Gone Girl(2014)

Plot Summary

• The day of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) returns home to find that his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) is missing. He goes into the living room and sees a table flipped over and the glass top is shattered on the floor. Nick calls the police. Arriving at his home are Detective Rhonda Boney and Officer Jim Gilpin. Rhonda sees a small splatter of blood in the kitchen above the range. Her disappearance receives heavy press coverage, as Amy was the inspiration for her parents' popular Amazing Amy children's books.The media finds Nick's apathy towards the disappearance suspicious and the fact that he doesn't know if Amy has any close friends or her blood type. As the days progress, suspicions arise that Nick murdered her.Nick is approached in a hallway by a woman who extends her sympathy and offers to make him a chicken-Frito pie casserole. She stands next to him and takes a selfie of the two of them, telling him to say "chicken-Frito pie." He makes a fake smile as she takes the photo, and he immediately realizes this was a mistake and asks her to delete the photo. The photo goes viral. Consequently, the media starts analyzing Nick. TV personalities like Ellen Abbott (Missi Pyle) paint him as an unsympathetic sociopath.Flashbacks reveal Amy and Nick met in Jan 2005. Nick and Amy first meet at a party in New York. He writes for a men's magazine, and she writes personality quizzes for another. They take a walk and pass through a bakery that is getting a sugar delivery. They later have sex in Amy's apartment.Nick and Amy go to a party held by her parents Rand (David Clennon) and Marybeth (Lisa Banes). It becomes clear that the parents' fictional Amazing Amy character is a dramatically "improved" version of their real daughter that is sold it to the public. (For example, they gave Amazing Amy a dog but refused one for their real daughter. They made Amazing Amy a prodigy cellist when real the Amy dropped out. Nick and Amy get married in 2007.By 2009, Nick and Amy had been happily married for two years. On their anniversary, another of Amy's scavenger hunts takes them to the library to have sex in a quiet area. Amy gives Nick a gift. He opens the box to find a package of very high-quality bed sheets.Nick and Amy's marriage has disintegrated. Both lost their jobs in the recession and moved from New York City to Missouri, for Nick to take care of his mother Maureen (Cyd Strittmatter) who was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. Amy feels a bit upset because Nick didn't even discuss the decision to move to Missouri with her, although she does support it. Amy tells Nick that her parents are having financial problems and asked her for her trust fund money, which is nearly a million dollars.Just before losing their jobs Amy withdrew $ 900,000 from her trust fund to give to her parents, which also led to discord between the two. Nick had become lazy, distant, and unfaithful. Amy would provoke arguments with Nick and then fake a physical fight to make it look like Nick assaulted her.Amy used the last of her trust fund to buy Nick a bar in Missouri. Things between Amy & Nick continue to go down the drain to the extent that Amy feels that Nick wants her out of his life but can't ask for a divorce because technically she owns the bar.Back in the present, Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) uncovers evidence of financial troubles and domestic disputes, a report indicating that Amy wanted to purchase a gun, and poorly concealed evidence of a struggle. Amy was making it look like Nick was regularly beating up Amy, which made Amy buy a gun for her safety. Rhonda also finds a medical report indicating that Amy is pregnant, of which Nick denies knowledge.Rhonda hands Nick a document of recent expensive transactions from his credit card, mentioning items including golf clubs and a Stratocaster guitar, though Nick says he never bought any of those items. Additionally, Rhonda presses Nick about the fact that he upped Amy's life insurance policy earlier that year to over a million dollars. Nick says he did that as Amy asked him to.On every wedding anniversary, Amy had set up elaborate treasure hunts for Nick. In July 2012, clues appear in places where Nick had sex with Andie (Emily Ratajkowski) his student, thus revealing Amy's knowledge of his affair. The first clue was a pair of red panties, and the 2nd clue was a brown house. Nick goes to his father's old home, which is painted blue. He finds a 3rd clue there but only has time to tuck it into his back pocket, hiding it from Rhonda, who had followed him. Nick