LOU
Could I please speak with your boss, please?
OWNER
I’m the owner.
LOU
How about 800 in store credit?
OWNER
What are you looking for?
LOU
A camcorder and a police scanner.
This is one of my favorite exchanges in the film. Now, at first glance, it’s kinda a boring exchange. BUT, this is the pivotal point in Lou’s journey. He’s experienced Nightcrawling from the outside, and now he’s going active. He’s going off on his own. Before this, we know that Lou is interested in Nightcrawling, but he was begging for a job. Now he’s taking things into his own hands. He’s starting his own business. Just because he wants to. He takes a bit of a daring approach, steals a bike in broad daylight. It points toward the amount that Lou wants to Nightcrawl.
I also appreciate that the language is so direct. There’s no questioning Lou’s intentions. He wants a camcorder and a police scanner. The direct nature of the language allows the audience no room for interpretation. We know what Lou is going to do next. It also stands in juxtaposition to a lot of Lou’s dialogue. He tends to speak through his thoughts a lot of the time. He asks a lot of questions. He often appeals to authority of facts that he’s learned. But he doesn’t do that here. I think that’s important.
LOU
Something like this?
NINA
That’s right.
LOU
Bloody.
NINA
That’s only part of it. We like crime.
Not all crime. A carjacking in Compton,
for example, that isn’t news, now is it?
We find our viewers are more interested
in urban crime creeping into the suburbs.
What that means is a victim or victims,
preferably well-off and/or white, injured
at the hands of the poor, or a minority.
LOU
Just crime?
NINA
No. Accidents play. Cars, buses,
trains, planes. Fires. Suicides.
LOU
But bloody.
NINA
Graphic. The best and clearest way that
I can phrase it to you, Lou, to capture
the spirit of what we air, is think of
our newscast as a screaming woman running
down the street with her throat cut.
LOU
I understand. I’ve always been a very
fast learner. You’ll be seeing me again.
This moment. OOF. In my opinion, this moment acts, for Lou, as the permission he needs to really let loose with all his worst instincts. “We like crime. Not all crime…” You know, not the boring crime that happens to the poor and the disenfranchised. They don’t like the type of crime that Lou is currently doing. Missing manhole covers are boring. BUT, crime that happens to the upper crust, that’s shocking. Especially the graphic stuff. This points Lou on a much more direct path. He starts ignoring the police calls to “bad” neighborhoods in preference to the “good” neighborhoods. He starts chasing suicides in hopes of seeing something bloody and gruesome. Maybe even catch someone jumping.
This dialogue serves to further aim the bullet that is Lou. It also directly states the theme of the film, the excess that is the “if it bleeds, it leads” shock-news culture that we all live in. That’s what Nina and her network seek. They literally exploit tragedy. They make it into news. They cultivate fear for views. That’s why they want to see “urban crime creeping into the suburbs.” Because that’s terrifying for the suburban white folk who want to live in peace and comfort.
LOU
Thank you, because I don’t think it’s a
secret that I’ve single-handedly raised
the unit price on your ratings book.
NINA
Our ratings book price?
LOU
I’m a very fast learner, Nina. We had a
conversation and I specifically mentioned
that. Do you remember? Well do you?
NINA
Yes.
LOU
I recently learned, for instance, that
most Americans watch local news to stay
informed. I also learned that an average
half-hour of Los Angeles television news
packs all its local government coverage --
including budget, law enforcement,
education, transportation and immigration
-- into 22 seconds. Local crime stories,
however, not only usually led the news
but filled 14 times the broadcast,
averaging 5 minutes 7 seconds. And
K.S.M.L. relies heavily on such stories.
With Los Angeles crime rates going down I
think that makes items like mine
particularly valuable, like rare animals.
I imagine your needs will only increase
during next week’s rating sweeps period.
NINA
We certainly appreciate what you do.
LOU
There's certain good things in being alone.
You have time to do the things you want
to do, like study and plan. But you can’t
have dinners like this. Or be physical
with a person, I mean beyond a flirtationship.
NINA
Where are you going with this?
LOU
I want that. With you. Like you want to
keep your job and your health insurance.
YUCK. Okay, so I highlighted two lines of dialogue here, because this moment really served for me as the moment where Lou went from a shitty person to being a shitty, skeevy person. Lou is the type of person who is always listening and keeping receipts. He specifically remembered and catalogued the fact that he was helping Nina raise the unit price of their ratings book. He catalogued that and later used it to help him manipulate Nina into having a sexual relationship with him. Does she want to keep her job and health insurance? Well, looks like she’s got to keep Lou happy, then. And in order to keep him happy, now he’s saying she needs to have sex with him.
There’s a psychological difference between types of criminal behavior. For me, this is the moment where we understand that Lou is a true psychopath or sociopath. Lou doesn’t have the capacity to be in a real relationship or to charm someone. He doesn’t even try. We see him earlier in the film utterly fail to charm someone. So now, he jumps straight to manipulation. He knows he’s in a position of power, and he waits until now to approach Nina for a sexaul relationship because now he’s pretty sure he can pressure her into it.
These lines also serve to increase the tension in the scene. What starts as a simple date that is a bit awkward, progresses into a planned manipulation in which we are waiting for Nina to respond. How is she going to react to Lou’s inflammatory statements? What is she going to do? Lou has crossed a boundary with what he says here.
This is the point in the film where I actively start rooting for Lou to die.