(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO DID WHAT)
[Now for an example of an Extreme Plot Buster that causes much argument amongst players.]
Space mercenary helps farmboy destroy weapon of mass destruction.
Star Wars (1977) (later retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) An epic space opera written and directed by George Lucas, starring Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill.
[Notice a few things about this Extreme Plot Buster (EPB) example.
Firstly, that acronyms must be spelled out. So WMD counts as four words: weapon(s) of mass destruction.
Secondly, it is acceptable to miss out the preposition "to" as long as the meaning of the sentence is not compromised.
Lastly, it is not necessary to qualify the description (for example "space mercenary and yeti help") to distinguish it from Joss Whedon's Serenity (2005) because they are not the same story as some people would like to suggest. You know who you are!
A suitable EPB for Serenity (2005) might be
Space mercenary helps medic save weapon of mass destruction sister.]
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Episode_IV:_A_New_Hope
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_%28film%29
Tuesday 30 March 2010
Sunday 28 March 2010
Alfie (2004)
(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO LEARNS WHAT)
[This next Plot Buster is for a Hollywood remake of a classic bit of British cinema from the 1960s, which didn't turn out to be half as bad as many people would have thought:)]
Alfie (2004)
Written, directed and produced by Charles Shyer. With Jude Law, Marisa Tomei, Omar Epps, and Susan Sarandon.
In the end Jude Law learns that you only get out of a relationship what you are prepared to put into it, maybe?
Law plays the eponymous Vespa riding, limo driving, womanising, ambitious cockney about Manhattan.
With good looks and charm to spare, he is able to play the field without commitment. Leading him to wrongly imagine that he is smarter than everyone else, when it comes to matters of love.
However, through a succession of failed relationships, Law's credo of sex without consequences, while searching for the best deal available, is thrown into question.
He is first seen smoothly extricating himself from an extended involvement with a married woman who is beginning to show signs of wanting more than just the slap and tickle he has to offer.
However, in the aftermath of this skillful manoeuvre he inadvertently manages to ruin his best prospect to date for commitment, with single mum, Marisa Tomei, and her young son, whom Law has reluctantly grown to adore.
Law's several subsequent attempts to rekindle the relationship never succeed.
Initially, his disappointment barely registers, though, as, without even breaking stride, Law succeeds in bedding his intended business partner, Omar Epps's recent ex-girlfriend, Nia Long.
Surprisingly for Law, this one night stand actually re-unites the couple, who also happen to be his closest friends in the city.
However, all future plans that the interracial group have are ruined after the restored couple without warning decides to move up-state, after Law secretly helps Long attend an abortion clinic following her encounter with him.
Only much later does Law discover that there was no termination but that Epps still chose to commit to Long despite knowing that her baby was not his, but Law's.
Almost by accident, Law then begins what turns out to be a short-lived but intensely passionate affair with a stunningly beautiful though psychologically unstable young woman.
The impossibility of their long term happiness is brought home to Law, when he gets involved with a fabulously preserved, financially successful, freewheeling man-eater of an older woman played by Susan Sarandon, whose bedroom exploits eclipse even those of Law's. (Sarandon must have sold her soul for the part!)
At last Law thinks he has met his ideal partner and is ready for commitment.
It is ironic then, that it should be from Sarandon that Law learns most about the consequences of his self-indulgent take on life, when she casually rejects him for a younger man.
A rare display of bitter anger reveals just how much Law is affected by the realisation.
If there is a problem with Shyer's re-working of Bill Naughton's original 1966 screenplay adaption of his own novel and play, it is due to the updating of the story for a Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) generation.
Alfie was originally conceived as a brash, unsympathetic and irredeemable character, whose seemingly invulnerable exploits were only made tolerable by the brilliantly beguiling acting of Michael Caine.
In contrast, we pity, rather than despise, the poor life choices Law's, no less brilliantly portrayed, Alfie makes.
Taken on it's own terms the re-make is just as entertaining as the original, and even has something interesting to say about aspects of modern relationships.
It's just that its significance as social commentary could in no way match that of its predecessor, as life has inevitably moved on.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfie_%282004_film%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfie_%281966_film%29
[Keen witted readers of this Bust who are familiar with the re-make will no doubt be wondering what happened to the episode where Jude Law has a heart-to-heart conversation with a middle-aged man, played by Dick Latessa, whom he meets in the washroom of a cancer clinic.
Although Latessa gets to ask the immortal question "What's it all about, Alfie?" and later has a second encounter with Law during the film's final third, the part is not integral to the story.
