:: Interview with A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Eric Heisserer.

:: Put lumps in those throats! Getting your viewers emotionally involved.

:: Protocol: how to dump your agent.

:: Missing: villain. Writing a story without an antagonist.

:: Fight Club’s Jim Uhls on writer’s block.

:: A sensitive formula: blending physical and emotional journey.

:: Money matters. Selling a treatment.

:: Expository scenes, when too much is too much.

:: Writing fight scenes, some things to know.

_______________________________

With thanks to Sol.

Enjoy!

Karel

The first film of the extraordinarily successful Indiana Jones quadrilogy, created by Spielberg and Lucas, the greatest filmmakers of their generation.

A timeless piece of of the very best entertainment. This is your typical Hero’s Journey and an excellent starting point for screen story study. Did I mention it is also great fun?

ACT ONE

Sequence A

00.00  Jungle Explorers, being followed.
04.00 Indiana Jones and Satipo enter the cave.
05.00 They find Forestal impaled but continue.
06.00 Indy avoids traps to take the little statue.
08.00 They escape from the cave, Indy is betrayed by Satipo.
09.30 Arriving outside, Indy is surrounded by Belloq and his men.
10.00 Indy manages to escape Belloq, he runs towards the water.
11.00 Indy boards the seaplane, in mid-air he finds the pilot’s snake.

Sequence B

12.30 Indy teaches, the girls are adoring him. Marcus enters.
15.00 Visitors tell the Nazis have found Tannis, are now onto the Ark.
19.30 Marcus got Indy the job, he needs Abner, wonders about Marion.
21.30 Indy boards a plane, but is followed (DI)
22.30 Nepal: Marion in drinking contest. (POV)
24.00 Marion: Abner’s dead. She will give Indy the bronze medallion.
28.00 Nazis come in, claim what Indy wanted, threaten Marion. (POV)
30.00 Indy comes to the rescue, fire. “I’m your goddamn partner.”

ACT TWO A

Sequence C

32.30” ‘Cairo, Sallah as ally, tells about Belloq who found the chamber.
35.00” ‘Monkey runs off to the Nazis (DI)
36.30” ‘They’re attacked, but Jones fights them off, Marion abducted.
39.30” ‘Indy chases the basket, it goes on a truck, which explodes.
40.30” ‘Indy mournes Marion; Belloq: “I’m a shadowy reflection of you.”
44.00” ‘Indy saved by kids & Sallah, followed by man w/ eye patch (DI).
45.00” ‘Sallah saves Indy from poisoned dates: Nazis in the wrong place.

Sequence D

47.30 Nazis are impatient, tell Belloq they want results. (POV)
48.00 Indy and Sallah approach the site.
49.00 Indy descends into the chamber, light beam; Sallah taken away.
53.00 Indy gets out, finds Marion but leaves her.
54.00 Indy finds the place of the Ark.

ACT TWO B

Sequence E

54.30 Belloq and the Nazis (POV)
55.00 Indy starts digging, a storm brews.
58.00 Indy opens the cave, finds a snake pit.
58.30 Belloq releases Marion, gives her a dress to wear //
60.30 Indy descends, burns snakes // Marion drinks // Indy & Sallah find Ark.

65.30 Marion is sober, takes knife, stopped by Nazis.
66.00 Indy and Sallah carry the Ark, lift it out.

Sequence F

67.30 Belloq notices the digging, alerts all.
68.00 Nazis take Ark out, throw Marion in and close the cave.
70.00 Indy and Marion argue in the snake pit, finally break through a wall.
72.30 They find an escape to the side.
73.00 Indy climbs the monowing plane and fights a guard.
75.00 Marion jumps in but Indy rescues her before it explodes.
78.00 Indy hears the Ark is on a truck for Cairo. Makes it up as he goes.

ACT THREE

Sequence G

79.00 Indy on a horse, following the truck.
81.00 Indy boards the truck, overpowers driver and takes over.
85.00 Indy drives truck into town, it is hidden from the Nazis.
86.00 They celebrate with Sallah before boarding the ship with Katanga.
88.00 On the boat, Indy and Marion kiss.

Sequence H

90.00 Engines have stopped, German submarine enters.
91.00 The Germans take the cargo and Marion.
93.00 Jones climbs on board the submarine.
94.00 Jones follows the Ark from the islan submarine base onto the island.
96.30 After a standoff, Jones has to give in.
100.0 Belloq initiates a ceremony that calls in the spirits who kill the Nazis.
104.0 Indy and Marion are free, all Nazis have disappeared.

