Up in his office, Patrick is in a panic. He calls his lawyer Harold (Stephen Bogaert) and confesses to his crimes in a state of hysteria, weeping and laughing to Harold's answering machine. He tells him he has killed somewhere between 20 and 40 people, but he's lost count.
Why did the lawyer call Patrick Bateman dull? Why does Patrick Bateman's lawyer call him Davis? Bateman is called by no less than four other names: Davis , Mccoy, Allen and Halberstram, which calls into question his true identity. When he confronts Carnes at the end of the movie, Carnes refers to him as Davis and says that his joke was flawed ...
Even his 'confession' is aluded to by his lawyer as a laugh as they believe Bateman is too reserved to commit such acts. Which explains why the lawyer acted the way he did, but not really because he was calling Patrick, "Davis" and said that "Bateman was dull" (something to that effect).
In the end, Bateman seemingly kills dozens of police officers, something that would not easily be forgiven, forgotten, nor without being the talk of the town and also among his socialite 'friends'. Even his 'confession' is aluded to by his lawyer as a laugh as they believe Bateman is too reserved to commit such acts.
Feb 12, 2022 · Up in his office, Patrick is in a panic. He calls his lawyer Harold ( Stephen Bogaert) and confesses to his crimes in a state of hysteria, weeping and laughing to …
When Bateman insists that he killed Paul Allen, his lawyer balks, saying that Allen called him from London the night before. Bateman has an epiphany: that the punishment and notoriety he craves will forever elude him, and he is trapped in a meaningless existence—"THIS IS …
Bateman, for all intents and purposes, dies in a fire on a boat dock. In the Showtime series Dexter, protagonist Dexter Morgan, himself a serial killer, uses the alias "Dr. Patrick Bateman" to acquire M-99 for the use of incapacitating his victims.
Education. Phillips Exeter Academy. Harvard College. Harvard Business School. Patrick Bateman is a fictional character and the protagonist, as well as the narrator, of the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, and its film adaptation.
In the climax of the story, Bateman calls his lawyer and leaves a lengthy, detailed message confessing all of his crimes. He later runs into his lawyer, who mistakes him for someone else and dismisses the confession as a joke, also claiming to have had dinner with one of his victims after Bateman had supposedly killed him, leaving the supposed reality of Bateman's acts open to audience interpretation.
By the end of the novel, he believes he is about to be arrested for murdering a colleague named Paul Allen and leaves a message on his lawyer's answering machine confessing to his crimes. When he runs into his lawyer at a party, however, the man mistakes him for somebody else and tells him that the message must have been a joke, as he had met with Allen only days earlier. Bateman realizes that the punishment and notoriety he desires will be forever out of his reach and that he is trapped inside an unfulfilling existence: "This is not an exit".
His crimes—including rape, torture, necrophilia, and cannibalism —are graphically described in the novel. Bateman comes from a wealthy family.
ca. 1996: Bateman shows up at Victor's club in Glamorama with "strange stains" on his suit. 2000: Bateman enters therapy with a Dr. M. This appears in the American Psycho 2000 e-mails. In these emails, he is divorcing Jean, to whom he has been married for at least five years, and with whom he has a son.
fictional character from the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. For the EP, see Patrick Bateman (EP). Patrick Bateman. Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman. First appearance. The Rules of Attraction. Last appearance.
Bateman meets his end in Lunar Park when a fictionalized version of Bret Easton Ellis writes his death as being burned alive on a boat due to feeling haunted by the character.
He then cuts up his friend with a chainsaw and sticks the body parts in the closet. He ends up chasing the prostitute out into the hallway and she makes it down the stairs ahead of him. Bateman drops the chainsaw over the edge, which hits and kills the prostitute .
Bateman kills men and women, the latter for sadistic sexual pleasure and the former because they anger him and make him feel inferior. At one point, he kills a child just to see if he will enjoy it (he does not). His murders involve brutal and often complicated torture; at one point, he forcibly inserts a Habitrail into a woman's vaginal tract (which he loosened with acid) and lets an oversized rat loose in it so it will literally devour her from the inside out.
Several nights later, Bateman is at the ATM when it flashes the message "FEED ME A STRAY CAT". He picks up a stray cat and pulls out his gun, but an old woman sees him and cries out. Bateman drops the cat and shoots down the old woman.
