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Catherine Tramell
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Real name Catherine Woolf
Catherine Tramell is a fictional character in the 1992 film Basic Instinct and its sequel, Basic Instinct 2. She is played by Sharon Stone in both films. In Basic Instinct, Tramell is a serial killer and love interest of washed-up detective Nick Curran; Basic Instinct 2 pairs her with the similarly troubled British psychologist Michael Glass.
One European critic defined Catherine Tramell as "a mix between the classic femme fatale and the new psycho killers, one of the most evil characters ever created, on Hannibal Lecter's level". She was nominated to be a member of the American Film Institute's "Best Villains" list. She was also included as one of the best 250 fiction villains ever created. In June 2010, Entertainment Weekly named her one of the 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years.
Biography
In Basic Instinct, Catherine Tramell was born on August 10, 1960. In Basic Instinct 2, the year appears to be retconned to 1968, as the film's official website in 2006 gave her age as 38.Her parents were killed in a boating accident in 1979, leaving her with an inheritance of $110 million. The death parallels one of her novels, The First Time, written years later, in which a boy kills his parents to see "if he could get away with it". It's implied she herself caused the accident.
She double-majored in psychology and literature at University of California, Berkeley, graduating magna cum laude in 1983. During her college years, her counselor Prof. Noah Goldstein was murdered with an ice pick, supposedly giving Catherine the idea for her later novel, Love Hurts. At the time, she also had a one-time sexual encounter with fellow psychology student Lisa Hoberman (later renamed Elizabeth Garner).
She was engaged to a middleweight boxer named Manuel "Manny" Vásquez, who was killed in 1984 during a prizefight in Atlantic City. Openly bisexual, she has many short-lived, empty affairs with people of both sexes, ending when she discards and kills them.
She published best-selling crime novels. It is suggested that the modus operandi of her murders includes using her novels as alibis, as people then assumed she would never be foolish enough to execute a crime she herself wrote about. She also makes a habit of befriending murderers, including Hazel Dobkins, an elderly woman who stabbed her husband and their children to death for no apparent reason, and Roxy, her lesbian lover, who killed her two younger brothers with a razor as a teenager.
Catherine Tramell appears as a brilliant, charismatic narcissist, who manipulates everyone around her, largely for her own amusement and enjoys killing people.
Best films
(1992)
(1993)Played by the actor
Filmography of Catherine Tramell (3 films)
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Basic Instinct 2 (2006)
, 1h50Directed by Michael Caton-Jones
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Horror, Crime, Romance, Erotic thriller
Themes Films about writers, Medical-themed films, Films about sexuality, Erotic films, Films about psychiatry, Erotic thriller films
Actors Sharon Stone, David Morrissey, David Thewlis, Charlotte Rampling, Hugh Dancy, Heathcote Williams
Rating44%
Set in London, the film opens with American best-selling author Catherine Tramell in a speeding car with her companion, Kevin Franks, a famous English football star. Tramell takes the man's hand and begins masturbating with it, all the while increasing her vehicle's speed. At the point of orgasm, Tramell veers off the road and crashes into the West India Docks in Canary Wharf. She attempts to save her partner but, as she says while being questioned by the police, "When it came down to it, I guess my life was more important to me than his".
Last Action Hero (1993)
, 2h10Directed by John McTiernan, Brian W. Cook, Vic Armstrong
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Thriller, Comedy, Comedy thriller, Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Crime
Themes Films about films
Actors Arnold Schwarzenegger, F. Murray Abraham, Charles Dance, Tom Noonan, Austin O'Brien, Art Carney
Rating64%
Danny Madigan is a teenage boy living in a crime-ridden area of New York City with his widowed mother Irene. To escape from his harsh reality, Danny often skips school to watch movies at the run-down Pandora movie theater, owned and managed by Danny's friend Nick. Nick receives the film reels for Jack Slater IV, the latest in one of Danny's favorite film series about the titular Los Angeles police detective and violent action hero, and offers to show it to Danny at a private screening just before the world premiere. To mark the occasion, Nick tears up a special ticket he received from Harry Houdini years ago, giving one half of the stub to Danny as a keepsake.
Basic Instinct (1992)
, 2h7Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Crime, Romance, Erotic thriller
Themes Assassinat, Films about writers, Feminist films, Medical-themed films, Psychologie, Films about drugs, Films about sexuality, Bisexuality-related films, Erotic films, LGBT-related films, Films about psychiatry, Political films, Erotic thriller films, LGBT-related films, LGBT-related film, Lesbian-related films
Actors Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, Jeanne Tripplehorn, George Dzundza, Ashlyn Gere, Denis Arndt
Rating70%
A retired rock star, Johnny Boz, is stabbed to death with an ice pick during sex by a mysterious blonde woman at his apartment. Homicide detective Nick Curran investigates, and the only suspect is Catherine Tramell, Boz's bisexual girlfriend and a crime novelist who has written a novel that mirrors the crime. It is concluded that Catherine herself did it or someone who is trying to frame her out of spite. Tramell is uncooperative and taunting in the investigation, smoking in the interrogation room and exposing her bare genitalia in front of the officers. She presents alibis and passes a lie detector test. Nick discovers that Catherine has a habit of befriending murderers, including her girlfriend Roxy, who is later shown to have murdered several young boys on impulse, and Hazel Dobkins, who murdered her family.