I was just going to make this a White Lotus post but I can’t ignore a record-setting weekend at the box office when we don’t get many of those anymore. Minecraft made 160 million dollars over the weekend, making it the biggest video game adaptation opening ever. That’s impressive.
So why did it happen? Here’s my theory. For the longest time, video game adaptations, like Doom and Assassin’s Creed, were competing for time from an audience who, historically, prioritized MOVIES over VIDEO GAMES. So, they always liked movies that were MOVIES.
But Minecraft is coming out at a time when the first generation that grew up priortizing VIDEO GAMES over MOVIES is now going to the movies. You can see that in the audience makeup. These are all kids at the showings. Kids who would rather play Minecraft than watch Star Wars. That generation is going to be a lot more open to video game adaptations.
So, I think what you’re going to see is a lot more video game adaptations and they’re going to do a lot better than video game adaptations of the past. Movies, meanwhile, are going to have to figure out how to compete with this. The simple answer is write better scripts and make better movies. But people don’t have a lot of confidence in that formula these days.
By the way, random fact I found out. The Minecraft movie was put together by the old Napolean Dynamite team. These guys actually have a unique voice. They’re not your average studio directing team. That probably had a big influence on the movie’s success as well.
Okay, onto the big show.
What we’ve all been waiting for.
The 90-minute White Lotus finale. Was it everything I was hoping for and a thousand things more?
Cause this show really rallied in the Scriptshadow household. After that silly snake-show episode, I was worried big time about the season. But it built its story back brick by brick and clawed its way up to the quality of the first two seasons.
Still, it needed to land the plane.
Did it?
Let’s just say this. Word was that the finale was bonkers. That was 100% verified tonight. IT. WAS. BONKERS.
****SPOILERRRRSSSSS****
There were some whopper climaxes here, none whoppier than what will forever be known as the White Lotus Empire Strikes Back moment. We’ll get back to that.
But let’s start with how Mike White subverted his climaxes. He gave you what you thought were climaxes. Then, right when you were about to wrap your arms around them, he pulled them back and gave you the real climax.
There was the secret family suicide pact that only Father Ratfliff knew about. White made us think that the whole family was going down. Then, at the last second, the dad changed his mind. The family was spared. Or so we thought. We are then horrified to see Lochlan fix a smoothie the next day, realizing that he’s going to ingest the last of the poison and die.
Another great climax subversion occurs with Rick Hatchett. We thought we finally got the conclusion to his life-long search for his father’s murderer last episode, only to learn, this episode, from resort owner Jim Hollinger, that the angelic portrait that Rick’s mom painted of his father was a complete lie and that his father was a terrible person. This reignites Rick’s desire to kill Jim, and a second storyline climax is on.
The reason these climaxes were so impressive is because the majority of screenwriters give you the climax you expect. There are tiny surprises along the way but we pretty much know what’s going to happen. Mike White faking a pass to us before he goes in for the dunk is what separates him from everyone else.
I can’t emphasize enough that Mike White does not have anything to work with here besides characters. He doesn’t have superheroes. He doesn’t have superpowers. He doesn’t have magic, or giant lizards, or the Force, or time-travel, or any of the things that other writers have access to to mesmerize audiences.
He just has characters and he’s so good at utilizing those characters in dramatic ways that nearly every scenario he creates is compelling.
If Mike White did have a superpower, I’d say it was setups and payoffs. I mean who would’ve thought that Saxon annoyingly ordering a blender from Amazon in the first episode so that he could meet his protein quota on vacation, would turn out to have such a giant influence on the finale? That’s what good setting up and paying off does.
And hey, did anyone read that article I posted on Friday? The one about how much bang for your buck you can get using ANTICIPATION as a screenwriting tool? I think Mike White might have. Cause the first half of this episode was driven by a succelent anticipation narrative – that the dad was planning to kill his family.
Once we see Timothy learn about the poisonous fruit growing nearby and we see him put two and two together with that blender, we know it’s going to be lights out for this family soon. And the great thing about this particular use of anticipation is that when you make it this powerful – as I said in the article, ramp up the stakes as much as you can for maximum impact – it not only drives THAT storyline, it drives the surrounding storylines as well.
