Saw VI

The last installment of the second Saw trilogy provides the usual glorified blood and gore, but this time (compared to its most recent two predecessors) actually graces us with a well developed and intriguing story. The events that occur here in Saw 6 finally embrace the original flow and creativity of the story that five and four seem to have temporarily derailed. Fans of the Saw series will undoubtedly welcome back this gruesome film that gives the franchise a much needed boost in overall story development and excitement.
The story begins from the end of Saw 5. Agent Strahm is dead, and agent Hoffman (the actual new Jigsaw and only one who knows of Strahm’s death) has successfully framed Strahm as the new Jigsaw. The grand scheme of Jon Kramer (the original Jigsaw) is finally coming to its ultimate conclusion. His wife Jill is working with Hoffman to lay the plan out and execute Kramer’s final game. We finally see that the black box Jill received at the end of Saw 5 from Kramer is filled with information on his next game’s targets, along with one other mysterious package. The main target is that of a health insurance agent, William, who has not only denied Kramer, but also countless other people health coverage.
William is thrown into a section of an abandoned zoo where he will face four separate challenges in order to save his own life as well as his family’s life. While all this is taken place, Hoffman is dealing with Agent Erickson and the surprising return of Agent Perez (from previous films). Erickson and Perez are hot on the trail of the new Jigsaw and Hoffman realizes that he will soon have to something drastic to protect his identity.
The layout of the screenplay follows the basic rules of a typical script. All the elements are present and happen at the right times. The story starts off immediately with two victims attached to unique traps set up by Hoffman (the present Jigsaw killer). This establishment is important to the story because it marks the return of Jigsaw. The inciting incident happens when the contents of the black box Jill was given to her by her husband are revealed. The contents show the targets of the next game set up by the original Jigsaw.
The start of the game happens a third of the way into the movie after everyone involved is captured and set up to their traps. This is the first plot point. It is revealed that William is the main target of the operations and there are numerous grueling and violent games he will have to play in order to save his family.
The second plot point is when we find out that one of the targets the box contained was Hoffman, the loyal servant of Jigsaw. His time has come to participate unwillingly in Jigsaw’s games and see if he has the will to live. His game, along with the advancement of William in his challenges brings in the climax of the movie. William has made it all the way through his challenges only to find out that his life will be decided by a husbandless wife of whom was widowed because William refused their insurance coverage. While this is happening Hoffman is set in to his own trap by Jill. Will William be spared? Will Hoffman survive his game and continue his reign as Jigsaw?

Written by: Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

Tucker Max, author of I Hope they Serve Beer in Hell, made a lot of promises pertaining to his book being made into a film. He mentioned a possible Oscar nomination for his script, a huge success in the box office, and a firm anti-Hollywood film to please the masses. What was produced was a complete failure. I haven’t read the book, and despite the far from entertaining movie, still hope to get my hands on it after hearing a lot of good things. Seeing as the book is a bestseller, its possible the movie had the potential to bring in a reasonably large revenue. After seeing I Hope they Serve Beer in Hell it is easy to see why it only hit 1.4 million dollars in the box office so far and will not do much better.
The adapted film is based loosely off “The Austin Road Trip” chapter of the book which follows Tucker Max (Matt Czuchry), and his friends Drew (Jesse Bradford) and Dan (Geoff Stults) as they venture to a highly acclaimed strip club to celebrate Dan’s final days as a bachelor. Tucker talks Dan into lying to his fiancée by telling her they will go to a strip club near home when really they will travel three and a half hours to their true destination. Seeing as Dan has important obligations early the following day, the decision of Tucker to take Dan so far from home will undoubtedly lead to many problems.
Tucker’s narcissistic attributes quickly prove to be a hassle to Drew and Dan as he constantly lies to them and proves to be a very disloyal friend. At a time Dan needs Tucker’s friendship the most, Tucker is nowhere to be found. Dan lands himself in jail after an alcohol induced mishap while Tucker fulfills a long term goal and fantasy of hooking up with a circus stripper dwarf. The next morning Drew and Tucker go to the police station and find their bloodied, disgruntled friend. While eating at a diner Tucker reveals the true purpose of their trip; to shack up with the dwarf. Enraged to learn that Tucker made him lie to his fiancée because of his selfishness, Dan abandons his so-called friend and takes a bus home. Alas, Tucker is uninvited from Dan’s wedding and must find a way to set aside his narcissism and mend his friendship, which he does so in a typical Tucker Max way.
We are established in to the story after a graphic opening scene. Police officers on call raid a house that was suspected to have animals being tortured inside (because of awkward yells and moans coming from inside). What they find is a Tucker Max going at it with a deaf girl. The next day in class at college, Tucker tells his friend the story and insists that he finds the humor in the situation. Tucker’s friend is getting married and Tucker has decided that it is up to him to plan the bachelor party. This is the inciting incident.
The first plot point happens when Dan and Tucker finally convince Dan’s fiancée that the bachelor party is completely harmless. The harmlessness is lost when Tucker forces Dan to go to a far away strip club that his fiancée won’t know about. Now Dan is caught in a lie.
Deep into the night, and many drinks later, Dan is called on stage in the strip club so everyone can celebrate his bachelor’s night with him. Since he was so drunk, he accidently hits a stripper and falls off stage. Bouncers beat him up and kick him out, leaving him the streets. Dan finds a dumpster and pees on it right in front of a cop car. This is the second plot point, and now Dan is in jail with no way to get a hold of his fiancée or his friends.
Tucker finds Dan the next in the station and they travel back home. While at a diner, Dan learns that the whole reason Tucker wanted to go to a strip club that was three hours away was because he wanted to hook up with the stripper midget there. This enrages Dan and he opts to kick Tucker out of the wedding.
Tucker, who does not feel like what he did to Dan was a bad thing, must find a way to get his friendship back. He gives a heartfelt but slightly vulgar toast at Dan’s wedding and earns back his friendship. A ridiculously climaxed story for a ridiculously written screenplay...