claims that his father is in an assisted living facility, and he came by the house every week to check on things.Nick again has sex with Andie when he stays with his twin sister Margo. He thought Margo didn't know about Andie, but in the morning, Margo berates him for lying to her. Margo presses Nick about the pregnancy bombshell. He says he did not know she was pregnant, but that he did want kids and Amy didn't. He shows her a letter from a fertility clinic that they were going to, stating that they were going to dispose of a semen sample they had left there, unless someone came to retrieve it.The 3rd clue leads Nick to Margo's woodshed. Nick discovers thousands of dollars of items purchased with his credit card hidden in Margo's woodshed, along with a gift box. Nick brings the gift box inside and opens it to find Punch and Judy dolls, with the Judy doll holding a baby and missing a mallet.Rhonda goes back to Nick's father's home, wondering why Nick went there in the first place so soon after Amy's disappearance. In the furnace in the basement, she finds Amy's diary hidden in the furnace, burnt slightly. Amy's half-burned diary documenting her growing dread of Nick and ending with a genuine fear that he will kill her.Nick and Amy's parents meet with Rhonda to determine some possible suspects. Rand names an ex-boyfriend of Amy's, Desi Collings, who apparently tried to commit suicide after Amy broke up with him. They also mention a former classmate named Tommy O'Hara who was convicted of sexually assaulting Amy.It's revealed that Amy is alive and hiding in a campground in the Ozarks. After discovering Nick's affair, Amy conceived an elaborate plan to frame him for her murder. She had him ramp up her life insurance and secretly used his credit card to buy the woodshed items. She befriended a pregnant neighbor Noelle, told her stories about Nick's temper, and stole her urine to fake a pregnancy, thus eliciting media sympathy after her disappearance.She wrote a diary with increasingly fabricated entries and placed incriminating evidence in the treasure-hunt spots for the police to find. On the morning of her disappearance, Amy drained and splattered her own blood across the kitchen and then cleaned it haphazardly. Her original plan was to drown herself after Nick's arrest and have her body found to ensure his death sentence.Amy had changed her appearance and name and was hiding in a distant campground, believing Nick will be convicted and executed for her murder. To make sure she's not found out, she cuts her hair, dyes it, and makes herself look unkempt and disheveled. She begins eating large amounts of junk food to gain weight. She hides out at a small resort under the name Nancy, even hitting herself in the face with a hammer to sell the idea that she is hiding from an abusive boyfriend.Nick hires Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry), a defense attorney who specializes in defending men accused of killing their wives, to prove his innocence. On Bolt's suggestion Nick meets Amy's ex-boyfriend Tommy O'Hara (Scoot McNairy), who claims Amy framed him for sexual assault. One day, she seduced him, and told him she wanted rough sex. She staged a scene where she had marked her wrists and left neckties tied to the bed to make it appear he had tied her up. She went to the police, and claimed he had sexually assaulted her. He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge to avoid prison time. Now he is a registered sex offender and has not been able to get a job. He warns Nick about how evil and manipulative she is.Bolt wants to change the media' perception of Amy from a victim to a manipulator of the first degree. He also approaches another ex-boyfriend, the wealthy Desi Collings (Neil Patrick Harris), against whom Amy previously filed a restraining order. But Desi refuses to share any details.Nick later books an interview on TV with Sharon Schieber (Sela Ward) to tell his side of the story. Tanner coaches him to make him seem more likable by having Nick admit that he's been unfaithful and dishonest, which would earn him some possible points in the media.When Amy's neighbors rob her at the motel she is hiding in, she is left without any money. Now penniless and desperate, Amy calls the Missing Amy tip line, and reports suspicious activity at Margo's wood shed. Amy then calls Desi from a pay phone. She convinces him that she ran away from Nick because she feared for her life. He agrees to hide her in his lake house, which is equipped with surveillance cameras.Nick convinces his twin sister, Margo (Carrie Coon), of his innocence. Just before the interview, Nick's