“Zodiac Movie Review and Summary”
Zodiac is a 2007 American mystery horror thriller film directed by David Fincher. The screenplay is written by James Vanderbilt, based on the 1986 non-fiction book of the same name by Robert Graysmith. Zodiac tells the story of the murderer for the Zodiac Killer, a killer who was never caught and killed many people during the late 1960s and early 1970s, taunting police with letters, bloodstained clothing, and ciphers mailed to newspapers. The case remains one of the United States’ most infamous unsolved crimes.
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Next is summary of this movie, please pay attention and let’s get it!
On July 4, 1969, an unknown man attacks Darlene Ferrin and Mike Mageau with a handgun at a lovers’ lane in Vallejo, California. Only Mike survives.
One month later, the San Francisco Chronicle receives encrypted letters written by the killer calling himself the “Zodiac,” who threatens to kill a dozen people unless his coded message containing his identity is published. Political cartoonist Robert Graysmith, who correctly guesses that his identity is not in the message, is not taken seriously by crime reporter Paul Avery or the editors and is excluded from the initial details about the killings.
When the newspaper publishes the letters, a married couple deciphers one. In September, the killer stabs law student Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard at Lake Berryessa in Napa County; Cecelia dies two days later. One of Graysmith’s insights about the letters is that the Zodiac’s reference to man as “the most dangerous animal of them all” is a reference to the film The Most Dangerous Game, which features the villainous Count Zaroff, a man who hunts live human prey.
Two weeks later, San Francisco taxi driver Paul Stine is shot and killed in the city’s Presidio Heights district. The Zodiac killer mails pieces of Stine’s bloodstained shirt to the Chronicle along with a taunting letter. San Francisco police inspectors Dave Toschi and his partner Bill Armstrong are assigned to the case. Someone claiming to be Zodiac continues to send taunting letters and speaks on the phone with lawyer Melvin Belli on a television talk show hosted by Jim Dunbar.
Graysmith continues his own investigation, profiled in the Chronicle, and gives a television interview about the book he is writing about the case. He begins receiving phone calls with heavy breathing. As his obsession deepens, Graysmith loses his job, and his wife, taking their children. Graysmith learns that Allen lived close to Ferrin and probably knew her and that his birthday matches the one Zodiac gave when he spoke to one of Belli’s maids. While the evidence seems to indicate his guilt, the physical evidence, such as fingerprints and handwriting samples, do not implicate him.
In 1983, Graysmith tracks Allen to a Vallejo Ace Hardware store, where he is employed as a sales clerk; they stare at each other before Graysmith leaves. Eight years later, after Graysmith’s book, Zodiac has become a bestseller, Mike Mageau identifies Allen from a police mugshot. Final text indicates that Allen died before he could be questioned and that the case remains open.
From this detective movie, it shows the investigation method that the character used it such as fingerprints, handwriting, or blood stain. But it still have no clue why this killer must kill many people and why he wanted the newspaper publishes his letters. This movie is very complex to find out why the killer must do this crime, but it also make the audiences interested in this movie and want to know who is real killer. For me this movie is one of detective movies that you guys have to watch it, so try to watch it. I hope you will enjoy with my review and summary.
Kamolluck Juikhunthong
