It’s been months. But a new script has joined the Scriptshadow Top 25!!!
Genre: Comedy
Premise: In 1944, a 10-year old Hitler fanatic whose only goal in life is to become the best Nazi he can possibly be, discovers a secret in his home that will challenge everything he was brought up to believe.
About: Taika Waititi is using the buzz from his Thor film to make his passion project, a comedy about Hitler.
Writer: Taika Waititi
Details: 114 pages
I was hoping Taika was going to join the Star Wars ranks and make a Yoda movie. But after reading this script, I’m glad he’s not. Well, I still want him to make a Yoda movie. But when you’ve got a script that has the potential to become an all-time classic, you put everything else aside.
And we should thank the success of Thor for allowing this to happen. I’m guessing securing funding for a comedic Hitler period piece was tough before having an 850 million dollar grossing film on your resume.
I’ve been hyping this script for the past 12 hours. Let’s find out what it’s about.
The year is 1944 and 10 year-old German, Jojo, has just joined the Hitler Youth. There’s no one who wants to kill Jews more than this guy, who lets that be known to everyone who’ll listen. It’s actually starting to freak people out. One day in Nazi class, Jojo is presented with his first chance to kill something – a rabbit – but he chickens out, which leads to him losing the respect of his classmates.
Luckily for Jojo, he’s got Hitler. Or, a 10 year old’s imaginary friend version of Hitler, a goofy jovial man who wants nothing more than for Jojo to succeed. He encourages Jojo to make an impression in his next class to show that he’s no wimp. Jojo does just that, grabbing a grenade during weapons training and throwing it at a pretend Jewish adversary. The grenade bounces off a tree, lands several feet from him, and blows up.
After Jojo’s loving and awesome mother nurses him back to health, Jojo’s bummed out to learn that he has a permanently scarred face and limp. That’s okay though, because Jojo hobbles back to Hitler Youth the second he can crawl out of bed, determined to become the best Jew-killing machine a 10 year old can be.
(spoilers) Then one day everything changes. Jojo comes home early and hears something upstairs. He runs into his sister’s old room (who died years ago from influenza) and discovers a hidden door in the wall. He opens it up to find Elsa, a 15 year old Jewish girl who, it turns out, his mother has been hiding here.
Jojo’s world is rocked. He considers telling his instructors, but learns that if anyone is found harboring Jews, they will be killed. Jojo consults Hitler about the matter and decides that this is a rare opportunity to learn about Jews. Maybe, if he can learn enough, he can pass that intel on to his instructors, win a medal, and maybe even meet the Fuhrer himself.
Elsa isn’t an easy case study though. As Jojo asks her details about the things he learned in school (Why do Jews suck blood? Where is their hive?) she sarcastically messes with him, confirming some ridiculous assumptions, exaggerating others. It’s only after awhile that he realizes she’s playing with him. And while he really really wants to to make her pay, the truth is that he’s falling in love with her.
Meanwhile, the war is coming to an end. Yet even with the threat of Germany losing, Jojo is determined to stand tall and be the best Nazi he can possibly be. That is until something unthinkable happens, something that will leave Elsa as the only person he can trust in the world. But can Jojo do that? Can he trust his life to the very person he’s dedicated his life to killing?
When we talk about scripts that REALLY stand out, they tend to meet two criteria.
1) The writer has an original voice.
2) The writer takes chances.
Which is exactly what you see in JoJo Rabbit.
“Voice,” remember, is how one sees the world. A writer with a unique voice sees things a little differently than everyone else. They’re showing us the same things we all see. They’re just doing it through a different lens. I mean, we’ve got 10 year old kids exchanging lines like, “Hey, Jews sound scary, huh?” “Yeah, I didn’t know they stole the white skins of Aryans so they could blend in. Savages!”
If Waititi would’ve depended solely on his voice, he’d still have a great script. But he takes a big chance as well. He makes Hitler a character. And not just any Hitler. An “imaginary friend” goofball version of Hitler. I’ve never seen anything like this. And it’s something that could’ve gone very wrong very fast. This is why most writers avoid taking these types of risks. They’re wild-cards that, if played a shade too light or a shade too dark, can end up being disastrous, laughable even.
