How to Plot a Novel

THE ABOVE INSTAGRAM POST (1/14/20) reveals why I haven't been blogging. I've written a number of books for corporations and a couple for myself, plus editing a few more, but I've never written a novel. About 10 years ago I started to think seriously about doing so with a screenplay I was researching. The traveling I was doing in a bid to research the story, provided fodder that turned out to be much more interesting as a novel. For the movie script I was limited by time and words, and the true historical story just got better the more I traveled and the more I researched related material and characters. (The genealogical sites like Ancestry.com and Geni.com were very helpful).

I JOKE that when I have money I make a movie, and when I don't I write or edit a book. We're still trying to make a couple of movies. While I wait for one screenplay to gain some traction in L.A. (there are things a-foot) and while I wait for the last book to be printed in mass in China, and while the H U G E boat refit project is under winter wraps until late March....I dug out the novel effort, last worked on in 2013. Altogether, I've worked on it over 10 years of research, plotting, and writing. And every time I pick it up again, there's more juicy information or ideas to include.

THE ABOVE 6 POINTS are obviously an oversimplification. One of the unlisted things in writing any story, that I always recommend to story clients, is to read lots of material like that which you're trying to write. In that stead, and for his novel project, Pam and I just finished reading out loud to each other Ken Follett's PILLARS OF THE EARTH. It was a great read. I felt myself getting emotionally involved with the characters, and even got a mild case of vertigo one night. None of that happens when I watch a movie. Movies are over so quickly. But Pillars, due to its length (about 400K words) can last for weeks on end, two hours every night. Reading and hearing Follett's cadence for words will help when I start revising and reading out loud my own work.

The image above is actually the carded plot of the novel I'm working on. I've actually written about 50K words of it, but stopped to revisit the plot and fully card it out. Here are the steps I've taken over the last few years, weeks, and days:

1. Researched the historical events. There area few books and dozens of articles and references in history books of the period.

2. Used the Story Diamond to identify the 13 main plot points.

3. Wrote 3 drafts of the movie screenplay.

4. Got some good and some bad notes.

5. Let it sit for a couple years as I went onto other projects.

6. Took two road trips to research the actual events and my imagined events. One to New Orleans and Pittsburg, and a second trip to Maryland, West Virginia and eastern Pennsylvania. Both trips were immensely rewarding in terms of discovering ironic "true to history" material, which widened the story's scope—fodder I could not include in the screenplay without turning it into a mini-series.

7. Poured over the hundreds of photographs and documents and books and interview transcripts collected on those two trips. I couldn't get myself to commit to a novel and there was no way all the juicy discoveries could be included in a screenplay. Frustrating.

8. Made another revision of the screenplay and pitched it a few time. No takers.

9. Let it sit for a few years...went sailing, etc.

10. About 8 years ago, I wrote a few chapters as a test of my novel writing skills. I wasn't satisfied. Put it aside again. Then, last month I read Dwight Swain's "Techniques of $elling Writers" and "Hit Lit" by James Hall (recommended by my friend The Other Chris Pratt)  Both books revealed that I was doing a lot of things right, and they gave me the courage to take the novel seriously. So,  I re-edited those early chapters and wrote a few more, read them to Pam, and we both liked them.

11. But the original Story Diamond was not geared for a novel, but for the movie. And I also realized that the Diamond was not formatted (being in the diamond shape) to track subplots easily. For that I needed to horizontal surface. I have a vertically mounted 4'x8' Story Diamond on casters that I roll out for clients who come to my office for beating out a story. In that process we use a drawer full of colorful 3"x3" Post-Its. 

Stored behind the Story-Diamond-on-casters are a couple pieces of 3/16" black Foamcor I use for small set lighting (or blocking the light).  I got them out and set them side-by-side on their sides behind my desk, and opened the drawer of Post-It's. Now, I was now able to break the story according to characters and subplots and keep each on its own colorful row. The picture on the left is 3/4 of the whole thing toward the end of the exercise. (I found the Post-It's stuck better once I dusted off the Foamcor.)



But I was not going to be able to let this piece of Foamcor sit as a reference in the walkway behind my desk for the year it would take to write. And as more ideas came, I'd need to write out some detail notes that would not fit on the Post-It's. So I opened up Apple's Keynote, which I use for creating the slides for my workshops, and opened a new file that was 4,000 pixels (W) and 1,500 pixels (H) and recreated the Post-It plot board into Keynote. It took me a day to create the file you see here.

