American Thief

This modern coming of age tale tells the story of a 15-year-old boy called REED who by all accounts seem to be the average 21st century computerized teenager - he is always online playing games, listening to music and surfing the web. We soon learn that he uses the web to profit by gambling online. His programming skills keep most of his activities anonymous. Unaware of his online activities his single mother struggles to find time to home-school him. Reed enjoys his mother's company, her alternative life-style as well as the cool parties she throws at their house. Reed is treated as an adult and feels happy about it. In one of his lonely late night walks in NYC Reed spots a gorgeous woman in her '30s and begins following her. She soon becomes an obsession and his official teenage-hormonal crush. Not knowing how to approach the woman, Reed is content to learn her daily routine and to watch her every move. Another of Reed's hobbies is to find ways to break into people's homes. He becomes an expert in the art of trespassing, which he does just for the thrill of it. After one of his 'break-ins' he receives a message on his computer and is invited to go to a mysterious meeting - in spite of the risk he decides to go. The encounter with the mysterious 'mentor' changes his life forever. Reed is given tasks and begins to use his trespassing skills to physically steal personal data from the computers of a selected list of people handed to him by the mentor. At every new 'delivery,' Reed has long philosophical conversations with the mentor and slowly begins to learn the reasons behind his assignments. He also begins to get paid for the services he provides. As the tasks get more and more complicated Reed's confidence grows and he begins contemplating making contact with the older women he is obsessed with. His mother notices something is changing in his behavior and suspects something is up. She corners him and extracts half the truth from her boy. He loves and respects his mother more than anything in the world - it hurts to have to lie to her. After another of his break-ins, the mentor explains to him that the risk involved has reached a high point. In a complex philosophical speech the mentor explains what's going on and Reed fully understands that the scope of his fun and adventurous activities are in fact of global impact. He is given the choice to stop but makes a conscious decision to keep going. The ramification of his actions will bring unimaginable consequences to his life and will connect all the characters surrounding Reed in a web of doubt and danger.