David Fincher’s directorial return to form about a murderous misanthrope has taken shape in an impressively understated showing from Irishman Michael Fassbender in The Killer.
After a fateful near-miss, an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal.
The Killer is a paid assassin who wields his sniper rifle to the beat of The Smiths.
Despite his precision — and his motto to “stick to your plan, anticipate, don’t improvise” — he makes an error that sets off an unpredictable chain of events.
“Fassbender has got moves,” Fincher told Netflix about casting the actor as his stealthy protagonist. “He’s emotionally and intellectually effervescent.
But if you ask him, ‘Turn all that off,’ he can do that too. And you’re left with a vacuum at the center of everything. It’s a powerful skill set.”
In the film, Fassbender’s assassin lays out his own personal urban-camouflage style guide early on:
“My camo is based on a German tourist I saw in London a while back……….No one r e a l l y wants to interact with a German tourist.”
It’s a line that made it into the script later, but Fincher gave it to the crew as a design philosophy almost immediately.
The Killer has an iPod full of songs by The Smiths. Here’s every song by the Smiths that appears in The Killer:
“Well I Wonder”
“I Know It’s Over”
“How Soon Is Now?”
“Hand in Glove”
“Bigmouth Strikes Again”
“Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”
“Girlfriend in a Coma”
“Shoplifters of the World Unite”
“Unhappy Birthday”
“This Charming Man”
“There Is a Light That Never Goes Out”