Bateman spends much of the novel detailing the accouterments of his lifestyle, including expensive designer clothes and stereo equipment and his extensive workout and body beautification routines. He is vain, narcissistic, materialistic, and shallow; he cares for nothing but his own gratification and, by his own admission, has no real personality beneath his attractive exterior. In the film, he claims that his only emotions are greed and disgust.
He goes to Allen's apartment, only to find that it is completely empty and up for sale. He goes to work and then goes for a drink with some coworkers. He meets his lawyer there, who compliments Bateman on his great "gag".
When Patrick was driven to insanity, he began to shake and seemingly feel remorse for his murder spree, which is soon shown to be little more than fear.
The point of the novel was that of a dark comedy, so Bateman doing work or not doing work is part the joke. He takes his job so seriously that he never does anything. How could he when he spends as much time as he does obsessing and critiquing the most absurd and silly things possible.
So why doesn’t Bateman marry Evelyn? Because he’s in love with Jean, but does not know how to admit it to himself and his reader , although towards the end of the novel he does admit that he will probably marry Jean at some point in the future.
That’s why he confesses to his crimes every chance he gets. He wants to see a reaction from others confirming that they think he is different, but he doesn’t get any. Because they don’t care, and he is not different.
Because they don’t care, and he is not different. Because people mistake each other for others all the time, it is possible, and very likely that Patrick is mistaken about whom he killed.
With that being said, I can support this answer by also mentioning that Bateman’s girlfriend, Evelyn, mentions that Bateman’s family “practically owns the company” so it could be that Bateman is a proxy between the firm and his family’s controlling interest and does not have do anything. If he does actually work and actually does supervise, initiate or complete mergers and acquisitions he does not mention it.
In the novel itself as well as in the film we, the audience, never really see Bateman doing any “work” as it would relate to his job title. We see him in the office and it is a nice looking office and we see him attend a meeting in a conference room to compare business cards, but n
In Bateman’s mind telling his audience (that’s us) is not important. We would probably be bored with such details, so why share them? The reading and viewing audience would like to see and know more about his work.
Don't let the lawyer fool you. Played by Stephen Bogaert, Patrick Bateman's lawyer has been responsible for most of the confusion surrounding the ending the American Psycho — but don't let him fool you! Harold Carnes knows far less about what's going on than you might think.
Regardless, the aggression, mood shift, and disarming wink that ends the episode are the first jarring clues that Bateman isn't as polished as he seems. Nobody likes waiting to be served, but thinking about playing with the bartender's blood because her club doesn't accept credit cards isn't exactly healthy.
The Pierce & Pierce men's infatuation with trying to look the same causes the movie's many instances of mistaken identity , ultimately leading to Bateman getting away with murder. Everyone at the company goes to painstaking lengths to mirror each other's looks, all wanting what they can't have, whether it's someone else's haircut, their girl, or even something as trivial as business cards. The ridiculous lengths each character goes to, in order to become a carbon copy highlights the superficial consumerism that the film dramatically critiques. While some serial killers copycat another killer's MO that they have a creepy fascination with, Bateman turns the tables, using his coworker's own copycat tendencies to get away with murder.
The proper DSM-IV classification for Patrick Bateman is antisocial personality disorder, but that doesn't sound as punchy as American Psycho, hence the chosen title.
Still, no matter which way you spin it, whether Bateman is a killer or the audience is only watching his delusions play out on- screen, there's no question that Bateman is suffering from a very real disorder. Between his manipulation of the people around him, frequent lying, lack of empathy, boundless rage, complete absence of guilt, and severe disregard for the safety of himself and others, Bateman's thoughts and (possible) actions display symptoms of the disorder in spades. The real question is whether or not he acts on his homicidal impulses outside of his head.
The first time we meet the real Paul Allen, he mistakes Bateman for Marcus Halberstram — a mistake he never corrects. Bateman brushes this off as "logical," telling us that "Marcus also works at P&P and, in fact, does the same exact thing that I do. He also has a penchant for Valentino suits and Oliver People's glasses. Marcus and I even go to the same barber." In the same scene, Allen also calls McDermott "Baxter," indicating misidentifications are not isolated instances.
In a group discussion of the film with journalist Charlie Rose, lead actor Christian Bale, and the novel's writer Bret Easton Ellis, director Mary Harron admitted that she failed with American Psycho 's final scene.
