"Pacific Heights" is a 1990 psychological thriller film directed by John Schlesinger and starring Michael Keaton, Melanie Griffith, and Matthew Modine. The movie revolves around a young couple, Drake Goodman (Modine) and his girlfriend Patty Palmer (Griffith), who invest their life savings in restoring and refurbishing a large Victorian house in the exclusive Pacific Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. They also plan to rent out the units to reputable tenants to help them cover their expenses.
However, problems arise when they rent the top floor to a mysterious tenant, Carter Hayes (Keaton), who initially appears to be a wealthy businessman. Carter claims that he is an independent trust fund beneficiary, but in reality, he is a psychopath who engages in a series of malicious actions to ruin the lives of his landlords. He refuses to pay his rent, destroys property, and engages in illegal activities in the apartment.
Drake and Patty's attempts to evict Carter lead to a legal battle, which drains their savings, and pushes their relationship to the brink of a breakup. They hire a private investigator to uncover Carter's real identity and discover that he has been posing as a tenant in various cities across the country, and then extorting money from his landlords by sabotaging their properties.
As Drake and Patty try to come up with a plan to get rid of Carter, he escalates his campaign of terror, culminating in a horrifying act of violence that forces the couple to confront their worst fears.
In the end, the couple is left to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives, while Carter walks away free, having left his mark on the Pacific Heights community. The film is a chilling reminder of how easily our dreams and aspirations can be shattered by the dark side of human nature.