Script To Screen: “The Truman Show”

From the 1998 movie The Truman Show, written by Andrew Nichol.

Setup: Truman has just come to the ‘end’ of his world and is talking to ‘God’:

EXT. CYCLORAMA. DAY.

We focus on TRUMAN’s hand. CHRISTOF’s voice echoes across 
 the water.

CHRISTOF
 You can leave if you want. I won’t try
 to stop you. But you won’t survive out
 there. You don’t know what to do,
 where to go.

A wave of doubt washes over Truman’s face.

TRUMAN
 (referring to the photo)
 I have a map.

CHRISTOF
 Truman, I’ve watched you your whole life.
 I saw you take your first step, your
 first word, your first kiss. I know you
 better than you know yourself. You’re
 not going to walk out that door —

TRUMAN
 — You never had a camera in my head.

INT/EXT. VARIOUS LOCATIONS. NIGHT.

The VIEWERS stare into camera in fascination.

INT. CONTROL ROOM. NIGHT.

TRUMAN turns back to the sky, looking up towards CHRISTOF.

CHRISTOF
 Truman, there’s no more truth out
 there than in the world I created for
 you — the same lies and deceit. But
 in my world you have nothing to fear.

Truman seems to be considering the possibilities. He looks 
 to the identikit picture of Sylvia in his hand.

CHRISTOF
 (suddenly angry)
 Say something, damn it! You’re still on
 camera, live to the world…!

INT. A ROOM SOMEWHERE. NIGHT.

SYLVIA gazes at the picture of herself on her television 
 screen as if it is her reflection in the mirror.

EXT. CYCLORAMA. DAY.

TRUMAN hesitates. Perhaps he cannot go through with it after 
 all. The camera slowly zooms into Truman’s face.

TRUMAN
 In case I don’t see you — good afternoon,
 good evening and good night.

He steps through the door and is gone. Silence. Then -

Here is the scene from the movie:

http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=g38hm

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 weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.