Script Analysis: “The Imitation Game” — Part 1: Scene By Scene Breakdown

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule:

Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
Tuesday: Major Plot Points
Wednesday: Sequences
Thursday: Psychological Journey
Friday: Takeaways

Today: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown. Here is my take on this exercise from a previous series of posts — How To Read A Screenplay:

After a first pass, it’s time to crack open the script for a deeper analysis and you can do that by creating a scene-by-scene breakdown. It is precisely what it sounds like: A list of all the scenes in the script accompanied by a brief description of the events that transpire.

For purposes of this exercise, I have a slightly different take on scene. Here I am looking not just for individual scenes per se, but a scene or set of scenes that comprise one event or a continuous piece of action. Admittedly this is subjective and there is no right or wrong, the point is simply to break down the script into a series of parts which you then can use dig into the script’s structure and themes.

The value of this exercise:

* We pare down the story to its most constituent parts: Scenes.

* By doing this, we consciously explore the structure of the narrative.

* A scene-by-scene breakdown creates a foundation for even deeper analysis of the story.

This week: The Imitation Game (2014). You may download the script here.

Screenplay by Graham Moore, book by Andrew Hodges.

IMDb plot summary: During World War II, mathematician Alan Turing tries to crack the enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians.

THE IMITATION GAME
Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
Written by Sean Sauber
GoIntoTheStory.com

1–2: It is 1951 and Alan Turing is being interviewed by a constable of the Manchester police. Turing’s home has been broken into and trashed. The debris contains everything from paper with complex math equations to the actual Turing machine. Turing is taking charge of his own interview and demanding the constable take down the entire story without judgment. The constables radio the crime into headquarters and the signal is intercepted by MI-6, British Secret Intelligence Services. It reaches the head of MI-6 = Stewart Menzies.

3–7: Detective Nock finds his way the crime scene and has his first encounter with Turing — who is sweeping up a white powder — cyanide. Turing continues his “smarter than everybody the world” routine as he informs Nock he had “hoped for a bit more.” But Turing follows it up when he busts the detective. Nock was awake with a colicky child but was celebrating a win by the local football team. Turing further berates the constables by letting them know they could not catch who broke into his house if the culprit came up and spat in their face. We learn that Turing did not report the burglary — his neighbor did. And with that Turing asks the police to leave. Detective Nock is suspicious about being sent off and concludes that Turing must be hiding something.

7- 8: 1939 — Turing appears emotionally detached as he makes his way through the platform filled with families saying goodbye to their children. They are being sent to safety as war is breaking out. We get a glimmer of empathy as Turing spots one of the children completely engrossed in a puzzle, seeming detached from the chaos around him. Turing takes his train to Bletchley Village and the Bletchley Radio Manufacturing company — the cover for the top secret project he is about to join.

8–13: Turing meets is soon-to-be boss Royal Navy Commander Denniston. Denniston is Royal Navy all the way and not used to verbally sparring with “the best mathematician in the world.” When Turing admits he does not speak German and likes puzzles — Denniston is ready to throw him out, Just as he has done with some of the other great minds of the nation who applied for this work. But as soon as Turing says “Enigma” Denniston is stopped cold and the conversation takes on new meaning. Turing convinces Denniston that Enigma is indeed a puzzle and a problem that Turing can solve.

13–17: Denniston introduces his new team to the Enigma machine and each other — Hugh Alexander, John Cairncross, Peter Hilton, Keith Furman, and Charles Richards. Watching all of this his Stewart Menzies — head of MI-6. As they come to grips with the scope of the problem — the Enigma machine has 159 with 18 zeros after it possibilities, and is refreshed every 24 hours — Turing comes to grips with the possibility he may not be the smartest man in the room. Hugh Alexander is two time British chess champion — and the appointed head of the team. Team is not a part of Turing’s vocabulary and declares he needs his own space as the others “will only slow me down.” With this comment Turing and the others meet Menzies for the first time. Menzies makes it clear they must work as a team because as they are now speaking three additional men have died. They are losing the war and time is not on their side. They get to work.

