Most Rewatchable Scene
The Arthur Lee Allen interrogation; the Graysmith-Avery bar scene
In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:17:11Read transcript
- The category is framed as hard for this film, so the nominees mix lighter and darker scenes: the cold open first murder, called one of the crowning achievements of Fincher's career; the credit sequence that sets up the world with economy and panache, and the trolley of mail carrying the first Zodiac letter into the Chronicle as one of the only set pieces outside the murders; the Graysmith-Avery bar scene with the Aqua Velva; the Napa murder; the 'This is the Zodiac speaking' call with Melvin; the talk-show sequence; and the 'I am not the Zodiac' interrogation.
- One vote and one honorable mention are offered: the honorable mention is the late scene where Graysmith lays out that Darlene Farron (as transcribed) worked at the Vallejo House of Pancakes less than fifty yards door to door from Arthur Lee Allen's mother's basement on Fresno Street, the only real 'we solved it' moment apart from the questioning of Allen; that interrogation in a factory break room, with Allen volunteering that the bloody knives in his car came from a chicken he killed for dinner and the three detectives silently registering his watch, is called spectacular and put at the top of that list.
- The Napa lake murder is named the least rewatchable and maybe the best scene in the film: expertly done, horrifying in a slow-burning way, one of the most unsettling murder scenes, with the killer slipping behind a tree before you really see him approach; it is likened to the bear-suit figure in The Shining as an incongruous presence where sunny tourist-area safety is assumed, and the film is called a protracted tease with very little violence that hits harder when it comes.
- The projectionist's-house scene near the end, when Graysmith goes down into the basement and the man pulls the chain to turn off the light before Graysmith scurries out, is called the scariest and most horror-movie moment of the film, almost Wes Craven; it arrives when the film seems to have let the audience go, and Graysmith then gets home to find his family gone.
- Interrogation is stated as a pick; the final stated pick is the Graysmith-Avery bar scene, because the character interactions elevate the film beyond a phenomenal procedural: the exchange about Graysmith having just guessed that another message would come and the Aqua Velva, Graysmith on the line of being in on the joke and happy to be included, and the newspapermen cutting out at three o'clock to drink and smoke at Morty's, which rings true to a host whose father worked in newspapers.