The Skulls (film) - Plot

Plot

Luke McNamara (Joshua Jackson) is a student with aspirations to become a lawyer. He attends Yale along with his girlfriend Chloe (Leslie Bibb) and his best friend Will (Hill Harper). Luke's friendships hit the rocks when he is invited to join a secret society known as "The Skulls". After Luke passes the first part of the initiation process, he has a falling out with Chloe when she realizes that he has become a Skull.

As a member of the Skulls, Luke is partnered with Caleb Mandrake (Paul Walker), and the two quickly strike up a friendship. Caleb's father, Litten Mandrake (Craig T. Nelson), is the current Chairman of the Skulls and his partner Senator Ames Levritt (William Petersen), takes an interest in Luke. Eventually Will, who has been conducting research on the Skulls for some time, discovers their secret ritual room. Will gets caught in the room by Caleb and in the ensuing struggle he falls and is knocked unconscious. Caleb is ordered to leave the room by his father, who gets one of his cronies to break Will's neck. The Skulls manage to move the body and make it look like Will committed suicide in his dorm room.

Luke is greatly troubled by the death of his best friend, especially because Will's family is the only family he had (due to the death of his parents at a young age), and becomes suspicious that Will was in fact murdered. He initially thinks that Caleb is guilty of the murder, and Caleb thinks that he himself is guilty since he assumed that Will was dead when he left the room. Luke obtains tapes that prove who actually committed the murder and in trying to convince Caleb of the truth (that it was his father who was responsible for Will's death), Luke realizes how scared Caleb is of his father. Before Luke can show the evidence to police, the tape is switched by a detective and Luke is confined to a mental hospital under the control of the Skulls.

With the help of Ames Levritt and Chloe, Luke manages to escape the hospital and survive an attempt on his life. Luke decides that his only option is to fight the Skulls by their own rules, and "bring war to them". He challenges Caleb to a duel at the Skulls' private island, by invoking rule 119. Litten tries to take his son's place in the duel but is denied the opportunity due to another Skull rule (119b, line 15). After Luke and Caleb take their ten paces and turn around, Luke drops his gun and tries to convince Caleb of the truth and that he is not responsible for Will's murder. Despite being pressured by Litten to kill Luke, Caleb cannot bring himself to pull the trigger. At this point, Litten loses control, grabs a pistol, and attempts to shoot Luke himself, but before he can fire, Caleb shoots his own father. The wound is not a mortal one, but Caleb, mortified at what he has done, tries to kill himself but is stopped by Luke.

The film ends with Luke's realization that Senator Levritt waited to help him until he had no other choice but to duel and eliminate his rival (Caleb's father). Luke becomes disgusted with the order and refuses to participate further, despite threats from Levritt that he will be tracked down someday. As Luke walks away Levritt says, "Well done, son". It has been speculated that this, along with other incidents in the movie (such as him comparing their backgrounds, Luke's unknown father situation, and Levritt taking an immediate liking to Luke), that Levritt may be Luke's father. The final shot of the movie shows Luke reuniting with Chloe.