The End of the Road

Is your story a comedy? A tragedy? A drama? Your ending is determined not only by considerations of circumstance, genre, or target audience, but most importantly, by what you have to say as a writer.

In simplistic terms, what is the "moral" of the story? What point are you trying to make about the attitude or behavior of the characters, especially the main character? If the main character is heroic or noble, and your story is about their struggle to overcome a villain or right a wrong, then your outcome will possibly be that they succeed at reaching their goal. Did they learn from their experiences? Conquer their fears? Are they a better person for having lived through it?

If you are trying to say that the main character's behavior is somehow unacceptable, or needs to change, then one possibility is that they fail to reach their goal, and instead get a result they hadn't bargained for. This result can be positive, such as newfound self-respect, or the discovery of an inner strength they had previously lacked. Or, the result can be tragic, because the main character either didn't learn their lesson and paid heavily for it, or learned it too late to change the resulting unhappy circumstances.

Another possibility is ambiguity. Great drama, like life, often does not provide easy answers, especially when the issue at hand is not clear-cut. Sometimes life isn't fair. Sometimes the Bad Guys win. Sometimes the hero does not triumph, nor the villain get their due. However, well-written ambiguity can be difficult to pull off. And if you are trying to break into the mainstream, Hollywood doesn't like endings that are not clear-cut.

Here are the results of our films under discussion, framed in terms of what the main characters actually got from their experiences. Again, note the inner and outer components of these results:

"Alien"
Result: Ripley kills the alien, and conquers her fears.

Alien could not be more straightforward in terms of its agenda. At its basic level, it is about slaying a dragon. And, as in the dragon quest tales of yore, the story functions as a metaphor for conquering what is bad within ourselves.

"Clockwork Orange"
Result: In the hospital, Alex discovers that his injuries have removed the treatment's conditioning. His parents apologize, and a government representative offers him financial restitution for his ordeal. Thus, not only does he beat the attempt to impose morality upon him, but he is rewarded for it!

The story here is that of the morality play turned on its head. Instead of a sinner getting his comeuppance at the end, here it is society who is in the wrong, and which must make restitution to the criminal.

"Jerry Maguire"
Plot Result: When Tidwell gloriously rebounds after his hard tackle, both he and Jerry see that the game, and life, are about having heart - which Jerry had really known all along as evidenced by his Mission Statement. Because Tidwell conquers his own Inner Demon, he is rewarded with the 10 million-dollar contract he wanted.
Subplot Result: Jerry, Dorothy, and her son Ray are now the real family which they all had lacked.

Although on the surface, the plot is about Jerry's fight to solo as a agent, the plot is really about having strength of conviction, and ends by proving the main character right. The subplot says that a person is incomplete without family. I think that what makes "Jerry Maguire" such an interesting film is that is very successfully combines two very different, if not opposite genres; the subplot is a Romantic Comedy (a "chick flick"), and the plot is a Sports "Triumph of the Underdog" Story (a "guy flick"). This makes it a greatly entertaining film with something for everybody. Its emphasis on deep character development also makes it a longer than average film (138 minutes).

With these three articles, I have given you the basic layout of screenplay structure according to mainstream, Hollywood-style convention. Once you grasp basic structure, you will begin to see it in almost every mainstream film you watch.

Such structure might seem paint-by-numbers at first - not only simplistic, but limiting. Yet when learning screenwriting, understanding and using conventional structure can only help you become a better screenwriter. Once you have mastered it, you will know when it is appropriate or desirable to bend, twist, or break with standard form. Note that a film such as "Pulp Fiction," which seems to break convention, merely uses the same conventions on a smaller scale. Instead of being one long story, "Pulp Fiction" is simply several short stories with overlapping characters. And each of these stories has the same Act Keys as a regular long-format story.

My terminology and methods of analyzing screenplays are not by any means meant to be definitive. There are an infinite number of ways to look at story structure. To succeed as a screenwriter, it is absolutely imperative to find your own unique way; a way that works for you. Neither are my ideas are not wholly original, but based instead upon the digestion and application of principles learned as a dramatist, director, and actor from many different teachers and authors. My purpose here is to introduce you to standards and methods of discussion that others in the field utilize. There is a common language that screenwriters, directors, and actors share - in other words, a dramatic tongue. To know and understand this language is to learn to perceive stories and their structure in functional, practical terms. This enables you to approach your writing with a strong, step-by-step process that will help you produce polished, tightly written work. An understanding of structure is also essential to diagnosing problems within your own writing, and the writing of others. Once you learn to use and apply dramatic structure, your screenwriting efforts will be much more directed, concise, and entertaining.

For further information on the films discussed here, see their Internet Movie Database entries:

"Alien"
"Clockwork Orange"
"Jerry Maguire"