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Former alcoholic Detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) of the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is assigned to investigate the murder of retired 1960s rock star Johnny Boz, who was found tied to a bed with a white scarf and stabbed multiple times with an icepick during sex. The primary suspect is Boz's girlfriend Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), a beautiful, rich, and seductive crime novelist who just happened to describe the exact same murder some years ago in her crime-thriller book Crime Hurts. Nick must now figure out whether Catherine committed a crime that she actually planned years earlier or whether someone is copycatting Catherine's story. Certain from the start that Catherine is the murderer, things get complicated when Nick becomes infatuated with her.

Basic Instinct is based on a screenplay by Hungarian-born writer Joe Eszterhas. It was followed by Basic Instinct 2 (2006).

An instinct is defined as "an inborn pattern of activity or tendency common to a given biological species," such as the monarch butterflies' instinctual drive to overwinter in specific areas in Mexico. In most animal species, the most basic instinct is to survive. In the film, the basic instinct is to mate.

Hellraiser (1987).

Basic Instinct is most often compared to Body Heat (1981), a 1981 movie in which a sexy woman targets a lawyer with a shady past to play a role in her nefarious plan to murder her rich husband but then falls in love with him.

Basic Instinct has many similarities to Jagged Edge (1985) as well, which was also penned by Joe Eszterhas and set in San Francisco.

The plot of Basic Instinct also has a few uncanny similarities to The 4th Man (1983). The protagonist of De Vierde Man is a bisexual male author who has a fling with a woman who has had three previous relationships that ended with her (male) partners' deaths. However, those who are keen to tick De Vierde Man off their Paul Verhoeven bucket list should be warned that there is a scene involving barber scissors that only real men can watch. SNIP!

The film's controversially discussed sex scenes had to be censored in order to achieve an R rating for the theatrical release. Later, two versions were released in the US: the cut theatrical version and an unrated director's cut featuring the censored material along with the more graphic Johnny Boz murder at the beginning of the film.

Note that most countries outside of America simply released the unrated director's cut theatrically, albeit with heavy age restrictions.