Movie of the day: Copycat (1995)
When I tell you that Copycat (1995), is a classic 90s thriller, you know exactly what I mean. Sometimes I have a real nostalgia for this genre because it was often all the movies at Blockbuster that you weren’t old enough to rent, but ended up seeing in their TV edited versions on TBS and TNT. But most of the time, from my adult perspective, I can’t help but roll my eyes and laugh at how they were presented as psychologically “sophisticated” and nuanced.
In my time playing Moviegrid, I’ve noticed that these movies usually score really well. I wonder if it’s because we often engaged with them passively, so they’re not always front of mind or that surely no one under the age of 30 was resigned to watching Double Jeopardy (1999) as the only thing on TV after school. (What is the average Moviegrid player demographic? Do Gen Z play? Do Gen Z watch movies?)
Great 90s thrillers to play:
The Bone Collector (1999): Denzel Washington, Angelina Jolie, Queen Latifah, Bobby Cannavale
The Rainmaker (1997): Matt Damon, Claire Danes, Danny DeVito, John Voight, Dean Stockwell, Mickey Rourke, Danny Glover
The Firm (1993): Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Hal Holbrook, Wilford Brimley, Holly Hunter, Ed Harris
The Devil’s Own (1997): Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford, Treat Williams, Julia Stiles
I watched Copycat for two reasons. 1) I kept scrolling past it on Hulu and I couldn’t watch the new episode of The Rehearsal without Robin. 2) I am determined to build my repertoire for Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter. They pop up every so often, and when they do it’s in the Deepcut puzzle, which feels harsh. They are bonafide movie stars of the 80s and 90s! Can we promote them to the main grid?
This movie is essentially an extended episode of Criminal Minds with overqualified leading women. Producers thought they were really cooking in the early days of storylines built around criminal profiling. How novel, how exciting.
Sigourney is a highly respected and published criminal psychologist with an expertise in serial killers. After giving a lecture about the typical profile of an American serial killer- white, male, between the ages of 20-30, she is attacked by a previous subject, convicted felon and prison escapee, Daryll Lee Cullum (Harry Connick Jr.). This was my first eye roll because it is so obviously based on Henry Lee Lucas. Connick Jr. is yucking it up with a weird set of dentures and a very slow southern drawl.
This near death trauma causes Sigourney to become agoraphobic and thankfully, as a very successful author, she can hide away in her sprawling and high tech San Francisco apartment. She lives entirely through online support groups and deliveries made by her friend. She’s Sigourney Weaver, so she still looks incredible in her 90s loungewear and nighties.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco police are dealing with a string of murders that mirror the style of famous serial killers. Holly Hunter, sporting serious brunette bangs, and Dermot Mulroney, police colleagues and romantically interested in each other, turn to Sigourney for help. The flirty scenes between Holly and Dermot are Holly Hunter’s exact specialty that I’m certain the Blank Check guys could talk about for hours.
With Sigourney involved in the investigation, she discovers that the killer is inspired by and killing in order of the serial killers she presented during her lecture at the top of the movie (my second eye roll). The killer begins to stalk Sigourney at her apartment and send digital messages that are basically just gifs. They solicit input from Harry Connick Jr., who has been corresponding with a guy named Peter Foley and from there deduce Foley’s next move.
In a semi-unrelated plot line and demonstration of police negligence, Dermot is taken hostage by a suspect at the police station, when another officer fails to lock the desk drawer where he keeps his gun. While Dermot struggles with a gun to his head, Holly shoots the suspect and exchanges intensely charged eye contact with Dermot as they both believe he is safe. However she only shot the suspect in the shoulder and he gets back up, using his other arm to shoot and kill Dermot.
Sigourney then baits the killer using state of the art photoshop (see below) and invites him to face her.
Holly and her crew fail to catch the killer at his house, where he sets a fire to occupy and distract the police. The killer is of course, at Sigourney’s house, where he sedates and kidnaps her. He leaves a video message for Holly, instructing her to guess where he’s taken Sigourney. He’s taken her back to the lecture hall bathroom where Harry Connick Jr. assaulted and tortured her. Holly obviously deduces this immediately.
However, when she arrives on the scene and refuses to wait for backup, she does not see that the killer is posing as a dead security guard on the bathroom floor. The killer can easily grab her and hold a knife to her throat. Unaware that she is wearing a bulletproof vest, he shoots Holly and she falls to the ground and begins to bleed. Sigourney, who has been hanging from a noose over a toilet, makes a dramatic gesture, slipping off her heeled shoe that was the little bit of height preventing her from suffocating. The killer must then drop Holly to save Sigourney, since he’s not ready for her to die yet. He pulls her down from the ceiling.
Sigourney runs out of the bathroom and to the building’s rooftop, leading the killer away from Holly. They confront each other on the roof, there’s no where else to run. As you can probably guess, Holly appears and shoots him, many times. Holly and Sigourney exchange a look of relief and strength.
In the last scene, we return to Harry Connick Jr. in prison. He is writing a letter to a new pen pal, instructing him on how to kill Sigourney. He licks an envelope disgusting slow and seals the letter. The camera holds on a close up of Harry Connick Jr. and his terrible teeth for a very long time. It is attempting to give provocation and intrigue. It’s merely giving a lesser Michael Clayton.
The Copycat cast for your Moviegrid use: Holly Hunter, Sigourney Weaver, Dermot Mulroney, Will Patton, Harry Connick Jr.
Not included: George Clooney