Just to be clear, this absolutely positively does not describe the plot of every good movie, and no one movie will hit every one of these points. These are beats that most movies tend to hit:

1. The First Quarter often begins with a prologue (maybe a framing sequence, or a killing, or a flashforward, or a moment of absurdity, or a self-contained interaction that represents the theme) that leaves a big question in the viewer’s mind.
2. We meet an active hero, resourcefully pursuing what they want, but ignoring what they need. Often they (or the person they’re talking to) will issue a false statement of philosophy, which will have to change later in the movie.
3. The hero’s longstanding personal problem becomes more acute, often in the form of a social humiliation.
4. The hero finds out about a scary opportunity to fix that problem.
5. After some hesitation, the opportunity becomes more and more appealing.
6. A false goal is formed (false because it’s either morally backwards, the wrong tactic, or too limited in perspective)
7. The hero commits to pursuing the opportunity the easy way.
8. Second Quarter: Very quickly, the hero’s pursuit of the opportunity causes an unforeseen conflict with another person.
9. Nevertheless the hero sticks to the easy way. Cleverly skirting the conflict (possibly telling lies, possibly just ignoring the consequences of what they’re doing).
10. One of the questions the hero is trying to ignore is the thematic question. This is a contrast of two seemingly incompatible good ideas that underlies the conflict in the story.
11. The hero enjoys some success and has some fun.
12. As Blake Snyder points out, this is source of the trailer and the poster, where the hero does the stuff that fulfills the “promise of the premise” a.k.a. the “thrill of transgression.”
13. All of this early success builds to a crescendo where it all suddenly ends in disaster. The hero loses not only the gains they’ve made but also the safe space (or safe relationship) that they’ve always had.
14. Third Quarter: The hero tries to regroup, but comes to suspect that all their assumptions were wrong, their goal was wrong, and their philosophy was wrong.
15. Things get worse before they get better, but now the hero is learning from their mistakes in a painful way.
16. The weight of the thematic dilemma becomes clear to the hero.
17. Hero finds out who their real friends and real enemies are.
18. The stakes continue to be raised and the pace increases.
19. One final hardship finally forces the hero into a spiritual crisis.
20. As a result, they realize what they’ve been doing wrong. A corrected philosophy is formed and they commit to pursuing the corrected goal. (Sometimes this moment represents the end of the original opportunity, but not the end of the conflict. Sometimes it represents the end of the interpersonal conflict and the opening of a clear, but hard, path to pursue the opportunity.)
21. Final Quarter: The hero commits to pursuing a corrected goal, which is still far away.
22. Though their philosophy is corrected, the overall thematic question remains totally up in the air until the climax.
23. All strands of the story and most of the characters come together for the climactic confrontation.
24. The exciting climax is reached, and the true goal is achieved or lost forever. (This climax makes a definite statement about the thematic dilemma, but the question is not completely settled.)
25. In the final scene (call it the epilogue, the aftermath or the denouement) the hero’s original problem is finally resolved one way or the other, as they realize (and hopefully show) how much they’ve changed.

And click here for specific genre structures!

And here’s how this stacks up against the structures put forward by other storytelling gurus, as well as thinkers in other fields who have tried to figure out the structure of a problem. (If you’re an old person with terrible eyesight, you may want to click to enlarge...)

Thrillers (and many dramas and comedies):We all have two twin impulses: We want our lives to be easier but we also want those who have it easy to be punished. When we go see thrillers, we get to enjoy both impulses: we get to feel the vicariously thrill of watching someone transgress society’s rules and get away with it, for a while, then we get to switch gears and enjoy righteous indignation as we see that same character get punished for the transgression. In the end, we get to get to feel genuine admiration as the character embraces hard work (like we have) and achieves honest success.