Every time we cut to a different set of characters, we have this excitement/dread brewing in the back of our minds regarding what’s going to happen to the Ratliff family.
But there’s one scene that really represents Mike White’s talents as a screenwriter. And it’s not the best scene in the episode. It’s not even in the top 8 scenes. But it shows that you can do some powerful things with just three people and dialogue.
The scene occurs early in the episode, when Daddy Ratliff (Timothy), Mommy Ratliff (Victoria), and their daughter, Piper, are having breakfast after Piper has spent a “test” night at the monastery she’s hoping her parents will let her attend next year.
In fact, this is the whole reason the Ratliffs are here in Thailand. Piper tricked them, saying she was going to do an interview with the head monk, then revealed her bait and switch once they were there – She wants to live here for a whole year next year.
When Victoria learns this, she is mortified. Victoria is the typical Beverly Hills trophy wife who has grown dependent on the finer things. To think of her daughter stuck in this bare-bones smelly sweatshop of a monastery for a year is her worst nightmare. She wants Piper going to college, then going to grad school, then marrying a rich man, and living the same life she lives.
So Victoria allowed Piper to spend one night at the monastery hoping it would rattle her and make her want to stay in the U.S. So Piper spends the night there. It is indeed dirty and sparse and the food sucks and there’s no air-conditioning. And the scene in question happens the next morning at breakfast between Piper, Timothy and Victoria.
In the scene, Piper breaks down in tears, coming to terms with the fact that she is dependent on the finer things in life. That she isn’t capable of slumming it. And she hates herself for it but it’s also something she realizes is her truth.
Meanwhile, Victoria is absolutely ecstatic. It takes everything within her power not to stand up and start dancing. She’s so happy that her daughter is seeing the light.
Cut over to Timothy and he’s going through a completely different experience. By hearing that, like his wife, his daughter cannot live a life without the finer things, that means that he’s going to have to kill her in his suicide plan as well.
For those who haven’t watched the show, Timothy learned at the beginning of the vacation that his entire empire back in the U.S. is crumbling and that when he gets back, he’ll be sent to prison and lose every penny he has. Knowing that his family members cannot live that life, he is sparing them by taking them with him when he kills himself.
The power of this scene is that three characters are having three very different experiences despite all of them being at the same table discussing the same thing. One is crushed that she’s not who she thought she was. Another is ecstatic that her daughter isn’t going to ruin her life. And the third is devastated to learn that he now must include killing his daughter along with his wife and son.
Most of the three-person dialogue scenes I read in scripts are on-the-nose. There is no depth to the conversation. Characters are not experiencing different things. It’s all very straight-forward.
But here, White stragetically uses setups within his storylines so that he can create these rich multi-layered dialogue scenes.
So, I’m sure you’re all wondering, “What do I think about the “He is your father” moment? I think Mike White went too far. He obviously knew that if Scot Glen said the line (“I am your father”) he’d be crucified, so he wisely moved the line over to the wife. But I’m just not sure it works.
The success of these revelations depends on the audience having a certain amount of information. We had the perfect amount of information and not a line more for Darth Vader’s revelation in The Empire Strikes Back. But here, I feel like we were a good paragraph or two short of the amount of information we needed for this reveal to work. I just didn’t know enough about Rick’s father to care that this other guy ended up being his father.
This is actually one of the downsides of having such a successful show. You can’t test moments like this out like you could before. And I suspect that White wanting to keep this moment a surprise prevented him from seeking feedback and being able to gorge the reveal with the fuel it needed to shine.
But it didn’t bother me. The episode was jam-packed with excitement. It was never boring. If I had to rank them, I would say that this is the best final episode of the series. Season 1 was incredibly strong. But the sheer magnitude of everything going on here gave it the edge.
Another giant win for Mike White. This show has become my Super Bowl of Screenwriting Celebration and, therefore, I’m really depressed that it’s over. Is it confirmed that he’s making a Season 4? I know it’s assumed. But is it CONFIRMED?? Do we have linked quotes somewhere of Mike White saying, “Yes, I’m doing a 4th season?” God, I hope so. A world without The White Lotus is a much emptier world!
[ ] What the hell did I just watch?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the stream
[xx] impressive
[ ] genius
