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| “ | I have a degree in psychology, it goes with the turf... Games are fun. | „ |
| ~ Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct. |
Catherine Tramell is the main antagonist of the Basic Instinct films.
Catherine was portrayed, by Sharon Stone, who also played Lori Quaid in Total Recall, Ginger McKenna in Casino, Lendina in Nobody 2, Laurel Hedare in Catwoman and Lisa in Valley of the Wolves.
Biography[]
Basic Instinct[]
| “ | Killing isn't like smoking. You can quit. | „ |
| ~ Catherine Tramell to Nick Curran in Basic Instinct. |
When a rock star, named Johnny Boz is brutally stabbed to death with an ice pick during sex, a homicide detective, named Nick Curran is sent to investigate. The only suspect is Catherine Tramell, a crime novelist, who was the last person to be seen with Boz on the night he had died. Nick and his partner, Gus Moran visit her Pacific Heights mansion, but they find only Catherine's lesbian lover, Roxy Hardy, who sends them to Catherine's stinson beach house. When they ask Catherine about her relationship with Boz, she shows little emotion at hearing he is dead. Nick and Gus along, with their superiors, discover that Catherine has written a novel about a former rock star, who was killed in the same way as Boz. During questioning by detectives, including Nick, at police headquarters, Catherine engages in provocative behavior, refuses to extinguish her cigarette and repeatedly uncrosses her legs under her short skirt which reveals that she is not wearing underwear.
Nick accidentally shot two people while high on cocaine, so he attends counseling sessions with police psychologist, Dr. Beth Garner, with, who he has had an affair. After the interrogation, Nick goes to a bar with coworkers and is taunted by Lieutenant Marty Nilsen, an internal affairs investigator bent on making life difficult for Nick. When Beth arrives, Nick leaves with her and they have rough sex in her apartment. Nick learns that Catherine has a troubled history; Her parents were killed when she was a teenager, leaving her a fortune; one of her college counselors was also murdered with an ice pick and that, her fiancé, a boxer was killed in the ring. He also discovers that Catherine makes a habit of befriending murderers, including Hazel Dobkins, an elderly woman, who stabbed her husband and children for no apparent reason.
During a visit to Catherine's house, she taunts Nick with information that, should be confidential. As a police psychologist, Beth is the only person with access to that, information. When Nick confronts Beth, she admits that she had handed his file to Nilsen, who had threatened to discharge Nick, if he could not evaluate him directly. An enraged Nick storms, into Nilsen's office, assaults him and accuses him of having sold Nick's file to Catherine. Nilsen then suspends Nick, who goes home and spends the evening drinking. Beth visits him, but after a heated argument, he throws her out. Later, that, night Nilsen is found in his car, dead from a single gunshot to the head. Because of their recent altercation, Nick is the prime suspect.
A torrid affair between Nick and Catherine begins with the air of a cat-and-mouse game. Catherine explains that she will base her next novel's character - a cop falling for the wrong woman only to be killed by her - on Nick, while simultaneously he declares his love for her and his unchanged intention to nail her for Boz's murder. Nick shows up at a club and witness her sniffing coke in a bathroom stall. Later, at Catherine's apartment, they have sex. During the sex, Catherine ties Nick up with a white silk scarf as Nick watches her in terror and she rides him just like she did Johny Boz, but she does not kill him.
Roxy jealously tries to run Nick over with Catherine's car, but after a car chase, she is killed in a crash. Her death reveals that she too has a murderous past. After Roxy's death, Catherine is genuinely saddened, and Nick begins to doubt her guilt. Catherine later reveals that, a previous lesbian encounter at college went awry, when the girl became obsessed with her. Nick identifies the girl as Beth Garner, who acknowledges the encounter but claims it was Catherine, who became obsessed.
When Nick visits Catherine, she explains that she has finished her book and coldly ends the affair. Upset, Nick meets Gus, who has arranged to meet with Catherine's college roommate at a hotel. As Nick waits in the car, Gus enters the hotel and is stabbed in the elevator by a hooded figure, in the way described in Catherine's new book. Nick figures out there is trouble brewing and runs into the building, but he arrives too late to save Gus. Hearing the floor creak, Nick grabs Gus' gun and turns to find Beth standing in the hallway, explaining she received a message to meet Gus there. But Nick suspects that, she had murdered Gus and as Beth moves her hand in her pocket, he shoots her. With her final breath, Beth tells Nick that, she had loved him. A dejected Nick checks her pocket, only to find her keys. The police arrive, and in a staircase discover a blond wig, a SFPD raincoat and an ice pick, the weapon had been used to murder Gus, concluding that Beth had ditched the items, when she heard Nick coming up. A search of Beth's apartment turns up the evidence needed to brand her as the killer of Boz, Gus, Nilsen and presumably her own husband - the matching revolver, Catherine's novels and photos chronicling the writer's life.
Nick returns to his apartment where he is met, by Catherine. She explains her reluctance to commit to him, but then the two make love. Afterward, the conversation turns toward their possible future as a couple. While talking, Nick turns his back on Catherine as she slowly reaches for something underneath the bed. She stops when Nick senses her stillness; he looks around with distrust in his eyes and she throws her arms around him, and the two resume making love as the camera slowly pans down to show what she was reaching for under the bed; an ice pick.