17–20: 1927 and Turing is 15 while attending the Sherborne School for Boys. Turing is a loner and obsessive about “peas and carrots cannot touch,” green and orange. This makes him a prime target for bullies. Not only does he get the mixed vegetables dumped on him but he ends up buried under the floorboards of a half finished classroom. He tries to save himself with his superior intellect, explaining to the that he will steal the satisfaction of his captors by not screaming or showing fear. 16 year old Christopher Morcom comes to his rescue by removing the boards and pulling him out. As they walk away Turing displays in lack of comprehension of his situation, and arrogance, but saying they do this because he is smarter than the others. Christopher is clearly not only a friend but a mentor to Turing, as he explains it is because Turing is different that they bully him. Morcom encourages Turing to embrace being different telling him “Sometime it is the very people who no one imagines anything of who do things no one can imagine.”

20–23: Back in 1951 with Detective Nock and Sgt Staehl who we investigating the break in at Turing’s home. Nock has made a call to get Turing’s military records and is told they are classified. Nock and Staehl leave HQ and as they are walking, Nock punched Staehl, takes off running. He makes a turn and runs down an “innocent bystander.” Sgt. Staehl catches up, punches returns the favor of punching Nock. Then Nock shows him the wallet he lifted from the man he ran into. It is full of information on Nock. They learn from a letter in the wallet that Nock is being followed on orders of the Foreign Office. Nock uses the letter to forge an order for Turing’s military records.

24–29: A rapid fire sequence with VO from Turing as he narrates the flow of secret message from German spy-plane to German submarine. The message results in the sinking of a British merchant ship. In parallel with this sequence is what occurs at Bletchley Park when they intercept the same secret message. It is an exercise in futility as the team of 4 cryptographers attempt to decode thousands of messages where each letter has 159 million million million possible codes due to the Enigma machine. As the message is brought to Hut 8, the workplace of the Hugh Alexander’s team it is lunch time. John Caircross attempts to invite Turing but Turing is obtuse and obstinate as before. Hugh tries to bring Turing down a notch by claiming the attitude should be accompanied by genius but everyone but Turing is doing the work. Turing discloses that he is building a machine to do the work of decoding — since it would take a human 20 million years to go through all the possible combinations. Turing watches them all to lunch as a group, a team — while he stays behind alone.

29–32: Turing thinks while he runs. And he completes the design of his machine and needs the funds to build it. Hugh Alexander denies him those funds so Turing goes to Commander Denniston to complain. Turing instead gets a lecture on disciple and order. Turing wants to move the complaint up the chain of command — Denniston informs him he must take it to Chruchill. Later Turing hands his complaint to Menzies for hand delivery to Churchill.

32–34: Turing’s letter is effective. Commander Denniston gathers the team together, with Menzies watching again from the corner. Churchill has put Turing in charge much to the disbelief to he Denniston and the team. Turing’s first orders are to fire two of the team — the linguists. As they are now short staffed Turing exposes his plan to increase staff to the others on the team. It will be a contest — publish a crossword puzzle in the Daily Telegraph and whoever can solve it in under 10 minutes will be considered “for an exciting career opportunity.”

34–39: There are a lot of people that want to solve that puzzle. We see men, women, students all trying to solve it — even in the middle of an air raid while huddling in shelters. Some time after the raid Turing is bicycling on the street passing the rubble before he enters MI-6. There is a collection of puzzle solvers who are given a new puzzle to solve in less than 6 minutes. As Turing and Menzies are about to administer the test a woman walks in — Joan Clark. Though security tries to steer her to the secretarial positions she shows the letter of invitation for solving the previous puzzle. She is allowed to take her seat. Joan and Turning do a little sparring as she was late, wants to know what the position is — but Turing is usual obstinate, opaque self. As the test actually gets started Menzies ask Turing if six minutes is even possible — and he say No that it took him 8 minutes to solve it. At that moment Joan Clarke steps up — it has been 5 minutes and 34 seconds. Turing — maybe no longer the smarted person in the room — gets his comeuppance from Menzies — “Seems like some people approach it by simply doing the impossible.” Joan and one other person also completed the task in the allotted time and are invited to join the effort to break Enigma.

