Trama

A wealthy New York City investment banking executive, Patrick Bateman, hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.

It's the late 1980s. Twenty-seven year old Wall Streeter Patrick Bateman travels among a closed network of the proverbial beautiful people, that closed network in only they able to allow others like themselves in in a feeling of superiority. Patrick has a routinized morning regimen to maintain his appearance of attractiveness and fitness. He, like those in his network, are vain, narcissistic, egomaniacal and competitive, always having to one up everyone else in that presentation of oneself, but he, unlike the others, realizes that, for himself, all of these are masks to hide what is truly underneath, someone/something inhuman in nature. In other words, he is comprised of a shell resembling a human that contains only greed and disgust, greed in wanting what others may have, and disgust for those who do not meet his expectations and for himself in not being the first or the best. That disgust ends up manifesting itself in wanting to rid the world of those people, he not seeing them as people but only of those characteristics he wants to rid.—Huggo

Patrick Bateman is handsome, well educated and intelligent. He is twenty-seven and living his own American dream. He works by day on Wall Street, earning a fortune to complement the one he was born with. At night he descends into madness, as he experiments with fear and violence.—Lion Films

In 1987, wealthy New York investment banker Patrick Bateman's (Christian Bale) life revolves around dining at trendy restaurants while keeping up appearances for his fiance Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon) and for his circle of wealthy and shallow associates, most of whom he dislikes. Bateman describes the material accouterments of his lifestyle, including his daily morning exercise and beautification routine. He also discusses his music collection, with performers such as Huey Lewis and the News, Phil Collins, and Whitney Houston. His focus on a lavish lifestyle is also evident by his taste in expensive designer clothing and his luxurious apartment. Bateman is having an affair with Evelyn' friend Courtney (Samantha Mathis), while Evelyn is having an affair with Bateman's coworker Timothy (Justin Theroux). Courtney is engaged to Bateman's other colleague Luis Carruthers (who is slightly gay).

Bateman and his associates flaunt their business cards in a display of vanity. Enraged by the superiority of co-worker Paul Allen's (Jared Leto) card, Bateman murders a homeless man and kills the man's dog. At a Christmas party, Bateman makes plans to have dinner with Paul, with Paul mistaking Bateman for another coworker, Marcus Halberstram (Anthony Lemke). Bateman gets Paul drunk and lures him back to his apartment. While playing "Hip to Be Square" on the stereo, explaining to Paul his opinion and interpretation of the song, Bateman murders Paul with an ax, donning a raincoat moments before, to keep blood off of his clothes. He disposes of Paul's body, then goes to Paul's apartment to stage the situation so that others believe Paul has run off to London.

Bateman is later interviewed about Paul's disappearance in his office by private detective Donald Kimball (Willem Dafoe), hired by Paul's family. During the night, Bateman takes two prostitutes, whom he names Christie (Cara Seymour) and Sabrina (Krista Sutton), to his apartment and explains to them the improvement he saw in the band Genesis after they moved away from progressive rock toward a more pop rock sound beginning with the album Duke. After they have sex, Bateman tells them to stay, while taking out instruments he uses for torture. In the next scene, the prostitutes leave his apartment bruised and bloodied. In the entire sequence, Bateman makes sure that he introduces himself as Paul Allen.

The next day, Bateman's colleague Luis Carruthers (Matt Ross) reveals his new business card. Bateman tries to kill Luis in the restroom of an expensive restaurant but cannot bring himself to strangle him. Luis mistakes the attempted murder for a sexual advance and declares his love for Bateman, who flees in disgust. After murdering a model, Bateman invites his secretary, Jean (Chloë Sevigny), to dinner, suggesting she meet him at his apartment for drinks beforehand. When Jean arrives, Bateman, unbeknownst to her, holds a nail gun to the back of her head while the two converse. When he receives an answering machine message from his fiance, he asks Jean to leave. Kimball meets Bateman for lunch and tells him he is not under suspicion.

Bateman has a threesome with his friend Elizabeth (Guinevere Turner) and Christie at Paul's apartment. Bateman kills Elizabeth during sex, and Christie runs, discovering multiple female corpses as she searches for an exit. She is chased by a naked Bateman wielding a chainsaw, and as she is running down the stairs of Paul's apartment building, is killed by the chainsaw which Bateman drops from several levels above her.

Bateman breaks off his engagement with Evelyn. That night, as he uses an ATM, he finds a stray kitten; the ATM displays the text "feed me a stray cat". As he prepares to shoot the cat, a woman sees him and tries to stop him; he shoots her and lets the cat go free. A police chase ensues, but Bateman destroys the police cars by shooting their gas tanks. Fleeing to his office, Bateman enters the wrong office building, where he murders a security guard and a janitor. In an office he believes to be his, Bateman calls his lawyer Harold (Stephen Bogaert) and frantically leaves a lengthy confession on Harold's answering machine.

The following morning, Bateman visits Paul's apartment, expecting it to be full of decomposing bodies and in the middle of a police investigation, but it is vacant and for sale. The real estate broker tells him to leave. As Bateman goes to meet with his colleagues and lawyer for lunch, a horrified Jean finds detailed drawings of murder, mutilation, and sexual assault in Bateman's office journal.

Bateman sees Harold at a restaurant and tries to convince him that he is a serial killer relating to the phone message he left the other night. Harold mistakes Bateman for another colleague and laughs off the phone message confession as a joke, saying he had dinner with Paul in London days earlier. A confused Bateman returns to his friends and in a final voice-over narration, he realizes he will continue to escape the punishment he deserves, that there has been no catharsis: "This confession has meant nothing".