Save the Cat Goes to the Movies

by Blake Snyder

  Bad Guys Close In: Scrambling to get the information they need, the “dark turn” takes hold as Bob and Dustin start to play games with witnesses, tricking them into going on the record and using their own subterfuge to get accurate quotes and sources. The “secret,” the pull of what’s in that last little room, is overwhelming their sense of fair play. Pressure is applied by the “bad guys” too, when one story linking Attorney General John Mitchell to the case includes Mitchell threatening Dustin and the owner of the Post, Katharine Graham. Despite all the progress, when Bob meets Deep Throat for a second time, he’s frustrated when told: “You’re missing the overall.” And it’s even worse: This time, Bob thinks he was followed. For his part, Dustin visits his doppelganger, Donald Segretti (Robert Walden), who admits that he will not only lose his law license but will probably go to jail for his dirty tricks. The lawyer’s tale foreshadows the penalty for failure.

  All Is Lost: Because the midpoint is a “down,” the All Is Lost is an “up” or a “false victory.” After thinking Bob and Dustin have vetted a story that links the break-in to the Oval Office, Jason agrees to “go with it” — but the boys were double-crossed, and the story is immediately denounced by the White House. Threats by Nixon’s team include a demand for a retraction. About to be fired, or worse — get their boss sued and his reputation destroyed — the rookies seem to have blown it.

  Dark Night of the Soul: “What was our mistake?” Dustin asks.

  Break into Three: A and B stories cross as Jason votes to “stick with the story” and “stand by the boys.” As a result, Bob sets up another meeting with Deep Throat to find out how they goofed.

  Finale: At the garage, Bob has finally had it with subterfuge: “I’m tired of your chickenshit games,” he tells Deep Throat. “I need to know what you know.” Deep Mentor decides to tell Bob all — the trail leads to the President. Bob rushes back to inform Dustin. Typing to each other out of fear of being bugged, Bob writes: “Our lives are in danger.” The boys then rush to Jason’s house to tell him. Jason lovingly says: “Go home, rest up, fifteen minutes.” They are back on the case for real. As we go out, the two are feverishly typing more stories.

  Final Image: A series of headlines spit out by a teletype machine reveal how the story unfolds in the next few years leading to Nixon’s resignation. The press has triumphed.

  BLADE RUNNER (1982)

  How many times does the “director’s cut” of a movie turn out better than the original? That’s right: Almost never. While I appreciate any version of Ridley Scott’s “Fantasy Whydunit,” taking out the voice-over and leaving the ending a little more open-ended, as he does in his version of the story, to me works best. No matter what cut of this Harrison Ford-starrer we see, seeing is key. Not only are the visuals, imagination, and decor of the film its real highpoints — and a cinematic milestone — but the running imagery of sight — eyes, eyeballs, death by having one’s eyes pushed inward — is also a powerful motif.

  For our purposes, this sci-fi detective set-up is like so many others over the years. In this case, Harrison is a “blade runner,” a bounty hunter whose specialty is tracking down and retiring “replicants,” androids so lifelike it takes a special test to make sure they’re not human. And like so many “dark turns” a detective makes in a good Whydunit, this one involves a woman … kinda. When Harrison falls for Sean Young and discovers she too is “one of them,” it’s the start of his seeing life — and love — a whole new way. As the “bad guy,” Rutger Hauer is truly inspired as the leader of the hunted, who teaches Harrison the meaning of being alive.

  W Type: Fantasy Whydunit

  W Cousins: Total Recall; Who Framed Roger Rabbit; Cool World; Mulholland Drive; Ghost; The Sixth Sense; The Singing Detective; Minority Report; Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow; I, Robot

  BLADE RUNNER

  Screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples

  Based on DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?

  by Philip K. Dick

  Opening Image: Los Angeles in 2019, a smoggy cesspool of moral ambiguity and desolation. The flying cars tell us we’re in the future — without them, what’s new?

  Theme Stated: At the Tyrell Corporation, Leon Kowalksi (Brion James) is given an odd eye test while asked questions. What is it to be “alive”? — that’s our theme. Can you tell who is human and who isn’t by looking into their eyes? At Minute 7, Brion kills his interrogator.