39–41: Return to 1927 and Sherborne School for Boys where Turing and Christopher Morcom are sitting affectionately close under a tree each reading their own book. Morcom introduces Turing to the world of “cryptography the science of codes.” As Turing seeks to understand the concept of “message people can see but not know what they mean” he equates it to speaking to another person. He reveals how little he understands of interacting with another person — “your supposed to know what they mean. Only, I never do.” Later as they say good night while parting for their separate dormitories the is a moment when Christopher touches Turing’s shoulder and Turing realizes he is in love.

41–43: 1951 at the Manchester police station where Detective Nock presents Superintendant Smitj with an empty envelope that was to contain Turing’s military record. Nock makes a case for Turing being a Soviet spy but Smith sends him back chasing some lads making a ruckus in the park. Nock goes outside to meet Sgt Staehl and lies telling him that Smith gave the go ahead to follow Turing.

43–46: 1941 Bletchley Park and we see the Turing Machine for the first time. A mass of wires and spinning dials. There are already technicians working on it when Hugh Alexander brings Turing’s next helper — but it is not Joan Clarke. Turing goes to Joan’s home and tries to convince her parents she needs to return to the “radio factory.” Joan takes over having tea with Turing as he tries to convince her to return against her parent’s wishes. They feel it is inappropriate for her to be alone amongst all those men far from home. Turing and Clarke carry on a conversation, with her parents eavesdropping, that she could work amongst the female clerks, live in town with them, and even attend church events. As Turning leaves her house there is a moment when the theme is restated. Clarke asks Turing why he is helping her and he responds “Sometime it is the very people who no one imagines anything of who do things no one can imagine” — just as he was told by Christopher Morcom (scene 17–20). Joan returns to Bletchley.

46–53: Hugh Alexander has had it with wasting each day trying to decode messages only to have all the work be useless by midnight. He decides to take out his frustration on Turing and his machine since he also has to work on Turing’s machine during the day. Even though the rest of the team holds Alexander back they make it clear to Turing they feel they are wasting their time, wasting lives, spending time on the machine — named Christopher. As the rest of the team goes off to the pub Turing decides it is time to take a risk. He gathers sheets of coded messages, hides them in his pants, shoes… and goes past the guards to see Joan Clarke at her flat in town. He gets her attention from her room, climbs a fence and sneaks inside. While he gives her piles of messages she comments how most men would come like this at night with flowers or chocolates. He reads her some of the decrypted messages as she tells him she knows he is trying to build his “universal machine.” His look of amazement is not missed by Joan as she tells him she read his university paper. He imagines a “digital computer” with her. He makes a bit a mess and noise and must climb out the window to escape the landlady.

53–59: There is evidence of a Soviet double agent in Bletchley. Commander Denniston goes straight for Turing as he fits the profile. But the military police can find no evidence so Denniston will have to wait to hang Turing. Joan Clarke hears about he incident and invites Turing out for a beer. While surround by napkins covered with mathematical equations the rest of Turing’s team enters the beer hut. Alexander discloses that he knows Turing is not the spy because Alexander broke the cypher, the evidence, too easily. But Alexander does want to have a go at Joan Clarke. Joan amazes the team, Hugh Alexander in particular, with he explanation of why the bubbles in Guinness go down instead of up. Turing has a moment of social awareness when he asks Joan Clarke why she made the team like her. She finally gets through to him when she tells him that he needs all the help he can get to break Enigma. The next day he makes an effort by bringing apples to the team and telling a lame joke. It goes over with a thud and he retreats to his machine, Christopher, in the machine hut.