1. Dissatisfaction
2. Temptation
3. Transgression Enjoyed
4. Transgression Punished
5. Consequences Accepted
6. Honest Success Attempted

1. Loneliness or dissatisfaction intensifies
2. Meet appealing but problematic love interest (connection is established in an “I understand you” moment)
3. Win love interest by means of a trick or mask.
4. Masked removed, followed by rejection
5. Become a better person
6. Attempt to win love interest honestly

1. Pride causes dissatisfaction
2. Ambition is ignited
3. Success achieved with allies
4. More success achieved by betraying allies
5. Empty victory or humiliating defeat
6. Realization of folly too late

I know I said that this would be the last one, and it is, but tomorrow, as a weekend bonus, I’ll cut and paste four structure entries together to form one entry, for easy linking…

1. The hero commits to pursuing a corrected goal, which is still far away.
2. Though their philosophy is corrected, the overall thematic question remains totally up in the air until the climax.
3. All strands of the story and most of the characters come together for the climactic confrontation.
4. The exciting climax is reached, and the true goal is achieved or lost forever. (This climax makes a definite statement about the thematic dilemma, but the question is not completely settled.)
5. In the final scene (call it the epilogue, the aftermath or the denouement) the hero’s original problem is finally resolved one way or the other, as they realize (and hopefully show) how much they’ve changed.

But wait, we’re not done! Tomorrow I’ll look at variations of this structure that are used for specific genres... Then we’re done, I promise, and I’ll never mention structure again!

1. The hero tries to regroup, but comes to suspect that all their assumptions were wrong, their goal was wrong, and their philosophy was wrong.
2. Things get worse before they get better, but now the hero is learning from their mistakes in a painful way.
3. The weight of the thematic dilemma becomes clear to the hero.
4. Hero finds out who their real friends and real enemies are.
5. The stakes continue to be raised and the pace increases.
6. One final hardship finally forces the hero into a spiritual crisis.
7. As a result, they realize what they’ve been doing wrong. A corrected philosophy is formed and they commit to pursuing the corrected goal. (Sometimes this moment represents the end of the original opportunity, but not the end of the conflict. Sometimes it represents the end of the interpersonal conflict and the opening of a clear, but hard, path to pursue the opportunity.)

1. Very quickly, the hero’s pursuit of the opportunity causes an unforeseen conflict with another person.
2. Nevertheless the hero sticks to the easy way. Cleverly skirting the conflict (possibly telling lies, possibly just ignoring the consequences of what they’re doing).
3. One of the questions the hero is trying to ignore is the thematic question. This is a contrast of two seemingly incompatible good ideas that underlies the conflict in the story.
4. The hero enjoys some success and has some fun.
5. As Blake Snyder points out, this is source of the trailer and the poster, where the hero does the stuff that fulfills the “promise of the premise” a.k.a. the “thrill of transgression.”
6. All of this early success builds to a crescendo where it all suddenly ends in disaster. The hero loses not only the gains they’ve made but also the safe space (or safe relationship) that they’ve always had.

Just to be clear, this absolutely positively does not describe the plot of every good movie, and no one movie will hit every one of these points. These are beats that most movies tend to hit. Here’s the first quarter:

1. A prologue (maybe a framing sequence, or a killing, or a flashforward, or a moment of absurdity...) leaves a big question in the viewer’s mind...
2. Then we meet an active hero, resourcefully pursuing what they want, but ignoring what they need. Often they (or the person they’re talking to) will issue a false statement of philosophy, which will have to change later in the movie.
3. The hero’s longstanding personal problem becomes more acute, often in the form of an overly harsh social humiliation.
4. The hero finds out about a scary opportunity to fix that problem.
5. After some hesitation, the opportunity becomes more and more appealing.
6. Consciously or unconsciously, a false goal is formed in the hero’s mind. (False because it’s either morally backwards, the wrong tactic, or too limited in perspective.)
7. The hero commits to pursuing the opportunity, as long as they can do it the easy way...

Come back tomorrow for the second quarter. (Don’t worry, when the whole thing’s done, I’ll create a one page version for easy linking)