  Set-Up: Meet Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), one of the unlucky few still living on Earth. While ads promise “A new life awaits you in the off-world colonies,” for some reason he’s still here. He’s not really “alive” himself — at least in a Stasis = Death way — and is waiting for a mission. Then the mysterious origami-making Gaff (Edward James Olmos) announces one.

  Catalyst: Minute 12 (right on time!), Harrison gets his assignment. A cop, Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh), tells the specialist: “I got four ’skin jobs’ walking the streets. You’re going to spot ’em and you’re gonna air ’em out.” But Harrison hesitates.

  Debate: Harrison reviews the tape of Brion’s interrogation, marveling at how lifelike he is. The real mystery of all this: Why did the replicants come back to Earth from an off-planet base, and what do they want out of the Tyrell Corporation? We also foreshadow the other replicants, including Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), the leader, and Pris (Daryl Hannah). The replicants were built to live four years; their life spans are almost over.

  Break into Two: Harrison takes the case and arrives at the Tyrell Corporation, an Art-Deco-via-Hong Kong office space.

  B Story: Harrison meets Rachael (Sean Young), who is the “love story” and the heart of the theme. We also meet founder Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), who asks Harrison to test Sean just like Brion was — and we learn she is a replicant. At Minute 22, Harrison gives the punchline: “She doesn’t know….” Tyrell tells Harrison the company motto: “More human than human.” Even Sean’s memories are fake.

  Fun and Games: The case progresses as Harrison goes to his first stop, the hotel where Brion lived. Like the “promise of the premise” of any Whydunit, he digs for clues. He finds what seems to be a fish scale. Meanwhile replicants Rutger and Brion show up at the fresh-frozen lab of eye-guy Hannibal Chew (James Hong). Rutger wants to know where designer JF Sebastian (William Sanderson) lives. Learning Sebastian’s address from Chew, Rutger sends Daryl to Sebastian’s flat. We also see things heat up with Sean, for when Harrison gets home, she is waiting for him (kinda like in real life). “You think I’m a replicant,” she says. Later, analyzing a photo (and exploiting the eye motif), Harrison finds more mystery. One clue leads to the next as he proceeds to a marketplace and, asking an expert with another microscope-like device (so many eye and lens images!), learns the “fish scale” is actually a synthetic snake scale.

  Midpoint: Harrison goes to a trendy bar. A good detective story surveys the strata of the whole society — lower class, upper class, and in between — with our hero negotiating all. Harrison heads backstage where he pretends to be a nerd (the same guy Bogart posed as in The Big Sleep to get info at a bookstore). Zhora (Joanna Cassidy) is using a robot snake in her act (thus the scale). When she bolts, Harrison chases and kills her. The “stakes are raised,” and A and B stories cross, when Harrison is told he has one more replicant to retire: Sean.

  Bad Guys Close In: The vice tightens immediately. Brion grabs Harrison on the street. “Wake up, time to die,” he tells the blade runner. That’s when Sean rescues him by killing Brion. Having his life saved by a replicant, how can he not take a “dark turn”? At home, Sean watches him spit blood, fascinated. “What if I go north, disappear, would you come after me?” she asks. Alone with her, Harrison considers love with a robot (it is LA). They kiss at 1 Hour 12 Minutes. Meanwhile back at Sebastian’s house, Daryl is donning her battle make-up and doing cartwheels; a clock chime is heard (“time clock” alert). Ironically, Sebastian has a genetic disease whereby he grows old faster than normal humans.

&n
bsp; All Is Lost: Rutger visits Tyrell. When he refuses to help prolong their lives, Rutger kills him by pushing his eyeballs into his head. Sebastian dies too, and now the replicants know they are doomed.

  Break into Three: A and B stories cross again as Harrison leaves Sean and goes to Sebastian’s to face the other replicants. Daryl is a back-flippin’ killer, but Harrison bests her.

