Saturday, May 2, 2020

Scriptmonk's Plot Pattern Extravaganza -- ALL Y'ALL FAVORITES!! (Part 2)

(Click here for PART 1)

(Click here for an overview of the 34 Common Plot Patterns of American Cinema)

The extravaganza continues this week with an analysis of eight more films operating in groups 8 and 9 of the Action-Centered Plot Patterns! Enjoy.
(SPOILERS)

North by Northwest (1959)


More than sixty years old, Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest can definitely be labeled a Hollywood classic. The structural analysis of anything over forty years old can be a bit tricky, however, as the “classical” narrative structures used in Hollywood’s past differ in many ways from what we are accustomed to seeing on movie screens today. However, true “classics” (older films which remain widely-loved and critically-revered due to their superior storytelling, such as Casablanca, Citizen Kane, The Wizard of Oz or North by Northwest), seem to have been far ahead of the curve when it came to structural proficiency. Thus, despite their extensive age, Casablanca is still a prototypical Crisis of Conscience, Citizen Kane represents a prototypical Power Glutton, and North by Northwest provides a early example of Type 9a: The Involuntary Snowball of Complications.

Exemplified by films like Back to the Future (1985) or The Big Lebowski (1998), the Involuntary Snowball features a protagonist who becomes unwittingly tangled up in an increasingly complex, and eventually overwhelming, narrative situation. While the protagonist may have been initially drawn into the situation by fate or bad luck, the protagonist subsequently makes the predicament worse and worse through a series of mistakes and poor judgments. The plot thus develops like a giant snowball rolling downhill; increasing in size, as well as speed, as it picks up more and more material as it goes.

If we simplify its twists and turns, North by Northwest fits in quite well with other Involuntary Snowball prototypes. Protagonist Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is corralled into a life-or-death conflict by pure bad luck when the antagonist mistakes him for a government agent named George Kaplan. This creates problems enough, but at the end of Act 1, Thornhill commits a major error which greatly complicates his situation: Thornhill is photographed holding the knife used to murder a UN diplomat, inciting a manhunt for his arrest. In Act 2A, Thornhill deals with the consequences of this complication to the best of his limited abilities, but clumsy actions and foolish mistakes lead to an event which adds another, and even greater story complication: Thornhill is set up to be killed (in the famous cropduster sequence) by the beautiful blonde Thornhill believed to be an ally (Eva Marie Saint), revealing that he has been playing right into the antagonist’s hands. Thornhill must work even harder in Act 2B to outrun the snowball of complications threatening to crush him. Luckily for him, Act 2B ends (as all Involuntary Snowballs do) with an event that successfully resolves the complication created at the End of Act 1: Thornhill is taken in by the intelligence agency behind the “Kaplan” mystery. This event essentially clears Thornhill of the UN murder and ends the manhunt. With that complication out of the way, the Involuntary Snowball’s Act 3 begins with the protagonist turning all of his/her attention onto resolving the original conflict set up in Act 1: Thornhill agrees to impersonate George Kaplan to help the government stop the antagonist.

True Lies (1994)


Arnold Schwarzenegger made a lot of action-comedy junk in the 1990s. Most of it can be happily forgotten. However, James Cameron’s True Lies holds higher regard in the opinions of genre fans. Most fans would say this is because True Lies is a little bit better. It’s a little bit better because it is a little bit different. The truth is, True Lies isn’t really the story of an elite secret agent fighting criminals and terrorists. It is the story of a jealous husband trying to save his failing marriage – who just happens to be an elite member of a secret agency with all the resources of that agency at his fingertips. Once this distinction is made, the movie’s Involuntary Snowball plot pattern becomes apparent. For while Act 1 contains a lot of action and intrigue to set up the spectacular set pieces found in the second half of the film, all this material is put on hold at the end of Act 1 and left entirely absent from Act 2A. Instead, we find Schwarzenegger’s Harry Tasker putting all his time and agency resources into investigating his fear of his wife Helen’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) possible adultery. However, to Harry’s horror, these two lines of action converge at the story’s Midpoint event, inextricably involving Helen in his mission to stop a nuclear terror plot.

