The unnamed eponymous hitman kills six people in The Killer – and spares a seventh – but why did he do it? The latest kinetic thriller from director David Fincher, The Killer stars Michael Fassbender as a professional assassin who has to deal with the fallout when he makes a deadly mistake during one of his hits. The screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker, reuniting with Fincher after he wrote the script for Se7en, was adapted from the French comic book of the same name by Alexis “Matz” Nolent and Luc Jacamon. It’s Fincher’s most straightforward movie, but it’s also one of his most exciting movies.
The life of a professional killer is well-worn territory in action cinema, but Fincher puts a fresh spin on the hitman thriller with his satirical focus on how boring it would be to be a hitman. Most of The Killer’s work days are spent sitting in silence, waiting for the target to show up. Over the course of The Killer’s 118-minute runtime, the titular antihero kills a grand total of six people. He pays a visit to a seventh target, intending to kill him, too, but ends up sparing his life. Why did he kill the six people he killed, and why did he decide to spare the last guy?
7 The Dominatrix
She Stood In The Killer’s Line Of Fire
In the opening montage of The Killer, the titular hitman keeps an eye on a Parisian hotel room as he waits for The Target to arrive. What he doesn’t expect is that The Target brings a dominatrix back to the room with him. In the split-second between The Killer pulling the trigger and the bullet smashing through the hotel window, the dominatrix steps into the line of fire and takes the shot. Throughout the montage, The Killer has been laying out the ironclad rules that have prevented him from ever making a mistake, and within seconds, he makes the worst mistake a hitman can make: killing the wrong person.
6 Leo
He Helped The Assassins Stake Out The Killer’s House
When he returns home to the Dominican Republic, The Killer is horrified to find that his house has been broken into and his girlfriend Magdala has been brutalized by a pair of assassins. After visiting Magdala in the hospital, The Killer tracks down Leo, the taxi driver who helped the assassins stake out his house, and forces him to describe the assassins so they’ll be easier to find. Although Leo gives up the information without a fight, The Killer still dispatches him with a swift headshot, because he can’t forgive Leo for taking part in what happened to Magdala (even if he wasn’t directly involved).
5 Hodges (The Lawyer)
The Killer’s Handler Sent The Assassins After Him
After killing Leo, The Killer’s next target is Hodges, his double-crossing handler, who poses as a lawyer in New Orleans as a front for his assassin agency. The Killer sneaks into Hodges’ office and shoots him in the chest with a nail gun, hoping to interrogate him for the assassins’ names while he slowly chokes on his own blood. However, after breathing his blood into his lungs, Hodges dies a lot quicker than The Killer anticipated (before giving him the names he wants). Thankfully, there’s someone else in Hodges’ office who can provide The Killer with the information he needs.
4 Dolores
Hodges’ Office Administrator Was Collateral Damage
After Hodges dies, his office administrator Dolores reveals that she knows the names The Killer is looking for. Dolores knows her fate is sealed the second The Killer walks into the office and she asks for just one act of mercy: not to spare her life, because she knows he won’t, but to make her death look like an unsuspicious accident so her family will receive her life insurance payout. The Killer grants her wish. After she provides him with the assassins’ names, he breaks her neck at the top of a flight of stairs, which she then tumbles down, so it’ll look like she fell down the stairs.
3 The Brute
This Floridian Assassin Went After The Killer’s Girlfriend
The first assassin that The Killer tracks down, known as “The Brute,” lives in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Killer drugs The Brute’s guard dog by putting diphenhydramine in some ground beef before sneaking into the house. The Brute anticipates The Killer’s arrival, ambushes him, and engages him in a brutal fight across the house. The Killer is physically outmatched by The Brute and gets horribly injured during the fight, but he just about manages to win. He kills The Brute and burns his house down, leaving behind no trace that he was ever there, before going after the second assassin.
2 The Expert
She Orchestrated The Hit At The Killer’s House
The Killer finds the second assassin, known as “The Expert,” dining at a fancy restaurant in Beacon, New York. He joins her at her table and she seems to accept her fate. She orders a drink before allowing The Killer to proceed with the hit outside. As they walk to a dignified murder spot, The Expert slips and falls, and asks for a hand up. The deeply distrustful Killer whips out his gun and shoots her dead. As she falls, she drops a small dagger, indicating that she was going to attack him if he did give her a hand. This confirms the importance of the rule, “Trust no one.”
1 Claybourne (The Client)
The Killer Spared The Client’s Life
After wiping out his boss, his boss’ assistant, a taxi driver, and the assassins sent to kill him, The Killer makes one last stop in Chicago to visit “The Client,” the man who hired him to kill The Target in the first place – and who he suspects ordered the counter-hit against him. The Client turns out to be a billionaire venture capitalist (and first-time hitman customer) named Claybourne. At first, Claybourne isn’t even really sure who The Killer is, since, as an unscrupulous financial guru, he assumes that a lot of people would have a good reason to pursue a vendetta against him.
Ultimately, The Killer decides to spare The Client’s life before returning to Magdala at his home in the Dominican Republic. The Client had no real involvement in what happened at The Killer’s house and seems to have only ordered the original hit on a whim anyway. Plus, killing a well-connected rich person would result in unneeded attention. However, The Killer does warn The Client that if he ever suspects he is coming after him, he’ll come back and kill him. It was interesting for a movie called The Killer, about a professional killer who succeeds because he has no mercy, to end with The Killer sparing someone’s life.
The Killer (2023)
- Director
- David Fincher
- Cast
- Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton, Kerry O’Malley, Charles Parnell, Lacey Dover, Monique Ganderton, Sala Baker
- Runtime
- 118 Minutes
- Distributor(s)
- Netflix
