“Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there! He wasn’t there again today; oh, how I wish he’d go away!”
James Mangold’s 2003 mystery/thriller Identity opens with this cryptic excerpt from William Hughes Mearns’ poem “Antigonish,” which sets the tone for the maniacal ride this movie takes you on. Part murder mystery, part psychological suspense, and with a wildly unpredictable twist, Identity tackles clinical mental disorders against a classic murder mystery backdrop.
Based loosely on Agatha Christie’s 1939 novel And Then There Were None, Identity takes the concept of ten strangers stranded in a single location, who are slowly picked off by an unseen murderer, and ratchets it up to insane levels. It deftly jumps back and forth between the remote motel the strangers find themselves at and a courtroom hearing for convicted murderer Malcolm Rivers (Pruitt Taylor Vince), who awaits execution. How these two situations relate to one another is an intricately woven, well-crafted testament to the brilliant writing in this film.
The vast majority of Identity centers mostly on the motel, where a torrential rainstorm, along with several freak ripple effect events, bring together that group, whose lives will inexplicably become intertwined as the night goes on. Included in this group is limo driver (and former cop) Ed (John Cusack), who, while in the process of driving actress Caroline Suzanne (Rebecca DeMornay), accidentally hits Alice (Leila Kenzle) in front of her husband, George (John C. McGinley), and son Timmy (Bret Loehr). George and Alice are on the side of the road fixing a flat tire after running over the high heel shoe that had previously flown out of the car of Paris (Amanda Peet).
If you’re confused reading that, it would be easy to understand why. This is a large cast of characters, all of whom have different motivations and personalities… but more on that later. Rounding out the rest of the guests are newlyweds Lou (William Lee Scott) and Ginny (Clea DuVall) and police officer Rhodes (Ray Liotta), who is transporting a convicted murderer (not to be confused with the OTHER convicted murderer standing trial in the courtroom scenes) Robert Maine (Jake Busey). There’s also Larry (John Hawkes), the slimy motel manager tasked with checking everyone in and giving them their room keys.
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Whew. Yes, it’s a lot, but each character brings something important to the story, which, thankfully, plays out quickly once the initial introductions are over. One by one, they get picked off in various gruesome ways by an unseen killer. As they begin to piece together the mystery of who the murderer is, they discover they are all connected to each other in very specific ways… which eventually leads back to Malcolm and his impending execution.
This is the point when the movie takes a huge swerve and (spoiler alert) reveals that Malcolm has been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, and all ten motel occupants are actually distinct personalities of his that he’s been slowly killing off in his mind. This is exactly the information the defense needs, as a person mentally unaware of the crime they’ve committed can not be put to death as punishment.
Once it’s determined that Rhodes is the personality that committed the murders, Malcolm “kills” him off and is then sent to live out his days in a psychiatric ward. That’s when we’re treated to another plot twist with the closing scene that young Timmy was the killer personality the entire time and committed all the murders at the motel.
If you were able to correctly predict any of that upon your first viewing of Identity, you should probably just quit your day job and become a detective. Now, going back and re-watching it for subsequent viewings, it’s easy to pick up all the nuances and clues laid out throughout the film. The breadcrumbs are practically being force-fed to us, making us wonder how we ever missed them in the first place.
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That’s part of the beauty of this movie. Yes, we all know and can name, off the top of our heads, a multitude of films with infamous twist endings. Many of which a vast majority of the audience didn’t see coming. This story is more than that, though. It goes far deeper in an impressively short amount of time, with a much larger cast of characters than many other movies do. It combines a handful of genres into one fast-paced plot. At its core, it’s a murder mystery while heavily borrowing from classic slasher films from decades prior. Only in this instance, we never see the murderer because that would give away the big surprise. Instead, we’re left to try to figure out who it is along with the characters and are given logical reasons as to why it could be any one of them. Except, of course, little Timmy – because why on earth would a little boy have the capability, or the motive, to kill all those people?
This is why Identity is so much more than your typical twist-ending story. The big “gotcha” moment is the fact that this is all happening inside the mind of one man, whose multiple identities are battling it out against each other. Then, just as you’re recovering from that shock, they get you again with the Timmy reveal.
There may be those who feel a sense of frustration over being duped into believing such a large portion of the story isn’t real and instead was taking place inside Malcolm’s head. The point is, though, that for Malcolm, it was very, very real. For any of us, discovering what we thought was our reality is actually nothing but a fabrication would be traumatizing. The performances from both Cusack and Vince in the scene where Malcolm discovers this information should be commended, as they both bring a heartbreaking authenticity to such a weighty moment.
For a movie that is now twenty years old, it holds up surprisingly well. There’s definite re-watchability here, which isn’t always the case with stories that center so heavily around their plot twist. Part of the fun of subsequent viewings is the careful, mindful study to pick up on those breadcrumbs that are so deliberately laid out.
With an ensemble cast, nonstop intensity, a classic whodunnit vibe, and a shocker of a final act, Identity continues to be an underrated gem that can pack a punch. It’s fun and thrilling while also handling heavy issues of mental illness and how one’s perceived reality can differ from their existent truth. Whether it’s your first time watching it, or your fifth, you’re bound to get entertainment value from multiple avenues.
