“In Youth We Trust” (2025) offers a harrowing glimpse into life inside a youth correctional facility. The film follows Puek, a young inmate tormented by the shadows of his mother’s drug-dealing past and the hardships of his poverty-stricken upbringing. Struggling to find his place, he soon becomes entangled in the prison’s rigid hierarchy. At first, survival seems impossible, but everything changes when Gus and his crew take him under their wing.
Gus and Beer, two rival gang leaders, are locked in an unrelenting power struggle, their hostility simmering beneath the surface. Puek’s life momentarily stabilizes after he is moved to Gus’s cell—until Beer and his followers ignite an all-out war. Violence erupts, leaving a trail of casualties, but in a brutal one-on-one showdown with Beer, Puek finally unleashes the years of rage and pain he has kept buried within.
This article contains spoilers.
In Youth We Trust (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The film opens with timeline montages. The first scene is of an adult, Suparb SriPuek, sharpening his shiv in a prison. In the next scene, we see a school-going Puek struggling to answer a basic question asked by the teacher. The question is what Puek’s mother does for a living. The entire class makes fun of Puek, and a girl named Par stands up for Puek. When the teacher hits Par for being violent, Puek reveals that his mother sells drugs to make a living. At present, Puek is a young man in handcuffs, and the counselor asks Puek to recall a specific event.
Puek tells his life story. As we have established, Puek’s mother sold drugs, and the area Puek lives in is filled with violence and poverty. However, Puek’s mother wanted Puek to study far away. One day, Puek’s mother is caught by the police for selling drugs. The prison sentence is 25 years. After that, Puek becomes temperamental when people say ridiculous things about his mother. One day at a shop, one of Puek’s mother’s druggie clients annoys Puek insinuating that he has slept with Puek’s mother.
Why is Fluke spared from getting beaten up in prison?
Puek starts fighting until Par stops him. When the man comments that he will sleep with Par, Puek turns around and shoots him. After the incident, Puek is moved to a youth correctional center. Along with Puek, there is another man called Wirat Srinam/Fluke, who is charged with selling drugs. They meet with the warden of the center, Ruerng-rit, who is a disciplinarian.
After a chat, Ruerng-rit asks Fluke and Puek to stay with Klong Tei Block in the prison. However, Puek is curious why he needs to be with Klong Tei Block as there is a block for Thonburi, where Puek is from. This question is rewarded with getting beat up by the warden. Later, Ruerng-rit takes the duo to Beer and Boy to straighten out the newbies. Both Beer and Boy are inmates as well. Among the two, Fluke cooperates with the bullies, but Puek is filled with anger.
Inside the prison, the Thonburi block men led by Bung Gus have a meal. Another inmate of the block, Golf/Farang, informs Gus about Puek as he is from Thonburi, but he doesn’t show up at that block. At night, Boy approaches Fluke and Puek to talk to Beer. However, Puek refuses to go anywhere near Beer, but Fluke agrees after some hesitation.
Beer asks Fluke to give him a blowjob, especially because Fluke is gay and is used to it. Nevertheless, Fluke is uncomfortable, so Beer gives Fluke some options. The options are: Fluke has to give Beer a blowjob and become Beer’s property, but it comes with protection, and no one else can sleep with Beer. The next option is to refuse but get used by everyone in the cell. The third option is to die. To survive, Fluke gives Beer a blowjob, and Beer makes sure Puek is kicked black and blue.
How does Beer bully Puek?
The following day, Puek is late for breakfast. When Puek comes to the dining area, the server says there isn’t any food left. Immediately, Puek realizes that the server is on his bully’s side. Still, Puek insists he eats scraps and gets them. As Puek is about to sit, Boy flips Puek’s plate. Instead of fighting back, Puek picks up the scraps from the floor and eats. Watching this, Golf thinks Puek should have fought back. During the shower, Beer and the group bother Puek. They say that for every resource Puek uses, he needs to pay a price. The price is to get kicked by Beer or his buddies.
After kicking Puek once, Beer asks Fluke to hit Puek. Since Fluke looks at Puek like a friend, he finds it hard to accept the task. It’s evident to Puek that he has no choice, so he kicks Puek once, which the group is not satisfied with, so Fluke kicks Puek hard the second time. When Boy kicks Puek, he blocks Boy, making the group furious, so they start kicking Puek.
In a flashback, we see that, as a boy, Puek used to box to make money. One day, Puek’s mother asks Puek not to fight because she can afford to take care of him. Puek says it is embarrassing to use drug money, and that’s why he boxed. At present, Puek passes out near the shower. Suddenly, Ruerng-rit pours water on Puek and asks him to line up with the rest. As the warden leaves, Fluke arrives and gives Puek an orange.
Why are Puek and Gus upset?
Out on the field, the warden provokes Beer, saying he beat up Puek but also gives him an orange. When Beer is surprised, Ruerng-rit points at Fluke. Infuriated, Beer starts attacking Fluke, who stands up for himself. However, Fluke is unable to fight properly. At this time, Puek comes to Fluke’s rescue and fights Beer and Boy. Unable to see this, Golf interferes, making Beer mad. So Gus interferes and says they want Puek in their block, but Beer is unwilling to let go that easily. To prove a point, Gus hits Puek. The warden decides to intervene and break up the group. In the prison cell, Puek is curious why he was picked, as it is evident that Fluke needs help. So Gus assures Puek that Fluke will survive by not pissing people off.
