Identity

""As I was walking up the stair

I met a man who wasn't there

He wasn't there again today

I wish I wish he'd go away"

"I wrote that.""

Identity is a 2003 psychological thriller starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet and Ray Liotta.

Malcolm Rivers is a psychotic killer awaiting execution for the grisly murders that took place at a motel. His psychiatrist Dr. Mallick finds a new piece of evidence: a journal that may explain what actually happened that night and could exonerate Malcolm of the murders. With this evidence in hand, a new hearing takes place in which Dr. Mallick must persuade the Judge to spare Malcolm.

Meanwhile, 10 strangers arrive by chance at a motel run by the manager Larry Washington in the middle of the Nevada desert, each with their own agendas. The ten strangers are a limo driver (Ed Dakota) chauffeuring an 80s TV star (Caroline Suzanne), a cop (Officer Rhodes) transporting a convict (Robert Maine), a prostitute (Paris Nevada), a pair of newlyweds (Lou and Ginny Isiana), and a family (George, Alice and Timmy York). When bodies begin to pile up one by one with little explanation, the survivors must discover what connects them in order to save themselves from their fate.

The two stories intertwine when it is revealed that. From there, the goal becomes clear: eliminate the killer before he or she kills everyone else off.

This film provides examples of:

 * Alien Geometries: The desert.
 * Batman Gambit: The killer tricks one of the guests into getting hit by a truck by
 * Closed Circle: Initially it's a conventional example, with the roads blocked by flooding and the phones and radios down because of the storm, but later becomes a little weirder (see Going in Circles below).
 * Contrived Coincidence: At first the birthday reveal seems this way. Adding to the fact that all the names come from U.S. states, it turns out There Are No Coincidences.
 * Creepy Child: Timmy.
 * Cruel and Unusual Death: Roger Maine took an entire baseball bat down his throat.
 * Everyone Is a Suspect: Everyone, that is, except for.
 * Faking the Dead: The killer manages to elude the remaining guests this way, until.
 * Final Girl:.
 * Genre Savvy: Ginny has a moment of this when she brings up the possibility of there being a connection between them all.
 * Going in Circles: What happens when one character tries to escape the hotel on foot.
 * Hell Hotel: All the characters are stranded at a motel in the middle of nowhere that no one can leave. Then people start dying...
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * Hope Spot: They think they have things solved and under control a couple times.
 * Hostile Weather: By the time everyone arrives at the motel it is dark and storming.
 * Interrupted Suicide: Ed Dakota describes how he failed to stop a suicide, and it caused him to crack up and leave the LAPD. As he describes it, the girl planning to kill herself gave Dakota the perfect opportunity to save her: She asked him for something worth living for. Dakota froze for just a moment, unable to think of anything, and the girl jumped.
 * Ironic Nursery Tune: "Antigonish" by Hughes Mearns, as shown in the page quote.
 * Location Theme Naming: All characters are named after U.S. states.
 * Mutual Kill:
 * No Body Left Behind: One of the major clues that something is off happens when.
 * Not Helping Your Case: When Rhodes accuses Larry of being the killer, he responds by holding Paris at knifepoint while babbling that he did not kill anyone.
 * Nothing Is Scarier: when the boyfriend goes from frantically pounding on the door to sudden total silence.
 * Oedipus Complex: Rivers's mother was a prostitute, and  is as well - and most of the male characters find her very appealing.
 * Off With Her Head: The first victim's head is found in one of the laundry dryers.
 * One Steve Limit: Averted with Larry who shares the same first name as.
 * Ontological Mystery: All the guests are trapped in the motel during a bad rainstorm that knocked out the power lines, ensuring that no one can call for help.
 * Psychological Thriller
 * Red Herring: Numerous examples.
 * Ten Little Murder Victims: The usual formula is played with in that there are
 * Unflinching Walk: The killer pulls one off when the vehicle that Ginny and Timmy run to explodes.
 * Vorpal Pillow: How the killer finishes off . Played slightly more realistically since he uses hands instead of a porous pillow, and.
 * Oedipus Complex: Rivers's mother was a prostitute, and  is as well - and most of the male characters find her very appealing.
 * Off With Her Head: The first victim's head is found in one of the laundry dryers.
 * One Steve Limit: Averted with Larry who shares the same first name as.
 * Ontological Mystery: All the guests are trapped in the motel during a bad rainstorm that knocked out the power lines, ensuring that no one can call for help.
 * Psychological Thriller
 * Red Herring: Numerous examples.
 * Ten Little Murder Victims: The usual formula is played with in that there are
 * Unflinching Walk: The killer pulls one off when the vehicle that Ginny and Timmy run to explodes.
 * Vorpal Pillow: How the killer finishes off . Played slightly more realistically since he uses hands instead of a porous pillow, and.
 * Ten Little Murder Victims: The usual formula is played with in that there are
 * Unflinching Walk: The killer pulls one off when the vehicle that Ginny and Timmy run to explodes.
 * Vorpal Pillow: How the killer finishes off . Played slightly more realistically since he uses hands instead of a porous pillow, and.
 * Unflinching Walk: The killer pulls one off when the vehicle that Ginny and Timmy run to explodes.
 * Vorpal Pillow: How the killer finishes off . Played slightly more realistically since he uses hands instead of a porous pillow, and.
 * Vorpal Pillow: How the killer finishes off . Played slightly more realistically since he uses hands instead of a porous pillow, and.