The Megahit Movies

by Richard Stefanik

  Phantom Menace

  The Jedi Knights must battle the supernatural power of Darth Maul and the surviving Sith.

  E.T.

  The telepathic and psychokinetic powers of E.T., especially his ability to fly a bicycle across the moon, are important elements of the story.

  Jurassic Park

  The prehistoric dinosaurs are supernatural creatures that threaten the lives of the characters.

  Home Alone

  The ability of the young boy, Kevin, to outwit the two burglars and defend his home, if not “supernatural,” is definitely extraordinary.

  Forrest Gump

  There are no supernatural obstacles that Forrest has to overcome. His greatest obstacle in life is being considered different, “inferior” and stupid because of his IQ.

  The Lion King

  Simba has the supernatural experience of seeing his father among the stars, who advises him to return to the Pride Lands.

  Return of the Jedi

  Luke must battle the Emperor’s supernatural electrical powers. Batman

  The “supernatural-like powers” of Batman, especially his ability to float through space and withstand gunshots, frustrate the criminals.

  Jaws

  The twenty-five foot 3,000 pound great white shark is the “supernatural” beast that threatens the life of the people of Amity.

  Independence Day

  Aliens with extraordinary weapons proceed to exterminate the human race. Their defense systems are impenetrable by the most sophisticated weapons available to mankind. Humans must understand their technology and disable or destroy the alien weapons.

  Men in Black

  Aliens from different worlds seek refuge on Earth. The Edgar-Bug comes to Earth in search of the “Galaxy on Orion’s Belt,” and destroys any human that gets in his way.

  Sixth Sense

  Dead people terrorize Cole Sears. Empire Strikes Back

  Luke Skywalker must learn the “ways of the force” to use its power to become a Jedi Knight. Luke must also combat the supernatural powers of Darth Vader and the dark side of the force.

  The Grinch

  The Grinch is the strange green being who terrorizes Whoville. The Wizard of Oz

  The magical powers of the Wicked Witch, the Wizard of Oz, and the good Witch Glenda are all essential to this story.

  Shrek

  Fiona was placed under a magical spell. The Dragon becomes an ally of Shrek and Donkey.

  Spider-Man

  Peter is given the spider-like supernatural powers.

  Finding Nemo

  There are no supernatural powers or obstacles in this story.

  Monsters, Inc.

  Randall can become invisible.

  Bruce Almighty

  Bruce is given the powers of God and gets to walk on water. Matrix Trilogy

  Neo can alter the Matrix.

  Agent Smiths can take control of anybody in the Matrix.

  Pirates of the Caribbean

  The ghost undead pirates of the Black Pearl are cursed by an Aztec magical spell.

  Harry Potter-The Sorcerer’s Stone Magic is everywhere in Hogwarts. Lord of the Rings Trilogy

  The Ring makes Frodo invisible.

  The Wizards all use supernatural powers.

  PLOTS

  Plot & Story

  Events & Actions

  The Inciting Event

  Subplots

  Plot Arena

  Plot Twists

  Plot Organization

  Plot Outline Workshop

  Emotional Plotting PLOT & STORY The words plot and story have many different meanings for screenwriters and academic film theorists. Aristotle, in his book, Poetics, states that “The story, which are all the events that are presented to us or which we can infer to have happened is different from the plot, which is the arrangement of those events in a certain order or structure.”

  In Story and Discourse, Seymour Chatman states “the events in a story are traditionally said to constitute an array called “plot.” Aristotle defined plot (mythos) as the ‘arrangement of incidents.” Structuralist narrative theory argues that the arrangement is precisely the operation performed by discourse. The events in a story are tuned into a plot by its discourse, the modus of presentation. The discourse can be manifested in various media, but it has an internal structure qualitatively different from any one of its possible manifestations. That is plot, story-as-discoursed exists at a more general level than any particular objectification, any given movie, novel, or whatever. Its order of presentation may not be the same as that of the natural logic of the story. Its function is to emphasize or de-emphasize certain story-events, to interpret some and to leave others to inference, to show or to tell, to comment or to remain silent, and to focus on this or that aspect of any event or character. The author “can arrange incidents of a story in a great many ways.”

  Eugene Vale, in The Technique of Screen and Television Writing, offers another distinction. “...we must define the difference between the story and the dramatic construction. The story is the actual happening. The dramatic construction is the way that the happening is told. The story is varied and rich as the life and the world. The dramatic construction consists of a limited number of rules that are applied in order to get certain effects. The story springs from the imagination of the author; the dramatic construction from his technique. The story is the creation; the dramatic construction is the form into which this creation must be poured.”

  The problem of the same word (“story”) being used differently within two traditions (screenwriting and academic film theory) is exacerbated when writing a book to be read by people working in both fields. The only solution possible is to make certain that the word is clearly defined within the context of this book.