Although I work on a Medium speed Mac Pro with two large displays (which I use to edit 2K and 4K video files) Keynote is not designed for such a large file. It claims to be only 451K (not big, really), but with this many cards and objects on a single large "slide" it requires some patience. The app only slowed down, however, toward the end. (I use Keynote as well (formatted vertically) for Story Diamond files.) Keynote is much better (on the Mac) for this sort of thing than anything else, including Power Point. Very easy to create, color and align objects, and change the size of both cards and text in them. [BTW: these are TEXT boxes filled with color, not rectangles with text overlaid in them. Thus, there is ONE object per card to manipulate, not two.]

12. Once I got all the cards in place (along with a number of story notes (the cards with a lot of text on them), I grouped them with green rectangles to denote preliminary chapter groupings, with each card within a green rectangle being a scene or a sequel. The light pink near the top row are my SCENE GOALS, and the dark pink are the SCENE DISASTERS. The SEQUELS are not always individually carded but are implied by the contents. The blue is the antagonist, and the other colors are minor characters. The white boxes at the top represent most of the 13 traditional beats of a story, and the yellow boxes are dates—since this is a historical story that takes place over a 37 year period with both of the story taking place over just 4 years.

13. I write long form projects in Scrivener, as I did the first draft of this project's screenplay (I finish up screenplays in Final Draft). I love Scrivener's flexibility for moving text blocks around. So I will use the old screenplay file for the novel. While I have about 50K already written of the first chapters, I will now populate the Scrivener folders/chapters with the chapters designated by the green rectangles in the Keynote Card file, and identify the doc-files/scenes within each Scrivener chapter by the individual cards in the Card Plot file.

14. Finally, as I write in Scrivener on my right display, the Keynote card file will occupy my left screen, along with other writing aids like my favorite: http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml. Thus, I can keep updating the card plot as I write, and it allows me a bird's-eye view of the story, showing me how the scene I'm currently writing connects to the whole.

Blessings,

stan

The Other Christopher Pratt Pod Cast

For all you aspiring screenwriters out there, here's a treat. My friend "The Other" Chris Pratt was interviewed by The Script Lab about his audacious upbringing and life. There is a lot of wisdom in what he says about his effort to become a screenwriter....a Jedi Screenwriter. It's worth a listen (aside from a particular shout-out, which-has-nothing-to-do-with-why-I-pass-this-along...really.)

https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9hNGY0MDBjL3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz&episode=ZGFhMDdhMGEtMGMyNS03YTMwLTM3MDAtMTk3ZjkxZDYzY2Mx

Sabriya of Shanghai

A Martial Arts Thriller

The specially skilled and statuesque wife of a British diplomat to China risks revealing her past in the sex industry and scandalizing Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service when she launches a daring night-time rescue of her secret son from ruthless organ harvesters.

Stan Speaking at Michigan Workshop - Oct. 5 (Sat)

On October 5 I'm speaking on The Moral Premise at 

The Path of Consciousness Spiritual and Writing Conference and Retreat.  

Talk Title: 

THE NATURAL LAWS OF SUCCESSFUL STORYTELLING: 

How the Hero Finds Healing on the Journey. 

(DESCRIPTION BELOW)

For more information, and to register, visit www.ThePathofConsciousness.com - See our VIDEO at https://youtu.be/NMsC4vHZnAY - Email: spiritualandwritingretreat@gmail.com and Phone: 586-231-6175

#Spiritual #SpiritualRetreat #SpiritualConference #WritingRetreat #WritingConference #Writing #WritingCommunity #Transformation #Ancient #Sacred #Creative #Storytelling #Screenwriting #GongCeremony #Meditation #Shamanic #TheHerosJourney #Journaling #Nature #SelfCare #Movement #Connecting #Creative #UniqueVoicesInFilms #ClarkstonMI #OaklandCounty #Michigan

DESCRIPTION: In his one-hour workshop, Dr. Stan Williams will share with us the fundamental traits of all successful story telling that connect with film audiences and novel readers. These traits have everything to do with your hero’s journey of healing from weakness and vice, to strength and virtue. To some these are miracle remedies that through our characters provide mental, spiritual, and physical healing, not just to the characters we create, but also for the writer and the story consumer. You’ll learn about the importance of irony, struggle and conflict, and how we, along with our characters, can only heal ourselves by confronting and over coming conflict. Stan will also reveal to us the six story fundamentals or medicines the writer needs to internalize before even beginning to write. We’ll discover the five critical ingredients of a Log Line that cut through the thicket of the jungle and reveal the path we need to take as a writer, and that our hero must master. And most important to any holistic solution to our lives and to our character’s quest are how values drive action, and how the four ingredients of the moral premise statement will totally eliminate writers block, that illness that we all want to avoid.

