[3] Tramell was nominated for the American Film Institute's list of the "Best Villains",[4] and was named one of the greatest characters by Entertainment Weekly in 2010.

She is subsequently investigated by San Francisco Police Department homicide detectives Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) and Gus Moran (George Dzundza), who learn that Boz died in exactly the same manner as a character in Tramell's most recent novel.

Thinking that Tramell received the confidential information from an adversarial internal affairs investigator, Marty Nilsen, a violent Curran gets himself suspended and falls into a drunken stupor.

Roxy, jealous of Nick's relationship with Catherine, unsuccessfully attempts to kill Curran and dies in a car crash.

Curran then learns that as a college student, Tramell had a lesbian encounter with Beth Garner, a police psychologist with whom he previously had an affair.

[6][7][8] In Basic Instinct 2, set fourteen years after the events of the first movie, Tramell speeds through London in a sports car with Kevin Franks, an English football player.

After taking Franks' hand to masturbate herself and reach orgasm, Tramell crashes the car into the River Thames.

At her trial, Glass testifies that Tramell is a narcissist who suffers from a pathological "risk addiction", showing no regard for right or wrong.

Tramell begins playing mind games with Glass, who finds himself becoming both frustrated and increasingly intrigued by her, although he has just begun an affair with another psychiatrist.

When the police begin to suspect him of the murders, he suggests to Superintendent Washburn that Tramell is the real killer attempting to frame him.

When Detective Superintendent Washburn arrives at the scene, Glass shoots him and points the gun at Tramell before police tackle him.

In Basic Instinct 2, Tramell is described as a "pathological liar" with her being diagnosed as a psychopath with narcissistic and borderline features by psychologist, Dr. Michael Glass; he explains: "Inside I believe she vacillates between a feeling of godlike omnipotence and a sense that she simply does not exist, which of course is intolerable.