*************BEWARE--MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW*************
The final shot of the icepick beneath the bed, as well as other contextual clues--such as Nick Curran's (Michael Douglas) attitude, suggest that Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone) had orchestrated all of the murders and set up Beth Garner (Jeanne Tripplehorn), and that maybe Curran realized this. Under this interpretation, it may seem difficult to explain at least one death--Garner's former husband. However, if Tramell was obsessed with Garner due to events that transpired in college--as hinted at from different sides of the story in the script, and the obsession at the present per the film would have been focused on wrecking Garner's life, then it makes sense that Tramell might have killed Garner's husband--perhaps in an attempt back then to set her up. We learn that Garner had met Johnny Boz about a year earlier. Garner's relationship to Curran is never explained very well, but we know that it's not anything like a traditional relationship. Perhaps Garner was quietly involved with Boz, too, which motivated Tramell to also become involved with him and eventually murder him. This interpretation also explains the money in Lt. Nilsen's account--Tramell paid him to look into Garner's past, hoping to implicate her in the murder of her former husband. It also suggests that perhaps it was no accident that Curran was the detective sent to question Tramell. This also helps explain why the Garner character is played as relatively "innocent", without a false psychopathic front (as we should otherwise expect, at least towards the end). She only attempts to keep her possibly bisexual orientation under the rug. It also helps explain a number of other minor details, such as the position of the wig and coat on the stairwell relative to Garner's position in the building. Keep in mind that Garner states that she received a call to meet Curran's partner in the building. That could be true or false.
While it is true that there are some facts more difficult to account for if Tramell was the killer (such as the blonde wig), there are just as many facts difficult to account for under the assumption that Garner was the killer (such as how she'd know how the detective's partner dies in Tramell's new book, which we see being printed out from Tramell's computer--we can see the description that matches what happens shortly after). Also remember that Tramell kept shady company, and they may have assisted in setting up (or even executing) some situations. Any explanation, assuming any character as the killer, is going to involve some rationalizations that sound far fetched, but supposing Tramell to be the killer makes the most sense, has far more subtextual weight, and makes the film far more clever
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CLUES AND DEDUCTIONS:
- ice pick under bed on Tramell's side in the end (in epilogue shot, after fade out indicates "end of movie", and audience is left with less than a doubt on Beth's guiltiness) - a "prestige", to borrow a recent film's term for "revelation")
- Tramell'd thought about it in detail, including the ruses to avoid suspicion (must, to write a good thriller): she needs to get to know Curran more to research her book ("You're gonna make a great character, Nick!")
- Tramell is blonde, like the killer (beginning scene) (and actually looks naturally brunette, from other shots, corroborating Garner's story of Tramell's obsession with her
- Talcott wants to cover up something (crime scene, and meeting in Lt. Walker's office)
- Boz was contributor to mayor campaign (and who knows what happens behind the scenes in election?...)
- Tramell has "attorneys and friends"; "money can buy lots of attorneys and friends" (Nielsen? Boz's psychiatrist? Mayor?)
- Tramell takes lie-detector test and passes it; Talcott is happy ("I guess that settles it"). Curran says she's lying, and remarks that he knows people who have lied and passed (referring to himself when he got investigated for the tourist shootout, and maybe the other 3 "accidents" as well? He later says he worked undercover for drugs, can't be caught lying there...). In the car going home they discuss it, she says she could beat it (she's a psychiatrist, and a good one, then she asks him about his test for the investigation, he says he passed, and she remarks "You see? We're both innocent, Nick...")
- Nielsen provokes Nick in the bar, calling him "Shooter", until Nick explodes
- Nielsen took the college report, maybe even destroyed it ("He's had it for a year"), and went to ask about Beth's husband's death (character research on behalf of Tramell, who needs inside police work to find out about things)
- RUSE: "a year ago" is the time Boz's psychiatrist recollects seeing Garner in Boz's house, implying long-term relationship (ruse by Tramell)
- a year (and more) is the time one would be writing a thriller, and be researching
- $50,000 paid to Nielsen by Tramell for giving away Curran's psychological evaluation information. Nielsen didn't deny it when confronted by Curran, and Garner tells Curran she'd given it to him and why. Ends up being a RUSE (maybe money Garner pays Nielsen to cover up her sexual preferences)
- Tramell kills Nielsen because he tells her Curran knows he had his evaluation file, and she needs to silence him. After run-in with Curran he looks guilty. Later is used as a RUSE to define Garner guilty by planting the gun in Garner's apartment.
