The Megahit Movies
Page 5
A young American woman discovers that she is the heir to a vast fortune in Monte Carlo, but then has to struggle with her evil step-sister who also claims the estate.
Once in a Blue Moon by Maria Iacuele
“You’ve Got Mail meets Ruthless People”
During the Christmas Season, a feisty young woman fights the effects of a “love potion” while trying to save her Toy Store from being taken over by a sinister competitor.
Running on Fumes by Magee Rowland
“Liar, Liar meets What Women Want”
A comedy about a sexually repressed woman who has a magical spell placed on her that forces her to tell men exactly what they really want to hear. She then uses this ability in hilarious situations to save the man she loves from an unscrupulous tycoon.
Writing Assignment: Write a one-sentence descriptive logline for your story. Express the high concept in terms of a single sentence or the comparison of two commercially successful movies.
& THE MAIN CHARACTERS
The Unique Object
The Protagonist
The Antagonist
The Love Interest The unique object guarantees conflict. It is that which both the protagonist and the antagonist want to possess. One example of this is “The Ark of the Covenant” in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The desire for the control of this unique object leads to the life-and-death struggle that concludes in the climax scene.
The Unique Objects in Megahit Movies Titanic
Star Wars
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
The Phantom Menace
Spider-Man
Return of the King
Jurassic Park
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Fellowship of the Rings
Lion King
The Two Towers
Finding Nemo
Return of the Jedi
Independence Day
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones The Sixth Sense
The Empire Strikes Back
Pirates of the Caribbean
Home Alone
The Matrix Reloaded
Shrek
How the Grinch Stole Christmas Jaws
Harry Potter-Chamber of Secrets Monsters, Inc.
Batman
Men in Black
The Heart of the Ocean Jewel Plans to the Death Star
E.T.
Control of the Planet Naboo Control of the City
The One Ring
Control of Jurassic Park The Sorcerer’s Stone
The One Ring
Control of the Pride Lands The One Ring
Nemo
Control of the Universe
The Planet Earth
Control of the Planet
The Mind of Cole Sears Control of the Universe
The Aztec Gold Coin
Kevin’s Home
Zion
Shrek’s Home in the Swamp Cheermeister of Whobilation Control of the Beach
Control of Hogwarts
Boo, the Human Child
Control of Gotham City
Galaxy on Orion’s Belt
Writing Assignment : Write a one-page description of the unique object for your story. Explain why it is so important that both the protagonist and antagonist are willing to die for its possession.
THE PROTAGONIST The protagonist is the main character of the story. He/She/It is the character with whom the audience must bond and have the most empathy. The audience should identify with the point-of-view of the protagonist. It is his primary objective that becomes the story objective. Whether he can achieve this goal becomes the concern of the audience.
Perseverance and will power are the most important personality traits that a protagonist must possess. He must have an unshakable commitment to his primary objective. He also must be sincere and believe in the rightness of what he is doing. While he may have moments of selfdoubt, he overcomes them and continues pursuing his objective.
He must have sufficient will to overcome all the obstacles that he will confront while pursuing his objective. He needs this strength to engage in the climactic battle with the antagonist. A character who gives up too easily would not be able to withstand attacks from the antagonist and his supporters. The protagonist must have the strength and stamina to carry the fight to its conclusion.
Not all of the protagonists are male. Some, like Rose in Titanic, are female, and some, like Nemo, Shrek, the Grinch, Sulley, E.T. and Simba, are non-human. The strength that the protagonist’s needs is not always physical strength, as shown by the examples of Elliott, E.T., Frodo, Harry Potter, Cole Sears, and Kevin. What they have is the commitment to accomplish their goals. Their lives and the lives of the ones they love, if not the very existence of the world, often depend on them achieving their goals.
The protagonist is the character who makes most of the major decisions in the story. The choices and actions that he makes during conflicts reveal his values. These values will help him achieve his objective.
