If there is a list of the most enigmatic thriller movies you need to watch, Zodiac would always be at the top of the list. The plot twist in the movie is so breathtaking that it is the perfect movie to binge on a Sunday night.
Zodiac (2007) Review
This movie revolves around the true story of one of the most terrifying yet unsolved murder cases in history. Cartoonist Robert Graysmith is determined to track down the Zodiac killer with a series of 340 Cipher codes sent to him by the killer himself that he has to decipher to know the real Zodiac killer. The movie starts with the gruesome murder of a couple and five other killings not too long after that, which will leave you up on your toes. Four weeks later, 18 Zodiac letters arrived filled with information about the murder and at the San Francisco Chronicle that engulfs the thrill of why the model has yet not been kept even after a month has passed by. The thrills start to build up when you realize that even after the letters are received by the San Francisco Chronicle filled with confessions about the murder by the killer himself. It is still near to impossible to catch the murderer in self because the other two parts of the letter are filled with cipher codes where he reveals his own identity.
Decoding the cipher codes was easy, but this is where the movie gets interesting as the Zodiac murderer did not reveal his identity in the letters. Exactly one and half months later, the Zodiac murderer strikes again in Napa and again attacks one handsome couple while they are spending their good time having a picnic in the middle of nowhere. The murder is so thrilling yet so gruesome that it will leave you with many unanswered questions. While the whole San Francisco chronicle team is behind the letters trying to figure out who the Zodiac model is, the murderer strikes again two weeks later. Throughout the movie, there are murder scenes that will be enough to mess up your mind, and the plot twist on if the protagonist finds the killer is nerve-wracking. Mark Ruffalo plays the character of the lead inspector along with Anthony Edwards, who is behind this case. The Zodiac killer himself sends another letter to the Chronicle three weeks later. But this time, the letter also contains a striped piece of cloth that he told from the victim he last murdered. In this letter, he also explains who his next target can be that alerts the whole Chronicle and the lead officers of this case.
To make these thrills presented in the movie more lifelike, Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr play the character of the two main protagonists who are trying to decode the answers in the cipher codes to use them and find out the person who is behind these nerve-wracking murders.
What makes this movie by David Fincher more enigmatic is that 51 years ago, all of these severely brutal murders happened in real life. This movie is primarily based on the book that is written by Robert Graysmith himself about his thrilling and caring experience of when he worked in the Zodiac case. According to the cipher codes, Graysmith was also scared to death as he couldn’t promise himself that he wouldn’t be the next victim of a gruesome murder.
Zodiac (2007) Ending Explained
With the ending of the movie, I am sure you have a lot of questions that are all unanswered. Near the end of the movie, we see that the officers are tipped off with possible information about the Zodiac killer. This takes the lead officers at a nearby theatre in San Francisco. Where they find Rick Marshall, who not only works in the theatre but also designs and creates posters for films on display, and his handwritings are closely similar to the ones they receive in the letters. If you felt like that movie was going slow up until now, this is where the plot of the movie intensifies, and the climax mixed with the sheer horror can surely blow your brains out. The basement scene at the end of the movie is one of the scariest scenes you have ever come across. As Graysmith follows Vaughn in his red Volkswagen to discuss the suspect of Marshall, Vaughn discloses only Vaughn’s handwriting that did it all. After the scene, as the climax starts to build up, Vaughn leads Graysmith down to his dimly lit basement, where a creak in the floor can also make you turn around. Graysmith insinuates another presence in the floorboards of the basement while Vaughn ensures there is no one else in the house and he lives all alone.
Even this doesn’t seem to make Graysmith very happy as he rattles the basement door handle and starts running out of Vaughn’s house in such a hurry as if he was running from the Zodiac killer himself. The movie ends with Graysmith looking like an entire psychopath, as the case has taken a huge toll on his mental condition. Seven and half years later, his book on the Zodiac case became one of the best-selling books that year. Following the identification of Arthur Allen as the prime suspect, a heart attack was suffered by Allen even before the meeting with the officers could take place. Although it was identified in 2002 that Allen is not the murderer, strangely, Graysmith has not received a letter with death threats since then.
With no possible reveal of the Zodiac murderer himself, years later, after this movie in 2020, the zodiac cipher code was broken, revealing that Alan was not the killer; however, the identification of the real killer is still unknown.
This movie is such a massive adrenaline rush to all the viewers out there, that it would make you feel like the next victim of the Zodiac Killer! Don’t worry, he’s gone! Or Is he?