  Finale: Harrison’s showdown with Rutger is brutal and poignant. In a way, they are two of kind — both are in love with a replicant. But robot saves human and in his final words, returns again to eye imagery: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. All those moments will be lost in time. Like tears in rain.” (lines written on the set by Rutger Hauer himself!) As he dies, he releases a dove, and Harrison sees what’s in “the last room”: He too will die.

  Final Image: Harrison goes home and finds Sean asleep, not dead. As he and Sean walk out to “head north,” we see Edward left an origami unicorn, a sign he is letting Harrison off the hook and allowing him and Sean to “live” a while longer.

  FARGO (1996)

  What’s inside the last little room of the nautilus shell in this Coen Brother’s gem of a Whydunit is something truly horrifying. When very pregnant Sheriff Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) turns the handle and opens that final door, she confronts malevolence at its most blasé. There, a man with no conscience is feeding the limb of his latest victim into a wood chipper. But his expression is of one who’s been interrupted doing the laundry. Marge began this journey in the warm bed she shares with husband Norm, who paints pictures of ducks for a living. Yet here on a cold Minnesota afternoon, she’s found what she’s looking for: Proof that evil is working overtime even while we sleep.

  With a brilliant screenplay by Ethan and Joel Coen, and stellar performances from William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, and McDormand (who won an Oscar® for this role), director Joel Coen’s Fargo is an example of a type of “Cop Whydunit” in which the audience knows the “secret” and is waiting for our by-the-book detective to catch up. Despite her Midwest manners, penchant for smorgasbords, and awkward reunions at the Radisson, Marge is way ahead of us. She knows more that she lets on. She will take a “dark turn” herself — and is well aware of the power of its attraction.

  W Type: Cop Whydunit

  W Cousins: The French Connection, Dirty Harry, Tightrope, To Live and Die in LA, Basic Instinct, City by the Sea, LA Confidential, Insomnia, Twisted, Narc

  FARGO

  Written by Ethan Coen & Joel Coen

  Opening Image: Out of a blowing snowstorm, a car and trailer pull into Fargo, ND, site of the planning for our sad crime.

  Theme Stated: Late, due to getting the time wrong, mild-mannered car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) arrives with a new tan Sierra for accomplices Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare). He wants them to kidnap his own wife, but the kidnappers are confused. Why would anyone do that? Appreciating what you have, or not, is what this movie is about.

  Set-Up: William needs money. His plan is to kidnap his wife and force her rich father to pay a ransom. Just how he lost the $320,000 loaned him, and for which he has borrowed on several cars used as collateral at the dealership where he works, is a mystery. When he arrives home to his wife and intended victim (Kristin Rudrüd), all seems normal. But we soon understand why he’s harbored this plan. “Dad’s here,” his wife tells him. A bully, William’s father-in-law, Wade (Harve Presnell), can do or say anything he wants in their home. William is the definition of the “little man” pushed around by life. We wish he’d stand up for himself. But that ship has sailed.

  Catalyst: At Minute 13, William gets a call; Harve might go for a business deal he proposed that we know might save him — and eliminate the need for the kidnapping.

  Debate: Can he stop the crime? William meets with a mechanic at the car lot where he works; Shep Proudfoot (Steven Reevis) arranged the kidnap, but the wheels are in motion. Harve cheats William on the deal anyway.

  Break into Two: The two criminals break in and grab Kristin. William comes home and finds his wife gone, and seems almost surprised that his scheme is now in motion. He rehearses sounding upset and calls his father-in-law, saying his wife’s been kidnapped. But the real problems begin when the kidnappers kill a cop, then chase down and kill witnesses to the crime.

  B Story: At Minute 32, we meet Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), in bed with husband Norm (John Carroll Lynch) when the call comes. New to the case, she’ll follow clues we’ve seen. She sounds more like a housewife than a hard-edged cop. “There in a jif, real good,” she says. She and Norm are expecting. It is through Frances the theme of the movie will be discussed. Frances is satisfied with her life — but even she will be tempted.