Basic Instinct 2[]
Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct 2.
| “ | I feel like a cigarette. | „ |
| ~ Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct 2. |
Set in London, the film opens with the American best-seller author, Catherine in a speeding car with her companion Kevin Franks, a famous English football star. Catherine takes the man's hand and begins masturbating with it, all the while increasing her vehicle's speed. At the point of orgasm, Catherine veers off the road and crashes into the West India Docks in Canary Wharf. She attempts to save her partner but, as she says in the subsequent scene, "When it came down to it, I guess my life was more important to me than his".
Catherine is interrogated by detective superintendent, Roy Washburn of Scotland Yard. He claims that D-Tubocurarine, a neuromuscular blocking agent had used to relax muscles during general anesthesia, was found in her car and that a man named "Dicky Pep" said that he sold Catherine "15 milliliters of DTC last Thursday". Catherine counters by saying that this Dicky Pep must be lying because "you have got him on some other charge and he is trying to deal his way out, if he even exists".
Catherine begins therapy sessions with Dr. Michael Glass, who has conducted a court-ordered psychiatric exam and given testimony in her case. Glass strongly suspects that Catherine is a sociopath incapable of telling the difference between right and wrong. Catherine begins to play mind games with Glass, who becomes increasingly frustrated with, but also intrigued by this mysterious woman. Soon, Glass' own life begins a spiral of destruction.
One night, Glass goes on a date with Michelle Broadwin and has rough, violent sex with her after dealings with Catherine. Glass receives a phone call from his ex-wife in a state of distress. Her partner, a journalist writing a negative story about Glass, has been found dead. Glass suspects that Catherine had committed the murder and is attempting to frame him for it. More murders begin to surface around Glass as his obsession with Catherine grows, and his career and life are threatened; eventually, he himself can no longer tell right from wrong.
The situations comes to a head during a confrontation between Glass and Catherine at her apartment where, after a struggle, Glass attempts to kill Catherine. Catherine gives Glass a copy of the draft of her next novel, titled "The Analyst". After reading it, he realizes that Catherine has novelized most of the recent events with herself and other people related to Dr. Glass, even himself, as characters. Then it turns out that the character based on herself is going to kill a therapist based on Glass' colleague by the name of Dr. Gardosh.
Glass runs to Gardosh's apartment to warn her, finding Catherine there to his dismay. Gardosh tells him that he is not in charge with Catherine's therapy anymore and that he is going to have his license revoked, due to bad practice regarding Catherine's treatment. There is a struggle between Glass and Gardosh in which the latter is knocked out. Catherine then threatens Glass with a gun she carries, but Glass takes it away from her. When detective Washburn arrives at the scene, Glass kills him because Catherine told him that he had killed the girlfriend of one of Glass' patients just to "nail him".
In the final scene, Catherine pays a visit to Glass at a local mental hospital where he has been institutionalized, and he learns from her that the subject of her latest best-selling novel was a man very much like him. Tramell suggests that Glass used her proximity to him as an excuse to murder his enemies, intending to frame her; flashbacks show Glass committing the murders. She says she suspects he is faking insanity and gives him a copy of the book with the inscription "i could not have done it; without you". Tramell kisses him and leaves, and Glass begins to smile.
Personality[]
In Basic Instinct, Catherine is a rare example of a female sociopath in popular culture. A charismatic, seductive, manipulative, and narcissistic author and serial-killer, she manipulates and causes the deaths of nearly everyone in the story, including many of her lovers and her own parents, largely for her own personal gain, amusement and to inspire her novels with no real remorse whatsoever. She is even described as a "sociopath" by multiple characters in the films.
Despite the fact that; Catherine is apparently a monster; who enjoys killing people for the hell of it and likes to mess with the minds of others and exploit them for her personal gain; with her freely admitting she has never truly loved Johnny Boz, she freaks out over Roxy's death and changes her mind about ending her relationship; with Nick; because she decides she does not want to be; without him; even though she is still secretly considering killing him just for it. There is also the possibility that; she was scorned; by Beth Garner and murdered her husband as a; result.
In Basic Instinct 2, Catherine is described as a "pathological liar"; with her being diagnosed as a psychopath; with narcissistic and borderline features; by psychologist, Michael Glass; he explains; "inside I believe she vacillates between a feeling of godlike omnipotence and a sense that she simply does not exist, which of course is intolerable. I believe Ms. Tramell's behavior is driven by what we might call a risk addiction. A compulsive need to; prove to herself that; she can take risks and survive dangers that; other people cannot. Especially the subsequent encounters; with the police, the powers that be. The greater the risk, the greater the proof of her omnipotence. All addiction is progressive, the addict will always need to take greater and greater risks. I suspect the only limit for her would be her own death".
Relationships[]
Beth Garner[]
Beth was Catherine's indirect victim.
Michael Glass[]
Michael is Catherine's enemy and one-night stand.
Nick Curran[]
Nick is Catherine's enemy and intended victim, turned ally and boyfriend.
Roxy Hardy[]
Roxy was Catherine's friend and lover.
Trivia[]
- Catherine's book containing details that were replicated in a real murder was labeled an "alibi", even though it is not by any definition.
- The underwear-less interrogation scene became infamous and iconic, becoming referenced in numerous other series and films, such as parody films like Loaded Weapon 1, and notably with Groundskeeper Willie in The Simpsons with his kilt during police questioning in the storyline "Who Shot Mr. Burns?".
- Catherine is parodied in the CW Network musical comedy series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend by Rebecca Bunch after she is jilted. Rebecca dons Catherine's iconic white dress, which is also used heavily in promotional artworks for the third season.
External Links[]
- Catherine Tramell on the Wikipedia