Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Reptile. Updated 12/1.
The “true crime” genre has only skyrocketed in its popularity throughout the last few years.Stories about police corruption, shocking murders, and conflicting institutions will never not be compelling.Eagle-eyed viewers may manage to put together the clues before the characters do if they’ve been paying close attention to detail.Netflix’s latest crime thrillerReptilepresents a particularly compelling mystery for true-crime fans;Grant Singer’sSe7en-esque murder mystery centers on how the death of the young real estate agent Summer (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz) links a group of malicious characters in a complex web of lies.Reptilecertainly feels like a true crime thriller,but is it actually based on a true story? The answer is slightly more complicated than one might anticipate.
Following the brutal murder of a young real estate agent, a hardened detective attempts to uncover thetruth in a case where nothing is as it seems, and by doing so dismantles the illusions in his own life.
‘Reptile’ Draws Inspiration From Crime Classics
InReptile, Summer’s death starts off a chain reaction that forces the hardened detective Tommy Nichols (Benicio del Toro) toreflect upon the entirety of his career.Although his wife Judy (Alicia Silverstone) worries that he’s gotten himself in too deep, Nichols and his partner Dan Cleary (Ato Essendoh) identify a group of suspects that were connected to Summer during her last days. Could it be her boyfriend, Will (Justin Timberlake), who seems more interested in pursuing his business interests than grieving his partner’s death? Could Will’s domineering mother, Camille (Frances Fisher), have influenced his behavior? What about Summer’s ex-husband, Sam (Karl Glusman), who finds himself embroiled within a drug deal? Who is the mysterious man Eli Phillips (Michael Pitt), who appears to have issues with both Will and Summer?
Like many classic thrillers,Reptileexcels at following its detective characters through every detail of the investigation. The film shows how Nichols and his team put together the clues surrounding the case, and how each interviewunravels something new that inspires them to look deeperat the circumstances surrounding Summer’s death. Given the film’s realistic approach tothe crime genre, it makes sense that Singer took inspiration from many classics within the genre.Although Singer noteda few horror classics likeRosemary’s BabyandThe Night of the Hunteras inspirations, he also mentioned a few films within the true crime genre.
‘Reptile’ Ending Explained: Who Murdered Summer?
Who lives and who dies at the end of ‘Reptile’?
Among Singer’s inspirations forReptilewasDavid Fincher’sZodiac, which explored the baffling mystery surrounding the enigmatic Zodiac killer that murdered many victims within the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960s and 1970s.Zodiacis unique among true crime thrillers because the mystery itself was never solved;Zodiacmay point its fingers at a few potential suspects, but their guilt is never confirmed. Singer said thatZodiacmade him want “to make a movie that was more real-life and evoked aspects of true crime, which is to say not everything adds up, not everything makes sense.”
Another inspiration for Singer wasthe 1967 true crime thrillerIn Cold Blood,which was based onTruman Capote’s highly influential true crime novel of the same name that was published in 1959. The novel was particularly impactful during its initial release due to the detail that Capote paid to the real perpetrators involved in the Clutter family murders;Philip Seymour Hoffmanportrayed a version of the authorin the 2005 biopicCapote,which explored the initial publication ofIn Cold Blood. Similar to Capote himself,Singer learned that there was value in the research process.He said that the creative team behindReptile“did a lot of research, practical research, learning about certain cases and doing research with actual law enforcement detectives.”
Some of the films that Singer cited weren’t directly based on true stories, but bear some resemblance to actual crimes. Singer listedFrancis Ford Coppola’s 1974 classicThe Conversationas one of the films that had influencedReptile.The Conversationcenters on the surveillance expert Henry Caul (Gene Hackman),who begins to feel increasingly uneasy as he learns that he’s being watchedby an enigmatic government security force. WhileThe Conversation’s story was fictitious, the film felt particularly scary to many viewers due to its parallels to the real Watergate conspiracy involving US President Richard Nixon. Singer wanted to create a similar sense of anxiety withinReptile. He said that the film is “constantly trying to manipulate the viewer as to what they’re thinking, and when and who might be guilty, and who might be suspicious and who might not.”
‘Reptile’ Parallels a Real Case
Reptileends with a truly shocking twist.Nichols learns that Judy’s uncle, Police Captain Robert Allen (Eric Bogosian), is part of a network of dirty cops that are laundering money through Grady’s real estate firm. Allen, the Chief of Police Marty Graeber (Mike Pniewski), and Nichols’ friend Wally (Domenick Lombardozzi)are all involved with the conspiracy.Summer’s death at the hands of her husband, Wally, has been covered up to protect the dirty cops, whose crimes could have been exposed by a formal investigation. In addition to starring in the film,del Toro also served asReptile’s co-screenwriteralongside Singer. While del Toro and Singer may not have directly basedReptileon a true story, the film’s endingdoes parallel the2008 murder of Canadian real estate agent Lindsay Buziak.
Although Buziak’s murder officially remains unsolved, the circumstances surrounding her death provoked suspicion surrounding her boyfriend, Jason Zailo, whose family owns a very successful real estate agency.Buziak’s murder attracted even more attention after it was covered on theCasefile podcast, which presented several theories regarding the potential culprits.True crime buffshave continued to peer into the case and present their potential theories. Del Toro and Singer have not confirmed any official connection betweenReptileand the Buziak case. However,the parallels are striking enoughthat it’s possible that the movie at least drew some inspiration from a story that has provoked so much discussion.
Reptileis a work of fiction,but that doesn’t mean that the filmmakers didn’t try to make the film feel as realistic as possible. Del Toro and Singercertainly put in the work to make the filmfeel like an authentic investigative thriller.Actual crimes aren’t always solved, but thanks to fictional stories likeReptile, viewers can rest easy knowing that the case is resolved.
