The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: The Spanish Prisoner

written by David Mamet


The Spanish Prisoner is a gripping suspense story about vanity and greed and an innocent man who gets sucked into the dark world generated by each.

Structural Analysis

  1. Hook (1 min.)
    • In the islands pitching a business deal, Joe and his colleagues present "the process," a new economic formula of some kind that will permit a company to control the global market. Joe created it.
  2. Complication (4 min.)
    • Joe is worried about his bonus and reward for creating the process, and his boss gives him the runaround.
  3. Call to Action (16, 21 min.)
    • Joe meets a stranger, Dell, on the island and agrees to deliver a book to his sister in NY. But his secretary plants a paranoid idea in his head -- we never know who anyone really is -- and in the plane's bathroom Joe rips apart the package, only to discover it is a book after all. He is trusting by nature and feels bad about this slip.
  4. Act One Plot Point (36-41 min.)
    • Joe rejects the secretary, who has interest in him, to pursue friendship with Dell and a possible romantic interest with his sister. Dell introduces him to the world of the wealthy, enrolling him in an exclusive club, opening him a small Swiss bank account. Joe goes along with it all. He is in a new world.
  5. Midpoint Plot Point (51, 66, 74 min.)
    • But now things go wrong. The "sister" turns out to be an old woman. When Joe delivers the process to Dell's lawyer, supposedly to help him get his just compensation, he's a victim of a switch and loses it. Then he is arrested for sheltering income: his Swiss bank acct. And the club membership he signed (in an "exclusive" foreign language) was really a request for asylum in Venezuela. He's been duped to appear to be ready to skip the country with a fortune.
  6. Act Two Plot Point (78 min.)
    • Joe finds the one colleague, friend, who can verify the truth stabbed dead - with his own knife. Now he is on the run for murder. He goes to the secretary for help.
  7. Climax and Resolution (93-103 min.)
    • But the secretary is in on it, too, and Joe finally catches on. But Dell has him trapped on a ferry - until undercover FBI agents come out to save him. His boss has been behind the entire scam, trying to get the rewards of the process all to himself.

Notes

This is a good movie to study for a tight, twisting, suspenseful plot, as well as for clean, stark scene design. Mamet's stories for film are always crisp and compressed, and this is no exception.


MODULE 4: SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

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