59–61: 1927 Sherborne School for Boys where Turing and Morcom pass encrypted notes to each other in class. While one of confiscated by the teacher, Turing retrieves it from the trash. Morcom tells his “dearest friend” that he will see him in two weeks after the break.

61–61: While Turing and Clarke have lunch outside together Hugh Alexander comes over the Turing and hands him schematic showing how changing the wiring can make the rotors 500 times faster. Not only is Joan Clarke editing Turing’s equations during this lunch but now Alexander has a “not entirely terrible idea” for improving Christopher. Turing and Clarke’s relationship is deepening as she now “speaks Turing” in translating a thank you for Hugh Alexander’s suggestion.

61–66: Christopher is finally completed. It is turned on for the first time and the hundreds of rotors begin to spin. Above the din Turing tells the team that the machine will tell the day’s Enigma settings. As the days pass the spinning continues until Denniston is improved of the lack of a solution. Denniston finally thinks he has his chance to rid himself of Turing. When Denniston shows up with the MP’s Turing tries to block their way but is unable to. They turn off Christopher and Denniston tells Turing he his fired and to be escorted off the premises. The team has come to the machine hut and comes to Turing’s rescue telling Denniston the machine is their best hope — fire Turning and he must fire them all. Hugh Alexander is able to get a month reprieve from Denniston.

66–68: 1951 Manchester Police Station. Sgt Staehl was following Turing under orders from Nock. Staehl followed Turing to a pub where he witnessed an envelope exchange. Later when Staehl caught the other gentleman and interrogated him he discovered that he was a male prostitute. Staehl learns that Turing is gay and was paying for sex. the man he was paying was the man that robbed his house — and that is why he wanted the police to drop the matter. When Staehl reports this to Nock, in the presence of the Superintendent who told Nock to drop it; Nock is disappointed that Turing is not a spy. The Superintendent tells Staehl to pick Turing up anyway since homosexuality is illegal. Nock gets permission to interrogate Turing — not willing to give up that Turing is spying.

68–73: 1941 — Turing is in Joan Clarke’s flat with hundreds of papers with equations scattered on the floor. Joan drops a bombshell that she is leaving to return home to her parents. Turing is still Turing and in asking her to stay basically insults her reasons for leaving and says she can make something of her life by staying. She retorts that he is lonely, no one likes him — so she doesn’t want to stay for the reasons he thinks is important. Turing admits he doesn’t want her to leave because he likes her — but he also continues to think logically. If her parents don’t want their 25 year old daughter to live alone far from home — then why not get married? He pulls a piece of electrical wire he just happens to have in his pocket — creates an engagement ring — and proposes. Later at an engagement party, while Joan dances with Hugh Alexander, Turing confides in John Caircross that he may not be able to be with Joan “in that way. ” Prior to Joan coming up and asking for a dance all the men had been discussing sexual exploits. John tells Turing he already had suspicions that Turing was gay and that he had better keep it to himself since it is illegal. Turing wants a family and children — but is not sure he can fake it — should he tell Joan?

73–75: 1927, In Turing’s room at the Sherborne School for Boys where he is encrypting a love letter to Christopher Morcom. Outside his dorm the boys are retiring from break. Morcom doesn’t come back, and Turing gets confronted by the boys that burins him under floor.

75–77: 1951 Manchester Police Station for Nock is interrogating Turing. Nock tries appealing to Turing by asking if machines can think. Turing goes off on Nock regarding how we perceive differences — one’s mans manner of thinking may not be the same as another. Or more relevant subtext — one man’s preferences may not be the same as another. “The Imitation Game” was Turing’s title for his paper where he discussed the thinking of man versus the thinking of a machine. Turing tells Nock it is really a test to determine if the entity answering a question is man, or a machine imitating man. Nock plays the game by asking “What did you do during the war?” When Turing answers “I worked in a radio factory” and Nock asks “What did you really do during the war?’ Turing smiles knowing that Nock may not be as dim as he appears.

