Lesson 8

[Michelle]

Michelle’s Thriller Plot

I see how M.I.S. flesh out the structure but am unsure if I should place Secrets and Cover Ups and Mystery Chains in the skeleton. I also had an aha moment about deadlines and putting something on paper to revisit/reorganize while revising/incorporating previous days’ assignments.

Structure

OPENING: The Other Woman stalks Peter.

· Life threatening event 1: He awakens to a badly beaten Other Woman. Is he capable of violence?

· Mystery 1: Who is looking for Peter?

· Secret 1: The Elegant Man has a son.

Cover up: He withdraws inheritance from sole stepdaughter heir until she finds someone for him.

· Villain’s Plan 1: Cut stepdaughter out of will if she fails to find Peter.

· Secret 9: Leo’s grandfather died as a result of Peter’s grandfather’s treason.

Cover up: Leo offers to help find Peter.

· Secret 2: EM knows Leo.

Cover up: They have prior business interactions abroad.

· Life threatening event 2: Wrongly accused by Nora, Peter falls into cheating ways with her best friend Beth.

· Life threatening event 4: Given alleged infidelity with the Other Woman, Nora meets Beth at a hotel. While Beth chooses the Elegant Man (EM) over Nora, Leo drugs Nora at the bar.

INCITING INCIDENT: Call from Nora after breaking engagement, Beth is dead.

· Life threatening event 5: She returns to the apartment where she witnesses Beth’s murder.

· Mystery 2: Who killed Beth?

· Secret 3: EM/Leo kills Beth.

Cover up: He erases all traces of their encounter.

· Villain’s Plan 2: Remove evidence of a murder in the room where it occurred.

TURNING POINT 1: Peter’s extortion begins.

· Life threatening event 3: The Other Woman and boyfriend Leo blackmail and stalk Peter even after he ends the extortion.

· Life threatening event 6: Peter’s business takes him to the same hotel where he courts an investor and mentions he needs help with a minor complication.

MIDPOINT: Several attempts are made to silence Nora.

· Mystery 4: Will he kill Nora too?

· Secret 4: He puts a hit on Nora.

Cover up: He pretends not to know who she is when introduced by Peter.

· Villain’s Plan 3: Open a hit on Nora

· Life threatening event 7: Nora agrees to meet and they head to the countryside where a tour guide (Leo) spooks Nora underground and tries to kill her in the sauna.

· Life threatening event 8: Nora tells Peter she’s the only witness to a crime he suggests she stop pursuing. He confesses his tragic past and parents’ deaths.

· Life threatening event 9: Once back, she revisits the cellar collecting clues (something red) and discovers a labyrinth as someone gives chase.

TURNING POINT 2: The EM is Peter’s father whose stepdaughter is the extortionist.

· Mystery 3: Who is the Elegant Man?

· Secret 5: Peter’s father is not dead.

Cover: He invests in Peter’s company

· Villain’s Plan 4: Fund Peter’s start up with dirty money.

· Life threatening event 10: Peter confronts the EM after seeing him with the Other Woman who turns out to be his stepdaughter. The EM assures him he can make her go away since she isn’t blood related.

· Life threatening event 11: Nora watches the EM, Other Woman and Leo chummily talking from a window. Leo catches her watching. She tells Peter to use the murder card to force him to take care of the situation.

· Secret 6: He is helping the extortionist.

Cover up: He offers to help Peter find his extortionist.

· Villain’s Plan 5: Divert all of Peter’s money to support opposing war effort.

· Villain’s Plan 6: Lie (continuously) to extortionist and Peter.

· Secret 7: His father was a traitor.

Cover up: He donates profits from his business to fund separatist movements and provide restitution.

· Life threatening event 12: Peter’s threat is cut short when the EM tells him he is his father and devised the scheme to gain control over and make him conform. Peter blurts out he has a witness to the crime, putting the EM’s ploy and Nora’s life at risk.

· Secret 8: Peter knows he/Leo is the killer.

Cover up: He preys on Peter’s biggest weakness to win his loyalty by telling him he is his father.

· Villain’s Plan 7: Confess he’s Peter’s father.

CLIMAX: Peter/Leo/EM/Super kills Nora.

· Life threatening event 13: Nora and Peter decide to leave. As she packs, a killer waits in the shadows and a violent struggle ensues.

· Life threatening event 14: From a hotel window someone witnesses Nora’s struggle.

· Villain’s Plan 8: Kill Nora.

RESOLUTION: In a hospital, Peter sits next to a bandaged Beth.

· Life threatening event 15: The ending where conforming Peter sits bedside in a hospital room, the EM rests a hand on his shoulder, beside a bedridden bandaged woman. When Peter reaches for her hand, her red fingernail is missing.

[Rebecca Sukle]

Rebecca’s Thriller Plot

I learned from this assignment how much fun it was to intertwine previous work into a plot and enjoy the new ideas that popped up and incorporate them as well.

OPENING: A young female singing star escapes an important concert just before a world tour and hides in the garden of a security technician.

Life-threatening – is her life in danger?

Mystery 1: What prompted the singer’s escape before a world tour?

INCITING INCIDENT: The singer begs him for asylum from her abusive boyfriend, a lie, and he agrees.

