Toward a Unified Theory of Jake Gyllenhaal

In the penultimate scene of David Fincher’s Zodiac, Robert Graysmith, the newspaper cartoonist turned amateur sleuth played by Jake Gyllenhaal, enters a hardware store in order to get a glimpse of the man he believes may be the most infamous serial killer of his era. He’s trying to remain inconspicuous, but he can’t help staring, and his gaze burns a hole through the screen. “I need to know who he is,” says Graysmith. “I need to stand there, I need to look him in the eye, and I need to know that it’s him.”