The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: Traffic

written by Stephen Gaghan


Traffic is an intense and gripping drama about the drug trade, told in three interweaving and related storylines. Powerful and real, the script/movie is well designed with strong visual storytelling. Each story thread has its own dramatic structure.

Structural Analysis

  1. Hook (0-4 min.)
    • Mexican state police bust some drug traffickers but the Mexican Army takes over the prisoners in custody. The Mexican cop and his partner define one of the three storylines.
  2. Complication (10, 13 min.)
    • In the second storyline, U.S. two undercover agents are about to bust a dealer when local authorities screw it up. In the third, the daughter of a judge about to be appointed national drug czar is herself an addict. This drug czar is the main protagonist (hence played by the star, Michael Douglas).
  3. Call to Action (16, 27 min.)
    • The judge is appointed to be the drug czar. A Mexican Army general hires the cop to help him bust the Tiajuana cartel.
  4. Act One Plot Point (30 min.)
    • The judge begins to put together his plan for the war on drugs; the U.S. undercover team makes a major arrest; and an arrest in the Mexican cartel is made. All the major storylines are now set up and moving forward.
  5. Midpoint Plot Point (67, 76, 79 min.)
    • The judge wants to think out of the box and come up with new ideas to fight drugs. Personally, he discovers that his daughter is addicted to hard drugs. Mexican cop urges US agents to take more interest in what is happening across the border.
  6. Act Two Plot Point (107, 123, 127 min.)
    • The partner of the Mexican cop is killed. The judge finds his daughter zonked and doing tricks in a drug house. The US undercover agent, whose partner also is killed, finds his major witness poisoned before testifying.
  7. Climax and Resolution (136, 138, 139 min.)
    • The US undercover agent manages to plant a bug in the house of the dealer who got off after the death of the witness. The judge and his wife attend treatments sessions with their daughter. The Mexican cop, who helped the US make a bust, uses his payoff to have a ballpark built for kids.

Notes

Traffic works so well because it tells its layered story so efficiently. The scenes are short and focused -- in fact, the long 145 page script has 263 scenes! The short scenes, moving between the different storylines, keeps the pacing strong and a sense of "what happens next?" holds our interest throughout.


MODULE 4: SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

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