The Killer

The Killer is a 2023 American neo-noir psychological crime thriller directed by David Fincher from a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker. It is based on the French graphic novel series of the same name written by Alexis "Matz" Nolent and illustrated by Luc Jacamon. The film stars Michael Fassbender in the title role, alongside Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, Kerry O'Malley, Sala Baker, Sophie Charlotte, and Tilda Swinton in supporting roles. Its plot follows the titular assassin who gets embroiled in an international manhunt after a hit goes wrong. The Killer premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2023, and had a limited theatrical release on October 27, 2023; it is scheduled to begin streaming on November 10, by Netflix. Plot A mysterious killer, a skillful professional assassin, stakes out a Parisian hotel room. He prepares to kill an unnamed target who will check into the hotel room at an unspecified time with a sniper rifle. While waiting for the target, he practices yoga, eats, listens to The Smiths, and talks with his handler, an attorney named Hodges, on the phone. The killer narrates about most of these activities, stressing the routine, even boring, nature of his job, and about how his cynicism and lack of empathy benefits his job. The target eventually arrives in the company of a dominatrix. As the target watches the dominatrix from the couch, the killer takes aim and fires but misses his mark, accidentally shooting the dominatrix, despite his meticulous methodical preparations. Bodyguards spot the killer and he flees. He successfully evades the police and flies to the United States under one of his numerous fake identities. He attempts to contact Hodges, but without success. The killer returns to one of his hideout homes in the Dominican Republic to find that it has been broken into and that his girlfriend Magdala has herself been attacked by assassins, dispatched by Hodges in order to tie up loose ends as a make-good to the client. He tracks down the taxi driver, Leo, who helped the assassins surveil his home. Leo identifies them as an extremely muscular young man and an older, white-haired woman. The killer then ruthlessly shoots Leo, leaving his body in his taxi.