So it has, so to speak, hit the Busting-room floor. Remember the Way of the Plot Buster: if it's not essential to the plot, don't include it.
So, this example highlights an important aspect of Plot Busting: reading a Plot Bust is not the same thing as seeing the movie.
But a Bust should represent the essence of a plot even if some of the detail is missing.]
[This next Plot Buster is for a Hollywood remake of a classic bit of British cinema from the 1960s, which didn't turn out to be half as bad as many people would have thought:)]
Alfie (2004)
Written, directed and produced by Charles Shyer. With Jude Law, Marisa Tomei, Omar Epps, and Susan Sarandon.
In the end Jude Law learns that you only get out of a relationship what you are prepared to put into it, maybe?
Law plays the eponymous Vespa riding, limo driving, womanising, ambitious cockney about Manhattan.
With good looks and charm to spare, he is able to play the field without commitment. Leading him to wrongly imagine that he is smarter than everyone else, when it comes to matters of love.
However, through a succession of failed relationships, Law's credo of sex without consequences, while searching for the best deal available, is thrown into question.
He is first seen smoothly extricating himself from an extended involvement with a married woman who is beginning to show signs of wanting more than just the slap and tickle he has to offer.
However, in the aftermath of this skillful manoeuvre he inadvertently manages to ruin his best prospect to date for commitment, with single mum, Marisa Tomei, and her young son, whom Law has reluctantly grown to adore.
Law's several subsequent attempts to rekindle the relationship never succeed.
Initially, his disappointment barely registers, though, as, without even breaking stride, Law succeeds in bedding his intended business partner, Omar Epps's recent ex-girlfriend, Nia Long.
Surprisingly for Law, this one night stand actually re-unites the couple, who also happen to be his closest friends in the city.
However, all future plans that the interracial group have are ruined after the restored couple without warning decides to move up-state, after Law secretly helps Long attend an abortion clinic following her encounter with him.
Only much later does Law discover that there was no termination but that Epps still chose to commit to Long despite knowing that her baby was not his, but Law's.
Almost by accident, Law then begins what turns out to be a short-lived but intensely passionate affair with a stunningly beautiful though psychologically unstable young woman.
The impossibility of their long term happiness is brought home to Law, when he gets involved with a fabulously preserved, financially successful, freewheeling man-eater of an older woman played by Susan Sarandon, whose bedroom exploits eclipse even those of Law's. (Sarandon must have sold her soul for the part!)
At last Law thinks he has met his ideal partner and is ready for commitment.
It is ironic then, that it should be from Sarandon that Law learns most about the consequences of his self-indulgent take on life, when she casually rejects him for a younger man.
A rare display of bitter anger reveals just how much Law is affected by the realisation.
If there is a problem with Shyer's re-working of Bill Naughton's original 1966 screenplay adaption of his own novel and play, it is due to the updating of the story for a Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) generation.
Alfie was originally conceived as a brash, unsympathetic and irredeemable character, whose seemingly invulnerable exploits were only made tolerable by the brilliantly beguiling acting of Michael Caine.
In contrast, we pity, rather than despise, the poor life choices Law's, no less brilliantly portrayed, Alfie makes.
Taken on it's own terms the re-make is just as entertaining as the original, and even has something interesting to say about aspects of modern relationships.
It's just that its significance as social commentary could in no way match that of its predecessor, as life has inevitably moved on.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfie_%282004_film%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfie_%281966_film%29
[Keen witted readers of this Bust who are familiar with the re-make will no doubt be wondering what happened to the episode where Jude Law has a heart-to-heart conversation with a middle-aged man, played by Dick Latessa, whom he meets in the washroom of a cancer clinic.
Although Latessa gets to ask the immortal question "What's it all about, Alfie?" and later has a second encounter with Law during the film's final third, the part is not integral to the story.
So it has, so to speak, hit the Busting-room floor. Remember the Way of the Plot Buster: if it's not essential to the plot, don't include it.
So, this example highlights an important aspect of Plot Busting: reading a Plot Bust is not the same thing as seeing the movie.
But a Bust should represent the essence of a plot even if some of the detail is missing.]
Monday 22 March 2010
The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995)
(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW HOW IT ALL ENDS)
[Now for another example of a mini Plot Buster created to help confirm a particular movie's title from a series of plot points.]
The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995) Written and directed by Philip Ridley, starring Brendan Fraser, Ashley Judd and Viggo Mortensen.
