The Huge Success Of Gillian Flynn's Novel, Gone Girl

On June 5, 2012, Gillian Flynn’s novel “Gone Girl” was published and soon after hit number 1 on the New York Time’s Best Seller list. The books popularity led to the movie release of Gone Girl on October 3, 2014, and holds an Oscar nomination for the 2015 Oscars. Gone Girl is a mystery thriller that sends the viewers on paths unimaginable. The main character Nick Dunne, played by Ben Affleck, and his wife Amy Dunne, played by Rosamund Pike, reside in North Carthage, Missouri. The morning of Nick and Amy’s fifth wedding anniversary, Nick comes home to the door wide open, a broken glass table in the living room, and his wife nowhere to be found. Concerned, Nick calls the local police to come out and investigate his home. Detective Rhonda Boney

Now Nick has the impossible job of proving to everyone that he is innocent. He hires one of the best defense attorneys in the Nation, Tanner Bolt, and then sign on to do an interview to convince America he is no murderer. In the interview he admits to his wrongs and begs for forgiveness in order to convince Amy he is still in love with her and to come home. Lucky for him she is watching with her stalker turned lover Desi Collings. After seeing Nick she decides she wants to be with him but Desi is in the way of her leaving. Amy, being the psychopath she is, creates another fake scenario that she is being held against her will at Desi’s lake house. She acts for the security cameras faking her being tied up, takes a jagged bottle and proceeds to make it look as though she has been brutally raped, and then for the final piece of work to complete her story, she has sex with Desi and slits his throat with a box cutter she has hidden under the bed pillow. Now that she is finally “free” she shows up at her house and falls into Nick’s arms. Everyone is in disbelief, especially Nick and Detective

This battle was against the Greek city-state of Sparta ruled by Leonidas, played by Gerard Butler, against the Persian King Xerxes. Although there are some historical inaccuracies between the actual battle and the movie it does not take away from the fierce reputation of the Spartans. Leonidas’s first encounter with the Persian messenger was anything but civil. The messenger insulted Gorgo, the Queen, and, “asked for ‘earth and water’ as a token of submission; all states obliged except for Athens and Sparta” (300: The Battle at Thermopylae, Fact Behind The Fiction). Leonidas held the messenger accountable and kicked him into a very deep pit. This adds to the image of hardness the King has created. Rose to fight Leonidas fought with other Spartans learning how to defeat appoints. In order to prove he was the next King he was sent out into the mountains as a boy to fend for himself, he was met by a beast of a wolf. Defending himself he slaughtered the beast and traveled back to Sparta ready to take his rightful place on the throne. All the events in his life lead up to the unavoidable fight that needed to take place in order to defend his country and men. Before going to war, Leonidas needed to have the blessing of the God’s and to get it he needed to visit the oracles on the mountain. He went to war without favor of the God’s and was told he would not win this war, but he did not care. Leonidas