A challenge...

Randall_Oelerich

Randall_Oelerich

Veteran
I put this challenge to a friend of mine who started studying screenwriter. Also posting it here for anybody, but especially those learning the craft (I count myself in that group):

Most successful movies have a relationship subplot that also starts at about the 25-35% mark, along with the turn from Act I to Act II when the hero's goal becomes clear, or very close to that. Most often it is a romantic subplot with an 'Attractor' archetype character serving to arc another character on an emotional level (e.g. the romantic interest or 'Romance' character becomes an Attractor for the Hero or Heroine, helping them arc during their journey). Is there such a subplot in the film The Fugitive? Explain.
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Haven't seen it in a while - at what point does the "I don't care" scene with Tommy Lee Jones take place? I think it could probably be argued that TLJ and Harrison Ford's relationship would fit into the question you're posing.
 
I love that movie!

To be honest, I can only really remember there being two major plot lines in the movie: Dr. Kimble running away and Dr. Kimble trying to clear his name.

Perhaps it is around the 30-35% mark, not too far after the inciting incident, that we are acquainted with the subplot of Dr. Kimble's wrongful imprisonment and his crusade to prove he is innocent.
 
jscottprice said:
I love that movie!

To be honest, I can only really remember there being two major plot lines in the movie: Dr. Kimble running away and Dr. Kimble trying to clear his name.

Perhaps it is around the 30-35% mark, not too far after the inciting incident, that we are acquainted with the subplot of Dr. Kimble's wrongful imprisonment and his crusade to prove he is innocent.
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FWIW Here was my analysis of the basic plot points of the story/film as I emailed to my friend yesterday (he is studying screenwriting through an MFA they had to analyze The Fugitive):

HOOK: Page 1-10 (~0-9 minutes, 0-9%) Wife murdered, Dr. Kimball (Protag) arrested, framed for the murder (we know this by seeing them in love). Orphaned hero (wife dead).

INCITING @10% / 12 minutes- Sentenced to die by lethal injection (high stakes), off to prison, Hero's life is completely off balance. An innocent man wronged (classic story plot-- cf. Count of Monte Cristo, where both that and this story have plotlines involving escape, evade capture, and revenge).

GOAL @~25% / 24 minutes: Evade Capture (which is the spine of the story, the constant action throughout the story, evading capture by Tommy Lee Jones). TLJ says "Go get him!" at 24' or about 25% and we also see Hero running along the river to evade capture.

MIDPOINT: 67 minutes, close to 50% midpoint mark. Kimble narrows down one armed man and gets printout. (yes, same as you discovered; no going back to prison now, Hero has a short list of his wife's murderer, new secondary goal of revenge for his wife's death, find the one armed man!)

MAJOR SETBACK @80% or 100 miniutes: learns his best friend Devlin is behind a medical drug conspiracy and part of his wife's death.

CLIMAX/BATTLE: Confronts Devlin, Battle with friend and TLJ to evade capture.

RESOLUTION: Reporters questioning, see justice prevails with one arm man taken into custody, Kimble's handcuffs are removed.
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The answer is simple Randall. There is a romantic subplot in the Fugitive "script" but all of that was removed in the movie. In the script Ford actually ends up hooking up with his dead wifes sister. These scenes are lots of flashbacks to the courtroom spread out during the film. I read it last year so this might not be spot on.

So in the movie there is no relationship subplot. I would argue that TLJ character arc is the subplot.
 
odetotud said:
...So in the movie there is no relationship subplot. I would argue that TLJ character arc is the subplot.
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How about a relationship subplot between the characters played by HJ and TLJ? Does anybody see one of these two chars being an 'Attractor' archetype, serving a role of affecting the other character on an emotional level?
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
How about a relationship subplot between the characters played by HJ and TLJ? Does anybody see one of these two chars being an 'Attractor' archetype, serving a role of affecting the other character on an emotional level?
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Who's HJ? Do you mean HF (Ford)? If so, yes, that's what I thought first when you posed the question. It's the arc of their relationship that is the central one in the film. Of course it's not 'romantic', but it is a type of 'love' that is also commonly the central relationship arc in cop-buddy or other buddy-themed movies. It's TLJ's gradual understanding of his prey/buddy-of-sorts (and HF's understanding of the heart of his pursuer) that is the definitive relationship in the story (and much of what makes the film compelling). There is no other significant relationship in it that has as complete a through-line.

At least that's how I'd call it...

Lethal Weapon I is another famous (and excellent) example of this type of 'buddy-love' arc, if a more obvious one.
 
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My bad, yes I meant HF not HJ. :)
And yes I see a relationship (not romance) between HF and TLJ, perhaps even with HF as the 'Attractor' archetype (that is a term Scott Myers uses and teaches in his UCLA courses) challenging and arcing an emotional journey for TLJ.
 
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