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Louis "Lou" Bloom is the villainous main protagonist of the 2014 neo-noir film Nightcrawler. Starting out as an unemployed opportunistic scavenger with great ambitions who steals to survive, Lou becomes intrigued by the world of News Channels, turning into a freelance journalist who records all sorts of crimes and disasters in hopes of making a name for himself. As he gets deeper in his line of work his true colors are shown, displaying psychopathic behavior as he resorts to numerous crimes and unethical practices to make it to the top.
He was portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal, who also played Quentin Beck/Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
What makes him Entertaining?[]
- Jake Gyllenhaal's phenomenal performance, considered by many to be the greatest of his career.
- He started out as an underdog who had to build himself from scratch due to being unemployed and having zero advantages, which a lot of people can relate to. Having lived as a scavenger for most of his adult life, he puts all his skills to use in order to realize his ambitions. And though it does nothing to mitigate his evil he initially tried to get an honest job at a construction site before turning to the stringer job, realizing it was more rewarding and in line with his goals.
- He is a cold manipulator with negotiation skills and intimidation tactics who manages to keep everyone he comes across in line and disposes of anyone he perceives as a threat.
- He has some fantastic quotable dialogues such as his motto ("if you want to win the lottery you've got to make enough money to buy a ticket") or his threatening breakdown of fear ("Do you know what fear stands for? False Evidence Appearing Real").
- He gives off an Evil is Cool vibe through his calm demeanor (though he occasionally breaks down) and faux-affable charm (which also slips at times). Even with his complete disregard for human life Lou is capable of faking empathy and appearing as a nice guy to his co-workers and new employees at the end, which is how he succeeds at climbing up the corporate ladder.
- He has a cool aesthetic accentuated by his choice of clothes and his personal vehicle, a red Dodge Challenger which he puts to good use in order to arrive first at any crime scene. In addition, he shows some impressive driving skills at near the end of the film.
- He is quite fearless and driven when on the job, even while facing life-threatening situations or risking arrest. Perhaps the best example of this comes in the climax of the film, after the fatal police chase where he gets his partner Rick killed by a fugitive, Lou keeps recording the whole thing and watches the armed criminal unfazed before he goes off on the cops and gets killed. Word of God has it that the criminal didn't kill Lou out of a twisted sense of professional respect for his ruthlessness on the job.
- The overall themes of the film make him a complex character. Dan Gilroy, the director and writer of the film, has stated that the ending wasn't meant to highlight Lou as the problem with society but rather society itself as the problem for creating people like Lou and encouraging them to become worse in order to succeed.
What Makes Him Detestable?[]
- He is a vile narcissist and snuff filmer willing to resort to some extremely messed up tactics to succeed in his pursuits, which includes manipulating crime scenes, blackmailing people and even staging crimes altogether.
- He manipulates his sole employee Rick and risks his life multiple times just to have someone drive him around and make his job easier, all the whole undermining his efforts under the pretense of mentoring him and reacting with disdain when he asks for another raise after he had already given one to him. This all culminates in Lou disposing of him by setting him up to get shot down by an armed thug in the climax.
- He gets rid of one of his stringer competitors who had been antagonizing him, by sabotaging his van and endangering his whole crew, resulting in a car crash that leaves him near-dead. What's worse is that Lou recorded the whole thing and stated at him as he agonized.
- He blackmails his boss from the News Channel, Nina, into having sex with him. He does this by exploiting the troublesome condition of her business and her reliance on their partnership. He later even chastises her during an argument by telling her that she wasn't even that good and should try harder next time. Even though Nina was morally sketchy and ended up reciprocating to Lou's feelings, the whole affair is still considered rape.
- In order to outdo his ratings, he orchestrates a bloody shootout between the police and a group of armed thugs (whom he previously covered) at a diner which leads to a police chase, not caring about the collateral damage and potential dozens of civilian casualties.
- He openly admits to being completely unsympathetic to other people when threatening Rick, stating that his problem isn't that he doesn't understand people, he simply dislikes them.
- He has some Kick the Dog moments, with the worst one being recording Rick's death and calling him an untrustworthy employee as he dies.
- He gets away with all his crimes in the end and succeeds in expanding his business, making him a Karma Houdini.
External Links:[]
- Louis Bloom on the Villains Wiki
- Louis Bloom on the Pure Evil Wiki