The Real-Life Story Behind David Fincher’s Best Thriller Is Much Darker Than You Think

Summary:

• David Fincher’s shocking movie starring Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck is to this day one of the best thrillers ever made, but an even more shocking story stays behind its plot.
• The film is based on Gillian Flynn’s book of the same name and follows a married couple whose toxic relationships become very public after the wife goes missing.
• Despite the fact that the film is generally based on the novel, the latter was, in its turn, inspired by many other books and even real-life murder cases.

Despite being released ten years ago, David Fincher’s Gone Girl starring Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck is still considered one of the finest thrillers ever made with all its shocking plot twists and jaw-dropping details of the reality behind the seemingly happy family’s facade.

Though the film had a very specific source it took its plot from, the former was inspired by a lot of books and events — including real-life horrifying murders.

Based on Gillian Flynn’s novel of the same name, Gone Girl follows a happily married couple of Nick and Amy, portrayed by Affleck and Pike respectively, whose life seems to be just impeccable until one day Amy vanishes leaving some weird traces looking more like parts of one big quest.

Desperate to find the missing wife, Nick searches for the police’s help, but the deeper they get into Nick and Amy’s real life together, carefully covered by a perfect picture, the more they start thinking of Nick as the main suspect.

Gone Girl Still Holds Up in 2024

Ten years after the release, Gone Girl is still some kind of shocking content demonstrating what extremes a woman can be driven to after being stuck in toxic relationships that have actually always been like this.

While writing her book, Flynn took most of the insights from thrilling stand-outs like Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game, Rosemary's Baby and Notes on a Scandal, as well as Edward Albee’s Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Besides that, the author took some more of the natural touches from existing murder investigations that were quite familiar with the book’s plot — but the latter doesn’t seem to be that bad compared to things that happened in real life.

Gone Girl Is Very Much Based on Real Life

Though the two stories have just a few similarities, Gone Girl was significantly inspired by the dramatic events that unfolded after a woman went missing back in 2002. Just like it goes in the movie, 27-year-old Laci Peterson completely vanished leaving no sign for her husband Scott Peterson.

With the police’s thorough investigation that started soon after the young woman’s disappearance, Scoot became the main object of harsh attention coming from the media and public — he later on turned into the main suspect after numerous interviews that exposed his tense relationships with the missing wife and many other problems that affected their marriage.

The main difference between Gone Girl and the real-life investigation is that in the movie Amy came back home safe and sound pretending to be happily back to her life with the beloved husband.

Laci Peterson wasn’t that lucky as the woman’s body was found on the shore of San Francisco Bay four months after her disappearance — and her husband was in fact found guilty for murdering his wife and their unborn child.

Scott Peterson is reportedly still in prison after his death sentence was overruled in 2020.