Interview With The Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles - Plot

Plot

In modern-day San Francisco, reporter Daniel Molloy (Christian Slater) interviews Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt), who claims to be a vampire.

Louis starts his story by describing the events which precipitated his transformation into a vampire. It begins in Spanish Louisiana in 1791, when the protagonist Louis was 24 and suffering from a death wish after the death of his wife in childbirth along with the baby. Stumbling drunk from a tavern one night in the arms of a local prostitute, Louis is suddenly held at knife point by the woman's pimp. The vampire Lestat de Lioncourt (Tom Cruise) suddenly appears. He attacks and kills both the pimp and prostitute, seizes Louis, and ascends into the air as he drinks Louis' blood. Lestat offers Louis the death he so clearly craves but Louis, in that instant, asks to live instead. Sometime afterward, as Louis is recovering at his plantation home, Lestat suddenly appears in the bedroom and offers Louis a chance to be reborn as a vampire, and Louis accepts. Lestat turns Louis and teaches him how to live as a vampire. As part of his education, Lestat informs Louis that some vampires, as an extension of the 'Dark Gift' of vampirism, can develop the capacity to read the thoughts of others. At first, Louis rebels against hurting humans, drinking animal blood instead. He finally succumbs and kills his faithful house slave Yvette (Thandie Newton). Guilt ridden, he tries to kill himself by setting fire to his house; but Lestat rescues him and they flee.

Wandering the streets of New Orleans, amidst an outbreak of plague, Louis finds a sick child in a house with her dead mother. He bites the girl, Claudia (Kirsten Dunst), whom Lestat later transforms into a vampire "daughter", to discourage Louis from leaving him. Lestat teaches Claudia to live as a vampire and prey on humans. As thirty years pass, Claudia becomes a sadistic killer and closely bonded to Louis and Lestat. But, when she realizes she will never grow up, she is furious with Lestat. She tricks him into drinking the blood of twin boys she killed by overdosing them with laudanum, knowing that blood from a corpse is fatal to vampires. This weakens him, and she slits his throat. Claudia and Louis dump Lestat's body in a swamp; but he returns, having drained the blood of swamp creatures to survive. Lestat attacks them, but Louis sets him on fire and is able to flee to Paris with Claudia.

In 1870, Louis and Claudia live in harmony in Paris, but Louis is still bothered by the question of how vampires came to be and if there are any others. One night, while walking the streets, he meets vampires Santiago (Stephen Rea) and Armand (Antonio Banderas), who tells him that there are other vampires in Paris. Armand invites Louis and Claudia to his coven, the Théâtre des Vampires, where they witness Armand and his coven dispatching a terrified human woman before an unsuspecting human audience. Armand later takes them beneath the theater to a catacomb inhabited by the vampires. Armand leads them to his individual lair where Louis makes inquiries about vampires and their origins. Armand is mostly evasive in his answers though he does claim to be, at over 400 years of age, the oldest living vampire. As Claudia and Louis depart, Louis thinks to himself, "I've wronged you, Lestat. I've hated you for the wrong reasons." Santiago, standing unnoticed by Louis on the theater's stage, reads this thought then verbally warns Louis that the only crime a vampire can commit is the killing of other vampires. Returning home, Claudia accuses Louis of secretly desiring to leave her and join Armand. Louis denies this but later returns alone to see Armand. Prompted by Louis, Armand acknowledges that his vampires pose an imminent threat to Claudia. In the same scene, Armand claims that Louis reflects the spirit of the current age, a spirit of being "at odds with everything." Armand states that he needs Louis as a means to make contact with this age since he is unable to do so himself. Louis comes away from the meeting concluding that Armand could be the mentor to him which Lestat never truly was.

Returning home, Louis finds that Claudia has brought a human woman, Madeleine (Domiziana Giordano), with the intent that Louis make her a vampire to serve as companion and protector before he leaves. Louis reluctantly transforms Madeleine, and tells Claudia that the act has sacrificed the final aspect of him that was human. Just as Claudia acknowledges this sacrifice and kisses Louis, the Parisian vampires burst in and abduct all three of them. As punishment for Lestat's murder, they imprison Louis in a metal coffin and lock Claudia and Madeleine into an airshaft with an open roof. The next morning, the rising sun floods the airshaft and Claudia and Madeleine turn to ash. Armand frees Louis, who searches for Claudia and is horrified when he comes across her ashen remains. He returns to the Theatre and avenges Claudia and Madeleine by burning the vampires in their theatre as they sleep and bisecting Santiago with a scythe. Armand arrives in time to help him escape and once again offers him a place by his side. Louis once again refuses, knowing that Armand choreographed Claudia's demise to have Louis all to himself, and he leaves Armand for good.

As decades pass, Louis explores the world alone, still grieving for Claudia, before returning to the United States. He is seen and heard telling how he saw "the sun rise for the first time in 200 years", in a movie theatre, watching Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, Nosferatu, Gone with the Wind and Superman. In 1988, he returns to New Orleans and finds Lestat, a mere shadow of his former self. Lestat asks Louis to rejoin him, but Louis rejects him and leaves.

At this point, Louis concludes the interview, claiming that his experiences have resulted in his becoming the "very spirit of preternatural flesh; detached, unchangeable, empty." Malloy is shocked by this statement and openly declares his desire to have had Louis' experiences as a vampire. He asks Louis to transform him. Louis is immediately outraged by Malloy's complete disregard for the pervasive suffering caused by vampirism outlined in the interview. Louis bodily lifts Malloy up and pins him against the ceiling. In the next instant, Louis vanishes. Malloy hurriedly runs to his car and drives away, feeling happy with his interview as he plays it through the cassette player. Just then, Lestat appears, attacking him and taking control of the car. Revived by Malloy's blood, he then offers a dying Malloy "the choice never had" as they drive off into the San Francisco night, taking out the cassette and turning on the radio, which is playing a Guns N' Roses cover of The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil".