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In "The Mothman Prophecies" (
http://www.fhm.com/themothman/index2.html), the collapse of
the bridge overlooking the Ohio River serves as the main prophecy in the screenplay and functions as the climax of the story. |
This incident is also the focus of the story, during the progression of which, the
protagonist--John Klein (Richard Gere)--is given hints by a supernatural entity known as the Mothman that the residents of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, will be involved in a "great
tragedy." |
Klein, a Washington Post reporter, ends up in the town of Point Pleasant as a result of the
death of his wife, Mary (Debra Messing). It is her death that is the inciting incident of the story and the beginning of the
cause-and-effect chain of events leading to the collapse of the bridge there. |
After Mary is injured in a car accident, doctors find that she has a brain tumor. She dies a
short time later, leaving behind a notebook of drawings depicting the Mothman, a being she saw during her accident. |
To avoid dishonoring Mary's memory by going on a date set up by his friend, Klein leaves
Washington, D.C., early for a business trip. Inexplicably, he ends up in Point Pleasant, WV, hundreds of miles away from his chosen destination. |
He finds that he has traveled a long distance by car in an impossibly short amount of time. So,
he uses his skills as a journalist to investigate this strange phenomenon. |
During his investigation, he discovers that the residents of Point Pleasant are haunted by the
supernatural Mothman, the very being depicted in his late wife's drawings. |
He also falls in love with Connie Parker (Laura Linney), a woman police sergeant in Point
Pleasant who assists him in his investigation of the Mothman. |
During the climactic scene, the collapse of the Point Pleasant bridge, residents waiting in
their cars on the bridge start to plunge to their deaths. |
John Klein risks his life to save them and Connie, the woman police sergeant, who is in her
police SUV on the bridge. |
In this way, he tries to thwart the Mothman's prophecies of death and to renew his faith in
life by preventing Connie's death--something he couldn't do for his wife, Mary. |
So, we see that all scenes in "The Mothman Prophecies" revolve around the climax, the
collapse of the bridge. This climax gives the story a razor-sharp focus, revealing the motivation for John Klein's actions. In this way,
character and plot become inseparable. |
When structuring a screenplay, writers should use this film as a guide. By doing so, they can
learn how to create a story whose scenes are part of a cause-and-effect chain of events leading to a climax. |
The result will be a solid, tension filled screenplay. |
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