Save the Cat Goes to the Movies

by Blake Snyder

  As marketing man Neal Page, Steve is out of touch with this America at the start. His dainty shoes, lush cashmere coat, and snappy fedora will be taken away and replaced with a general store deerstalker and boots. With a chill in the air, and frost on the ground urging him home for the holidays, Steve will discover how much of his family life he’s taken for granted. And as his guide, John Candy will offer an even bigger lesson: the importance of one stranger helping another.

  GF Type: Buddy Fleece

  GF Cousins: Easy Rider; National Lampoon’s Vacation; Stranger than Paradise; Fandango; Thelma & Louise; Finding Nemo; Road Trip; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; Little Miss Sunshine; Wild Hogs

  PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES

  Written by John Hughes

  Opening Image: A NYC skyscraper, with the sounds of train whistles, bus motors, and jet engines. “Two days before Thanksgiving” reads the legend. Neal Page (Steve Martin) is in a meeting, waiting for the client to okay his campaign.

  Set-Up: Steve has tickets for the flight to Chicago. A co-worker warns: “You’ll never make it.” Will he? Competition in traveling starts when Steve tries to hail a cab. His foe: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Steve loses, thanks to nearly breaking his neck when he trips over a trunk. “You’re messing with the wrong guy,” Steve yells. We briefly see the trunk’s owner, John Candy. When Steve gets to JFK, his flight’s delayed. Steve calls home where his wife and kids are waiting. By minute 10, we’ve met everyone in the A story.

  Catalyst: Steve is bumped from first class and forced to sit in coach right next to you-know-who. John is Del Griffith, shower curtain-ring salesman and boor. The flight begins and Steve is beset by John’s foot odor (“My dogs are really barking today!”) and dull stories. Late in the flight, the wiser John turns to Steve and tells him: “We’re not landing in Chicago.” O’Hare is snowed in. Their flight is diverted.

  Theme Stated: In Wichita, Steve calls home again. His wife is irritated, and a tad suspicious. John sees Steve react. John tells Steve his motto: “Like your work, love your wife.” Home is a place Steve needs to get to out of duty, but his lesson will be learning to appreciate it — and our theme.

  Debate: What will Steve do now? John offers to find Steve lodging for the night. Should Steve join him? That is the question.

  Break into Two: Steve and John ride with Wolf, whose “Taxiola” is part jukebox and part opium den. Steve has entered the “upside-down world” of Del Griffith and he won’t be the same again. When they arrive at the motel, John is welcomed by the owner — as he will be all along the road. John is crass but lovable. Steve, uptight and effete. What better way to find out how effete than by forcing Steve to share a small room and an even smaller bed with John? Messy shower, reading in bed, cracking knuckles, draining sinuses — all lead to a fight. Steve lists his complaints about John; John listens and takes it.

  B Story: The “love story” is between these two men. We will also begin to hear the mystery of John’s wife, for John has his own arc that Steve will help him with. “I like me. My wife likes me,” John claims during their fight. He also carries her picture.

  Fun and Games: Cheery music announces Fun and Games. “I’m Back in Baby’s Arms” is heard as the men wake, cuddled together, John’s hand between two pillows. “Those aren’t pillows!” Steve cries and they leap out of bed. John suggests that the only way to get to Chicago is by train, and now the “promise of the premise” is unveiled: By any means possible, using all manner of transport, and paid for by credit card, they will reach Chicago. After a ride from a strange pal of John’s, the two board the Amtrak. Soon they pass scenes of America and families heading home for the holidays, moments marketing man Steve needs to experience. When the train breaks down, the two board a bus where snob Steve tries to lead passengers in a rousing chorus of “Three Coins in the Fountain” until John gets them really singing with the “Theme from The Flintstones.”

  Midpoint: Steve’s been trying to dump John. At a diner, after the “false victory” of John selling his shower curtain rings to raise cash for food, Steve suggests they split up. A and B stories cross as John mentions he’s been away from home, and his wife, for too long. Now without John, Steve doesn’t do so well, and after his airport rental car turns up missing, he loses his cool. His expensive shoes are ruined, his hat blows away; he’s being stripped bit by bit of his dignity. Steve confronts the marvelous Edie McClurg as the perky rent-a-car gal, and drops the f-bomb an estimated 18 times in two minutes. Desperate, Steve is about to hire a cab when John pulls up in the rent-a-car that was Steve’s.

