Zodiac

A closer look at the story

Zodiac is based on a true story. Between the final years of the 1960s and the start of the 1970s, a serial killer known as the Zodiac spread terror across the San Francisco Bay Area. After his crimes he openly mocked the police, sending newspapers letters, pieces of bloodstained clothing and ciphers that were fiendishly hard to crack. The authorities launch a sweeping manhunt to catch him, yet every new lead seems to raise more questions than it answers. For the men trying to track the killer down, the case gradually becomes less a job than an obsession. The endless trail of signs he leaves behind builds up and tears down their lives in turn, until each of them is a shadow of the person he used to be. David Fincher directed this 157-minute crime mystery from 2007, written by James Vanderbilt. Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards and Robert Downey Jr. lead the cast, with Chloë Sevigny also appearing. Its subject matter makes it a film for older viewers.