Save the Cat Goes to the Movies

by Blake Snyder

  Break into Two: “Think, think,” Bruce says to himself. His running patter, and the “lone defender of the fort” odds, are what humanize him and what is original about this character. He’s not superman, he’s a street cop, and a smart one. The action is divided into three phases: (1) Bruce trying to get the cops to help; (2) Bruce working with the cops to stop the baddies; and (3) Bruce realizing he has to stop the baddies alone. Phase 1 begins at Minute 31 when Bruce pulls the fire alarm, hoping to bring the LAFD. Bruce has now entered the “upside-down world” of Act Two.

  Fun and Games: The LAFD thinks the alarm is a hoax, and one of the baddies is sent after Bruce. At Minute 38, Bruce fights with the guy and rolls down the stairs, breaking the man’s neck. Now Bruce ups the ante. He takes the baddie’s machine gun and (seemingly unnecessary) lighter, and sends the body in an elevator car to Alan with a message: “Ho-Ho-Ho.” Alan is perturbed. But Alexander is pissed: The dead man was his bruddah! Alexander goes after Bruce on the rooftop and Bruce fires back. Despite the gunplay, the cops are still MIA. Bruce is chased into the elevator shaft where, using the lighter to see, he has a memorable line: “Come out to the coast! We’ll get together, have a few laughs!”

  B Story: LAPD Sergeant Powell (Reginald VelJohnson) arrives to check on the fire alarm. Freed from his air duct, and having killed two henchmen, Bruce throws one body through the window to get the cop’s attention and make Reginald the “eye of the storm.” Finally, the cops are on their way, and it’s all due to Bruce.

  Midpoint: “False victory” his, Bruce now “raises the stakes” for himself. Using the bad guy’s walkie-talkie, Bruce contacts Alan, letting him know he killed three of his men, brought the LAPD, and has his detonators. Alan cites Bruce for being a cowboy and Bruce replies with his famous Roy Rogers epithet. Alan is worried and asks his men how much longer the safe-cracking will take.

  Bad Guys Close In: Pressure builds with this new “time clock” and Bruce has an ally in Reginald, but Reginald’s boss (Paul Gleason) thinks Bruce is one of the bad guys. At 1 Hour 15 Minutes, Bruce sees the cops try to storm the building, not realizing Alan’s planned for this. With an LAPD vehicle under fire, Phase 2 (Bruce trying to help the cops) begins as Bruce sends a bomb down the elevator shaft and kills two more of Alan’s men. All Bruce needs to do is wait it out. But then one of the “internal team” members, Hart, does a dumb thing. Coked up, he decides to negotiate with Alan, and is killed. The baddies now know Bruce’s name — and so do the cops. But it doesn’t matter: The FBI has arrived on the scene.

  All Is Lost: As the FBI take over the operation, Alan bumps into Bruce while searching the building, and pretends to be a civilian. This is a very nice moment — and vital — for without a mano-amano with Alan before the climax, the ending would not be nearly as effective. Alan also learns of Bruce’s handicap: his bare feet. “Shoot the glass,” he yells at Alexander. Bruce escapes but his feet are bloody and the detonators are back in Alan’s hands.

  Dark Night of the Soul: Bruce has done all he can. A and B stories cross as he laments via walkie-talkie with Reginald, who reveals he accidentally shot a kid while on duty several years earlier. Reginald too has a personal issue to overcome.

  Break into Three: Baddies open the vault and, with the detonators back, get ready to escape. But when Bonnie is exposed on the news as Bruce’s wife, Alan takes her as his own personal hostage. With his wife in jeopardy, Phase 3 kicks in: Bruce must save her, with or without the cops.

  Finale: With the bad guys about to escape with the bearer bonds (that’s what all worthwhile crooks stole in the ’80S), Bruce jumps into action. We get some great set pieces as Bruce “kills” Alexander and barefoots it to the roof to save the hostages. Then a returned-from-hell Bruce makes an appearance with back lighting to rescue his wife. “Hi honey,” he deadpans. In the shootout with Alan, Bruce outsmarts and kills him. “Happy trails, Hans.” Bruce and Bonnie kiss.

  Final Image: Bruce meets Reginald and they hug. Alexander makes a last appearance and is killed by Reginald who, by doing so, gets over the shooting incident that’s haunted him. Together again, Bruce takes Bonnie home in the limo to the tune of “Let It Snow.”

  SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY (1991)

  Trouble abounds out there in the world, but when you cross paths with CIA agents and bank robbers posing as terrorists, what, pray tell, do you expect? All the more surprising that the sub-genre of DWAP movie called the “Domestic Problem” offers so many variations of survival issues that happen right in your own home — or very close to the home front. None is more indicative than the Ronald Bass-scripted, Joseph Ruben-directed variation on the “woman in jeopardy” flick that secured Julia Roberts’ fame immediately after Pretty Woman.

  The problem here is that Julia has married the wrong guy, and though I too like my kitchen counters to be nice and clean, I don’t need ’em that clean — but Mr. Obsessive-Compulsive, Patrick Bergin, does. He also, in his own weird way, “loves” Julia, which is why he controls her every second of every day — until Julia decides to fake her death and make a run for it. And if you thought the guy was mad before, he is super-duper p.o.’d now — especially when he discovers Julia’s ruse in one of the great horrific moments in movie history.

  As Julia tries to make a new start with an “eye of the storm” romance (Kevin Anderson), the bad guy closes in, and we realize a life-or-death finale of the “Dude” kind is in the offing.

  DWAP Type: Domestic Problem

  DWAP Cousins: Sorry, Wrong Number; Wait Until Dark; When a Stranger Calls; Blink; Cape Fear; Misery; Suicide Kings; A Perfect Murder; Hostage; Enough

  SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY

  Screenplay by Ronald Bass

  Based on the novel by Nancy Price

  Opening Image: A lone woman, Laura Burney (Julia Roberts), walks along the shore digging for clams; she appears to be content. Then an equally attractive man, Martin Burney (Patrick Bergin), joins her. He is wearing a suit and when she brushes up against him, getting sand on him, she apologizes. “Don’t worry, I have time to change,” he says. Something’s odd, but what?

  Set-Up: The brilliance of this set-up is we are being shown a “happy couple,” but the tension between them is hypnotic and draws us in. When they go to a party that night, he insists she wear a different dress than the one she picked out, and at the party, he watches her. Is he in love or obsessed? The next day when he calls Julia into the bathroom to berate her for not having the towels hanging … just … so … we know. The guy has OCD. Like, really bad. He then talks to a neighbor with a boat and reveals Julia is afraid of water.

  Catalyst: At Minute 10, jealous that Julia may have talked to the neighbor, he hits her without warning. Though we know it isn’t the first time, this “sudden event” forces our hero to take action. Like real stories of domestic violence, this is life or death. Dudette, you have so got a problem.

  Debate: Does she have a plan? We watch Julia knock out the lights along the shore in front of their beach house, and though she’s afraid of water, the couple goes for a midnight sail.

  Theme Stated: “We can’t conquer our fears by running away,” Patrick says. He thinks he’s talking about Julia’s fear of water.

  Break into Two: They set off on their sailing trip and it begins to rain. During a tense moment, Julia drops off the back of the boat, seeming to drown at sea. By Minute 25, Patrick arrives back home and throws their honeymoon statue through the window and screams “Loora!” (translation: Laura!) Let the “upside-down world” of Act Two begin. In flashback, we now see the real story, and hear her voice-over: “That was the night that I died … “Though afraid of water, she forced herself to learn to swim. The broken lights in front of the house were so she could ID a landmark from the water that night. Her well-planned escape includes cutting her hair, flushing her wedding ring down the toilet, and donning a wig. She relates all this to a lady on the bus and reveals a DWAP truism: When Julia married Patrick, she was unaware of his problems. Julia land
s in a new town, rents a house, and at Minute 35, she’s moved in and started a new life. Meanwhile back home, Patrick discovers the broken glass of the light bulbs.

  B Story: Julia now meets Ben Woodward (Kevin Anderson). He is a drama teacher at the local college. He seems a little creepy at first, but maybe that’s just because Julia, and we, are still weirded out about her trusting any man again. He will help Julia “conquer” her fears.

  Fun and Games: Being on the road, moving into a new place, and setting up her new identity is the fun of this premise. The idea that we can re-invent our lives is a fantasy many entertain, and how we would do it if we could get away with it is the “poster” of this movie. We also sense that Patrick is not giving up so fast. Back home, he is bereft and wondering what he did wrong — while scouring things and keeping the towels nice and straight.

