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Day 1 Assignments
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Rob Bertrand’s Great Ending
What I learned: I learned a great ending brings the story to a satisfying conclusion. It resolves the main conflict and brings the protagonist and antagonist together for a final showdown. The ending should be surprising, but inevitable.
MOVIE: The Sixth Sense
BASIC STORY UP TO THE 3RD ACT:
Child psychiatrist, Dr. Malcolm Crowe and his wife Anna are attacked by a former patient. Malcolm is shot.
A few months later, Malcolm takes on a new patient, to help a troubled boy and to distract himself from his crumbling marriage. Cole lives in terror, harboring a secret that his mother doesn’t know how to help him with.
As Malcolm focuses more and more on Cole, he begins to ignore his problems at home. Anna, deeply depressed, begins spending time with a work colleague. The hint of an affair. After Malcolm develops trust and rapport with Cole, the boy admits to seeing “dead people.”
3rd ACT POINTS:
3rd Act Turning Point: Malcolm councils Cole and gives him advice on how to face his fear. If the ghosts want help, then help them.
CLIMAX: Cole helps a grieving father to learn that his wife poisoned and killed their daughter. Cole confesses his gift to his mother and helps her with her feelings over the death of her mother.
RESOLUTION/TWIST:Taking advice from Cole, Malcolm returns home to his wife and talks to her while she sleeps. When Anna drops the ring that Malcolm is wearing, he realizes that he’s a ghost. He’s only been seeing what he wants to see. Malcolm feels redeemed by helping Cole and tells his wife that he thinks he can go now.
SETUPS IN FIRST TWO ACTS:
OPEN: After receiving an award for his work with troubled children, Malcolm and Anna discover that someone has broken into their house. Malcolm is shot by a former patient that he wasn’t able to help. The patient kills himself as Malcolm’s wife, Anna watches in horror.
Next fall, Malcolm takes on Cole as a new patient.
SETUP: Malcolm’s life is is dedicated to helping troubled children.
SETUP: Cole is a troubled boy, afraid to talk about his secret.
SETUP: Malcolm wants to redeem himself by helping Cole.
Cole keeps to himself and is weary of others. Malcolm commits to helping cole because he sees it as second chance for redemption.
Malcolm’s marriage is falling apart. He misses his anniversary dinner and Anna is distant.
Cole is humiliated in class, he scares his classmates by revealing the teacher’s secret. He has some kind of power.
School bullies put Cole in the hospital, where he finally reveals to Malcolm that he sees “dead people.” He explains that dead people, don’t know they’re dead and they can’t see other dead people.
SETUP: Dead people only see what they want to see.
Malcolm wants to quit the case after admitting failure. But changes his mind when he hears the voices of dead people on the patients tape, from the opening scene.
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What I learned: That the very first scene can very well set up the ending. And then basically every scene after that. Easier said than done, of course. But if you really want to shock the audience, it’s almost as if you need to blatantly put it under their nose without it making it too obvious.
MOVIE: Arlington Road
BASIC STORY UP TO THE 3RD ACT:
Michael proves that Oliver Lang is actually William Fenimore. But after Oliver kidnaps Michael’s son, Michael has to stay quiet lest his son be killed.
Michael rents a car to follow Oliver’s terrorist group undetected. He follows a van being filled with looks like explosives only to discover that his son is in the back of the van.
Michael fights off Oliver as he reveals that they plan on bombing the FBI building.
Michael then chases the van and breaks through the FBI barricade. After discovering the van is empty, he immediately realizes that it was his rental car had the bomb in the whole time. Boom.
THIRD ACT POINTS:
3rd ACT TURNING POINT: After his girlfriend is killed in a car crash, Michael gets a call from his friend from the FBI, Whit. Michael discovers that his phone messages are being erased. He looks out the window to see a mysterious electrician tapping into the phone line. Michael then switches to his cell phone and tells Whit to look up the name William Fenimore.
TWIST: After speaking with the father of a convicted terrorist, Michael realizes that he is connected to Oliver Lang by way of Discoverer camp, where his and Oliver’s son are both members. Thereby, proving that his neighbor is indeed up to something nefarious.
TWIST: Michael immediately heads to the Discoverer campsite to retrieve his young son but upon his arrival he comes to find out that his son isn’t there and that he and Brady, Oliver’s son, were picked up by their Troop Leader.