Sequence I

104.3 Washington DC: Indy is unhappy “Top Men are working on it.”
105.3 Indy and Marion off to have a drink.
106.0 Ark is stored as “Top Secret – Army Intel”

Full Synopsis:

ACT I

In the spring of 1936 an exploration party penetrates thick jungle on the South American continent. When the group’s leader stops to examine map fragments, another of the group pulls a gun. The leader, hearing the click as the turncoat chambers a round, pulls out a bullwhip and disarms the man, sending him fleeing back through the jungle. Thus does Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. (Harrison Ford) stay alive.

Indy and his remaining companion enter a dank and oppressively vast cave, where a competitor of his, Forrestal, disappeared. Inside the cave are several traps rigged by the ancient people who hid a small, valuable statue there — and one of the traps is found to have snared Forrestal. The two men find and retrieve the statue, but the cave is rigged to collapse when the statue is moved. Indy barely escapes the cave, while his companion betrays him and is killed trying to escape.

Seemingly safe, Indy is cornered by the Hovitos, the local tribe, who are led by Dr. Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman), an arrogant French archaeologist who is a longtime rival and enemy of Indy’s. Indy flees and is rescued by Jock (Fred Sorenson), flying a seaplane, though Indy isn’t pleased to find Jock’s pet snake Reggie inside.

Back stateside, Indy teaches an archeology class and is still upset over the loss of the statue, which he surmises Belloq is taking to Marrakesh; he has found pieces he feels will pay for a trip to Marrakesh to find Belloq, but Indy’s friend Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) dashes that hope by informing him that two Army Intelligence officers want to talk to him about Abner Ravenwood, his former teacher, who was his friend until Indy broke up with his daughter, Marion (Karen Allen).

The Army officers are concerned because they’ve intercepted a German cable concerning a mammoth archaeological dig in the Egyptian desert. When they read the cable, Indy and Marcus realize the Nazis have discovered Tanis, an ancient city buried in a gigantic sandstorm in 980 B.C. and the possible burial site of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was built by ancient Hebrews to hold the stone tablets on which Moses inscribed the Ten Commandments. It holds immense mystical power — enough to allow the Nazis to level mountains and lay waste to entire regions.

Indy flies to Nepal (followed by a Nazi agent, Toht (Ronald Lacey)) to confront Marion Ravenwood, who runs a restaurant and bar (and who can outdrink anyone) because he needs the headpiece to the Staff of Ra, whose crystals will allow him to determine the exact location of the Ark. Marion, still bitter over their breakup, nonetheless accepts when Indy offers her $3,000 and the promise of more when they return stateside. She is cryptic about the headpiece, and after Indy leaves she ponders it as she wears it around her neck.

Toht and several Sherpa heavies enter the bar and hold Marion hostage, with Toht ready to torture her for the headpiece. Indy returns and a firefight erupts during which the fireplace is dislodged and the building begins burning down. Toht finds the headpiece but when he grabs it he’s badly burned — leaving an image of one side of the headpiece branded on his hand. He escapes while Indy and Marion do likewise

ACT IIa

Indy and Marion fly to Egypt to see Indy’s pal, Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), who is working on the Nazi site and who reveals that the Nazis are aided by a French archaeologist (Belloq).

Later, while shopping at a Cairo bazaar, Indy and Marion are attacked by sword-wielding Arabs working for Nazi agents. Indy fights them off but in the confusion Marion is trapped in a large basket and taken by two of the terrorists. The effort to track her down is held up by a man brandishing a sword in intimidating fashion. The swordsman is shot down in short order by a thoroughly unimpressed Indy.

Soon Indy spots a basket carried to a truck filled with explosives and is fired on by a submachine-gun-wielding assailant. His Nazi commander orders the Arabs to take off, but Indy shoots them and the truck crashes, exploding and destroying the basket.

Disconsolate over losing Marion, Indy drowns his sorrows in drink but is met by more Nazi agents who escort him to a table at which is seated Belloq, who gleefully talks about finding the Ark. Indy, no longer caring whether he lives or dies, reaches for his sidearm as Arabs inside pull rifles — only to see Sallah’s large brood of children rush in and the “Arabs” to turn out to be US Marines, much to the embarassment of Belloq.

Sallah takes Indy to see a shaman who is reading the Ra headpiece after both men have learned that Belloq and his Wehrmacht aide, Colonel Dietrich (Wolf Kahler), have obtained a copy of the headpiece. (Neither man is aware that it is a duplicate traced from Toht’s burned hand.) The shaman reveals two critical facts: first, that the headpiece gives the precise height of the Staff of Ra, and second, that the staff the Nazis used was too long — so their excavation is over a mile away from the Ark’s actual burial site, which is known as the Well of Souls.

