Catherine Tramell

Sharon Stone as Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct

Catherine Tramell is a fictional character, a psycho-killer, in the film Basic Instinct (1992) and its sequel, Basic Instinct 2 (2006). She is played by Sharon Stone in both films. In Basic Instinct, Tramell is the antagonist and love interest of washed-up detective Nick Curran.

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.

Character history

In Basic Instinct, Catherine Tramell was born in 1961. 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 UC, Berkeley, graduating magna cum laude in 1983. During her college years, her counsellor 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. 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 sociopath, who manipulates everyone around her, largely for her own amusement and enjoys killing people.

Tramell's victims in Basic Instinct 1

Prior to and during Basic Instinct, the following people met a violent death, almost all them killed by Catherine:

Name	Identity	Method	Supposed Motive
Deaths prior to Basic Instinct
Marvin and Elaine Tramell	Catherine's parents	boat explosion	to see if she could get away with it, inheritance
Noah Goldstein	Catherine's college counselor	stabbed with an ice pick	unknown
Manny Vásquez	Catherine's fiance	killed in the ring during a (possibly rigged) boxing match	N/A
Joseph Garner	Elizabeth Garner's husband	Shot during a drive-by shooting	to get back at Elizabeth
Deaths during Basic Instinct
Johnny Boz	boyfriend	Stabbed with an ice pick during sexual intercourse	to copy her novel and give herself an alibi
Roxy	Catherine's lesbian lover	Car accident while being pursued by Nick	N/A
Officer Martin Nilsen	SFPD Internal Affairs officer	Shot in the head	to put Nick in the same situation as her
Gus Moran	Nick's partner	Stabbed with an ice pick in an elevator	copying her newest book
Elizabeth Garner	Nick's former lover	Shot by Nick	N/A

A potential victim of hers is Nick Curran, who is almost stabbed during the film's final scenes. The ending is ambiguous: either Catherine retires from her criminal career for good or only postpones killing Nick. Incidentally, Nick Curran has disappeared by the second movie and like Dr. Chilton of The Silence of the Lambs, we never see his murder, but his death is more than probable. During an interview in Spain, Sharon Stone commented that "poor Nick is dead," implying with a swift stabbing motion that an ice pick was indeed used.

Basic Instinct 2

Sharon Stone as Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct 2 (Risk Addiction).

In the sequel, Basic Instinct 2, Tramell ultimately escaped justice when her psychiatrist gave insufficient evidence at court. The police then proceeded to investigate her following several more murders. In the end, she escaped justice once again when the real murderer, Dr. Glass, was apprehended for having shot the lead detective, Roy Washburn, in the line of duty. Tramell claims that she is not really the killer after all, but that she simply compelled Dr. Glass to follow his own 'basic instincts', for which a motive is provided for all of the murders via flashback or imagination.

Psychological diagnosis

In Basic Instinct 2, Tramell is diagnosed by Dr. Michael Glass as possessing a "risk addiction." He explains, "Inside I believe she vacillates between a feeling of god-like omnipotence and a sense that she simply doesn't exist, which of course is intolerable. I believe Ms. Tramell's behavior is driven by what we might call a risk addiction. A compulsive need to prove to herself that she can take risks and survive dangers that other people can't. Especially the subsequent encounters with the police, the powers that be. The greater the risk, the greater the proof of her omnipotence. Her existence really. All addiction is progressive, the addict will always need to take greater and greater risks. I suspect the only limit for her would be her own death."

Glass goes on to describe Tramell as "narcissistic" and a "pathological liar". Various characters throughout Basic Instinct 2 describe her as a psychopath.

External links

• Catherine Tramell at the Internet Movie Database
• French Basic Instinct Fansite