Even if action movies are not your thing, and you don't particularly want to write that kind of script, he's widely recognized that the script for diehard with Bruce Willis is probably one of the near perfect scripts in existence. So for this lecture, we're going to analyze this film and teach you how to reverse engineer a movie or a product to find out why it's so good. This method of reverse engineering a movie is very powerful. It shows you how each part is constructed. So that is appealing for the audience, and they want to watch it right until the very end, we discover the very elements that you need to incorporate into your own script writing. If you're not familiar with a movie diehard let's take a minute to look at the preview the theatrical trailer Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
It's Christmas Eve in LA with a team of terrorists, money terrorists own holiday plan. And I'm telling you, okay. do it the hard way. But the one thing they didn't plan on was New York cop john McClane got invited to the Christmas party by mistake. You really think you have a chance against us mistakes they have already killed one hostage This channel is reserved for emergency calls. Americans believe New Jersey counts.
Doing job even easy guide to the heart man to kill die. From the trailer you can see it the general style of the movie. But if you're not familiar with the story, it is quite old after all. Let me take you through the basic story. First of all, the main characters. The hero is john McClane.
He's a New York cop, about 40 years old. His main characteristic is person tality trade is that he's into his job, and he's selfish. The villain, the antagonist who's against him, is a man called Hans Gruber. Holly is John's wife, they are separated and live in different cities. The external goal of the hero of john McClane is to save Holly and the hostages from Hans Gruber. His internal goal.
His character arc, is to become unselfish to support his wife's career in a different city. It doesn't realize how important his wife is to him until he finds that she's in danger. He comes to understand throughout the film, that compromise is more important than his own selfish needs. The story unfolds as follows. In Act One, McLean comes to the nakatomi building at the Christmas party. Mecca Toby Incorporated, is where his wife, his estranged wife is head of advertising.
Soon afterwards, everyone is taken hostage by Gruber and his men. All his boss is shot, and McClane escapes and seen to an upper floor of the building, which is undergoing construction. He tries to alert the authorities by activating the building fire alarm. In the second act before the midpoint, Gruber cancels the fire call. Meanwhile, one of his men finds McLean and McLean kills him. The cop now has a walkie talkie and the alerts the authorities visiting cop car is just about to leave the area when McClane throws the dead body of the terrorists out of the window.
The court lands on top of the cops car, or reverses quickly out of gunfire range, and cause for backup. I'm going to stop right there. Because to analyze the whole movie is way beyond the scope of this course. Suffice to say that john McClane wins in the end, and he's reattached to his wife, and everyone lives happily ever after. I wanted to give you a flavor of the film, and now we're going to take a look at how it fits into the structure of the three act paradigm proposed by Syd field. After this, we're going to take a look at act one.
And the way that the setup part of the movie is brilliantly planned. When you come To analyze the movie, take the three act structure as proposed by Syd field and mark down where certain events appear. Remember from the classic story arc, that we see rising action after the exposition, or the setup phase, which is Act One. Throughout act two, and mostly through Act Three, we're moving the conflict is rising towards a climax. And after this, we have falling action towards the end. In your analysis, mark the events the conflicts, particularly in Act Two as they appear in the script pages and mark the pages down on the paradigm.
In this way, you'll start to see how the events increase in intensity towards the climax. Pay particular attention to act one. This is where everything is set up. The thing is are going to appear in the rest of the movie, and the situations, and the weaknesses of the hero are all going to be exposed throughout the movie. A series of conflict events is simply not enough to create an exciting movie. The crafting of a movie is much more subtle than that.
For example, a hero with flaws and weaknesses, with some life lesson to learn is essential. Not only does the hero have to overcome physical challenges, but also face his deepest fears. His internal landscape changes so that he learns a valuable lesson towards the end of the movie. The heroes failings and weaknesses are revealed in Act One, the setup which is also the place where other devices are cleverly introduced to the audience. For me, the genius So this script is the way the foundations are set in the first pages, and then using the challenges that are revealed later on in the movie. Here are a few examples from act one.
I call the first one set up one. McLean is in an airplane. It grips the arms of his seats as the plane comes into land. his neighbor notices and comments. McLain explains that he's afraid of heights. The audience now knows that McLain is scared of heights.
The payoff to this setup comes later when McLean has to lead from the top of a tall building. And from the same scene, set up to comes when the federal passenger notices McLean's fear and attention. He gives him a remedy By removing his shoes and balling up his toes on a carpet, he'll relieve tension he tells him the payoff comes later in the movie. When McLain takes his shoes off to do exercises. At the same time the groove is men strike, escapes with his gun. And throughout the whole movie, he fights Gruber's team with no shoes.
At one point he has to run across broken glass and close his feet up. Setup three is when the fellow passenger sees his shoulder holster. McLean explains why he has a gun. Now the audience knows that McLean is a New York cop. Setup before arrives when the limousine driver questions him about his trip. While you're here in Los Angeles.
McLean is we looked into speed But eventually, he just gives some answers. From this the audience knows that McLain lives in New York, that his wife Holly lives in LA. So there is some conflict because there are stranged instead of five, Holly shows McLean, a Rolex given to her by the company. The payoff comes in the last scene of the movie. When Gruber is hanging on to Holly's arm at the top of the building. He's gripping the roll leg strap.
McLain flips the couch, and he falls to the ground. For an exercise, read through the script up to the point where the claim pulls the fire alarm. See if you can spot other setups. Understand the links between the setup in Act One and the challenges that appear later on is essential. If you are to craft a great script The following action after the big climax should answer important questions for the audience and also show how the hero has changed to to his ordeal. Script analysis is one of your most powerful tools for understanding how scripts are planned, meticulously writes down to the last detail.
Analyze your favorite films and find out what makes them tick. After this, apply the structure to your own scripts. In the next video, we're going to take a look at the Amazon tool for writing scripts, Amazon screenwriter