To Catch a Thief - Plot Point Breakdown

To Catch a Thief (1955) isn't one of Hitchcock's most famous flicks but it's an enjoyable romantic thriller with solid performances from its two leads and an engaging enough 'who done it' plot to hold the whole thing together. There's a signature director cameo about 10 minutes in when Cary Grant gets on a bus and sits down at the back next to Mr Hitchcock.

Inciting Incident - John Robie (Cary Grant) is a retired jewel thief living in the south of France. After a string of jewel heists from hotels on the French Riviera, Robie is suspect number one and must go on the run to clear his name by catching the real thief, a professional cat burglar as skilled as Robie was. He's aided by his old gang of ex-cons, Britani, Foussard and Foussard's daughter Danielle (Brigitte Auber), who helps him escape on a boat.

Lock In - After being apprehended by French police Robie is let out due to insufficient evidence, he now has ten days to clear his name. With the help of insurance man Hughson, who provides Robie with a list of the most expensive jewels currently on the Riviera, he can second guess the real jewel thief and catch him in the act. One of these items belongs to Jessie Stevens (Jessie Royce Landis) so Robie befriends her and her beautiful daughter, Francie (Grace Kelly) under the false identity of Mr Conrad Burns, an American industrialist.

Midpoint - After a car chase around winding mountain roads where Francie and Robie elude the policemen following them, Francie reveals she knows Mr Conrad Burns is in fact John Robie the Cat. At first Francie welcomes his checkered history, but the next morning Jessie discovers her jewels are stolen, and Francie blames Robie, accusing him of using her to steal her mother's jewellery. The police are called and he is back on the lam.

Climax - To catch the new Cat burglar Robie stakes out a rich estate at night and is soon attacked. The two struggle but Robie's assailant loses his footing and falls off the cliff to his death. It was Foussard and the police publicly announce he was the new Cat responsible for the jewel heists. However Robie states this is impossible as Foussard had a wooden leg and wouldn't have been able to climb over rooftops and walls.

Resolution - At a masquerade ball conveniently attended by everyone necessary, Robie dresses in a Moor mask concealing his identity till Jessie asks him to fetch her heart pills. He complies and his voice tips off the authorities to his identity. He and Francie dance the night away, the police watching and waiting nearby. When they return to Francie's room he removes the Moor mask revealing it's Hughson, who switched with Robie to conceal his exit. Robie is waiting on the rooftops where he catches the real cat burglar - Danielle, who was working for her father Foussard, and Britani all along.

The Mistake - Short Film

This great little short from Bryan Moses is like 127 Hours for Generation Y. Exploring how far one woman will go to avoid an awkward situation it's got some great art direction towards the end and a simple idea realised well. 

Unfortunately The Mistake seems to be a direct copy of another short film from 2009 called The Morning After. Now, no idea is original and it's the sort of common premise that anyone who's ever had a one-night stand could come up with but both are decent enough shorts. The Morning After's got a few extra jokes but you could say The Mistake is more effective as it's shorter and goes for the jugular more swiftly.

The Monomyth - Star Wars & The Matrix

In Joseph Campbell's 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces' the writer establishes the journey taken by an archetypal hero in mythologies. This structure is also apparent in films and in many ways it made Campbell the original screenwriting guru. The guys over at Moon Gadget have neatly outlined how Star Wars and The Matrix both faithfully adhere to the structure of 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces'.

These films, essentially adventure stories with their heroic protagonists, are more prone to abide to the Hero's Journey due to their genre and style, however plenty of other films in less directly related genres also follow this structure, from crime films to social realist dramas. It's well worth familiarising yourself with the Hero Journey structure, as it highlights particular circumstances, challenges and changes that your protagonist can go through that will sub-consciously resonate with an audience and naturally make your story feel more complete and conclusive.

