The Megahit Movies

by Richard Stefanik

  The Lord of the Rings-The Return of the King: Gollum betrays Frodo and leads him into the cave of the spider, Shelob. Frodo fights Shelob but is poisoned by her stinger. She wraps him up in her webbing with the intention of eating him alive.

  Jurassic Park: Dr. Alan Grant is a digger who hates computers. When he touches the screen of the computer, it malfunctions. He also despises children. He finds the children to be annoying. He terrorizes a little boy who called the raptors turkeys by describing how they stalk their prey. He has an attractive assistant who loves him. Later in the story he does everything he can to save the lives of the grandchildren of John Hammond, the creator of Jurassic Park.

  Forrest Gump: Forrest, as a young boy is given braces that he must wear to straighten out his back. The teacher says that he is different. He is not normal and has to go to a special school.

  Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone: Harry is mistreated by his aunt, uncle, and cousin. He is forced to live in a room under the stairs.

  Lord of the Rings-The Fellowship of the Ring: Frodo is pursued by the Dark Ringwraiths who want the ring.

  The Lion King: Simba is made to believe that he is the cause of his father’s death by his jealous uncle, Scar.

  Lord of the Rings -The Two Towers: Frodo has a terrifying nightmare as he remembers the death of his mentor, Gandalf, by the fiery Balrog. Return of the Jedi: Yoda tells Luke that he must confront and fight his father before he can finally become a Jedi Knight.

  Independence Day: David Levinson is rejected by the wife he loves because of her interest in pursuing a political career. Russell Casse is ridiculed in the cafe by the men who joke about him being sexually abused by aliens. Captain Steve Hiller’s dream of being a shuttle pilot is destroyed when he is rejected by NASA. President Tom Whitmore’s wife dies from the wounds she has received from the aliens.

  Star Wars-Attack of the Clones: Empathy is created for young Darth Vader when we watch his mother die in his arms. The Sixth Sense: Dead people terrorize the young boy, Cole Sear. Dr. Malcom Crowe is shot by a disturbed former patient the night he and his wife celebrate receiving recognition from the city for his work as a child psychologist.

  Empire Strikes Back: In the opening scene, Luke is attacked by a white snow creature. The creature pulls him into a cave and hangs him up by his feet. Luke is to be eaten by the snow creature.

  Home Alone: Kevin is unfairly blamed for creating a mess at the family dinner. He is placed in isolation by his mother, then deserted by his family as they fly to Paris. Kevin, alone in his home, must defend it from the burglars.

  Shrek: Empathy is created for Shrek when we watch him lose the love of his life because of a misunderstanding: he believes that Princess Fiona thinks that he is too ugly to love.

  The Grinch : The Grinch as a young child is humiliated by his classmates in front of his love interest, Martha May Who, because he had cuts on his face from trying to shave off his facial hairs. At the ceremony for the Cheermeister of Whobilation, the Mayor presents him with an electric razor, just like the one that he used as a child. He relives the memories of his first humiliation.

  Jaws : Capt. Martin Brody is slapped in the face by the mother of the boy who is killed by the shark. She tells him in front of a crowd that he knew the shark was in the water, that it had killed a girl, but Brody had refused to close the beach. This is unfair because Brody did try to close the beach, but the Mayor refused to allow this to occur.

  Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets: His Guardians isolate Harry from his friends and will not allow him to return to Hogwarts.

  Monsters, Inc.: Sulley must return the human child Boo to her home and believes that he will never see her again.

  Batman: Bruce Wayne (Batman) is an orphan, who as a young child, witnessed the murder of his parents by Jack Napier (The Joker). Men In Black : J finds K monitoring his lost love. J says to K “it is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.” K tells J to “Try it!” K then shuts down his computer and walks away. Agent J shows concern for the farmer’s wife and forces K to give her better new memories. J also shows concern for Dr. Laurel Weaver who has had her memories erased many times.

  Pirates of the Caribbean: Captain Jack Sparrow sails into the harbor in a sinking boat. Will Turner loves Elizabeth Swan, but cannot show his love because he is not of the noble class. Liz’s father wants her to marry Norrington, a man that she does not love.