Infiltrating the mammoth site, Indy is lowered into an underground maproom containing a precisely detailed miniature of the city. Using the Ra headpiece, he identifies the precise location of the Well of Souls. Sneaking further around the gigantic camp, Indy is shocked to find Marion, alive but bound and gagged. Indy starts to free her, but when she reveals that the Nazis keep asking about him and what he knows, he realizes he can’t cut her loose without revealing his presence to the Nazis.

Late that afternoon Indy and Sallah sneak a digging party of their own to the actual location of the Well of Souls.

ACT IIb

Late into the night they dig open the chamber, and to Indy’s horror it is filled with dangerous snakes. Indy clears an area of snakes with burning torches, then lowers himself into the chamber and burns many of the snakes alive with flaming gasoline. Sallah follows and the two eventually find the gigantic chest that is the Ark.

By now it is dawn, and only now does Belloq notice the commotion a mile away. The Nazis surround the site and Indy is left trapped inside, but Dietrich leaves him with something else — Marion, who is thrown into the chamber and the area closed off.

Indy notices a wall where snakes are entering. He climbs a mammoth statue and with all his might breaks it from its foundation and it crashes through the wall. The two find an opening to the surface, and discover the airfield at the excavation camp, where there is a bizarre Nazi transport plane. The two sneak up to the plane, but Indy is attacked by a mechanic and a prolonged fight ensues that is joined by a burly Nazi who pummels Indy before being punched backward and shredded to bits by the plane’s propellers. Marion seizes one of the plane’s machine guns and opens fire on Nazi soldiers, in the process setting a fuel dump aflame. The fire destroys the area and the plane explodes, but Indy and Marion escape.

Dietrich orders his men to transport the Ark by truck to Cairo. When Sallah finds Indy and Marion, he is overjoyed they’re alive and tells them of Dietrich’s plan.

ACT III

Indy takes a horse and pursues the convoy, seizing the truck containing the Ark and surviving a brutal chase and fight with Nazi soldiers to drive the Ark to safety.

He and Marion board a ship taking the Ark back to the US, but a Nazi submarine captures the ship. The Ark is taken aboard the sub and Marion taken prisoner for Belloq. Indy, however, escapes Nazi pursuit and rides the submarine as it sails on the ocean surface to an island where Belloq and the Nazis trek to the top of a mountain.

Indy has grabbed a rocket launcher and intercepts Belloq, vowing to blow up the Ark unless Marion is freed. But Belloq calls Indy’s bluff, knowing Indy wants to know what the Ark contains as much as anyone. Indy finds he can’t carry out his threat, and is seized.

At an elaborate ceremony atop the mountain Indy and Marion, tied to a pole, can only watch as the Ark is opened, but it contains nothing but sand, the remains of the stone tablets. No sooner is it opened, however, than its spirits suddenly appear. Indy and Marion, remembering an ancient code that requires people to close their eyes and not look at the now-freed spirits, withstand the mayhem that ensues as the energy of the Ark surges forth and its spirits attack the now-terrified Nazis, killing the entire contingent and destroying Belloq in gruesome fashion. The energy mass surges high into the sky before returning to the Ark and resealing it, leaving Indy and Marion drained but freed.

Weeks later Indy and Marcus feud with the Army officers over the whereabouts of the Ark, Indy angry that the Army has no idea what it has in the Ark — though it appears they in fact do understand what they have, as the Ark is sealed in a large crate and stored anonymously in a gigantic government warehouse, never to be seen again.

Full synopsis courtesy of IMDb.

Not just a great comic book adaptation and an exciting action flick, but also an elegantly written piece of cinema entertainment, executed with a daring cast and grounded in a solid foundation of character.

ACT ONE

SEQUENCE A

- Tony Stark visits soldiers on duty in the Middle East.
- The convoy is attacked, the soldiers are quickly killed.
- Stark flees when a bomb explodes, severely wounding Tony’s chest.
- Tony is captured and recorded by a group of terrorists.

FLASHBACK

- Tony’s history as a child prodigy, taking over his father’s company at 21.
- Colonel Rhodes presents Tony with an award in his absence.
- Stane accepts the award in Tony’s honor.
- Rhody finds Tony partying in a casino.
- Reporter Christine approaches Stark with questions regarding ethics.Stane
- The two end up spending the night together.
- Christine is greeted by Tony’s assistant, “Pepper” as she leaves the house.
- Pepper helps Tony with some business before he heads out to the airport.
- In flight, Tony talks with Rhody, who is unhappy about Tony’s attitude.
- Tony gets Rhody to relax, they get drunk and have an in-flight party.
- At a military outpost, Tony demonstrates the Jericho, a missile system.
- Tony goes off with the convoy that is soon attacked by terrorists.