While most of the popular films have only one protagonist, some have a protagonist with dual personalities. Batman (Crime Fighter and Reclusive Millionaire), Indiana Jones (Adventurer and University Professor), Spider-Man (Crime Fighter and High School student), and Bruce Almighty (TV Reporter-God for a week) are examples of this. These protagonists are more intriguing for the audience and help them fantasize that they also could possibly live a secret adventurous life. This increases the audience’s identification with and empathy for the protagonist.
In E.T., both Elliott and E.T. share the role of the protagonist. This is essential for a story in which the feelings, emotions, and thoughts of two characters merge through telepathic communication. This technique helps to explain the success of the film, because merging the two characters into a double protagonist doubles the audience’s empathy for the protagonist and increases the audience’s concern for the story’s outcome.
The films that have a protagonist without a dual personality usually also have protagonist supporters with whom the audience can have sympathy. This sympathy is then transferred to the protagonist. Examples of this can be found in Star Wars (Yoda, Han Solo, and Chewbacca), Shrek (Donkey), and in Monsters, Inc. (Mike).
Some films have more than one protagonist. This expands the scope of audience identification. J and K are the dual protagonists in Men in Black, Nemo and Marlin in Finding Nemo. Pirates of the Caribbean has three protagonists: Liz, Will Turner, and Jack Sparrow.
Independence Day has four characters who share the protagonist function: Captain Steve Hiller, David Levinson, President Tom Whitmore and Russell Casse.
Below are the protagonists in the Megahit Movies: Titanic : Rose
Star Wars: Luke Skywalker
E.T. : Elliott and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
The Phantom Menace: Anakin Skywalker
Spider-Man: Peter Parker (Spider-Man)
Lord of the Rings- Return of the King : Frodo Jurassic Park: Dr. Alan Grant
Forrest Gump: Forrest Gump
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Harry Potter Lord of the Rings-The Fellowship of the Rings: Frodo The Lion King: Simba
Lord of the Rings-The Two Towers: Frodo
Finding Nemo: Marlin and Nemo
Return of the Jedi: Luke Skywalker
Independence Day : Captain Steve Hiller, David Levinson,
Tom Whitmore, Russell Casse
Star Wars-Attack of the Clones: Young Darth Vader The Sixth Sense: Cole Sear
Star Wars-Empire Strikes Back: Luke Skywalker Pirates of the Caribbean: Liz, Will, and Jack
Home Alone: Kevin
Matrix Reloaded: Neo
Shrek: Shrek
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Harry Potter Jaws: Police Captain Martin Brody
How the Grinch Stole Christmas: The Grinch Monsters, Inc.: Sulley
Batman: Bruce Wayne (Batman)
Men In Black: J and K
Writing Assignment: Write a one-page description of the protagonist for your sto
ry. Cast this role with a contemporary bankable Hollywood actor or actress.
THE ANTAGONIST The antagonist is the character who opposes the desires and primary objective of the protagonist. He is the villain who is always in conflict with the protagonist, either directly or through his surrogates. While both the protagonist and antagonist must persevere to bring the fight to the climax, the antagonist is the character who is ruthless and will stop at nothing to obtain his goal. He is the relentless force that the protagonist must finally defeat. He is also the character that generates the most dangerous obstacles for the protagonist.
Some antagonists are anti-human and reptilian in appearance, such as the Great White Shark (Jaws), Raptors (Jurassic Park), the Aliens (ID4), the Edgar-Bug (MIB), and Randall (Monsters, Inc.). These characters are naturally terrifying and repulsive to most people in the audience.
The antagonist usually wants power and control over the lives of the other characters. He or she will break all codes of human conduct to achieve this end. The antagonist often has a complete disregard for human life and will kill any character that opposes his objectives. He will kill even his most loyal friends, if it serves his purposes. Terror and betrayal are the standard modes of behavior for the antagonist, as best exemplified by the Joker in Batman, who kills his loyal bodyguard Bob. The audience learns that this is a character that they cannot trust.
