Directed by Niels Arden Oplev, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” (2009) spends a great deal of intellectual effort in putting together a strong case against biblical literalism. A girl from an infamous Nazi family goes missing, and her disappearance leads us to a serial killer who takes ideas from the Bible to torture and kill Jewish women. The killer keeps a catalogue of crimes against women: he not only kills them, but maims them, stones them, crucifies them, and burns them.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Swedish Journalist Mikael Blomkvist of Millennium, the leftist journal, writes splashy, defamatory articles on billionaire Hans-Erik Wennerström and gets his long, prestigious career jeopardised. Blomkvist is sentenced to three months in prison, in addition to paying a fine of 150,000 Swedish krona. On the other hand, Lisbeth Salander is tasked with prying into Blomkvist’s personal life. On Christmas, Blomkvist gets a call, bringing in the news of Henrik Vanger wanting the former to meet him at his estate. Henrik shows Mikael a photo of his niece, Hariet, and asks if he remembers her.
Hariet and Mikael bonded when the former was a little toddler and his family lived in the estate. Henrik believes Hariet was murdered by one of his kin. Hariet disappeared shortly after the meeting of the Vanger family to split the money. He shows Blomkvist the last footage of Hariet standing by the window of the estate. Henrik shows Blomkvist his hallway walls, plastered with pressed flowers in frames. In 1958, Hariet gifted Henrik a pressed bluebell flower. Every year thereafter, Henrik has received a flower on his birthday. The flowers come in the mail from all over the world. Henrik is certain that this act is a deed of the murderer.
Vanger Family Tree: Secrets, shame, and deceit
On 2nd September, 1966, sixteen-year-old Harriet had gone to watch the parade on Main Street. After attending the parade, she returned to the island and wanted to talk to Henrik about something, but could not as Henrik was busy with the meeting. However, before Henrik could listen to her, she disappeared. Henrik shows Blomkvist a photo that came out in the local paper, where Harriet could be seen watching the parade from the sidelines. There is also footage of an accident that caused a huge traffic jam. Both sides of the bridge were closed, which made it impossible for anyone to leave the island. A camera captured the crowd and the Vanger mansion, where Harriet was seen last before her disappearance.
Henrik’s brothers, Richard and Harald, were actively partaking in the Nazi movement in the 1930s. Gottfried Vanger, Henrik’s brother and Harriet’s father, was even involved in the Hitler Youth, the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. While Richard died in the Finnish war, Harold reached old age as a hostile, bitter, and isolated man. Harold and his daughter, Cecilia, no longer share a cordial bond. Cecilia’s sister, Anita, died due to cancer. Martin, Harriet’s brother, lives close by and has taken over the Vanger Companies as the head. In a family full of megalomaniacs, only Henrik seemed to be kind to Harriet and Martin. In Gottfried’s cabin, Blomkvist finds Harriet’s Bible.
The flyleaf contains some names and initials with mysterious numbers beside them. Detective Gustav Morell advises Blomkvist to step away from the case, as he will find nothing, and instead feed the four-decade-long obsession of Henrik. In the archives, Blomkvist finds more photographs that captured Harriet enjoying the Children’s Day parade. In successive photographs, Harriet’s face changes from being joyful to grim, as she looks away from the street and directly into the camera, directed towards her from across the road.
How is Lisbeth Salander connected to the case?
Lisbeth, who has been assigned the task of hacking into the computer of Blomkvist, notices him progressing with the case. She has access to the personal diary of Harriet that is stored on Blomkvist’s computer and the case photographs. She asks for a new computer from her new guardian, Nils Bjurman. However, Nils is not as benign as he projects himself to the outside world; he sexually assaults Lisbeth multiple times.
