Back to the Future part 5, ACT TWO storybeat functions

Well, I'm finally back to the present and here is the next installment of Back to the Future's complete story weave. When I took on this assignment for myself, I did realize how complex mapping all the beats of a story would be or how long it would take to just identify the function of each beat. There's that and the fact that ACT TWO is twice as long as ACTS ONE and THREE.

As you last remember, Marty hopped into the DeLorean time machine and tried to escape from the terrorists, whom Doc stole the plutonium from, and accidentally turned on the time machine set to 1955.

BACK TO THE FUTURE ACT TWO STORY BEATS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS:

41. ACTION- CRASH INTO A NEW WORLD:

A scarecrow suddenly appears startling Marty. He crashes into a barn. 

The noise wakes up the farmer and his family. Seeing the DeLorean, they think it’s an aliens spaceship. When Marty emerges wearing his radiation suit. 

Marty tries to explain but the farmer shoots at him. 

Marty escapes in the DeLorean.

42. REALIZATION- I’VE GONE BACK IN TIME!

Marty thinks he’s having a nightmare until he sees his future home site.  

The DeLorean runs out of gas so Marty hides it and walks to town.

His home town in 1955 is completely foreign to Marty. 

43. ACTION- GETTING ORIENTED:

Marty goes to a malt shop and finds Doc’s address in the phonebook.

44. DISCOVERY:

Marty sees his future father, George, next to him at the malt shop. 

Marty tries to understand what’s happening.

45. REALIZATION- RELATIONSHIP:

Biff comes in bullying George. Marty realizes Biff has bullied his father since they were teenagers. 

46. REALIZATION- RELATIONSHIP:

Marty follows George and discovers the reason that George was in the tree when his parents met, he was peeping on a girl in her bedroom.  

47. ACTION- REPLAY OF EXPOSITION OF WE’VE HEARD

George falls in the path of an oncoming car. 

48. ACTION- MARTY DOES IT WRONG- HE INTERFERES WITH HISTORY:

Marty pushes George out of the car's path gets hit himself.

49. CONSEQUENCE- MARTY CHANGES HISTORY

Marty is knocked out and taken to the driver’s house.

50. IRONY PAID OFF: MARTY’S MOTHER ACTS JUST LIKE SHE TOLD HER DAUGHTER NOT TO:

Marty wakes up hearing his mother's voice. He discovers she’s a teenager. And she begins to come on to Marty. Marty’s saved by a call to dinner.

51. ACTION- GATHERING INFORMATION:

At dinner, the family eats while watching "The Honeymooners" on their first television. Marty asks how to find Doc's address, which Lorraine's father says is over on the east end of town. 

52. DRAMATIC IRONY- WE KNOW MARTY WILL BE HIS KID:

Lorraine's father tells his daughter, if she ever has a kid like Marty, he'll disown her.

53. ACTION:

Marty finds Doc Brown's house. Doc answers and he hooks Marty up to an invention to read other's thoughts. But it doesn’t work.

54. INFORMATION GIVEN:

Marty tells Doc about his time machine works and he's from the future. 

55. CONSEQUENCE:

Doc doesn't believe him. Marty tries to prove it with photos but Doc thinks they’re forged.

56. DISCOVERY OF CONSEQUENCE OF MARTY’S ERROR:

Doc notices that Marty's brother's head is beginning to disappear.

57. EXPOSITION LEADS TO BELIEF:

Marty explains how Doc hurt his head and led to the vision of the flux capacitor- Doc finally believes him. Shows him a drawing.

58. ACTION:

Marty takes Doc to the DeLorean, Doc’s elated that his time machine works. 

59. COMMITMENT:

Doc vows to send Marty, “Back to the future”!

60. OBSTACLE:

Watching the video from 1985, Doc panics when he learns time travel requires 1.21 gigawatts of power. Doc explains plutonium is not easy to get in1955.

61. OBSTACLE COMPOUNDED:

The only power that can generate that power is a lightning bolt you can’t predict a lightning strike. Marty’s stuck in the past.

62. PAYOFF EXPOSITION:

Marty remembers the flier about the lightning strike at the Hill Valley clock tower in one week. 