CRISIS: Michael drives directly to Oliver’s house where he’s having a party. Some of the guests look familiar as they are a part of Oliver’s terrorist group. Oliver reveals that they are responsible for Brooke’s death and tells Michael that they are holding his son hostage. In order to ensure his safety, Michael must not speak to anyone about Oliver’s real identity or his group.
CLIMAX: Michael then rents a car to sleuth out what Oliver’s scheme is. After finding the group’s delivery van carrying mysterious boxes, he follows them. He then discovers that his son is in the back of the van.
Michael crashes and faces off in a fist fight with Oliver where he reveals that the target is the FBI building. Michael then speeds to the FBI headquarters in the attempt to stop the bombing.
RESOLUTION: After crashing through security, Michael is surrounded by FBI agents and when they show him that the van is empty, he immediately runs to his rented car and opens the trunk. In his frantic, desperate attempt to thwart a terrorist attack, we discover that the bomb was in his car. Oliver gives the signal and the bomb goes off.
FINAL SCENE: Michael, our hero, is blamed and labeled a terrorist. Oliver is reassigned to another part of the country to plan and execute the next terror attack.
SETUPS IN FIRST TWO ACTS:
OPEN: A young boy stumbles in the middle of the street, dripping blood. Michael sees him while he drives home from work. He stops to help him and we see that the boy’s hand is completely torn apart. Bleeding badly, fingers missing. Michael frantically rushes him to the emergency room.
SETUP: We perceive Michael as the hero of the story. The boy injures his hand due to a firework explosion which is foreshadowing the FBI bombing . We see Michael frantic and speeding in his car to save him which sets up Michael speeding through traffic to try to save the people in the FBI building.
We learn that Michael is a professor at George Washington University he teaches the topic of terrorism. We also learn that his wife was an FBI agent killed in the line of duty.
SETUP: Michael comes off as a bit overly passionate in his profession. He shows emotion when discussing a recent terrorist attack, one we later know was also a set up by the same terrorist group next door. The death of his wife is also used as a motive when he is blamed for the FBI bombing.
After Oliver’s suspicious activity, Michael discovers in archives that Oliver’s real name is William Fenimore, and that he tried to blow up a post office in Kansas at age 16.
SETUP: This is the Inciting Incident. Michael embarks in his own investigation into his strange neighbors, almost obsessively. It raises concerns from his friend Whit and his girlfriend. It is the thread that is pulled to cause Michael to slowly unravel and become the pawn in their evil scheme.
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My example:
I get turned off by the graphic violence and predictable “suspense” of thrillers, mysteries, and horror films so I chose the Bunker 1981 with Anthony Hopkins as Hitler playing a convincing psychopath. There was silence throughout, no graphic violence, and no sex. They milked the puppies and the children who were sacrificed but Hitler and Eva and their henchmen died with a strange kind of dignity, abandoning the country and the people but facing death in an enviable way. Criminals get the last supper, the final goodbye, and a quick sure death while ordinary people are tortured with neurodegenerative diseases and cancers for decades. He had options like trying to take a plane to South America or fighting to the death, but both would have been risky and torturous in the long run. A megalomaniac to the end, he encouraged his entourage to sacrifice themselves and their children for his lost cause. The whole film was a recursive flashback, a known story, but I was glued to the screen because of Hopkins’ impeccable acting and the depth of the dialogue. It reminded me of mid twentieth century existentialist drama like Ionesco’s Le Roi Se Meurt and Sartre’s No Exit, but I would have liked more variety in options, tone, and development of female characters. The film went on ten minutes too long after the Goebbels had committed suicide. That should have been the final image, not more drinking, then the historical details with a separate conclusion since the film was two and a half hours. How can I use this for my film? Watching Hopkins in this movie should help me better imagine my crucible and the psychopathy of Betty/BB. But I have comic elements absent from this tight, minimalist style. When I try to write like this, I am always blocked. However, it is a happy ending with shades of irony. Happy because the Third Reich was over but also from Hitler’s POV, he choreographed the best death possible, a peaceful one surrounded by his younger love, Eva Braun, his friends, and dogs, after a last festive tea. I doubt I will be so lucky. So, what is the moral lesson? If you have the courage to kill people and yourself, you can die well at the right time? -
Jodi’s Great Ending – Day 1
WHAT I LEARNED:
It’s not one I’ve seen previously, I sought a movie with a traditional three act structure free on Roku. Watching the last thirty minutes first revealed conclusions. Going back and watching the film from the beginning revealed the setups that made those conclusions clear.
