It’s disturbing to see how he manipulates, threatens, and profits off of people’s pain throughout the story, unflinchingly and without remorse.
While audiences may be rooting for Bloom’s downfall, the movie ends with him achieving more success than ever, expanding his business by employing several people and acquiring more news vans.
Spoiler Alert: Last Scene
While being interrogated by Frontieri, Lou fabricates a story about the men in the Escalade following him; Frontieri knows he is lying, but he cannot prove it.
In the end, Lou hires a team of interns to expand his business, saying that he will not ask them to do anything he is unwilling to do himself.
The ending leaves audiences to ponder Nightcrawler’s message about how a culture that craves violence could create the breeding ground for unethical monsters like Bloom to thrive.
Journalists Kent Shocknek, Pat Harvey, Sharon Tay, Rick Garcia, and Bill Seward appear as themselves.
Nightcrawler is a critique of modern-day media practices and consumer culture in Western capitalistic societies.
Nina, like the protagonist of the 1976 Network (Faye Dunaway), sensationalizes news headlines in order to increase viewership and ratings.
Racial and class biases are used to determine what is, and is not, deemed ‘worthy’ of news coverage. Local politics and other matters that affect viewers’ lives get short shrift.
As much as the film indicts modern journalism, Nightcrawler‘s director Gilroy noted that he wanted audiences to realize that by watching sensationalized news stories, they themselves are encouraging unethical journalism
Lou’s character is created because of consumer demand, he is a “reflection of the symbiotic relationship between commercial imperatives and audience desire.
When asked about the film’s genre, Gilroy stated: “I see Nightcrawler as having genre elements in the sense that it’s a thriller. It also has some strong dramatic elements and I think I understand the question as there’s some really strong elements of drama.” Gyllenhaal particularly noted the comedic elements, commenting: “Gilroy and I were laughing pretty much the whole movie.”
Cast
Jake Gyllenhaal as Louis “Lou” Bloom
Rene Russo as Nina Romina
Riz Ahmed as Rick
Bill Paxton as Joe Loder
Kevin Rahm as Frank Kruse
Michael Hyatt as Detective Frontieri
Ann Cusack as Linda