BIO: Dr. Stan Williams is a veteran filmmaker and storyteller, having worked with dozens of Hollywood writers and producers over the years. His best selling story structure book was published in 2006 by Michale Wiese Books—the Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue and Vice for Box Office Success. The mainstream films he has consultant on have grossed over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office, for studios such as 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, and Disney. Most notably he has worked directly with Will Smith on over a dozen projects. Find him at https://www.stanwilliams.com/ and http://moralpremise.blogspot.com/

THEPATHOFCONSCIOUSNESS.COM

The Path of Consciousness

Pray, Dream, Write Your New Story

Story Diamond Notes

The Story Diamond continues to hold me in awe as a story brainstorming tool.

While it looks complicated, it's very simple and helpful in holding off writer's block, although it is no substitute for a well-formed and fell-fed imagination. 

Below is the latest edition of the annotated Story Diamond Notes file. You can download this HERE as a PDF. but some may find this browser edition helpful.

STORY DIAMOND NOTES

by Stanley D. Williams, Ph.D.

Introduction to the Story Diamond

The Barebones Diamond

In 2008, I was given a copy of an early version of The Story Diamond while working on a story with Will Smith, Chris Vogler, and Marianne and Cormac Wibberly. With their permission

TAKEN (2008) Insanely Great Endings

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Please welcome (The Other) Chris Pratt to the Moral Premise Blog. Chris is a veteran screenwriter and writer manager in Los Angeles.  During recent discussions we had about structure, in particular about Taken (2008), Chris offered up Michael Arndt's Pandemonium post on Insanely Great Endings, and then offered to write this blog post applying Arndt's perspective to Taken... for which I was greatly appreciative. 

Arndt's 100 page story map and his explanation of Insanely Great Endings fits nicely into the natural structure of story telling, so I tired to include his beats in the latest version of the story diamond. But I over did it—the Story Diamond is getting too off-putting with its apparent complexity; so look for future simplifications. But now on to Chris' insanely great post on Taken. — S.W.

TAKEN'S Insanely Great Ending

by

The Other Chris Pratt

Screenwriter Michael Arndt created Insanely Great Endings as a deep dive to help us  understand the emotional resonance of our greatest cinematic experiences. If you haven’t seen it, check it out here. What follows for Taken assumes you understand Arndt's story concepts.

http://www.pandemoniuminc.com/endings-video

Inspired by Stan Williams’ deep dive into Taken found here:

https://moralpremise.blogspot.com/2019/08/beat-analysis-taken-2008.html

The following is a Michael Arndt-style analysis using his Insanely Great Endings method to analyze the 2008 hit film TAKEN. Here's Arndt's 100 page story map which will help us. Click on it for larger version.

CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE - Michael Arndt's 100 page Story Map

Arndt opens with the idea that there’s an organic logic of storytelling. A sort of ‘Who, what, when, where?’ 

THE MAJOR BEATS

OPENING: In Taken, we begin with old home video footage of a little girl’s fifth birthday party. Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) wakes up to a table side picture of the same girl, now a teenager. He’s already missed her childhood. 

ORDINARY WORLD: Daily Routine + introduce unresolved issue (could be an internal or external unresolved issue.) In a single scene, we establish the WORKING CLASS hero, his numerous trips to the electronics store to select the right gift for daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). Rich people don’t visit the store multiple times, they have stuff delivered. Most people don’t read the instruction manual over and over before purchasing electronics. In a single scene we get A) Careful, B) Thorough and C) Thrifty. We don't see his unresolved issue until the BIRTHDAY PARTY at a big frickin’ house. Bryan’s EX married very well. We learn he wasn’t there for his daughter growing up. We see her stepfather can give her anything/everything she wants. Bryan’s time has passed, has his window to be her father has closed? She’s 17 and ‘Not a little girl anymore.’

THEN ONE DAY: 10% A bolt from the blue, lightning hits, changing sense of character’s self, who they are, and their sense of the future. Bryan’s friends, old CIA operatives, over BBQ and beers, we learn he was the best of the best and he’s not on the job anymore because he’s making a conscious choice to quit working and be closer to Kim. They pitch him on a job. He rejects the call, then accepts the call.

THE JOB: Bryan protects the POP STAR from a security threat, rescuing the first of three daughter figures in the film.

