Fantastic film- great conspiracy theories- it feels like watching a 70s flick. great cars too.

Rating: 9/10 (17 October 2007)

What a welcome relief the style of this film is. No shaky cameras no sweep shots that give you epileptic seizures or stupid chase scenes- no big stupid club you over the head Danny Elfman themes screaming in your ear to try and give you drama and tension where there is none- this is a big long cerebral suspense thriller - a game of chess with California as the chessboard and the stakes are people's lives. Very fascinating but you have to like detective whodunnit kind of stuff. Lot's of beautiful old style cars in this film as well.
THE PLOT: Based on a true story of a killer(s) that dumbfounded and taunted police through the newspaper in a quest for the natural born killer style of publicity for their heinous crimes. A man who calls himself the ZODIAC is going around killing people to appease some sort of sick compulsion. He sends letters that are completely encrypted in symbols and have to be decoded to be understood. Like most sociopathic killers he considers himself smarter than 90% of the population and wants to kill indiscrimnately until he meets a worthy opponent. The conspiracy theories run wild and a couple of men from the newspaper become obsessed with the story while a handful of cops do the same- this movie chronicles in great detail the steps to trying to track this man down.
*****SPOILER ALERT*******Don't read any further unless you have seen this movie already........... SPOILER: It's my theory- based on the scene with Robert Graysmith interviewing the man who made the posters, and whose handwriting matched the zodiac letters, and who had a basement- that it was a team of two or more men, Lee AND the poster maker, who originally were working for a group of upper class elites(inspired by the most dangerous game) to capture people for a club of rich upper class sociopathic killers who enjoy killing the lower classes- all based on the movie the most dangerous game. When the muscle that kidnapped people for this club went rogue - Lee and his team mate then became the zodiac killer so that they could enjoy what they were taking all the risk for previously- for the club that same club eventually had the biggest link back to them - Lee, snuffed out before he could be taken in to custody with a very convenient heart attack.
I would be shocked if the guy who made the movie posters has not met an untimely accident as well.
There's several men involved with the Zodiac killings, and they were much smarter than any cop. once they went rogue and became public killers instead of just kidnappers - They covered their tracks by continuously and premeditatedly planting evidence that led in the wrong direction to the right man, for the wrong crime, and thus exonerating him from further investigation. For instance- Lee kills a person but then plants evidence pointing to someone else he is working with- who has also killed people in the zodiac style and is part of the zodiac team, but not for this particular homicide. The evidence doesn't match and they give up on that guy being the killer because they never stop to think- it's killers- plural- not one man. Remember- the zodiac has twelve gates- that number may not relate only to the victims- it may relate to the killer's club members as well. There could be a killer that is allowed to kill during a certain month if his chart reads favorably. The rest of the club covers his tracks with disinformation and planted evidence.
I think the level of invincibility this team felt in their contracted kidnappings for this hunting club caused them to lose control and go rogue so that they could have the fun of killing the people too- and they then became the zodiac killer. I think police should investigate missing person reports that happened before the zodiac killings- but match the Zodiac MO minus the letters to the newspaper. Those killings would have been when they were working for the real killers- and who may still be at large and active.
Clever. clever.