Wait What: Why is it called Murder by Numbers When There Are No Numbers?

Welcome to “Wait, What?,” a recurring column in which we examine confusing or incoherent details in crime movies.

I say this just having watched Murder by Numbers… why is it called Murder by Numbers? This movie has nothing to do with numbers. Forget murdering by numbers… I’ve never seen a movie that has less to do with numbers of any kind than Murder by Numbers.

I’m talking about the 2002 film starring Sandra Bullock, Ryan Gosling, Michael Pitt, and Ben Chaplin. The story is about two wealthy high school kids—the popular and charming Richie Heywood (Ryan Gosling) and the morose and scholarly Justin Pendleton (Michael Pitt)—who commit a murder together and are hunted down by a police detective named Cassie Mayweather (Sandra Bullock), a sharp, brusque detective with Holmsian observational skills, who is dealing with her own murder-related baggage on the side. Mostly because they’re bored and think they are slicker/smarter than everyone, Justin and Richie have concocted a brilliant plan. They’ve picked the perfect victim. They’ve picked the perfect patsy. And they’ve committed the perfect murder.

They want to show off a little, too, so they’re fine taunting the police department for a tiny bit, until they realize that Cassie won’t be shaken off their trail. Then, feelings start to simmer, and tensions start to run high.

My question is, where are these supposed numbers? Sandra Bullock does not solve the crime with math, as in the series Num3ers. The boys do not commit the murder with math or show a proclivity for any ritualistic counting, as in the film Se7en. The poster for the film actually appears to be styled after the poster for Se7en, with Sandra Bullock peeking out of a small square opening, surrounded by a bunch of clawlike writing, glowing in shades of amber, and the numbers 1-7 descending, as in an acrostic, in a creepy font. It looks like the evil version of the poster for Proof. But why? Why was this the marketing strategy? Why is it the title?

Is it because Sandra Bullock is haunted by one murder while solving another murder and that equals two murders and two is a number? To be clear, there isn’t a connection between the murders at all. This movie is not about a serial killer, or any sort of murdery pattern fetishes.

Is it because the two murderers are students at a high school and math is taught in high school? One of the kids mentions studying for a calculus test, while the other tutors a fellow student in physics. But that’s it. We don’t see any equations of any kind! No one writes anything on a chalkboard!

I even double-checked to make sure none of the characters’ last names is “numbers.” You know? That could have been a pun. Like, you’ve heard of Flowers by Diane? Hair by Reginald? Murder by Numbers?

But no. The only number I’m coming up with is zero. I have zero answers. Maybe that’s it… but I doubt it.

I must admit… I’m flummoxed, genuinely. This is a riddle—nay, an equation— that I just can’t seem to solve.