# Basic Instinct

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-instinct/969176>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** movies\
**Created:** [August 6, 2022, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-instinct/969176 "2022-08-06T05:11:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Dodgy\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7bcc69/32.png) [@Dodgy\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dodgy_Dude)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2022, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-instinct/969176/1 "2022-08-06T05:11:31Z")

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So who killed Johnny Boz at the start of the movie? Was it Catherine because she was nuts or was it Roxie because she was jealous?

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**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2022, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-instinct/969176/2 "2022-08-06T10:52:12Z")

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I’m not sure, because I didn’t quite make it that far, but there’s a fun story as to why.

I was in fifth grade, on a class field trip to Washington, D.C., staying in a hotel room with a few other people, including an adult chaperone, when _Basic Instinct_ came on. The sex scene started, and I saw some woman’s bare ass. I was eating a Mr. Goodbar candy bar, and started choking on it. Someone needed to give me the Heimlich. Then they turned the television into the corner so the adult could keep watching it and so I wouldn’t keep choking.

To this day, I haven’t seen more than, like, the first two minutes of the movie, though of course I am familiar with the crossing-legs scene because of pop culture.

Anyway… carry on!

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**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-instinct/969176/3 "2022-08-07T00:19:23Z")

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I feel like the movie heavily leaned toward Catherine, especially given something you see in the last scenes of the movie. But the movie is smart enough not to be 100% definitive.

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**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-instinct/969176/4 "2022-08-07T14:07:35Z")

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I don’t know. Parts of it were hard to follow, especially considering that when I saw it at a “second run” theater they showed two reels out of sequence. (The first clue was that a character, Mitch Peleggi’s, that we saw killed shows up alive.)

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**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-instinct/969176/5 "2022-08-07T14:43:04Z")

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> [@Maserschmidt](#):
>
> I feel like the movie heavily leaned toward Catherine, especially given something you see in the last scenes of the movie. But the movie is smart enough not to be 100% definitive.

I agree … but. Pretty sure it’s either Catherine or Roxy. As you say, the last scenes suggest it was her. But Catherine seems to be good as pushing others to do Bad Things. She seemed to have done that with Beth in the past.

Or it’s all just “Set up the sequel.” ambiguity.