By Abbie Heathe
Watch this twice. Trust me, it’s worth it.
The first time I saw this presentation, I got that aching hand I haven’t felt since I secondary school. Michael talks fast, over rapid, clever graphics that whizz past almost too quickly to take them in. It’s brilliant, eye-catching stuff and you want to get it all down because it all makes huge sense, and it generates loads of new ideas, but it’s basically impossible.
The solution: You just have to watch it twice.
On that second run, let all those ideas wash over you. Follow the movies he breaks down in detail and appreciate how it’s all put together. It’s a blast. Then when you’re done, you can take that breath you’ve been holding for the last hour and start applying some of these ideas to your own screenplay.
What makes a good ending?
Lots of scripts fall apart in the third act. They’re predictable, or lack meaning. Michael doesn’t actually call them ‘bad’ endings, but he does outline how they can be elevated. And the solution is to focus on giving it an intensified sense of meaning.
Often, endings are not clear enough about the underlying values of the story – and the need to set up value systems in competition with each other.
Stakes
We all know about a protagonist’s ‘want’ and ‘need’, outer and inner elements driving them – so what’s different about Michael’s theory? You need to add philosophical stakes.
Tell the story through the external, the internal or emotional drive and philosophical values, and you create an ending that delivers on three levels.
The Antagonist’s Aria
There’s so much in this talk that it’s impossible to summarise it all, but I loved the concept of the Antagonist’s – and the Mentor’s – Aria.
The antagonist and the mentor set out the conflicting values of the story. These take different forms according to which film you’re watching, and revolve around different stakes and emotions – like saving the galaxy, finding an emotional connection, or prioritising yourself over the rest of the world (‘bad’ in Star Wars but ‘good’ in Little Miss Sunshine).
I also really enjoyed Michael searching through The Graduate to find the most appropriate examples. He made it clear that these things aren’t immediately obvious, so don’t be embarrassed about doing some digging. The key thing is that there are different antagonists and mentors (and arias) for each set of values, which then fuse at the climactic end-point.
But before this point is reached…
Failure
Michael really stresses how crucial it is that at the lowest point of the story, the audience has to genuinely believe that there is no way out for the protagonist.
Darth Vader has locked his ship’s sights onto Luke and cannot fail to hit him. In The Graduate, Elaine isn’t just at the altar – she’s just got married. In Little Miss Sunshine, Olive Hoover has been told that there’s no chance she’ll win the contest, and she knows it’s true. More importantly – we know it, too.
And that’s when the earlier set-ups start paying off, and we hurtle towards –
An Insanely Good Ending
At the end of this breathtaking talk, you will find three insanely good, breathtaking breakdowns of the two minutes at the climax of each film – with timer and graphics running underneath, and rapid-fire commentary over the top.
They bring together all of these ideas to demonstrate how to deliver an ending with meaning, emotion, resolution and surprise, with a fantastically intense 42-second sequence that boosts it into the stratosphere.
And then – to quote Olive Hoover’s dad – you’re ‘kickin’ ass’.
Abbie Heath is a screenwriter who writes comedy and drama about change and hope. Life changed forever after Talent Campus 4.
