In 1966, October belonged to Sam.

Or maybe his name wasn’t Sam. Maybe there were many killers, and maybe they just copied each other. The cold, emotionless method of execution and the seemingly random selection of victims terrorized Northern California. Sometimes people called him Sam, but mostly they called him Zodiac.

The Zodiac, or someone pretending to be him, taunted the police for years with letters, ciphers, and phone calls. Though over 2,500 suspects were investigated, the case was never officially closed. In the early seventies, the favorite suspect died of heart failure shortly after being positively identified by a survivor of one Zodiac attack.

This meandering history is chronicled in the film Zodiac, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr. Since the Zodiac communicated almost exclusively with the San Francisco Chronicle, they often worked closely with the police in attempting to solve the case. The relationships amongst all these men - a beat reporter, a cartoonist, and a police detective - become the heart of the film, moreso than the Zodiac mystery.

It is compelling and enjoyable, if not titillating. One might expect a film about a killer to be more lurid, but the Zodiac himself never was - in that way, the film is a fitting tribute to his bloody legacy.

The case may never be solved, but you can still show off your knowledge of its intricate details. Try you hand at some Zodiac movie trivia

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