77–87: 1942 Bletchley Park — Another frustrating day/night as the chime strikes midnight while Christopher clacks along with no solution. The team walks dejectedly back to the work hut grumbling if they only knew what the message already was — they could decrypt it. In the beer hut the men are over at their table eyeing the women over at their table. Hugh and Helen, friend of Joan, make eyes at each other and finally Hugh asks Turing for an introduction. As Hugh tries to have a go at Helen she tells the story of her daily activity of intercepting radio messages from the same German tower every day — saying how intimate it seems as they get to know each other through the way he types. Hugh and Helen walk away to the bar while Turing’s mind is spinning on something. Finally he screams to Helen and asks “Why do you think your German counterpart has a girlfriend?” Helen says its because he starts all his messages the same way — C-I-L-L-Y. Turing states the Germans just lost he way because they are supposed to start every message with random letters — but this man doesn’t. Turing runs back the work hut with Hugh and Joan and the rest of Turing’s team following. Turing explains to the team that if Christopher only had to search for the decryption on words he knows — he could come up with the cypher. Joan finds the morning weather report and it’s obligatory signature — Heil Hitler. They run to the machine hut as a group and program Christopher with the message and the code as it came in that morning. They turn on the machine. The machine stops in minutes. They write down the cypher and head back to the work hut. They enter the cypher into their captured Enigma machine — and proceed to decode their first message! In characteristic fashion everyone is jumping and hugging — except for Turing.

87–93: The team has gathered around a map showing the location of every Allied and Axis ship in the Atlantic. The can see an attack is coming from the German U-boats on an Allied passenger convoy — hundreds of lives at risk. In order to save them Hugh begins to dial and report the pending attack. Turing stops him having to take the phone from Hugh’s hand. Everyone is incredulous when Turing says “let the U-boats sink the convoy.” Hugh punches Turning and Turning goes down bleeding. Hugh is about to go at Turing again when Joan steps in — taking the blow instead. Joan pushes Hugh to the floor next to Turing. Joan tells Hugh “If you hurt him you will just barely live to regret it.” In another example of subtext Turing tells Hugh people like violence because it makes them feel good — and it would feel good to “blow those U-boats out of the Atlantic.” But the team comes to Turing’s conclusion — save the convoy, sink the U-boats — and the Germans know that Enigma is broken. While the team is dealing with this Peter Hilton reveals his brother is on one of the ships in the convoy. When Turing tells Peter it is not his fault that they can’t stop the attack Peter goes after Turing — but this time the others in the team come to Turing’s defense. When Peter tells Turing he is not God and can’t determine who lives or dies Turing tells him that that is exactly what they have to do.

94–95: Turing and Clarke go to London to meet with Menzies. They inform him of the plan to keep the breaking of Enigma secret. They will use statistics to determine which attacks to stop and which to let happen. They tell Menzies he must come up with the cover stories — and keep Turing from being fired by Denniston. Menzies reply — “Maintain a conspiracy of lies through the highest levels of our government? Yes that sound right up my alley.” He follows with one more statement “Alan, I so rarely have a chance to say this. But you are exactly the man I always hoped you would be.” On the train back to Bletchley Pak Clarke places her hand on Turing’s and we see that they are “in this together.”