So, here is the Involuntary Snowball structure as found in True Lies. Act 1 sets up the story’s external conflict, not through a single inciting incident, but a series of events—a trademark of the Snowball of Complications plot patterns: (Harry Tasker lives a double life. The demands of his secret professional life have put an undue strain on his private life, leaving Helen unhappy.) The protagonist then makes a major error at the End of Act 1 (Harry surpasses the limits of Helen’s patience by failing to show up for his own birthday party), which as a result creates a major complication to the protagonist’s situation: (Harry learns that Helen has begun seeing another man, causing Harry to fear that Helen is cheating on him). Act 2A then focuses not so much on the situation established in Act 1, but the protagonist’s efforts to deal with the new complication. (Harry abuses the power of his agency to spy on Helen and scare away his rival. He then sets up a complex ruse to rekindle his marriage.) However, the protagonist’s attempts to deal with the complication end up worsening the overall situation by triggering an even greater complication at the Midpoint. (The bad guys get the drop on Harry. They mistake Helen for a fellow agent and kidnap them both.) Now dug deep into a hole of his own making, the protagonist must put all his Act 2B effort into climbing out of that hole, while dealing with the unexpected obstacles and further complications which come along the way. Act 2B then ends in a manner which successfully resolves the complication created at the End of Act 1. (Harry, injected with truth serum, confesses everything about his secret double-life to Helen. With the two now open and honest with one another, there is no more reason for marital discord or Harry’s suspicions.) With the End of Act 1 complication cleared out of the way, Act 3 focuses upon resolving the original problem established at the story’s inciting incident. (Harry stops the terrorists from detonating their nuclear weapons.)

Back to the Future follows this structural pattern. The Big Lebowski follows this pattern. North by Northwest follows this pattern. And so does True Lies.

Risky Business (1983)


Risky Business, the 1983 Coming of Age classic which launched Tom Cruise into movie stardom, presents yet another Involuntary Snowball of Complications. However Business deviates from the pattern’s standard form. While prototypical examples structure their Major Dramatic Turning Points in the following fashion: Problem – Complication #1 – Complication #2 – Resolution of Complications – Final Resolution; Business opts for a structure which goes more like this: Problem – Complication – Resolution/New Complication – Resolution/New Complication – Final Resolution.

I will not go into too much detail, seeing as I have already described the Involuntarily Snowball twice. However, a brief overview of Business’s plot should make clear how this deviant example operates. 
 
High school senior Joel Goodson, given the house to himself while his parents are on vacation, is teased by his friends because he is about to enter college (and thus, adulthood) with his virginity still intact. In response, Joel contracts the services of young prostitute Lana (Rebecca De Mornay). After a night with Lana, Joel finds he has no money to pay her. Joel goes to the bank and returns to find Lana missing, along with his mother’s prized (and extremely expensive) glass Steuben egg (End of Act 1 Complication). Joel tracks down Lana, but both are threatened by Lana’s pimp Guido (Joe Pantoliano). Lana agrees to get Joel the egg back, but she needs to stay at his house for a few days to get away from Guido. Things seem to be on the road to resolution for Joel (despite the slight added complication of having a prostitute living in his parents’ home). However, a night out with Lana and some friends ends with the wreck of his father’s Porsche (New complication #2, ending Act 2A). To pay for the repairs, Lana suggests going into business for themselves by turning Joel’s house into a one-night brothel. Despite some hiccups, the plan goes well and Joel manages to get the Porsche repaired by the close of Act 2B (Resolution). However, when Joel brings the car home, he finds that every piece of furniture in the house has been stolen (New complication #3, launching Act 3). Guido arrives in a moving truck full of the stolen furniture and offers it back in exchange for all the money leftover from Joel’s brothel. Joel gives in and manages to get everything back into place before his parents come home (Resolution). In the end, we are given to believe that Joel’s adventure has granted him the wisdom and experience he needs to cross the threshold into adulthood (Final Resolution).