Written by: Tucker Max and Nils Parker

The Fourth Kind

The Fourth Kind is a chilling tale about actual events that occurred in Nome, Alaska about several cases of alien abductions. The film uses actual video and audio recordings of “non-fictional” events to help boast its legitimacy. A lot of controversial discussions came at the release of this movie about its credibility and how true all the events actually are. Attempts to disprove some of these events through logic and facts were made. The Mayor of Nome, Alaska, Denise Michels, in several interviews said that The Fourth Kind is a science fiction movie and a lot of things that happened in the movie are not true and never happened in Nome. Just like the decision to believe in God or not, the power to believe in aliens is up to the individual. There are no proven facts that either exists, and only faith and the will to believe makes them real to a person. Will you believe; what you are told, what you see in a movie, or countless stories of witnessed UFO sightings and abductions? That is all up to your faith in something, but The Fourth Kind will insist that you believe this story.
Writer and director Olatunde Osunsanmi, tells the story of mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska and the journey of a psychologist, Abigal Tyler (Milla Jovovich), to solve them. Tyler’s husband has just been murdered and she takes it upon herself to continue the studies he has been conducting in Nome (which eventually relate to the disappearances). Her subjects are the sleep-depraved of the small Alaskan town. All of the patients report waking up several times in the night to see an owl outside their window watching them. Dr. Tyler decides to perform hypnosis to one of her patients to try and see if they can find out something he doesn’t remember from a past night. After put into a deep trance, the patient relives the moment he woke up and saw the owl. Only this time, the owl is gone and someone is entering his house through the front door. The intruders are the aliens. After this hypnosis treatment and another one performed on a similar case subject, Dr. Tyler comes to the conclusion that these patients were abducted by aliens and didn’t know it. The hypnosis therapy made the patients relive what really happened to them.
The first patient was traumatically affected by the realization of his “fourth kind” encounter, and without being able to mental withstand what he has learned he kills his family and commits suicide. Here I should add that the first encounter is a spotting of a UFO, the second encounter is when the aliens leave a physical trace, the third encounter is when you come in contact with the physical being, and finally, the fourth kind (described as the worse) is an alien abduction. The second patient receives a second hypnosis session, but this time the aliens use his body as a communication relay to talk to Dr. Tyler and her associates. They basically tell her to stop her studies or terrible things will happen to her. The patient is left paralyzed after his body was twisted and contorted in unnatural ways. Dr. Tyler continues her research since she is so determined to figure out what the aliens are doing and why people are being abducted. Terrible things do happen.
The inciting incident happens when Dr. Tyler is put in a state of hypnosis so she can try and recall the person who killed her husband. When she awakes she tells her doctor that she will continue her husbands researches and must figure out what he is after. This tells us that her husband was doing important research and was on the brink of a breakthrough.
Plot point one occurs when the first patient who is hypnotized sees the aliens come in to his house and attack him. He only remembered this while in the hypnotized state and didn’t know it had happened. Later in Tyler’s researches she encounters the aliens herself (but only in a hypnotized state) and they tell her to stop her studies or else terrible things will happen. Plot point two comes when something terrible does happen. The aliens kidnap her daughter and later tell Tyler that she will never be returned.
Dr. Tyler decides to be hypnotized one more time in order to communicate with the aliens again. This is the climax of the script. They take over her body and speak to her colleagues in the room. The alien that speaks through her insists that he is God and then continues to speak in an untranslated alien/foreign language. Tyler is left paralyzed and to this day her daughter has not been returned or found.