This movie was based on a true story, which I tend to find more interesting than narratives, so the ending was more factual than emotional. The names of the roles are the same of the real people, some of the roles are characterized for comedy. Some small situations are made up but for the most part, a lot of the movie is true. Even when Ghantt is dancing a jig on the videotape after stealing the money, you would think, no one is that stupid…yep, that stupid! In actuality they were really dumb leaving three million and three of the videotapes behind in the abandoned van, which identified him immediately.
Many times fantasy can be less cruel than reality. In this situation, the true reality was when David Ghantt started to run out of cash in Mexico and turned to Steve Chambers (one of his partners in crime) for more of the stolen money, Chambers became annoyed by his request and decided to solve the problem by putting a hit on Ghantt.
Once the hitman Steve Chambers had hired arrived in Mexico, he found that he couldn’t bring himself to kill Ghantt. Instead, the two started hanging out on the beach together and became friends. In the movie, the hitman thinks Ghantt is his long lost Brother.
In reality, they were all arrested in March 1998, the FBI traced a call from Ghantt’s phone and he was arrested in Mexico. Chambers, his wife, and several of their accomplices were arrested the next day.
MOVIE:
MASTERMINDS – Based on a true story of the Loomis Fargo Heist of 1997
BASIC STORY UP TO THE 3<sup>RD</sup> ACT:
Kelly Campbell is sizing David Ghantt up to see if he’d be open to robbing money from the security company. He clearly lets her know that it is like stealing from a federal government as this money belongs to the banks.
She asks him to think about it.
We see what a bungler he is. He can’t shoot at all and shoots himself in the behind when for some dumb reason tries to hold his pistol in his belt behind him grazing his behind. He’s not dealing with a full deck. The perfect opportunity for Kelly.
SETUPS IN FIRST TWO ACTS:
OPEN:
David Ghantt shows himself to be a loser, who falls in love at first site with Kelly Campbell, even though David has a fiance. He craves adventure in his life. He sees that in Kelly. It is a marriage of convenience for both.
SETUP:
Kelly was fired and fell in with a bad crowd, namely an old friend Steven Eugene Chambers, who is a petty thief. While loafing around one afternoon they see on the news that Philip Johnson, a Loomis Fargo Security Guard, accused of stealing 20 million dollars was arrested. Philip robbed from the Jacksonville Florida location before fleeing to Mexico. The robbery was the largest in US history at that time. One of their cohorts says “I guess we gotta rob a bank if we want to get to the big show”. Which gives Steven the idea.
SETUP:
Steve talks Kelly into setting David up to rob for them. Ghantt is on the fence about this so Kelly uses her feminine wiles to seal the deal. They start his amateur training.
SETUP:
David steals the money accidentally leaving a videotape behind, the FBI finds it. In the true story they left three behind in the abandoned van.
SETUP:
Steve has Kelly give David a wallet that has a fake I.D. and a real birth certificate in it of a hit man that Steve knows.
Steve tries to talk Kelly into turning David into the FBI at the same time Interpol actually finds David in Mexico, but misses him. David lucks out and sees a wanted poster of himself and takes off in an unsuspecting boat.
Steve and his wife are blowing it by not laying low and by calling attention to themselves by buying extravagantly. It started with a blouse and quickly turned into a mansion.
SETUP:
David calls Kelly and tells her there is no more money left, the only thing left in the wallet is the I.D., the Birth Certificate and a gym membership for a person named Steve Chambers. Kelly is surprised when she hears David say that name. Steve is behind her and surmises the meaning. He puts a hit out on David by Michael McKinney, the guy on the I.D.
The hit man finds David in Mexico, he is a comical character who loves the chase.
David finds out that Kelly used him to rob the money for them. He tells her off, how manipulative and what a user she is. He is devastated.
TWIST (EARLIER SETUP):
The Assassin takes David hostage and then by looking through the wallet given David earlier (by Kelly) finds out the hostage has the same name. Coincidence? No. Happy mistake. The I.D. in the wallet is the hit man’s but neither man realizes it. The hit man assumes they were born in the same hospital, the same day, at the same time. Twins!
THIRD ACT POINTS:
3<sup>rd</sup> ACT TURNING POINT:
Kelly Campbell is being questioned by the FBI if she knows where David Gantt is. Kelly doesn’t give him up. She is told that the other employees said she is the one to ask as David loves her.