  Finding Nemo: Marlin’s wife, Coral, and her eggs are destroyed by a barracuda. Only one egg survives, Nemo, who has a deformed fin.

  Matrix Reloaded: Neo has nightmares watching the death of Trinity. This makes him vulnerable and sympathetic for the audience. Writing Assignment: Study the scenes from the megahit movies listed above. Write a separate empathy scene for your protagonist and love interest. Then write an enmity scene for the antagonist in your story.

  CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT MAINTAINING AUDIENCE INVOLVEMENT

  Personal Objectives

  Character Motivation

  Decisions: Hard Choices

  Relationships: Lovers & Friends

  Codes of Behavior

  Transformations

  Personalities

  Supporting Characters PERSONAL OBJECTIVES The audience needs to know the dreams and goals of the major characters in order to take interest in what happens to them. Their dreams and the object that could satisfy these hopes determine each character’s primary objective. The audience wants the characters to have dreams like their own: dreams of love, fulfillment, success, beauty, freedom, and power.

  In order to achieve their primary objective, the characters in the story must also achieve subgoals. Each of these subgoals has an object or objective that must be obtained.These subgoal objectives are often needed to obtain the primary object: the subtasks that must first be completed. Raiders of the Lost Ark uses this structure. Jones’ primary objective is to find the Ark of the Covenant, a concrete object. To accomplish this, he has the subgoal of finding the Headpiece to the Staff of Ra. Once he finds this, he must use the Headpiece to accomplish another subgoal, to locate the Well of Souls. Once that is found, he must next retrieve the Ark of the Covenant and get it to Cairo before the Nazis can possess it. These are all connected to the unique primary objective: the Ark of the Covenant.

  In many of the popular films, the protagonist’s primary objective becomes an attempt to either return home (The Wizard of Oz, E.T., Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc.) or to safeguard the home from destruction (Shrek, Star Wars, Independence Day, The Phantom Menace, Jaws, The Lion King, Batman, Men In Black). Both these objectives exist in Home Alone: Kevin’s mother’s objective is to return home, while Kevin’s objective is to safeguard his home from destruction. Explicated in terms of character psychological motivation, “Home” is that place where the characters feel safe and secure with those who love them. This is an objective with which many people in the audience can identify .

  Titanic

  The primary objective of both Jack and Rose is to ride the Titanic to America, the land of Freedom. Later in the movie, Jack wants to save Rose’s life: prevent her from jumping overboard, prevent her from marrying Cal, and prevent her from drowning after the Titanic sinks.

  Star Wars

  Luke’s primary objective is to be at college with his friends. Later, he achieves the friendship and recognition of the rebels. Darth Vader wants the plans to the Death Star. Princess Leia wants Obi-Wan Kenobe to help her destroy the Death Star. The Rebel Forces want to protect their home planet from destruction.

  The Phantom Menace

  Queen Amidala wants to get to the Senate to appeal to them to save her home planet from invasion. Anakin Skywalker’s primary objective is to obtain freedom for himself and his mother. He wants to win the pod race. The Jedi Knights want to protect Queen Amidala.

  E.T.

  E.T. wants to get back home. Elliott wants E.T. to stay with him and be his friend. Elliott’s mother wants to protect her home from the governm
ent intruders.

  The Lion King

  Simba wants to become a great and powerful king like his father, Mufasa. Scar wants to be the ruler of the Pride Lands.

  Return of the Jedi

  Luke wants to return to Dagobah to continue his training with Yoda to become a Jedi Knight.

  Batman

  Batman wants to save his home, Gotham City, from the criminals. The Joker wants to control Gotham and poison the citizens.

  Jurassic Park

  John Hammond, the creator of Jurassic Park, wants to create a great tourist attraction. Dr. Grant is a scientist who wants to obtain new knowledge about dinosaurs. They later both want to survive the attack of the dinosaurs and get out of Jurassic Park alive.

  Independence Day

  The protagonists want to save their world and the human race from annihilation from the aliens.

