Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) is the hidden main villainess of the 2014 film Gone Girl, as well as the 2012 Gillian Flynn novel of the same title.
History[]
Amy Dunne (née Elliott) is the daughter of Marybeth and Rand Elliott, as well as the inspiration for her parents' popular children's book series Amazing Amy. Amy also became married to writer Nick Dunne after meeting him at a party, bonding with him over their shared career and opening up to him about her frustration with having to live up to the version of herself from her parents' book series.
While Amy and Nick's marriage was initially idyllic, things took a turn for the worse when both of them lost their jobs due to the Great Recession, eventually leading the couple to move from New York City to Nick's hometown of North Carthage, Missouri. As time passed, Amy grew frustrated with Nick's laziness and their lowered living arrangements, further destroying their marriage and leading Nick to plan to get a divorce. The film opened with Amy mysteriously disappearing before Nick discovered that their house had been "ransacked," with a pool of Amy's blood also being found in the kitchen. Initially, the evidence and Nick's apathetic attitude led the police to believe that Nick had killed Amy, who was later thought to have been pregnant at the time of her "death," and then tried to stage her disappearance as a "kidnapping."
Reveal and Change of Plans[]
However, halfway through the movie, the truth about Amy's disappearance was revealed: Amy was very much alive, having "ransacked" her own house before planting her blood to make it appear that Nick had murdered her. Amy detailed how she'd went about staging everything over the course of around a year, including buying several items using her and Nick's joint credit card to drive them into debt and putting all of the items in the woodshed of Nick's sister Margo. In an inner monologue, Amy also revealed how she'd grown to despise Nick for (in her mind) ruining her life and making her pretend to be happy with him, as well as how she'd learned Nick was cheating on her with one of his students, Andie Fitzgerald. To frame Nick and taunt him, Amy befriended her and Nick's pregnant neighbor, Noelle Hawthorne, so that she could use her urine to make it appear she were pregnant, and then devised a "scavenger hunt" for Nick to reveal where she'd planted all the incriminating evidence against him—in all the locations where he and Andie had sex.
After disguising herself, Amy rented an apartment at an isolated campground in the Ozarks, meeting couple Jeff and Greta. While Amy initially befriended the pair (particularly Greta), the two caught on to Amy's lies when she accidentally revealed to them how much money she actually had, as her pouch of said money fell while the three were playing mini-golf. This led the couple to rob Amy of her money, with Greta assaulting the twisted woman due to having become suspicious of her deceit regarding who she was. Now left with no money, Amy contacted Desi Collins (her wealthy ex-boyfriend who she'd filed a restraining order against), claiming she had a miscarriage and that she faked her murder to escape from a severely abusive Nick. Desi—sympathetic and still holding a flame for Amy—allowed for his ex-girlfriend to stay at his lake house. By this point, Nick had begun to learn about Amy's actions and her true nature, which included discovering that she falsely accused another one of her ex-boyfriends, Tommy O'Hara, of raping her—using his habit of seeing other girls to help bolster her case.
Climax and Conclusion[]
At the lakehouse, Amy and Desi watched a talk show interview Nick had, where he professed that he didn't kill his wife and apologized to his sociopathic wife for his failings as a husband. Despite realizing that Nick was simply doing this to lure her out of hiding, Amy's feelings for Nick were rekindled and she plotted to return to him while covering up her elaborate scheme. To do so, Amy ruffled up Desi's hair and shirt before he left the house for work before tying her ankle with a sheet and putting on a show of tearful hysterics in view of the security cameras, making it appear that Desi had kidnapped her and was holding her hostage in his house.
Later on, after sodomizing herself with a wine bottle to make it appear she was raped, the evil Amy began having sex with Desi before slitting his throat with a knife she'd hidden under a pillow, killing him. Afterwards, Amy returned to Nick covered in Desi's blood, and dramatically collapsed in his arms after he revealed that he knew about her plot to frame him. After being taken to a hospital, Amy claimed that Desi kidnapped her and held her hostage at his house where she was repeatedly raped by him. Moreover, the unhinged schemer responded to Detective Rhonda Boney's attempts to point out the inconsistencies in her story by accusing her of mishandling the investigation. The FBI ultimately sided with Amy, forcing her to step down and allowing Amy to return home with Nick.
At home, Nick confronted Amy about her long list of villainous deeds, with the latter proclaiming that the former was "perfect" in his plea for her return, citing that the act proved he was still the man she fell in love with. Later on, as Amy had Nick shower with her to wash off Desi's blood (as well as prove Nick wasn't wearing a wire), she responded to him revealing he still wanted a divorce by reminding him that the press would turn against him if he left her so soon after her return from "captivity." Later on, Nick talked with Margo, Boney, and his lawyer Tanner Bolt about Amy's actions, only for Boney to reveal that the FBI closed the case and that there was nothing she could do to arrest the delusional and ruthless manipulator.
