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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | What if my problem wasn't that I don't understand people, but that I don't like them? What if I was the kind of person who was obliged to hurt you for this? I mean, physically. I think you'd have to believe afterward, if you could, that agreeing to participate and then backing out at the critical moment was a mistake. Because that's what I'm telling you, as clearly as I can. | „ |
| ~ Louis describes himself to Rick. |
| “ | Excuse me, Sir?, I'm looking for a job, In fact, I've made up my mind to find a career that I can learn and grow into. Who am I? I'm a hard worker, I set high goals and I've been told that I am persistent. Now, I'm not fooling myself, sir. Having been raised with the self-esteem movement so popular in schools, I used to expect my needs to be considered. But I know that today's work culture no longer caters to the job loyalty that could be promised to earlier generations. What I believe, sir, is that good things come to those who work their asses off. And that people such as yourself, who reached the top of the mountain, didn't just fall there. My motto is if you wanna win the lottery, you have to make the money to buy a ticket. | „ |
| ~ Lou Bloom's motto. |
Louis Bloom is the titular villain protagonist of the 2014 neo-noir psychological thriller film Nightcrawler.
He is a petty thief who takes a job as a "nightcrawler," a journalist who illegally investigates crimes, and soon becomes obsessed with starring in his own story.
He was portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal, who also played Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- While he was stealing metal, he was discovered by a guard. Louis, seeing his watch, attacks the guard, and very likely he killed him to steal said watch.
- Alters and illegally trespasses upon multiple crime scenes just to get better footage.
- Frequently, he abuses and belittles his assistant Rick over every little failure, paying him very little for several months and only reluctantly giving him a raise due to his greed.
- He blackmails his boss, Nina, into sleeping with him, threatening to leave the company.
- After being outmatched by his rival, Joe, Louis takes revenge on him by cutting the brakes on his car, causing Joe to have an accident that leaves him seriously injured, and then Louis begins filming him as he is dying on a stretcher, getting rid of one of his competitors.
- Let the murderers of a mansion escape instead of notifying the police to get a recording from them, leaving a man who was still alive to die in the process.
- When his assistant, Rick, calls him out for "not understanding people," he makes it clear that he does understand people but simply doesn't like them, showing he has clear moral agency in what he does and knows what hurts people yet chooses to mistreat them regardless.
- He threatens to hurt Rick if he doesn't cooperate with him.
- After following the murderers to a restaurant with innocent people, Louis notifies the police of this. This generates a shootout between the police and the murderers, where several people are killed, and then follows a car chase where several cars collide, all while he films it without any remorse.
- He lies to Rick by telling him that the killer is dead, only for Rick to get close and then be fatally shot by him, before filming the killer being gunned down by the police. He then walks up to Rick, recording his death and telling him that he was in no way going to share the bounty with him, showing how sadistic and petty he is.
- He escapes punishment for all his crimes due to a lack of evidence and continues with his unethical reporting, most likely putting his new team of interns' safety at risk because of his methods.
Trivia[]
- Originally, Louis was going to have a backstory explaining his actions, but the film's director, Dan Gilroy, scrapped it because he didn't want Lou to be an understanding character. Also, according to Gilroy himself, Lou's evil infects everyone he meets. However, despite all that, Gilroy also wanted to "take away moral judgement from the character" and not focus on whether or not he was a good person while shooting.
- Initially, Bloom was supposed to have a dog instead of plants inside his apartment. However, this aspect was cut because Gilroy didn't want to introduce any aspect that could make him potentially sympathetic.
- During an interview, director Dan Gilroy said he views Lou's evilness as an "infection" that spreads to every character Lou interacts with throughout the film. At the end of the movie, where Lou's company vans split up on different streets, Gilroy described the scene as "the infection spreading through the veins of the city".
External Links[]
- Louis Bloom on the Villains Wiki