  Home Alone

  The burglars want to rob Kevin’s house, and Kevin wants to protect his home from the thieves.

  Jaws

  Capt. Brody wants to kill the Great White Shark because it is destroying his home, the village, and beaches of Amity.

  Empire Strikes Back

  Luke Skywalker wants to become a Jedi Knight. Forrest Gump

  Forrest Gump’s primary objective is to stay completely focused in the moment. Then, like the feather that symbolizes him, he floats from situation to situation. His behavior in these different situations is the core of the story. His “home” is always with him because he is always totally engrossed in the present moment.

  Men In Black

  J and K want to save the earth from destruction. They must stop the Edgar-Bug from leaving earth with the Galaxy around Orion’s Belt. If they fail, the earth will be destroyed.

  Sixth Sense

  Dr. Malcolm’s primary objective is to save Cole Sears. He wants to help the child overcome the terror he experiences from seeing dead people. Cole wants to stop seeing dead people.

  The Grinch

  The Grinch wants revenge on the people of Whoville. He wants to destroy Christmas and the happiness that it brings them because they humiliated him as a small child and destroyed his chance of happiness with Martha May Whovier.

  The Wizard of Oz

  Dorothy’s objective in the beginning of the movie is to find a place where there are no problems. Once in Oz, her goal is to return home to Kansas. The Tin Man wants a heart, the Scarecrow brains, and the Lion courage. Elmira Gulch wants Toto destroyed.The Wicked Witch wants the ruby slippers, which will make her the most powerful being in Oz.

  Shrek

  Shrek wants the privacy of his home (the swamp). He wants all the fairy tale creatures to leave.

  Spider-Man

  Peter wants MJ. Finding Nemo

  Marlin wants to find Nemo. Nemo wants to escape from the fish tank and get back home.

  Monsters, Inc.

  Sulley wants to generate more energy because of the power shortage.

  Bruce Almighty

  Bruce wants to be the TV News Anchorman. Matrix Trilogy

  Neo wants to know what the Matrix is in the first movie. Then Neo wants to save Trinity’s life in the second movie. Neo wants to save the humans in Zion from destruction by the Machines in the final movie.

  Pirates of the Caribbean

  Captain Jack Sparrow wants his ship, the Black Pearl. Barbossa wants the Aztec Gold coin.

  Will Turner wants to save Elizabeth from the pirates. Elizabeth wants to marry Will Turner.

  Harry Potter: The Sorcerer’s Stone

  Harry wants to understand the mystery of his life. Voldemort wants the Sorcerer’s stone.

  Lord of the Rings Trilogy

  Sauron wants the Ring. Frodo wants to destroy the Ring.

  CHARACTER MOTIVATION “To give a motivational explanation of an action is to explain it as in some way due to a ‘want’ or a ‘desire’.”

  —William Alston, Motives and Motivation

  “...emotions are important determiners of motives...our theory ought to be capable of accounting for certain classes of behaviors in terms of certain emotions.”

  —Andrew Ortony, Cognitive Theory of Emotions

  In order to maintain audience interest, it is necessary that the audience becomes emotionally involved with the characters. For this to happen, the actions of the characters must be believable. This means that the members of the audience would feel the same way and act the same way, if they were in the same situation as the characters in the movie. Once the audience understands the motive a character has for pursuing his primary objective, and the audience accepts this as a reasonable motive, the character then becomes believable, and the audience will care about him.

  Some primary motives consist of organic processes, like sex, hunger, thirst, the elimination of bodily waste, sleep, and exercise. The others are associated with fundamental emotions: anger-pugnacity, fear-escape, tenderness-protection, zest-mastery, sympathy, wondercuriosity and creativity.

  The Humanist tradition in psychology focuses on the need for competence and control as basic motivations. Abraham Maslow, in The Psychology of Being, developed a motivational theory that focuses on the person striving to reach their full potential. He acknowledges a hierarchy of needs, where needs lower on the hierarchy are stronger and must be satisfied before needs higher on the hierarchy are activated. After the basic physiological needs of hunger, thirst, and sex, humans have a need to feel safe. The desire for security is one of the primary motivations of characters in popular films.