95–102: A sequence introduces to the new project “Ultra” — the largest store of military intelligence in the world. Each day the code is broken and messages decrypted. In the work hut Turing asks Peter Hilton for the decrypts and Peter walks past Turing without answering but does knock the papers from Turing’s hands. As Turing is picking them up from the floor he sees a bible hidden underneath papers on John Cairncross’ s desk. At this moment Turing realizes John is the Soviet spy — since the cypher for the coded messages given to the Soviets was a bible passage. John sees that Turing has figured it out. John reminds Turing that he knows he is homosexual and if Turing tells John’s secret he will tell Turing’s. Turing goes to Joan Clarke’s flat to tell her what he found out. The flat has been ransacked and Menzies is there. He tells Turing Joan is in prison because of all the Enigma messages in the flat — messages that Turing brought her a year ago. When Menzies causes Joan of being the spy Turing tells him its not Joan — its Cairncross. Menzies tells Turing he knew that all along and in fact it is the reason Cairncross was assigned to Bletchley. Menzies tells Turing that it is the only way to get the Soviets information they need to win the way since Chruchill won’t tell the Soviets anything. Now Turing is part of the scheme as he has to work for Menzies to get the right information exposed to Carincross and the to the Soviets. And by the way — Joan was never in prison — just at the market.

102–104: Alan now fears for Joan’s safety and wants her to leave Bletchely. As tries to convince her to do so she tells him she is safe there versus anywhere else. He tries a different tact — telling her he is a homosexual and they cannot be engaged anymore. Joan tells him she already suspected but it is ok because they are both different than then other people — they can still love each other and challenge each others’ minds. He will not give up and finally tells her he was just using her to break Enigma and he never cared for her. She slap him, calls him a monster — but makes it clear she is not leaving as this work is too important to her.

105–106: 1927 Sherborne School for Boys and Turing is in the headmaster’s office. Alan tries to deny that he an Christopher Morcom were friends but the headmaster provides fact after fact that Morcom was his only friend. The headmaster is leading up to the news that Morcom is dead from Bovine Tuberculosis. Morocm never told Turing. Turing still denies being close to him and asks to leave.

107–108: 1943–5 sequence at Bletchley Park with Turing’s voice over of what occurred for the next two years as the team continued to decrypt messages — shoulder to shoulder with Joan Clarke (broke her heart) and John Cairncross (revealed is secret) and Peter Hilton (killed his brother). Turing speaks to all the major victories that would not have been possible with out the breaking of Enigma — and the cold calculus that decided what to reveal and what to keep secret. The sequence follows the team making a decision of what ship to save, how the decision makes its way to MI-6, the Chruchill and finally into action on the sea. And how doe Turin deal with this — as before he runs until he cannot run anymore. The sequence continues as we see the team taking care of each other — Hugh makes a pillow for Peter, John makes tea for Joan. In the VO Turing states “The was was really just a half-dozen crossword enthusiasts in a tiny village in the south of England.” Its VE day and the VO continues with Turin saying “Was I God? No. Because God didn’t win the war. I did.”

109–110: Back at Bletchley Park Menzies is disbanding the team. They are instructed to burn everything and forget they ever met. “Have a safe trip home…. with a bit of luck you will never see me again.”

110–110: 1951 Manchester Police Station where Turing has finished telling this story to Nock. This is the Imitation Game — do you believe what you are being told? Do you believe it is man or machine doing the telling? Nock says he doesn’t know what to do. Turing tells Nock he must determine if Turing is “.. a person? Am I am machine? Am I a war hero? Am I a criminal?” We are not less than what we can convince other people that we are. When Nock tells Turing “I can’t judge you” Turing is finished with Nock. He is of no use to Turing.

