百年50部英文燒腦電影賞析:[50]Zodiac 十二宮

The film opens on July 4, 1969, with the Zodiac killer's second attack, the shooting of Darlene Ferrin（Ciara Hughes）and Mike Mageau（Lee Norris）at a lovers' lane in Vallejo, California. Mageau survives while Ferrin dies from her injuries.
One month later, a letter written by the Zodiac arrives at the San Francisco Chronicle. Paul Avery（Robert Downey, Jr.）is a Chronicle crime reporter. Robert Graysmith（Jake Gyllenhaal）is a political cartoonist there. The newspaper receives encrypted letters that the killer sends, taunting the police. Because of Graysmith's status as a cartoonist, he is not taken seriously by Avery and the editors and is excluded from the initial details about the killings despite his interest in the case. In particular, he is drawn to the encrypted code that is included with the letters and is given access to one. When he is able to crack one of the codes and makes several correct guesses about the killer's actions, Avery begins sharing information with him. While at a bar together drinking Aqua Velvas, which Avery initially makes fun of Graysmith, they discuss the coded letters.
The Zodiac killer attacks again, stabbing Bryan Hartnell（Patrick Scott Lewis）and Cecelia Shepard（Pell James）at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Shepard dies as a result of the attack, while Hartnell survives. Soon afterward, San Francisco taxicab driver Paul Stine is shot and killed in the city's Presidio Heights district. San Francisco police detectives Dave Toschi（Mark Ruffalo）and his partner Bill Armstrong（Anthony Edwards）are assigned to the case, liaising with other detectives such as Jack Mulanax（Elias Koteas）in Vallejo and Ken Narlow（Donal Logue）in Napa. The killer, or someone posing as him, continues to toy with authorities by speaking on the phone with celebrity lawyer Melvin Belli（Brian Cox）when he makes an appearance on a television talk show. Avery and Graysmith form an alliance, delving deeper into the case.
In 1971, Toschi, Armstrong and Mulanax question Arthur Leigh Allen（John Carroll Lynch）, a potential suspect in the case. However, a handwriting expert（Philip Baker Hall）insists that Allen did not write the Zodiac letters. Avery receives a new letter threatening his life. He becomes increasingly paranoid and turns to drugs and alcohol. At one point he shares information with a rival police force, angering Toschi and Armstrong. By 1975, Avery leaves the Chronicle. Armstrong quits the homicide division, and Toschi is demoted for supposedly forging a Zodiac letter. Graysmith, meanwhile, continues his own in-depth investigation, interviewing witnesses and police detectives involved in the case. Obsessing over the unsolved case, he begins receiving anonymous phone calls with heavy breathing（on the night of Ferrin's death, Graysmith discovered that someone prank-called the victim's family and did the same thing）, Because of his submersion in the case, Graysmith loses his job and his wife Melanie（Chloe Sevigny）leaves him, taking their children with her.
Graysmith persistently contacts Toschi about the Zodiac murders and eventually impresses the veteran detective with his knowledge of the case. While Toschi cannot directly give Graysmith access to the information he discovered over the years, he provides contacts of other police departments in counties where the other murders occinred, The cartoonist acquires more information that points to Allen as the Zodiac, and although circumstantial evidence seems to indicate his guilt, the hard evidence, such as fingerprints and handwriting samples, exonerate him.
In December 1983, a full 14 years after the original slayings, Graysmith tracks Allen down to a Vallejo hardware store, where he is employed as a sales clerk. After Allen asks if he can help Graysmith with anything, they stare at each other for a moment with blank expressions before Graysmith simply replies with a “No”，and leaves the hardware store.
Eight years later, in 1991, Mageau（Jimmi Simpson）meets with authorities and identifies Allen from a police mugshot.
Final title cards, however, inform the audience that Allen died in 1992 before he could be questioned further by police, and that DNA tests performed in 2002 did not match samples gathered from the Zodiac letters.