Lisbeth later decodes the codes that Harriet left on the flyleaf of the Bible and sends them to Blomkvist under the pseudonym ‘Wasp’. The middle two digits stand for the Leviticus chapter number, and the last two digits stand for the verse number. In all of these passages of the Bible, ‘wayward’ women have been advised to be killed. When Blomkvist is puzzled by the mail, Dirch Frode, Henrik Vanger’s lawyer, gives away Lisbeth’s involvement.
Blomkvist reaches Lisbeth’s apartment and ropes her in for the case. Blomkvist brings her to the Vanger estate and lets her stay in his cabin to carry out the investigation smoothly. It is Lisbeth who suggests that the codes that direct to Biblical verses have nothing to do with Harriet’s religious proclivities. Instead, she says, they might be codes.
This brings them to the case of Sara Witt, who was found tortured and murdered in her family’s barn, due to what seemed like a ritual offering. In Harriet’s Bible, Sara’s name was written beside the code Leviticus Chapter 20, Verse 16. Soon, the past of another name is dug up. Magda is connected to Leviticus Chapter 1, Verse 12. The police photos show the decapitated, dead body of a woman with fat from her buttocks cut out.
Who is the woman in the window?
Blomkvist’s faint memory from his childhood resurfaces. He can recall a woman wearing a yellow stone locket. Till this point, he believed that it was Harriet who owned the locket. When he notices Cecilia wearing the locket, he accuses her of stealing it from Harriet. An upset Cecilia claims that it was Anita’s locket. Blomkvist can now recall that he was in fact babysitted by two girls, cousins Harriet and Anita. It was Anita who was caught standing by the window in the footage.
Who is BJ?
Of all the names written on the flyleaf, BJ seemed to bear special significance to Harriet. Rebecca Jacobson, also called Becca, was an employee of the Vanger Corporation. Morrel reveals that she had been the secretary for Gottfried. Mikael cracks that all five names of the women are Jewish, and all the killings are racist, ritualistic killings. All fingers point to Harold, who was the only Nazi family member alive at the time of Harriet’s disappearance. It was Harold who, in all probability, attempted to shoot him.
How is the killer caught?
As Mikael breaks into Harold’s house, Lisbeth dives deeper into the local archives. Henrik, being old-fashioned in his business practices, has preserved every receipt and physical document carefully. This helps Lisbeth deduce that Gottfried and Martin are linked to the murders. She even unearths an old photo from the archive where Gottfried Vanger can be seen posing in front of the Vanger Corporation offices with other businessmen, accompanied by Martin. Martin can be seen wearing the same blue sweater as the mysterious man in the photo of the parade day. The photo of the parade day from the other side of the street was taken by a couple on their honeymoon. Mikael tracked down the woman and got the photo from her.
After Harold turns violent, Martin comes to the rescue of Mikael. He gets him freed and invites him to his house for a drink. Mikael tells Martin that Harriet sniffed out a handful of murders and found a pattern between them, which is why she was killed. As Martin realises that Mikael has found out about his secret, he takes him hostage in his underground torture chamber. Martin is a Neo-Nazi with a disturbing amount of loathing for women. He recounts the murders he undertook with an overweening pride. However, before he could kill Harriet, she disappeared. Martin, however, is beaten up by Lisbeth, who manages to reach him just in time. When Martin tries to flee in his car, Lisbeth pursues him on her motorcycle. It all ends tragically for Martin, who drives into a tanker that explodes and gets charred alive in his car.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2009) Movie Ending Explained:
Who killed Harriet Vanger?
Towards the end, we find out that Martin did not kill Harriet. In fact, Harriet had never died. Before leaving, Lisbeth receives a mail from her accomplice, Plague. In the mail, Plague notes that there have been two Anita Vangers in existence. One who died twenty years ago, and the other who settled in Australia in 1966. This is Harriet. Martin brings her back to Henrik. Harriet spills out the events that contributed to her leaving not only the estate but the country. In attempts to escape her abusive father, she killed him by making him drown. However, turning to the brother was not an option, as he was even more abusive. Anita helped Harriet escape by driving her away from the island.
