The Watcher is a 2000 American thriller film directed by Joe Charbanic and starring James Spader, Marisa Tomei, and Keanu Reeves.

In Los Angeles, FBI Special Agent Joel Campbell is moments too late to save a young woman from a serial killer he has been investigating, who escapes.

He brings this information to the attention of the detective on the case, Mackie, and comes to the conclusion that the same serial killer has arrived in Chicago.

The next day, another photo arrives and turns out to be the image of Lisa Anton, Campbell's former lover who was killed by Griffin back in Los Angeles.

Music video director Joe Charbanic had an idea for a low budget thriller about a cat-and-mouse game between an FBI agent and a serial killer.

[3] In order to assure authenticity, Charbanic consulted with the actual FBI and Chicago Police Department obtaining both their insight on the technical details as well as gaining their permission to feature their organizations in the film.

[3] In the initial draft of the screenplay, Campbell was confined to a wheelchair but after the release of The Bone Collector this trait was removed.

Reeves was forced to accept 'union scale' salary, while James Spader and Marisa Tomei earned $1 million apiece for their work.

The website's critics consensus reads, "The Watcher has Keanu Reeves cast against type, but the movie is short on thrills, suspense, and believability.

"[7] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 22 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".