影片開場是在1969年7月4日，十二宮殺手的第二次襲擊發(fā)生在加利福尼亞的瓦列霍的一個情侶小路上，達琳·費林（席亞拉·休斯飾）與邁克·麥基歐（李·諾里斯飾）被槍擊，費林重傷致死，麥基歐則幸存了下來。
一個月后，《舊金山紀事報》收到了一封來自十二宮殺手的信。保羅·艾弗里（小羅伯特·唐尼飾）是《舊金山紀事報》犯罪欄目的一個記者。羅伯特·格雷史密斯（杰克·吉倫哈爾飾）是政治諷刺漫畫家。報社接到了殺手送來的嘲弄警察的密碼信件。因為格雷史密斯是一個漫畫家，艾弗里與編輯都沒有認真對待他，雖然他對兇案很感興趣，卻沒有讓他看兇殺案的原始細節(jié)。很特別的是，他沉迷于信中包含的密碼里，并被允許接觸其中一封。當他破解了其中的一個密碼，并猜中了殺手的一些行動后，艾弗里開始與他共享信息。他們在酒吧一起喝Aqua Velvas時，也就是艾弗里一開始取笑格雷史密斯的酒吧，他們開始討論密碼信件。
十二宮殺手開始了新的襲擊行動，他在納帕縣的蒙蒂塞洛漏斗水壩襲擊了布賴恩·哈特納爾（帕特里克·斯科特·劉易斯飾）與塞西莉亞·謝潑德（佩爾·詹姆斯飾）。謝潑德被殺死了，哈特納爾活了下來。不久之后，在舊金山的普雷西迪奧高地區(qū)，出租車司機保羅·史坦恩被槍殺。舊金山警探戴夫·特斯奇（馬克·魯弗洛飾）與他的搭檔比爾·阿姆斯特朗（安東尼·愛德華茲飾）負責這個案件。他們與其他偵探進行聯系，如瓦列霍的杰克·穆拉納科斯（伊萊亞斯·考迪亞斯飾）與納帕的肯恩·納洛（唐納爾·羅格飾）。殺手，或者冒充他的人，通過給正在參加電視脫口秀節(jié)目的著名律師梅爾文·貝里（布萊恩·考克斯飾）打電話，來繼續(xù)玩弄當局。 1971年，特斯奇，阿姆斯特朗與穆拉納科斯正在詢問嫌疑犯亞瑟·利·艾倫（約翰·卡洛·林奇飾）。然而，筆跡鑒定專家（菲利浦·貝克·霍爾飾）堅持認為十二宮信件不是艾倫寫的。艾弗里收到了一封新的威脅信。他開始越來越沉迷于毒品與酒精。有一次，他與一名與他們競爭的警察共享了信息，特斯奇與阿姆斯特朗都很生氣。
到了1975年，艾弗里離開了紀事報。阿姆斯特朗退出了兇殺案部科，特斯奇由于被懷疑偽造十二宮殺手的信件而被降級。與此同時，格雷史密斯獨自一人繼續(xù)調查采訪涉案的目擊者與警探。格雷史密斯執(zhí)著于這些未解決的案件時，他開始接到一些只有沉重呼吸聲的匿名電話（在費林死亡的那晚，格雷史密斯發(fā)現受害者家屬接到了同樣的惡作劇電話）。由于他過于沉迷于案件，他失去了工作，他的妻子梅勒妮（科洛·塞維尼飾）也帶著孩子離開了他。
格雷史密斯不斷地就十二宮兇殺案與特斯奇聯系，他對案件的了解程度，連經驗豐富的偵探都印象深刻。當特斯奇不能直接給格雷史密斯提供他這些年發(fā)現的線索時，他給他提供了其他謀殺案發(fā)生地警局的聯系方式。漫畫家發(fā)現了更多的線索來證明艾倫就是十二宮殺手，盡管間接證據表明他有罪，但無法找到能定罪的直接證據，如指紋、筆跡樣本。

1983年12月，最早的兇殺案發(fā)生十二年后，格雷史密斯跟蹤艾倫到瓦列霍的五金商店，艾倫是這里的一名銷售員。艾倫問格雷史密斯是否需要幫助，他們什么都沒說只是互相盯著看了一會。格雷史密斯回答說“不需要”，然后離開了五金商店。
8年后，在1991年，麥基歐（吉米·辛普森飾）被當局召喚來從警方的面部照片中指認艾倫。
然而，最后顯示的字幕告訴觀眾，艾倫在被警方進一步審訊前，就在1992年去世了。而2002年進行的DNA測試則發(fā)現，艾倫的DNA與十二宮信件中發(fā)現的DNA樣本不一致。