The audience must understand the motivation of the antagonist, and these motivations must be believable. The more negative emotional involvement the audience has with the antagonist, the more engrossed they will become with the story. The audience should hate him so much that they will want to see the antagonist destroyed at the climax scene of the movie. For example in Batman, the Joker reveals his evil nature by disfiguring works of art in the Flugelheim Museum and scarring the face of his beautiful girlfriend, Alicia. He is a character that has no shred of humanity left with which the audience can identify.
At the beginning of the story, the antagonist is more powerful than the protagonist. This makes the protagonist’s struggle to achieve his primary objective much more difficult. The antagonist is usually in control of the concrete object or the protagonist’s love interest during the third act, before the climax scene. The protagonist must defeat the antagonist without destroying the love interest, while still attempting to achieve his primary objective. By this time in the story, the audience should have a great empathy for both the protagonist and his love interest, and therefore, the audience’s emotional stake in the outcome of the climax will also be high. In the climax scene, the life-and-death battle, the antagonist wants to destroy the protagonist. In Lord of the Rings, the Dark Lord Sauron through his supporters wants to destroy Frodo and capture the One Ring; Voldemort wants to kill Harry Potter; Scar wants to destroy Simba in The Lion King; the Green Goblin wants to kill Spider-Man; and in Monster’s Inc. Randall wants to destroy the human child, Boo.
The antagonist is the character that the filmmaker wants the audience to hate. But this does not have to be true in every scene of the movie. In Batman, the audience has some sympathy for the Joker because he is betrayed by Boss Grissom and horribly disfigured when dropped into the vat containing toxic chemicals. But most importantly, the Joker makes the audience laugh. The audience likes any character that has a sense of humor. Yet by the end of climax scene, the audience wants the mad Joker destroyed.
In order for the writer to ensure that the audience hates the villain, the writer will have the antagonist associated with characters that are evil, vicious and deserving of the audience’s enmity. This is usually the function of the villain’s henchmen. In Star Wars, the Commander of the Death Star destroys the planet Alderan even after Princess Leia has told him what he wants to know. He kills the whole population of a world just to test the destructive capacity of the Death Star. In Spider-Man, the Green Goblin attacks and terrorizes Peter Parker’s Aunt May. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, this is accomplished by having one of Belloc’s associates, the fiendish German, be the character that is hated for his sadistic acts. Hate by association is then transferred to Belloc. This technique allows Belloc to function as a realistic rival for the affections of Marion, the love interest of the story. The audience can have sympathy for Marion’s emotional conflicts as she tries to choose between Jones and Belloc.
Deception is often used by the antagonist in his battle with the protagonist. Sometimes the true identity of the real villain is withheld from the protagonist and the audience until the climax. This device has been used in the Harry Potter movies, in which we finally discover that Voldemort is really controlling Quirrell in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and Voldemort is really Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Below are the antagonists in the megahit movies.
Titanic : Cal
Star Wars: Darth Vader
E.T. : “Keys” and the Government Agents
The Phantom Menace: Darth Sidious
Spider-Man: Green Goblin
Lord of the Rings-Return of the King: The Dark Lord Sauron Jurassic Park: The Raptors
Forrest Gump: Being Normal
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Voldemort (Prof. Quirrell) Lord of the Rings-The Fellowship of the Rings: Dark Lord Sauron The Lion King: Scar
Lord of the Rings-The Two Towers: Dark Lord Sauron
Finding Nemo: The Dentist and Darla
Return of the Jedi: The Emperor
Independence Day : The Aliens
Star Wars- Attack of the Clones: Count Dooku
The Sixth Sense: Dead People
Empire Strikes Back: Darth Vader
Pirates of the Caribbean: Barbossa
Home Alone: The Two Burglars
Matrix Reloaded: The Matrix and Agent Smiths
Shrek: Lord Farquaad
Jaws: The Great White Shark
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets : Voldemort (Tom Riddle) How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Mayor August May Who Monsters, Inc.: Randall
Batman : The Joker
Men In Black : The Edgar-Bug Alien
Writing Assignment: Write a one-page description of the antagonist for your story. Cast this role with a contemporary bankable Hollywood
THE LOVE INTEREST Some story gurus call the love interest the “romance,” but the character plays the same function under either name. In many films, the love interest, either male or female, is a character both the protagonist and antagonist desire. In other films, the love interest is the prize to be won after the climactic battle for power and dominance is resolved. While not all of the popular films include this character in their story structure, most of the megahit movies do.
