Save the Cat Goes to the Movies (16 page)

Be it the raining down of nuclear warheads
(The Day After)
, a pestilence loosed on the land
(Outbreak)
, a bad wire that causes a holocaust in your
Towering Inferno
, or a change in weather that freezes the planet (The
Day After Tomorrow)
, the “upside-down version of the world” now includes a
bunch
of you trying to survive. Better known as the “Disaster Movie,” the “Epic Problem” gives us a chance to bid farewell to our big, blue marble — and lets us enjoy getting a free run of the place!

One of two “comet hits the Earth” movies in 1998, along with
Armageddon
, director Mimi Leder’s
Deep Impact
is a thoughtful meditation on what “the end” might look like. But with the comet not hitting until Act Three, the lack of urgency could lead to a
Watch out for that glacier!
feeling — the peril of
nothing
happening while we wait for the end to come. It may explain why, when you veer from the rules of this or any story type, you do so at your own risk. How do we fill up the middle? Let’s see how two of our most admired screenwriters, Bruce Joel Rubin
(Ghost)
and Michael Tolkin
(The Player)
, met the challenge.

DWAP type: Epic Problem

DWAP cousins:
The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, Meteor, The Day After, Volcano, Dante’s Peak, Outbreak, The Day After Tomorrow, Armageddon

DEEP IMPACT

Written by
Bruce Joel Rubin
and
Michael Tolkin

Opening Image:
Telescopes point at the sky. Teenager Leo Beiderman (Elijah Wood) flirts with Sarah (Leelee Sobieksi), then sees some kind of astral anomaly; Frodo snaps a phodo.

Set-Up:
A nerdy astronomer (Charles Martin Smith) examines Elijah’s pictures and guess what: It’s a humongeroid heading right for us. Alarmed, Charles jumps in a jeep with the evidence and is killed in a crash. At Minute 7: “One year later.” Meet Jenny Lerner (Tea Leoni), ambitious reporter. Tea wants to be news anchor but her boss (Laura Innes), the mother of a little girl, is holding her back. Tea meets her mom (Vanessa Redgrave) and talks about the coming re-marriage of Tea’s dad in a Stasis = Death beat. Back at work, Tea gets a tip about a government official who resigned under a cloud because of “Ellie.”

Catalyst:
Tea chases down the official (James Cromwell), thinking the tip’s about an affair. But no. When she asks him about “Ellie” he says: “It’s the biggest story in history.”

Theme Stated:
At Minute 14, James adds: “What differences does anything make anymore? I wanted to be with my family. Can you understand that?” In a roundabout way, James has touched on our theme: What are our priorities, and how should we live life?

Debate:
If “Ellie” isn’t a girl, what is it? At Minute 16, Tea is grabbed by the FBI and taken to a secret location to meet the President (Morgan Freeman). Sit on the story for two days, Morgan bargains, and Tea will get a front row seat at the press conference. Still in the dark, Tea says yes. At Minute 20, Tea uses Google (in what has replaced the microfiche-at-the-library scene) and discovers “Ellie” is “E.L.E.” an “Extinction Level Event.” Shaken, Tea meets her father (Maximilian Schell) and his new bride and is rude to both.

Break into Two:
At the White House, Tea outshines her boss and is placed front row center as Morgan announces a giant asteroid is heading toward Earth. All are scared, but calmed somewhat by Morgan’s announcement that he has a plan. At Minute 29 …

B Story:
…Morgan introduces the US/Russian astronaut team of the
Messiah
spacecraft. Led by Captain Spurgeon “Fish” Tanner (Robert Duvall), they will fly up there and blast the thing with nuclear warheads. Also watching at Minute 33 is Elijah, who learns it’s the comet he discovered and is named for him!

Fun and Games:
Believe it or not, there is fun attached to this cataclysmic situation. Elijah is put on the cover of
Newsweek
and becomes a heartthrob, but all he really wants is Leelee.
Messiah
launches as Tea is at last chosen to be news anchor. The spacecraft lands on the asteroid and despite losing a guy in the take-off, the team plants the nuclear depth charges. The nukes are detonated and
Messiah
is buffeted.