  Bad Guys Close In: As they drive home, the insults now go both ways as John lists Steve’s faults. John knows who he is. Steve does not. And the conflict is starting to eat at both men. They can’t wait for this trip to be over.

  All Is Lost: When John almost gets into a wreck and then heads the wrong way on the highway, both have a near-death experience. Until now it’s been difficult, but not dangerous. In the “whiff of death” moment right before they cheat the reaper, Steve turns and imagines John as a cackling Devil. Some post-accident bonding ends when the car catches fire and Steve laughs … until he learns John used his credit card to rent it.

  Dark Night of the Soul: Hating each other, they check in to the El Rancho Motel. Steve takes the room and leaves John out in the cold. John laments his suffocating personality and Steve ponders the mystery of why he hooked up with John in the first place. Finally, he relents and lets John in. A and B stories cross again as the two men drink mini-bar cocktails and toast their wives.

  Break into Three: Having learned from each other and bonded as a team, the two men escape for the final part of their trip. In a great moment of Synthesis, they finally find a song they can sing together: “Blue Moon Of Kentucky.” Though their car is impounded, they make the last leg in the back of a truck.

  Finale: On the train platform in Chicago, they bid goodbye. “I’m a little wiser,” Steve admits. On the final El ride, while reviewing the trip, the lesson of the B story kicks Steve into a revelation: The wife John talks about so much is dead. Going back to save John, Steve shows how much he’s grown.

  Final Image: Steve and John haul John’s trunk to Steve’s door. Home for Thanksgiving, Steve introduces John to his wife, who smiles warmly. John is now part of Steve’s family.

  SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998)

  Be it an historic backdrop, such as war, or an imaginary one set a long time ago and far, far away, the “Epic Fleece” uses a vast canvas, a mission of daring, and a squad of heroes to tell its tale. At the end of many a journey in this sub-genre, what the journeyers find is something they did not expect. Nowhere is the terrible beauty of this lesson more in evidence than in director Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan.

  When the movie premiered, many talked about the violence of its D-Day opening. The bar was raised for portraying the ugly realism of the battlefront. Based on several accounts of the event by, among others, historian Stephen Ambrose (who served as a consultant for the film), and the oral histories of the soldiers themselves of the shocking, banal, and surreal moments of panicked combat, it was indeed something new for audiences. But at the heart of this story is much more: a lesson in how a soldier’s role may appear small, but is in fact a part of a greater whole.

  Tom Hanks stars as the unassuming leader of men with a mission. His team, like all typical Epic teams, is a mix of skills, temperaments, and experience in the field. They are assigned to retrieve a special soldier caught behind enemy lines. But at the end of the journey, a surprise: The one they were really sent to save … is us.

  GF Type: Epic Fleece

  GF Cousins: The Guns of Navarone, The Dirty Dozen, The Professionals, Star Wars, Apocalypse Now, Glory, Three Kings, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, National Treasure, The Lord of the Rings

  SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

  Written by Robert Rodat

  Opening Image: A battlefield cemetery. An old man and his family. He
served in World War Two and finds the gravesite of a fallen comrade. We will learn just who this brave man is by story’s end.

  Set-Up: The opening gives way to flashback. D-Day. June 6, 1944. The landing at Omaha Beach is bloody. Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) shows courage and saves lives as his unit helps secure the objective. This sequence sets up the world of hellish war and Tom’s leadership skills. Tom’s men are a highly functional team.

  Theme Stated: As the dead of the invasion are accounted for, one has special meaning. His last name is Ryan, one of four brothers — three now dead. Back at home, General George Marshall (Harve Presnell) cites a letter written by Abraham Lincoln and orders the fourth brother, lost in post-D-Day France, brought home. “That boy is alive. We are gonna send somebody to find him and we are going to get him the hell out of there.” One man counts. That’s our theme.

  Catalyst: Tom is given the mission and we now meet a new member of the squad, a wet-behind-the-ears translator, Corporal Upham (Jeremy Davies). Tom will be the leader, but Jeremy will act as the interpreter of both French and German — and of events.