Campbell	Star Wars	The Matrix
I: Departure
The call to adventure	Princess Leia's message	"Follow the white rabbit"
Refusal of the call	Must help with the harvest	Neo won't climb out window
Supernatural aid	Obi-wan rescues Luke from sandpeople	Trinity extracts the "bug" from Neo
Crossing the first threshold	Escaping Tatooine	Neo is taken out of the Matrix for the first time
The belly of the whale	Trash compactor	Torture room
II: Initiation
The road of trials	Lightsaber practice	Sparring with Morpheus
The meeting with the goddess	Princess Leia (wears white, in earlier scripts was a "sister" of a mystic order)	The Oracle
Temptation away from the true path	Luke is tempted by the Dark Side	Cypher (the failed messiah) is tempted by the world of comfortable illusions
Atonement with the Father	Darth and Luke reconcile	Neo rescues and comes to agree (that he's The One) with his father-figure, Morpheus
Apotheosis (becoming god-like)	Luke becomes a Jedi	Neo becomes The One
The ultimate boon	Death Star destroyed	Humanity's salvation now within reach
III: Return
Refusal of the return	"Luke, come on!" Luke wants to stay to avenge Obi-Wan	Neo fights agent instead of running
The magic flight	Millennium Falcon	"Jacking in"
Rescue from without	Han saves Luke from Darth	Trinity saves Neo from agents
Crossing the return threshold	Millennium Falcon destroys pursuing TIE fighters	Neo fights Agent Smith
Master of the two worlds	Victory ceremony	Neo's declares victory over machines in final phone call
Freedom to live	Rebellion is victorious over Empire	Humans are victorious over machines
Common Mythic Elements
Two Worlds (mundane and special)	Planetside vs. The Death Star	Reality vs. The Matrix
The Mentor	Obi-Wan Kenobi	Morpheus
The Oracle	Yoda	The Oracle
The Prophecy	Luke will overthrow the Emperor	Morpheus will find (and Trinity will fall for) "The One"
Failed Hero	Biggs	In an early version of the script, Morpheus once believed that Cypher was "The One"
Wearing Enemy's Skin	Luke and Han wear stormtrooper outfits	Neo jumps into agent's skin
Shapeshifter (the Hero isn't sure if he can trust this character)	Han Solo	Cypher
Animal familiar	R2-D2, Chewbacca	N/A
Chasing a lone animal into the enchanted wood (the animal usually gets away)	Luke follows R2 into the Jundland Wastes; The Millennium Falcon follows a lone TIE fighter into range of the Death Star	Neo "follows the white rabbit" to the nightclub where he meets Trinity

Bad Lip Reading - The Amazing Spider-Man

Ruffles and Mr Peaches!

Halloween - Plot Point Breakdown

Halloween (1978) is a masterful horror film and still one of the best slasher movies ever made. From the chilling musical score to setting up Jamie Lee Curtis as the ultimate scream queen and developing the archetype of the terrorised blonde teen, it's impact can still be felt today. 

It was also one of the original horror flicks to start the trend of punishing the young who have fun. In the opening scene Micheal kills his sister directly after she's had sex with her boyfriend. Similarly, when he kills Laurie's friend Lydia and her boyfriend Bob, it's right after they've done the no pants dance. Laurie is the sole survivor, and yeah, she's a virgin. So if you wanna survive a horror movie, stay pure!

Inciting Incident - 15 years after murdering his sister on Halloween Michael Myers escapes his asylum in Smith's Grove and returns home to small town Haddonfield, Illinois, by stealing the car of his primary psychiatrist Dr Samuel Loomis.

Lock In - Michael starts stalking high-school girl Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) appearing outside her class window at school, and driving past her in the street. But when Laurie tries to warn her friends Annie and Lynda, they dismiss her concerns.

Midpoint - Michael makes his first kill. Laurie and Annie are babysitting their neighbours' kids for Halloween, Tommy Doyle and Lindsey Wallace respectively, whose houses are across the street from each other. After Annie drops off Lindsey with Laurie, she gets into her car to pick up her boyfriend, but Michael slits her throat from the back seat. Although little Tommy Doyle sees him carrying Annie's dead body back into the Wallace's house, when he tries to warn Laurie about the 'boogieman' she ignores him.

Climax - After Laurie's friend Lynda has had sex with her boyfriend, Bob, Michael murders bob and then strangles Lynda with the telephone cord, but not before Lynda can make a distressed call to Laurie. An unnerved Laurie heads over to the Wallace's house to find the bodies of Annie, Lynda and Bob. Michael slashes at Laurie but she falls down the stairs and manages to escape back to the Doyle's house. Michael pursues our heroine into the house where she manages to stab him in the neck with a knitting needle. 

Resolution - While hiding in a closet Laurie stabs Michael in the eye with an uncoiled coat hanger, making him drop his knife, which she picks up and plunges into his stomach. Thinking he's dead Laurie slumps down against the wall, but we see Michael rise to life in the background. Dr Sam Loomis arrives just in time to shoot Michael and send him falling out the bedroom window. But when Dr Loomis checks outside, Michael's body is no where to be seen.