They Live (1988)


While the Involuntary Snowball features a protagonist who becomes unwillingly wrapped up in an increasingly complicated situation, Type 9b: The Voluntary Snowball follows a protagonist who dives head-first into such a situation by their own free will. The most characteristic feature of this second pattern is the presence of a “Siren” that lures the protagonist deeper and deeper into a story conflict which they would be wiser to avoid. This “Siren’s call” might issue from the protagonist’s obsession with another character (as in Blue Velvet [1986] or WALL-E [2008]), the desire to obtain a valuable object (as in Raiders of the Lost Ark [1981]), or a mystery the protagonist feels compelled to solve (as in Chinatown [1974]). They Live contains a fairly simple story, and thus uses a simplified version of the Voluntary Snowball. Yet the hero John Nada’s (Roddy Piper) compulsion is nevertheless the same as Chinatown’s Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson). When Nada learns of a hidden conspiracy, he is driven to dig deeper and deeper into the mystery until he can uncover the truth and reveal it to the world. Like Gittes, nothing physically forces Nada to continually push his way into increasingly dangerous territory—except his own obsession with the Siren’s call.
(As a side note, I do not remember if Piper’s character is ever referred to by name in the film. I had to look up the character name on imdb.com. “Nada” literally means “nothing,” providing added commentary to the nature of the protagonist.)

The voluntary nature of this plot pattern may be seen in the way that, unlike in the Involuntary Snowball, each turning point presents Nada with an opportunity to walk away from the situation with no immediate consequences. However, Nada continually chooses to escalate his involvement by his own free will. When Nada sees strange goings-on at the church across the street, he could choose to ignore it. It’s really none of his business. Still, he sneaks in to investigate. When he watches the police raid the church and clear out the homeless camp, he could take it as a clear warning to move on. Anything he does at this point would be asking for trouble. Yet still, he returns to the empty church and collects a mysterious box. When Nada finds a special pair of sunglasses which reveal that human society has been secretly enslaved by aliens, he could protect himself by keeping this revelation a secret. After all, no one knows about his discovery. Instead, he openly challenges these disguised aliens. As the story later establishes, Nada is not the first human to learn this secret. The aliens’ usual strategy is to bribe these potential troublemakers into silence with wealth and power. An alien cop suggests such a deal to Nada just before the story’s Midpoint. But Nada does not even consider the option. He grabs a gun and starts to kill aliens left and right. (This is similar to the Midpoint in Chinatown where the antagonist Noah Cross offers Jake twice as much money to switch loyalties to his side. Gittes refuses, starting his own one-man war against Cross.)

The Siren, of course, is an obsession, and thus leads the protagonist to increasingly risky and irrational actions against his or her own self-interest. To avoid self-destruction, the protagonist must eventually pull back from the obsession and extricate him or herself from the self-created complications through prudent and reasonable actions. Nada, however, shows all the rationality of a kamikaze in the film’s final act. While there may have been a more reasonable way to reveal the story’s secrets to the world, Nada hurls himself into a suicide mission. Though Nada does ultimately achieve his objective, his only reward is a tragic death.

(By the way, in this current era of high-profile genre soap operas like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad, I am surprised that there has not yet been a series developed from They Live. The film hints at a vast narrative universe with questions and mysteries the original story has no time to explore. There is enormous potential for its premise if opened up to include a wide cast of characters.)

Jurassic Park (1993)


I know a lot of people, particularly those who grew up in the 1980s & 90s, hold a deep nostalgic fervor for the original Jurassic Park. However, I hate to break it to you that Jurassic has pretty poor story structure. It is an extremely front-heavy film which dedicates most of its run time not to plot or character, but to pure spectacle. It is not until about forty minutes into the film that Jurassic seems to realize that it also needs to tell a story. This poses some problems for structural analysis, as all the major plot turning points have been compressed into the back half of the film. However, here is the dramatic 3-Act structure of Jurassic Park:
Act 1: A team of researchers are invited by an eccentric billionaire to a mysterious faraway location. The act ends with the characters arriving at the location to see its wonders.
Act 2A: After some exposition and a tour of the facilities, disaster strikes when the security system is disabled by a traitor, releasing the dinosaurs from their pens. The characters flee from the ensuing chaos.
Act 2B: With the situation momentarily stabilized, the characters find that the security system cannot be simply switched back on. The only way to reboot the system is through a dangerous mission into dinosaur-overrun territory. This mission is successful, but not without the loss of life.
Act 3: With that issue resolved, the characters can now make their escape from the park. However, this is no easy task, as unexpected threats pop up along the way, keeping the characters’ escape uncertain until the story climax.

