Over the Edge is a 1979 American coming-of-age drama directed by Jonathan Kaplan and released in May 1979. The film, based on actual events, had a limited theatrical release but has since achieved cult film status. It was Matt Dillon's film debut.

In Colorado's planned community of New Granada, Carl, Richie, and Claude hang out at "The Rec", an adult-supervised venue where teenagers can socialize. One afternoon, as The Rec closes, Carl and Richie are confronted by Police Sergeant Doberman, who suspects them of perpetrating a freeway sniping incident, but after being questioned at the station, both are released to their parents. The next day Carl befriends Cory, a new arrival who mildly rejects Carl's suggestion that they date. That evening, after learning from his father of the community's plans to nix construction of an amusement center, he walks to a local park where he meets Richie and they head to a nearby house party. But when police arrive to squelch the fun by reminding them of the newly-imposed curfew, Carl walks home alone and is assaulted by Mark, the real instigator of the freeway sniping.

Meanwhile, Carl's father has been trying to interest out-of-town investors to New Grenada, but Carl thwarts his attempts by booby-trapping their car. Latcher, Carl and Richie accompany Cory and other kids on a picnic. They take along a pistol that Cory stole during a break-in. For fun, they take turns shooting tin cans until they run out of ammo. Claude, recently arrested for possession of hash, explains that the local neighborhood pusher, a fellow student named Tip, sold it to him, but when Cory reveals Tip's recent coincidental arrest, the kids drop in and interrogate him and he confesses that he told Doberman about giving Claude hash. Richie, Carl, and Claude dump him into a pond as Tip's mother watches in horror from a nearby tennis court. Her descriptions of Carl and the others leads to panic. Richie steals his mother's car and he and Carl flee. It all ends tragically as Doberman chases them down. Richie produces a gun and aims it at Doberman, who fires in self-defense. Richie dies.

The next day, Carl sneaks home and overhears his mother on the phone discussing a community meeting at the school that night. Carl sneaks back out to notify his friends, and they decide to confront the parents there. But when police show up, locking their weapons inside their cars, the meeting turns into a nightmare. The kids chain the school's doors, light fireworks, and proceed to trash the parking lot. Then they break into patrol cars, pull out police shotguns, and blow up several vehicles, igniting fires all around. When reserve police finally arrive, the kids disperse. Doberman apprehends Carl, but Mark, the freeway sniper, shoots Doberman's car, causing it to crash and catch fire. Carl pulls himself free, leaving the unconscious Doberman inside the car to perish in the massive explosion. When next seen, Carl and others are being herded onto a school bus and driven away. From atop an overpass, Cory and Claude wave goodbye to Carl as the bus heads to a juvenile detention facility.

The film was inspired by events described in a 1973 San Francisco Examiner article entitled "Mousepacks: Kids on a Crime Spree" by Bruce Koon and James A. Finefrock, which reported on young kids vandalizing property in Foster City, California. The middle class planned community had an unusually high level of juvenile crime. Screenwriters Charles S. Haas and Tim Hunter began work shortly after the article's publication, including field research in the town itself where they interviewed some of the kids. Hunter said that the script accurately reflected the article with the exception of a more violent ending.

Orion Pictures helped finance the film; producer George Litto borrowed an additional $1 million. Director Jonathan Kaplan, who was just 30 when hired, took a documentary approach to filming and hired unknown actors. Among them was Matt Dillon, then age 14, whom the filmmakers discovered in a middle school in Westchester County, New York. This was Dillon's feature film debut. Shooting took place over 20 days in 1978 in the Colorado cities of Aurora and Greeley.

The filming took place in Aurora, Colorado and Greeley, Colorado. John Evans Junior High school was used as New Granada School and was razed in 2015. The east side of John Evans School, Cafetorium, metal shop parking lot, athletics storage building (not in picture), library and science classrooms were featured in the film. New Granada scenes were filmed around the Colorado city of Aurora, Colorado, as well as the Cherry Creek State park and reservoir.

Due to the negative publicity surrounding a wave of recent youth gang films such as The Warriors, The Wanderers, and Boulevard Nights, Over the Edge was given a limited theatrical release in 1979. It debuted on May 18, 1979, in eight cities in the United States on a test run basis, with the biggest release in Charlotte, North Carolina. By December 1979, it had also been released in Conway, Arkansas, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Los Angeles, California, Fort Worth, Texas, Paducah, Kentucky, Jackson, Mississippi, Shreveport, Louisiana, Monroe, Louisiana, Mayfield, Kentucky, Memphis, Tennessee, El Paso, Texas, Biloxi, Mississippi, Lafayette, Louisiana, Victoria, Texas and Owensboro, Kentucky.