  Debate: Should the squad go? Jeremy’s nervousness shows the nature and risks of the journey. Like us, he is a novice.

  Break into Two: Tom accepts the mission and we meet the rest of his squad: Sergeant Mike Horvath (Tom Sizemore), “the muscle,” enforces Tom’s orders. Pvt. Stanley Mellish (Adam Goldberg), “the conscience,” has a special hatred of Nazis. Pvt. Daniel Jackson (Barry Pepper), “the soul,” possesses sniper skills enhanced by God. And Pvt. Richard Reiben (Edward Burns) is “the heart.” Each has a unique way of speaking, point of view, and experience to share. And we’re all guessing: Who’s gonna get it first?

  B Story: The B story is the question: Who is Captain Miller? Tom’s background is a mystery; apart from a shaky hand and a firm grip on leadership, little is known of him. Tying in to the “Theme Stated” idea of one man counts, Tom exemplifies the value of individual sacrifice for the benefit and protection of others.

  Fun and Games: Marching through the hedgerow country of France, coming upon the surprises and adventures of war, is the “promise of the premise.” We are on the road, each signpost ahead another chance for a revealing look at, and growth of, each character. It is a journey echoing that of Jason and other men of battle who strike out on a special mission. There is a lift the men have been given from surviving D-Day. No time to think about anything more than the next detail, so off they go. This is why we came to see this movie: to learn up close about men at war and its light and dark sides. As dangerous as battle is, there’s a sense we’re on a lark, an adventure. The friendship, easygoing patter, and even the secret language they share (FUBAR becomes one of the code words) — are all taken in through Jeremy’s POV.

  Midpoint: After a run-in with a French family, a shootout with a squad of Germans, and a midnight talk (A and B stories cross) that continues the debate over the importance of the individual, the squad seems to have come to an impasse when they find a downed glider and dozens of dead and wounded paratroopers. This marks one of the mistakes of the D-Day invasion, a screw-up where good men died needlessly and a typical “false defeat.” Most midpoints are a “false victory” where events peak. This is the opposite, a down, compounded when the squad searches through the dogtags of the dead and thinks they’ll never find Ryan. Then a soldier who lost his hearing says he knows Ryan’s location. Buoyed, the squad moves on.

  Bad Guys Close In: This particular journey is marked by the steady disintegration of the team, both in number as they die one by one, and also by the doubts about the mission that chip away at camaraderie and faith. Infighting grows when Tom decides to take the squad off course to knock out a German machine-gun nest. The men want to avoid the fight, but Tom insists. They lose another of their comrades though they capture a German prisoner. His fate is hotly debated and the team is ready to mutiny. Tom stops the argument by sacrificing his identity, revealing he’s a schoolteacher — and that they must band together. They agree, and let the Nazi go.

  All Is Lost: The squad finally finds Private Ryan — blonde, blue-eyed Matt Damon. The surprise comes when Matt refuses to go home. Matt doesn’t want to leave his own team in the lurch, and the “road apple” is: death of the mission.

  Dark Night of the Soul: With Matt refusing to be saved, Tom and the survivors of the trek to find him wonder what to do.

  Break into Three: Tom decides to dig in and defend the bridge where Matt and his squad wait for a Nazi attack. A and B stories cross as Tom chooses individual sacrifice for the larger goal of saving others and bringing the war to an end as soon as possible.

  Finale: The big battle as Tom and Matt and the rest defend the bridge. In a final irony, the Nazi soldier they freed returns to kill. Man by man, many die — including Tom. But one survives.

  Final Image: Back at the gravesite, a bookend. All along we’ve had the feeling (I did anyway) that the old man at the gravesite was Tom Hanks. We now see it’s Matt Damon. Private Ryan survived. He was given his life back by the soldiers who rescued him. We realize that Private Ryan is us. Just as Tom’s “team” saved Private Ryan on the battlefield, Tom — and men like him — saved us at home. And we must thank them for their sacrifice. It’s a powerful coda and a heartfelt salute to those who serve.

