Robert Downey Jr Crime Thriller Returns to Free Streaming on Tubi

What makes a perfect crime thriller? A palpable sense of danger combined with a ticking clock creates a tight pace that grabs characters by the neck. Films like Prisoners (2013) and Nightcrawler (2014) fit into this mold by exploring gritty underworlds hidden beneath normalcy.

Sometimes an excellent cat-and-mouse game like the one in Se7en (1995) elevates a police procedural that takes a darkly personal turn by the end. At other times, perfection takes the form of a tense manhunt that proves to be impossible to solve. David Fincher’s Zodiac accomplishes this with great skill, plunging its San Francisco Bay Area setting into visceral fear and paranoia. The film is available to stream for free on Tubi.

Dramatizing the real-life unsolved case of the Zodiac Killer, the film maps how the criminal terrorized America by repeatedly taunting law enforcement and leaving ciphers for the public to solve. Zodiac follows cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) and crime reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) on their labyrinthine attempts to catch the killer, which lures them into a psychological maze with no exits.

After an unknown man attacks a couple at a lovers’ lane in July 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle receives encrypted letters from someone named Zodiac. The man threatens to kill a dozen people unless his coded message is published, prompting Graysmith to correctly deduce that the message does not reveal the killer’s identity. Avery seems skeptical of Graysmith’s theory at first, but inadvertently pulls him into an obsessive spiral of clues related to the case.

While Zodiac is keenly interested in the killer’s chilling vision, it zooms in on Graysmith being consumed by the case as he closes in on his chosen suspect, Arthur Leigh Allen (John Carroll Lynch). Avery is plagued by his own fears after receiving a threatening letter, increasingly impacted by the elusive suspect who revels in inflated public notoriety. The unsolved nature of the Zodiac Killer case haunts both men, leading them on different paths that bring their flaws and anxieties to the forefront.

Robert Downey Jr. has delivered several career-defining performances over the years, including Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer (2023) and Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin (1992). Apart from redefining the modern superhero with Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he has brought humor, charm, and eccentricity to films like Tropic Thunder (2008), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), and Sherlock Holmes (2009). His portrayal of Paul Avery in Zodiac ranks among his most nuanced roles, given the character’s drastic shift from a sharp, cocky reporter to a broken shell of a man haunted by a taunting killer.

Complementing this performance are an impressive Jake Gyllenhaal and Mark Ruffalo, who plays the obsessively weary Inspector Dave Toschi. Together, the cast allows Zodiac to bring David Fincher’s preoccupation with precision to life. It is a story about the repercussions of wanting to catch a killer, where a string of facts and many theories send level-headed people down the conspiracy rabbit hole. Even when these men face real danger, they never consider dropping out of the investigation. Their coping mechanisms differ, but they remain entangled in the dizzying search.

David Fincher avoids sensationalism in Zodiac just as he does in Mindhunter, which takes a cerebral, slow-burn approach to serial killer psychology and the agents who study them. Both stories highlight the director’s trademark preference for stark framing and grounded realism, where the leads are consumed by the tedious nature of criminal investigation. Zodiac achieves the same result with greater urgency, rejecting traditional catharsis by opting for an ending that deliberately frustrates.

The greatest merit of Zodiac is its ability to draw and retain attention without resorting to spectacle. The film leverages a morbid fascination with unsolved cases and holds up a mirror to the psychological toll they take. It is a masterclass in suspense where an anxious glance between two investigators holds more weight than a shoot-out in a run-of-the-mill crime thriller. Zodiac becomes the perfect crime thriller by checking every conventional genre box and cleverly subverting expectations at the same time.

Zodiac is streaming on Tubi.

Source: Polygon