My fascination with antiheroes
I'm fascinated by antihero movies. A few of the movies and TV shows I liked in the past years, for example, involved antiheroes that present as morally compromised superheroes like Jessica Jones and Black Widow, villains like Anakin Skywalker and the Joker, and even unapologetic serial killers like Dexter Morgan and Sweeney Todd. There is just something interesting about them that keeps me glued and invested in who these characters are and how their story ends.
They fascinate me because unlike movies about classic heroes, antihero movies explore characters, themes, and ideas that are more unique, edgy, and unpredictable. For me, that's always a recipe for an interesting movie, provided that the character is well-developed and that the story is well-written.
One antihero movie that stands out for me is the film Nightcrawler (2014). Written by Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler is an intriguing movie with an intriguing character, Lou Bloom. It was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 87th Academy Awards but eventually lost to Birdman (2014). However, as far as screenplays go, what makes this movie truly interesting is the way that the screenwriter avoided the usual antihero tropes to create a terrifying villain whose story we happen to follow, one that I just couldn't take my eyes off.
What is Nightcrawler about?
Released in 2014, Nightcrawler is a psychological thriller that tells the story of the antihero Lou Bloom. Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhall) is an out-of-work young man who discovers the world of "nightcrawlers". Nightcrawlers are freelance TV news videographers who take gruesome, violent, and graphic news videos of crimes and accidents that happen overnight and sell them to local networks.
In an interview, Gilroy explains he got the idea for the movie in 1988 when he read Weegee's book, Naked City. Weegee, who is a freelance news photographer from the 1930s, is the original nightcrawler. In an April 2020 feature on the magazine Elephant, Weegee was said to have equipped his car with a police radio (with permission from the police), so that he can access the most sensational stories in New York. The book was the collection of photos he took in the city in the 1940s. Described as "lewd, louche [and] licentious”, these photographs are the equivalent of the graphic news videos of our time. Source
Thus, upon discovering the world of nightcrawlers, Lou, with an undeterred focus, drive, and some measure of positive thinking devotes himself to the industry.
Through his journey, Lou discovers that not only does he have what it takes to survive as a nightcrawler, but that he has what it takes to become a successful businessman, the top dog who consumes everyone in his path—blackmail, murder, and bicycle theft notwithstanding.
If that sounds less like a psychopathic thriller and more like a success story in the vein of Will Smith's character in Pursuit of Happyness (2006), it's because it is.
In creating his protagonist, Gilroy found the classic hero archetype doesn't fit his vision for the screenplay. Instead, he decided to go with an antihero. In writing his antihero story, however, Gilroy was intent not to let his screenplay become a "reductive story of a psychopath". Thus, in creating Lou, Gilroy focused less on the morality of his actions, and instead on his arc to becoming a successful businessman, creating what he calls, 'the antihero success story'.
Lou Bloom, the successful antihero
Let's be clear, Lou is a bad person. He is manipulative, exploitative, and above all, a cold-blooded murderer. He is unforgivable. And he has been this way from the first time we meet him. In fact, in the first five minutes of the film, he has already broken into a restricted area to steal copper wires, assaulted a security officer, and stole the security officer's watch. All of this, he did seemingly without any remorse or worry.
Looking back, this just shows that Lou is already a violent man, even before he was thrust into the violent world of nightcrawlers. We can tell because immediately after committing this string of crimes, he is already at a scrapyard, selling his stolen wares as if nothing happened. Business as usual. This makes it clear that his success as a nightcrawler did not cause him to do bad things. He already does bad things.
Lou also has a shallow and transactional worldview. In almost every scene where Lou interacts with another character, he is bargaining, trying to sell something, or simply trying to gain something from the other person. Whether that's him selling himself as a model employee from potential employers, trading a stolen bike for store credit, or even bargaining with his employee about a raise, everything to him is a transaction. In his world, everything has a price and everything can be bargained with.
When he decided he wanted to have a romantic relationship with Nina, the morning news director of the station that he sells his videos to, instead of asking her to be his girlfriend, he opens with a negotiation. Of course, it is worth noting that while he is 'negotiating' from his point of view, it is clear to viewers that he is blackmailing Nina to sleep with him.