Written by: Olatunde Osunsanmi and Terry Robbins

Four married couples, of whom all but one have threatening marriages, decide to embark on a fun-filled adventure to the Eden resort to get away from their daily lives and attempt to rekindle the diminished fires in their marriages. Shortly after arriving to their vacation destination they are pained to learn that the resort package they signed up for is actually a rigorous “couples skill-building” retreat. Saddened to the fact that there will be no free time to jet ski, get drunk, or enjoy most of the fun things the resort has to offer, they decide to stick to the program rather than return home.
Headed by Marcel (Jean Reno), a peace-loving and unusual psychiatrist, the couples retreat program is designed to use the beautiful Eden resort accommodations and surroundings to amplify Marcel’s unique and often odd lessons to help the couples find their inner strength and beauty. Most of the lessons and couple therapy sessions tend to be more disastrous than helpful to their marriages. The men become so torn apart from their cravings to let loose, party, jet ski, and do other fun activities that they become distant from their enthusiasm to partake in the couples retreat with 100 percent effort. At the same time the women also become distant to the retreat and the faith in their relationships that they start to question their involvement in their marriages. Eventually they make it to the other side of the resort, which is a forbidden place to their program, where the all night partying and dancing occurs, and begin to see each other in a different light and value the respect for each other that was always present but hidden somewhere in their marriage.
The writing for Couples Retreat was just not very good and completely unsatisfying. However, most of the basic elements are present for it is a fairly well set up screenplay, just poorly written. I think the character changes happened too late in the story and since I lost interest in the film very easily, I didn’t care much for the changes that went on.
The four couples and their relationship statuses are quickly and effectively set up. We learn that one couple is on the verge of divorce, one is unmarried, the other is having intimacy problems, and the fourth one seems to be doing just fine. The inciting incident happens when the couple with intimacy problems, confesses to the other three couples that their marriage might soon end. This comes to a surprise to everyone else for they seemed like the most stable of the four. The only thing that can save their marriage, they feel, is a vacation to the “Eden Prime” resorts. If all four couples attend the resort, they will get a special deal on a package that will be much more affordable to them. After much struggle, they convince everyone to go.
Plot point one happens when they find out that the package they signed up for involves no free time or fun activities. It is all based around couples relationship building and therapy. This comes as very tragic news to the group because they planned on drinking and doing fun things the whole time.
Plot point two happens when the girlfriend of the unmarried man runs away to the other side of the resort that has the all night partying and dancing. The group decides to break their resort package rules and escape to the other side to find her.
The climax finally rises in the end when they find the girl and all the couples perform a transformation when they find the inner strength of their relationships. The screenplay waited too long to come to a resolution and quickly ended after that. The character changes were bleak and predictable.
Written By: Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, and Dana Fox

Zombieland

The foundation of “Zombieland”, along with the rest of the movie, is told through the perspective of Columbus (Eisenberg) through thoughtful narration. He tells us that a once peaceful society is now overrun by flesh eating cannibals with one goal, to tear you apart with their teeth and eat your flesh down to the bone. Columbus, whose name is masked the entire film after he was given this nickname by Tallahassee (Harrelson), believes, but hopes he is not, the only survivor in Zombieland. While on his way to Columbus to see if his parents are alive, he meets Tallahassee. Tallahassee is a tough and brutal zombie, hating individual with a very humorous and rambunctious personality. They decide to team up to help each other survive on the way to their destinations.
Zombieland is terrifically written and has a very nicely set up screenplay. We are established through effectively written dialogue telling us that the world has is overrun by viscous, flesh eating zombies. Only one thing left for the survivors of mankind is to survive and not be eaten. The inciting incident happens right from the beginning of the film. It is the explanation that zombies rule the world and there are potential survivors fighting for their lives. We are immediately thrown into the action.
Plot point one occurs when Columbus meets Tallahassee. At first they stand each other down at gunpoint, but quickly proceed to lower their guard and join forces. The two strong survivors embark on a mission to get their separate destinations. They later realize that where they are going is not somewhere they want to be, but rather they want to stick together.
While on a side quest to find a “Twinkie” for Tallahassee they encounter two other female survivors, Wichita and Little Rock. The first time they meet the girls con them into stealing their ride and weapons and leave them behind to defend themselves with nothing. Later on down the road they meet the girls once more, only to be fooled yet again. This time however, they stick together. The girls are on a mission to go to “Pacific Playland” in California where it is rumored there are no zombies. Plot point two occurs when Wichita tells Columbus that the place he is trying to get to, to find his parents, is a ghost town. This is the fact that causes Columbus and Tallahassee to travel to California with the girls. Their relationship builds throughout the film and they become very close. A love interest begins to form between Columbus and Wichita.
The climax of the film comes when they finally reach “Pacific Playland” after settling into a celebrity’s for a few days, the girls leave the guys one final time to travel on their own. Columbus, who has a very keen liking to Wichita, decides to go after her. He knows she will need to be saved and convinces Tallahassee to help him. Once the two men arrive at “Pacific Playland” they find it overrun by hordes of zombies trying to kill the two girls who are trapped on a ride. Columbus and Tallahassee kill all the zombies and save the girls to conclude the film. Columbus and Wichita kiss for the first time, and the four drive out of the amusement park to continue their journey for survival.