Midpoint:
At 1 Hour, A and B stories cross as Morgan goes on TV and says:
“Messiah
has failed.” We kind of knew, but the “raising of the stakes” has a scary wrinkle: The back-up plan is for 1,000,000 US citizens to be sheltered in the limestone caves beneath Missouri until the crash dust clears. Those who get saved will be chosen by lottery — and no one over 50 is on the list. Everyone else (including my gray-haired editor, BJ Markel) will perish.

Bad Guys Close In:
Internal conflict galore. Both Tea and Elijah have been selected because of their fame, but can only take their immediate families. On
Messiah
, the crew argues about what to do next. And on TV, Tea reports the chaos. She got her wish — she’s the anchor — but it’s a hollow victory. Martial Law is in effect and troops guard “The Ark,” the name for the underground city, as it’s prepped with every kind of animal and plant. It’s a little “glacial” in this section, and why BGCI is the toughest part of any script. Elijah even marries Leelee so her family can be saved. But at 1 Hour 18
Minutes, the bus comes to pick up both families — and Leelee’s isn’t on the list. Elijah must go on without her.

All Is Lost:
Elijah has lost the only girl he ever loved. And now Tea’s mother dies. Lots of “whiff of death” here. The whole world is about to end, and everyone — even onboard
Messiah
— is helpless.

Dark Night of the Soul:
Tea sits in the rain when her dad drives up. We learn his bride left to be with her mother. Now they’re both alone. “I feel like an orphan,” Tea tells Maximilian.

Break into Three:
Elijah arrives at The Ark with his parents, but leaves to find Leelee. Earth gets a last chance as Titan missiles are shot at the comet, but only succeed in chipping off a piece. Morgan goes on TV to describe how the small part of the asteroid will hit first just off the east coast, causing massive tidal waves for 600 miles inland, before the big chunk wipes out humanity. Onboard
Messiah
, A and B stories cross as Robert has an idea: a suicide mission that will destroy the big chunk!

Finale:
The aster-ette is about to hit — the moment we’ve all been waiting for! Elijah gets home and grabs a cool motorcycle to go find Leelee. Tea gives her safe passage to her boss and child; Tea has grown, and now drives to a beach house to face the end with her dad. Elijah finds Leelee and her baby sister and races to higher ground. The little comet lands in the Atlantic and a huge tidal wave builds. As
Messiah
begins its run at the bigger comet, the tidal wave swamps Tea and her father and everyone else in the lowlands. But in the end, the earth is saved from greater ruin: The big comet is destroyed.
Yay!

Final Image:
Against the backdrop of the capital building, which is being rebuilt, Morgan leads a prayer: “Let us begin.”

The pitch for this first-rate indie DWAP is “The
Blair Witch Project
meets
Jaws.”
Shot by director/writer Chris Kentis, a lot of it with a handheld camera (as was the breakthrough
Blair Witch)
, the story concerns a 30-something couple that goes skin-diving while on vacation in Mexico and promptly gets left in the middle of the ocean. Soon they are in
Jaws
-land, swarmed by an ever-circling “Nature Problem.”

Like other films that pit an ordinary man against nature or a life-threatening illness, the interesting thing about this supposed “free-form” movie is that it follows the BS2 almost beat for beat. It proves again that whether planned or not, a satisfying story demands structure. Here you will see the “Fun and Games,” the “All Is Lost,” and especially the “Dark Night of the Soul.” But what makes this film so gripping is the up close view of real live sharks — and the raw fear of what it must feel like to know your fate is sealed.

The success of the movie, however, comes with the slow reveal of its protagonists. Are they just your average modern urbanites — or something more iconic? There is an odd blankness in this couple. They blame themselves for their plight, and will battle each other as much as the sharks at times, but their isolation from life began long before they got on a plane to Mexico.

DWAP Type: Nature Problem

DWAP Cousins:
The Flight of the Phoenix; Champions; Lorenzo’s Oil; The Edge; Alive; Apollo 13; Twister; Six Days, Seven Nights; Into Thin Air: Death on Everest; The Perfect Storm

OPEN WATER

Written by
Chris Kentis

Opening Image:
Water. A vast horizon. Looking out to sea, it’s peaceful … and ominous. A man (Daniel Travis) packs for vacation. He’s on his cell phone making plans for when he gets back. We meet her (Blanchard Ryan), also on her cell.