  Midpoint: A and B stories cross as Julia starts to cotton to Kevin and her confidence returns. He lives next door and stops by a lot and, after awhile, we can see that this might go somewhere. But this “false victory” is short. Patrick learns Julia took swimming lessons at the Y. And at Minute 46, he finds her wedding ring in the commode. She is alive! The “stakes are raised.”

  Bad Guys Close In: Having wondered why Julia seems to have been bruised, Kevin now learns the truth about Julia’s condition and her name: “Sarah Waters” is thematic but fake. Julia doesn’t want to share and he walks away — something new in her experience with men. Patrick hires detectives to track down Julia’s mother, who lives in an old folks home and is blind. We get the sense that Patrick is capable of anything now.

  All Is Lost: After a star-driven montage in which Julia tries on costumes for Kevin at the drama department — to the feel-good crooning of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” — Kevin tries to make love to her, but she can’t. Julia is “worse off than when this movie started.” She had thought by escaping she might live again. Now she knows more change must occur.

  Dark Night of the Soul: Julia is in a nether world; she can neither go back nor move forward.

  Break into Three: In a great bit of Synthesis, Julia takes action and disguises herself as a man to visit her blind Mom. “You have yourself,” Mom tells her. Julia doesn’t realize that Patrick is also there. In an eerie scene after Julie leaves, Patrick pretends to be a cop; when he can’t get Julia’s address from her Mother, he is about to smother her when a nurse interrupts.

  Finale: Tracking down Julia, Patrick now zeroes in. And the showdown is great. It’s night. She’s in the bathtub and senses something’s wrong. The towels are straight, and, when she goes into the kitchen, the cans of tuna are stacked just so. She knows. And so do we. A and B stories cross again as Kevin comes to the rescue but is knocked cold. See, this is the part Julia has to do herself to conquer her fear.

  Final Image: Shooting Patrick, Julia watches as he reaches out for her wedding band that’s fallen from his grip. She ends the reunion with a last blast. Julia is finally free.

  DEEP IMPACT (1998)

  And then there is a problem for the many. Like any DWAP, this time a multitude of dudes is going about their business when a news flash comes: Sorry, folks, the end of the world is … now!

  Be it the raining down of nuclear warheads (The Day After), a pestilence loosed on the land (Outbreak), a bad wire that causes a holocaust in your Towering Inferno, or a change in weather that freezes the planet (The Day After Tomorrow), the “upside-down version of the world” now includes a bunch of you trying to survive. Better known as the “Disaster Movie,” the “Epic Problem” gives us a chance to bid farewell to our big, blue marble — and lets us enjoy getting a free run of the place!

  One of two “comet hits the Earth” movies in 1998, along with Armageddon, director Mimi Leder’s Deep Impact is a thoughtful meditation on what “the end” might look like. But with the comet not hitting until Act Three, the lack of urgency could lead to a Watch out for that glacier! feeling — the peril of nothing happening while we wait for the end to come. It may explain why, when you veer from the rules of this or any story type, you do so at your own risk. How do we fill up the middle? Let’s see how two of our most admired screenwriters, Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost) and Michael Tolkin (The Player), met the challenge.

  DWAP type: Epic Problem

  DWAP cousins: The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, Meteor, The Day After, Volcano, Dante’s Peak, Outbreak, The Day After Tomorrow, Armageddon

  DEEP IMPACT

  Written by Bruce Joel Rubin and Michael Tolkin

  Opening Image: Telescopes point at the sky. Teenager Leo Beiderman (Elijah Wood) flirts with Sarah (Leelee Sobieksi), then sees some kind of astral anomaly; Frodo snaps a phodo.

  Set-Up: A nerdy astronomer (Charles Martin Smith) examines Elijah’s pictures and guess what: It’s a humongeroid heading right for us. Alarmed, Charles jumps in a jeep with the evidence and is killed in a crash. At Minute 7: “One year later.” Meet Jenny Lerner (Tea Leoni), ambitious reporter. Tea wants to be news anchor but her boss (Laura Innes), the mother of a little girl, is holding her back. Tea meets her mom (Vanessa Redgrave) and talks about the coming re-marriage of Tea’s dad in a Stasis = Death beat. Back at work, Tea gets a tip about a government official who resigned under a cloud because of “Ellie.”

