Patrick Bateman is a fictional character created by novelist Bret Easton Ellis. He is the villain protagonist and unreliable narrator of Ellis's 1991 novel American Psycho and is portrayed by Christian Bale in the film adaption American Psycho (2000).
Patrick Bateman's “killing” of Jared Leto's Allen in the American Psycho ending explained that it could be “real” since he ruined the career, livelihood, or life of a rival, and only Bateman's conscience was clear enough to see this as a monstrous act, with everyone around him writing it off as just good business.
Patrick Bateman's crimes were not a dream, at least not all of them, instead, the real message that both Herron and Eston Ellis wanted to convey was that a man of such social status could literally get away with murder.
This, combined with sex, violence, drugs, and other desires of the id, is how Bateman enacts his sociopathic violence in a superficial world. Bateman's episodes of schizophrenia also shows clear signs on how he copes with being an affluent person living in a superficial world, fashioned on consumerism.
Whose head is in Patrick Bateman's fridge? The woman who he picked up in the previous scene at the club with Bryce, where he did the cocaine in the back room.
This is a crucial moment to retrospectively understand everything in the film up until then. This scene highlights the expulsion and foreclosure of the real in 'Bateman's' psychotic symbolism, since it turns out that not only did 'Bateman' not kill Paul Allen, but 'Bateman's' real name is Davis!
'Feed Me A Stray Cat' Scene | American Psycho - YouTube. Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) attempts to murder a cat after following the instructions of an ATM, which leads to more killings.
Although Manhattan is a real place, American Psycho is a work of fiction and imaginary locations in the city are part of the story. An imaginary space is a space that is figurative, like a city in a book. To say that a space is imaginary is not to deny its relation to reality.
According to co-writer and director Mary Harron, Bale saw in Cruise "this very intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes," and Bale subsequently based the character of Bateman on that. Interestingly, Tom Cruise is actually featured in the novel.
Thankfully Patrick Bateman is purely fictional, and psychopaths are not the murderers they are perceived as in literature. Instead, those with ASPD succeed in business thanks to their mastery of maintaining a personal image and ability to manipulate others for personal gain.
In Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho, the protagonist, Patrick Bateman, is apparently simply a psychopath. However, Bateman can be diagnosed with other mental illnesses such as Asperger's syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, narcissism, and antisocial personality disorder.
Directed by Mary Harron and based on Bret Easton Ellis's 1991 novel of the same name, American Psycho follows Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), a wealthy New York City investment banking executive by day and a psychopathic serial killer with an eclectic music collection by night.
He displays a high functioning form of Asperger's syndrome, yet there are still symptoms present in Bateman of which even the highest functioning people with Asperger's syndrome cannot rid themselves. One of the key symptoms in Asperger's syndrome is the need for strict routine.
The bottom line: while it's clear some things that happen in the film are in Bateman's head (like the Feed Me a Stray Cat scene), the murders actually happened. I personally prefer that interpretation because I feel like making the entire movie a figment of Bateman's imagination lets him off the hook.
Bateman next kills a security guard and a janitor before hiding in his office. He calls his lawyer Harold Carnes and frantically leaves a confession on his answering machine, claiming to have killed 20–40 people and eaten some of them.
In "American Psycho", the "very expensive" sheets that Patrick Bateman stains with "cranberry juice" can only be purchased in Santa Fe. This is a reference to the Disney musical "Newsies" in which Bale's character desires to (and sings a song about) leave New York and move to Santa Fe.
He works for a company called Pierce and Peirce, a major financial firm owned by his father. He talks about how hate his job but when asked why he does not just quit, he says he just wants to fit in with other people.
TL;DR: Patrick Bateman has a mental disorder caused by lifelong conflict-of-interests with his father. He doesn't actually kill anyone in the film; all the murders take place in his sleep, but they're vivid enough dreams that he can't separate them from reality.
His transgressive third novel, 'American Psycho', was the one that truly propelled him into the spotlight. Upon its release, it was widely condemned as being too graphically violent, outright misogynistic and got him labelled as a sadist.
It's made clear there is no "top" to Bateman. There is only becoming more successful than the previous day. Therefore, Bateman would be a Sigma in that regard. In American Psycho's first act, Bateman makes it known to his fiancée that he wishes to conform to society as best he can, unlike his other roles.
