The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: Thelma & Louise
written by Callie Khouri
Thelma & Louise is a wonderful movie to study
for the use of "buddies" as protagonists. In a buddy picture, two strong
leads share the central focus, each with their own character arc, often
sometimes in conflict with one another. In some buddy pictures, one character
clearly is the lead; in others, as here, both are equally strong roles, and
the movie is propelled by the drama of this joint-protagonist.
Structural Analysis
- The Hook (1-7 min.)
- Thelma & Louise are planning a vacation together but from the start we learn
that Thelma hasn't told her husband, who clearly won't approve. Will she
get permission to go? Or will she go without telling him? She ends up
doing the latter, leaving him a note.
- The Complication (9 min.)
- Thelma convinces Louise to make a quick stop at a bar, rather than
continuing quickly to the secluded cabin that is their destination. Here is
where the trouble will begin. They start drinking, celebrating.
- Call to Action (18 min.)
- When a guy takes Thelma into the parking lot for fresh air, he makes
an aggressive move on her - and, in fact, would have raped her if Louise had
not intervened with a gun (that Thelma brought for protection). The women are
moving off when the guy makes a lewd remark. Spontaneously, Louise turns
and shoots him. Now everything has really changed: they enter a new world,
the "extraordinary" world of being criminals on the run.
- Act I Plot Point (33 min.)
- What should they do? Thelma wants to go to the police. Louise
says no one would believe it was self-defense. Now we see the antagonist:
the sexist culture in which they live, that lead them to decide there is no
justice for them through lawful channels. Louise decides she is making a
run for Mexico. Thelma will come to the decision to join her.
- Midpoint Plot Point (66 min.)
- They need money for the escape, and Louise's boyfriend delivers an
amount equal to her savings, $6700. But Thelma has taken a liking to a
hitch-hiking cowboy, ending up in a motel room with him (where she gets
"fucked right" for the first time). The cowboy skips with the money. Now
the women are broke. How will they get to Mexico? Thelma will rob a market,
using the technique her cowboy one-night-stand shared with her.
- Act II Plot Point (105 min.)
- Their trouble has escalated: from accidental shooting; to robbing
a store; and then to locking a police man who stops them in the trunk of
his squad car. Now a warrant is out for their arrest for murder, "dead or
alive." They are considered armed and desperate. Moreover, through the
cowboy (with whom the ever-trusting Thelma was honest), the police know
they are making a run to Mexico.
- Resolution (120-5 min.)
- The women are surrounded by police and trapped at the Grand Canyon.
They decide to drive off the edge rather than to face the consequences in
a sexist society where they will receive no justice, a suicide that becomes
their final act of new-found power.
Notes
This movie offers many tips for beginning writers:
- Visual storytelling: from the beginning, we learn that Thelma
and Louise are different kinds of people by seeing how they pack for the
vacation. Without dialogue, we learn that Louise is neat and proper, Thelma
spontaneous and wild.
- Foreshadowing: Louise refuses to go through Texas on the way
to Mexico (from Oklahoma), making their trip much longer than necessary.
There's a reason for this, as we'll learn later: Texas is where she herself
was raped.
- Scene economy: This script has excellent scene design, which is
to say scenes are not longer than they have to be. For example, when
the police reach Louise's boyfriend, two lines of dialogue suffice:
are you so and so? Arkansas State Police. Cut. A beginning would extend
this scene to half a page, a page, even more, with useless time-consuming
questions that do nothing but slow down the narrative drive.
- Rising jeopardy: Film stories need to have rising action, a
movement in which jeopardy to the protagonist increases. This is beautifully
handled here, with Thelma and Louise getting deeper and deeper into trouble
with each new twist and turn in the action.
- Comic moments: This movie is also filled with great comic
moments. For example, when they take the police man hostage, Thelma tells
Louise to shoot the radio. She does. "The police radio, Louise,"
says Thelma.
- Changing roles: In the beginning of this double-protagonist story,
Louise is the stronger one and calls the shots. But after Thelma loses their
escape money, she robs a store and gains new strength herself, later
instigating the escape from the police man, finally being able to say,
"I think I have a knack for this." Neither character is stagnant, each
grows, but in different ways, the meek if crazy Thelma finding new strength,
the more "controlled" Louise finding new intimacy and sharing with Thelma.
MODULE 4:
SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting
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