In an attempt to cover up the murder, Bateman steals Allen’s keys and uses them to break into his apartment and leave a voicemail on his phone saying that he was taking a trip to London. However, to Bateman’s chagrin, the fake voicemail does not work as planned and a detective named Donald Kimball comes to his office the next day and references a suspicious voicemail .
There’s also the scene where Bateman goes to the ATM and it reads, “FEED ME A STRAY CAT.” This is quite a clear indication that Bateman is experiencing visual hallucinations, as I think it’s safe to assume that there are no ATMs in New York City asking for patrons to feed them stray animals. At least, I hope not.
In another scene, Jean (Bateman’s receptionist) discovers a notebook in Bateman’s desk filled with disturbing images of violence, many of which depict murders that happened earlier in the film. While some viewers might take this as an affirmation that Bateman was simply fantasizing about these killings and never actually carried them out, I would say that that’s jumping to conclusions.
Even after watching the film several times, it’s still unclear whether Bateman actually committed any of the crimes we see him commit throughout the course of the film. It’s very possible that he was sitting behind his desk the entire time and having vivid hallucinations about killing and dismembering people. Then again, there are parts of the movie that make it seem implausible that Bateman could’ve committed no crimes at all. Let’s take a look back at some of the key moments of the film that give us some insight as to what actually happened.
However, it might not even be correct to call American Psycho a “serial killer movie” because the events toward the end of the film raise serious doubts as to whether Patrick Bateman actually killed anyone or whether it was all inside of his sick, sadistic mind.
At the end of the day, we can’t really know which parts of the film are hallucinations and which events actually happened, but that’s not really the point. The point is that Patrick Bateman is full-on losing his mind throughout the entire film, either having deranged homicidal fantasies or actually murdering people on a nightly basis, and no one notices whatsoever. As long as Bateman shows up to the office in his fancy suit and glasses; as long as he drives a nice car; as long as he has a cushy apartment in the “right” part of town, he’s assumed to be just another member of the crowd. Who cares if he’s chopping people up in his free time?
At this point, the audience should realize the narration of Patrick Bateman has been completely untrustworthy the entire time. We can no longer say for sure that anything in the film actually happened, as everything is relayed from the point of view of the psychotic and delusional Bateman.
Patrick Bateman is a fictional character created by novelist Bret Easton Ellis. He is the antihero protagonist and narrator of Ellis' 1991 novel American Psycho and is portrayed by Christian Bale in the 2000 film adaptation. He is a wealthy and materialistic yuppie and Wall Street investment banker who leads a secret life as a serial killer. Bateman has also briefly appeared in other Ellis novels and their fil…
Bateman, at the beginning of American Psycho, is a 27-year-old specialist in mergers and acquisitions at the fictional Wall Street investment firm of Pierce & Pierce (also Sherman McCoy's firm in The Bonfire of the Vanities ) and lives at 55 West 81st Street, Upper West Side on the 11th floor of the American Gardens Building (where he is a neighbor of actor Tom Cruise). In his secret life, however, Bateman is a serial killer murdering a variety of people, including colleagues, the h…
As written by Ellis, Bateman is the ultimate stereotype of yuppie greed; wealthy, conceited, and addicted to sex, drugs, and conspicuous consumption. All of his friends look alike to him, to the point that he often confuses one for another; they often confuse him for other people as well. Bateman delights in obsessively detailing virtually every single feature of his upper-class lifestyle, including designer clothes, workout routine, business cards, alcoholic drinks, elaborate high-end …
Bateman made his first appearance in Ellis' 1987 novel The Rules of Attraction (in which Sean, his brother, is the main character); no indication is given that he is a serial killer. Bateman also makes a short appearance in Ellis' 1998 novel Glamorama, with "strange stains" on the lapel of his Armani suit.
Bateman also appeared in the American Psycho 2000 e-mails, which were written as an advertis…
Though Christian Bale had been the first choice for the part by both Ellis and Harron, the producers offered the part to Keanu Reeves, Edward Norton, and Brad Pitt. Leonardo DiCaprio was set to play the character, but Ellis (as explained in the American Psycho DVD) decided he would appear too young, especially immediately after Titanic. In addition, his managers thought the role was "too violent" and could potentially hurt his career. Bateman was also portrayed by Dechen Thurman, …
• October 1962: Patrick Bateman is born.
• 1980: Bateman graduates from Phillips Exeter Academy.
• 1984: Bateman graduates from Harvard University.
• 1985: Bateman has a short discussion with his estranged brother Sean about his future.