The Bone Collector
Encyclopedia
The Bone Collector is a 1999 thriller film starring Denzel Washington
and Angelina Jolie
, directed by Phillip Noyce
and produced by Martin Bregman
.
The movie was based on the crime novel
The Bone Collector
written by Jeffery Deaver
, concerning the quadriplegic detective Lincoln Rhyme. It was the first book of the Lincoln Rhyme series.
forensics expert Lincoln Rhyme (Denzel Washington
) and a patrol cop, Amelia Donaghy (Angelina Jolie
), team up to solve a string of murders all connected to a serial killer
by his signature: a single shard of bone is removed from each of the victims. Rhyme communicates with Amelia via phone as she examines the various crime scenes and collects evidence and reports back to him.
The killer poses as a New York taxi driver, and abducts and kills those who get in his taxi. The first two victims are a married couple named Alan and Lindsay Rubin, who get a taxi home but then find themselves kidnapped by the killer. Amelia finds Alan's body buried in a Civil War
-era railroad bed. She also finds a piece of shellfish, which eventually leads Amelia - working with Rhyme - to Alan's wife, and a scrap of paper. The detectives find Mrs. Rubin, too late, at a steam junction in a below ground services area of a building in the financial district, secured using old handcuffs or shackles at the mouth of a pipe which emits steam. She has been scalded to death from the steam. The killer has also removed a bit of flesh and bone from her arm. Amelia finds another scrap of paper at the scene.
The killer then abducts an NYU student. He is taken to a derelict slaughterhouse where he is tied to a pole and gutted with a knife, and left for rats to feed on. Amelia and Rhyme, using the clue left by the killer at the scene of Lindsay Rubin's death (rat hairs embedded in a bone from a cow's body), find the victim, but again too late to save him. Again, the killer has removed a piece of the victim's bone. Amelia is able to collect the evidence, including another scrap of paper. The pressure of the tense investigation and bureaucratic challenges to both Amelia's and Rhyme's involvement with the case are having serious impacts on Rhyme's health and stability.
After piecing together the message the killer was sending using the scraps of paper, Amelia and Rhyme are led to an old book of short stories, which in turn leads them to the killer's next victims, a grandfather and granddaughter tied to a pier as the tide rises. The girl is rescued, but her grandfather dies. At the scene, Amelia finds another bone, an old police badge, and an old subway map. These clues, and an earlier clue left by the killer at the scene of Mrs Rubin's death (asbestos
) lead Amelia to an abandoned subway station, in which Amelia sees some numbers which have been tampered with to spell out Rhyme's police badge number. Amelia then figures out that the killer is after Rhyme.
The killer arrives at Rhyme's house, and after killing Rhyme's Nurse Thelma (Queen Latifah
) and Captain Howard Cheney (Michael Rooker
) it is revealed that he is the medical technician who cares for Rhyme's medical equipment. The technician, Richard Thompson (Leland Orser
), is an ex-forensic cop who wants revenge against Rhyme, whose testimony helped convict the killer of planting false evidence at crime scenes. Rhyme manages to crush Thompson's right hand by suddenly dropping his bed horizontal, and in struggle to free himself, Thompson pulls Rhyme with him and they both collapse to the floor. Rhyme then manages to bite Thompson in the neck, causing massive bleeding. Thompson once again manages to free himself, As Thompson raises a rather large scalpel for a killing blow, Amelia suddenly arrives at the apartment and shoots Thompson dead, saving Rhyme.
The film ends at a Christmas
celebration at Rhyme's apartment. Rhyme, having given up his plans to commit suicide
, faces his sister and niece coming to visit him along with Amelia and his other colleagues us Christmas Eve
on 24 December.
. Interior scenes were shot in Toronto
.
, The Bone Collector has an average approval rating of 28%, with an average score of 4.2/10. By comparison, Metacritic
gave the film an average score of 45 based on the 33 reviews that it collected.
Eric S. Arnold of Newsweek
gives a mainly positive review, stating that "The Bone Collector may be formulaic—but many good recipes are." William Arnold of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
describes the film as having "the characteristics of a bad slasher movie" in a mainly negative review, calling the plot "ultimately preposterous".
Denzel Washington
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...
and Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...