SEQUENCE B

- Tony regains consciousness, his chest is hooked up to a strange device.
- His cellmate Yinsen explains the device keeps shrapnel out of Tony’s heart.
- The captors tell Tony to build a Jericho. Tony refuses and they torture him.
- The terrorists show off a huge weapons stockpile and Tony starts building.
- With Yinsen’s help, Tony constructs a super power generator.
- Tony designs a powered weapon suit to defeat the terrorists.
- Terrorist Raza, attempts to torture Yinsen and gives them one more day.
- Yinsen and Tony set off a bomb as distraction as Tony powers up his suit.
- Yinsen grabs a gun and runs off to distract the surviving guards.
- Tony muscles his way through the cave, his suit deflects weapon fire.
- A dying Yinsen encourages Tony to not waste his life as he escapes.
- Tony destroys their weapons, the armor is ruined, but he is alive.
- US helicopters fly overhead, a group of soldiers led by Rhody, find Tony.

ACT TWO

SEQUENCE C

- Back home Tony announces to shut down Stark Industries’ Weapons.
- Agent Coulson tells Pepper he wants to talk to Tony about his capture.
- Stane confronts Tony about his actions, furious.
- Tony wants Stark Industries to move forward with Ark Reactor technology.
- Stane tells Tony to lay low for a while so the company can sort things out.
- During the upgrade of the Ark Reactor, Tony verges on cardiac arrest.
- Pepper helps in the process, she’s told to get rid of the old model.
- Rhodes says Stark is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Tony starts upgrading his armored suit to “Mark 2,”.
- The terrorists gather all fragments of the original armor in the desert.
- Tony perfects the armor’s flight system.
- Pepper comes in and leaves a box on Tony’s desk.
- Stane and the board filed an injunction to gain control of Stark Ind.
- Tony completes the upgrade of his flight system.
- A test flight shows Tony the power supply shuts down at great heights.
- After a near-crash, Tony crashes through three floors of the house.

SEQUENCE D

- Tony finds Pepper’s box with “Proof That Tony Stark Has A Heart.”
- Tony rebuilds the suit to solve the icing problem, to code name Mark 3.
- Tony leaves to attend his benefit dinner while the suit is being painted.

MID POINT:

- At the charity event Agent Coulson wants to learn about the incident.
- Tony and Pepper share a moment together in the moonlight.
- Christine challenges him on his weapons being used in the Middle East.
- Stane reveals he filed the injunction against Tony.
- Tony is furious, transforms into Iron Man for the first time.

SEQUENCE E

- In the Middle East, Iron Man defeats the terrorists, destroys their weapons.
- Two F-22 jets spot him.
- Col. Rhodes contacts Tony, who plays ignorant.
- The jets are too much and Tony reveals to Rhodes he is responsible.
- Iron Man is hit by one fighter jet but saves a pilot’s life.
- Tony convinces Rhody to pass it all off as a “training exercise.”
- Back at home, Pepper catches him removing the Iron Man armor.

SEQUENCE F

- The terrorists are visited by none other than Stane.
- He paid them to kill Stark, but they demanded a much higher price.
- Stane takes the remnants of the Mark 1 armor they have gathered.
- Pepper agrees to help Tony.
- In Stane’s office she finds evidence he was behind Tony’s capture.
- Stane realizes what she was up to.
- Agent Coulson agrees to help stop Stane with his fellow agents.
- Stane cannot figure out how to create a power source for the suit.
- Stane arrives at Tony’s house and paralyzes him with a sonic weapon.
- Stane yanks out the power source from Tony’s heart.
- Tony gets the Ark Reactor that Pepper gave him.
- Tony gets the power source installed just as Rhody arrives.

ACT THREE

SEQUENCE G

- Pepper and Coulson spot the Mark 1 Armor, Stane attacks them.
- Iron Man fights Iron Monger, with half power in the suit.
- Tony grabs Iron Monger and climbs higher, then loses him.
- Iron Man is now almost completely powerless.
- Tony instructs Pepper to overload the building’s Ark Reactor.
- Pepper is hesitant, believing that Tony could also be killed.
- Tony manages to keep fighting while she builds up power to the Reactor.
- The Ark explodes, killing Stane, injuring Tony but saving him from death.

SEQUENCE H

- At a press conference Tony adopts the name “Iron Man”.
- Coulson: cover stories about Stane and the “truth” about Iron Man.
- Tony goes before the reporters once more, and declares “I am Iron Man.”

EPILOGUE

Back home, Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. talks about “The Avenger Initiative.”

Thank you to IMDb for the full synopsis.

If you only have $500 to spend, a few brief story consultations will be immensely more beneficial than a snap shot assessment.

$99 to $449

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