lotus

throughout the movie there's a lack of extras (except for the diner scenes) especially in the mall scene; at first I think it's a way to show how lacklustre and shallow the area is, which emphasises bensons point about randy inevitably going to be wasting his potential there.. it's just a very sad and dull setting but also very casual? which then makes bensons actions more significant in such a small town

furthermore... we see the world thru randys perspective, and this is why I think the use of extras represents who randy thinks could get involved in bensons actions. for example, when they go to the diner directly after the massacre, the place is bustling with people - randy thinks Benson has the capacity to harm these people, especially since randy doesn't really understand bensons aims at that point.

then, later on, the mall is completely barren, which is odd even for a small town. this makes the events more insular and intimate, as randy now understands that Benson is completely focused on randys problems instead of going to kill other people.

it definitely represents how they see themselves, with randy viewing himself as dangerous and an outcast and Benson viewing himself as simply helping randy... idk if this makes sense or not but yea