Snatched

Posted on May 26, 2009 | by admin

Genre: Thriller
Premise: A father takes a man he beleives is his daughter’s abductor for a little ride.
About: Snatched is a 2008 Nicholl winner.
Writer: Lee Patterson


I’ve covered a lot of scripts here on Scriptshadow. I’ve given you million dollar sales. I’ve given you Black List scripts. I’ve given you adaptations and reviews where I haven’t even read the script (clickhere for reference). But one script I haven’t given you is a Nicholl winner. For writers millions of miles away from Hollywood, winning a screenplay competition is their best bet at getting noticed. So I thought I’d show you exactly what a Nicholl-winning script looks like. Here is my review of Snatched.

You know Snatched has it going on after only a few pages. We learn that a young girl has gone missing. Her grade school teacher, Lewis, is devastated, as is everyone in the community. They all fear the worst. At the end of the school day a mysterious man, Jack, introduces himself to Lewis. Jack is the father of the missing girl and he’d simply like to talk to Lewis for a few minutes. For 15 pages, the two walk through the school, through Lewis’s classroom, vaguely discussing their personal ways of dealing with this horrible tragedy. But the genius of this scene is that everything that’s being said is secondary to everything that’s not being said.

Remember the scene in The Fugitive when Ford starts to realize that the cops aren’t asking him what he knows? They’re accusing him of killing his wife. Lewis realizes that there’s something similar going on here. So he makes up an excuse for having to leave early and ends the meeting with Jack. But when Lewis gets to his car, his tire is mysteriously flat. How convenient it is then, that he’s offered a ride by the passing Jack? Of course Lewis is hesitant, but Jack gives him a poor sob story that makes Lewis question whether he misread their earlier conversation. So he gets in the car. And Snatched begins.

We find out that Jack’s done his own investigation and he already knows who the kidnapper is. But there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Is Lewis, the most mild-mannered teacher in the history of grade school, the kidnapper? And if he is, is Jack’s daughter still alive? Can she be saved? It’s a smart decision by Patterson because it keeps Jack from wasting Lewis right then and there. Whether Lewis is the kidnapper/killer or not, he knows that that question is the only thing keeping him alive.

We’ve seen these vigalante justice scripts before. The damn things are becoming their own genre for Christ’s sake. But this one gets it right. If you enjoyed Prisoners (sadly, no longer in my Top 25), I can pretty much guarantee you’ll like Snatched.

There are a few areas I took issue with. There’s a scene where Lewis gets away and Jack must drive through a mall parking lot to find him in a high stakes game of hide-and-seek. I understand that in theory this might work. But you ask the audience to make a huge leap of faith when your “protagonist” gets into a heavily populated area and your “bad guy” throws all logical thinking out the window and chases him anyway. Obviously, you gotta change things up when 80% of your script takes place in a car. But this was a moment where I thought, even a crazy person would’ve cut his losses and left.

***MAJOR SPOILER!***
The biggest issue I had with the script, however, was that in end, we’re subjected to the old tape recorder trick. The one where the good guy is secretly recording the killer’s confession and then proudly shows him that “AH-HA! I WAS RECORDING YOU ALL ALONG!” I’m actually kind of baffled that writers still use this as it’s literally been used 10 billion times – 9 billion of those on 90210 and Melrose Place. Then again, what do I know? The Inside Man, one of the biggest heist flicks of all time, and Michael Clayton, a movie that was nominated for an academy award, both used the “tape recorder trick”. Maybe it’s me who’s the dummy for not using it.

Both of these were minor issues compared to what was otherwise a solid script. I think you guys will like this one. Check it out.

[ ] trash
[ ] barely kept my interest
[ ] worth the read
[x] impressive
[ ] genius

What I learned: The power of subtext! Conversations are always more interesting when what people say and what they actually mean are two different things. The first fifteen pages of Snatched are a mastercourse in this technique. Pay attention to how the most innocent line can have a multitude of meanings when you realize that Jack is probing Lewis for information.

Posted in Impressive, Thriller
  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/07738248499724228441 y8lotus

    Does it mean you’ve gotten your hands on the Star Trek script since it’s no longer on your “Need” list??? If so, that is something I’d love to read if it’s possible!

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/13868933997157762707 Carson

    Haha. Sorry but no. You’re the 10th person to ask me that. I just gave up on it. Everybody’s saying it’s not out there. And I wasn’t going to review it anyway so I took it off.

  • Ryan (Biohazard)

    Prisoners is still in your top 25…

  • Anonymous

    TOUCH OF EVIL Orson Welles. First time I saw the trick “tape recorder ending”.

    As for SNATCHED, your thoughts pretty much mirror mine. Once you take them out of the confined space, the script sags.

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/13868933997157762707 Carson

    Oops, Prisoners is in my Top 25. I need to do better research on myself.

  • Anonymous

    Why did the author request you take the script down? Yes I know you did it without permission but it isn’t like the script is full of ideas we’ve never seen before. Oh well, different strokes for different folks. Your site still rules Carson. To me this site is Educational for would be struggling writers to make it in the biz. You would think writers who have cracked through would be willing to cut you some slack to let the struggling writers know how they done it.

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/06872780969179149381 martinb

    I’m sorry I missed SNATCHED. PRISONERS was excellent.

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/04936856281000888335 Alex F.

