The Screenplay: Exits and Polarity

Saying Goodbye to a character mirrors saying Hello

The Last Laugh

Courteous people, when they take their leave, always make sure to say ‘Goodbye.’ It is a courtesy to the characters in a screenplay and movie to say goodbye to them too, when they leave the frame for the last time.

In general, taking leave of characters or ‘exiting’ them, is not so important as introducing them in their first Entrance. The extended death scene of the theatrical ham has been the subject of ridicule for a few centuries now. And yet it is effective still: in current action-blockbuster-genre pictures, it is normal for the screenwriter and others in the crew to devise and stage an elaborate, particularly sadistic way for the villain to die.

Mirrors and Passages

We can look at any character’s exit as a mirror to his entrance, and this gives us a chance to consider his character arc or polarity. It is a general practice in talesmanship, to make a character’s end point as far from his beginning as possible. The miser of Act I will be the philanthropist of Act III; the prim spinster will be the open, loving woman; the villainous billionaire will end a pauper. Some of these arcs involve ‘comeuppance,’ the strategy of devising cruel paybacks for characters the audience is taught to dislike, and who represent people and institutions that the audience feel are oppressing them in their real lives.

Some of these arcs involve the common theme of ‘redemption’ in today’s movies. The hero is introduced with a flaw, the flaw arises from some past wound; before the end credits roll, the hero will have faced the old wound and begun to heal it, and made up for his flaw.

Some of these arcs involve the moral or personal progress of the characters, especially the hero. This is often the case in movies that are tales of a man, or character studies. The hero gains what he lacks. Sometimes, when the hero is anti-hero, he will pay for his hubris or other flaw.

The hero will start out low and end high, or vice-versa. He will start poor and end rich, he will start alone and end in love, he will start ordinary and end extraordinary, he will start as a fool and end as a sage.

And along with the hero, the audience will grow rich, be loved, uncommon, and wise.

In order to fix this progress in full cinematic terms, the hero’s Entrance and his Exit can be designed so as to epitomize these twin doors.

(Composed on keyboard Thursday, June 12, 2008)