Name this 80s or 90s thriller that ends with (billboard?) SOS on rooftop

October 18, 2023 9:07 AM

I'm fuzzy on the details, but I believe theres a female protagonist who's drawn to a mysterious attractive man who turns out to be the bad guy. After inviting him into her home, he eventually attacks her, and the ensuing pursuit takes them to a rooftop where she improvises a signal for help by flashing a large billboard on and off.

It might be a billboard on the rooftop, or it might be a similar large light of some sort that can be seen from afar. She either flashes it (as if sending morse code) or possibly just switches it on, which is understood by the receiving end to mean she's in trouble. A third character whose involvement I've forgot comes to her rescue.

The bad guy might have a foreign mystique and possibly long hair, but I don't feel confident about that detail.

I would estimate the movie to be late 80s/early 90s, but it could span both decades, or possibly even scratch the year 2000 if my memory is particularly far off.

I know it's not much to go by, but I hope someone will give it a shot. I've exhausted several searches on IMDB using keywords like "billboard" and "rooftop" in the thriller, action, and drama genres to no avail.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

posted by Megnusin to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age meets some of this... the billboard/being trapped/calling rescuers for the big finale.

But I'm also wondering if I read that with Snow Crash, too close together and too long ago, so that both are mushing together in my head.
posted by adekllny at 11:40 AM on October 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Not an exact match, but could it be the 1995 movie Copycat, starring Sigourney Weaver? There's a scene where the killer has invaded her house (she's severely agoraphobic) and she signals for help by making the giant louvered shutters on her big apartment windows open and shut. She's later kidnapped out of her apartment but manages to escape the killer only to be cornered a rooftop.
posted by ninazer0 at 2:19 PM on October 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

this is probably not it but They Live has elements adjacent to this
posted by crime online at 6:51 PM on October 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you for all the answers. It's remarkle how similar the scene in Copycat is to what I described. I had to take a moment to consider my sanity, but I still don't think it's the movie I'm looking for. I distinctly remember the protagonist being trapped on a highrise-style rooftop, and the billboard/big light was prominently featured, maybe even shown earlier to establish the location or as foreshadowing. Copycat looks like another good 90s thriller, however, and I remember having that same thought when I first watched the trailer on my search for the other movie years back. Not surprisingly, Copycat came up as one of the search results then. I'll have to take a moment to sit down and finally watch it sometime.
posted by Megnusin at 7:58 PM on October 21, 2023