CALL TO ACTION: Kim is excited to join a friend on a trip to Paris, she asks her dad to let her go. He rejects the call to let Kim go to Europe is to let go of Kim, and he’s not ready to do that. Bryan then accepts the call, gives permission, and drives Kim to the airport. This is Bryan’s story. His arc. While he doesn’t go, he is still the active participant, crossing the threshold, he makes the decision to let her go.

EMBARKS: 25% On the quest, has a long range goal and a short term quest. Bryan calls Kim as her friend is kidnapped, his daughter taken, his now famous speech, “I will look for you. I will find you. And I will kill you.” The only dialogue ever to appear on a movie poster. The pitch as a single line of script. Kudos to writers Kamen and Besson.

MIDPOINT SETBACK: 50% Something happens around the middle, rug pulled out from under him, has to find a new way. The midpoint has Bryan tracking the trafficked women to a construction zone where workers line up to rape drugged out victims. He finds his daughter’s jacket but no Kim. The traffickers discover him, and he begins to burn it all down. Before it was a story about a man pursuing his daughter, now he’s declared war.

NO RETURN: 75% No going back, trap door opens, total commitment. When he runs into a dead end, a name he doesn’t know, he turns to his contact in the French Government, Jean-Claude. Out of time, out of options, he shoots the man’s wife, threatening to kill her. No going back now.

CLIMAX: 90% Achieves goal or fails to achieve goal. Tracking his recently sold daughter to a boat, Bryan infiltrates the boat and kills… everyone, pretty much kills everyone.

STAKES OVERVIEW:

While many a guru would say there are two sets of stakes, internal and external, Arndt argues, to great effect, there are actually three sets of stakes. Internal, external, and philosophical stakes. See the breakdown below: 

What are the EXTERNAL STAKES in Taken? Save the girl. First, Bryan Mills makes the choice to save the POP STAR, while this isn’t his daughter, it is one of three daughter figures in the story. The bolt from the blue happens at the ten minute mark when Bryan is shaken from his complacent state of waiting for his daughter to return his love and becomes an active hero with the POP STAR. 

Who are the EXTERNAL STAKES antagonists? What scene introduces them? The kidnappers are the external antagonists, the scene introducing them takes place in the apartment, the moment they kidnap the girls. (You could argue the French Bureaucrat, Jean-Claude, is an external antagonist but he’s more of what John Truby would call a fake-ally opponent. He’s a philosophical antagonist for Bryan as explained below.)

Who is the EXTERNAL Mentor? What scene introduces them? Bryan’s friend and former special ops colleague, Sam. He’s got the call to exposition scene where he tells Bryan the who, what, when, where of the kidnappers M.O. and sets the ticking clock of 96 hours before Kim disappears. Forever.

What are your INTERNAL/EMOTIONAL STAKES? (Arndt says this could be parent child love, romantic love, self esteem, will my life matter, will I get out of here, will I even get a chance, call to greatness.) What scene introduces the EMOTIONAL stakes? Internally, this is a story about Bryan’s purpose. Will he connect with his daughter? Will his life matter now that his baby girl is all grown up? Can he let go? Is it better to keep his daughter protected and unaware of the world or let her experience it? On the way to the airport, Bryan describes his gov’t job as being ‘the preventer.’ Personally, this is a story about a father’s duty to protect his daughter vs. his paranoia and instinct for overprotectiveness. Should he prevent her from growing up by preventing her from harm? It starts with a ‘can he let her become a woman’ and ends with ‘sometimes you need your daddy’ which is genius. Split hairs. Have cake, eat too. 

Who is the INTERNAL/EMOTIONAL STAKES antagonist and what scene introduces them? (Arndt says Star Wars has Uncle Owen on some: “Kid, don’t get too big for your britches, harvest is when I need you the most, it’s only one more season.”) Bryan’s emotional antagonist is his ex-wife. She reminds him he was good at missing out, he wasn’t there for his family. She’s right about that, but is he too late? 

What scene introduces the EMOTIONAL mentor? (Star Wars has: “Kid I see something special in you.”) Taken has BBQ buddies. Bryan’s old team. The guys who know he’s the best of the best but “I hope she appreciates the fact you’ve given up your life to be closer to her?” For a BBQ beer scene with war buddies, that scene has a LOT of heart.

