GITS Script Reading & Analysis: “Panic Room” — Characters

This week we are analyzing the screenplay for the 2002 movie Panic Room.

You may access the 2000–02–23 version of the script [written by David Koepp] here.

Today we discuss the script’s characters. Here is a list of most prominent ones in order of appearance in the script:

Lydia Lynch (Realtor)

Meg

Sarah

Evan

Junior

Burnham

Raoul

Harris

Cop 1

Cop 2

Neighbor

Screenplays are unique narrative forms for many reasons, one of which, I contend, is that each character in a script should have a function. Oh, sure, depending upon the genre or circumstances in a story, you may be able to drop in a secondary or tertiary character who pretty much exists for pure entertainment value, but that is not the case with primary characters. A screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and the interplay of character functions is a critical aspect of that blueprint.

One helpful way to analyze characters is to consider them as archetypes. There are five primary character archetypes we see in movies all the time. They are:

Protagonist: The lead character, the character through whose perspective the story is told, the character who typically goes through the most significant metamorphosis.

Nemesis: Provides opposition to the Protagonist, often represents the Protagonist’s shadow, their dark impulses, tied somehow to the Protagonist’s goal.

Attractor: Characters who are most intimately tied to the Protagonist’s emotional development, often a love interest, Heart.

Mentor: Characters who are most intimately tied to the Protagonist’s intellectual development, wisdom, Head.

Trickster: Characters who test the Protagonist, switching allegiance from ally to enemy, enemy to ally, intentionally or not helping to prepare the Protagonist for their Final Struggle.

So an interesting way to approach analyzing the characters in Panic Room. (1) Cull through the above list, picking out the most important characters. These represent the story’s primary characters. Why do you think they qualify as a primary character? What about who they are and what they do elevate their status to such importance? (2) Look through the lenses of Protagonist, Nemesis, Attractor, Mentor, and Trickster to consider what the respective narrative functions are for each primary character.

If you are uncertain as to a character’s potential archetype, ask yourself this: When all is said and done, what is the most fundamental narrative function this character provides to the story? Strip the character all the way down to that core essence. It is almost always a determining factor in understanding their archetypal role in a story.

See you in replies to discuss the characters in Panic Room.

For Day 1 of our analysis, go here.

For Day 2 of our analysis focusing on structure, go here.

A behind the scenes look at the movie [Part 2]:

The last two scripts for 2011: Cloverfield [Found Footage] for December 5–9 [which you can download here] and Buried [Contained Thriller] for December 12–16 [which you can download here].

NOTE: THIS SERIES AND THE USE OF SCRIPTS IS STRICTLY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES!

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