Brian De Palma’s Body Double is a masterclass in stylish, self-aware provocation. It simultaneously pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock while gleefully subverting his classic thrillers. Consequently, the film dives headfirst into themes of voyeurism, Hollywood artifice, and cinematic obsession. This is 80s erotic thriller filmmaking at its most audacious and controversial.
Detailed Summary
The Struggling Actor
We meet Jake Scully, a B-movie actor with a debilitating case of claustrophobia. His fear costs him a role in a low-budget vampire film. Arriving home, he then discovers his girlfriend cheating on him, resulting in him being thrown out of his own apartment.
Homeless and jobless, Jake lands in an acting workshop. There, a fellow actor named Sam Bouchard offers a solution. Sam needs someone to house-sit a stunning, ultra-modern home in the Hollywood Hills while he’s out of town.
A Room with a View
The house, a futuristic circular structure on a pedestal, provides Jake with more than just lodging. Sam shows him a powerful telescope a previous tenant left behind. He points it toward a nearby window where a beautiful woman, Gloria Revelle, performs a nightly erotic dance.
Jake quickly becomes obsessed with watching Gloria. He follows her during the day, learning about her troubled life and her abusive husband. His voyeurism, however, is interrupted when he also sees a sinister character, a man with Native American features, stalking her.
The Murder
One night, Jake witnesses the man break into Gloria’s house. He races over to intervene but is thwarted by his claustrophobia when he gets stuck in a narrow tunnel. Meanwhile, the intruder murders Gloria with a massive power drill.
The police question Jake, but he withholds key details, ridden with guilt over his inaction and voyeuristic complicity. His obsession with the case, however, only deepens. He sees a late-night adult cable show featuring a porn star named Holly Body, who performs the exact same dance as Gloria.
Meeting Holly Body
Convinced Holly is connected to the murder, Jake decides to find her. This journey takes him deep into the world of adult filmmaking. He lands a role in a porn film specifically to get close to Holly.
Holly is initially suspicious of Jake. Ultimately, she confesses that Gloria hired her to be a “body double,” performing the nightly dance while Gloria was secretly meeting a lover. Someone paid Holly to keep performing the dance even after Gloria was supposedly out of town.
Unraveling the Conspiracy
Jake realizes the entire scenario was a setup. The murder he witnessed was staged. He puts the pieces together: Sam Bouchard orchestrated the whole thing. He wanted to kill his wife, Gloria’s wealthy sister, and frame her estranged husband for it. The “Indian” was an actor, and Gloria was in on the plan to steal a valuable safe.
The entire voyeuristic obsession was a carefully constructed trap to make Jake an eyewitness to a fake murder. This would create a false alibi for the real culprit. The “murder” of Gloria was, in fact, the murder of a different woman, with Sam using Gloria’s purse to misidentify the body.
Movie Ending
The explosive climax reveals the full extent of Sam Bouchard’s treachery. Jake figures out that Gloria was never the target. In reality, Sam plans to murder his own wife, who is Gloria’s sister, and make it look like the work of the “Indian” character, thus framing her husband.
The “Gloria” Jake saw murdered was an unknown victim, used simply to create a false trail. Sam’s real target is the family fortune. He needed Jake, a seemingly unreliable claustrophobe, to witness a fake murder to establish a pattern for the killer.
Jake, along with Holly, rushes to stop Sam at a reservoir. Sam has Holly trapped in a water tank, which begins to fill up. In a final, terrifying confrontation, Jake overcomes his claustrophobia to save Holly and battles Sam. Ultimately, Sam is killed, and Jake emerges from the ordeal a changed man, having conquered his deepest fear.
Are There Post-Credits Scenes?
No, Body Double does not have any mid-credits or post-credits scenes. The film concludes once the final credits begin to roll.
Type of Movie
Body Double is a quintessential erotic thriller and neo-noir. The film is drenched in the visual style of the 1980s, from its synth-pop score to its fashion. Director Brian De Palma infuses the movie with a highly stylized, almost dreamlike tone, borrowing heavily from Alfred Hitchcock’s visual language while injecting his own signature brand of suspense and graphic violence.
Cast
- Craig Wasson – Jake Scully
- Melanie Griffith – Holly Body
- Gregg Henry – Sam Bouchard
- Deborah Shelton – Gloria Revelle
- Guy Boyd – Detective Jim McLean
- Dennis Franz – Rubin
Film Music and Composer
The score for Body Double was composed by Pino Donaggio, a frequent collaborator with Brian De Palma. His music is lush, suspenseful, and heavily influenced by the Italian Giallo horror genre, perfectly complementing the film’s tense, voyeuristic atmosphere.