Also, during the car ride to the airport, Bryan’s inner compass is telling him she’s too young to go to Europe, he’s fighting the voice of his ex-wife, his daughter’s will, but that voice inside keeps guiding him. Bryan’s conscious is his training. “Mom says your work made you paranoid.” “Made me aware…” You’re not paranoid when the world is out to kidnap and sell your daughter into sexual slavery. 

What are the PHILOSOPHICAL STAKES? Those with money and power are just too strong, they will win out over justice. The philosophical antagonist is Jean-Claude, the French Bureaucrat. “That’s now how the world works.” When Bryan first arrives is Paris and seeks out his old friend, he’s told to go home. 

What is your underdog value? Father knows best.

What is your dominant value? Too late, she’s a grown woman.

Who is your GLOBAL ANTAGONIST? What SCENE lays out the Global Antagonist Aria? In Star Wars, General Tarkin says “Fear will keep the local systems in line.” In Taken we don’t get a big speech from the antagonist, when Bryan takes the phone and give his “I will find you and I will kill you…” speech, we simply get two words: “Good Luck.”

Whether a superhero or a dude with a problem, this dad has a way with phones.

 What SCENE lays out the PERSONAL ANTAGONIST ARIA? Han Solo’s “Kid, I’ve flown from one end of this galaxy to another…” This speech attacks Luke’s personal journey, a journey into a much larger world, a journey into the force. Bryan’s personal journey is to matter, to be the father his daughter needs. Ex-wife Lenore reminding him, “You can’t smother Kim or you’ll lose her for sure.” In effect, end the quest to matter, give up on becoming the father your daughter needs.

List the DOMINANT vs. UNDERDOG GLOBAL values: The dominant global values are ruthless power wins, criminals take, can’t beat a corrupt system, might makes right, guns and power rule the day. The underdog values are freedom, justice, the American way. Dominant values are winning. “A few years ago there were twenty of them, now they have hundreds…” The police even get payoffs. Corruption, crime, drugs, kidnapping, slavery, the bad guys are winning.

What SCENE lays out the GLOBAL MENTOR ARIA? Star Wars has Obi Wan saying; “You must deliver these droids to Alderaan.” Taken has Bryan’s friend Sam saying, “You have 96 hours before she’s gone. Forever.”

What SCENE lays out the personal Mentor Aria? Obi Wan also says; “You must come with me and learn the ways of the force.” Bryan’s BBQ buddies ask if Kim understands he’s given up his work, his old life, to move and be closer to her, to be the father he’s always wanted to be. “You lose her to college next year.” “Still gives me a year.”

List the dominant vs. underdog PERSONAL values: Dominant personal values; it’s too late, you missed out, she’s grown up, she doesn’t need her father, you missed your shot, you don’t matter, your life doesn’t matter. The underdog personal values; only you know what the world is capable of, you have skills bro, you see what others can’t, you do matter, you can be the father she needs. These are underdog values because the whole movie, people keep telling him, ‘Naw brah, let her go.”

Structure TIP:

Act 1 Antagonist Aria (dominant value) is “I will find you, I will kill you.” “Good luck.” Dominant value is the odds of finding kidnappers... normal people don’t have a chance, special set of skills or not.

Structure TIP: 

All is lost in Act 2, the ALLY chooses the dominant value, betrays the hero. The French Bureaucrat Jean-Claude is the fake-ally opponent who choses illegal payoffs over his friendship with Bryan. This is the setup/payoff Antagonist Philosophical Dominant Value, or money/power wins over justice. Han Solo’s betrayal, all is lost in Star Wars; “I’m not sticking around to help you face the death star, Kid.” Our all is lost betrayal is when Jean-Claude holds Bryan at gunpoint, “I’m taking you to the airport right now.” “What about my family?” 

What are the two competing value systems at play in the PHILOSOPHICAL STAKES? Bryan believes in American justice. Preventing the big bad is how he sees himself. The world is full of big and bad, but he won’t buy in. “I reject your hypothesis.”

Scene Breakdown Checklist:

What is your opening image? Bryan’s dream; a 5 year old girl’s birthday party.

What is the equilibrium for your world? Bryan was busy working for the gov’t, wasn’t there for his daughter. She’s grown.

Is your character flawed or is your world flawed? The world is flawed. (Bryan doesn’t change.) [He's a hero. See Hero vs. Protagonist.]

How is your character’s future fixed? He is trying to earn the right to be Kim’s father but because he was never there, she’s grown up without him. He’s moved to be near her but hasn’t really been invited into her life. So he waits. This is his fixed future.

How is this the stable self image? Retired. Waiting. His skills got him all dressed up with no place to go.

