The Bone Collector

1999 Directed by Phillip Noyce

Serial killer vs. forensic genius.

Rookie cop, Amelia Donaghy reluctantly teams with Lincoln Rhyme – formerly the department's top homicide detective but now paralyzed as a result of a spinal injury – to catch a grisly serial killer dubbed 'The Bone Collector'. The murderer's special signature is to leave tantalizing clues based on the grim remains of his crimes.

Denzel Washington Angelina Jolie Queen Latifah Michael Rooker Michael McGlone Luis Guzmán Leland Orser John Benjamin Hickey Bobby Cannavale Ed O'Neill Richard Zeman Olivia Birkelund Gary Swanson James Bulleit Frank Fontaine Zena Grey Desmond Campbell Peter Michael Dillon Ted Whittall Andy Bradshaw Steve Adams Christian Veliz Mercedes Gómez Mary C. Hammett Amanda Gay Larry Day Burke Lawrence Terry Simpson Eric Davis Show All…

Alternative Titles

Збирач кісток, Vlada strakhu, Sylléktis Ostón, Vlast' strakha, Kolektsionerŭt, Sakupljač kostiju, 神秘拼图

drama thriller mystery crime

118 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by harlequinade ⚡🥂💪 ★★★½ 20

Some people call films like Little Women and Pride & Prejudice "cozy" but for me that word is reserved for the films from the 90's. I just hate the way films look nowadays - that cinematography that makes everything look so perfect, artificial and cold and those sets that look so fake and not lived-in at all. It all looks so staged and you are so painfully aware of it.
My fav 90's movies? The thrillers. The shots of the city at night, the elegant soundtracks, the nostalgia when the outdated police technology is on the screen.
You gotta love how many films there were after Se7en trying to do what it did and all of them failing. Only Fincher can…
Review by ChandraKanth❄ ★★★★ 2

A well made serial killer thriller with great lead actors.
The reveal is unexpected, but not a great one.
Review by panos75 ★★½ 2

NYPD has a hard time catching a serial killer and turns to Lincoln Rhyme, a top detective who is now bedridden after a freak accident. He accepts and chooses as his assistant the female cop who discovered the latest victim.
Run-of-the-mill procedural drama which does little with its intriguing central idea that resembles a twisted buddy cop movie. The plot is shaky from the beginning and the revelation of the killer's identity and his motives is unintentionally funny. There is some inventive and gruesome stuff when it comes to the protagonists finding and solving the cryptic clues left behind, but overall there is a pervasive sense of "been there, done that".
Phillip Noyce does his best and the "Silence of…
Review by 𝑤𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑢𝑚 ★½

i gave you so many clues
yep i remember predicting the ending to this ten years ago and thought it was sooooo boring. i caught it early on tv today and yeah i still feel the same way. it’s your by-the-numbers thriller with cliches crammed out the ass. the dialogue is so bad and the killer jfc so laughable
denzel & angelina are obviously doing their best but it’s hard when everything is falling apart around them.
Review by Marquise! ★★★

David Fincher made such a iconic film with "Seven" that he had damn near every director in the 90s trying to replicate that same critical and financial success. It's been terrible attempts and it's been good attempts. The Bone Collector falls in that good category.
Review by Michael's Cinema Paradiso ★★½ 2

Afterthoughts: A wannabe-Se7en snoozefest.
Review by matt lynch ★★

Killer CGI Rat > Pizza Rat
Discussed on Episode 7 of The Suspense is Killing Us.
Review by Steve Robinson ★★★½ 2

I'm a big fan of detective fiction. James Patterson, Michael Connelly, Harlen Coben, Jo Nesbo and Henning Mankell all filling up my book shelves. One author I have yet to explore is Jeffrey Deaver who creates the character Lincoln Rhyme, the main character in this film. Knowing this I was intruiged and found it out on Sky Movies.
It's pretty good.
The negatives first. Pulpy detective books have been regularly turned into 2 hour movies and they usually become a moderate cinema success but that it all. It is rare that some of these best selling detective authors lead us to a moment of Hollywood brilliance and this film is another example of that. I'm hoping people are starting to…
Review by nick atkinson ★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

The acting was good but the events in the plot were repetitive and nothing really interesting happens. There are some gritty moments which I liked but they were nothing special.
The ending seemed like it wanted to be a ‘what the fuck’ moment but it took me a while to realise who the killer was after he revealed himself... I swear the guy hadn’t appeared in the movie since the first five minutes??? Oh well maybe I missed something.
You’ve seen far better gritty detective movies than this.
Review by chantal 🌱 ★★★