It all ends with Brendan Fraser being shot to death.
Fraser, in the title role, plays a rather simple youth with a passion for flagellation, recently expelled from the religious cult in which he grew up.
He is taken in by a slightly strange group of three friends, one of whom, played by Ashley Judd, he becomes infatuated with after overseeing her sunbathing topless, despite the fact that she already has a boyfriend in Viggo Mortensen.
Unfortunately, Judd's crazed mother, who disapproves of her daughter's choice of Mortensen, plays on Fraser's naivety and former cult beliefs in order to convince him to attack the couple.
During the ensuing fight Judd is barely able to make Fraser see sense, before the third member of the group bursts on the scene to save the couple from Fraser's attack by shotgunning him to death.
It's all a bit tragic, really.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passion_of_Darkly_Noon
Sunday 21 March 2010
WarGames (1983) (Extreme Plot Busting example)
(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO DID WHAT)
[And now for an example suggested to me that perfectly illustrates the art of Extreme Plot Busting. Obviously, the additional rule for such competitive Busting is not to use the stars' actual names.]
Teenage hacker saves world from nuclear oblivion.
WarGames (1983) Directed by John Badham. Stars Matthew Broderick as a young man who mistakes reality for game-playing when he gains access to a military central computer, almost triggering World War III as a result.
[EDIT: There are some other aspects to competitive Plot Busting that I have just been reminded of.
Such games usually require the players to stick to a specific movie genre.
Usually the descriptions are expected to be proper sentences, but that makes one word Busts impossible, which can limit the fun, so is rarely enforced.
Players can Bust the same movie plot as someone else, if they want to. But Busts themselves must be unambiguous. There's no point in coming up with a shorter description if it could be applied to more than one movie.
The winner is the person who comes up with the shortest description, that at least one other player can recognise. (This aspect of Extreme Plot Busting can lead to much argument. I have been in situations where competitors pretended never to have heard of The Wizard of Oz (1939)! Team playing is the only effective way of avoiding such gamesmanship tactics. Players are split into teams, and must describe a movie for their team members to recognise.)
To summarise, the supplementary rules for combat Busting are:
Rule #6 Use character descriptions only. In other words no names (character or actor), no words from the movie's title, and no quotations (that's another game.)
Rule #7 The description must be unambiguous. If anyone else in the game can identify another movie that fits the Busted description, then the description is disqualified.
Rule #8 Someone must recognise the movie from its Busted description.
Rule #9 The shortest description wins.]
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames
[And now for an example suggested to me that perfectly illustrates the art of Extreme Plot Busting. Obviously, the additional rule for such competitive Busting is not to use the stars' actual names.]
Teenage hacker saves world from nuclear oblivion.
WarGames (1983) Directed by John Badham. Stars Matthew Broderick as a young man who mistakes reality for game-playing when he gains access to a military central computer, almost triggering World War III as a result.
[EDIT: There are some other aspects to competitive Plot Busting that I have just been reminded of.
Such games usually require the players to stick to a specific movie genre.
Usually the descriptions are expected to be proper sentences, but that makes one word Busts impossible, which can limit the fun, so is rarely enforced.
Players can Bust the same movie plot as someone else, if they want to. But Busts themselves must be unambiguous. There's no point in coming up with a shorter description if it could be applied to more than one movie.
The winner is the person who comes up with the shortest description, that at least one other player can recognise. (This aspect of Extreme Plot Busting can lead to much argument. I have been in situations where competitors pretended never to have heard of The Wizard of Oz (1939)! Team playing is the only effective way of avoiding such gamesmanship tactics. Players are split into teams, and must describe a movie for their team members to recognise.)
To summarise, the supplementary rules for combat Busting are:
Rule #6 Use character descriptions only. In other words no names (character or actor), no words from the movie's title, and no quotations (that's another game.)
Rule #7 The description must be unambiguous. If anyone else in the game can identify another movie that fits the Busted description, then the description is disqualified.
Rule #8 Someone must recognise the movie from its Busted description.
Rule #9 The shortest description wins.]
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames
Hannibal Rising (2007)
(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHY HE DOES IT)
[And now an example that demonstrates why there is no such thing as a rule in Plot Busting.
When a character or characters of a plot are more famous than the actors portraying them, it makes more sense to ignore Rule #2, and describe the plot in terms of the characters rather than in terms of the players. This would also be appropriate if a character was played by more than one performer in situations, for instance, where they age significantly during the course of the movie.
