Radio Standby

Arturo De Amicis, radio speaker of the radio "Standby", meets a group of rich eccentric young people at a party in a villa. They are fans of his show and urge him to introduce challenges on the radio, extreme group challenges. Arturo, initially hesitant, is persuaded, also pushed by Lucia, a seductive girl in the group he falls in love with. So he begins to propose challenges on the radio late at night, at first harmless, then more and more extreme, to the limits of legality. Viral and adored online, Arturo is a loser in everyday life. He lives alone, surrounded by a group of delinquent childhood friends who bully him. Arturo, tired of being oppressed, devises a trap: he proposes a robbery to his friends, a sure hit, against the rich scions of the villa. His accomplice is Lucia, who is also tired of the abusive behavior of the young partygoers and with whom he begins a relationship. On the night of the robbery, everyone in the villa is high: the guests, live on social media under the influence of drugs and alcohol, are grappling with Arturo's latest challenge, the "Blackout challenge". Arturo's accomplices have sneaked into the house and are at work, but a gunshot and the apparent death of one of the participants causes panic among the guests who suddenly rush into the villa, forcing the gang to hide. Listening to the "Standby" radio is Marshal Gallone who has long been on the trail of a group of young criminals accused of drug dealing and extortion. He happens to be driving by in his car near the villa when he hears the gunshot and rushes to the scene. Arturo, in connection with the gang, panicked, decides to go personally to the villa together with an old videomaker friend. Gallone's arrival creates a general uproar: there are drugs and illegal substances in the house. Some members of the gang come out in an attempt to escape and are arrested. The ringleader is also arrested but not before having launched into a desperate escape in which he injures Gallone and then loses consciousness. Arturo arrives at the villa and takes advantage of the situation when Lucia appears safe and sound: he reveals the fiction live on social media, exonerating the group of guests engaged in a social protest activity: no "blackout challenge" and no dead. Arturo reveals that Lucia, who had appeared to die, had instead taken a powerful narcotic. The remaining guests were actors hired for the event. Two weeks later, all the boys are charged with incitement to suicide. Arturo loses his job, Lucia loses her father's finances. The two, after meeting for the last time, turn the page and, free from the oppressions of the past, dive, far from each other, into their new lives.