mistress, a student of his, reveals their affair at a press conference. Desi and Amy see the news while Sharon gets wind of it at the same time. Nick appears on the talk show to apologize for his failures as a husband in the hope of luring Amy, swearing he is not a murderer. He affirms his innocence and feigns regret for his shortcomings as a spouse, knowing that Amy will be watching. His performance improves his public image and rekindles Amy's feelings for him.Detective Rhonda arrests Nick on all the evidence that has been collected so far. The credit card bills, blood on the floor of the kitchen, a sloppy clean up job of the blood, Amy's pregnancy, Amy's diary which survived the fire, that was found in the fireplace of Nick's dad, in which Amy had recorded all the made-up history of violence with Nick, & finally the discovery of all the expensive stuff bought on the credit card in Margo's woodshed, by the police. Jim brings in the missing Judy mallet from the puppets. It has been burned in their fireplace, but traces of Amy's blood are found on it. Rhonda now has a murder weapon, and arrests Nick. Bolt bails them out, and they brace for the impending trial.Desi is afraid that he is going to lose Amy again, so he tries to subtly tell her that he will not let go of her now. Amy reacts by using the lake house's cameras to her advantage, making it appear as though Desi kidnapped and abused her. She soaks her nightgown in red wine, binds her hands and feet, then crawls to the camera, crying, making it look like she's just been sexually assaulted. She seduces Desi when he returns home and kills him during sex, then returns home covered in blood, naming him as her captor and sexual predator, clearing Nick of suspicion. Nick does not believe her story for one second & tells so to Rhonda.Medical examiners lend credence to Amy's story. During questioning, Rhonda probes her inconsistencies, but Amy spins the focus onto Rhonda by calling her incompetent. The FBI believes Amy and closes the case, but Rhonda gleans Amy's guilt. Amy tells Nick the truth, saying that the man she watched pleading for her return was the man she wants him to become again. Nick shares this with Rhonda, Bolt and Margo. Despite unanimously agreeing that Amy is guilty, everyone acknowledges a lack of evidence. Bolt wishes Nick well and returns to New York.Nick intends to leave Amy and expose her lies, but Amy reveals that she is pregnant, having artificially inseminated herself with Nick's sperm stored at a fertility clinic. Nick doubts the child is his and says he will undertake a paternity test.Nick reacts violently to Amy's insistence that they remain married but feels responsible for the child. Despite Margo's objections, he reluctantly decides to stay with Amy. The "happy" couple announces on television that they are expecting a baby.

Storyline

• On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne reports that his wife, Amy, has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick's portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife? — Twentieth Century Fox Nick Dunne, a small town guy who made good in the big city as a magazine writer blames the recession and the loss of his job for the decline of his marriage to his intellectually superior wife with a substantial trust fund. Questions of his motives and character begin to arise after his wife's disappearance on the morning of their fifth anniversary. As the search for his missing wife plays out over the ensuing days, guilty suspicions are fueled into a national frenzy by the media circus camped outside his house. Is this idyllic, everyman truly capable of murdering his wife? — MalcolmJTaylor Nick and Amy Dunne are a couple living in a small town in Missouri. Nick calls the authorities when she goes missing but something is off about his behavior. Is he hiding something? Is he sad or distraught enough? While the police continue their investigation, Nick is battling a media frenzy and the people who believe his innocence is dwindling by the minute. — Angela Thomas A Missouri couple had a great life in their house with no kid, but it all changed when their 5th wedding anniversary occurs. Nick, the husband now realizes that his wife, Amy has gone missing. He calls the local authorities for reporting the situation. Along with the time and the local searching program, the progress becoming blurred between Nick's version of the story or the new investigation result - that Nick suspected of killing his wife. Now, Nick struggles for convincing the media, telling them if he didn't kill his wife, and probe the cryptic clues from his own wife. — Gusde 2 more All