Zodiac Ending Explained
The 2007 movie Zodiac, directed by David Fincher, dives deep into the real-life hunt for the Zodiac Killer who terrorized Northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. For more on the full plot, check out this detailed summary at https://spoilertown.com/zodiac-2007/. The story follows cartoonist Robert Graysmith, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, San Francisco inspector Dave Toschi, portrayed by Mark Ruffalo, and reporter Paul Avery, played by Robert Downey Jr., as they chase leads on the killer who sent cryptic letters and ciphers to newspapers.
The murders start with a shocking attack on July 4, 1969, when a masked man kills a young couple in Vallejo. The killer calls himself Zodiac and demands his letters get published or he will strike again. Ciphers arrive, pulling everyone into a nightmare that grips the public. Suspects pop up, but nothing sticks. Arthur Leigh Allen stands out as the main one. He has suspicious items like Zodiac watches and lives near crime scenes, but proof stays out of reach.
Years drag on. The murders seem to stop, and the case goes cold. Avery falls into drinking and paranoia. Toschi burns out from frustration. Graysmith throws away his marriage and job to keep digging. The film shows how obsession wrecks lives, a theme Fincher loves in movies like Seven, as noted in David Fincher’s Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Fincher.
In the ending, time jumps ahead. Graysmith, now broke and alone, still believes Allen is Zodiac. He tracks down witnesses and digs into old clues. One woman says Allen matches the killer’s description. Graysmith even sneaks into Allen’s house, staring at shoes and a bloody knife in a tense face-to-face. But it’s too late for real action. Police searches find nothing solid. Handwriting and prints do not match perfectly.
The screen fades with facts. Allen died in 1992. Later DNA from letters rules him out. The Zodiac Killer was never caught or named officially. No big reveal or arrest happens. Instead, the movie leaves you with unease, mirroring the real unsolved case. Everyone involved gets beaten down by the mystery that outlasts them all. For news and themes on the ending, see this IMDb page at https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443706/news/.
Sources
https://spoilertown.com/zodiac-2007/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU6OGSG5X_w
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Fincher
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443706/news/