David calls Steve and warns him if he doesn’t wire him money he will turn himself into the police.
TWIST:
Kelly is shopping for vacation clothes. She has decided to go to David. The sales clerk that helps her happens to be David’s fiance, Jandice. Jandice attacks Kelly.
CRISIS:
David tries to make a withdrawal. The bank account is empty. He calls Steve. Steve called his bluff, not only that but they have taken Kelly hostage. David must help her.
TWIST/CRISIS:
David is at the airport. There are FBI posters of him as wanted. The hit man, his ‘other brother’ runs into him. He has another hit to do. He is contracted to kill Kelly. David Gantt is terrified and tells the hit man, they switch plane tickets, so David can go save her.
CLIMAX:
David is at Steve Chamber’s mansion to save Kelly. David cases the property. He clearly is more adept and capable now than he was in the beginning of the movie. He has grown as a person and is less of a bungler.
The FBI is also there in a Bartenders truck, they need a confession on audio.
David Gantt overruns the guards to get to the room they imprisoned Kelly in. He is successful in freeing her from the room. They make it to the garage, and take Steve’s prized Miata.
Dave floors it towards the iron gates. Kelly warns him not to. He doesn’t listen. The car crashes into the gate, it’s a wipe-out. Steve runs up to the car.
Steve is so arrogant he argues that he is the mastermind behind the bank robbery. Was David finally so smart to set Steve up to let Steve confess this? It isn’t clear. I’d like to think so. But the FBI got the whole confession of Steve’s bragging on audio tape. Taking full credit for everything.
RESOLUTION:
David Gantt and Kelly Campbell sit on the courthouse steps for a moment after they got their sentences, a moment for them to say goodbye. Gantt again professes his love for Kelly and walks away signaling with his fingers: 1, 4, 3 meaning I love you.
FINAL SCENE:
Gantt talks about his time in prison and shows where he stashed his two million dollars. He leaves prison and the person who is there to greet him is the hit man. They drive off and the first thing he says is that he wants to go see Kelly.
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Amy’s Great Ending
What I learned doing this assignment is that strong setups and payoffs make for a satisfactory movie watching experience.
MOVIE: The Santa Clause 3
BASIC STORY UP TO THE 3RD ACT: Santa, Scott Calvin is overworked as his wife, Mrs. Clause is about to deliver a baby. On top of that Jack Frost is making trouble because he wants his own holiday and is trying usurp Christmas from Santa. The Council of Legendary Figures meets and it’s decided that Jack will do “community service” at the North Pole.
Jack takes this opportunity to do a number of dastardly deeds that wreak havoc on Santa’s workshop and basically shuts it down.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Claus, Carol, is insisting that Santa not work so hard and spend time with her and her family. She convinces him to help her put the tree topper on the Christmas tree. Unbeknownst to anyone, Jack has unscrewed one of the bolts holding the Christmas tree in the Christmas tree stand. When Santa goes to the put the topper on, the tree goes crashing to the ground and the glass topper breaks.
Carol is in tears. Scott and Carols parents exchange terse words, and even Carol declares that maybe she shouldn’t be there. At this point, Jack ushers Scott out to the balcony where he presents him with his snow globe and tricks him into saying he wishes he’d never been Santa at all.
All of the sudden, magically both Scott and Jack are taken back to 12 years earlier when Scott first put on Santa’s coat. Jack manages to keep Scott from putting on the coat and puts it on himself. Now he is Santa.
Scott appears in his office, surprised to find that he and his assistant are working on Christmas Eve. He goes to visit his ex-wife only to discover that she’s divorced from her second husband and he and their daughter are at the North Pole, which Jack has turned into a theme park.
3rd ACT TURNING POINT: Scott takes a flight to the North Pole and sees the damage that Jack has done by turning it into a theme park.
TWIST: Neal and Lucy are at the North Pole, but Neal blames Scott for his divorce and Lucy has no interest in talking to Scott.
CRISIS: Scott sits hopelessly in the audience and watches Jack put on a Broadway type show as Santa while visitors clap and cheer.
