The real Bryan Hartnell, one of the Zodiac killer's victims, appears in David Fincher's Robert Downey Jr. as Paul Avery, Jake Gyllenhaal as Robert Graysmith, Mark Ruffalo as David Toschi, and Anthony Edwards as William Armstrong. These four men were at the center of the hunt to find the identity of the Zodiac killer during the 1970s.
While Zodiac has a star-studded cast at the forefront, there are a lot of different real-life people portrayed in the movie. Several of the Zodiac killer's victims appear in the movie in some form. He had five confirmed murder victims, and three of them are featured, but so too are two other individuals who survived his attacks. One of these men is named Bryan Hartnell, who was played by Patrick Scott Lewis in Zodiac for a single scene. However, Fincher also brought the real-life Bryan Hartnell to Zodiac's set, and he has a quick cameo in the film.
Due to the size of his role, those interested in seeing the real Bryan Hartnell in Zodiac need to know where to look. His cameo comes right after Toschi and Armstrong are told that Arthur Leigh Allen is not a match for the Zodiac killer. This causes Toschi to storm out of the office and leads to a conversation with Captain Marty Lee (Dermot Mulroney) on the stairs. While they are talking, a man and a woman walk through the background, and the man is Bryan Hartnell. He can be seen at the 1 hour 36 minute and 28-second mark in Zodiac, or at the 1 hour, 40 minute, and 34-second mark in the director's cut.
Hartnell's unexpected cameo in Zodiac came nearly forty years after the Zodiac killer attempted to kill him in 1969. Hartnell was attacked by the Zodiac killer while at Lake Berryessa in Napa County with Cecillia Shepherd. The Zodiac killer stabbed both of them repeatedly. Shepherd died from her injuries two days later after falling into a coma, but Hartnell managed to survive eight stab wounds to the back. In addition to appearing in Zodiac, Hartnell has appeared as himself in several murder mystery documentaries.
Bryan Hartnell is the only confirmed living victim of the Zodiac killer to appear in Zodiac. The other one, Michael Mageau, has a slightly more prominent role in the film. A young Mageau is in the film's opening sequence and an older version of him appears in the final scene. As of this writing, the Zodiac killer has still not been caught or officially identified. The lead suspect, Arthur Leigh Allen, died before the police could question him after more evidence surfaced.