Written by: Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick

Pandorum

The movie starts off by establishing the concept that the Earth is no longer a suitable home for humanity. Nearly 200 years past present time, basic necessities like food, water, and fueling products have been completely diminished by inhabitants that are included in a population of twenty-four billion. A seemingly lone fleet corporal, Bower (Ben Foster) awakes out of deep freeze with no recollection of where he is or how he got there. This is the first side effect of “Pandorum”. After realizing the power is shut down and the only exit door is jammed he waits for the only other deeply frozen companion to awaken. Lieutenant Payton (Dennis Quaid) wakes an hour later with the same side effects of Pandorum; memory loss that will return with time. Bower and Payton conclude that they are on a spacecraft 500 billion miles from Earth containing 160 thousand frozen soldiers and civilians. The spacecraft they are on is a sleeper ship whose inhabitants will repopulate a livable new planet.
After the film is nicely established, the first plot point comes when Bower first encounters the primal-like creatures on the ship. After escaping these creatures for the first time, he knows that his adventure to restore power to the ship is going to be a difficult one. Also included in the first plot point is when Bower encounters another survivor on the ship.
The second plot point occurs when Bower and two other survivors learn about what is going on. They find out that one of the crew members affected by Pandorum released numerous inhabitants and left them on their own to survive and evolve, into the creatures, for hundreds of years. Shortly after learning their history, Bower completes his mission of restoring power to the ship.
The climax of the film comes when we find out that Payton is not who he says he really his. Bower and Payton engage in their final conflict, where only one can survive. Is Humanity saved? Or does the evil crew member affected by Pandorum rise to the top?

Written By: Travis Milloy

Sorority Row

A group of sisters of the Theta Pi sorority at one of the largest party schools decide it is a good idea to pull a prank on one of the sister’s cheating boyfriend. They give Garrett fake roofies to slip in his girlfriend’s drink and have his way with her. The prank evolves when she fakes a series of convulsions and an apparent death. The sisters and sleazy boyfriend take Megan to a run down mining area where they will pretend to dump her body. Garrett then proceeds to ruin the prank by driving a tire iron through her chest to “deflate her lungs” so she won’t float in the nearby lake. The sisters vow to throw Megan down a mine shaft along with the tire iron and never speak of the whole situation. The plot thickens when all the sisters receive a text message from Megan’s phone showing a picture of the bloody tire iron. Thus the ridiculousness and typical question of “who is killing us all one by one?” ensues.
The script of Sorority Row, although shallow and filled with wak dialogue, holds to the basics of screenwriting. All the elements are present to contribute to a traditionally set up screenplay. It first establishes that the events to occur happen to a group of sorority sisters from one of the biggest party houses on campus. The inticing incident occurs when Garrett drives the tire iron through Megan’s chest. On the basis of the genre of the movie, we know that in killing Megan, someone will take vengeance and kill all the people who were involved.
The first plot point happens when the girls and Garrett receive a text message from someone they don’t know that shows a picture of the bloody tire iron. After receiving this message, they come to the conclusion that someone is just playing a horrible joke on them.
The second plot point occurs when they find the first dead person. The first girl to be taken out was alone and just seemed to disappear to all the other girls. But during a party, the sisters find a dead body and start to believe that someone is actually out to kill them. This is also when they realize that they are at a point of no return. There is no running or hiding from their secret anymore.
The climax rises when they finally come face to face with the killer and try and defend themselves. Most of the sisters who hold the secret are dead, and the ones left must fight for their lives. At the conclusion of the movie, the sisters reveal the true identity of the killer (and what a surprise it is… not), and kill him. The only two surviving sisters think that everything is finally at end, or is it?

Event Horizon

The screen play for Event Horizon is for the most part decently crafted. An intriguing story filled with disturbing images and themes of another dimension comprised of the most evil of things. What the screen play lacks is the ability to delve into any character emotions or foundation for change. All the elements are present to make it a good screen play involving the inciting incident, plot points, and an exciting climax.
The inciting incident occurs when the rescue team receives a disturbing distress call and location of the Event. After finding the lost space vessel the first plot point comes when they do a life scan of the ship and find no actual life forms present but some form of biological readings are present throughout the whole ship. Once on board the Horizon, they find no evidence of anyone left alive, but the team can’t figure out what the biological readings are. The second plot point happens when the crew realizes that by traveling through the black hole the crew of the Event ended up in a different dimension that resembles a place of Hell. Sheer terror, pain, and chaos torments the fragile minds of the crew members. The rescue team comes to the conclusion that whatever they found by traveling through the black hole resides on the Event and wants to take the rescue team to the other dimension.
The climax occurs when Doctor Weir gives in to the power of the unexplained forces at hand and becomes the tool of destruction for taking the team to a place of hell. Captain Miller sacrifices his life to the save the remaining crew of the rescue team and take out Doctor Weir by blowing up the Event and the gravity core. Was it enough to destroy the evil presences that continue to linger in the minds of the survived crew members?
Written by: Philip Eisner

