10 Foolproof Movie Methods For Murdering Your Spouse

10. Planning Is Everything (Gone Girl, 2014)

Once you've made the decision - for whatever reason - that the old ball and chain has to go, you'll need to concoct a foolproof plan to avoid being linked to the crime. The key thing is obviously either to get someone else to do your dirty work for you, or to have a highly plausible prime suspect or red herring to put between you and any official investigations. Remember, you're the most likely suspect. Give them someone else to think about first. Forward planning is essential: the more prepared you are for any eventuality, the more likely your scheme is to fly without a hitch. You can only do this once, after all. In David Fincher€™s Gone Girl, it seems as though dodgy husband Nick Dunne may have murdered his missing wife Amy, who everyone agrees was practically perfect in every way. In reality, Amy Elliott Dunne is a sociopath whose discovery that Nick is cheating on her becomes the final straw in a marriage full of them. Livid that she€™s lost control of him, Amy puts together a foolproof plan. She€™s going to vanish, framing Nick for her murder, and leaving sufficient manufactured evidence that there€™s no room for any doubt of his guilt: she wants him on Death Row. When I say €˜foolproof€™, I€™m not just whistling Dixie. Amy is a perfectionist in every part of her life. She plans for a full year, setting money aside for her disappearance that won€™t be missed, convincing everyone that she suffers from a phobia of needles and blood, becoming best friends with a pregnant neighbour she despises in order to steal her urine, and painstakingly faking a diary that predates her marriage to Nick, in which she paints a picture of herself as naive and smitten, and Nick as unpredictable, abusive and increasingly violent. On the day itself, she stages a crime scene in their home with her own blood... and then cleans it up, just enough so that it appears as though someone has attempted to cover up said crime. How does she get found out? She doesn€™t. Amy changes her mind, frames someone else and returns to her husband, safe and sound, exonerating him. The return and the second frame-up aren€™t as flawless as her original plan€ but they don€™t need to be. Had she not elected to change her plans, Nick Dunne would have been executed for a crime that never took place.