  OCEAN’S ELEVEN (2001)

  Every once in a while the remake turns out better than the original. In the millennium upgrade of Ocean’s Eleven, director Steven Soderbergh and star George Clooney had an advantage — the 1961 film starring Frank and Dean and Sammy was fun, but no masterpiece. What Team Clooney crafts here goes beyond its namesake and is a great example of the “Caper Fleece,” especially in its lineup of supporting players. We also see an example of a B story that starts late — but is no less powerful for doing so.

  Clooney plays con man Danny Ocean, whose mission — on the surface — is one of avarice. But in collecting his team, plotting the impossible heist, and executing it with hairsbreadth timing, we learn his mission is about something more. It’s about a girl. In this case: Julia Roberts. And it’s about getting her back from the guy who took her: Andy Garcia. The other themes are “performance” and “disguise,” and nowhere does show biz meet crime biz better than when Carl Reiner and Elliott Gould steal scenes from younger stars Matt Damon, Scott Caan, and Casey Affleck — for topping one another and proving one’s stripes is what this story is about. The Fleece in this mission, it turns out, is “manhood,” and with that as each character’s primal stake … we must go along.

  GF Type: Caper Fleece

  GF Cousins: Rififi, Topkapi, The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery, The Hot Rock, Papillon, Escape from Alcatraz, Quick Change, Sneakers, The Usual Suspects, The Italian Job

  OCEAN’S ELEVEN

  Screenplay by Ted Griffin

  Based on a Screenplay by Harry Brown and Charles Lederer

  And a Story by George Clayton Johnson & Jack Golden Russell

  Opening Image: Prison. “Man walking,” yells a guard. Enter Danny Ocean (George Clooney). It’s a parole hearing and he’s on his best behavior. A caged lion, he looks unnatural behind bars.

  Set-Up: We hear George had a wife who left him. Asked “What do you think you would do if released?” George says nothing. When he’s processed out of prison, he gets the personal effects he came in with: a tuxedo and a wedding ring. What would a “man” do? We’ll see. George shows up in Hollywood where Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), his long-time partner in crime, is teaching poker to movie stars. Brad has gone to seed; he’s bored and ready for adventure. And despite the result of their last caper, which landed George in prison, seeing George reinvigorates Brad.

  Catalyst: George lays out the plan for Brad: a casino heist in Las Vegas — not just any heist, the king magilla raid of all time. It’s crazy but Brad is intrigued. And yes, for those who look for such things, the blueprint of the casino they’ll rob does resemble a penis.

  Theme Stated: Brad has to know why George wants to
pull off this caper. George gives a fast answer: “The house always wins … unless, when that perfect hand comes along you bet big and then take the house.” Brad isn’t quite buying, but agrees to go along.

  Debate: Can they do it? Elliott Gould as Las Vegas kingpin Reuben Tishkoff tells them — and us — how crazy it is to rob a casino. No one has ever done it. Then he hears who the target is: owner Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia). Like George, Elliott had his manhood stolen by Andy, who tears down old casinos to build new ones that make gobs of money. He took Elliott’s hotel along the way. Backed by Elliott, George and Brad set about to collect the rest of the team, each with a different skill required to pull off this amazing feat. It helps that when we meet Ocean’s Eleven, theirs are the best heist film intro scenes since The Hot Rock: Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner) has hung up his con man shoes; he is old school hoping he still has game. Others like Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon) are young up-and-comers in the heist biz; Matt has to prove himself to his father, also a crook.

  Break into Two: At Minute 30, all are gathered at Elliott’s place. “You’re Bobby Caldwell’s kid from Chicago,” Elliott says to Matt. “Yeah,” Matt blinks. “That’s wonderful,” Elliott replies. “Get in the goddamn house.” There’s no more debating. They’re all in.

  Fun and Games: Now the plan is unveiled — yet we will know only a part of it. The “fun” of any heist movie is based on three things: (1) showing how the team plans on robbing the bank, (2) showing how the plan gets screwed up and, (3) keeping some of the caper’s details hidden from the audience. This part of the movie also includes demonstrations of the team’s skills. Bernie Mac is hilarious as he turns a conversation about skin care into the purchase of some vans the gang needs; likewise, diminutive Shaobo Qin shows acrobatic pluck. As the surveillance wiz, Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison) is their nervous techie. This is why we came to see this movie: the thrill of watching these diverse characters circle the bank.