Jojo Rabbit also includes a longstanding tip I harp on all the time – irony. This is a COMEDY about Nazis. No, it’s not the first time that’s been done. But that contrast – that battle going on between two things that aren’t supposed to go together – creates conflict on the page, leading to an energy you don’t get in most scripts.
It helps that the story is anchored by such a likable main character. And that wasn’t a given. Jojo says some pretty terrible things throughout this movie. But Waititi offsets that by going Screenwriter Old School and including a Save The Cat moment with the rabbit. We know when Jojo refuses to kill that cute little furry animal that he’s a good guy at heart. He’s just been brainwashed.
Then there’s Elsa. You could’ve gone so many ways with this character. Most writers would’ve made her a victim. Sad. Complaining about her miserable life. A downer. Not only is that on-the-nose, but just thinking about that version of the character makes me want to kill myself. That’s a tool more writers need to utilize. When you’re coming up with a character, ask, “How does this character make me feel?” If you’re annoyed, depressed by, or hate them, you probably shouldn’t write the character that way. Making Elsa sarcastic, having her mess with Jojo, stayed true to the spirit of the situation, but also made the character fun.
Halfway into this script, I knew that I was going to give it an “impressive.” But then came the scene that elevated it into the Top 25. **MAJOR SPOILER** If you’re going to write a Top 25 script, you need a scene that makes the reader cry. Or at the very least a moment that profoundly moves the reader. That moment came here when Jojo’s mom is not just killed. But hanged. And the reason we don’t expect it is because the entire movie has been funny. Waititi lured everyone into a sense of security. So when it happened, it hit us like a ton bricks. It was devastating. Seriously. They’re going to need to pass out kleenex boxes before the film and say, “For the 1 hour 20 minute mark.”
But here’s something important to remember for aspiring screenwriters. This shocking moment DIDN’T COME OUT OF NOWHERE. In fact, as soon as it happened, I remembered five separate SET-UPS for this payoff. That’s the thing about shocking twists. You can’t just throw them in out of nowhere or it feels like a cheat. You have to slyly set them up. And the bigger the twist is – killing off a mother late in a comedy is a humongous twist – the more you have to set it up.
Finally, I would encourage all of you to seek this script out for the dialogue alone. The dialogue is creative. The larger-than-life characters are all dialogue-friendly (particularly Hitler). There’s inherent conflict between the key characters (JoJo and Elsa) which always leads to good dialogue. The dialogue pushes the envelope at times, which is important for comedic dialogue. It’s really good stuff.
The ONLY thing that keeps this script from becoming legendary is the ending-ending. I felt like it could have had a bit more punch. Hopefully Waititi shoots a couple of endings here to see what plays best. But whatever happens, this is the kind of screenwriting we should all aspire to.
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[x] impressive ****TOP 25 SCRIPT****
[ ] genius
What I learned: Sarcasm is one of the easiest ways to add life to dialogue. Without it, you have a literal conversation. And being literal is almost always boring. For example, here’s a scene where Elsa “lets Jojo in” on Jewish secrets.
ELSA
Anyway, these days we live among normal humans but often we will take over a house and hang from the ceiling when we sleep, like bats. Oh, one interesting thing is that we can read each others’ minds.
JOJO
Everyone’s minds? What about German minds?
ELSA
No, they are too thick for us to penetrate. We can only read Jewish thoughts.
JOJO
So you’re weaker when you’re separated from your hive…
ELSA
Exactly.
That’s so much better than:
ELSA
You don’t believe this stuff do you?
JOJO
Of course. They taught it to us in school.
ELSA
Do you really think they’re going to tell you the truth about us?
JOJO
Why wouldn’t they?
ELSA
Because they want you to hate us.
It’s fine but literal dialogue is so much drier. You can’t argue that the sarcasm livens things up.