A Magnificent Story of Change

While watching a movie like Garden State you easily notice that it holds a lot of elements that makes up a good screenplay. Garden State does, in fact, excellently use a lot of the great elements. Along side the basics like the inciting incident, plot points, and so on; the script is loaded with tons of subtle symbols, themes and motifs, and excellent foreshadowing.
Zach Braff writes, directs, and stars in this heart-warming and funny movie about a young man, Andrew Largeman, who returns home from a nine year absence for his mother’s funeral. His mother’s funeral is the inciting incident. It is the event that will once again bring him home and start his life over again. It will also give him a chance to reconnect with his father and their distant relationship. While he is home he meets a very peculiar and loveable girl named Sam.
Meeting her is the Plot Point near the end of Act one that takes us into the second act. Upon meeting her, we see an instant connection and know that the scenes to come will be them getting to know each other. He faces many obstacles in Act 2 that she helps him overcome (along with the help of his old friends). Andrew is a very emotionless character who has been living his life numbed on depression and an assortment of other medications. He stopped taking them and realized that he hasn’t needed them to get by in life.
His realization that he must face his mistakes in his past, a painful yet successful reconnection with his father, and the like for this new girl all work collectively to bring us into the third act of the screenplay. Here he will deconstruct his thoughts and start to see who he is and his purpose in life. At first, he thinks he must return to the life he has been living the past nine years and start from there. At the airport he says his final goodbyes to his Sam and they part ways. This is the climax of the screenplay. He rose above all his mental and emotional problems, and in entering the resolution went through a magnificent character change. But does he leave his hometown and Sam, or leave the life he thought he knew miles away and act on his change of heart, mind, and overall character?

Disturbia

This week I decided to analyze the script for the film Disturbia. A good movie indeed that bears a lot of the essentials needed to make a good script. The set-up does an impressive job in instantly creating a modern day, laid back, smart-ass kid named Kale. He is out on a fishing trip with his father, and we see how well he interacts with his fun Dad. After the fishing trip Kale and his dad get in a brutal car crash that kills Kale’s father. Since we know that Kale got along so well with his dad it is evident, before showing us, that Kale is crushed. After this incident he really doesn’t care what he does or what happens to him.

Shortly after the accident we see Kale sleeping during his Spanish final in school. This is when the inciting incident occurs. It is quite an epic and nicely written incident at that. The Spanish teacher wakes Kale up and tells him it’s his turn to go, but when Kale clearly does not know enough to pass the test he gets upset. He says that just because Kale lost his father doesn’t mean he should lie down and give up, or get special attention. Kale knocks the teacher’s lights out.

Kale gets through his trial with three months of house arrest over the entire summer. This is the result of the inciting incident, and because of it we know something will happen soon at the end of Act 1. We see a couple of times when Kale is watching TV that girls are randomly going missing. The news report details the suspect’s car as a Mustang with a dent on the front. So, when Kale, with nothing else to do but spy on his neighbors, sees a Mustang that fits that exact description pull up and into his neighbor’s garage, he gets a little freaked out. This puts us into Act 2. We now know that Kale thinks his neighbor is a serial killer and he will continue to scope out and get to the bottom of this. No one believes him but his one friend, so it’s going to be tough.

After spending a lot of time spying and finding more and more evidence to his neighbor’s guilt, Kale is sure his is a murderer. So the second Plot Point occurs when Kale’s friend investigates the neighbor’s house. He takes a video camera in and films everything he can. After a while they determine there is no evidence to be found and all hope of solving this case is gone. After one more look at the footage, Kale notices a shape in the distance stuck behind an air vent. A closer look reveals it is a dead body. This spins us into the third and final Act.

The neighbor, catching wind that someone is on to him, appears at Kale’s house and attacks him and his friend, and kidnaps his mom. This is the climax, and Kale is presented with the final opportunity to take down his nemesis and save his mom. If you haven’t seen it I won’t give away the ending.

Kale, during the resolution, shows more signs of character changes. He went from being a stuck-up kid who doesn’t want to deal with anything anymore to being a confident man who learns to stop dwelling in his past.