That night, Puek gets along with his new prison buddies, and Golf gives a shiv to Puek to keep with him at all times. While Puek is having fun with his prison buddies, Fluke gets bullied. In the background, Beer and Boy are sharpening their shiv, preparing for something. Later, Par comes to visit Puek in prison and gives terrible news that his mother passed away in prison. Furthermore, Par says she can’t see Puek anymore, which brings Puek to tears. Meanwhile, Gus and his father argue as Gus seems to have a problem with Nid, Gus’s father’s wife (probably stepmother). However, Gus’s father made Nid his priority, and Gus committed a crime and repented for it. Sadly, outside, Gus’s father has not repented for what he put Gus through.
What happens to Gus?
In the field, Beer, Boy, and others attack Golf. Seeing that, Puek rushes to help Golf. The correctional officers arrive and stop the fight. Seeing the scene, Gus lies down next to Beer and asks him why he is doing this. It seems like Beer wants to pick a fight with Gus’s gang. Since it’s Saturday the next day and it’s a free day, Gus asks to meet on the field to fight.
In the cell, everyone takes turns and rapes Fluke. After that, Fluke is left crying on the floor, and Beer crushes a blade and says Fluke will be filled with iron. In a flashback, we see Fluke was dating a man, and the guy used to stay in Fluke’s room. One day, the guy gets a call saying cops are on the lookout as this guy is selling drugs illegally. So, the Guy leaves Fluke alone without warning. Unfortunately, the cops find drugs in Fluke’s room and arrest him.
The next day, in the dining area, Gus and the team try to feed each other, having a jolly time, and see that Beer is happy. At that moment, Fluke comes and eats food from Puek’s plate. As soon as that happens, the Fluke starts to cough up blood. Immediately, Gus realizes that Beer is behind this attack. In anger, Puek and Golf rush to fight Beer and Boy.
But Gus stops them and says they can fight them out on the field later. During the shower, Gus comforts Puek, saying it wasn’t his fault that Fluke died. The boys then have a water fight. As promised, both the blocks meet, and a fight ensues. During the fight, Beer puts the iron on his shiv and stabs Gus with it. The officers separate the group. At night, in the cell, Golf and Puek realize what has happened to Gus. Though Puek shouts for help, Gus knows he is going to die and asks Golf and Puek to take care of the group.
In Youth We Trust (2025) Movie Ending Explained:
Surviving prison- kill or be killed
The next day, Gus’s father is furious with Ruerng-rit for letting Gus die under his watch. Inside the prison, Puek and Golf make a deal with Beer and Boy. It’s going to be a one-on-one fight, and the price is Puek and Golf’s lives. As Puek and Golf sharpen their shiv, they talk about life. It seems Golf does not have parents, and with Par leaving Puek and his mother’s death, Puek does not have anything in the outside world. Once again, Beer arrives, and the fight ensues. This time, Puek uses his boxing skills to fight Beer. When Puek sees an opening, he plunges and stabs Beer to death. Sadly, Boy can’t help as that was the deal.
Just then, Ruerng-rit arrives, stops the fight, and puts Puek and Golf in a separate cell. Now they realize they won’t be getting out of prison ever. The following day, Ruerng-rit brings good food for Puek and Golf and says they need to stop acting rashly. However, both Golf and Puek are left with no hope of the outside world, but Ruerng-rit encourages them to move on with their lives. With that, Ruerng-rit tells Golf that he will be going to Bang Bon Centre and Puek will be going to Chaopraya prison. Once Puek reaches the prison, he is met with a warden who seems to be more sadistic than Ruerng-rit.
The film concludes on a tragic note, offering a starkly realistic portrayal of prison life. While the inner workings of a prison vary by country, violence and power struggles seem almost inevitable. In this story, however, the true villain is the warden, Ruerng-rit, who not only instigates conflict among inmates but actively encourages them to fight to the death. Disturbingly, he feels no remorse for the bloodshed he orchestrates, refusing to accept any blame for the deaths under his watch.
Among the many casualties of this brutal system is Fluke—wrongfully imprisoned, his life already shaped by hardship. Betrayed by the one he loved, who sacrificed him to save himself, Fluke finds himself trapped in a world of ruthless, lawless inmates. His struggles are compounded by the fact that he is gay, making his prison experience even more harrowing.
Puek’s journey is equally heartbreaking. Even outside prison walls, society pushes him to his breaking point until he finally pulls the trigger. Inside, the same pattern unfolds—he silently endures endless bullying until violence becomes his only escape. For inmates, survival is a cruel paradox: even if you want to keep your head down and serve your time, figures like Ruerng-rit ensure that’s impossible. In many ways, the prison mirrors the outside world—except here, the fights are waged with knives and fists. Beyond these walls, people are just as ruthless, using whatever means necessary to claw their way to the top.