However, in such situations, don't mix character and player names. Stick to one or other for the whole description. And if a character name is not easily identifiable, use a character description instead.
Rather unusually this Plot Buster was produced for someone who was desperate for an explanation of a character's motivation, but who couldn't face the prospect of seeing the actual movie, for obvious reasons.]
Hannibal Rising (2007)
Directed by Peter Webber. With Aaran Thomas, Gaspard Ulliel, Li Gong. A prequel to the thriller film series featuring the notoriously violent Hannibal Lecter character created by the author Thomas Harris.
Hannibal Lecter is a homicidal maniac because as a young boy he was forced to eat part of his own little sister.
Hiding from Nazi persecution near the end of the second world war, the young Lecter, played by Thomas, and his infant sister witness the deaths of their parents in the midst of a battle on the Eastern Front between German occupiers and Soviet liberators.
Worse is to come for the pair though as they are discovered by a starving band of looting former local collaborators, who in desperation kill Lecter's sister and then share her remains with him as food.
The rest of the movie follows Lecter as he grows into a young man exacting bloody revenge against his sister's killers, in the process becoming a cold blooded cannibalistic murderer himself.
The young Lecter spends most of the remainder of the war in a Soviet run hostel for displaced boys, where, played by Ulliel, he makes life very hard form himself by punishing rudeness and fighting bullying on his path to adulthood.
Fleeing the threatening environment of the hostel, he travels west across war ravaged Europe into France where he manages to trace his recently widowed aunt, an ancestor worshiping Japanese former noble, played by Gong, for whom he develops an ultimately unrequited infatuation.
It is while staying in his aunt's household that Lecter's obsession with fine food is kindled and it is from her that he (somewhat improbably) learns "the way of the warrior." Indeed, it is as a result of Lecter's defending of his aunt's honour, that his activities as a killer are first brought to the attention of the authorities.
Fortunately for Lecter, though, the French war crimes investigator, who had been on the trail of Lector's first victim, fails to find enough evidence on which to charge him. So Lecter is free to move to Paris to take up a working scholarship at medical school, which proves to be the ideal opportunity for him to hone his skills as an anatomist.
Lecter is somehow able to fit his quest for revenge around both his studies and job in the dissecting school, and in a series of increasingly gruesome dining related murders manages to work his way through the gang responsible for his sister's death.
Neither the authorities nor his aunt are in any doubt about Lecter's murderous activities, though. Nevertheless he is eventually able to evade justice and conceal his flight in an explosion aboard the barge owned by his penultimate victim.
Forced out of France, Lecter washes up on the shores of Canada where he is both able to complete his bloody quest and begin a whole new career of murder in the Americas.
If there is a problem with this explanation of Hannibal Lecter's rise to infamy, it is in the way that aspects of his character and subsequent history are shoehorned (sometimes ridiculously) into the plot, most notably in the link that is made between the iconic face mask that prison guards later force him to wear and the Japanese warrior face mask that his aunt owns and he chooses to try on for no other, apparent, reason than to provide an image for the movie's publicity poster to use.
However, the real problem with the film is the lack of Anthony Hopkins, without whom this macabre character study is reduced to mere pantomime horror.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Rising_%28film%29
[And now an example that demonstrates why there is no such thing as a rule in Plot Busting.
When a character or characters of a plot are more famous than the actors portraying them, it makes more sense to ignore Rule #2, and describe the plot in terms of the characters rather than in terms of the players. This would also be appropriate if a character was played by more than one performer in situations, for instance, where they age significantly during the course of the movie.
However, in such situations, don't mix character and player names. Stick to one or other for the whole description. And if a character name is not easily identifiable, use a character description instead.
Rather unusually this Plot Buster was produced for someone who was desperate for an explanation of a character's motivation, but who couldn't face the prospect of seeing the actual movie, for obvious reasons.]
Hannibal Rising (2007)
Directed by Peter Webber. With Aaran Thomas, Gaspard Ulliel, Li Gong. A prequel to the thriller film series featuring the notoriously violent Hannibal Lecter character created by the author Thomas Harris.
Hannibal Lecter is a homicidal maniac because as a young boy he was forced to eat part of his own little sister.
Hiding from Nazi persecution near the end of the second world war, the young Lecter, played by Thomas, and his infant sister witness the deaths of their parents in the midst of a battle on the Eastern Front between German occupiers and Soviet liberators.
