Syncopation: On the beat
So, a character’s realisation can lag behind ours and that makes us feel clever and helps us identify with/admire characters who are similarly blessed with smarts and insight, or pity those that aren’t. But what about when we and they realise things at the same time?
The cliché is that radio was about repetition, but TV is about revelation. Acting is human faces reacting. How many great moments of cinema and TV and games are moments of revelation and realisation? Where we’ve been following a character who’s been following a mystery and both they and we realise what’s been going in the same moment. Suddenly, finally, They Get It. And it’s both Surprising and Inevitable. They’ve been behind the beat the entire story until suddenly, awfully, they’re not.
This can be tragic.
Oedipus Rex. Angel Heart. Memento. The Sixth Sense. And, obviously…
Or…
They know exactly as much as we do. And they bluff it out. If they can pull this off, we will bloody love them.
I am legally obliged to point you to Phil Alden Robinson’s 1992 film Sneakers. Screenplay by Phil Alden Robinson and Lawrence Lasker here. Robert Redford runs a gang of whitehat hackers/penetration testers. They need to get him into a hotel room. A staged argument and a few props gets him past the hotel front desk. We find out about stuff at exactly the same time the character does.
I’m going to reverse the usual order and show you the clip first and then the scene as written. Because while I know that Robert Redford the actor knows his lines and know’s what’s going to happen next, I still can’t believe his character does.
So now he’s in the room. And suddenly, the occupant shows up. And he has to improvise a cover story. It’s the best radio scene I know.
And here’s what they had to work with on the page.
Making it up as you go along is a GREAT change-up for a line or action, even if that’s not the intended predicament of the character. If they have something on their mind, it’s a sign they have a mind to have something on.
Other honourable mentions:
The Coen brothers’ The Hudsucker Proxy. To get an interview with Norville (Tim Robbins), hotshot journalist Amy (Jennifer Jason Leigh) bluffs that she’s from his hometown. Screenplay here, look at Scene 35, page 58. The scene plays like this. I know that Jennifer Jason Leigh knows what happens next, but I still don’t believe it.
Forgive me, you will thank me later. If you haven’t watched Martin Brest’s 1988 Midnight Run, do so at your earliest possible opportunity. Listen to this fantastic podcast love letter to it. If you’re not already listening to the Rule Of Three podcast, I urge, I beseech you to do so. Only then may you watch this scene. Screenplay here. Charles Grodin is Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukas, a nervous nebbish wanted by the mob. Robert De Niro is Jack Walsh (most action hero name ever), a bounty hunter trying to get him back to New York in time for trial. They’re in the middle of nowhere, out of money and hungry. They have a genuine, stolen, FBI badge. There’s a bar. The Duke, usually a shy, retiring type, has an idea.
In the script it’s “Confract two”, not “litmus configuration”, and none of Grodin’s reactions are specified. These are spectacular reads.
What Can We Steal?
Write characters into tight spots and let them wriggle out of them
We admire characters who can improvise their way out of a predicament
Characters working things out in real time have a unique energy
Writers get to think of clever things for them to say and do in advance
This is cheating, but audiences don’t mind
Next time, being ahead of the beat.
