[spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] MAD MAX: FURY ROAD & The Engine of Structure By Jacob Krueger [/spb_text_block] [divider type="thin" text="Go to top" full_width="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [blank_spacer height="30px" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block title="TRANSCRIPTION" pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] Hello! I'm Jacob Krueger and welcome to the Write Your Screenplay podcast. As you know, in this podcast, rather than looking at movies in terms of two thumbs, up two thumbs down, loved it, hated it, we try to look at movies in terms of what we can learn from them, as screenwriters. We look at good movies and we look at bad movies and everything in between. This week, we're going to be looking at one of the most critically acclaimed action movies in recent history: Mad Max: Fury Road. Now, forget for a minute whether you love action movies or you hate action movies. Forget whether ultra-violent movies make you happy or they make you want to run for the hills because I want to talk about Mad Max: Fury Road in terms of the things that we can all learn from it, as screenwriters, regardless of the genre that we are writing in and regardless of the challenges that we’re having in our writing. So, the first thing that you should notice when you're watching Mad Max: Fury Road is that it ain't about the plot. The actual plot of Mad Max: Fury Road is ridiculously simple: they drive out into the desert in search of the green place and then they drive back in the other direction. Literally. The only thing that really happens in this movie is that Mad Max and Furiosa head in one direction and then head back home. Along the way, as they are trying to get to their own personal Valhalla - that green place that they dream of; that place in the desert that they're navigating toward - they are attacked by the most horrific figments of director George Miller's imagination. Every path has a road block or an obstacle worse than the one that they imagined before. And this simple trick of structure is a trick that you can use, regardless of what kind of movie you're building. Oftentimes, as writers, we get obsessed with plot. We start to think that our movies are about the things that happen, but the truth is that plot is interchangeable. Who really cares if you're in a desert or driving through the mountains or navigating a salt flat or a bog? Structure is not about plot. Plot is just the things that happen to happen to your character. Structure is about choices. And it's not just about any choice. It's about choices driven by the primal needs of your characters. It's about choices that matter. It's about choices that your characters pursue against tremendous obstacles - obstacles that seem too big to be navigated. Obstacles, in fact, that are so big that they force your characters to change who they are in relation to them. They force your character to change their relationship to the world in relation to them. The reason that Mad Max: Fury Road works is not because of it's plot. It works because of its structure. And that structure begins with the primal needs driving its main characters. Interestingly, Furiosa really is the main character in Mad Max. She is the character who drives the story. At the center of Furiosa's drive or struggle in this movie is a desperate need to hope. A desperate need to believe in a better place. And desperate need to build that better place, not only for herself, but for the five concubines/wives of the evil, tyrannical, cultish dictator by whom she was taken captive. She is driven by a primal need to find that green place that was taken away from her when she was a child. That green place in the desert - that personal symbol of hope. And underneath that need is a need for justice. A need that we can all connect to,