CLIMAX: Scott gets an idea. He enlists Lucy’s help to go get Jack’s snow globe from the Hall of Snow Globes. Scott makes a scene so she can make her escape. Later he comes swinging onto to the stage on a rope and knocks Jack to the ground. Right on time, Lucy shows up with Jack’s snow globe. She tosses it in the air. Jack catches it and declares that he’ll never say “it” (I wish I’d never been Santa), but earlier Scott had recorded Jack saying exactly that on one of the souvenir pens that records sounds. Again, it’s a magical scene as Jack and Scott are transformed back to 12 years earlier in front of Scott’s house. This time, Scott is able to keep Jack from interfering and Scott Calvin from 12 years ago puts on the coat. Jack disappear and so does Scott.
RESOLUTION: Scott is back at the North Pole as Santa. He finds Carol and apologizes and makes up with her family. Scott decides in that moment to tell Carol’s parents that he’s Santa. Later in the workshop, Jack is brought in by the elf police officers and has to answer for what he’s done. Scott asks him to unfreeze Lucy’s parents, but he says he can’t do that unless he unfreezes himself. Scott and Lucy exchange knowing looks. She asks him if he thinks it will work. She then goes over and hugs Jack unfreezing his heart. Once this happens, then her parents are unfrozen too.
FINAL SCENE: Carol is teaching the elves. Scott comes in with their new baby boy in a baby carrier. They reveal that they named him Buddy, after Carol’s father.
SETUPS IN FIRST TWO ACTS:
OPEN: The elves and Santa rush Carol into the delivery room, but it’s a false alarm.
SETUP: Santa is stressed out and overworked. On top of that, Mrs. Claus is about to deliver their baby and the baby is overdue.
SETUP: Jack Frost is called to a meeting of the Council of Legendary Figures for trying to steal Christmas from Santa. He is put on community service duty at Santa’s workshop.
SETUP: At the beginning of the movie, Lucy gives Santa (Scott) a big hug and he proclaims that her hugs are the warmest hugs and that they are magical. Later, in the second act, Scott again makes reference to Lucy’s magical hugs when he gives her her own snowglobe. In the snowglobe, she hugs a snowman and the snowman turns pink.
Setup: Lucy loves snow globes. She has a collection of them. Once Lucy gets to the North Pole, Scott shows her the Hall of Snow Globes. Jack secretly trails behind them and gets access to the Hall of Snow Globes. Lucy finds him there and alerts her parents. Her parents come running up the stairs. Jack freezes them and locks them and Lucy in the closet. It is because of Lucy’s snow globes that Scott is able to persuade her to help him retrieve Jack’s snow globe in the 3<sup>rd</sup> act.
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Michelle Damis – Great Endings
Due to circumstances beyond my control I was unable to watch something. However, I was able to mentally review the Movie “Arrival” which I’ve seen SOO many times. I took mental time to think about it and a few other movies I know fairly well.
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Elizabeth’s Great Endings
What I learned: great illustration of how the third act mirrors the first—synthesized with the second. Wonderful exercise to look for all the particular details that make this work. I should do it with every movie I watch.
Movie: Arrival
Basic story up to the 3<sup>rd</sup> act: Louise Banks, a linguistic expert, has a baby, Hannah, who we see grow, play with her mom, who narrates things she remembers about the “beginning,” “in-between” and the “ending” of Hanna’s “story”—her death from an incurable illness . Louise then explains she no longer believes in beginnings and endings, that there are outside “days that define our lives” like “the day they arrived.” We then learn 12 alien spacecrafts are hovering over various locations around the world. Different countries try to study/determine the intentions of the spaceships above them, contributing information that’s initially shared. Louise and physicist Ian Donnelly (from their differing educational perspectives) get tapped to translate what the aliens seem to be trying to communicate in the US location. They board the spaceship and begin learning to communicate with two creatures with 7 limbs, ‘heptapods’ they nickname Abbott and Costello, whose language is more efficient, “non-linear orthography,” palindromic phrases with circular symbols, which allows them to communicate outside of time. As Louise and Ian increasingly understand the heptapods, they develop mutual respect and ultimate attraction for each other and Louise begins experiencing foreshadowing images of her future with her daughter, who draws pictures of her “TV show” where “Mommy and Daddy talk to animals” (that look like aliens).
