In 1961, social psychologist Stanley Milgram began a series of experiments that tested whether people would be willing to follow orders that told them to deliver electric shocks to strangers. The frightening results made headlines, just as captured Nazi Adolph Eichmann was being tried for his genocidal crimes during World War II.
In Experimenter, Peter Sarsgaard stars as Milgram, shocking and “please continue”-ing participants, while also breaking the fourth wall with his philosophical commentary, Frank Underwood-style. “Why is defiance the anomaly instead of the norm?” he asks in the trailer. “The person has a choice.”
Experimenter, which also stars Winona Ryder, Anton Yelchin, and Kellan Lutz, is scheduled for a limited release and VOD on Oct. 16.