Worse is to come for the pair though as they are discovered by a starving band of looting former local collaborators, who in desperation kill Lecter's sister and then share her remains with him as food.
The rest of the movie follows Lecter as he grows into a young man exacting bloody revenge against his sister's killers, in the process becoming a cold blooded cannibalistic murderer himself.
The young Lecter spends most of the remainder of the war in a Soviet run hostel for displaced boys, where, played by Ulliel, he makes life very hard form himself by punishing rudeness and fighting bullying on his path to adulthood.
Fleeing the threatening environment of the hostel, he travels west across war ravaged Europe into France where he manages to trace his recently widowed aunt, an ancestor worshiping Japanese former noble, played by Gong, for whom he develops an ultimately unrequited infatuation.
It is while staying in his aunt's household that Lecter's obsession with fine food is kindled and it is from her that he (somewhat improbably) learns "the way of the warrior." Indeed, it is as a result of Lecter's defending of his aunt's honour, that his activities as a killer are first brought to the attention of the authorities.
Fortunately for Lecter, though, the French war crimes investigator, who had been on the trail of Lector's first victim, fails to find enough evidence on which to charge him. So Lecter is free to move to Paris to take up a working scholarship at medical school, which proves to be the ideal opportunity for him to hone his skills as an anatomist.
Lecter is somehow able to fit his quest for revenge around both his studies and job in the dissecting school, and in a series of increasingly gruesome dining related murders manages to work his way through the gang responsible for his sister's death.
Neither the authorities nor his aunt are in any doubt about Lecter's murderous activities, though. Nevertheless he is eventually able to evade justice and conceal his flight in an explosion aboard the barge owned by his penultimate victim.
Forced out of France, Lecter washes up on the shores of Canada where he is both able to complete his bloody quest and begin a whole new career of murder in the Americas.
If there is a problem with this explanation of Hannibal Lecter's rise to infamy, it is in the way that aspects of his character and subsequent history are shoehorned (sometimes ridiculously) into the plot, most notably in the link that is made between the iconic face mask that prison guards later force him to wear and the Japanese warrior face mask that his aunt owns and he chooses to try on for no other, apparent, reason than to provide an image for the movie's publicity poster to use.
However, the real problem with the film is the lack of Anthony Hopkins, without whom this macabre character study is reduced to mere pantomime horror.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Rising_%28film%29
Thursday 18 March 2010
The Way of the Plot Buster
(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO DID WHAT)
Does anyone know the way? / Did we hear someone say?
We just haven't got a clue what to do
Does anyone know the way? / There's got to be a way
To Plot Buster!
No doubt, if you've been following the examples of Plot Busting up until now, you're beginning to detect a pattern.
Indeed, many people would recognise the process of Plot Busting either as the well known party game where players have to describe the plot of a movie in as few words as possible without using any words from its title, the absolute classic example of which is "police chief kills big fish," or even from their time at school, "summarise the following movie in one hundred words or less."
So, clearly there can be different degrees of Busterisation, where the school assignment represents what would be considered as Regular Plot Busting, and the party game would be referred to as Extreme Plot Busting.
As a rule, Extreme Plot Busting is only useful in competitive situations, like party games, or quiz nights.
The sort of Plot Busting that this blog is concerned with is either Regular or Advanced. And perhaps it would be useful to anyone interested in trying out a bit of Busting for themselves, if some rules were established to guide them. A kind of Plot Buster Training Program, if you will.
All the Plot Busters that feature here start with a brief introduction, stating the name of the film, the year it was released, who the director was, and who the stars are that will feature in the description. These introductions are not an essential part of the Plot Busting process, though.
So, the first rule of Buster Club is...
Rule #1 State the outcome of the plot first. There is nothing more important.
Rule #2 Never use character names from the plot, always refer to the performers by name. This is because the names of performers are generally more recognisable than those of the characters they play. For example, everyone will recognise Johnny Depp, but they might not be able to put a face to Gilbert Grape.
Rule #3 Ignore details that don't affect the eventual outcome of the plot. It is essentially the degree to which you do this that determines whether you are performing Regular, Advanced or Extreme Plot Busting.
Rule #4 Ignore the order in which the plot is played out in the movie. In particular, if the director has been monkeying about with the chronology of events in the movie (examples include Memento (2000) and Pulp Fiction (1994) ) don't be afraid to restore them to real-time. And only introduce a detail as it is necessary to the explanation. So don't mention something first just because it happened at the start of the movie, if its relevance only becomes apparent at the end.
