Kurt Kunkle is the main antagonist of the 2020 black comedy horror film Spree. He is a social media obsessed rideshare driver who starts poisoning his passengers to become viral.
He is played by Joe Keery, who also played Steve Harrington on the netflix series Stranger Things.
Early life[]
Kurt Kunkle was born in Los Angeles, California to Kris Kunkle, a former youtuber and current DJ, and Angela Kunkle. At some point in his early life, he would babysit a kid named Bobby, who would later grow up to be an arrogant and obnoxious social media influencer, named Bobby Basecamp.
He created his own youtube channel Kurt'sWorld96. All throughout his teenage years he would upload different videos, mostly livestreams, in an attempt to become a social media influencer. Despite his best efforts, he never managed to gather an audience - this would change 10 years later . . .
10 years later: April 12th, 2019[]
Kurt gets a job as a rideshare driver for a company called Spree. He fits out his car with cameras, and starts a brand new livestream titled "The Lesson" where he instructs viewers on how to become famous on social media.
He picks up his first passenger: a dude named Frederick, who begins to racially taunt Kurt. Kurt offers him some bottled water, and Frederick drinks it without a second thought. Fredrick starts coughing and convulsing violently, because Kurt poisoned the bottle water, and Frederick falls against the cardoor dead. Kurt's only viewer, Bobby, dismisses the act, calling it fake. Kurt picks up his next passenger: a woman named Andrea, who's a snappy realtor. She, too, drinks the posioned bottled water and falls over on the carseat dead.
He picks up his next passenger: a creepy dude named Mario. Because Mario signed on Spree Social (where more than one passenger can be driven), Kurt picks up his next passenger: a woman named Jessie Adams, a famous comedian with a large social media following. Kurt is awestruck by Jessie's large social media following and questions her on how she did it. His persistent questions, along with Mario's general creepiness, cause Jessie to exit the vehicle. Kurt, both angry and sad, drives to a distant consruction site and demands Mario leave his car. While Mario is taking a pee, Kurt drives backwards, hitting and killing Mario.
Kurt picks up his next passengers: A trio of socialites named Richard, London, and Kendra. Seeking to make his livestream more exciting, Kurt drives recklessly which invigorates his riders. Kurt drives to a junkyard and tells Richard and Kendra to hang out the sunroof. They begin to enjoy it even as Kurt floors it and drives incredibly fast. Kurt closes the sunroof, trapping Richard and Kendra. Richard and Kendra are mauled to death by junkyard dogs, and London is killed by Kurt via power drill. Kurt then cleans the blood off his car in a carwash. Kurt is disppointed to find out that Bobby left the livestream long ago. Kurt gets a call from Bobby who tells him to be more like Jessie Adams. Kurt jealouly watches her livestream.
Kurt arrives at Bobby's house, and begins a livestream. Bobby tells him to leave, stating that they arn't friends or collaborators, and that the fact that Kurt uset to babysit doesn't mean crap. Bobby continues to insult Kurt, even as he pulls out a knife. Kurt stabs Bobby in the stomach, and Bobby tries to defend himself with a gun but is overpowered and finally killed by Kurt. Bobby's viewers believe the murder was fake, even as Kurt washes Bobby's blood off his face.
Kurt's dad, Kris, texts him to pick him up and take him to a gig and that a famous DJ named uNo will be there and promising that she will tag Kurt in a photo. When Kurt picks up Kris and takes him to the club, he approaches uNo; she initially refuses to tag him, but then asks him to take her to a taco truck with the promise of tagging him. As Kurt is getting her taco, uNo finds a gun in the glove compartment and poses with it. She then takes a drink of Kurt's poisoned bottled water and seemingly dies. Kurt returns to his car to find uNo seemingly dead, and throws the poisoned botted water out of the car window. This attracts the attention of two cops, but before they can find out Kurt's secret, uNo springs back to life and accidently shoots one of the officers, allowing Kurt to make his getaway. Kurt is chased down by a couple of cop cars, but Kurt manages to lose them by driving into oncoming traffic. He then almost hits a homeless man, and crashes his car.
Kurt logs into Jessie's livestream where he witnesses Jessie openly quit social media and smash her phone on the floor.
Spree is temporaily shut down due to his murder spree, and Kurt is labeled the Rideshare Killer. With Spree shut down, Kurt gets a ride through another app called GoGo, and gets in the car of a friendly man named Davit. Kurt kills him offscreen and steals his car. Jessie enter's Kurt's new car and he reveals to her that he's her driver from earilier - the one she made fun of in her set. He also reveals he saw her show and thus knows she is not gonna be able to use her phone to call for help. Thinking that she is helpless, he tells her he is taking her to his home. Jessie strangles him with a phone cord causing Kurt to crash into some trash cans. He then knocks her unconscious and drags her to his front lawn and drags her body into his headlights. He puts up a poll and asks if he should kill her, marry her, or rape her - they tell him to kill her, so he prepares to run her over, but she disappears. Kurt gets out of his car to see where she went, and Jessie takes the opportunity to hijack his car and try to run him over, but accidently drives right throught the wall and into Kurt's living room. Kurt manages to escape into another room, as Jessie tells the livestream audience she needs help.
Kris enters the room drunk, and is confused at the sight of a stranger in his living room, the hole in the wall, and the discovery of Kurt's dead mom, whom Kurt killed prior to the events of the rideshare killings. Kurt proceeds to shoot Kris dead. As Kurt continues to shoot his dad's dead body, Jessie gets in the car and tries to escape. When driving backwards doesn't work, she floors it and drives into Kurt, pinning him to a wall. When that doesn't kill him, Jessie gets out of the car and proceeds to bash him violently in the head with her phone, finally killing Kurt.
Jessie gains lots of fame for killing the Rideshare Killer, while Kurt is exposed as the Rideshare Killer and is despised by most and praised by others. The final scene reveals that a movie is being made about him . . . a movie named Spree.
Victims (IN CRONOLOGICAL ORDER)[]
- Angela Kunken - Killed by Kurt (offscreen)
- Frederick - Unknowingly drinks poisoned bottle water and dies
- Andrea - Unknowingly drinks poisoned bottle water and dies (offscreen)
- Mario - Gets run over by a car
- Richard - Gets mauled to death by junkyard dogs (offscreen)
- Kendra - Gets mauled to death by junkyard dogs (offscreen)
- London - Has a power drill drilled into her head
- Bobby Basecamp - Gets stabbed in the stomach and head by Kurt
- Devit - Killed by Kurt (offscreen)
- Kris Kunkle - Gunned down by Kurt
Trivia[]
- Kurt was played by Joe Keery, who also played Steve Harrington on Stranger Things
Related content[]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndHOav52t7k Dead Meat's kill count of the film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6iRaGISi20 Dead Meat's kill count trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX7V6j7-9_o The offical movie trailer