| Director | Mary Harron |
|---|---|
| Box office | $1.9 million |
The film opens in medias res immediately after Valerie Solanas' attempted assassination of Andy Warhol at the Factory in New York City in 1968, followed by her being taken into custody for the attack. The film then uses flashbacks to when Valerie was living in New York as a sex worker, then to her difficult childhood, then to her success in studying psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park. At college, Valerie discovers that she is a lesbian, begins writing, and develops a radical feminist worldview. This leads her to New York City and the bohemian underworld of Lower Manhattan. Through her friend Stevie, she meets Warhol superstar Candy Darling, who in turn introduces her to Andy Warhol. She begins writing the SCUM Manifesto, which calls for the overthrow of capitalism and the eradication of all men.
Valerie has a chance encounter with publisher Maurice Girodias, the owner of Olympia Press, who specializes in publishing controversial and transgressive works by writers such as William S. Burroughs and Vladimir Nabokov. While Valerie wants Warhol to produce her play Up Your Ass, Girodias wants her to write an erotic novel for him. Warhol's retinue steals the copy of Up Your Ass that Valerie gave to him and lies about it, saying it was lost; as partial compensation, Warhol casts her in a minor role in the film I, a Man. Valerie signs a contract for two novels with Girodias, but quickly becomes suspicious of the deal and his motivations. Her increasing derangement leads her to believe that Warhol and Girodias are conspiring to steal her work and control her, and she turns militant amidst the radical political climate of 1968. On June 3, 1968, she visits Warhol's office at the Factory and shoots him; on the street, she hands her gun to a policeman, to whom she gleefully admits that "I shot Andy Warhol".
Warhol never fully recovers from the shooting; a decade later, outside Studio 54, he hears a car engine misfiring and imagines Solanas lurking behind him.