Bone Daddy

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Bone Daddy (also known as Palmer's Bones and L'affaire Palmer) is a 1998 Canadian-American crime thriller film directed by Mario Azzopardi and starring Rutger Hauer and Barbara Williams. The film has become a cult classic due to the graphic bone removal scenes.^[1][2][3][4]

Premise

Doctor Palmer, a former pathologist, wrote a fictional book based on his real cases. In the book, the madman gets caught, but in reality he is still uncaught. After the book is released, Palmer's editor is kidnapped. Palmer soon is sent a present containing a page of his book, and a bone from his editor. Together with the police, Palmer tries to find his editor, who might still be alive. In addition, his own son becomes one of the main suspects.

Synopsis

The film opens with Rocky Carlson (Bill Palmers sleazy agent) checking into a Chicago hotel and discussing on the phone the success of Palmer's novel Bone Daddy. The fictional novel is based on the real murders that took place in Chicago and the killer was never caught. Palmer being knowledgeable about the subject due to his position as chief medical examiner for the city. Someone bashes Carlson over the head. We next see a copy of Bone Daddy and the cover is being sliced angrily with a scalpel in an abandoned boathouse.

We cut to Palmer at a book signing being pulled away by Phil Tarnower (PR agent) heading to his son's celebration party. They can't get a hold of Rocky so they head to the hotel to find the room empty and the phone off the hook. A housekeeper is in the room cleaning when she notices a bone on the bed. Embarrassed she quickly tosses it in the garbage explaining fried chicken is a popular room service order. Palmer takes a second look and discovers it is a human finger bone. We jump to Palmer at the police station wanting to investigate but is told he will be paired with officer Sharon Hewlitt (she looks displeased) and he is given strict instructions that he is just a consultant on the case. Hewlitt and Palmer share tense words about working together, Palmer has a reputation for being prickly and grouchy among the precinct. The two head to Peter's party celebrating him landing his father's former job of Chief Medical examiner. Hewlitt offends Palmer but insinuating nepotism. Palmer walks off and exchanges friendly banter with his ex-wife, Peter's mother, Kim as they watch him open various gifts around the guests. The celebration comes to a halt when Peter opens a box with a bloody skeletal foot and tibia bone and the words "Bone daddy" and "here's your agent". Palmer, Peter, and Hewlitt head to the M.E. office and discover the bones were removed from a still living victim.

We then cut to Rocky strapped to a table. His right leg is lifted slightly by a mysterious pair of hands and it is like jello without bones. His other pant leg is cut, while he begs, his other tibia and all foot bones removed. Reporters are swarming the precinct halls while Palmer, Hewlitt, and Tarnower fight their way through. Hewlitt reviews old headlines on microfilm reader and suggest revisiting old suspects, such as the Assistant Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Morten Franz. Another Medical Examiner, Marshall Stone tells Hewlitt that Franz was jealous of Palmer because he was smarter and Palmer also had an affair with Franz's wife. Palmer also wrote that the fictional killer in Bone Daddy was a medical examiner.

The next day Peter's children rush out to the car with their mother Leslie trailing behind. They find a tibia on the hood of the car. Their mother rushes them inside to call the police. Palmer and Hewlitt get little information from the evidence collected at the scene. Palmer heads down to the morgue. Peter is sewing up a cadaver and Palmer criticizes Peter's stitching, angering Peter. He recounts how his father was rarely around and never took interest in him following in his footsteps until now and he put his mother (Kim) through pain while being absent and his infidelity.

Palmer goes to meet with Stone to play chess and tells him he regrets writing the book. Stone assures him he can handle the guilt. Hewlitt thinks Peter has motive to commit these crimes to frame his father. The chief of police, Cobb, doesn't buy it. We briefly cut to Rocky on the table, looking more gelatinous from his lack of bones but still alive. Next we see Palmer in his office. He misses a call from Peter who leaves a message about making amends but he one roll over and just forgive his father. The phones rings against immediately after the message ends and Palmers answers expecting Peter but it is a disguised voice, the Bone Daddy. Palmer continues to talk and manages to record the conversation until the killer says he is planning the same fate Rocky faced for Hewlitt. Palmer hangs up, scrambles through some drawers for a gun and rushes to Hewlitt's home. Meanwhile, Hewlitt is at home alone and her cat wailing draws her outside where she stumbles onto Rocky's body just as Palmer burst through the backdoor. As police and paramedics show up, Hewlitt sits inside looking vacant and in shock.

