96 pages down!
That means you should be in the heart of your climax.
A lot of people have issues with climaxes (insert joke here) but I find them to be one of the easier sequences in a screenplay.
The trick is to treat the climax like its own movie.
It’s a shorter movie. But it should have a first, a second, and a third act. It should have a midpoint. It should have a lowest point.
Usually, when climaxes fall apart, it’s because they don’t have any structure. So by thinking of them as their own movie, you should be in good shape.
Start with the setup. Let us know the rules of the climax.
For Parasite, the rules were the rich son’s party. “Here’s how it’s going to go. Poor Father, you’re going to dress up like a Native American and then jump out and surprise my son when I give you the cue… blah blah blah.”
The reason you want to set up the rules of your climax for the audience is because, then, you can upend those rules. You can have things go wrong. If you don’t set up what first needs to be done right, then the audience isn’t going to know when you start undermining the plan.
So whether it’s our cowboy hero prepping everyone in town for how they’re going to beat the gang of bad guys when they arrive or it’s Vin Diesel explaining to his crew how they’re going to pull off their heist – you’re explaining to the audience what’s SUPPOSED to happen so you can then play around with what ACTUALLY happens.
And like I pointed out yesterday in the comments, your climax will have a “Lowest Point” as well, just like the end of your Second Act had a “Lowest Point.”
If there isn’t a moment in the climax where we are 100% CONVINCED that our hero is going to fail, you haven’t properly written your climax.
I would go so far as to say have something happen in that climax where NOT EVEN YOU THE WRITER knows how you’re going to get your hero out of it. That’s the only way you’ll convince the audience that your hero’s going to lose.
In Toy Story 3’s climax, which I’d heard in advance was dark and the last Toy Story, I legitimately thought they were going to perish in that incinerator. And that was a Pixar film! If a Pixar film can make me think the characters are going to die, you should be able to do the same in your script.
And from there you have to be creative and come up with a way where they figure it out. Deus ex machinas are not encouraged unless they were extremely well set-up (yes, I know Toy Story 3 uses a deus ex machina). Try to come up with a clever way for your characters to save themselves rather than be saved. But yes, if you’re a master at setups and payoffs, you can construct a deus ex machina for your climax.
After that, don’t stick around too long. I prefer the Rocky approach (just end it) to the Parasite approach (too much epiloguing distances the audience from the feeling they had during the climax). But each story is unique and has its own requirements so do what feels right for you.
Very excited for everyone who stayed with the challenge. Just one more day of writing!
