Swiped 2018

Introverted freshman James shares a dorm room with Lance Black, a wealthy student who is confident with women and focused on casual hookups. James stands out as the strongest coder in their basic programming class, but he keeps a low profile and steady work ethic. When Lance and his friends decide they want to develop an app for hookups, he discovers James has been coding since he was young. Lance recruits him to craft the ultimate hookup app, a tool designed to match people across the campus with no strings attached. The app aims to erase numbers and names, promising guaranteed one-night stands while preserving anonymity. In exchange, Lance pledges to bankroll James’s transfer to an Ivy League school, a tempting offer that reshapes their priorities and loyalties.

James takes over the dorm room setup so he can grind away on Jungle day and night. The goal is simple in theory, but morally complex in practice: facilitate brief, physical connections without commitments or personal details shared. To avoid accountability for Jungle, James asks Lance to claim the project as his own, allowing James to stay behind the scenes. Their computer science professor excuses him from class, insisting that he’s constantly coding and thus cannot be bothered with coursework. This dynamic deepens the divide between what is ethically sound and what is technically possible, hinting at the broader consequences of unchecked innovation.

The holiday break brings the first real echoes of Jungle into James’s family life. His dad arrives with a very young date he found through the app, while his mom, nudged by friends, becomes curious enough to consider trying it herself. James watches as the real world begins to mirror the virtual one he helped create, inviting introspection about the kind of connections Jungle promotes. The following day, he asks his grandparents and their friends to fill out a questionnaire about their past sexual and relationship experiences, seeking data to understand how relationships across generations are shaped by technology. When he learns his mom has returned to Jungle, he acts quickly to dismantle Jungle and other similar apps, intending to halt her involvement and prevent further harm.

Lance and his crew catch wind of James’s move and pressure him to restore Jungle, arguing that the project must stay alive at all costs. Back on campus, James seeks refuge in Hannah’s sorority house, where he is told he can stay only if he agrees to develop a relationship-focused app for the sisters. He briefly returns to his dorm, but Lance and his friends intercept him, coercing him to remain and reactivate their platform. Using a calming tea as a diversion, James escapes back to the safety of the sorority, where the sisters offer protection and a moral counterweight to the men’s push for perpetual hookups.

The conflict escalates when Lance leaks James’s involvement to the press, pulling the story into the public spotlight. [Hannah] confronts him, and he confesses that his motive was to connect with her, even if the app itself never truly delivered the kind of relationship he hoped to find. The revelation leaves him rethinking the project’s purpose. With the spotlight on Jungle, James urges everyone to step away from the apps and seek genuine, human connections in real life. In a quieter, more intimate moment, he also confesses his feelings for [Hannah], and the two share a kiss that signals a possible shift from superficial digital encounters to real emotional connection.

Throughout the film, the central tension revolves around the allure and danger of a world where technology promises instant gratification while eluding accountability. James’s journey—from a talented coder pulled into a high-stakes scheme to a young man learning to own up to his actions and pursue authentic relationships—serves as a meditation on intention, responsibility, and the limits of anonymity. The story remains grounded in character dynamics, exploring how ambition, friendship, romance, and the desire for connection collide within a campus ecosystem that treats every encounter as an option rather than a choice.