OK, but most importantly, have you guys seen Angelina Jolie's British Vogue cover? 🤩
Review by Sally Jane Black 2

I crave mysteries right now. It's comfort food, really. Something simple that's just enough to keep my mind occupied while I relax after a long day of whatever. Mostly this means rewatching a specific British crime show, but sometimes I yearn for something else. Hence, this garbage.
What we have is a strange mesh of copagandist rogue cop nonsense, forensic worship, and pointlessly personal stories that ruin what could have been an interesting mystery. We have a black woman who dies for no real narrative reason, a disabled cop who has to be a genius to be seen as human, and Angelina Jolie pretending to care about kids or something. It's simply not compelling enough to overcome its inherent awfulness being pro-cop, but then it adds a lot of dull, offensive tropes to the pile.
Review by ZombAid ★★★

Boring Work, Mediocre Movie Entry #CXXXIII:
8ight before Se7en.
Riding the high that Fincher created, this Cop-Thriller is somewhat interesting, but predictable. Not who it was, but everything how it's executed. Jolie and Washington do a fine job, but the ending is really something... Who thought of that? Schmaltzy Bullshit, that could've been cut completely. Such a dumb scene.

Recent reviews

Review by havidzjg ½

So many irrational details.
Review by rouch ★★★½

i watched this at 4 and ive never been in a taxi because of it thanks denzel Washington
Review by Sanealk ★★★½

A decent suspenseful thriller that tries to be Seven but fails. Although the cast is great and the final reveal is actually quite good and did surprise me.
Review by TaylorDS ★★★½

It’s laughable that this movie got only a 29% on RT. I like looking at it just for a reference, but shit, it’s hilarious to see what they think of pretty good movies. Being a Denzel fan, it’s hard to hate on one of his films. This one was so different. At first, I was kind of bummed that Denzel is bedridden, but after getting into at about 30 minutes, it made it more interesting. Forensics was a key factor, and Angelina Jolie was something special. Kind of slow at some parts, but I think every minute was worth it. I may be hyping this up for what it actually is, but I genuinely love movies like this. Making you think, being a thriller and suspense movie, and being one big puzzle.
Review by Aarón López ★★★★

Quiero aclarar que me vi obligado a ver esta película, estaba recorriendo uno de los locales en los que suelo comprar lo mamonamenta denominado como cinema, me encontré esta película que le gusta mucho a mi mamá, me dijo que quería que la viera y hasta ella la pagó, chido. Es una película muy interesante y que te pone a pensar un ratito, es de esas en las que quieres resolver el misterio antes del protagonista, Denzel Washington hace un muy buen papel, últimamente veo más películas donde el aparece y no cabe duda que es un gran actor, recomiendo mucho esta película, está buena e interesante.
Review by mallory ★★½

this shit was kinda freaky
Review by Arturo Martin ★★½

Entertaining police movie. Jolie is the leading role, and Denzel supports it, but somehow lacks punch
Review by Danterror ★★★★

This movie is about a police detective (or something like that), who one day have an accident and he ends up being invalid, and after many years he still works with a very technological bed, and one day he get the news that a murdered was committed, but with some very strange things that apparently are clues that the killer gave them, and apparently the killer say that there will be more murders, and now with the help of some other police officers and of the officer Amelia Donaghy, who discovered the first bodie, he will try to discover and stop the killer, following his clues with the help of the official Amelia.
The plot's not very original, it's almost…
Review by Gustavo Rezende ★

Cinema em Jacarepaguá/Rio de Janeiro
Review by Mizen ★★½

Don’t know if I’ve ever been more disappointed rewatching a film.
I vividly remember seeing this 10+ years ago on dvd, loving it and watching it again the same day. I had maybe seen it once since then but not in ages so was looking forward to watching it... this film is not good. The faux CSI crap is so overdone and just utter baloney - Denzel actually said “enhance” at point and I got dizzy from how hard I rolled my eyes. This was clearly trying to latch on to the Se7en hype and Denzel is good as ever, which boosts the film but i was so gutted that it wasn’t as good as I remember.
Review by shafaa ★★★½

film nya seru! ini dibikin series nya gt , series nya jg seru!
Review by KenDomo ★★★

Bones gotta collect them all