  Fun and Games: Frances is on the case; she shows her brilliance, and what a good detective she is, by reenacting the crime. “From his footprint it looks like he’s a big fella,” she says at the scene. She spots different tracks next to the dead trooper and realizes there’s a team of killers. Frances is also kind when she corrects a fellow investigator: “I don’t think I agree with you 100% on your police work there, Lou.” Meanwhile, William continues his plan. In control, he’s running the show, but this won’t last; it’s Harve’s money. The kidnappers arrive at a cabin where they’ll wait for the exchange, and Steve’s partner acts insane. Watching TV that night, Frances gets a call. It’s an old friend, Mike (Steve Park). Frances flirts with a “dark turn” by mulling his lunch invitation.

  Midpoint: The “stakes are raised” as Steve calls William and tells him about the murders. “Circumstances have changed,” he says. This is followed by a “time clock,” when William is given 24 hours to send proof for his loan. There’s a lot of eating in this movie, by people and on nature TV shows; while at another buffet, Frances is ordered to the Twin Cities on the case. Mike lives there — and now Frances’ “stakes are raised.”

  Bad Guys Close In: As Frances arrives in the Twin Cities, Harve refuses to let William handle the pay-off. Frances shows up at William’s work to interview Shep Proudfoot. At 1 Hour, Frances questions William for the first time. Then, making her “dark turn” — even if it’s the Minnesota housewife’s version — Frances dresses up and meets Mike for lunch. It’s an awkward moment as Mike has a tearful breakdown. The scene revisits the theme: If Frances is satisfied with her life, why hasn’t she told her husband she’s here? That night, Shep finds Steve and beats him. Their plan is falling apart fast.

  All Is Lost: Picking up the money, Steve’s surprised by Harve, who acts tough. Steve kills him but not before Harve shoots Steve in the face. William, with no money or wife, is “worse off than when this movie started.” Later, Steve opens the bag and sees the million dollars William got Harve to pay them. Steve buries the money; he has an idea how to keep it all.

  Dark Night of the Soul: Packing to leave the city, Frances learns Mike has psychiatric problems. Isolated on the road, she tries to find comfort in fast food and prepares to take a last stab at cracking the case.

  Break into Three: Frances returns to the car dealership and interviews William. She looks at a photo of William’s wife on his desk; the woman’s smiling face touches on the theme of “being happy with what we have” — Is Frances? Then she sees William fleeing the scene and knows he’s part of the kidnapping. Meanwhile, Steve comes back to the cabin and finds William’s wife dead; his cohort killed her. Attempting to escape, Steve is axed to death by his homicidal partner.

  Finale: Frances finds the tan Sierra and discovers the bad guy putting Steve’s body parts in a wood chipper. She shoots and arrests him. On the way home, she even lectures him and sums up the theme: “There’s more to life than a little money. Don’t you know that? And here you are and it’s a beautiful day. Well … I just don’t understand it.” This is a reminder for herself, as well.

  Final Image: William is arrested in a motel and Frances and her husband are back in bed. Frances’ flirtation with the dark
side has made her homecoming and home life all the more rewarding.

  MYSTIC RIVER (2003)

  In a great example of the “case within a case,” director Clint Eastwood explores how the past affects the present in his adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s best-selling novel. The incident at the heart of the story takes place 30 years earlier when the lives of three boys are changed when one is abducted by pedophiles — an event that seems buried. It will take a new crime — the murder of another man’s daughter — to rouse old ghosts and confront the sins of the past.

  The “detective” here is actually several characters, for even though one, played by Kevin Bacon, is the cop on the case, the real mystery-solving is left to “civilians,” which is what makes this such a great example of the “Personal Whydunit.”

  Sean Penn plays the father of the murdered girl, who now has to dredge up his criminal past to avenge her. Likewise, the man who was abducted as a boy, Tim Robbins, must battle his own demons in a separate event that coincides with this new crime in ways that force his guilt into the open. As we will see by the film’s ending, the rules are not the same for every community. The “dark turn” Sean makes to find the truth plays differently in this small town. A textbook adaptation by Brian Helgeland takes an unwieldy narrative and gives it a spine that shows the theme: Even the most innocent must face themselves and their sins.