Script To Screen: “Basic Instinct”
No matter what you think about Joe Eszterhas, the fact remains that at one point in time, he was the hottest screenwriter in Hollywood, specializing in selling million dollar spec scripts. Perhaps the most notable one: Basic Instinct which sold in June, 1990 for a cool $3M and went on to become a hit movie grossing $352M worldwide. Here is the story’s final scene.
Setup: Nick [Michael Douglas], a cop assigned to a murder case, has fallen in love with Catherine [Sharon Stone], who may or may not be a psycho killer. Case solved, it looks like she is the latter. But…
INT. HIS BEDROOM - LATER
The Stones play "Sympathy For The Devil" in the b.g.; the
MUSIC is low.
They lie next to each other on the bed. The CAMERA faces
them. He lies, staring at the ceiling, on the left side of
the bed, smoking a cigarette. She is curled away from him
toward the right side of the bed. A long beat, then --
CATHERINE
What do we do now, Nick?
NICK
(after a long beat)
We fuck like minks. We raise
rugrats. We live happily ever
after.
We see her right arm go to the side of the bed and then
over. He stares at the ceiling.
CATHERINE
I hate rugrats.
NICK
(after a long beat)
We fuck like minks. We forget the
rugrats. We live happily ever
after.
We see from an ANGLE to the left side of the bed now. Her
face is expressionless. Her right arm dangles over the
right side of the bed. Her right hand is clenched. Is
she holding something in it against her arm?
We see them from an ANGLE to the left side of the bed now:
He turns his body away from her to put out his cigarette.
We see her behind him slowly turning towards him and the
CAMERA. A beat, and he turns towards her.
They look at each other. A long beat as the SONG gets
louder. We see them in CLOSEUP. We don't see her right
arm.
CATHERINE
(in a whisper)
I love you.
A beat, and he kisses her. The CAMERA BACKS AWAY from
them slowly to the right side of the bedroom as they kiss,
and we --
FADE TO BLACK
... A long beat, as the SONG keeps playing... and we...
FADE IN:
We see them from the right side of the bedroom. And then
the CAMERA LOWERS SLOWLY as they kiss with more and more
passion.
It keeps going LOWER.
There is something under the bed. The CAMERA MOVES CLOSER
towards it as "SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL" plays louder. We
see it now in CLOSEUP as the bed rustles above...
It is a thin, steel-handled icepick.
The SONG plays LOUDER and LOUDER, and we --
FADE OUT
Here is the scene from the movie:
Questions to ask to analyze the scene:
* What elements in the movie scene are the same as the script?
* What elements in the movie scene are different than the script?
* Regarding the differences, put yourself in the mindset of the filmmakers and speculate: Why did they make the changes they did?
* How did the changes improve the scene?
* Alternatively are there elements in the script, not present in the movie, that are better than the final version of the scene?
* Note each camera shot in the movie version. Which of them does the script suggest via sluglines or scene description?
* How does the script convey a sense of the scene’s tone, feel, and pace through scene description and dialogue?
* What ‘magic’ exists in the movie that is not indicated in the words of the script? How do you suppose that magic emerged?
One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.
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