Oh shit! Back to the middle

I'm going to talk/write again about the most important beat in all the screenwriting world. When you finally understand the importance of this plot-point, it will move you ahead like finding the magic flutes in Super Mario 3. This is the turbo button on your scripts. It's changed the way I look at writing. It is the midpoint.

Every screenwriting book tips its hat to the midpoint, almost always using the phrase, "The midpoint is where the stakes are raised." That's all they say. That's all they know. "Where the stakes are raised." What does that even mean?

In truth, the stakes aren't raised at the midpoint. They're created.

Yep, screw your ticking clocks and character throughlines. The midpoint is where the layers of fluff are scraped away and all you're left with is the deep shit that your characters have to plow through. The stakes aren't raised here. The stakes fucking punch your protagonist in the nuts/ovaries. We're not having fun anymore; there's some real heavy shit going down. The midpoint is the "Oh, shit!" point.

Let's look at the high-grossing, highly enjoyable, high concept, high action JURASSIC PARK as an example. Go to "Drew's Script-o-rama" and find a pdf of the script. Then scroll down until the scroll bar is at about the middle. What scene do you land on? The power is off; the T-rex is escaping; the heavy shit has just started to go down. Oh, shit!

Thinking back on the movie, it seems that the T-rex scene happens much much earlier. Aren't they running around the park for at least 2/3 of the movie? Shouldn't the T-rex escape at the Act I TP? Do we really have a full half of the movie as exposition with "Mr. DNA?"

The T-rex breaks free in the middle. The park is in chaos in the middle. The rides are derailed and Sam Neil has to take the children on foot back to the main compound. Now that's an Oh Shit! moment.

And that's why the midpoint is so important. It changes everything. Before the midpoint, this was a story about experts expected to give their endorsement on a genetic engineering marvel, but they had to get over their moral reservations. Aside from a teaser opening, there's no action or suspense. But halfway through, it transitions seamlessly into a movie about survival.

Let's look at another Spielberg creation (I use movies from my childhood because I've watched them so many times that I can list off their beats instantly) JAWS. This midpoint transition isn't as seamless. In fact, JAWS is two very different movies with two very different settings and antagonists. Who's the antagonist in the first half? It ain't the shark. It's the town. It's the mayor. It's the city council who's putting their tourist dollars above public safety. Chief Brody is a classic "man against the world" character as he struggles to do what's right in the face of it all. He wants to close the beaches and get the town to kill the shark. He's fighting the mayor every step of the way. And then what happens? Exactly halfway through the movie, another shark attack (and a very forceful Brody) convince the mayor to give in. Victory! But now, Brody (who hates the water, and hasn't been in it yet in the movie) has to go out to see on a boat with two other guys and hunt down and kill the shark. Oh shit! Suddenly, it's a very different movie with a very different feel and very different motivation.

What's important is that the protagonist's original goal is resolved at the midpoint. It's the end of the original storyline. Brody got the town to agree to close the beaches and hunt the shark. Indy finds the Ark. The team of experts goes on their dinosaur tour, having mostly made up their minds of how they feel about "man playing God" with genetics. In romantic comedies, the two leads, who have been separated by their quirky and polar opposite personalities, finally hook up.

But when the midpoint twist happens (in the biggest, most memorable way possible), new goals and motivations are thrown into the spotlight. And these new ordeals cut to the heart of the character. It slices open their insecurities and faults and forces them to dig deep. Whatever happens at the midpoint is real, and the consequences of failure are extreme. Chief Brody's job was threatened in the first half; his life is threatened in the second. Perhaps that's what people mean by "the stakes are raised." However, the stakes are completely different. The old stakes vanish, maybe not entirely, but they're certainly dimmed in comparison to the new stakes.

Let's look at BACK TO THE FUTURE. What's Marty's initial goal? To find Doc Brown so he can go back to 1985. That's all Marty is doing. All his actions are leading him to find a way back home. But, at the midpoint, he finds Doc Brown, shows him the time machine, and after 5 minutes, Doc Brown has a solution. Problem solved, good times had by all, story over. But wait! Has Marty changed the past in any way? What?! He's split up his parents, thus endangering his own existence?! Oh shit!

It happens right at the midpoint.

Frodo only wants to get the ring to Rivendale. Halfway through, he gets there. Oh shit! Now he has to take it the whole way.

The Marines and Ripley want to see what happened to the colonists. At the midpoint, they find them cocooned by aliens. Oh shit! Now they have to fight them off.

Buttercup wants her true love, Wesley, back. Oh my god, he's alive as the Dread Pirate Roberts! Oh shit! Now they have to overcome death and an entire army to be together.

Striker wants Elaine. She rejects him. Oh shit! The airplane's crew is all sick and Striker is the only one who can land it.

To use a real-life example, pretend your script is Operation Iraqi Freedom. The troops march in with a goal in mind - remove Saddam from power. With very little effort, they do exactly that. President Bush stands on the aircraft carrier with the infamous "Mission Accomplished" banner in the background. Problem solved. But what's this? Insurgents? Terrorists? A country not ready to govern itself? An anxious homefront? A rising death toll? Oh shit! It's just like a movie.

This is why your script needs not only the "Oh shit!" moment, but right before that, it needs a huge "Mission Accomplished" banner.

Why do movies need this? Because 90-120 minutes is a long time for a person to sit still. Essentially, all of the plots listed above are TWO DIFFERENT MOVIES! That's the key to high concept. That's the key to writing a script that builds and builds toward an amazing climax. That's the key to addings twists and surprises to a script that keeps the reader reading and the viewer watching. Otherwise, you have a "get on with it" movie.

That's why so many screenplays fall flat. They might have that great starting idea ("teenager finds himself in the 1950s and has to get back to his time"), but they don't find that second idea to stack on top of it ("but interferes with his parent's first meet and has to set them up or he won't exist").

The midpoint key is also the key to a good logline. All you have to do is stack one premise on the other and suddenly the logline comes to life. If you don't have a solid midpoint, you won't have a solid second idea, and your logline (not to mention your script) will sound flat. It'll lack the hook. Every logline and script should have the "but then an 'oh shit!' moment happens."

I'll probably write more on this later, but just writing this post has given me stuff to think about for the current script I'm having problems with.