Having a love interest in the climax scene intensifies the emotional drama for the audience. The protagonist is then faced with a moral dilemma: save the love interest and lose his primary objective (and the unique object), or focus totally on obtaining the unique object and risk having the love interest be killed. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana chose to first fulfill his mission to get the Ark of the Covenant and left Marion tied to the post in the tent. In Spider-Man, the Green Goblin forces SpiderMan to chose between saving the life of MJ or a tram filled with children. Jack decides to sacrifice his life in Titanic so that Rose may live, just as Russell Casse sacrifices his life to destroy the Alien warship in Independence Day so that his children and the human race can survive. In The Matrix Reloaded, Neo must decide between saving Trinity or Zion. Neo chooses to save Trinity. In Monsters, Inc., Sulley must sacrifice his relationship with the human child, Boo, in order for her to safely return home.
Having another character besides the protagonist and antagonist caught in the middle of the life-and-death battle of the climax scene enhances the excitement and intensifies the audience’s emotional involvement in the climax. The love interest complicates the situation for the hero and increases the emotional stakes. The antagonist usually uses the love interest as a hostage and is willing to kill her if the hero will not surrender. Somehow the
protagonist must find a way to stop the villain, while also saving the life of the love interest.
If a movie has multiple protagonists of different genders, then some can be considered to be the love interests of others. For example, Pirates of the Caribbean has three protagonists: Liz, Will, and Jack. Liz could be considered to be the love interest of Will and Jack (plus Norrington) while Will is the love interest of Liz. Jack is definitely not the love interest of Liz, nor is Norrington. Sometimes “love quadrangles” can get complicated.
Titanic : Jack
Star Wars: Princess Leia
E.T. : E.T.
The Phantom Menace: Padme (Queen Amidala)
Spider-Man: MJ (Mary Jane)
Return of the King : Arwen for Aragorn (None for Frodo) Jurassic Park: Ellie Sattler
Forrest Gump: Jenny
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Hermione
The Lion King: Nala
Finding Nemo: Nemo for Marlin
Return of the Jedi: Princess Leia
Independence Day: Jasmine (for Steve Hillier), Connie (for David
Levinson), the First Lady (for President Tom Whitmore) and the children (for Russell Casse)
Star Wars-Attack of the Clones: Amidala
Empire Strikes Back: Princess Leia
Pirates of the Caribbean : Elizabeth Swan
Matrix Reloaded: Trinity
Shrek : Princess Fiona
How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Martha May Whovier
Jaws: Captain Brody’s Wife and Son
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Hermione
Monsters, Inc.: Boo,The Human Child
Batman: Vicky Vale
Men In Black: Dr. Laurel Weaver
Writing Assignment: Write a one-page description of the love interest for your story. Cast this role with a contemporary bankable Hollywood
The final battle between the Protagonist and the Antagonist for possession of both the Unique Object and the Love Interest. Once a writer creates the climax scene, he will be able then to work forward from the opening scenes to design an emotionally satisfying experience for the audience.
The climax scene of the movie is always the most exciting and emotionally engrossing scene for the audience. This is the “obligatory scene” in which there is a battle between the protagonist and the antagonist. In popular movies, the survival of the love interest will also be achieved by the actions of the protagonist in this scene. The outcome of this battle will determine the fate of the unique object that is the primary objective of the story. Only one of the two main characters will survive the conflict that rages in this scene.