All the while there’s increasing public suspicion and restlessness around the world, discussion of, and demands for a violent solution. Eventually Louise and Ian have enough vocabulary to ask the aliens why they have come and learn it’s to “offer weapon.” Disagreements over whether weapon actually means “tool” and if the aliens have come to play countries off each other, as we’ve historically experienced. Aligned with the latter explanation, China, who’s been communicating with their aliens through a winner-take-all game, decides to stop sharing information. Russia and other nations follow. Meanwhile, rogue US soldiers plant a bomb in the Montana alien craft, right before Louise and Ian board the vessel where Louise is asked to write on the barrier between them and the aliens. She does so, experiences a more intense vision of her future and is then able to write in the aliens’ language—before the rogue bomb lands them on ground. Louise wakes up with a concussion to find the military is preparing to evacuate in case the aliens retaliate, and the craft moves a half mile up, but doesn’t leave and China declares war against the aliens after delivering an ultimatum to the aliens.
Ian finds the symbol for time throughout the message they received just before the explosion, and that their message takes up one twelfth of its 3D space. Louise believes all countries need to work together, combine all 12 messages for the answer— in a non-zero sum game where everyone wins. They decide they need to get back on the alien ship, but can’t reach it. Louise stands beneath the ship, which lowers to pick her up to meet one of the aliens “in person.”
THIRD ACT:
TP: Louise learns that one of the aliens was killed by the explosion and apologizes. She’s told “Louise has a weapon. Use weapon,” which she doesn’t understand. She’s then told that the aliens have come to help humanity because they’ll in turn need help in 3,000 years. She asks how can you know the future and—
· Gets a vision of her daughter making figures of her and daddy talking to the aliens. She’s told “Louise sees the future,” that the weapon opens time.
· Another glimpse of her future and she’s suddenly beneath the ship, picked up by evacuating forces and learns that Russia and Sudan are following China. She has a vision of her daughter asking for help with a boot and ‘recalls’ that Ian left her after she told him she knew their future and conceived their “unstoppable” child anyway.
· As the world panics. Warships are set to attack around the world, the Montana site is evacuating and Louise explains to Hannah her palindrome name (leaving her outside of time in a way)
· As Louise looks at the message again, she “recalls” opening her future book, “Universal Language” translating Heptapod about this event, dedicated to Hannah, then her lecturing to a class about it. Realizes she can read the language and that she knows it’s not a weapon, but a Gift.
· The Weapon is their language, she explains to the colonel who blows her off. She
· Remembers her daughter asking her to wake up. Then a fancy banquet where General Shang is happy to meet her in person who tells her no one was able to change his mind but her, and
· Runs back to find a phone to call General Shang, “remembering” the number General Shang tells her in the future, to tell him his wife’s dying words: “war doesn’t make winners, only widows as she’s pursued by soldiers who know she’s calling China. Which
· Causes General Shang to stand down, as Ian protects her and as risk of being shot by soldiers. Other countries follow. All countries will again work together to solve the puzzle as the ships leave.
So this is where your story begins, “the day they departed”—she’s decided to embrace every moment of her future, which she knows means they’ll have a child and that Ian will leave her for her decision.Ian tells Louise he’s been waiting to meet her. “Let’s make a baby.” And their future begins.
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Armand’s Great Ending.
What I learned…
AN ENDING MUST BE SURPRISING, BUT INEVITABLE.
MOVIE: SCREAM 3
BASIC STORY UP TO THE 3RD ACT:
Sydney Prescott, the final girl and protagonist, has been lured out of hiding by a new masked serial killer taking down the cast of the film-within-the-film Stab (a parody of Scream itself).
Sydney works closely with the PD to identify the killer.
Most of the Stab actors have been killed, and now Sydney and her remaining friends learn that, in horror movie sequels, the end of the trilogy brings a twist in which the lead could die. That means Sydney could be killed.
The remaining survivors are gathering in a manor to keep safe. Sydney’s closest friends are kidnapped by the killer and Sydney is lured into the manor.
3rd ACT POINTS:
Sydney tries rescuing her friends, fights the killer
Sydney discovers the killer is Stab’s director, also her half-brother
Sydney’s half-brother is responsible for the events that set Scream in motion
The killer plans to pin his murders on Sydney in a fake murder-suicide
The killer stabs Sydney, but she was wearing a vest
Sydney and friends defeat the killer
GREAT ENDING:
Sometime later, back at home, Sidney returns from a walk with her dog and leaves her gates, which were previously shown to be alarmed, open. She enters her home and is invited to to watch a movie by her friends. As she goes to join the others, her front door blows open behind her, but she walks away leaving it as it is, finally confident that the murders are over.
SETUPS IN FIRST TWO ACTS:
In the opening scene, the killer calls a survivor from the earlier films and inquires about Sydney’s whereabouts.
Sydney lives in seclusion working as a domestic violence hotline counselor.
