The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: A Beautiful Mind

written by Akiva Goldsman

(based on a single theater viewing)


A Beautiful Mind is told in such a way that we are reminded that dramatic structure is about the order of events presented to the audience -- because we learn that much of the first half of the story is an hallucination! Clear and strong structure nonetheless.

Structural Analysis

  1. Hook
    • Young math grad students at Princeton are challenged to use their brains in the fight against the Soviet Union in the early Cold War.
  2. Complication
    • John Nash is a social misfit obsessed with finding an original idea for his thesis.
  3. Call to Action
    • He gets his original idea, to prove Adam Smith wrong, and writes a brilliant, orginal thesis.
  4. Act One Plot Point
    • His genius gets him secret work as a code breaker for the Department of Defense.
  5. Midpoint Plot Point
    • As the secret work becomes more dangerous than he anticipated, Nash gets more paranoid and erratic in behavior -- until he finally is institutionalized. There we learn that the story above is his hallucination -- there is no spy work for the Defense Dept! The characters we've seen are figments of his imagination.
  6. Act Two Plot Point
    • Back home, he stops taking meds and the hallucinations escalate until his wife is about to leave him and he is about to be re-institutionalized as soon as she signs the papers.
  7. Climax and Resolution
    • Nash convinces his wife not to sign so he can "cure himself" and he learns to live with his hallucinations. He goes on the win the Nobel Prize.

Notes

A Beautiful Mind shocks us with his midpoint twist because we experience the hallucinations as real, just as Nash does. A nice touch.


MODULE 4: SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

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