  We will use three distinct fundamental terms in the conceptual framework for story construction. The first is cinematic experience, which refers to the immediately perceived unanalyzed phenomena of viewing a movie. The second is the term plot, which is equivalent to the traditional meaning of the term: “an ordering of the events” used to represent the cinematic experience. The third will be story, which is defined as “the series of actions that a character performs while pursuing his primary objective and its subgoals.” The story is also a representation of the cinematic experience. Our use of the terms “story” and “plot” differ from Aristotle’s terminology. This is justified since more than 2,250 years also separates our theories, along with the many different modes and mediums of dramatic presentation which did not exist during Aristotle’s lifetime.

  A story focuses on the actions, the transformations of a character’s values, his emotional reactions, interpersonal relationships, and code of behavior, as he faces conflict while pursuing his primary objective and subgoals. The character’s emotional reactions to events and the actions of other characters are essential elements in the story.

  A plot is the series of events that occur from the beginning of the cinematic experience to its conclusion. It is a description of things that happen to the characters and is not concerned with the character’s emotional reactions. To describe a plot is to list all the events that occur in a chronological order.

  These distinctions will be further developed in the section on events and actions. They will help to explain why audiences have more appreciation for a “well-constructed story” than “a complex plot”. While the later may be intellectually challenging, the former is more emotionally engrossing and produces a much higher degree of audience empathy for the characters. The audience finds “over plotted” films to be unsatisfactory because there is not enough change and development in the personal lives of the characters. These distinctions also will be fruitful in helping us to define the structures necessary for a film to be a satisfying emotional experience.

  EVENTS & ACTIONS

  There is much philosophical debate about the meanings of the words “event” and “action.” Seymour Chatman, in Story and Discourse,
asks “but what is an event, in the narrative sense? Events are either actions (acts) or happenings. Both are a change of state. An action is a change of state brought about by an agent or one that affects a patient. If the action is plot-significant, the agent or patient is called a character.”

  How are we to understand the distinction between actions and happenings; between actions we perform and things that happen to us? Carlos J. Moya, in Philosophy of Action, offers the following considerations:

  One of the most fundamental distinctions in our worldview is the one we draw between what we do and what happens to us, between actions and mere happenings...We have a consciousness that at least some things—even if a few—are in our power, depend on us; we think we can somehow influence the course of events by acting, instead of suffering it; we think that we are agents, and not just passive things...

  The distinction between events and actions is also essential for the application of the cognitive theory of emotions to the analysis of popular films. This theory analyzes emotional reactions to three fundamental entities: events, agents (and their actions), and objects. The value of this distinction will be born out by the theory’s explanatory power in the analysis of popular films.

  An action is something that a character does to himself, an object, or another character.

  An event is something that happens to the character, something that impacts him, and over which he has little control.

  Being hit by a car is an event, but the antagonist intentionally hitting another character is an action. Drama is not about accidental events that happen to individuals. It is about how the characters react to these events. It is also about characters making decisions under conflict and performing actions while in pursuit of an objective that represents fundamental human values. Audiences tend to lose interest in stories where the character’s problems are not solved through their own decisions and actions but by accidental events. These conceptual distinctions also start early in life. The psychologist, Jerome Bruner, in Acts of Meaning, states,

  Once young children come to grasp the basic idea of reference necessary for any language use—that is, once they can name, can note recurrence, and can register termination of existence—their principle linguistic interest centers on human action and its outcomes, particularly human interaction.

  Agent-and-action, action-and-object, agent-and-object, actionand-location, and possessor-and-possession make up the major part of the semantic relations that appear in the first stage of speech...the young child, moreover, is early and profoundly sensitive to “goals” and their achievement...

  THE INCITING EVENT Each movie has an important incident called the inciting event, in which something happens to the protagonist that radically changes his life. Often his home is destroyed, or his life, as he knew it, is radically altered. This is the point when the story begins as the protagonist tries to regain something that he has lost: usually a feeling of safety. In the megahit movies, he attempts either to find a new home or to preserve his home from further destruction.

  The inciting event will eventually lead to the climax scene and can be considered to be the “root cause” of that scene. It is also the event that forces the protagonist to make a major decision: the decision of personal commitment to the primary objective of the story.

  The inciting event is usually not the result of the intentional action of the protagonist, but is an external event that has an impact on his life. This becomes a point of no return from which the protagonist must move forward, overcoming obstacles in his efforts to achieve his primary goal.

  Titanic

  In this movie there are two inciting events. The first occurs when Jack wins tickets for a trip on the Titanic in a poker game. This event changes his life and the life of the protagonist, Rose. The second inciting event occurs when the Titanic runs into an iceberg and begins to sink. This happens immediately after Jack and Rose make love. The floating home of all the characters is destroyed, and they must find some way to survive.

  Star Wars

  Luke Skywalker’s Aunt and Uncle are killed and his home burned by the Imperial Storm Troopers.

  Phantom Menace

  The Trade Federation creates a space blockade of Naboo. E.T.

  E.T. is abandoned by his space ship. He feels alone and unsafe in the alien world, planet Earth.

  Jurassic Park

  The unexpected rainstorm forces the boat to leave earlier than expected. Dennis shuts down the security systems but then gets killed while going through the jungle.

  The Lion King

  Scar causes the stampede that brings about the death of Mufasa and the exile of Simba. Simba is not safe in the Pride Lands and now must find a new home.

