Patrick Bateman

"There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me: only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable... I simply am not there."

- Patrick Bateman's famous speech.

Patrick Bateman is the titular protagonist villain of Bret Easton Ellis' 1991 controversial novel American Psycho and its film and stage adaptions. He lives in 1980's Manhattan and works on Wall Street. The very image of a yuppie, he is obsessed with his health, cleanliness, appearance, money and music collection. He has a darker side, however; he is a serial killer, rapist, cannibal and necrophile.

He was portrayed by - who also portrayed Walter Wade Jr. in Shaft  - in the film and by Matt Smith in the West End musical adaptation.

Biography
Patrick Bateman was born in Long Island to wealthy parents, and lives in Manhattan's Upper West Side in an expensive, exclusive apartment; Tom Cruise is one of his neighbors. His father is long dead and his mother resides in a sanitarium, and his younger brother Sean (the antihero of Ellis' novel The Rules of Attraction) attends Camden College.

Bateman is a stockbroker at Pierce & Pierce, but does little actual work, instead spending his time going to trendy restaurants, bars and clubs, using cocaine and picking up prostitutes - many of whom end up being his victims.

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, often complicated torture; at one point he inserts a habitrail inside a woman's vagina and lets a rat loose in it so it will literally eat her from the inside out.

At one point, he met Paul Allen, who works at another furm. He lures him to his apartment, where Bateman kills him with an axe because he got an account that Bateman wanted. He then disposes of the body, breaks into Allen's apartment, packs his clothes into a suitcase, and rerecords the answering machine's greeting to say that Allen has left for London. Later, he picks up two prostitutes, giving them his name as Paul Allen, brings them to his apartment, and has sex with both of them, while videotaping it. Just as they are about to leave, he opens a drawer full of sharp tools, takes out a coat-hanger and growls "We're not finished yet!". The prostitutes are bruised and bleeding by the time he lets them leave.

A few days later, he picks up one of the same two prostitutes, phones up a lady friend of his, and brings them to Paul Allen's apartment. He drugs their wine, and gets them to make out. 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.

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. Two police cars roll in with sirens blaring, and Bateman unloads his gun at them, causing the cars to explode. Bateman flees to his office, where he calls up his lawyer and leaves a message confessing everything.

Bateman awakes the next morning and is surprised the cops aren't looking for him. 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 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 not an exit."

Death
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.

In the non-canon sequel to the movie, American Psycho 2, Rachel Newman killed Bateman at young age of 12 when she and her babysitter were bound and gagged by him, which was after he killed Rachel's babysitter.

Personality
Bateman spends much of the novel detailing the accoutrements of his lifestyle, including expensive designer clothes and stereo equipment and his extensive workout and body beautification routines. He is vain, materialistic and shallow; he cares for nothing but his own gratification and, by his own admission, has no real personality beneath his attractive exterior. He claims that his only emotions are greed and disgust.

He is also virulently racist, misogynistic, homophobic and anti-Semitic, but fakes concern for equality and "traditional moral values" because he thinks it makes him more likable. It does not: his friends all make fun of him behind his back; his equally shallow fiancee Evelyn is cheating on him; his own lawyer calls him a "bloody ass-kisser"; and people outside of his social circle call him "yuppie trash".

A running joke throughout the novel is that Bateman is, on the surface, virtually indistinguishable from his friends, to the point that they mistake him for someone else.

The only person in his life he has anything approaching feelings for is his secretary, Jean, who he knows is in love with him and who he passively accepts that he will probably marry one day. At one point, he takes her home and aims a nail gun at her head, but finds that he cannot bring himself to kill her and tells her to leave.

He is prone to hallucinations and fits of psychosis, and the novel leaves it ambiguous whether the plot actually occurs, or is simply a figment of his crazed imagination.

Quotes
"Look at that subtle, off-white colouring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God! It even has a watermark."

- Patrick reacts to Paul Allen's business card.

"You like Huey Lewis and the News? Their early work was a little new wave for my taste, but when Sports came out in '83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He's been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor. In '87, Huey released this, Fore, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is "Hip to be Square", a song so catchy, most people probably don't listen to the lyrics. But they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity, and the importance of trends, it's also a personal statement about the band itself."

- Patrick monologues about Huey Lewis and the News.

"Try getting a reservation at Dorsia now, you f-cking stupid bastard!"

- Patrick brutally murders Paul Allen.

"Evelyn: You're inhuman! Patrick: No, I'm in touch with humanity."

- Patrick and his girlfriend argue.

"I have to return some videotapes."

- Patrick Bateman's famous catchphrase.

"There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it I have now surpassed. My pain is constant and sharp, and I do not hope for a better world for anyone. In fact, I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape. But even after admitting this, there is no catharsis; my punishment continues to elude me, and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself. No new knowledge can be extracted from my telling. This confession has meant nothing."

- Patrick realizes that he is trapped in his own personal Hell.

Trivia

 * He is prone to hallucinations and fits of psychosis, and the novel leaves it ambiguous whether the plot actually occurs, or is simply a figment of his crazed imagination. For instance, the rampage occuring at the end of the movie is likely conceived by Bateman, as an ATC machine would never ask someone to feed it a "stray cat", and a single pistol would never be able to explode two police cars. Also, at the end of the movie, Bateman's lawyer does not take his confession seriously, despite Bateman's seriousness, and the horrendous details Bateman specified on phone. Despite this, there is no concrete proof that Bateman did never murder; for example, the murder of the homeless Al is realist and highly plausible. Whether if all homicides depicted in the adaptations are his sadistic fantaisies, if some of them are true while the others are in Bateman's head, or if every homicides are true, is actually unknown.
 * What is (somewhat) ironic about the film adaptation, and is often a source of joke, is that Bateman is portrayed by Christian Bale, who later plays as Batman.
 * What is even more ironic is that he murders Paul Allen, portrayed by who will later play the Joker of Suicide Squad.