The Dude

I have always been a big fan of the Coen Brothers when it comes to movies. One of my favorite films they made is The Big Lebowski. The Big Lebowski is about a very interesting character, The Dude, who always gets himself in very bizarre and crazy situations. The set up of the film begins with a narration sequence setting up a little of the who, what, where, etc. while “The Dude” shops for milk at a supermarket. We instantly see that the Dude is a low income bum who really doesn’t care about anything. He dresses how he wants, does what he wants, and lives life one step at a time. In the next part of the set up we follow the Dude to his house where he is attacked by two thugs. The two thugs think he is a different Mr. Lebowski, a Lebowski that is rich and has lots of money.

When the thugs realize they have the wrong Lebowski they get upset, trash the house, and pee on the Dude’s rug. This is the event that gets the story going and gives the main character a motive. Since “the carpet really tied the room together, man”, the Dude decides to find the rich Lebowski and get paid back for his damaged rug. To the Dude’s dismay, Mr. Lebowski doesn’t want anything to do with the Dude or his problems. So the Dude takes it upon himself to just take one of Mr. Lebowski’s rugs and calls it even.

Just when the Dude thought his life was back to its peaceful state he gets a call from Mr. Lebowski, who needs his help. This is the first plot point at the end of Act 1. Mr. Lebowski needs a favor of the Dude. His wife has been kidnapped by the German thugs that tore up the Dude’s house. He wants the Dude to give them their demands and fix everything up. Cornered and unable to say no, the Dude finds himself in a very peculiar situation. Something he has no purpose dealing with.

The Dude’s friend Walter ruins the whole plan by trying to give the bad guys the fake briefcase of money. This causes more problems and the thugs continue to demand the money from the Dude. The second plot point comes when we find out that Mr. Lebowski’s wife was never kidnapped, she just ran away with a friend for a few days. The Dude has basically been running around getting mixed up with things and people that he thought were related when they weren’t.

The climax happens when the Dude and his friends Walter and Donnie have a showdown with the Germans because they are still asking for the money. The stupid Germans never quite grasped the concept that there never was any money. Walter beats up the Germans and Donnie has a heart attack in the middle of the fight. In the resolution the Dude and Walter sit at the bowling alley that they always go to and recollect on what happened. For all the times they were in the bowling alley during the movie, this is the first time we actually see them bowl.

Everybody Comes to Rick's

For this week’s entry I decided to do a very old, but good movie adapted from a play called Everybody Comes to Rick’s. The movie Casablanca is a great screenplay to analyze because it contains all the necessary elements that make up a great screenplay. The set-up of the screenplay quickly introduces what is going on in the movie and who our main character is, the two plot points keep the story nicely flowing, and the resolution effectively ties the movie together and shows the main character going through a very interesting and unexpected change.

Casablanca is set in an unoccupied Africa during the early stages of the Second World War. Europeans fleeing to America from the Germans set up refuge in a town called Casablanca where, from there, they must wait there for exit visas that are nearly impossible to get a hold of. The first few minutes of the screenplay sets up this story by showing the police looking for the culprit who killed two German couriers carrying two very valuable transit letters. These transit letters will shortly be entrusted to Rick Blaine, our main character. In the set-up we learn that this American, a former freedom fighter, owns the hottest nightspot in town that everyone goes to. Although very popular, Rick is a very cynical and isolated man. So when he gets hold of these two very valuable, unquestionable by law, transit letters he probably won’t give them up so easily. This presents itself as the inciting incident, and first plot point, because an acquaintance of Rick’s gave him the letters and is then killed by the police under charges of murdering the couriers. Rick’s friend had to be killed in order to start the plot of Rick having a lot of power with the control of these letters.

In Act two we learn of the European Resistance Leader, Victor Lazlo, who is coming to Casablanca in an attempt to get to America. A German named Major Strasser occupies Casablanca for a while to try and capture him with the help of French Chief of Police, Captain Renault. When Victor hears that Rick has unquestionable transit letters he knows that Rick is his only help to escape. This won’t be so easy for Victor when Rick sees him walk into his bar with the love of his life Isla. For unknown reasons Isla left Victor in Paris and was never heard from again until now. This causes Rick to be very hostile towards Victor and Isla, and he lets them know he has no intention of giving up the visas. The major obstacle that Rick faces in the second act is when he finds out Isla is married to Victor, and has been since before they met in Paris.

Rick and Isla begin to fall in love again and Rick starts thinking about what he will do with the visas. Does he keep them for himself to leave for America with Isla? Or does he send Isla and Victor to America so Victor can continue his freedom movement. We learn of a plan that Rick has to trick Victor into staying in Casablanca so he and Isla, who are in love again, can escape to America. This is the second plot point at the end of act two that carries us into the very exciting resolution.