Theme Stated:
They take a breath before they start. “This is supposed to be a vacation,” he says. Separated by their busy lives, they are about to see if a vacation can reunite them.

Set-Up:
There is an odd chemistry to this pair, and we’re never sure of their marriage status. As they leave civilization behind, they begin to unwind. Arriving in Mexico, the couple joins other tourists buying gewgaws, getting their photo snapped inside the jaws of a plastic shark, and trying to relax. It doesn’t solve their ennui. They are bored and boring. The night before they’re to go diving, they lie naked in bed. When he broaches sex, she stops him. “So how are you?” asks he. “Fine,” says she. It’s Stasis = Death for this couple and they don’t even know it.

Catalyst:
The two get on a tourist boat to go deep-sea diving. They join the others, little knowing what awaits.

Debate:
“You don’t have to worry about sharks,” says the boat owner. Is this true? A rude diver interrupts the safety talk; he forgot his swim mask, a mistake that will affect our couple.

Break into Two:
The dive begins and the couple joins others in the water, drifting far from the safety of the boat. The rude diver insists on borrowing a mask, grabs a buddy to jump in the sea, and is inadvertently counted twice when he gets back onboard. The boat
owners pull up anchor and leave. Our couple has been left behind. When they come up from their dive, they quickly realize what’s happened. They have emerged into the “upside-down world” of Act Two, far from cell phones, easy communication, and civilization — just the two of them. Thanks to their bland personalities, life continues back on shore without them.

B Story:
The first fin is spotted in Minute 31, and dude this is
really
a problem. But the real B story is about the couple’s isolation. Doing everything apart from the group — and each other — has left them alone in more ways than one.

Fun and Games:
The “promise of the premise” is now revealed as the couple treads water, the circling sharks appearing and vanishing. The two try their best to keep up their spirits, finding an “eye of the storm” by recalling favorite films and TV survival tips, but real life keeps interfering. They are attacked by jellyfish and the stinging strike is jarring. Up close in the water, every splash is a cause for panic. This is the “fun” of the concept — and its “poster.” For now, we don’t know what will happen. After several hours, the woman slowly nods off.

Midpoint:
She wakes up floating in the ocean alone. Both fell asleep and drifted apart, and now A and B stories cross as they cry out for each other and swim back together. But something has happened while she slept. She’s been bitten; the “stakes are raised.” This is serious. No more talk of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. Putting his mask on and looking under the water, he sees that she has been a victim of a shark attack.

Bad Guys Close In:
With the woman bleeding, drifting, and desperate, it’s only a matter of time. The “bad guys” are circling. The vice-like grip of this movie begins to include panicked ways
to deal with an insane situation. “I don’t know what’s worse, seeing them or not seeing them,” she says. But when he puts his mask on, peers under the ocean surface, and sees a swarm of sharks, we know. The “internal team” begins to fall apart, too. He rages against her — and their vacation: “We wanted an ocean view; boy did we get it!” “Feel better?” she says. He laments the lost opportunity for sex the night before. Arguing in the middle of the ocean, they reveal the true despair of their situation. This is a movie about sharks, but there is something in the torture between this couple rivaling
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
for raw pain.

All Is Lost:
Circling birds overhead indicate the couple’s time is running out. Nature has pegged them for chum, yet they still cling to hope. When the two spot a buoy to swim to, and even discover some food in their dive bag, things seem to be getting better. Then without warning he is struck — and bleeds profusely.

Dark Night of the Soul:
As night falls, their fate is sealed and they know it. A lightning storm highlights the two adrift, surrounded by sharks. He is attacked again and again.

Break into Three:
Next day on shore, the boat operator realizes the two did not return from the dive. In any other story, this is where the rescue boats swing into action, the wife and husband are saved and learn their lesson. But not in this movie. Back at sea, the man’s half-eaten body bobs in the chop. A and B stories cross for the last time as she lets him go and watches as sharks finish the job.