However, the most famous musical moment is not part of the score. It is the iconic music video-style sequence set to the song “Relax” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. This scene has become a legendary piece of 80s pop culture.
Filming Locations
Body Double uses its Los Angeles setting to great effect. The locations are more than just backdrops; notably, they are characters in their own right that enhance the film’s themes.
The most prominent location is the futuristic Chemosphere house in the Hollywood Hills, designed by architect John Lautner. Its unique, flying-saucer-like appearance amplifies Jake’s sense of isolation and his voyeuristic perch above the city. In addition, scenes filmed at the sprawling Beverly Center mall highlight the consumerist, artificial nature of 1980s L.A. culture.
Awards and Nominations
While the film itself proved too controversial for many major awards, its performances received recognition. Melanie Griffith earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Holly Body. The film’s theme song “Relax” also garnered a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song.
Behind the Scenes Insights
- Brian De Palma has admitted he made the film partly to provoke the critics and audiences who accused him of misogyny and style-over-substance in his previous films like Dressed to Kill.
- The film’s extended “Relax” sequence was shot like a music video, reflecting the huge influence of MTV on cinema during the 1980s.
- Real-life adult film actors were cast in supporting roles for the porn movie scenes, adding a layer of authenticity to Jake’s descent into that world.
- The infamous drill murder scene was a major point of contention with the MPAA. De Palma had to trim it significantly to avoid an X rating.
Inspirations and References
Body Double is Brian De Palma’s most explicit homage to the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. The film is a direct fusion of the plots and themes from two of Hitchcock’s a_movies.
Specifically, the theme of a man incapacitated while witnessing a crime is lifted directly from Rear Window (1954). Furthermore, the plot involving an obsession with a woman who may not be who she seems, leading to a convoluted murder plot, is a clear reference to Vertigo (1958).
Alternate Endings and Deleted Scenes
There are no known alternate endings for Body Double. The primary content removed from the film involved edits made to secure an R rating from the MPAA. De Palma was forced to trim seconds from the violent power drill sequence and the more graphic elements of the porn film scenes Jake participates in. These longer, more explicit cuts have never been officially released.
Book Adaptations and Differences
Body Double is not based on a book. It is an original story conceived by director Brian De Palma, with a screenplay co-written by Robert J. Avary.
Memorable Scenes and Quotes
Key Scenes
- The “Relax” Music Video: Jake follows Gloria through the Beverly Center and into a boutique, where the scene transforms into a slick, neon-drenched music video for the Frankie Goes to Hollywood hit.
- The Drill Murder: The intensely suspenseful and brutal murder of “Gloria,” juxtaposed with Jake’s claustrophobic struggle in a narrow tunnel, is one of the most shocking scenes in De Palma’s career.
- The Final Confrontation: Jake fights Sam in and around a filling water tank. He must overcome his debilitating claustrophobia to save Holly from drowning.
Iconic Quotes
- “I’m Holly Body. That’s my professional name, of course.” – Holly Body
- “You know, you shouldn’t watch people. It’s a bad habit.” – Sam Bouchard
- “Oh my God, I am coming!” – Jake Scully (A famously comedic line delivered while filming a porn scene)
Easter Eggs and Hidden Details
- The B-movie Jake is acting in at the beginning of the film is titled Vampire’s Kiss. Coincidentally, Nicolas Cage would star in a real, unrelated film called Vampire’s Kiss four years later.
- Director Brian De Palma has a cameo as a director during the porn movie shoot, instructing Jake to be more “intense.”
- The architecture of the Chemosphere house visually represents Jake’s position in the story: physically elevated and detached, watching the world from afar like a movie audience.
Trivia
- Melanie Griffith’s mother, actress Tippi Hedren, was the star of two of Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous films, The Birds and Marnie.
- The role of Jake Scully was originally offered to a then-unknown Tom Hanks, who turned it down.
- The film’s blatant eroticism and controversial violence led to it being banned or heavily censored in several countries upon its release.
Why Watch?
Body Double is a thrilling, intelligent, and wickedly funny exploration of cinema itself. It is a must-see for fans of stylish thrillers, neo-noir, and anyone interested in the bold, provocative filmmaking of the 1980s. It is pure, unfiltered De Palma.
Director’s Other Movies
- Carrie (1976)
- Dressed to Kill (1980)
- Scarface (1983)
- The Untouchables (1987)
- Mission: Impossible (1996)
