American Psycho Ending, Explained
In 1991, Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho shocked readers with its detailed and gory accounts of Patrick Bateman’s murders, and nine years later Christian Bale did the same in the cult movie adaptation. Nevertheless, while the book and film are different, one element both have in common is the ambiguity of their respective endings, to the point its true meaning is still debated today among fans.
American Psycho is deeply rooted in the horror genre, however, the addition of more cast members like Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon and Willem Dafoe helped broaden the scope of its plot as it allows viewers to escape Bateman’s mind, something book readers didn’t really have the luxury of doing. Leto’s Paul Allen is an instrumental figure in American Psycho big twist, and even if the ending is still open to interpretation, director Mary Herron had one key thing in mind she didn’t want viewers getting wrong.
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Was It All A Dream?
To recap the movie’s ending, after going on what is nearly a 2-hour murder spree that includes his fellow finance bro Paul Allen, several women, and finally every person that he comes across when he’s finally losing his mind running through the street of New York, Patrick Bateman calls his lawyer to frantically confess his crimes. While the look of relief in Bale’s face is priceless when he does this, the next morning he finds out it’s not that easy to get the punishment that he desperately craves as practically all evidence of the murders, bodies included, is gone.
Perhaps the most striking encounter Bateman has after his confession takes place in Paul Allen’s old apartment, where he finds a woman who’s currently trying to sell the place, now free of any evidence, though the realtor’s tone in both book and movie is quite aggressive to hint that she wants nothing to do with whatever Bateman has to say for all the wrong reasons. The same happens with his lawyer, who dismisses the confession as a joke, and even the possibility of Allen being murdered because they met recently — the result is Bateman feeling emptier than ever.
Although it’s plausible to come to the conclusion that at least some of the murders Bateman commits don’t really happen, and the theory of him being an incredibly unreliable narrator makes sense, Herron never really wanted audiences to leave the theater thinking that. In several interviews, Herron has claimed one of her regrets when adapting the screenplay and making the film is leaving room for anyone to question whether the murders happened at all or not.
Patrick Bateman’s crimes were not a dream, at least not all of them, instead, the real message that both Herron and Eston Ellis wanted to convey was that a man of such social status could literally get away with murder. In the grand scheme of things, as Bateman himself puts it, he mostly kills “lesser” people, and in Paul Allen’s case, viewers are taught from the get-go that investment bankers can’t even bother to learn each other names, hence, Allen is replaceable just like Bateman.
Why American Psycho’s Ending Is The Way It Is
Nowadays, Patrick Bateman is an internet icon, with Bale’s memes being quite popular, especially among men, due to the character’s superficial brand of masculinity and success being a caricature that some could aspire to, albeit without the murderer side hustle. Funnily enough, Easton Ellis’ goal was precisely to mock the Batemans of the world that the 1980’s greed had created, championed by Wall Street’s Gordon Gekko, even if that wasn’t necessarily his first instinct.
Easton Ellis’ started writing American Psycho out of a certain disdain for the person he was becoming, decrying his own consumerism, something that’s really driven in a book that’s often criticized as a collection Bateman’s musings on pricey luxury items, grooming habits and description of his lavish New York lifestyle. Suffice to say, all that doesn’t make for the best reading because people are supposed to hate Bateman.
In the film, Herron captures all of this with even greater accuracy thanks to all the other characters, as it’s possible to see how nobody really likes Bateman, except for Jean of course, the one person this American Psycho spares as he feels pity for the soul of this poor woman that’s probably in love with a monster like him. And yet, the biggest difference in their approach is that Easton Ellis to this day has not made up his mind on whether Bateman committed all the crimes or not, whereas Herron had decided he did kill most of those people, in spite of the movie leaving room for second-guessing her intentions.
Taking into consideration the movie and its source material, American Psycho’s ending might make Patrick Bateman’s body count hard to pin down, yet there is no doubt he is a raging murderer that got away with it, much to his own despair. Sadly, Bateman is simply so entrenched in Wall Street’s elite that in the 1990s New York he inhabits nobody cares whether he might have killed all those people, not if that means Paul Allen’s apartment can be put up for sale.
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