WARNING: This post contains spoilers for the movie WANTED (2008).
Story’s have five key elements and mostly follow a certain journey in order to make the story immersive and captivating. The five key elements to a story are:
Character
Characters are the center-piece of any story. Characters are used to perform the actions in the story in order to make the story progress. Essentially they are the WHO of the story.
Setting
A setting refers to the location and time-period for the story. This is the WHERE and WHEN of the story.
Plot
A plot relates to the events of a story and is usually broken down into an introduction, rising action, climax, falling action and a resolution. This is the WHAT of the story. Rising action is the build up towards the end of the story, things tend to get more tense and faster paced. Towards the end of the story after the climax, the falling action is the calm before the next storm. In Game Design this is often visible when it comes to boss fights, in a game such as Bloodborne, the boss fights are stupidly difficult and the journey to them is no easy task. Once the boss has been defeated you are then in an arena where the silence is almost deafening. Upon leaving the arena you basically start the sequence all over again.
Conflict
Although conflict is often used in a negative space, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it is a situation or a challenge that pushes the story. It is crucial for any story to have a conflict so that the story can reach the final stage of resolution. This is the WHY of the story.
Theme
The theme is commonly mistaken for the setting of the story but it actually refers to the message the writer is expressing though the story.
The Heroes Journey
The Heroes’ Journey comprises of 10 different steps and to help demonstrate this, I will use the film Wanted.
Step 1: The Ordinary World
James McAvoy plays a character named Wesley Gibson who has an ordinary 9 to 5 office job and is having no luck with his life outside of work and inside of work, his boss is horrible tyrant he can not stand, his coworkers are the bane of his life. His girlfriend is cheating on him with Barry from the office. He feels like he hasn’t left his mark on the world.
Step 2: The Call to Adventure
One day, Wesley finishes work and goes to the ATM before going to the store to pick up some medication, The ATM tells him he’s an asshole. In the store he is soon greeted by a mysterious woman named Fox played by Angelina Jolie who claims she knew his father and tells him that his father died yesterday. She brings it to Wes’s attention that his father was one of the greatest assassins to ever live. The other assassin is right behind him which then sparks a gun fight. This ends with Wes having a panic attack and Fox throwing him into a car before he passes out.
Step 3: Cross the First Threshold
Wes awakens in a factory and is met by the assassination groups leader, Sloan who is played by Morgan Freeman. Sloan forces Wesley at gunpoint to shoot the wings off of several flies. Wesley accomplishes this but isn’t sure why, Sloan explain that Wesley’s panic attacks are actually a rare condition that allows him to have a slower perception of time, whilst granting him superhuman strength and speed.
Step 4: Trials, Friends and Foes
Wesley leaves the building and awakes in his apartment the next day. He checks his bank and funnily enough, the ATM isn’t calling him an asshole anymore but instead tells him he has $3.6 million in his bank account. This is a turn of character for Wes and he returns to his 9 to 5office job, insults his annoying boss and hits his coworker, Barry, in the face with a keyboard. As he leaves the office, Fox is waiting outside to pick him up.
![Wanted Keyboard To The Face [HD] GIF | Gfycat](https://thumbs.gfycat.com/AdmiredMeanIguana-size_restricted.gif)
Step 5: Magical Mentor
Fox begins to train Wesley by teaching him endurance, knife fighting and hand to hand combat. She also teaches him how to control his abilities for firearm marksmanship allowing him to curve bullets around targets.
Step 6: Dragon’s Lair
Upon Sloan’s approval, he believes Wes is now ready to learn more about The Fraternity. He shows Wes the Loom of Fate. The Loom of Fate produces fabric that contains code names within the errors of the fabric. These code named lead the groups next hit.
Step 7: Moment of Despair
After several successful assassinations, Wesley has an unexpected shootout with another assassin named Cross. Cross had previously left the Fraternity and so, was on the hit list at risk of exposing the organizations secrets. At this time Wes accidentally and fatally shoots Fraternity member The Exterminator. Cross shoots Wes in the shoulder before managing to flee. Sloan grants Wesley his wish of going after Cross for revenge before secretly giving Fox a mission to kill Wesley, as the Loom demands.
Step 8: Ultimate Treasure
When Wes removes Cross’s bullet from his shoulder, he notices that is a traceable bullet, this is unusual for Cross as he had previously used Untraceable bullets. He traces the bullet back to someone who sets up a meeting between Cross and Wes. Wes comes across Cross on a moving train and starts to chase him through the carriages before Fox rams the train with a car causing the train to derail. Wesley shoots Cross but before Cross dies, he tells Wes that he is his real father. Fox confirms this to Wesley and says the only reason Wes was recruited was because he was the only person Cross would not shoot. Fox prepares to shoot Wes before Wes shoots the train window causing Wes and Cross to freefall into the river.
The contact who set the meeting up then reveals himself to be a close friend of Cross and shows him Cross’s apartment. Wes finds Cross’s secret room containing blueprints to the Fraternity base and weapons for Wes to use. Wes learns that Sloan started manufacturing targets for his own profits and that the other assassins have came up from the Loom.
Step 9: Homeward Bound
With the blueprints in hand, Wes launches an attack on the Fraternity and enters Sloan’s office. He is met by Sloan, Fox and the remaining assassins. Wes tells the other assassin’s of Sloan’s deception and Sloan tells the members they have two choices, kill themselves following the code of the Loom or kill Wesley and use their skills to control the world. Fox curves a bullet around the room killing all the assassins except Sloan who managed to escape.
Step 10: Rebirth and the Champions Return
Wesley returns to his desk job as he is now penniless and Sloan arrives at the office to kill Wes. When the person turns around in the chair, it is a decoy and Wes ends up shooting Sloan from Cross’s apartment miles away. Wes states he is taking back control of his life before breaking the 4th wall.
JORDAN | GLITCH ARCADE 