10% What is your bolt from the blue? Kim is invited to Paris.

How does that incident change your character’s future? Accepting that she’s growing up, becoming a woman, leaving him… tough. 

How does it change their sense of self? He realizes she doesn’t need him, she needs his signature on the permission slip.

How is this the worst possible thing to happen to them? He’s moved to be near her. This is the opposite of what he came here to do. It’s game over, man. 

Is there insult to injury? She lies to him about the trip, where she’s going, and why. Touring Europe to follow U2 instead of hitting museums in Paris. She doesn’t trust him enough to tell him the truth.

25% What first act break? Phone call. “Special set of skills…”

How does that mini-arc pay off at Act 2 all lost (problem A)? Act 2 he finds Marco, and kills him. Solves problem A.

How does your character embark on the journey? Literally. He charters the jet and hops a round trip LAX to CDG.

50% What is the midpoint setback? He finds Kim’s jacket but no Kim. The girl wearing it is drugged so he rescues her -- the second ‘daughter’ rescue.

How is the midpoint setback a reversal? How does it change directions? Escalation. Instead of a detective asking questions, he’s kinda the punisher now. High speed chases and explosions. He’s on everybody’s radar.

How does the midpoint reversal deepen the stakes? This won’t be a quiet extraction, he’s facing a criminal organization and he might have to burn it to the ground.

CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE - Michael Arndt's ACT 3 Breakdown

75% All is lost? Dead end. He’s found Kim’s friend Amanda, dead. Kim isn’t there so he tortures bad guy MARCO but only gets a name. He can’t do jack with a name.

How does this crisis force the stakes? Bryan has to go back to fake ally-opponent and confront him with his own corruption.

How does it solve Problem A? Marco is dead. Bryan did find him and Bryan did kill him. Makes you wonder if the guy shouldn’t have wished him ‘good luck.’ 

How does it force Problem B? Bryan gets a name, but with no way to track it he’s forced to turn to Jean-Claude. 

How is the character headed toward a waterfall? He shoots Jean-Claude's wife to get the info. No return, as they say. Now he’s screwed with the French police, screwed with the underworld, burning everything as he goes leaves him without friends/allies. 

List Act 3 external setbacks toward the ending? Rescued girl is passed out, arrives at the bad guys but can’t identify Marco, Kim’s friend is dead, no Kim, tortures Marco but gets a useless name, Jean-Claude is no help, shoots his wife, finds Kim but is captured before rescue, hanging from pipe he’s ordered killed, daughter is on a boat, leaving. 

List Act 3 internal setbacks toward the ending? Bryan’s not there for her. Even when he finds the stash house with the girls, even when he kills the bad guys, he can’t find her, he can’t save her, he won’t matter in her life, once again, he’s not there when she needs him.

What are the philosophical setbacks? More money, more guns, more power, the further he goes the greater the opposing forces. This isn’t some local Armenian mob, this is upper echelon society with deep pockets and resources. Up against more than nameless, faceless Albanian sex traffickers, these are nameless, faceless rich people too. He finds his daughter but someone buys her. He’s captured by better killers with more training. A rich Sheik with professional security has his daughter. Philosophically money and power are winning.

CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE - Michael Arndt's Two Minute Climax Breakdown

What is our Hero’s Kamikaze moment of commitment? Jumping onto the boat. 

How does the Hero listen to the mentor? The inner voice that says… let’s do this.

How does the hero choose the underdog value against their own self interest? He could die on that boat but to find Kim, to rescue her is worth the risk.

How does choosing this APPEAR to be an external failure, an internal failure, and a philosophical failure? He hurts himself on the leap, limping through the next sequence, he gets shot by BIG BAD, he gets stabbed, he’s thrown through glass… (Note: Nice little callback here, the knife from the first daughter POP STAR rescue is mirrored by the final knife fight.)

Leading to what moment of despair? Bursting into the room, the Sheik has his daughter at knife-point. Oh, no. He’s failed, he’s going to lose everything.

What is the decisive act our hero chooses? BLAM. He fires, killing the man instantly.

How does the ACT (not a speech) embrace the underdog values? Money and power did not win out over justice. The man says “We can negotiate-” BOOM, negotiation over.

How does it lead to external success, internal success, and philosophical success? Externally, he’s rescued Kim, saved the girl. Internally, he is the father she needs, he matters, he is connecting with her and philosophically, American justice wins out over the money and power of a corrupt world. We go from total loss to total victory in the final sequence leading to an Insanely Great Ending.