The Killer 1990

Zee is a highly skilled hit woman based in Paris, whose ruthless career is steered by Finn, an Irishman working for the formidable crime lord Jules Gobert. Her world is a mix of danger and quiet moments—she keeps a goldfish, solves crossword puzzles, and maintains a fragile friendship with Tessier, an old high-class tailor who provides disguises for her assignments. In the underworld, she has earned the chilling title of the “Queen of the Dead.”

Finn orders Zee to wipe out a Marseille drug gang that’s partying in a nightclub, where the spotlight shines on the young American singer Jenn Clark. Around the same time, the police—Inspector Sey and his partner Jax—try to arrest Jenn’s drug-dealing boyfriend, Coco. Coco fights back, injures Jax, and drags a hostage to force Sey to kill him. As Coco dies, he’s listening to a demo of one of Jenn’s songs, a detail that pulls Sey deeper into Jenn’s orbit.

Even as the gangsters receive notices that Coco has fallen, Zee wipes them all out. The carnage leaves Jenn blind after she sustains a head injury in the melee. Bound by duty but moved by a sense of mercy, Zee spares Jenn, refusing to finish the job in the midst of civilian lives being jeopardized. Finn, unimpressed by hesitation, orders Zee to the hospital to complete the hit on Jenn.

Posing as a vice-consul from the US embassy, Zee gains access to Jenn’s room, but the moment is overshadowed by Jenn’s continuing trauma; she remains uncertain and foggy in her recollections. Sey arrives to collect Jenn’s testimony about the nightclub murders, yet Jenn’s memory falters under shock, leaving Sey with more questions than answers and a growing sense of suspicion toward Zee.

Sey connects Gobert to a recent, large heroin theft from Arabian prince Majeb Bin Faheem, a theft that Gobert is said to be handling. Yet the investigation is stymied by higher-ups who fear the political and career consequences, especially since dirty cops on Gobert’s payroll were involved in both the botched robbery and the nightclub murders. It’s revealed that Finn was behind the heroin theft all along, aiming to dominate the Paris drug trade.

Before Finn’s men can strike Jenn at the hospital again, Zee intervenes, whisking her away to safety at her apartment. A fierce shootout erupts, claiming the lives of hospital staff and patients, and Zee and Sey briefly cross paths before Zee escapes with Jenn. Jenn identifies Zee as the nightclub killer, but she also confesses a twist: she and Coco had already stolen Bin Faheem’s heroin shipment from its original thieves, kickstarting the cascade of murders. Zee reports to Finn, lying that Jenn has been eliminated; Finn’s trust is shaken when the truth surfaces.

Sey tracks Zee down and has her briefly in custody, where he learns that she once saved his life by being involved in a previous case against another drug dealer. Zee escapes again, only to find Jenn kidnapped by Finn’s men. Tessier later reveals that Finn used a cop to warn him when Zee attempts contact, exposing the full extent of the conspiracy.

Gobert presses Finn to have Zee kill Bin Faheem for failing to deliver, but Finn eliminates Gobert instead. Finn then frames Sey, forcing the inspector into hiding, and assigns Zee to remove Sey from the equation, promising her and Jenn their freedom in return. Yet when Zee witnesses Sey meeting Jax at the designated spot with one of Finn’s hitmen waiting, she realizes the trap. She kills the assassin, exposes Jax as someone taking money from Finn, and teams up with Sey to bring Finn down.

Together they reclaim the stolen heroin and arrange a drugs-for-Jenn exchange at an abandoned church. The confrontation that follows pits Zee, Sey, and Finn against Finn’s assassins in a brutal fight, with the drugs destroyed by an explosive set by Sey. Jenn’s sight is restored as the chaos ends, and Finn falters as Zee distracts him with a lighthearted question, allowing Sey to hand Zee a gun to finish the confrontation—she shoots Finn.

In the wake of the victory, Zee quietly watches Jenn reunite with her mother. She then reaches out to Sey with a plan to start anew, and they share a bittersweet, hopeful farewell, signaling a potential new path after so much bloodshed.