Anybody remember a little film from 1997 starring Val Kilmer called The Saint?
The Saint (1997)
Kilmer plays a master thief that gets mixed up with the Russian mafia and finds himself on the run. It was actually a pretty cool movie until… about 3/4 into the film, the stakes change. We go from an interesting heist involving a secret formula for Cold Fusion to a Russian plot to take over the world by flooding the market with cheap energy. It was just unnecessary and pulled us out of this intimate game of stakes with characters we cared about into a meaningless worldwide crisis.
A few weeks ago, I tweeted:
Biggest cliche in genre films today: “the fate of the world hangs in the balance and only (insert character name) can stop it.”
— Ben Lane Hodson (@BenLaneHodson) May 3, 2014
It’s happening across most media, books, comics, movies (although not so much for television which could possibly be one reason why TV is having such a renaissance). The stake meter is permanently set to 11. It’s like a hair dryer blowing in our ears. The world is always hanging in the balance.
The threat has become so over-the-top, so epic, that it loses all meaning. Nearly every big-budget movie has this same threat and it’s killing all suspense because we as an audience know, of course the world is not going to end (honorable mention to Cabin in the Woods though).
Other High Stakes
Don’t get me wrong. I get it. The stakes have to be high for characters. Every writer knows that. But can I just mention that there are some other stakes beyond the world ending that might be worth using instead such as:
Character Growth – Will the main character learn something new about themselves and become a better person or break under the pressure?
Two Tough Choices – The character has to make a choice between two options that both have dire consequences.
Ticking Clock – Will the character be able to solve the story problem before time runs out?
Interpersonal – Will the character lose the love/friendship/trust of someone close if they make a decision they feel they have to make?
Those are just a few ideas. Come on writers, let’s fix this broken record of a cookie-cutter plot design and give audiences something else to care about with real suspense.