Essay Questions

How does the movie's soundtrack add to the feeling of psychological edginess?

Before he began production on the movie, David Fincher visited a rather swanky spa in Missouri, where filming was about to start. He listened to the relaxing "spa music" whilst he was there and found it creepy, actually accusing it of being passive-aggressive. Far from being relaxed, the music made him feel on edge and slightly nervous. He realized that this was exactly the kind of feeling he wanted the film's audiences to experience, but he also wanted to make them feel on edge and discomforted without ever really knowing why. He believed that recreating the "spa music" would allow him to do this, giving audiences the feeling that one has when one feels that one is being followed, but on turning around, finds nobody there at all.

The soundtrack was created in the same manner as the calming music used in the spa Fincher had visited, and had the desired effect, with audiences finding that they felt on edge throughout the film and that their anxiety rose disproportionately even when there was nothing happening on the screen that was exponentially more alarming than in the scenes before.

Why does Amy frame Nick for her murder?

The catalyst for the hoax is Amy's discovery that Nick has been cheating on her with one of his students, a twenty-year-old with whom he has been having both a sexual and an emotional relationship. However, there were other factors leading to her disillusionment in the marriage; Nick had lost his job at the same time that Amy had lost hers; he was unable to find something else that would enable them to maintain their existing standard of living. They were forced to move and start again, away from Amy's beloved New York City. At the same time, Amy's parents were experiencing money problems of their own, and were putting a lot of pressure on Amy to help them out.

Amy's existing fragility psychologically is exacerbated by all of these factors and we learn that she is a sociopath when she fakes her own murder, frames Nick, and ends up killing her long-term friend and ex boyfriend Desi Collings.