Mystery 2: What is the singer hiding when she pleads for the Technician to hide her?

TURNING POINT 1: The girl’s Manager appears on national television claiming to receive a ransom note for 10 million dollars, the Technician, now branded a kidnapper, and the FBI joins the search.

Life-threatening: the Technician could get life in prison.

Mystery 3: Why did the singer’s Manager lie, and what other means will he take to find her?

MIDPOINT: Armed men dressed in black conduct a door-to-door search in the Technician’s neighborhood, show fake badges and search warrants, and carry big guns. They search the house but do not find the cleverly hidden singer.

Life-threatening: Would they kill him if they found the girl?

TURNING POINT 2: When the Hero and girl evade government agents, bounty hunters, and assassins, he takes her to a secure paramilitary training center.

Mystery 3: What is the fundamental importance of the singer that causes government agents, bounty hunters, and trained assassins to hunt them down?

Life Threatening: The assassins killed anyone the couple met along their journey or those the singer contacted.

Will the hunter kill both him and the singer to silence them?

Did they find the tracking chip in the girl’s embedded in the girl’s earlobe too late to protect their hiding place?

Mystery 4: Where and how did the recluse technician learn his combat skills?

CLIMAX: The Manager and two burley guards with guns confront the Technician and drive him to the training center. He and the singer learn that the Manager is only a tiny part of a more significant threat.

Villian’s Plan: To use the singer’s world tour as a cover to put his players in place at each stop.

Mystery 5: Who is the true villain?

Life Threatening: Will they kill him and take the girl?

Will they target the girl’s family next?

Will they kill the singer at the tour’s end if she complies?

RESOLUTION: The Hero expects the worse and pulls a bluff that paramilitary trainees surround them. Instead of shooting the Technician, the Manager strikes a deal for joint survival. The Hero’s business partner shows up, and they all join forces to trap the true villain, a trillionaire arms dealer, and reveal on national television the politicians in high places that he controls and his diabolical plan.

Mystery 6: Was the Hero bluffing?

Villian’s Plan: The Villian hoped to incite multiple simultaneous revolutions around the globe, including the US.

Life-threatening: The Villian’s assassins will kill the Manager to silence him despite him finding the singer.

Life Threatening: The villain will kill them all if their plan fails.

[Carmen Radtke]

Carmen’s thriller plot

What I learned: After all the prep work, this was a lot less daunting than expected. But it also clearly shows me the scale of plot needed to make it work, and all the layers I still have to create if I want to use this concept.

Opening

In her waitress job, Laney demonstrates her impressive acting and improv skills, in front of Wyatt. He hires her to do a job for the government.

Mystery: why does Wyatt need an actor?

He has promised and agent and close friend to come up with a way to gain access to a private safe room without using anyone in the CIA.

Life-threatening: Laney doesn’t really know what she’s hired for.

Mystery 2: Why doesn’t the agent trust anyone but Wyatt?

Villain’s plan: Have an agent steal the drive

Inciting incident:

Using intel gained by Laney, Wyatt’s agent friend steals an encrypted drive – 24 hours earlier than planned. He mails the drive to Wyatt (another deviation) just before he is murdered by Turner.

Mystery: why does he change the schedule?

Mystery 2: how does Turner know about the change?

Villain’s plan: Use the drive to see who all comes after it

Turning point 1:

In fear for his life, Wyatt goes on the run with Laney and her sidekick.

Mystery:

Why doesn’t he go to his boss?

Why do Laney and sidekick need to go with him?

How can they cover their tracks?

Where can they run to?

Life-threatening sequence: A killer is after them, and he knows who they are

Laney has secretly contacted her agent.

Villain’s plan:

Intercept Laney’s message to her agent. Stealthily guide both Wyatt and Turner’s steps

Midpoint: Turner catches up with them and kidnaps Wyatt

Mystery: why doesn’t he kill Wyatt?

Will he find Laney and sidekick?

Life-threatening sequence: Turner and helpers have tracked down Wyatt, Laney, and sidekick

Laney and sidekick create a diversion and disappear into a crowd

Wyatt almost gets away, but is taken and put in a car boot

Laney and sidekick chase the car on e-scooters

Villain’s plan: Making sure he will be able to secure the drive and to get rid of Wyatt if he knows too much.

Turning point 2:

Laney and her sidekick free Wyatt and decide to turn the tables.

Mystery: How could Turner could always catch up with them?

Mystery: How can they go on the attack?

Using old research to create their own misinformation campaign designed to flush out whoever set them all up

Life-threatening situation: Sidekick picks the boot lock. Laney distracts the two helpers, and she and her sidekick take them down, using stage fight skills

Villain’s plan

Boss used surveillance devices and enabled Turner to hack into information network

Climax:

Wyatt and Laney walk into a trap.

Life-threatening: They are held at gunpoint. They’re going to die.

Mystery: How can they survive?

They use this moment to get incriminating evidence from the mastermind, Wyatt’s own boss, streaming it live to Laney’s sidekick.

The villain has no choice but to let them go.

Resolution:

Mystery: what will the villain do?

He dies in an “accident”.

Mystery: what comes next for Laney and her sidekick?

They can go back to struggling in the world of showbusiness or keep on using their skills for clandestine operations.