  Forrest Gump

  Forrest is fitted with leg braces. Return of the Jedi

  The inciting event occurred at the end of the prior film, Empire Strikes Back, when Han Solo was encased in the carbonic slab and sent to Jabba the Hut. Luke’s objective is to free Han.

  Batman

  The personal inciting event for Bruce Wayne was his witnessing the murder of his parents when he was a child. This provides him with the motivation of a lifetime: the elimination of crime from the city. But in this movie, when Jack Napier falls into the green vat of chemicals, he is transformed into The Joker. Then through his actions, he transforms the world of Batman, Gotham City, and makes it a much more dangerous place for everyone.

  Home Alone

  A storm knocks out the power lines, causing the clocks to stop and the family to oversleep. Kevin is forgotten and abandoned by his family as they rush to catch a plane to Paris. Alone, he must learn to survive and also to protect his home from the burglars.

  Jaws

  The shark kills a woman swiming in the ocean at night. The next day the woman’s body is found by the Police Capt. Brody. Brody must then protect his home and the community of Amity from being destroyed by the shark.

  Men in Black

  The Edgar-Bug crashes on earth and starts a rampage as it searches for “the Galaxy on Orion’s Belt.” J and K must find this “galaxy,” before their home, the planet Earth, is destroyed by the other Aliens.

  Independence Day

  Alien spaceships fly into the Earth’s atmosphere on the July 4th weekend and proceed to exterminate the human race.

  Sixth Sense

  A former child patient of Dr. Malcom Crowe sneaks into his house during a celebration party and shoots him.

  Empire Strikes Back

  Luke Skywalker has a vision of Obi-Wan Kenobi who tells him to go to Dagobah and study with Yoda to become a Jedi Knight.

  The Grinch

  Four young Who teenagers (two boys and two girls) climb to the top of Mt. Crumpit and knock on the Grinch’s door.

  The Wizard of Oz

  The tornado destroys Dorothy’s home and transports her to Oz.

  Shrek

  Fairy Tale creatures invade Shrek’s swamp.

  Spider-Man

  Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically enhanced spider.

  Finding Nemo

  Nemo is captured by the fishermen.

  Monsters, Inc.

  Boo leaves her room and walks into the factory.

  Bruce Almighty

  Bruce loses the anchorman position, goes crazy, and is fired from his job.

  Matrix Trilogy

  Neo takes the red pill. Pirates of the Caribbean

  Liz falls into the ocean wearing the Aztec Gold coin. Once it hits the water, the ghost pirates know where to look for it.

  Harry Potter-The Sorcerer’s Stone

  Harry is taken to Hogwarts on his eleventh birthday.

  Lord of the Rings Trilogy Bilbo leaves Frodo the Ring.

  SUBPLOTS “A strong subplot mirrors the main plot in some way. It presents a similar conflict from a different angle, from another character’s perspective. It becomes a counter-theme of sorts, underscoring the message of the premise.”

  —T.L. Katahn, Reading for a L
iving

  Subplots have been traditionally defined as “supportive” of the main plot and in some way related to it. Using subplots can also cause many problems. Linda Seger, in Making a Good Script Great, states:

  Subplots are responsible for many script problems. Some films have failed because of weak subplot integration. These problems seem to fall into several categories. First of all, many times subplots lack structure. They ramble, they’re unfocused, and they disorient the audience so that the audience doesn’t know what the story is really about or what’s going on. Sometimes a film has problems because the subplot doesn’t intersect the plot and it doesn’t seem to have any bearing on the story. Although the subplot might be interesting, it seems to float, unconnected, apart from anything else happening in the story.

  The concept of a subgoal is much more helpful for constructing stories. While there is only one primary objective to a story, there may be many subgoals that the characters pursue in their attempt to achieve this objective. Minor characters help to accomplish these subgoals, and each of the minor characters has their own set of values. The values of the minor characters are very often different from the values of the protagonist. This contrast helps the audience to focus on the codes of behavior that are being tested in these conflicts. The way a minor character’s values impact the successful or unsuccessful obtainment of the subgoal constitutes a subplot. In this way, the subplot can be connected to the primary objective of the story.

  The effective use of subplots demonstrates alternative codes of behavior that often lead to failure. Eventually, all subplots should converge to the final story climax where the protagonist reveals his true values in the battle with the antagonist.

  Most megahits use the subgoal structure instead of the subplot structure. This allows the action line to be more focused for the audience. The audience also does not have to dilute their emotional involvement among too many different characters. But some megahits do use subplots. In Batman, for example, there is the subplot involving Alexander Knox, the newspaper reporter who seeks to expose Batman in order to win a Pulitzer Prize. This character is seeking the limelight and pursues the prize for his personal glory, even if it damages the fight against crime and leads to the destruction of the community. Bruce Wayne, on the other hand, performs his community-protection service effectively and anonymously. Both characters are also pursuing the love-interest, Vicki Vale, as is the antagonist, the Joker. At the end of the story, both Alexander and the Joker lose Vicki, who decides to join Bruce Wayne.