1

SCREENPLAY:
THE FOUNDATIONS OF SCREENWRITING

,

.
,

,
.

, 

1979

.

'

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'Screenplay : The Foundations of

Screenwriting '  ,

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SYD FIELD
Chapter 1 : ?

 F. Scott Fitzgerald 
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Scott Fitzgerald ,

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screenplay is a story told with pictures, in dialogue and description, and placed within the
context of dramatic structure.
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ACT 1 IS THE SETUP

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ACT 2 IS THE CONFRONTATION

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ACT3ISRESOLUTION
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PLOT POINTS.

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21

CHAPTER 2 : THE SUBJECT

'Screenplay'

. 'What is Screenplay?'
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'subject'

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subject

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character

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Action

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27

ACTION

PHYSICAL ACTION

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&

Emotional.

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Rings),  ( ) ,

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action

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American

Beauty

Shawshank Redemption ) . ,
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28

, character

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CHAPTER 3: THE CREATION OF CHARACTER



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What is character but the determination of incident? And what is incident but
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life ,

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THE CREATION OF CHARACTER.

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CHAPTER 4: BUILDING A CHARACTER

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POINTOFVIEW

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47

CHAPTER 5 : STORY AND CHARACTER

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60

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Story and Character .

61

CHAPTER 6 - ENDINGS & BEGINNINGS

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Terminator

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73

CHAPTER 7: SETTING UP THE STORY

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80

CHAPTER 8 - THE TWO INCIDENTS

INCIDENT

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(Joe

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What is character but the determination of incident? And what is incident but
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inciting

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86

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Pulp

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Lord

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88

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Prologue
Vincent

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Vega

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Marcellus

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Gold

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Epilogue

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93

accidental -->  & ,

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85

EXT. AERIAL SHOT:

LOS ANGELES CITYSCAPE - NIGHT

85

STRAIGHT DOWN from above. Acid-mint streetlight in pools on

Olympic Blvd. The yellow cab is the only vehicle heading
east.
Everything else streams west. Emergency vehicles. Flashers.

86

INT. MAX'S CAB - MAX

86

in shock. Back in purgatory...eternally in his cab's front

seat. As the lone yellow cab drives east...

132

SINGLE:

VINCENT

VINCENT
What a clusterfuck. Only thing didn't
show up was the Polish cavalry.

Max's life, controlled by Vincent, is a nightmare, perpetual

and
eternal...

VINCENT (CONT'D)
You don't wanna talk, tell me to fuck
off...

MAX
(inaudible)
...fuck off.

Vincent's attention is out the window at the streams of

emergency vehicles...at the earpiece, filled with LAPD and
news
helicopters.

86A

EXT. STREET - FRONTAL:

THE ANONYMOUS YELLOW CAB

86A

heads east.

All other traffic races to the debacle left

behind...

VINCENT (O.S.)
...blood, bodily fluid and death get
to you? Try deep breathing. Or

133

remember, we all die anyway...

MAX (O.S.)
You had to kill Fanning?!

(CONTINUED)

86A

CONTINUED:

86A

VINCENT (O.S.)
(blas)
Who's Fanning?

86B

INT. CAB

86B

MAX
That cop!
(beat)
Why'd you have to do that? You
couldn't wound him? The guy had a
family, maybe parents, kids who gotta
grow up without a dad, he was a good
guy, and he believed me...

VINCENT
I shoulda saved him 'cause he believed
you...?

MAX

134

No, not just that.

VINCENT
Yeah, that...

MAX
Yeah, so, what's wrong with that?

VINCENT
It's what I do for a living...

MAX
Some living.

VINCENT
Head downtown...

MAX
What's downtown?

VINCENT
How are you at math? I was hired for
five hits. I did four.

MAX
(grim)
One more.

VINCENT
There you go...!

MAX
Whyn't you kill me and find another

135

cab.

(CONTINUED)

86B

CONTINUED:

86B

VINCENT
'Cause you're good.
(shrugs)
We're in this together. You
know...fates intertwined. Cosmic
coincidence. All that crap...

MAX
You're full of shit.

VINCENT
I'm full of shit?
(beat)
You're a monument of it. You even
bullshitted yourself, all I am is
taking out the garbage. Bad guys
killing bad guys...

MAX
'Cause that's what you said...

VINCENT
And you believe me...?

136

MAX
What'd they do?

VINCENT
How do I know?
(beat)
But, they all got that "witness for
the prosecution" look to me. It's
probably some major federal indictment
against somebody who majorly does not
want to get indicted... I dunno.

MAX
That's the reason?

VINCENT
That's the "why." There is no reason.
(beat)
No good reason; no bad reason. To
live or to die.