In the film's final minutes, Amy dropped another bombshell on Nick: she was pregnant with his child, having artificially inseminated herself with Nick's sperm—which she stole from a fertility clinic; she had previously allowed Nick to believe his sperm had been disposed of. Nick angrily denied being the father of Amy's child and revealed that he still intended to leave her, even if she made the public hate him for it. In respond, Amy contested that her unborn child was Nick's, and callously stated that she wouldn't need to teach their child to hate him. Nick responded by angrily shoving Amy against a wall, with the deranged villainess proclaiming that her husband was only ever happy trying to please her and that they were meant to be together, much to Nick's dismay and shock. Despite this, however, Nick ultimately decided to stay with Amy, telling a heartbroken Margo that he was doing so for the sake of his child. The film ends with Amy and Nick revealing the former's pregnancy on TV, with Nick later remarking to himself as he laid with Amy his fear of what he and Amy would end up doing to each other in the future.
Trivia[]
- Rosamund Pike is also known for playing Miranda Frost in the James Bond film Die Another Day.
Quotes[]
- "I'm so much happier now that I'm dead. Technically missing. Soon to be presumed dead. Gone. And my lazy, lying, cheating, oblivious husband will go to prison for my 'murder.' Nick Dunne took my pride and my dignity and my hope and my money. He took and took from me until I no longer existed. That's murder. Let the punishment fit the crime. To fake a convincing murder, you have to have discipline. You befriend a local idiot... harvest the details of her humdrum life, and cram her with stories of your husband's 'violent temper.' Secretly create some money troubles: credit cards, perhaps online gambling. With the help of the unwitting, bump up your life insurance. Purchase getaway car. Craigslist. Generic. Cheap. Pay cash. You need to package yourself so that people will truly mourn your loss... and America loves pregnant women. As if it's so hard to spread your legs. You know what's hard? Faking a pregnancy. First, drain your toilet. Invite pregnant idiot into your home, and ply her with lemonade. Steal pregnant idiot's urine. Voilà! A pregnancy is now part of your legal medical record. Happy anniversary. Wait for your clueless husband to start his day. Off he goes, and the clock is ticking. Meticulously stage your 'crime scene' with just enough mistakes to raise the specter of doubt. You need to bleed. A lot. A lot, a lot. A 'head wound' kind of bleed. A 'crime scene' kind of bleed. You need to clean... poorly, like he would. Clean and bleed, bleed and clean, and leave a little something behind. A fire in July? And because you're you, you don't stop there. You need a diary. Minimum: three hundred entries on the Nick and Amy story. Start with the fairy tale early days. Those are true, and they're crucial. You want Nick and Amy to be likable. After that, you invent. The spending, the abuse, the fear, the threat of violence. And Nick thought he was the writer. Burn it just the right amount. Make sure the cops will find it. Finally, honor tradition with a very special treasure hunt... and if I get everything right, the world will hate Nick for 'killing' his beautiful, 'pregnant' wife. And after all the outrage, when I'm ready, I'll go out on the water with a handful of pills and a pocketful of stones. And when they find my body, they'll know: Nick Dunne 'dumped' his beloved 'like garbage,' and she floated down past all the other abused, unwanted, inconvenient women. Then Nick will die too. Nick and Amy will be gone, but then we never really existed. Nick loved a girl I was pretending to be: cool girl. Men always use that, don't they? As their defining compliment. 'She's a cool girl.' Cool girl is hot. Cool girl is game. Cool girl is fun. Cool girl never gets angry at her man. She only smiles in a chagrined, loving manner, and then presents her mouth for fucking. She likes what he likes, so evidently, he's a vinyl hipster who loves fetish manga. If he likes Girls Gone Wild, she's a mall babe who talks football and endures buffalo wings at Hooters. When I met Nick Dunne, I knew he wanted cool girl, and for him, I'll admit: I was willing to try. I wax-stripped my pussy raw. I drank canned beer watching Adam Sandler movies. I ate cold pizza and remained a size two. I blew him, semi-regularly. I lived in the moment. I was fucking game. I can't say I didn't enjoy some of it. Nick teased out in me things I didn't know existed: a lightness, a humor, an ease; but I made him smarter. Sharper. I inspired him to rise to my level. I forged the man of my dreams. We were happy pretending to be other people. We were the happiest couple we knew... and what's the point of being together if you're not the happiest? But Nick got lazy. He became someone I did not agree to marry. He actually expected me to love him unconditionally. Then he dragged me, penniless, to the navel of this great country, and found himself a newer, younger, bouncier cool girl. You think I'd let him destroy me and end up happier than ever? No fucking way. He doesn't get to win. My cute, charming, 'salt-of-the-earth' Missouri guy. He needed to learn. Grown-ups work for things. Grown-ups pay. Grown-ups suffer consequences." (Amy's inner monologue during her villainous reveal)
- "(Nick: "You fucking cunt!") I'm the cunt you married! The only time you liked yourself was when you were trying to be someone this cunt might like. I'm not a quitter; I'm that cunt. I've killed for you. Who else can say that? You think you'd be happy with a nice Midwestern girl? No way, baby! I'm it." (Amy's declaration to Nick about their marriage)
Videos[]
Cool Girl Monologue
Gone Girl - Amy kills Desi