63. ACTION PLAN:

Doc begins to plan to harness the power of the bolt and send Marty home.

64. WARNING:

Doc warns Marty about interfering with things that may change the future and jeopardize his existence. Marty mentions interfering with first meeting between his father and mother. 

65. DISCOVERY: 

Doc looks at the photo of Marty and his siblings. Marty’s brother is fading from the photo as a result of Marty's interfering with his future parents.

66. ACTION & INFORMATION:

Doc takes Marty to the high school. They spot George being picked on. 

67. PERSUASIVE ACTION:

Marty tries to get George to talk to Lorraine but Lorraine has eyes for Marty. 

68. STAKES:

Doc worries that Marty has changed the past irreparably, George doesn’t have the guts to ask Lorraine out. 

69. ACTION- LIE:

Marty lies telling George that Lorraine wants him to ask her to the dance. 

70. SETUP:

Marty asks George what he's writing. Sci-fi stories. 

71. CHARACTER REVEAL:

Marty asks to read one and George refuses, fearing rejection.

72. RELATIONSHIP MISUNDERSTANDING:

George sees Lorraine with Biff and thinks that Lorraine wants to go to the dance with Biff.

73. ACTION:

Biff is across the cafeteria and harassing Lorraine. 

74. MARTY’S WRONG ACTION:

Marty stands up for Lorraine pulling Biff off her. 

75. CONSEQUENCE ACTION:

Biff begins pushing Marty and he pushing back.

76. INTERRUPTED ACTION:

Strickland breaks up the fight.

77. ACTION

Marty follows George begging George to ask Lorraine to the dance.

78. OBSTACLE & SETUP:

George continues to refuse and no one will make him change his mind.

79. PAYOFF ACTION:

That night, Marty wears his radiation suit and sneaks into George’s room. He tells George he's from another planet and orders him to ask Lorraine out, threatening to melt his brain if he doesn’t. George believes him.

80. ACTION:

Marty takes George to the malt shop where Lorraine is and gives George love advice to use on Lorraine which seem to work.

81. OBSTACLE:

George's efforts are foiled with Biff shows up. 

82. MARTY’S WRONG ACTION:

Marty defends George and fools Biff. Marty grabs a scooter from a girl and escapes turning it into a skateboard. 

83. CONSEQUENCE:

Biff and his gang follow Marty in Biff's car. 

84. ACTION:

Marty tricks Biff into crashing into a manure truck.

85. CONSEQUENCE:

Lorraine becomes even more attracted to Marty.

86. ACTION PLAN DEMONSTRATES EXPOSITION:

Doc shows Marty his plan, using a model car and scale model town, to use the lighting bolt to power the DeLorean. When the lighting strikes, the energy will travel a cable from the clock tower, cross the street to a hook attached to the car providing the 1.2 gigawatts necessary for time travel. It works great.

87. CONSEQUENCE DEMONSTRATES STAKES:

Except that it starts a fire.

88. OBSTACLE:

Lorraine interrupts them and she asks him out to the dance. 

89. SILVER LINING OF OBSTACLE:

Marty see a way to get George and Lorraine together and accepts her offer.

90. ACTION PLAN INFORMATION:

Marty tells George his plan. George will find Marty taking advantage of her in her car. George will pull Marty out of the car, pretend to beat him up saving her.

NARRATIVE QUESTIONS REMAINING:

Will Marty's plan succeed in getting George to kiss Lorraine at the dance or will Lorraine stay hooked on Marty until he fades from existence?

Will Doc's plans clock tower lightning plan work to power the DeLorean back to the future or will Marty go up in flames?

We want to keep watching to learn the answers. It's great how the filmmakers gave you vivid pictures of the hopes and the fears of these narrative questions.

These narrative questions are different from the ones that ended ACT ONE. There we wanted to know will Marty escape the terrorists?

(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Stay tuned for the story beats and their functions from Act 3.

Dragonweaving Back to the Future part 4 storyteller's log

Sorry for the delay's with Back to the Future. I ran out of Plutonium and got stuck. Anyway, I'm still analyzing the beats of acts 2 and 3.  In the meantime,  I thought I'd give you a glimpse of what and how we're going to be mapping Back to the Future. I'm calling it Dragonweaving.

