Zodiac
Overview
Zodiac is a 2007 mystery thriller film directed by David Fincher, based on the true story of the Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Robert Graysmith, a political cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle who becomes obsessed with identifying the killer; Mark Ruffalo as Inspector Dave Toschi, the lead investigator on the case; and Robert Downey Jr. as Paul Avery, a crime reporter for the Chronicle. The film spans over two decades, from 1969 to 1991. The Zodiac Killer is never caught. He claims to have murdered 37 people, but he is only confirmed to have killed five. He taunts the police and the newspapers with encrypted letters, ciphers, and symbols. The film is a meticulous, procedural, and slow-burn thriller. It is not a whodunit, because the killer is never caught. It is a meditation on obsession, the passage of time, and the limits of justice. Graysmith becomes consumed by the case. He loses his job, his marriage, and his sanity. He identifies a suspect, Arthur Leigh Allen (John Carroll Lynch), a convicted child molester who matches the description of the killer. There is circumstantial evidence, but no DNA evidence. Allen dies of a heart attack before he can be arrested. The film ends with Graysmith visiting a hardware store where Allen once worked, and he locks eyes with a man who looks like Allen. The film does not confirm whether Allen was the killer. Zodiac was a critical success, but a box office disappointment, earning only $84 million on a $65 million budget. It has since become a cult classic and is widely considered one of Fincher's best films.
