Film Background"Zodiac" is a 2007 American secret thriller film directed by David Fincher. The screenplay by James Vanderbilt is based upon the 1986 non-fiction book of the exact same name by Robert Graysmith. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr., among others, and informs a gripping story revolving around the chase of the Zodiac Killer, a serial murderer who intimidated the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Plot SummaryThe movie starts on the Fourth of July in 1969, as the Zodiac Killer makes his 2nd attack on a couple in a parking lot. The woman passes away however the guy survives, giving cops a description of the killer. At San Francisco's Chronicle newspaper, editorial cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) becomes captivated by the encrypted letters the killer sends to the newspaper to tease the authorities department.
The movie continues with criminal activity press reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) covering the Zodiac murders. Avery and Graysmith develop an anxious relationship, as Avery utilizes drugs and alcohol while Graysmith is a teetotaler. Both press reporters end up threatened by the threatening killer. On the other hand, Inspector David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and his partner, Inspector Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards), lead the murder examinations, trying to figure out the puzzling messages.
The InvestigationThrough a variety of clues and various suspects, consisting of Arthur Leigh Allen (played brilliantly by John Carroll Lynch) who becomes a prime suspect, the mystery deepens. Allen is first interrogated in 1971, but his handwriting does not match the Zodiac's letters, and cops eventually do not have enough evidence to press charges.
Life carries on in the second half of the film, as Avery leaves the Chronicle, and Toschi gets benched due to allegations of forging a Zodiac letter. However, the film maintains its gripping intensity as Graysmith remains consistent in solving the case.
The Chase for the ZodiacGraysmith takes over the investigation, drawing him far from his family and putting him in possible risk. His obsession with the case leads him to Arthur Leigh Allen, whom he highly believes to be the Zodiac Killer. Regardless of his best shots, Graysmith can't bring Allen to justice due to circumstantial evidence and statutes of constraint.
In 1983, a now sober Avery tells Graysmith that Allen, who had actually passed away earlier of a cardiovascular disease, would have been charged if he were still alive. In the final scene, Mike Mageau, among Zodiac's survivors, recognizes Allen from a police mugshot.
Conclusion"Zodiac" is a mix of timeless whodunit, procedural, and newspaper noir movies that concludes without a clear resolution. It is infamous for its attention to information and reasonable representation of the actual events that transpired throughout the hunt for the Zodiac Killer. The narrative represents Graysmith's subsequent books, which reveal a certainty about the killer's identity. Despite Zodiac's crimes going unsolved, Fincher's movie closes with an eerie recommendation that Graysmith, at least, discovered the closure he required.
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