Dispatch from The Quest: Rob Pilkington
Last week as we did here on GITS, the Quest writers focused on the subject of Time. Today’s dispatch: Rob Pilkington talks about the “Iron Man trick”:
“I like it… the beginning’s a little slow.”
I had gotten this same, frustrating note from three trusted readers on my newest script a few years ago. Notes are usually frustrating because they’re inconsistent and contradict each other. This one was because I knew it was true.
Hinging on a big twist at the end, the beginning of my script was backloaded with information that doesn’t become critical to the second half. Even worse, for a script that had a bunch of quirky action set pieces in act 2, nothing about act 1 resembled anything that said “heist,” or “caper,” or even “keep reading.”
It took a few drafts before I realized I already knew how to fix this snoozefest: by playing with time at the opening with something I’ve started to call “the Iron Man trick.”
For those not familiar with Iron Man, it opens with wisecracking’ CEO Tony Stark riding with a doomed caravan of army Humvees just before he’s captured by terrorists (this would be The Inciting Incident for you Save The Cat peeps). Then the movie flashes back and shows us the events leading up to the attack. Iron Man isn’t the first movie to do this, but it’s hard to think of another recent film that does it more effectively.
This play on time does a few different things that a straight chronological treatments wouldn’t:
It immediately capitalizes on premise. BULLETS! ROCKETS! EXPLOSIONS! Iron Man is an action adventure and without moving the Inciting Incident to the opening, we’d see neither hide nor air of anything blowing up for nearly 15 minutes. Opening scenes should be indicative of what the audience is in for, and the Iron Man trick can really help pace out the genre beats so I don’t have to stand up in the middle of theater yelling “I WAS PROMISED LASERS!” 10 minutes in (it’s only happened twice).
It helps us side with the protagonist. Stark spends the first 15 minutes of Iron Man jet-setting, drinking, womanizing, and being insanely wealthy and handsome. This sounds less like someone I can relate to and more like wow, I want to punch this guy directly in the face. Knowing that a character will face awesome challenges helps us forgive these turn-offs and enjoy the ride. And — whoaholycrap, this ride has stripper pole built right into it!?
It fosters intrigue. The Iron Man trick can be any movie’s own little dose of Memento, begging the question “How did this crazy thing happen to this seemingly normal person?” Shifting that one scene out of chronological step with the rest of the movie can be a big hook. I think the sooner you can get the audience, or a reader, wanting to know what happens, the better. Iron Man does it before the title card.
So, I ended up executing this little time trick and am really happy with the results. Still won’t be able to afford any hi-tech suits that can serve martinis while hitting mach-V, but yeah — no, the script is totally better now.
I think it’s safe to say that contemporary audiences demand entertainment right from the get-go. Time trick or otherwise, screenwriters are wise to use the first few pages of a script to grab the reader’s attention. Start the story with a bang, literal explosion or symbolically important, but always entertaining.
Tomorrow: Another Dispatch from The Quest.
About Rob: Boston writer headed for LA. Lover of Kubrick, Nolan, McDonagh, and the Coens. Okay, good talk. Back to writing. Twitter: @HeroesAreBoring. Note: Rob has moved to LA.
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