And with his last words to his assistant Rick, right after he successfully manipulated events to get Rick killed, Lou explains his actions by saying, "I can’t jeopardize the company’s success to retain an untrustworthy employee... You took my bargaining power, Rick. You used it against me. You’d have done it again. Just admit it." (Nightcrawler, p.88). It wasn't malice that caused him to kill his assistant, he is just no longer a trusted employee. And like any good businessman, he is merely 'mitigating risks'.
Lou Bloom, the positive thinker
However, despite all his bad characteristics, Lou is interesting because even among antiheroes, his characterization doesn't fit the mold. As Gilroy describes it, he wrote Lou as "a character with a deceptively positive psychology". Thus, throughout the movie, Lou is always polite, smiling, and even when he is committing murder, he is not malicious. Instead, he focuses on positive thoughts and when confronted with problems, he focuses on the solutions to his problems.
This positive psychology is evident in the way that Lou relates to others, even when the other person is confronting him or being negative toward him. For example, when the veteran nightcrawler, Joe Loder refuses to hire him with a dismissive 'No', he replies in a very polite and almost upbeat voice, "Well thank you for taking the time to discuss what you do. You’ve been very helpful." (Nightcrawler, p.6). And nothing about his demeanor made it seem like he was being sarcastic about it. He was thankful.
This is also seen in the scene where Lou, upon arriving at a car crash before the paramedics, repositioned one of the dead bodies so that it is more visible on the street in his shot. If it were any other movie, this scene where he is tampering with a car crash would be scored with ominous, foreboding music. But because we are in Lou's world, it sounds like a hero's theme, instead. That's because, for Lou, this is a critical moment where he is improving his craft, not tampering with a dead body. It's just a step toward success as he strives to a successful businessman.
Lou even mentions this to Nina. Right after selling her the footage of the car crash, he says, "I’m focusing on framing. A proper frame not only draws the eye into a picture but keeps it there longer, dissolving the barrier between the subject and the outside of the shot." (Nightcrawler, p.37)
Thus, in the movie, and only because the movie is happening from Lou's point of view, him doing unethical and criminal behaviors—his theft, the physical assault on the security guard, extorting Nina, causing Joe Loder's accident, eventually arranging for Rick's murder, and all other crimes—is treated as steps in the business plan.
This is also evident when you consider Lou's headspace. In reading the screenplay, Gilroy introduces Lou with the line, "and we see him... LOU’S 30... pure primal id... if there’s music it’s in his head... disconnected... feral... driven by dollar signs and a dream of some imagined Eden as." (Nightcrawler, p.6).
Lou, therefore, has no qualms about his morals. It seems that for him, morals don't even figure into the equation. It's probably not even a concept in his world. What drives him is his success, and everything else is just a distraction. For him what matters is his business plan and the actions that will help or hinder him. That's how he sees the world around him.
What I loved about the movie and the screenplay
Thus, what I liked most about the movie is that Lou Bloom is allowed to be an unapologetic bad guy. For some reason, movies (and possibly society, as well) have always been obsessed with either redeeming our heroes or explaining away their evil by some sort of backstory. Rarely are they ever allowed to just be a bad guy. This is not the case with Nightcrawler.
In the words of Quentin Tarantino, "I try to have morality not even be an issue at all when it comes to my characters... I let them be who they are." Source This is what Gilroy did with Lou. He just let Lou be. In the end, Nightcrawler avoided becoming a morality tale, and just became a fascinating antihero story.
From watching the movie, we know Lou—he is a manipulative, violent, and creepy psychopath. We know what drives him—his success. And we know how he views the world—as a series of transactions. And as scary as this sounds, it has become all the scarier to know that in the end, Lou did not meet a tragic fate. He is still out there, building on his business plan and working toward that next stage of growth. Instead of meeting the antihero's expected fate, he was not punished or changed for the better. Instead, like your classic hero, Lou was rewarded. It's scary to think what this says about the world we live in today.
Sources:
- Nightcrawler (2014). IMDB Page
- Nightcrawler (film). Wikipedia
- Nightcrawler by Dan Gilroy. Screenplay
- Interview with Dan Gilroy (October 2014). Youtube.
- Interview: Dan Gilroy. (February 2015). Transcript.
This post was written as an entry to the latest CineTV Writing Contest about our favorite movies and their screenplay.
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