- RUSE for the audience: transition from smile to clouded on Garner's face after Curran's interrogation. We're brought to think she has something to hide, and it is - her sexual past
- "orgy of proof" (John Anderton, "Minority Report") in Beth's apartment - the gun (weapon), the papers (motive - envy), "unused" answering machine cassettes (no alibi). [but unused perhaps means new, bought by Tramell, never used, and planted in her apartment]. In the end, this is all just circumstantial evidence - there are no prints on handpicks or the gun
- Tramell could have planted the evidence on Garner. There is a scene where Curran tells Garner not to leave the door open and she replies something is wrong with the lock. This would have given her an opportunity to plant the .38 revolver, the cassettes for the answering machine and the papers. Tramell is good at breaking in people's residences. She breaks into Curran's place and is seen inside when he comes home.
- RUSE: Wig, SFPD raincoat and pick (why would Beth have stuck around after killing Gus and confronted Curran? Boz's killer didn't... just left the pick on the coffee table)
- RUSE: Police report on Lisa Hoberman (we never definitely know if Lisa filed it or Tramell, Nielsen got rid of it - it's unfound in his office).
- Tramell wrote the new book, SHE knew how to kill Gus and plant suspicion on Beth (RUSE: wig (the wig was not to be worn, but to be found), raincoat and pick). This is when Curran realizes who the real guilty is (he'd read the book passage, and Beth had keys in her pocket, not a gun). Tramell called Gus to set up the appointment: Gus says, regarding Tramell's freshman-year roommate: "I've been phoning people from her dorm all day, she must've heard I was trying to reach her". How did she hear about it, especially in such short notice? If she had been in contact with someone Gus had talked to, they'd've told him her name directly
- Talcott in the end congratulates Curran very warmly after having doubted of initial police work (this is an interesting moment, and very good movie writing: Lt. Walker says "You just can't tell about people, can ya? Even the ones you think you know inside and out." He's talking about BETH, WE-the-audience can infer the picture's larger, it means anybody, and RIGHT THEN Talcott comes up to Curran, and in a strangely long close-up shot says "Congratulations, Curran". If he's satisfied, it means something was covered-up...)
- Tramell says to Curran "I can't allow myself to care about you. I don't want to do this. I lose everybody, I don't want to lose you." (meaning she fell in love with him, and doesn't want to kill him like she said she would: -Curran "How does it end?" -Tramell (coldly) "She kills him in the end")
- Tramell is friends with Hazel Dobkins from whom she was researching for her writings or other personal reasons. Dobkins killed her husband and three children out of the blue with no other history of violent behavior. Tramell says she helps her to understand homicidal impulse. Dobkins could be her May-December lover as she pops up at opportune times.
- Tramell is friends with Roxy who has homicidal impulses in her background, too. She killed her two brothers by slicing their necks because they were getting most of the attention. Roxy is another one of Tramell's lesbian lovers.
- Curran realizes his partner Gus Moran is in danger because he read part of Tramell's book as it was printing out about Shooter's partner being killed in an elevator with his legs sticking out. How would Tramell know about Shooter's partner being killed this way ahead of time without being the killer? This leads one to suspect Curran knew that Catherine was the killer even if he didn't realize it at the time.
- Since the question was who was the killer after all, Nick Curran has some homicidal impulses of his own. Catherine Tramell enjoys knowing about the background of her new character in her book. One could make the case that he killed Beth Garner not in self-defense if the evidence wasn't so one sided against her. Gus says everyone around Catherine Tramell dies and Nick knows that feeling from his wife being killed, the people he's shot and people he works with being killed.
- At the end, if Curran knows Catherine is the killer, he still cannot prove it. He realizes he's a killer, too, in some ways as Catherine said earlier. He doesn't do anything because of it except to fuck like minks, raise rug rats and live happily ever after. He realizes that he comes out ahead by marrying a rich woman like Catherine Tramell.
IDEAS:
- Beth's husband killed in drive-by. Coincidence. No relevance to the Boz killing or Tramell's guilt. But used by Tramell to set up Garner.
- Or, Beth and Tramell planned it together, they do it, Beth leaves Tramell, she swears revenge
- Or, Beth gets married after an affair with Tramell in college; Tramell shoots the husband for revenge
- Tramell's parents killed in accident (or done for psychopathic reason of "seeing if she can get away with it", or just a "first time" (title of a book of hers). The accident gives her the idea for the book.
- Manny Vasquez killed in accident (on ring). Coincidence. Or rigged?
