Targets

Targets is a 1968 American psychological thriller film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Boris Karloff in what would prove to be his final screen appearance. The film tells the story of Bobby Merritt, a retired war veteran played by Boris Karloff, who lives a quiet and solitary life after being forced off the big screen by the changing film industry. Merritt is a legendary silent film and horror-movie actor, who was once a darling of the silver screen but has now slipped into obscurity. As Merritt tries to come to terms with his faded career, he begins to notice a strange connection to the current events unfolding in Los Angeles. A young man named Bobby Thompson, played by Tim O'Kelly, embarks on a rampage of random shootings, targeting people who seem to be mowing their lawns at the time when the clock strikes exactly 9:00 PM. The young man's motives for the shootings are unclear, and he leaves behind few clues to his identity. Bobby Merritt's life intersects with the shootings when he begins to watch news reports of the killings and discovers that the shootings are happening in places that were once the settings for some of his own films. As the number of victims grows, Merritt becomes increasingly unsettled by the eerie connection to his own life and career. One night, while watching a news broadcast about the shootings, Merritt spots a young man resembling Thompson leaving a gas station. He becomes convinced that the two shootings - his own dwindling film career and the random killings taking place around Los Angeles - are connected, and he sees himself as a symbol of a dying era in filmmaking. Bobby Merritt's obsession with the Thompson shootings drives him to investigate further. He tracks down the killer by following clues that he believes point to the locations of his own films. Along the way, Merritt comes across various characters, including the people who were once part of his social circle as a star in his youth, now reduced to watching his career from the fringes. As Merritt draws closer to uncovering the identity of the young killer, he finds himself at odds with the police. His fixation on the connection between his career and the shootings grows increasingly unhinged. Merritt begins to see himself as the true target of the killer, and in an act of desperation, he sets out to confront Thompson and his motivations. The connection between Bobby Merritt and the young man Bobby Thompson takes a darker turn when Merritt discovers a disturbing secret. The young killer has become enthralled by the older man's screen persona and sees him as an icon of the past. Thompson becomes fascinated by the idea of recreating some of Merritt's horror movie scenarios in real life, with the former's own life serving as a metaphor for the decay of civilization as depicted in the older man's films. As the investigation unfolds, it emerges that the young killer's obsession with the films of Bobby Merritt was more than a coincidental fascination with the film's genre. Thompson, a war veteran himself, had become disillusioned with the changing world around him and sought solace in the escapism offered by old horror movies. He sees Merritt's films as a representation of an authentic, pre-World War II America that has been irretrievably lost. The final confrontation between Bobby Merritt and the young Bobby Thompson takes place in a crowded movie theater. Merritt, driven by his fixation on the connection between his career and the killings, tracks down Thompson and confronts him. In the ensuing battle, Merritt is fatally shot during a recreation of a classic horror movie scene from his own films. Thompson, however, does not shoot Merritt as a target but rather as the embodiment of a fading era that he sees himself as trying to recreate and comment on through his own violence. In the end, the tragic confrontation serves as a poignant metaphor for the transience of fame and the decline of a bygone era. Through the story of Bobby Merritt and Bobby Thompson, Targets offers a nuanced exploration of the relationship between Hollywood and reality, as well as a stark critique of the voyeuristic impulse to witness violence in the name of entertainment.