A well-respected businessman is sometimes controlled by his murder and mayhem-loving alter ego.
Earl Brooks is a highly-respected businessman who was recently named Portland's Man of the Year. He hides a terrible secret, though: he is a serial killer known as the Thumbprint Killer. He has been attending AA meetings and has kept his addiction to killing under control for two years now but his alter-ego Marshall has re-appeared and is pushing him to kill again. When he does kill a couple while they are making love, he is seen and photographed by someone who has his own death and murder fetish. In a parallel story, the police detective investigating the murder is having her own problems: she is going through a messy divorce, and a violent criminal who had vowed revenge some years before has escaped from prison and is after her.—garykmcd
Earl Brooks is a well-respected businessman in Portland, Oregon. Seemingly, the biggest issue in his life is the unexpected return of his spoiled daughter Jane Brooks from her freshman year in college with the announcement that she's dropping out. But the biggest issue in his life is that he is a serial killer who targets young couples in the act of making love. He is coined the Thumbprint Killer because he leaves thumbprints of the victims at the scene using their own blood. Earl knows he has a problem, that the urge to kill is a compulsion. He is constantly being egged on by a voice in his head he calls Marshall. The only way he has been able to manage his "addiction" is to attend AA meetings, which resulted in two years without a murder. Detective Tracy Atwood, the lead police investigator, is going through her own problems: an heiress worth $60 million, she is going through a messy divorce and her philandering almost-ex is demanding millions in the settlement. His and his lawyer's contention is that the settlement is for emotional distress from her job, especially as Thorton Meeks, a violent criminal she put behind bars, has recently escaped, vowing revenge. As Tracy decides how to handle her divorce, which could place her current cases in jeopardy, Earl has his own emerging problems. First, he is being blackmailed by a man calling himself Mr. Smith, who has photographic evidence of Earl being the Thumbprint Killer. And second, he eventually learns the real reason why Jane returned home. These two issues, plus learning whatever he can about Tracy, lead to what he considers the best decision for his life.—Huggo
In Portland, philanthropic businessman and family man Mr. Earl Brooks has been just elected Man of the Year. Mr. Brooks manages his factory of packages, lives in a comfortable house with his gorgeous wife Emma, and has a rebel daughter Jane in college. However, Mr. Brooks has a dark secret: he is a psychopath serial killer also known as The Thumbprint Killer with an alter-ego called Marshall and addicted to killing. For two years, Mr. Brooks has attended AA meetings and kept his addiction under control. However, Marshall returns and forces him to kill a couple who are making love in their home with open curtains. The next day, Jane returns home without her BMW, and a man named Mr. Smith (Dane Cook) visits Mr. Brooks in his factory with pictures of him on the crime scene; he is blackmailed and the man requests to participate in a murder. Meanwhile, the wealthy detective Tracy Atwood is having a troubled moment in her life: she has been investigating the murders of The Fingerprint Killer; is facing her former husband Jesse Vialo in a complicated divorce process; and is chased by violent criminal Thorton Meeks who has escaped from prison and promised to kill her. When Tracy visits the crime scene, she suspects that Mr. Smith is an eyewitness of the murder and presses him, and their fates entwine with that of Mr. Brooks.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Earl Brooks (Kevin Costner) is a wealthy, successful businessman recently honored by the Portland, Oregon Chamber of Commerce as "Man of the Year." In his secret life, Brooks is a serial killer, known as the "Thumbprint Killer." Brooks has abstained from murder for the past two years by attending 12 step meetings for addicts to cope with his killing addiction. He feels the compulsion to kill rising again, however, as his alter ego, Marshall (William Hurt) becomes more insistent. Brooks, to satisfy his addiction, kills a couple while they are having sex in their apartment and, as part of his plan, leaves each of the victims' bloody thumbprints on a lampshade. Brooks follows his meticulous mode of operations, including fastidious preparation and cleaning up the crime scene, even locking the doors before departing. Marshall then notices that the couple's curtains were open.
Brooks' daughter Jane (Danielle Panabaker) unexpectedly arrives home, having dropped out of college in Palo Alto, California. She visits Brooks at work and mentions that she would like to get a job with his company. The same day, "Mr. Smith" (Dane Cook) turns up at Brooks' work and blackmails him with photographs of Brooks at the most recent murder. He demands that Brooks take him along on a murder; reluctantly, Brooks agrees. Mrs. Brooks (Marg Helgenberger) reveals that Jane dropped out of college because she is pregnant. The Brookses are then visited by detectives from Palo Alto who want to interview Jane about a hatchet murder committed in her former dorm building. Marshall and Brooks realize that Jane committed the murder and consider letting her go to jail to "save her" from becoming like them. Eventually, however, Brooks uses an alternate identity, flies to Palo Alto, and commits a similar murder to make it appear as if a serial killer is loose, thereby exonerating Jane.
Brooks decides that he no longer wants to kill, but knows that he cannot stop himself. Not wanting to be caught and shame his family, Brooks concocts a plan where he will write a note to his family claiming to be terminally ill, and leave, never to return. Brooks researches the background of the police officer chasing the Thumbprint Killer, Detective Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore), and discovers she's in the middle of a messy divorce from Jesse Vialo (Jason Lewis). Brooks decides that Vialo and his lawyer (Reiko Aylesworth) will be Smith's first "victims". At the scene of the Vialo murder, Smith urinates in a fit of panic, leaving his DNA for the police to discover later. While driving away from the scene, Smith pulls a gun on Brooks, which Brooks and Marshall had predicted would happen. Brooks explains his plan to Smith, who agrees to kill Brooks. Brooks takes Smith to a cemetery he owns, and explains that they will find an open grave; Smith will shoot Brooks and then cover him with just enough dirt to mask the body. The next day, a casket will be lowered into the grave and covered, and Brooks' body will never be discovered.
Smith attempts to shoot Brooks, but Brooks reveals that, at some point prior, he had broken into Smith's apartment and bent the firing pin on Smith's pistol, rendering it inoperable on the off-chance that Brooks would change his mind. Brooks' brush with death makes him realize he wants to see his grandchild, and he turns on his would-be murderer, slitting Smith's throat with a shovel. With Smith's urine providing the only DNA evidence of the Thumbprint Killer at a murder scene, Brooks will remain undetected.Mr. Smith is named as the Thumbprint Killer and Brooks returns to his normal life. Knowing he is in the clear, Brooks calls Detective Atwood, whom he has come to admire, to ask her why she is a police officer. She replies that her wealthy father had wanted a boy, and she wanted to succeed in spite of him. Atwood is unable to trace the call before Brooks hangs up, but she realizes that the Thumbprint Killer is still at large. That night Brooks has a nightmare in which Jane kills him, suggesting that he fears Jane will become like him.