The writers of this screenplay did a tremendous job in molding Rick’s character into someone who only looks after himself. He’s been through it all and he is sick of everything. He owns the hottest place in town, but yet he often sits in solitude. His character represents America’s political position at this time of the war. Rick, like the USA, at this time is a sleeping giant, and if anyone wakes him he has the power to control the outcome of some very important events. So when Rick goes through a major character change during the resolution, the audience becomes that much more attached to Rick. Knowing that what he and Isla had in Paris is only meant to remain as heavenly memories he decides to send Victor to America with her. Rick realized that she is the foundation of Victor’s powers in the movement against German’s and she must stay with Victor.

Rick continues this big change when he kills Major Strasser in an act of self-defense, and while guarding the escaping plan with Ilsa in it. This is what puts Rick back in the Resistance against the Germans. Especially with Captain Renault on his side, Rick will make a very good freedom fighter.

Screenplay by: Julius and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch

There's something about Mary

Ted is a geeky loser in high school who falls in love with the most popular girl, Mary, at first sight. Somehow he lands a date with her to their prom only to be thwarted by a very unusual accident in the bathroom. Thirteen years later Ted still can’t seem to get Mary out his head. So through the help of his friend he hires a private eye to track her down somewhere in Miami. The private eye, Pat, falls in love with Mary and decides to give Ted false information so he can pursue her himself. After a short while, Ted decides again that he wants to see Mary so he goes to Miami to find her.

The set up is very effective to the screenplay in that it nicely establishes that Ted is a goofy loser-ish guy who will always be in love with Mary. Now, thirteen years later, Ted wants to find Mary and talk to her again. He just doesn’t know how to find her or know anything about her since she moved shortly after the prom incident. The inciting incident happens when Ted’s friend, Dom, convinces him to hire a private eye to find Mary for him. This is the event that brings Mary back into the present day picture.

The plot point at the end of Act 1 is when Pat falls in love with Mary and gives Ted false information. Ted later finds out that everything Pat said is a lie and he decides once again to go to Miami. Ted’s first obstacle in Act 2 is to take down Pat, who is becoming very close with his Mary. When Ted “runs” into Mary she is shocked and surprised he is there, and she reveals that she had a crush on him in high school. Mary and Ted go on a series of dates and begin to enjoy each other a lot. However, Pat is still running around trying to get Mary back so Ted has to keep dealing with Pat.

This leads to the second Plot Point when someone sends an anonymous letter to Mary saying that Ted hired Pat to spy on her. She gets mad and tells Ted to leave. Surprisingly we find out that it wasn’t Pat, or Mary’s friend Tucker who is also madly in love with her, who sent the letter. It was Ted’s best friend who also happens to be crazy about Mary. Going crazy herself, Mary gets very upset and just wishes for everyone to live. Realizing what he must do, Ted reunites Mary with her ex-boyfriend. He was perfect for her until Tucker caused them to break up. Ted found this out, and with a change of heart and realization that if he truly loves her he can let her go. Ted goes through a big character change at the end of the screenplay. This also makes Mary realize how much Ted actually cares for her and that she is in love with him too.

Supplying the world with destruction

Yuri Orlov came to the United States from the Soviet Union when he was a young boy. His family opened a restaurant and supplied the economy with something it always needs; food. After Yuri witnessed a Ukrainian mob boss kill two assassins he decided he should supply the economy with another thing it always needs; guns. So he makes his first sale, partners with his brother Vitaly, and quickly rises to the top. Gun running becomes Yuri’s one and only profession and he is extremely good at it.

The set-up of Lord of War begins with a straight on close-up of Yuri Orlov. As he begins to explain the importance of guns in the world the camera pulls out and we see Yuri standing in a war-torn town with millions of bullet casings scattered all over the ground. Yuri says that 550 million firearms are in circulation worldwide. Right away we know that the movie is going to be about guns and that Yuri is probably going to be a gun runner.

Then the screenplay takes us to Yuri’s American life where his family lives and owns a restaurant. Yuri, however, wants more in his life… a better way to get rich. He decides he has what it takes to sell guns and thinks that the danger he faces will outweigh the riches to come. After the inciting incident of the Ukrainian mob moss killing the two assassins and making Yuri realize there is money in guns, Yuri’s dramatic need turns into the desire to become the best gun runner.

A quarter of the way through the script Yuri encounters his first confrontation that moves the story into the second act of the film. While shipping a very large boat load of guns a special agent pulls him over and searches the boat. Despite a tip off, Agent Valentine is unable to pin Yuri to any crimes because he couldn’t find the guns on the boat. Yuri is very good at covering up his tracks and evading authorities. Valentine will stay hot on Yuri’s trail because he knows Yuri is up to no good. Also in the first quarter of the script Yuri pursues the girl of his dreams, Ava Fontaine, who he will quickly fall in love with and marry.