, directed by Phillip Noyce
Phillip Noyce
Phillip Noyce is an Australian film director.-Life and career:Noyce was born in Griffith, New South Wales, attended Barker College, Sydney, and began making short films at the age of 18, starting with Better to Reign in Hell, using his friends as the cast...
and produced by Martin Bregman
Martin Bregman
Martin Bregman is a film producer and former personal manager. Bregman produced many films including Scarface, Sea of Love, Venom, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, The Four Seasons, Betsy's Wedding, Carlito's Way, and The Bone Collector.-Life and career:Bregman was born in New York City, to Leon and Ida...
.
The movie was based on the crime novel
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
The Bone Collector
The Bone Collector (book)
The Bone Collector is a 1997 novel by Jeffery Deaver.The book introduces the character of Lincoln Rhyme, a quadriplegic forensic criminalist.- Plot Overview :...
written by Jeffery Deaver
Jeffery Deaver
Jeffery Deaver is an American mystery/crime writer. He has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Fordham University and originally started working as a journalist. He later practiced law before embarking on a successful career as a best-selling...
, concerning the quadriplegic detective Lincoln Rhyme. It was the first book of the Lincoln Rhyme series.
Plot
QuadriplegicQuadriplegia
Tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, is paralysis caused by illness or injury to a human that results in the partial or total loss of use of all their limbs and torso; paraplegia is similar but does not affect the arms...
forensics expert Lincoln Rhyme (Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...
) and a patrol cop, Amelia Donaghy (Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...
), team up to solve a string of murders all connected to a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
by his signature: a single shard of bone is removed from each of the victims. Rhyme communicates with Amelia via phone as she examines the various crime scenes and collects evidence and reports back to him.
The killer poses as a New York taxi driver, and abducts and kills those who get in his taxi. The first two victims are a married couple named Alan and Lindsay Rubin, who get a taxi home but then find themselves kidnapped by the killer. Amelia finds Alan's body buried in a Civil War
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
-era railroad bed. She also finds a piece of shellfish, which eventually leads Amelia - working with Rhyme - to Alan's wife, and a scrap of paper. The detectives find Mrs. Rubin, too late, at a steam junction in a below ground services area of a building in the financial district, secured using old handcuffs or shackles at the mouth of a pipe which emits steam. She has been scalded to death from the steam. The killer has also removed a bit of flesh and bone from her arm. Amelia finds another scrap of paper at the scene.
The killer then abducts an NYU student. He is taken to a derelict slaughterhouse where he is tied to a pole and gutted with a knife, and left for rats to feed on. Amelia and Rhyme, using the clue left by the killer at the scene of Lindsay Rubin's death (rat hairs embedded in a bone from a cow's body), find the victim, but again too late to save him. Again, the killer has removed a piece of the victim's bone. Amelia is able to collect the evidence, including another scrap of paper. The pressure of the tense investigation and bureaucratic challenges to both Amelia's and Rhyme's involvement with the case are having serious impacts on Rhyme's health and stability.
After piecing together the message the killer was sending using the scraps of paper, Amelia and Rhyme are led to an old book of short stories, which in turn leads them to the killer's next victims, a grandfather and granddaughter tied to a pier as the tide rises. The girl is rescued, but her grandfather dies. At the scene, Amelia finds another bone, an old police badge, and an old subway map. These clues, and an earlier clue left by the killer at the scene of Mrs Rubin's death (asbestos
Asbestos
Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...
) lead Amelia to an abandoned subway station, in which Amelia sees some numbers which have been tampered with to spell out Rhyme's police badge number. Amelia then figures out that the killer is after Rhyme.
The killer arrives at Rhyme's house, and after killing Rhyme's Nurse Thelma (Queen Latifah
Queen Latifah
Dana Elaine Owens , better known by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American singer, rapper, and actress. Her work in music, film and television has earned her a Golden Globe award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Image Awards, a Grammy Award, six additional Grammy nominations, an Emmy...
) and Captain Howard Cheney (Michael Rooker
Michael Rooker
Michael Rooker is an American actor.-Early life:Rooker, who has eight brothers and sisters, was born in Jasper, Alabama and studied at the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago, where he moved with his mother and siblings at the age of thirteen, after his parents divorced.-Movie career:He made his...