110–115: 6 months later at the police station Nock is congratulated for Turing sentence of indecency. It leaves Nock empty. Turing is now back home but broken. He has gained weight, is pale and haggard, the place is a mess, but continues his work on a new machine. Infuriated with the ringing of his doorbell he finally gets up to answer it and none other than Joan Clarke is at the door. She read about it in the papers, not from Turing, but came to see him. She tells him she would have come for him, testified for him. As he turns to move away he drops the glass he was drinking from. Joan notices his hands are twitching. It is the medication he tells her. The drugs are for chemical castration so he can avoid prison and continue his work. Joan pleads with Turing to let her help him and that he does not have to do this alone. Turing tells her he has never been alone — as long as he has his machine — Christopher. He refers to the machine as if he were a person — “.. Christopher has got so smart.” Turing is freaking out and as Joan calms him down Turing sees her wedding ring. “Its much nicer than the one I got you.” To break the tension Joan asks if he wants to do a crossword puzzle. It is now obvious is brain is so wracked he cannot even look at the puzzle. Turing tells her that she got what she wanted — a normal life. She reminds him no one normal could have done what he did. All the normal things in life that people do everyday in England of 1951 are because of what Turing did. She tells him “I think that sometimes it is the very people what no one imagines anything of who do the things that no on can imagine.”

115–115: 1927 Sherborne School for Boys where Turing is no alone under the tree where Christopher Morcom first gave him the book on cryptography. He starts to cry — and starts his life long journey of being alone.

115–116: 1954 in Turing’s house as the police are swarming all over it again. This Nock goes to Turing’s bedroom to see an apple with a bite out of it- with white powder all over it. Nock realizes two things — one is that it is cyanide and Turing committed suicide. The second is Turing made the world a better place and Nock killed him for it.

116–117: 1945, the team is at Bletchley in front of a raging bonfire. Hugh puts his arms around Turing and Clarke. Carincross tosses Enigma messages on the fire. They are enjoying this last time together. Title cards declare “Turing committed suicide in 1954,” the path from the Turing machine to modern computers, Carirncross’s 1990 confession to spying but never prosecuted, and the 2013 pardoning of 49,000 gay men punished between 1885 and 1967. The final title card is “The log of Apple Computer — an apple with a bite taken out of it — has long been rumored to be a silent tribute to Turing. These rumors have never been confirmed.”

Writing Exercise: I encourage you to read the script, but short of that, if you’ve seen the movie, go through this scene-by-scene breakdown. What stands out to you about it from a structural standpoint?

If you’d like a PDF of The Imitation Game script scene-by-scene breakdown, go here.

Major kudos to Sean Sauber for doing this week’s breakdown.

We are fortunate to have two scene-by-scene breakdowns. Tomorrow I will post one by Rick Dyke which provides some interesting analysis.

Tomorrow: We zero in on the major plot points in The Imitation Game.

This series started here and we have volunteers to do 27 scene-by-scene breakdowns of contemporary movie scripts. The scripts we have already analyzed are in italics.

American Hustle: Jon Raymond
Argo: Nora Barry
Barney’s Version: John M
Belle: DaniM
Beginners: Ali Coad
Boyhood: Jacob Jensen
Enough Said: Ali Coad
Flight: 14Shari
Frankenwenie: Will King
Frozen: Christina Sekeris
Gone Girl: NateKohler1
Gravity: Matt Duriez
Hanna: John Arends
Lincoln: Paul Graunke
Looper: erikledrew
Moonrise Kingdom: Daniel Bigler
Mud: Alejandro
Paranorman: OhScotty
Prisoners: Melinda Mahaffey Icden
Short Term 12: Carolina Groppa
The Artist: Traci Nell Peterson
The Grand Budapest Hotel: Rob Hoskins
The Imitation Game: Rick Dyke, Sean Sauber
The Social Network: Nick Dykal
The Way Way Back: Ricky
Wadjda: iamdaniel
Whiplash: Steven Broughton

If you’d like to participate and do a scene-by-scene breakdown yourself, please indicate which script in comments or email me. We are using scripts available on our site here.

For new volunteers and those who have already volunteered, but not sent me a breakdown yet, please do so as soon as possible. Thanks!

Circling back to where we started, reading scripts is hugely important. Analyzing them even more so. If you want to work in Hollywood as a writer, you need to develop your critical analytical skills. This is one way to do that.

So seize this opportunity and join in the conversation!

I hope to see you in comments about this week’s script: The Imitation Game.

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