Jake Gyllenhaal’s 10/10 Dark Thriller Masterpiece Officially Returns to Streaming

19 years after it was first released, Jake Gyllenhaal’s incredibly dark and twisting thriller is back on streaming. Over his career, Gyllenhaal has starred in some fantastically brutal and deranged thrillers. Donnie Darko is the obvious (sci-fi-infused) example. But 2014’s Nightcrawler was fantastic, as was Prisoners, directed by Dune‘s Denis Villeneuve. More recently, Jake Gyllenhaal even put the word “action” before thriller by leading Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant in 2023. But his 2007 critical hit remains one of his best, and it’s about to find a new audience after being re-added to streaming.

For the first time in its relatively new history, Apple TV has finally added licensed movies to its streaming platform. As well as Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, Apple TV subscribers can also stream classics like Jurassic Park, The Sixth Sense, and E.T. Among the 19 new movies streaming on Apple TV is Jake Gyllenhaal’s Zodiac. The film was added to Apple TV on Aug. 14. It isn’t clear how long the film will remain on the site. However, these 19 films are believed to be on Apple TV as part of a test, meaning they could be removed in as little as a month.

Zodiac isn’t just an excellent crime thriller centering around one of the most famous and enigmatic serial killers of all time; it also has a tremendous cast at its back, with none other than David Fincher (who helped to pioneer the modern crime thriller) in the director’s chair. Gyllenhaal plays Robert Graysmith (who wrote the actual book this film is based on), a journalist in the 1970s who becomes obsessed with finding the Zodiac Killer. After teaming up with two detectives and a fellow reporter, the four men desperately try to solve Zodiac’s cryptic and menacing clues, as the killer taunts them at every step. If you weren’t aware already, the Zodiac Killer remains one of the biggest homicide mysteries. The unidentified killer murdered at least five people between 1968 and 1969 and was never caught. The film hones in on people who become obsessed with catching the uncatchable.

‘Zodiac’ Is a Near-Perfect Crime Thriller

Zodiac might not receive the same recognition as Fincher’s other hits, like Fight Club and Se7en, but it’s easily one of his best movies. The angle through which the film examines the killer is inspired, and Fincher is a master at creating tension from seemingly nothing in every scene. Needless to say, the movie earned rave reviews in 2007. It holds a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score, with a 78% audience rating. The critics’ consensus reads, “A quiet, dialogue-driven thriller that delivers with scene after scene of gut-wrenching anxiety. David Fincher also spends more time illustrating the nuances of his characters and recreating the mood of the ’70s than he does on gory details of murder.”

‘Zodiac’s A-List Cast Aren’t the True Stars

Zodiac‘s cast is an all-timer. Alongside Gyllenhaal, the film also stars Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., and Brian Cox. As fantastic as their performances are, it’s the supporting character actors who steal the film. The group interviews various potential suspects throughout the investigation, like Arthur Leigh Allen, played by John Carroll Lynch. Without those smaller performances, which ooze with tension, the film simply wouldn’t work.

Release Date

March 2, 2007

Runtime

157 minutes

Writers

James Vanderbilt, Robert Graysmith

Producers

Ceán Chaffin, Mike Medavoy, Arnold Messer, Bradley J. Fischer, James Vanderbilt