Sydney has an alarm system to guard the gates to her hideout.
Sydney learns that her dead mother went to Hollywood in her youth to be an actress. She worked for the producer of the Stab movies.
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Budinscak Great Ending
Day 1
What I learned doing this assignment:
The subtle setups and hints throughout Act 1 and Act 2 are incredible. The opening scene with Keaton getting shot and not looking too surprised by his assailant isn’t
quite the story Kint tells. From, ‘it’s a shakedown, they never put 5 felons together’, to the spook story about Keyser Sose, to the ‘greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing world he didn’t exist’, Kint opening his Kobayashi file by holding it in his teeth to fake being compromised, Kujan appears to want it to be Keaton so much he overlooks the weak, stupid, cripple in front of him (Kujan’s own words said multiple times) – constant words, sets, visuals that when analyzed can be found, but the movie was so good, they never gave away the ending – but they’re there. Setup/payoff.
MOVIE:
THE USUAL SUSPECTS
BASIC STORY UP TO 3RD ACT:
An explosion on a boat in the San Pedro harbor has killed about 27 people and there are 2 survivors – one man in a coma in the hospital and Verbal Kint, being held at police headquarters. Many top people are involved, from the Mayor, Police Chief, politicians, federal agencies – including Agent Kujan, who flew in for the opportunity to speak with Verbal Kint before he makes bail. Kujan is warned upfront by his buddy at SPPD (Rabin) that Kint’s lawyer wields power and he cut a great deal – beware of him. But Kujan wants to have a general conversation with him.
Kint is brought to Rabin’s sloppy, jam packed office and he’s looking over the board behind Rabin’s desk, chuck-full of flyers, reports, mug shots – fertile ground for a deviant mind. Kujan starts his interview and Kint weaves a complex trail that takes us from the initial meeting at the lineup (Inciting Incident), to McManus having a job that needed one more person, bad cop Keaton (who’d gone straight, but was embarrassed by Kujan at an investor meeting and now believes his ‘new career’ is over) coming on board, to the NY Taxi heist and embarrassment, to Kobayashi being introduced and telling everyone that that stole from Sose and he has an offer for them to earn their freedom. One job, oine day, very dangerous. The team is told Sose’s major interest is narcotics and he wants these guys to steal the money ($91M), destroy the coke and the Argentine gang he’s competing against will be beaten – and they’ll be free.
Kujan tells Kint that he’s smarter than Kint many times. A police sketch artist compiles a drawing based on the survivor’s description.
30 minute mark starts with Hockney stating ‘the package has arrived’ – the money arrives in a van. And we are now ready for Act 3.
THIRD ACT POINTS:
TWIST: The team was hired to destroy the drugs from a competing gang to Sose, but no drugs are found.
TWIST: How did Kint survive – Kint tells Kujan that Keaton told him to stay behind with the money and find Edie Finneran and tell her “I tried”.
TWIST: Hockney finds the money, and he’s shot from behind.
TWIST: Kujan asks Kint why he didn’t try and help his friend (Keaton), Kint says he thought Keaton may pull it off and he remembered what Fenster looked like dead.
TWIST: Kujan tries to convince Kint to turn evidence against Sose and go into police protection.
TWIST: McManus approached Keaton and utters ‘strangest thing’, then drops face down dead from a knife(?) in his neck.
TWIST: Kujan challenges Kint until Kint breaks down and admits to being afraid to shoot Sose in the back. He shows Kujan his deformed hand – “what if I missed?”
TWIST: Kujan figures out it’s a hit, but he’s convinced that it’s Keaton. When Kint asks ‘why me?’, Kujan says ‘you’re a cripple, stupid and weaker than the others’.
TWIST: Kint’s last words “I’m not a rat” and “fucking cops” before he limps out the door.
CRISIS: Kujan tells Kint he’s made bail and Kint leaves.
TWIST: Kujan comments to Rabin about what a slob he is, and Rabin says ‘… have to stand back and take a look at it.” Kujan puts the pieces together and knows he’s been had. He takes off after Kint.
TWIST: Kint’s limp disappears along with his deformed hand. He hops in a Jag driven by his ‘attorney Kobayashi’.
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Emmanuel’s Great Ending
When I watch a movie, I’m always thinking and anticipating the ending. If I can’t figure out the ending, that means the writing, directing and acting were crafted with care. Endings that invoke an emotion are the best.
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