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.