As we saw earlier, the dragon gestalt is composed of 4 progressions and three turns or changes of direction. These correspond to the three acts, with the second act being twice as long. (Remember, a gestalt is an emergent property that's greater than the sum of the parts.)

We're mapping both the ups and downs of the character along with the hopes and fears of the audience over time.

Here are the four progressions of Back to the Future:

Progression 1:
Marty has been hanging out with the dangerous Doc. We know he's dangerous because Principle Strickland tells us so. But we see just how dangerous he is right in the opening scene- he's stolen plutonium.

Turn 1:
Doc's actions cause consequences. The terrorists don't like being tricked so they kill him. Marty narrowly escapes in the time machine back to his past in 1955.

Progression 2:
In the past Marty disrupts the flow of the space time continuum changing the future. He saves his father causing his mother to fall in love with him. And he beats the bully Bif.

Turn 2:
Marty tracks down Doc and learns he's stuck in the past because you can't buy plutonium at the local 5 and 10. (For those who don't know a 5 and 10 store referred to stores where you could buy things for 5 and 10 cents. I guess it's equivalent to our current dollar stores. But even they don't sell plutonium) The consequence of this is that his brother and sister are starting to disappear from existence, this is shown by the visual icon of them fading from Marty's family photo.

Progression 3:
As Marty is beginning to lose everything, in the manner of Alice who worried she's going out like a candle flame. Doc makes a plan, which is BRILLIANTLY demonstrated by the use of a scale model. It shows us exactly what's at stake. The model car drives through the town and connects with the lightning bolt at a scale speed of exactly 88 miles per hour. (Ever wonder why 88 miles per hour?) What's brilliant about this scene is, not only to we see what the plan is with no dialogue needed, but we get to see what could happen if things go wrong- the car bursts into flames. A second plan is made where Marty will get his father to take his mother to the dance and have their first kiss.

Turn 3:
Marty gets his parent to kiss.

Progression 4:
Marty prepares the time machine while Doc has to deal with obstacles of getting the wiring back to the clock tower. The plan works and Marty is sent back to the future. The doc is saved and his family has changed for the better.

Here is it mapped on the dragon. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Let's try one example of one thread of the dragonweave of Back to the Future:

Early in the film, Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer are about to kiss.

OBSTACLE & SETUP: The clock tower lady interrupts their kiss wanting a donation to save the clock tower.

ACTION: Jennifer needs to give him a phone number where he can reach her so she writes it on the flier and he puts it in his pocket. 

Now this information has been setup for later use. It also served as a story delay for their romance.

Later, in the past, Marty wants to go back to the future. (That was a very weird sentence- later, in the past...) 

OBSTACLE: They don't have enough power for the time machine to work. They would need a lightning bolt which you can't predict.

PAYOFF!: Marty remembers he can predict a lightning bolt strike- exactly where and when.

ACTION: Doc makes a plan to power the time machine with lightning.

OBSTACLE & STAKE: The model car goes up in flames.

Now we cut away to the dance action. Once Marty is successful in getting his parents to kiss he goes to meet the Doc.

Doc has the time machine all set and the clock tower wired. 

OBSTACLE 1. The wiring to the clock tower comes out.

OBSTACLE 2. The DeLoean time machine won't start.

The clock tower is a great prop to use because it also literally functions as the "ticking clock" countdown. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

You'll notice I've color coded some of the parts. The red boxes indicate obstacles and they are connected with an incoming red arrow. This means that things are going back for the character and the audience will start to grow tense and fear for the characters. The green arrows indicate a rise up towards good things and the audience's hope. The yellow dotted arrow shows where the setup has been paid off. 

As you can see dragonweaving becomes a very eleglant way to map the progress of not only your story and plot but also how it's affecting your audience.

This is the first time I'm doing a dragonweave so according to my theory I'll probably do some things wrong and then suffer the consequences and... 

One thing I already discovered is that this one thread contains 11 threads. I've got over 80 storybeats to map. I'm going to need a really big dragon.

See you next time and extra credit for anyone who can figure out why 88 miles per hour.