Poster © Open Road Films. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreCrime, Drama & Thriller
RatedR
Runtime1 hr 57 mins
ReleasedOctober 31, 2014
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorDan Gilroy
StarringJake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed
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Nightcrawler (2014)
| ▶Stream It | ★The Numbers |
| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| Nightcrawler's Details | |
| Genre | Crime, Drama & Thriller |
| Rated | R |
| Released | 09/05/2014 (TIFF); 10/31/2014 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 57 mins |
| Budget | $8.5M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Nightcrawler's Interests | |
| General | Police scanners, camcorders, night drives, morning news ratings, LA at 3 a.m. |
| Music | James Newton Howard. Weirdly inspirational for something this creepy. |
| Movies | Network (1976), Taxi Driver (1976). Night shifts and bad ideas. |
| Television | Your local morning news. You will never watch it the same way again. |
| Heroes | Rick. Underpaid, overworked, still showing up. |
| Nightcrawler's Crew | |
| Director | Dan Gilroy |
| Writers | Dan Gilroy |
| Producers | Michel Litvak, Jake Gyllenhaal, David Lancaster, Jennifer Fox, Tony Gilroy |
| Cinematography | Robert Elswit |
| Music | James Newton Howard |
| Edited By | John Gilroy |
| Production | Bold Films |
| Distributed By | Open Road Films |
Lou Bloom talks like a self-help podcast that learned to drive at night. Jake Gyllenhaal plays him with a fixed stare and a smile that never reaches anything, and he’s the creepiest guy in any Los Angeles movie. Lou figures out local TV will pay for footage of the worst night of a stranger’s life, and he starts chasing sirens with a cheap camera and zero conscience. The car chases are tense. Rene Russo is great as the news director who knows exactly what she’s buying. The weak spot: the satire of TV news hits like a sledgehammer, and the script says its point out loud more than once. Riz Ahmed is the heart of it, the only person in the car who still has one. It made $47.4 million worldwide on a reported $8.5M budget, which Lou would call a strong quarter. An 8.7 because Gyllenhaal is terrifying and the movie refuses to let him off the hook. $1,348 says you change the channel the next time the local news opens on a car crash.
What works: Gyllenhaal’s unsettling lead performance, the nighttime car chases, and Rene Russo as a news boss who knows what she’s buying.
What doesn’t: The media satire is blunt, and the script spells out its message more than once when the images already said it.
Who it’s for: Thriller fans who like a lead character they can’t stand and can’t look away from.
Spoilers
Lou deliberately steers Rick into danger during the final chase so he can film what happens, and Rick doesn’t survive it. Lou talks his way past the police and ends the movie expanding his business with a fresh crew of interns.
Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a Los Angeles hustler who sells stolen scrap metal and talks like an online business course. One night he pulls over at a car crash, watches freelance cameramen like Joe Loder (Bill Paxton) film it to sell to the local news, and finds his calling. Lou grabs a cheap camcorder and a police scanner and starts chasing sirens. He sells his first clip to Nina Romina (Rene Russo), a morning news director hungry for ratings, and hires a broke young assistant named Rick (Riz Ahmed). Dan Gilroy directs. One hundred seventeen minutes, zero sleep.
Anyone with a police scanner and no off switch.
| Jake Gyllenhaal | Louis "Lou" Bloom |
| Rene Russo | Nina Romina |
| Riz Ahmed | Rick |
| Bill Paxton | Joe Loder |
| Kevin Rahm | Frank Kruse |
| Michael Hyatt | Detective Frontieri |
| Ann Cusack | Linda |
| Carolyn Gilroy, the daughter of editor John Gilroy and niece of director Dan Gilroy | KWLA 6 employee Jenny |
| Michael Papajohn | Security Guard |
| James Huang | Marcus Mayhem Video |
| Eric Lange | Ace Video Cameraman |
| Kiff VandenHeuvel | Editor |
| Myra Turley | Female Neighbour |
| Jamie McShane | Freaked Motorist |
| Leah Fredkin | Female Anchor |
| Kent Shocknek | himself |
| Pat Harvey | herself |
| Sharon Tay | herself |
| Rick Garcia | himself |
| Bill Seward | himself |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $47.4M; Domestic box office $32.4M; Opening weekend $10.4M; Profit / loss (est.) +$11M; Rotten Tomatoes 95%; CinemaScore B−; box office chart updated; RT 95% (279 reviews); Metacritic 76 / 100; CinemaScore B−; IMDb users 7.8 / 10 (684,639 votes); movie.guru score 7.7.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.