MAX
Then what are you?

VINCENT
(looks up)
...indifferent.

Vincent hesitates, then back out the window...

(CONTINUED)

137

86B

CONTINUED: (2)

86B

VINCENT (CONT'D)
Get with it. Get over it.
...millions of galaxies of hundreds of
millions of stars and a speck on one
in a blink...that's us. Lost in
space. The universe don't care (about
you).
(beat)
The cop, you, me? Who notices?

MAX
What's with you...?

VINCENT
As in...?

MAX
Man, if someone had a gun to your head
and said: "You gotta tell me what's
goin' on with that person across the
street, there, what they think, who
they are, how they feel, or I will
kill you"...they'd have to kill
you...wouldn't they...?
(beat)
'Cause you don't have a
clue...about...anyone.
(struggling for the words)

138

...I don't think you, you have a clue,

period. Did anyone "do" for you in
your life...? Ever? When you draw
breath in the morning? Open your eyes
in the a.m.? You
anticipate...anything? Want anything?
Expect anything? I don't think so...
(beat)
'Cause you are low, my brother, way
low... and some standard parts that are
supposed to be there?...with you,
aren't. So what happened to you, man?
What happened to you?

VINCENT
...all the cabbies in LA, I get Max,
Sigmund Freud meets Dr. Ruth...

MAX
Answer the question.

VINCENT
Look in the mirror.
(on the attack)
(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

86B
86B

CONTINUED: (3)

139

VINCENT (CONT'D)
...with your paper towels...a bottle
of 409...a limo company someday. How
much you got saved?

MAX
None of your business.

VINCENT
Your business "plan?" Someday?
"Someday my dream'll come..."?
(beat)
And one night you'll wake up and
discover it all flipped on you.
Suddenly you're old. And it didn't
happen. And it never will. 'Cause
you were never going to do it, anyway.
The dream on the horizon became
yesterday and got lost. Then you'll
bullshit yourself, it could never have
been, anyway. And you'll recede it
into memory...and zone out in a
Barcalounger with daytime TV on for
the rest of your life...
(beat)
Don't talk to me about killing.
You're do-in' yourself. In this
yellow-and-orange prison. Bit by bit.
Every day.

EXTREMELY CLOSE:

Max is soaking up every word.

140

VINCENT (CONT'D)
All it ever took was a down payment on
a Lincoln Town Car. What the hell are
you still doing in a cab?

The needle on the speedometer is creeping past forty...

MAX
'Cause I never straightened-up and
looked at it, you know...?

VINCENT
Slow down.

MAX
(ignoring him)
...myself, I should have. My brothers
did...
(beat)
Tried to gamble my way out from under.
(That was) Another born-to-lose deal!
Then, "it's gotta be perfect to go!"
You know? Risk all torqued-down.

Needle pushing sixty...

(CONTINUED)

86B
86B

CONTINUED: (4)

141

MAX (CONT'D)
But you know what? It doesn't matter.
What's it matter, anyway? 'Cause we
are...insignificant out here in this
big-ass nowhere. Twilight Zone shit.
Says the badass sociopath in my
backseat. So that's one thing I got
to thank you for, bro... Until now, I
never saw it that way...

The cab goes blasting through an intersection on a red light.

A
LOS ANGELES TIMES DELIVERY TRUCK SLAM ON ITS BRAKES as Max
swerves, barely avoiding a collision.

VINCENT
That was a red light!

Max glances in the rearview.

MAX
...not until now. So what's it all
matter? It don't. Fuck it. Fix it.
Nothing to lose. Right?

Vincent's H+K's aimed at Max's head.

Max almost laughs.

VINCENT
Slow the hell down!

MAX
Why? What are you gonna do? Pull the
trigger? Kill us? Go ahead, man!

142

Shoot...my ass.

VINCENT
Slow down!

MAX
Vincent?

Their eyes meet in the rearview mirror. Vincent is arrested

by
a look in Max that he's not seen before. It's the even,
confrontational look of a man with nothing to lose.

MAX (CONT'D)
Go fuck yourself.

Max slams on the brakes and cranks the steering wheel hard
right...

87

EXT. STREET - RIGHT WHEEL

87

hits a low divider...rear end comes unstuck, rotating over the

front right and flipping the cab into a violent roll onto its
roof, spinning down the street, SMASHING off other cars,
pieces
falling off, spewing glass...

143

(CONTINUED)

87

CONTINUED:

87

...and then settling upside-down, revolving slowly to a

creaking
stop, antifreeze spilling across the pavement.

And then everything goes silent, motionless, still.

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Soon!

Note - Collateral Script courtesy - http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Collateral.html