  Next on the hierarchy is the need for love and the feeling of belonging to a person or group. An example of this is Elliott’s need to be accepted by Michael’s friends in E.T. Once this is satisfied, the esteem needs motivate the individual: the need for self-esteem and esteem from others. Popular movies are stories about characters who have needs, not characters who do not know what they want or who want something only half-heartedly. Characters must have the fortitude to overcome all the obstacles that will be thrown in their path. If they are weak-willed, the audience will lose interest in them. This is why revenge is used as the protagonist’s motivation in many films. It is a powerful emotional force that drives characters toward a clear goal. The opening scene in these films usually shows the hero experiencing a major injustice, which generates audience empathy for him. This incident, along with the protagonist’s attempts to bring the perpetrators to justice, forms the foundation of his motivation.

  As Eugene Vale states in The Technique of Screen and Television Writing, “A human being will act to remove pain...The lack of something wanted as well as the presence of something unwanted is reflected in pain. The human being acts to acquire something which it wants or to eliminate something which it does not want.”

  Titanic: Rose wants to be an artist, a free creative spirit like Jack.

  Star Wars: Luke’s search for self-esteem and a father figure that will provide him with a sense of security motivates much of his behavior. The Phantom Menace: Anakin Skywalker wants to become a Jedi Knight so that he then could return and free his mother and the other slaves on Tatooine.

  E.T.: Elliott is a lonely child, abandoned by his father and excluded by his brother’s friends. He needs to feel that he belongs. His need for a friend motivates his relationship with E.T.

  Jurassic Park: Dr. Alan Grant first wants to dig up the bones of dinosaurs, but then he wants to save the lives of the children. Dr. John Hammond wants to create a fantastic amusement park, more real than his first flea circus. He feels a need to create something special.

  The Lion King: Simba runs away because he feels he caused his father’s death. Return of the Jedi: Luke wants to complete his training with Yoda and become a Jedi Knight so that he will be able to use the power of the force to defeat the Empire.

  Independence Day:The four protagonists all want to save the world from being destroyed by the aliens: President Tom Whitmore because it is his duty as President; Russell Casse for payback because he was sexually abuse
d when abducted by aliens; Captain Steve Hillier because they killed his best friend and it is his duty as an Air Force pilot; and David Levinson because he always wanted to save the world.

  Batman: Bruce Wayne needs to overcome the feelings of helplessness that he experienced as he watched his parents being murdered when he was a young child. He has a need to feel safe, as does the community of Gotham City. The Joker wants esteem from others: he wants his “face on the one-dollar bill.”

  Home Alone: Kevin needs to feel that his family loves him. He also needs self-esteem because of his inability to take care of himself. Finally, he needs to safeguard his home against the burglars.

  Jaw: Police Capt. Martin Brody wants to save the people of Amity from the shark that has already killed three people and almost killed his son. He feels guilty about the death of the child. The child’s mother blames him unjustly, and he wants his reputation back.

  Men in Black: J and K want to save the world. J feels a need to be back with the woman he loves and lost long ago. This is the need to love and be loved. He finally leaves the MIB to return to her at the end of the story.

  The Grinch: The Grinch feels hatred for the Whos because as a child he was humiliated by the Who children in school. He feels a need for revenge and desires the esteem of others and public recognition of his importance.

  Sixth Sense: Dr. Malcolm has a need for redemption. He feels that he failed the patient who committed suicide in his bathroom. The young boy, Cole Sears, appears to have similar emotional problems. Dr. Malcolm feels a need to save this boy and, thereby, remove his feelings of failure and inadequacy. This will enhance his self-esteem.

  Empire Strikes Back: Luke is first motivated to become a Jedi Knight when he has a vision of Obie Wan Kenobe during the snowstorm that tells him to study under Yoda. While studying with Yoda, Luke has a vision of his friends, Han and Princess Leia, in trouble. He leaves Yoda to save them.