The Watcher (film)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Watcher is a 2000 film starring Keanu Reeves and James Spader.

The film is about Joel Campbell (Spader), a retired FBI agent in Chicago who is struggling with failing to capture a Serial Killer. He attends therapy sessions with his female psychologist (and love interest) Dr. Polly Beilman. When he gets back to his apartment, Joel finds that a girl who lived in his apartment was murdered. He fails to find any significance or connection of the murder to himself until he finds out that a picture of the victim was sent three days ago before the murder. To his room.

The serial killer, David Allen Griffin (Reeves), has followed Joel to Chicago, his mind set on playing a fun game of cat and mouse with him. Joel is back on the case to catch him, no matter what it takes.

This movie didn't do too well with reviews, and most of the current fans like it because of the hot guys and the blaring homoerotic tension between the two male leads.

Tropes used in The Watcher (film) include:
  • Ax Crazy - David Allen Griffin
  • Mr. Fanservice: What do you expect when it stars Keanu Reeves as a homosexual Serial Killer?
  • Friendly Enemy - subverted
    • Not so much subverted as onesided.
  • Murder the Hypotenuse - What David Allen Griffin does to every girl Joel likes. He first murders Joel's ex-lover because Joel was going to retire to be with her. Then, he tries to kill Joel's female psychologist, because she's coming between them. In fact, in the movie, he even comes out and says that he did it because they got in the way of their relationship.
  • No Sense of Personal Space - David tends to hug and touch Joel, despite Joel hating it.
  • Old Shame - What Keanu Reeves thought of this movie as. Apparently, he didn't even want to star in it, and he claimed that his roommate had signed the contract fraudulently and he couldn't back out.
  • Retired Badass - Joel Campbell.
  • Serial Killer - David Allen Griffin
  • Stalker with a Crush - David Allen Griffin is a textbook case. C'mon, just look at the title.