What is the significance of the cat in the movie "Gone Girl"?

What is the significance of the cat in the movie "Gone Girl"? - Cute curious cat watching video on laptop sitting on couch

Throughout the movie "Gone Girl", there is an orange house cat that appears in numerous scenes. Is this some kind of symbolism?



Best Answer

It seems to initially be a nod to a well-known book on screenwriting. The book has some very specific advice when it comes to getting an audience to side with a character.

In a 2014 interview at the NY Film Festival, Gone Girl author/screenwriter Gillian Flynn had this to say when questioned about the movie's "cat character":

There’s a screenplay book called Save the Cat. It’s all about making your character likable. In the first 10 minutes he should do something that makes you like him. I enjoyed that in the first 10 minutes [of Gone Girl], he literally saves the cat. I love that he’s so devoted to his cat.

So directly from the source, that appears to be the reason for Gone Girl's feline featured player. Some critical theories argue that the cat functions onscreen as an impartial third party to the action, viewing events dispassionately from a distance. However, no comment from any of the creative forces involved in the film has ever confirmed this theory, or even mentioned it.




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What is the significance of the cat in Gone Girl?

They are an emotional ploy that the director uses in times of suspense. Cat-death pulls forth emotions in a way that human stress and death does not because cats have an innocence and vulnerability that a human character could never hope to achieve. And this is what Gone Girl gets so very right.

Does anything happen to the cat in Gone Girl?

No, Bleeker does not die in Gone Girl. Amy leaves extra food for him before faking her death, knowing that Nick would be too preoccupied to worry...

What was the message in Gone Girl?

The story of Gone Girl pits a feminist psychopath against a misogynist jerk in what might be the world's most twisted marriage. When the wife, Amy, sets up her philandering husband, Nick, for her murder, the two characters vie for the reader's sympathy, lying and manipulating one another in order to survive.

How did Gone Girl movie end?

After murdering her ex-boyfriend Desi, Amy publicly returns to Nick covered in blood, purposefully hugging Nick in front of the paparazzi cameras. Amy then gives a false account to Detective Boney, framing Desi for her kidnapping and dispelling Nick of suspicion.



Hidden Meaning in GONE GIRL – Earthling Cinema




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