) it is revealed that he is the medical technician who cares for Rhyme's medical equipment. The technician, Richard Thompson (Leland Orser
Leland Orser
Leland Jones Orser is an American film and television actor. Orser is a character actor, whose career has included playing a number of deranged, psychotic, and degenerate characters. Orser has appeared in small roles in a wide variety of films and television shows, including Chief of Surgery Dr...
), is an ex-forensic cop who wants revenge against Rhyme, whose testimony helped convict the killer of planting false evidence at crime scenes. Rhyme manages to crush Thompson's right hand by suddenly dropping his bed horizontal, and in struggle to free himself, Thompson pulls Rhyme with him and they both collapse to the floor. Rhyme then manages to bite Thompson in the neck, causing massive bleeding. Thompson once again manages to free himself, As Thompson raises a rather large scalpel for a killing blow, Amelia suddenly arrives at the apartment and shoots Thompson dead, saving Rhyme.
The film ends at a Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
celebration at Rhyme's apartment. Rhyme, having given up his plans to commit suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, faces his sister and niece coming to visit him along with Amelia and his other colleagues us Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
on 24 December.
Cast
- Denzel WashingtonDenzel WashingtonDenzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...
- Lincoln Rhyme - Angelina JolieAngelina JolieAngelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...
- Police Officer Amelia Donaghy - Queen LatifahQueen LatifahDana Elaine Owens , better known by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American singer, rapper, and actress. Her work in music, film and television has earned her a Golden Globe award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Image Awards, a Grammy Award, six additional Grammy nominations, an Emmy...
- Nurse Thelma - Michael RookerMichael RookerMichael Rooker is an American actor.-Early life:Rooker, who has eight brothers and sisters, was born in Jasper, Alabama and studied at the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago, where he moved with his mother and siblings at the age of thirteen, after his parents divorced.-Movie career:He made his...
- Captain Howard Cheney - Mike McGloneMike McGloneMike McGlone is an American actor, singer and songwriter.He is perhaps best known as the film noiresque spokesman for GEICO insurance posing rhetorical questions in the vein of Robert Stack or Rod Serling, which are then acted out in humorous fashion.McGlone's best-known film credits include two...
- Detective Kenny Solomon - Luis GuzmánLuis GuzmánLuis Guzmán is an actor from Puerto Rico. He is known for his character work. For much of his career, he has played roles largely as sidekicks, thugs, or policemen....
- Detective Eddie Ortiz - Leland OrserLeland OrserLeland Jones Orser is an American film and television actor. Orser is a character actor, whose career has included playing a number of deranged, psychotic, and degenerate characters. Orser has appeared in small roles in a wide variety of films and television shows, including Chief of Surgery Dr...
- Richard Thompson - John Benjamin HickeyJohn Benjamin HickeyJohn Benjamin Hickey is an American actor with a career in stage, film and television. He won the 2011 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as Felix Turner in The Normal Heart....
- Doctor Barry Lehman - Bobby CannavaleBobby CannavaleRobert M. "Bobby" Cannavale is an American actor known for his leading role as Bobby Caffey in the first two seasons of the television series Third Watch. He also had a recurring role as Officer Vince D'Angelo on the comedy series Will & Grace.-Early life:Cannavale grew up in Union City, New...
- Detective Steve - Ed O'NeillEd O'NeillEdward Phillip "Ed" O'Neill, Jr. is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the main character, Al Bundy, on the Fox Network sitcom Married... with Children, for which he was nominated for two Golden Globes...
- Detective Paulie Sellitto
Production
Exterior scenes were filmed in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Interior scenes were shot in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
.
Critical reception
Based on 82 reviews collected by Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, The Bone Collector has an average approval rating of 28%, with an average score of 4.2/10. By comparison, Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gave the film an average score of 45 based on the 33 reviews that it collected.
Eric S. Arnold of Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
gives a mainly positive review, stating that "The Bone Collector may be formulaic—but many good recipes are." William Arnold of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is an online newspaper and former print newspaper covering Seattle, Washington, United States, and the surrounding metropolitan area...
describes the film as having "the characteristics of a bad slasher movie" in a mainly negative review, calling the plot "ultimately preposterous".