The next day Cobb says she needs to be off the case and take a breather for a couple days. Hewlitt runs into an interrogation room and Palmer follows. Hewlitt reveals she was married when she joined the force and shortly after became pregnant but lost her baby because she continued working and chased a suspect without back up. The suspect kicked her stomach and she lost her baby and her husband. They head to the chess hall where Hewlitt is reading a passage and asks if Palmer feels responsible for the murders. She asks about Franz and Palmer says he was into math and was a drinker. She asks about Franz's wife and Palmer is about to explain the affair but he is interrupted by Turnower. Turnower denies Palmer's request to pull the book from the shelves but Palmer then fires him.

Hewlitt and Palmer head to Franz's home where his son, Mort Jr., greets them with hostility. He eventually lets them in and Franz has lost him mind, consistently counting his fingers. Mort Jr. bitterly had to drop out of medical school to take care of his parents after his father lost his job when he was accused of murder. He yells at them to leave and Palmer asks how Mort Jr's mother is. Palmer receives a well deserved punch to the face while Mort Jr. says she left and couldn't take Franz's deteriorating mind and calling Palmer a caner. The two drive off and Palmer admits he was in love with Franz's wife but she left him. Kim and Palmer divorced and he quit his job to start writing.

Cut to Leslie (Peter's wife) and the kids walking into Peter's home where it looks like they have been robbed. Palmer and Hewlitt arrive looking for clues and Palmer finds news paper clippings of the old murders and the same book previously seen in the beginning being cut with a scalpel in Peter's office. The book is missing multiple pages, pages being used to wrap the bones.

Palmer heads to the morgue and with help from Trent (an assistant) he compares the stitches on Rocky to Peter's stitches he was previously criticizing on another corpse earlier. They are not a match. He then searches body after body checking all the stitching. They find a match to the killers. Meanwhile, Hewlitt and the forensic scientist are trying to descramble the voice from Palmers recorded call while Palmer is already on the way to the killer. They descramble and recognize the voice. We cut to the killers lair with Peter strapped to a table and it is revealed to be Marshall Stone. Offended that Palmer made a mockery of what he considers his masterful string of kills by writing a fluffed fictional crime novel he came back to take revenge. Stone sticks Peter with poison before Palmer bursts in. Stone calmly waits and tries to cut Palmer with a knife but is tossed to the side. Hewlitt runs in at that point and Stone stabs her from behind. Palmer then tackles Stone and they fall through the floor boards to a lower level of the boat house with pipes. as the two struggle the pipes burst around them, eroding the dirt and revealing the past victims of Stone. Palmer knocks him out and leaves him to drown. He climbs out and goes to help Peter. Just them Stone pops out of nowhere and stabs Palmer while he tries to carry Peter out. Hewlitt shoots Stone and he falls back into the pit. Police arrive on the scene for their rescue. We end on a night shot of the Chicago river line.

Cast

• Rutger Hauer as Palmer
• Barbara Williams as Sharon
• R. H. Thomson as Stone
• Joseph Kell as Peter
• Robin Gammell as Cobb
• Blu Mankuma as Trent
• Mimi Kuzyk as Kim
• Wayne Best as Rodman
• Daniel Kash as Rocky
• Peter Keleghan as Tarnower
• Kirsten Bishop as Leslie
• Kyra Azzopardi as Mark
• Michael Caruana as Hurwitz
• Dean McDermott as Mort Jr.

References

External links

• Bone Daddy at IMDb
• Bone Daddy at Rotten Tomatoes
• Bone Daddy Overview at The New York Times