Yuri quickly rises to the top and becomes one of the best gun runners in the world. He now has government officials, foreign war lords, and a vast arsenal of dirty authority figures on his side. He is nearly unstoppable to anyone besides Agent Valentine. At the end of Act 2 two events become the second plot point(s) that will take the story to the third and final act. First, his wife and son leave him amidst all his lies and his brother is killed during their final deal. Yuri left the business temporarily so that his wife wouldn’t leave him. But when his job comes calling again, he can’t resist. So he sets out with his brother and makes one final deal. In the process his wife finds out what he is doing and leaves him for good. His character made a big change and took a new focus on life when he decided to stop pushing guns. This change however was short lived because he just couldn’t stay away from it. Then Vitaly, his brother, is killed during the last deal.

This brings us into Act 3. During the resolution Valentine finally captures Yuri and ensures him he will be locked up for good. Yuri has only disappointment to give Valentine yet again. He ensures Valentine that a high ranked government official will come and let him go because the American government needs people like Yuri to do their dirty work. Low and behold this government official comes and lets Yuri go. This is the resolution of the story and, in being a free man again, Yuri decides to continue doing what he does best, sell guns.

Written by: Andrew Niccol

Isn’t marijuana supposed to make things better?

For my first blog on analyzing screenplays I will do a movie that was just recently released on DVD, Pineapple Express. After reading the screenplay I found that Pineapple Express had pretty much all of the elements that make up a well written screenplay. A hero character is nicely evolved as he encounters numerous nemesis characters and friends along the way, obstacles that prevent him from reaching his goal, and makes some sort of life change and shows his new ambitions for the end of the story. The story also establishes a nice set up and provides effective Plot Points that keeps the flow of the screenplay readable and interesting.

Dale Denton, the main character, is quickly introduced as a slacker whose laid back job as a process server gives him plenty of time to be a stoner. He is dating a high school senior who bugs him to meet her parents despite his many attempts to decline. After a small argument with his girlfriend, Angie, he visits his bizarre pot dealer. Saul has just gained possession of the best weed in town, Pineapple Express. He continues to tell Dale that he is the only dealer around who has it. Dale buys it with excitement. Later that night Dale smokes a joint outside a guy’s house he is suppose to serve. While parked outside he witnesses the guy, Ted, and a woman cop murder an Asian assassin. In an act of frenzy he pitches the joint and crashes into two parked cars as he flees the scene. Ted notices someone is outside but gets to the front of the house too late. Ted sees the joint, smokes it, and declares that it is Pineapple Express; his weed. So now Dale is on the run and gets Saul involved. They spend most of their time running from Ted and his dirty cops. Along the way they run into many obstacles and eventually have to confront Ted rather than run from him.

The set-up of the screenplay was quite effective. A short scene at the beginning sets up the reason why marijuana is illegal. So instantly we know that the story will somehow be revolved around weed. Then we meet Dale the pot head. He dreams of being a talk show radio DJ and thinks that pot should be legal. The story begins to unfold when Dale buys the rarest weed in town. Only Saul and the head dealer, Ted, are in possession of Pineapple Express. The reader can easily identify with Dale for he is a laid back guy who gets his job done right and enjoys his free time. He has an interesting relationship with a 19 year old while being 24 years of age himself.

The inciting incident, the event that occurs to get the story in motion, occurs when Ted finds out that Dale witnessed the murder and finds the Pineapple Express weed. We know that Dale’s dramatic need is to run away… as far away as he can. This inciting incident is the first plot point that carries us into the second act of the screenplay. Dale involves Saul in the situation and they react to the inciting incident by going on the run.

Since Act 2 is the Confrontation Act, Dale must be presented with several obstacles that prevent him from achieving his dramatic need. Firstly, they have to see Red who is the middle man dealer between Saul and Ted. Red is not loyal to the two friends and sends Ted’s thugs after them. Dale and Saul continue to run. They must also visit Saul’s grandma before they leave. While doing this Dale realizes that Ted could find out who his girlfriend Angie is and go after her. This presents another obstacle for Dale must warn and save her. After this the two realize they need money to get a bus out of town. So they sell weed to high school kids only to get caught by the cops. This makes them now be on the run from the cops. Ultimately Ted captures Saul and this becomes the second plot point at the end of Act 2 that will bring us into the final act; The Resolution.

Act three contains elements of the screenplay where the main character makes his final push. Almost as if he is backed into a corner; it’s the last stand. Dale needs to rescue Saul which will also involve him confronting Ted for the last time.

During the final pages of the screenplay, changes and ambitions in the character are revealed. The resolution of a screenplay ends well when we see some sort of change or new look on life in the hero. Dale explains his ambitions for becoming a talk show radio DJ. It is his new goal in life and he means to achieve it.

Pineapple Express utilizes many of the elements that make up a good screenplay. The story is effectively set up, the main character introduced and developed, the story unfolded through the inciting incident, confrontations presented in Act 2, and a resolution and character change is presented at the end.