agatha and keeping it in their clubhouse. The four friends dedicate much of their time to a comic book of their own creation titled The Atomic Trinity in order to escape the monotony and avoid the difficulties in their own lives.

After receiving a love note from Francis, which was actually written by Tim, Margie Flynn becomes a major presence and weaves her way into the lives of these four friends. She and Francis have an obvious connection that progresses into much more. At times, Francis must choose between his friends and Margie, which causes the group of friends to fall apart. The boys' lives are also translated into segments of animation based on the characters of The Atomic Trinity: Brakken, The Muscle, Captain Asskicker and Major Screw; Nunzilla, based on their peglegged, overly repressive Catholic school teacher Sister Assumpta; and Sorcerella, based on Margie Flynn.

After a school field trip to the zoo, Tim and Francis have the idea of playing another prank on Sister Assumpta. They decide to drug the cougar at the local zoo and then transport it to Sister Assumpta's office to scare her. When they learn how serious Tim and Francis are, the other half of the Atomic Trinity wimp out, which leaves an unlikely group of friends consisting of Margie, Tim and Francis. Francis soon learns that Margie had been sexually assaulted by her own brother, Donny. During gym class Donny bullies Tim. Tim, out of pressure and his own impulsive nature, insults Donny for molesting his own sister. He regrets telling Donny, who beats him up, and then tells Francis who becomes angry with him. Donny takes Tim and Francis's comic, The Atomic Trinity, and gives it to the nun. The violent, blasphemous and inappropriate drawings in the notebook cause Tim and Francis to be suspended, pending expulsion from the school.

In an act of final retribution, Tim, Francis, Wade and Joey attempt to steal a cougar to place inside the school to cover up a wrecking of the school they did that night. At the zoo, a makeshift tranquilizer created from several narcotic drugs is used to put the cougar to sleep. The other three boys go down to the gate to retrieve the cougar in a cage, while Tim impulsively climbs over the fence into the cougar's den. He checks to see if the cougar is alive, and happily replies that it is. When the other boys reach the gate to retrieve the cougar, another cougar leaps at Tim, mauling him to death. At Tim's funeral, Francis quotes the poem "The Tyger" by William Blake, whom Sister Assumpta earlier condemned as a "dangerous thinker". Francis places the book at the stolen statue of St. Agatha in their hideout, and starts a new comic series dedicated entirely to the character based on Tim, Skeleton Boy.