  Catalyst: Tea chases down the official (James Cromwell), thinking the tip’s about an affair. But no. When she asks him about “Ellie” he says: “It’s the biggest story in history.”

  Theme Stated: At Minute 14, James adds: “What differences does anything make anymore? I wanted to be with my family. Can you understand that?” In a roundabout way, James has touched on our theme: What are our priorities, and how should we live life?

  Debate: If “Ellie” isn’t a girl, what is it? At Minute 16, Tea is grabbed by the FBI and taken to a secret location to meet the President (Morgan Freeman). Sit on the story for two days, Morgan bargains, and Tea will get a front row seat at the press conference. Still in the dark, Tea says yes. At Minute 20, Tea uses Google (in what has replaced the microfiche-at-the-library scene) and discovers “Ellie” is “E.L.E.” an “Extinction Level Event.” Shaken, Tea meets her father (Maximilian Schell) and his new bride and is rude to both.

  Break into Two: At the White House, Tea outshines her boss and is placed front row center as Morgan announces a giant asteroid is heading toward Earth. All are scared, but calmed somewhat by Morgan’s announcement that he has a plan. At Minute 29 …

  B Story: …Morgan introduces the US/Russian astronaut team of the Messiah spacecraft. Led by Captain Spurgeon “Fish” Tanner (Robert Duvall), they will fly up there and blast the thing with nuclear warheads. Also watching at Minute 33 is Elijah, who learns it’s the comet he discovered and is named for him!

  Fun and Games: Believe it or not, there is fun attached to this cataclysmic situation. Elijah is put on the cover of Newsweek and becomes a heartthrob, but all he really wants is Leelee. Messiah launches as Tea is at last chosen to be news anchor. The spacecraft lands on the asteroid and despite losing a guy in the take-off, the team plants the nuclear depth charges. The nukes are detonated and Messiah is buffeted.

  Midpoint: At 1 Hour, A and B stories cross as Morgan goes on TV and says: “Messiah has failed.” We kind of knew, but the “raising of the stakes” has a scary wrinkle: The back-up plan is for 1,000,000 US citizens to be sheltered in the limestone caves beneath Missouri until the crash dust clears. Those who get saved will be chosen by lottery — and no one over 50 is on the list. Everyone else (including my gray-haired editor, BJ Markel) will perish.

  Bad Guys Close In: Internal conflict galore. Both Tea and Elijah have been selected because of their fame, but can only take their immediate families. On Messiah, the crew argues about what to do next. And on TV, Tea reports the chaos. She got her wish — she’s the anchor — but it’s a hollow victory. Martial Law is in effect and troops guard “The Ark,” the name for the underground city, as it’s prepped with every kind of animal and plan
t. It’s a little “glacial” in this section, and why BGCI is the toughest part of any script. Elijah even marries Leelee so her family can be saved. But at 1 Hour 18 Minutes, the bus comes to pick up both families — and Leelee’s isn’t on the list. Elijah must go on without her.

  All Is Lost: Elijah has lost the only girl he ever loved. And now Tea’s mother dies. Lots of “whiff of death” here. The whole world is about to end, and everyone — even onboard Messiah — is helpless.

  Dark Night of the Soul: Tea sits in the rain when her dad drives up. We learn his bride left to be with her mother. Now they’re both alone. “I feel like an orphan,” Tea tells Maximilian.

  Break into Three: Elijah arrives at The Ark with his parents, but leaves to find Leelee. Earth gets a last chance as Titan missiles are shot at the comet, but only succeed in chipping off a piece. Morgan goes on TV to describe how the small part of the asteroid will hit first just off the east coast, causing massive tidal waves for 600 miles inland, before the big chunk wipes out humanity. Onboard Messiah, A and B stories cross as Robert has an idea: a suicide mission that will destroy the big chunk!

  Finale: The aster-ette is about to hit — the moment we’ve all been waiting for! Elijah gets home and grabs a cool motorcycle to go find Leelee. Tea gives her safe passage to her boss and child; Tea has grown, and now drives to a beach house to face the end with her dad. Elijah finds Leelee and her baby sister and races to higher ground. The little comet lands in the Atlantic and a huge tidal wave builds. As Messiah begins its run at the bigger comet, the tidal wave swamps Tea and her father and everyone else in the lowlands. But in the end, the earth is saved from greater ruin: The big comet is destroyed. Yay!