What If...?: Identity

So if you're here, then you've probably watched my YouTube video on "Identity," and if you did, GOOD FOR YOU and THANKS! If you're not, then still, THANKS! That being said, I won't bury the lead anymore. "Identity" is a movie that was my critical litmus test. I remember walking out of the movie theatre thinking to myself that the movie was bad, but I couldn't quite articulate it into words; however, as I got older, I realized why this movie sucked and I'm here to ask the question, What if "Identity" was good? No, like really good. Let's dive in.

Let's not dick around, this re-write will still suck and will still keep a lot of the basic premise of the original, with a few changes, the primary one being Malcolm Rivers and Edward Dakota will still be the same person, but everyone else will be separate people. The whole motel and court angle is gone, and this will basically be a straightforward detective story, at least until the very end.

We begin the film with a black screen and Edward reciting the poem;

"Yesterday, upon the stair,

I met a man who wasn't there!

He wasn't there again today,

I wish, I wish he'd go away!"

Edward awakens at a crime scene, completely disoriented and confused. He sits in a chair and begins to recite his name, time, and date, over and over again (this is the same psychological method Hannibal used for Will Graham when he was suffering from encephalitis). Edward takes a few pills and then gets his bearings, and starts taking crime scene photos and recording what he sees in a hand recorder. We understand Edward is a police officer. Meanwhile, we meet Det. Samuel Rhodes, who arrives at the station, reveals he's there to catch a serial killer. They inquire about Rhodes's partner, and Rhodes tells them his partner is working the case from a different angle and will be around with his findings soon.

Edward Dakota/Malcolm Rivers

We then find Edward talking to Dr. Mallick about his episodes and losing time. Edward says that the case he's working on feels too close, and he is even starting to feel like the killer. They do a quick recap of Edward's childhood, his mother was a prostitute, and Malcolm seems to target prostitutes; there's the connection. Edward remembers one day accidentally witnessing his mom turning a trick when her pimp says to her, "Whores don't get a second chance!" before promptly killing her. Edward says part of the reason he became a police officer is so he could save women like his mother. Dr. Mallick encourages Edward to continue taking his medication and to take time off from the case, but Edward insists he cannot do that as his very close to solving it.

Elsewhere Det. Rhodes gathers case files and recognizes the pattern of Malcolm's murders; all the victims were prostitutes, and all of them operated out of motels. Most of the murders were overlooked because the were prostitutes, and the crime scenes often looked like robberies. Det. Rhodes meets with Larry Washington, the manager, who notes that he has seen a suspicious "john", a guy who checks in under the name Robert Maine. Det. Rhodes calls his partner and asks him to look into Robert Maine while he does a stakeout of motels and watches for suspicious activity. Later, Edward is in his car at a motel when he awakens, disoriented, and he does his reciting and realizes he was supposed to do something important. He sits in his car until he sees a well-dressed sort of dorky-looking guy arrive, only to have a prostitute answer the door. Edward takes his photo, citing on his recorder that the man doesn't look like someone who should be buying hookers. This character turns out to be George York, a family man who's just cheating on his wife.

Det. Samuel Rhodes

I won't give you the full play-by-play, but as the movie continues, the audience should believe that Edward is Rhodes's partner and that Robert Maine is actually the killer. I haven't put a whole lot of thought into how this movie is going to go, since this is just a partial rewrite, but in the climax of the film, we'd discover that there is no Edward and that Edward is in fact Malcolm Rivers, Dr. Mallick is not aware of this but somewhere in the film Dr. Mallick arives at the police station to talk to Det. Rhodes about Edward, only to discover that Edward doesn't work there, and there is no Edward Dakota who works there. Dr. Mallick notices something about the case that implicates Edward, and together, Dr. Mallick and Det. Rhodes realizes that Edward is Malcolm. During their confrontation, Edward tries to fight against the Malcolm persona before finally deciding to eat a bullet, which doesn't kill him but puts him in a coma. Dr. Mallick has Malcolm committed and Det. Rhodes closes the case. At the hospital, Malcolm awakens and manages to escape. The Malcolm persona is now fully in charge.

Dr. Mallick

So I did several things right outta the gate, number one is that there are real stakes with what's going on in the movie. Edward is a character we like because he'll come off as a good cop with a tragic past who's going through something mentally, just like in the original; HOWEVER, all of it would be true. Malcolm would be the actual person, with Edward being a created persona, both of them sharing the same tragic past, BUT diverging in their reactions. And while the movie makes that "Whores don't get a second chance!" line cheesy, this becomes a critical part of his backstory. The other characters are in the movie, but they're just characters, and we're keeping the red herring of Robert Maine being the killer, and we're framing George York. We're keeping the ending of Malcolm winning, and there you have it, "Identity". Now granted, "the whole hero was the killer all along" trope is still kinda lame and hasn't been done justice in a long time, BUT it's much better than the "This is all in your head" kinda deal. Lemme know what you guys think and I'll catch you all later!