Today’s list of plot points is from Casino Royale, the James Bond reboot which introduced Daniel Craig as the iconic British spy. There are many things to admire about this script, penned by Bond veterans Neal Purvis & Robert Wade, along with Paul Haggis, whose writing career includes credits for Crash, Million Dollar Baby, and thirtysomething.
Synopsis The movie begins in a black-and-white sequence in the city of Prague, Czech Republic, where James Bond has tracked down an MI6 section chief, Dryden, who has been selling information to enemies for profit. Casino Royale is a 2006 spy film, the twenty-first in the Eon Productions James Bond series, and the third screen adaptation of Ian Fleming's 1953 novel of the same name.Directed by Martin Campbell and written by Neil Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis, it is the first film to star Daniel Craig as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond, and was produced by Eon Productions for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
One of the movie’s most enviable qualities is its tight structure. As I mentioned in screenwriting tip #6 in 12 Spy Scriptwriting Secrets from Casino Royale we know exactly why Bond is doing what he’s doing, producing an extremely tight chain of cause and effect–the backbone of any screenplay plot. Everything else–from character development, witty dialogue, and exotic settings–is just a bunch of bells of whistles which enhance the plot.
Speaking of exotic settings, a different one marks each major storytelling chunk. We’re introduced to Bond and hints of a nefarious plot primarily in Madagascar. The first half of Act Two, where Bond learns more about “Ellipsis,” and eventually thwarts it, takes place in the Bahamas and the Miami-Dade area.
The latter part of the second half, where Bond must win a high-stakes poker game against Le Chiffre, all occurs in Montenegro. Finally, the movie concludes with a double-crossing climax in Venice, Italy. Demarcating each of your acts with a change in setting is a sound strategy to emulate, especially if you follow spy screenwriting tip #3.
Still, even if you have a clear idea of the goal your hero is trying to achieve overall (and of the smaller goals he’ll need to undertake to eventually succeed), it’s a daunting task to write a screenplay which is both thrilling and unpredictable. Studying the plot points from Casino Royale may give you clues on how to do exactly that…
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