The most conspicuous thing about this summary is the placement of the story’s most significant dramatic event: the release of the dinosaurs from their enclosures. This event occurs not at the end of Act 1 or Act 2A, but at the end of the first sequence of Act 2A. This is a dead giveaway of plot pattern Type 8b: There & Back Again.

Exemplified by the prototypes The Wizard of Oz (1939), Apollo 13 (1995), and Deliverance (1972), the There & Back Again contains a character (or, more often, a group of characters) who leaves home on an adventure, only to encounter a disastrous complication that threatens any safe return. The remainder of the narrative focuses on efforts to overcome the disastrous complications so the characters may ultimately return to the safety of home. In Act 1, characters prepare for an adventure. The act ends with the adventure passing its point of no return. (A cyclone lands Dorothy’s house in Oz; the Apollo rocket takes off; the four friends in Deliverance launch their canoes down the river). At this point, things are (more or less) safe and under control. However, disaster strikes at the following turning point (Dorothy’s life is threatened by the Wicked Witch, demanding a journey to the Wizard for help; a malfunction sends the Apollo capsule out of control; the friends are set upon by evil mountain men.) For the remainder of Act 2A, the characters struggle to regain control over their immediate situation. By the end of the act, some sense of stability has been restored. However, the Midpoint reveals a major complication (typically a direct result of the initial disaster) which prevents any current possibility of a safe return home. (The Wizard refuses to help Dorothy return to Kansas until she brings him the broom of the Wicked Witch; damage to the Apollo capsule will doom the astronauts unless quick solutions are found; after killing and burying one of the mountain men, the friends realize the survivor is hunting them like animals.) Act 2B then focuses on resolving this complication, reaching success at the act’s end. With that issue resolved, Act 3 launches the quest to return home, with threats and obstacles encountered along the way.

The There & Back Again has been included in the “Literal Journey” family of patterns due to the fact that the prototypical examples mentioned above present narratives where characters are always on the move, engaged in a traveling adventure in the most classical sense. The End of Act 1 Turning Point of these films is thus marked by the official launch of the journey. However, Jurassic Park (as well as the next three films discussed below) provides evidence for a commonly-used alternative structure. Rather than launch the beginning of an ongoing journey, the end of Act 1 marks the characters’ arrival at a static (though far away) location. The following moment of disaster then threatens the characters’ chances of safely leaving the location. The remaining three acts then continue to follow the standard pattern: 2A: Overcoming the immediate danger. 2B: Resolving the new complication. 3: The struggle to finally head home. We find more than enough evidence to support this alternative in the next three examples.

Aliens (1986)


Here’s something interesting. Aliens and Jurassic Park tell the exact same story. I don’t simply mean they follow the same plot pattern. I am saying the two films literally tell identical stories. The only differences are in the identity of the characters and the monstrous beasts who threaten them (plus the fact that Aliens’ plot develops with much better pace and structure).

