The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: True Lies

written by James Cameron


True Lies is a fascinating movie to study because it demonstrates how flexible the 3-act paradigm can be, especially in the action genre in which big, long physical sequences are essential. At first glance, it may seem that this movie violates the principles of 3-act story-telling but this is far from true. What happens here is that the paradigm is stretched into an unusual shape, especially in the first half of the movie.

Structural Analysis

  1. Hook (1 min.)
    • An intruder is under the ice at a chateau in Switzerland, where a fancy ball is underway. This is Harry, a government spy and our protagonist, who is crashing the party to download computer files.
  2. Complication (4-12 min.)
    • But a series of complications threatens his successful mission: there are guards everywhere (4 min.), a dog hears him (7 min.), a woman doesn't recognize him as a regular guest (8 min.) and finally guards are alerted that something wrong is going on (9 min.), requiring Harry to blow up a building to cover his daring escape (12 min.)
  3. Call to Action (24 min.)
    • The woman who confronted Harry (and who was swept off her feet by his tango dancing) is an important link in Omega Sector's investigation of a terrorist group, and Harry's job is to get closer to her. Even Harry's wife doesn't know he's a spy, which means all his jobs require considerable manipulation of home v. professional lives.
  4. Act One Plot Point (43-4 min.)
    • Harry decides to surprise his wife at work, asking her to lunch, in order to make up for missing his birthday party due to the new special assignment. He catches her in a romantic-sounding phone call and decides she is having an affair. This is late for the end of act one, which is justified by a ten-minute "big sequence" that precedes it (see Notes below).
  5. Midpoint Plot Point (68-72 min.)
    • The focus of the movie shifts from Harry's investigation of terrorists to his obsession with his wife's "adultery." He has her followed and discovers she is being wooed by a clown who is pretending to be a spy - and Helen is eating it up. Harry decides to match charade with charade, kidnapping her and the clown, then interrogating her. He learns Helen has missed a sense of adventure in her marriage - so Harry decides to play along and make her work as a spy for him. All this is done with Helen in an empty room, mysteriously, so the wife has no idea her husband is pulling the strings here.
  6. Act Two Plot Point (87 min.)
    • Helen's "job" is to pose as a prostitute and plant a bug in a hotel room. In the shadows, Harry calls the shots - and is surprised to see his wife strip to her underwear and do a sexy dance. Just as Harry ends the charade, the terrorists break in and take both hostage.
  7. Climax and Resolution (100-137 min.)
    • In a long series of escapes, reversals and escalations, Harry defeats the terrorists and he and Helen return to work for the Sector as a spy-team.

    Notes

    Action movies depend on "big sequences," the action-packed, visual moments usually involving chase and confrontation, and True Lies has plenty of these, plus other extended sequences of visual interest. Some of them are:
    • Harry and the antagonist-woman doing the tango (9-11 min.)
    • Harry's escape from the chateau (12-14 min.)
    • a fight that begins in a bathroom, moves to a chase with Harry on a horse after a motorcycle, finally terminating at the top of a skyscraper (30-40 min.)
    • Helen's sexy dance (82-4 min.)
    • Escape attempt from terrorists (100-110 min.)
    • Another chase, when Harry's daughter escapes with the key to the nuclear device (120-133 min.)

    These long sequences are entertaining in themselves, and they also serve to keep the action in escalation. The long 10-minute sequence before the first plot point means that Act One ends about 7 or 8 minutes later than expected - shorten the sequence, and it's right where it belongs.

    The long sequences at the end deliver a series of "false endings" - just when it looks as if Harry has saved the day, a sudden reversal escalates the action again. First, his wife is taken hostage. When he rescues her, he learns that his daughter has been kidnapped. "If it ain't one thing, it's another," and this old cliche is used to perfection here to keep the narrative drive rising to greater anxiety and jeopardy.

    There are good examples of scene efficiency here as well. When Harry decides to bug his wife, a beginning writer would include scenes of planting the bugs, listening to phone conversations, and so on. Here there is an immediate transition from deciding to plant the bugs to reading a printout of their essential information - in other words, we get right to the point.

    True Lies has a playful, witty tone, able to spoof spy movies even as it adds to the genre. And the flexibility of the paradigm, and its foundational importance, are everywhere evident here.


    MODULE 4: SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

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