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How can I explain a twist, without doing it in a James Bond corny way?

posted 8 years ago by RynoII
6 replies | jump to latest

How can I explain a twist, without doing it in a James Bond corny way?
For my script, basically it's a thriller and one of the main characters, who the reader or audience, is thought to have been innocent the entire time, all of a sudden pulls out a gun, takes the protagonist hostage, and starts a sinister plan in the works.

However, the audience has no idea that she is bad up to this point, and they are going to be wondering WTF is going on, why is doing this all of a sudden?

So I am wondering how I can explain it to the audience without it coming off as a corny James Bond way. By that I mean, where the villain will hold Bond hostage and explain the entire plan to him, like Red Grant did in From Russia with Love, as well as others.

I could also not have the villain explain anything at all, and just show flashbacks. But there may be two disadvantages to doing this.

1. The main character doesn't know the reason, only the audience... If the MC hypothesizes as to why she was bad the whole time, it will just be a theory, and he will not be totally sure, if that's okay.

2. The flashbacks sort of break away from the suspense, cause the rest of the story has to be put on hold in favor of a visual recap, if that's okay. Before in the script, I described a hand with a glove on, breaking a window and unlocking the door to a house, while sneaking in. So if I show the flashback, the audience will then see that that hand, is that of the newly revealed villain, which they did not know. But could doing it that way come off as cheesy?

What do you think? The hostage taker has a reason to keep the MC alive as part of her plan to set him up and all, but I don't know if she has a reason to bother to explain WHY to him, even if out of ego.

Or I can do the flashback recap method. What do you think?

[–] Bioparadoxous 8 years ago

Sometimes I wonder if you're only here to make sure the board doesn't die off permanently.

--
There's no such thing as the establishment. Everyone knows that!

[–] thebigmouth 8 years ago

You try, fail, and get feedback about what didn't work. Then you try something different and repeat this process over and over again until you either learn from experience what does work or are forced to conclude it never will. This may be because the particular story doesn't lend itself to a twist or because you simply lack the chops to pull it off.

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[–] RynoII 8 years ago

Okay thanks. I was told that the flashback is better cause it's better to show and not tell. Do you think that's true under all circumstances though, even if it means showing a flashback, which can be kind of cheesy sometimes, or is it just me?

Another thing I could do, is do it like in the first Mission: Impossible movie, and just have the protagonist imagine what most likely happened, and we see what he is picturing, which of course is what happened. Not sure what that way is called, cause the only time I can recall that way, was in Mission: Impossible.

I can't really do it the way you suggested where the woman acts innocent I don't think, cause the protagonist knows she is not innocent, and she knows that he knows that, so why would she pretend?

[–] duplot 8 years ago

Hi,

Why not use a physical particularity ? you show a hand in a glove at some point, maybe we could see a glimpse of a tatoo on the arm, which is shown again at the time you want the revelation to occur, so the audience knows who the person is without flashbacks... You have to hide the specific mark all along to this point, though.
Just an trick which has been used, sure, but it works and allows to keep the action running without further explanations if the beginning with the mysterious character is strong enough to be remembered at the end.

My 2 cents.

[–] michaell-burris-243-954095 8 years ago

Re: How can I explain a twist, without doing it in a James Bond corny wa

Simply matter of fact narrative or with narrative like Kill Bill series. Although the Kill Bill narrative was kind of corny in a way too. Or start with matter of fact narrative leading up to the twist and go on some strange, fantastic tangent exploring the inner being that makes the character tick (delusions, convictions, passions, ire, whatever). Just throwing some ideas out there. Sin City series has some good non-corny narrative too.
Michael L. Burris
"Life is way too short not to look at the lighter side of it."

[–] CineasteWest 8 years ago

Don't mess with success. Just have her pull and gun and reveal herself as a villain. That's the most natural way that revelation would occur.