Page One: “Gravity” (2013)
Written by Alfonso Cuarón, Jonás Cuarón
The movie version of the opening:
The movie actually begins with dialogue scripted a few pages later:
MATT
Okay, let me tell you a story. It was
'96. I'd been up here 42 days. Every
time I passed over Texas, I'd look
down, knowing the second Mrs Kowalsky,
was looking up, thinking of me. Six
weeks I'm blowing kisses to that
woman. Then we land at Edwards and I
find out she'd run off with a lawyer
before I was off the launch pad, so I
packed my car and I headed to...
MISSION CONTROL
Tijuana. You've told this story,
Kowalsky. As Houston recalls, she
took off in your '74 GTO. Engineering
requests fuel status on the jet pack
prototype.
Matt smiles, checks the monitors of the sleek device
strapped to his back.
MATT
Five hours off the reservation and I
show 30% drain. My compliments to
Engineering. Except for a slight
malfunction on the nulling of the roll
axis, this jetpack is one prime piece
of thrust.An exercise in reverse engineering the logic behind that change: (A) It’s funny that we’re floating in outer space and some guy is yammering on about his failed love life. (B) Provide a sense of normalcy, relatively speaking, while floating above the Earth.
By the way, it’s one of the best pieces of analysis I have every done on my blog: A 26-minute read on Gravity, a deep dive into the small story (Ryan Stone dealing with her grief over her young daughter’s death) against the backdrop of the big story (surviving a disaster in outer space).
Page One is a daily Go Into The Story series featuring the first page of notable movie scripts from the classic era to contemporary times. Comparing them is an excellent way to study a variety of writing styles and see how professional writers start a story.
For more Page One posts, go here.
You may follow the daily conversation on Twitter as I cross-post there: @GoIntoTheStory.