In Act 1, we have the assembling of a team of specialists to be sent to an exotic, far-off location potentially fraught with dangers and wonders. (The Weyland-Yutani corporation recruits Ellen Ripley to accompany a team of Marines and company representative Burke on an investigation of the site where Ripley and the Nostromo crew first encountered the alien creatures in the previous film.) The team arrives at the location at the end of Act 1. Everything first appears to be quiet and under control. But, at the first turning point of Act 2A, the monsters break loose. (The Marines unexpectedly awaken a hive of warrior xenomorphs, initiating a frenzied battle to escape.) The survivors manage to get to momentary safety. However, a technical problem caused by the preceding disaster prevents their escape from the location. (Damage to equipment prevents the team from piloting a dropship to the planet’s surface. Later, a second technical complication adds further urgency: the facility’s nuclear reactor is going into meltdown, preventing the possibility of simply hunkering down and waiting for rescue.) This demands that certain crew members make a dangerous journey through the cramped, dark facilities to resolve the technical problem. (Bishop volunteers to crawl through a conduit to an uplink tower in order to pilot a dropship to the surface remotely—much like how Arnold, Muldoon and Sattler in Jurassic volunteer to reset the park’s power generator.) Meanwhile, the others must do their best to fend off further encounters with the monsters as they wait, but not without the addition of new threats (Ripley and Newt are menaced by the release of two facehugger aliens—much like how the quest to reset the generator frees the raptors in Jurassic). The technical complication is successfully resolved, launching the action of Act 3: the flight to the escape vessel through monster-infested territory. (In additional parallel, the Act 3 of both films contains a turning point where the protagonist must face the monsters directly in order to rescue child characters.) At the climax, the biggest, baddest monster of all blocks the way to the escape vessel. The survivors outwit and escape this final obstacle and finally leave the treacherous monster-filled world behind.

Now I’m not explicitly saying that Steven Spielberg’s film ripped off James Cameron’s film. (Even though, you know, Aliens was released seven years before Jurassic Park.) After all, a main tenet of my theory of plot patterns is that film narratives naturally gravitate toward the same story structures for reasons other than conscious imitation. (Even though, you know, the velociraptors in Jurassic really do look and act a lot like the xenomorphs in Aliens.) I’m just saying that the two films manage to tell remarkably similar stories—and that Aliens manages to do it with better structure and in a way that develops organically from its characters and initiating plot premise. That’s all I’m sayin’.

Back the the Future, Part III (1990)


Now on to a There & Back Again of a much different character. The original Back to the Future, as well as its first sequel (1989), both present prototypical examples of the Involuntary Snowball of Complications. In both, Marty gets unwillingly caught up in a time-travel adventure; causes a royal screw-up at the end of Act 1; recognizes the full consequences of this screw-up at the Midpoint; and takes actions to correct the screw-up in Act 2B. With the screw-up finally resolved, Marty and Doc can focus all their energies on the return to the year 1985 in Act 3. Back to the Future, Part III is a bit different. In this third and final installment, Marty must rescue Doc from an untimely demise in the year 1885. To execute this rescue narrative, Future III opts for the There & Back Again pattern.

Acts 1 & 3 of Future III match the There & Back’s prototypical norms. In Act 1, Marty encounters pressing reasons for a journey to 1885, prepares for the journey, and arrives at this destination at the end-of-act turning point (once again, using the alternative structure found in Jurassic Park and Aliens). Act 3 is all about executing Doc’s plan to escape 1885 (by way of a runaway locomotive) so the heroes may return safely home.

Acts 2A & 2B, however, contain some slight, though certainly acceptable, deviations from the pattern’s standard norms. First off, the first turning point of Act 2A does not create the kind of world-shattering disaster typical to the pattern (at least, nothing on the level of Apollo 13 or Jurassic Park). In Future III, Act 2A first turns when Marty mistakenly incites the ire of outlaw Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen. While Marty is briefly put in danger, the threat is brought to a quick end through a sudden rescue by Doc Brown. This event creates more of a future complication than a situation-altering disaster. The following turning point does create situation-altering development: the DeLorean time machine has lost all of its gasoline. Since there is no gasoline in year 1885, the heroes are trapped in the past until a solution can be found. Once again, this poses no immediate threat. However, this complication demands urgent action for the remainder of 2A, as the heroes must discover a solution before the fateful events which will end Doc's life come about.

Act 2B does, however, stick a bit closer to the norm. At the Midpoint, a second life-threatening complication arises—one directly related to the first turning point event of Act 2A: A second encounter with “Mad Dog” Tannen results in Tannen demanding, and Marty foolishly accepting, a duel in two days. Marty certainly cannot return safely home if he is shot dead in the streets, so this event creates a major complication which must be overcome in Act 2B before Marty and Doc can begin their escape from 1885. (The film also dimensionalizes its Act 2B with the addition of a character subplot: Doc has fallen in love with the schoolteacher Clara (Mary Steenburgen), making him question whether he desires to return to 1985, even though his life may be in danger if he stays.) True to form, Marty overcomes his complication at the end of the act, clearing the way for the long, climactic returning home sequence that makes up Act 3.

Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom (1984)


As the soft middle of the original Indiana Jones trilogy, Temple of Doom does not generate the same level of nostalgic love or enthusiasm as the two films which bookend the series; Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade (1989). It is not difficult to see why. Both Raiders and Crusade offer classic, family-fun versions of the Voluntary Snowball pattern. In both, the adventurous, devil-may-care archaeologist risks life and limb in a obsessive quest to claim a powerful ancient artifact before Nazis can use it for evil ends. (Although Crusade puts a twist on this. It is not Indy who is obsessed with the Holy Grail, but his father Henry, Sr. (Sean Connery). Indy joins the adventure to keep his father from being killed.) The Temple of Doom, however, chooses to follow the There & Back, to far less spectacular effect.

I am not going to discuss this film in too much detail, as I am on the verge of doing the There & Back to death. Plus, Doom is simply not a very good example of the pattern. Instead, I will provide a brief overview of the pattern’s use in Doom with some comments on why the results where so mediocre.

First off, we can dismiss the opening prologue sequence set in Shanghai. Prologue sequences, a trademark of the Indiana Jones franchise, open the film with a separate, self-contained narrative. They have their own Story Spine and 3-Act structure and thus, while they may establish certain story elements, prologue sequences are not part of the main story proper. They may hence be completely removed from the film with little effect upon the audience’s comprehension of the plot.

Doom’s inciting incident occurs only after Indy’s plane crash-lands in India. By happenstance, Indy and his comrades Willie and Short Round come upon a village which has fallen into desolation after the theft of their sacred stone. The thieves have also kidnapped the village’s children. Indy agrees to retrieve the stone and children. Why? Out of the goodness of his heart, I guess. This inciting incident conflicts with Indy’s established character, as it lacks the personal, or even the political motivations found in the other two Indiana Jones films. Indy’s appeal as a protagonist is that he is always a bit of a rogue. He insists that he is out only for his own fame and glory, and only after much coaxing and dramatic pressure recognizes his more virtuous impulses to accept the role of a hero. Yet there is none of that in Doom. Indy’s selfless volunteerism makes even less sense when we consider that Doom is technically a prequel, set one year before the character arc found in Raiders.

In any case, Indy & company set off on the adventure, reaching their destination Pankot Palace at the End of Act 1. At the next turning point, Indy is attacked by a would-be assassin, which leads to the discovery of a passageway leading to the titular temple with its death cult and child slaves. Though still the story’s most pivotal event, this turning point falls flat as the pattern’s “disaster strikes” moment. It is not a life-threatening event which demands immediate response. Rather, it is a simple development which leads to later threats. On top of this, Indy chooses to enter the temple voluntarily, an action followed by a lot of sneaking around which continues to lack any immediate direct conflict. This, plus the inciting incident, seems to suggest that the writers were indeed trying to replicate the Voluntary Snowball structure found in the original Raiders. However, the plot was misexecuted, resulting in a flawed There & Back.

My presumption that Doom indeed represents a There & Back and not a Voluntary Snowball is supported by the story’s next two end-of-act turning points. At the Midpoint, Indy is brainwashed by the cult’s evil leader to become a mindless slave. This certainly creates a major complication which must be resolved before the characters can attempt their escape. (But then again, one must question the wisdom of turning the franchise’s intrepid adventurer into a passive drone, leaving the burden of further plot development to supporting characters during such a pivotal stretch of the film.) Indy is brought back to his senses at the End of 2B Turning Point, initiating the long series of escape sequences that make up Act 3, culminating with the memorable climax at the rope bridge. All in all, we do find the There & Back’s basic structure of a journey away from “home,” an adventure with unexpected complications met at the destination, and a successful escape and return. It’s just not one to model your own stories after.

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Click HERE for Part 3 of my Plot Pattern Extravaganza, featuring six films in the Antagonism-Centered Plot Patterns: Se7en, Predator, Hellboy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the good one), and more.

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