    I started this script like 3 times. I managed to make it to page 30 and just gave up. I just didn’t care. The writing itself seemed solid, but I just couldn’t get into it. Honestly I kept waiting for them to get out of the cab, as I’d figured he would take Lewis somewhere to torture him for info, but I see that wasn’t the case. You know what though, I didn’t love Prisoners either. I usually don’t care for vigilante movies, but the irony here is that I’m working on one now.

    Btw, great site!

  • Anonymous

    The prose here was well done, I thought. Efficient and even elegant action descriptions. I didn’t care for the dialogue, particularly towards the end where it became on-the-nose at times.

    The big issue for me was the character of the grieving father, Jack. He was written too much like a sharp-tongued movie-badass-villain. I would have been much more engaged if he was written as a more vulnerable, less diabolical guy. If he HATED what he had to do to get answers and closure. The character came off as a guy who’s become sadistic and finds pleasure in carrying out his machinations, which lacks dimension, as opposed to being an average man forced and compelled to do sadistic things, wrangling with his limits as he pushes them.

    Overall, at least it was better than BUTTER!

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/13868933997157762707 Carson

    I’ve been trying to get a friend to review Butter on the site for a month now. I’m still holding out hope.

    Earlier Anon, I agree completely. The scripts are being shared for educational purposes and since only about 10% of the people who visit the site actually download the scripts, it’s hard to argue that they’re cutting into the box office or affecting the film’s success in any way. Also, a couple of years ago, we reached a point where it became impossible to keep a film’s plot/story secret. If someone wants to know what happens in any future film, it’s a google search away. I think Cloverfield was the last one where nobody knew anything until the trailer hit.

    But that’s my opinion and other writers have their own opinions. One of the opinions I understand is that sometimes a draft gets out that was only meant to be seen by a manager or agent for feedback. The writer is uncomfortable being judged on incomplete work. However, because we live in this world where you can’t control which script gets out, I suggest that if it’s a “for notes” draft, that it should be indicated as so on the Title Page. When I have my first million dollar sale (or if I’ve already had it :) anybody who wants the script I’ll send it to them personally. You’re helping other writers out by giving them this valuable tool.

  • Anonymous

    I read it before you took it down. Well-written, fast read, but Gawd what a depressing script. I also agree about the turn the protag Jack seemed to make, esp when he dealt with the fiancee, Holly?, can’t remember the name. I almost stopped rooting for him, it almost looked like he was the killer, which is what the author intended I think? To make me not sure who killed her or if either of them did I guess but it was very evident in the way things unfolded how this one would be resolved. But as you mentioned Carson, the subtext in Act 1 was powerful and chilling, and I didn’t have any problem staying riveted to this one all the way through. Thanks for posting it the short time you did. I did learn a lot from that script as I have from every one I’ve read. Like everyone has said, great site!

  • Anonymous

    JJ Says

    Hey Carson

    In keeping with your last comment–I believe it was Dashiell Hammett who said something like, “There IS a great library of screenplays which establishes scripts as an art form and validates the talents of their authors, it’s just the studios won’t let anybody read any of it.”

    Thanks for making more screenplays available for EVERYONE to read them, which is really the way it should be, and helping them get a little bit of the respect they deserve.

  • Anonymous

    Isn’t it time for our next script of the month, when readers review a particular script and comment on it.

    When will we get the script, and when will comments be due?

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/08439555051697115476 Carson Reeves

    Yes it is! Friday morning.

  • Anonymous

    Didn’t the author of this script used to trade in scripts himself? WTF

  • Lee Patterson

    Heh… Can’t please all the people all the time. Glad you enjoyed the read though, Carson.

    Re: the script being pulled from the site. The request actually came from one of my reps who, despite my being a frequent reader of the blog, came across the post before me and emailed Carson about it (what can I say, they’re on the ball).

    Still, had they not requested it I likely would’ve. While I enjoy the blog a great deal, and appreciate Carson’s intentions, the truth of the matter is that there’s a big difference between a script being passed between acquaintances via email and a script being readily available to anyone possessing the ability to Google search.

    The draft floating around is an older one, though still very representative of the current draft. It’s a script that hasn’t been sold, that isn’t yet on its way to being a movie, and that still belongs 100% to me. It’s mine. Just like the scripts in your top drawer are yours.

    It’s a difficult project, and one that I’m trying to get made right. And the truth of the matter is that if there’s even the slightest possibility that an old draft being posted on the internet would make the extraordinarily difficult task of selling it, or the near impossible task of getting it made, even 1% more difficult, then I feel it justifies any selfishness in my asking for it to be taken down. Whether you agree or not, I hope you can at least understand that.

    Lee.

    (Who liked BUTTER quite a bit and who bores no easier than when writing the ‘Average Man’.)

  • Anonymous

    Quite honestly, back at the DD board it was passed around and you also asked people not to, whixh is to say that you also asked for people not to trade it via e-mail.

    Yes, you’re right, it’s yours, Period.

    And completely understandable.

    Still we’re all human. And it’s a quite human characteristic to be a hippocrite.

    You didn’t seem to have any kind of problems at all in passing around other writers’ scripts.

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  • Anonymous

    Could someone please send me this one? Id love to read it! Dont know how I missed it.
    Thanks,
    Sara :)

    koooop@aol.com

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