Rule #5 There are no rules, except for Rule #1, of course. There are only guidelines.
So, now that you've just learned Plot Busting, "show me!"
Does anyone know the way? / Did we hear someone say?
We just haven't got a clue what to do
Does anyone know the way? / There's got to be a way
To Plot Buster!
No doubt, if you've been following the examples of Plot Busting up until now, you're beginning to detect a pattern.
Indeed, many people would recognise the process of Plot Busting either as the well known party game where players have to describe the plot of a movie in as few words as possible without using any words from its title, the absolute classic example of which is "police chief kills big fish," or even from their time at school, "summarise the following movie in one hundred words or less."
So, clearly there can be different degrees of Busterisation, where the school assignment represents what would be considered as Regular Plot Busting, and the party game would be referred to as Extreme Plot Busting.
As a rule, Extreme Plot Busting is only useful in competitive situations, like party games, or quiz nights.
The sort of Plot Busting that this blog is concerned with is either Regular or Advanced. And perhaps it would be useful to anyone interested in trying out a bit of Busting for themselves, if some rules were established to guide them. A kind of Plot Buster Training Program, if you will.
All the Plot Busters that feature here start with a brief introduction, stating the name of the film, the year it was released, who the director was, and who the stars are that will feature in the description. These introductions are not an essential part of the Plot Busting process, though.
So, the first rule of Buster Club is...
Rule #1 State the outcome of the plot first. There is nothing more important.
Rule #2 Never use character names from the plot, always refer to the performers by name. This is because the names of performers are generally more recognisable than those of the characters they play. For example, everyone will recognise Johnny Depp, but they might not be able to put a face to Gilbert Grape.
Rule #3 Ignore details that don't affect the eventual outcome of the plot. It is essentially the degree to which you do this that determines whether you are performing Regular, Advanced or Extreme Plot Busting.
Rule #4 Ignore the order in which the plot is played out in the movie. In particular, if the director has been monkeying about with the chronology of events in the movie (examples include Memento (2000) and Pulp Fiction (1994) ) don't be afraid to restore them to real-time. And only introduce a detail as it is necessary to the explanation. So don't mention something first just because it happened at the start of the movie, if its relevance only becomes apparent at the end.
Rule #5 There are no rules, except for Rule #1, of course. There are only guidelines.
So, now that you've just learned Plot Busting, "show me!"
Donnie Darko (2001)
(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO DIES IN THE END)
[And now for a classic mini Plot Buster. If I had a penny for every time someone's said that they didn't understand the subject of this movie, well I wouldn't exactly be a millionaire, but I'd certainly be on my way.
The problem with some movies is that they practically defy being Busted, because you pare away so much of the irrelevant plot, that you suddenly find yourself with an empty pair of hands. Under those circumstances everyone has the right to say that they didn't understand what was going on;)]
Donnie Darko (2001) is an American science fiction film written and directed by Richard Kelly, starring Jake Gyllenhaal.
Jake Gyllenhaal dies in the end.
Jake Gyllenhaal is a troubled high school student, whose habit of sleepwalking miraculously saves him from being killed when a jet engine falls through a time-warp and then through his bedroom ceiling.
Following this near miss he falls in love with the new girl in school, while suffering a series of increasingly surreal hallucinations that lead him to discover the secret of time travel.
When his new girl is accidentally killed by a swerving car, Jake Gyllenhaal uses this knowledge to wind back time to save her, but in the process is himself killed by the same aircraft engine that had fallen on his previously empty bed.
I've left out various sub-plots. But that's basically what the film's about:)
[Notice that although it would be usual to abbreviate Jake Gyllenhaal to just Gyllenhaal in a Plot Buster, in this case his name is used in full, to disambiguate it from that of his sister's, Maggie, who also stars in the movie, although that fact is not included in the Bust.]
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_Darko
[And now for a classic mini Plot Buster. If I had a penny for every time someone's said that they didn't understand the subject of this movie, well I wouldn't exactly be a millionaire, but I'd certainly be on my way.
The problem with some movies is that they practically defy being Busted, because you pare away so much of the irrelevant plot, that you suddenly find yourself with an empty pair of hands. Under those circumstances everyone has the right to say that they didn't understand what was going on;)]
Donnie Darko (2001) is an American science fiction film written and directed by Richard Kelly, starring Jake Gyllenhaal.
Jake Gyllenhaal dies in the end.
Jake Gyllenhaal is a troubled high school student, whose habit of sleepwalking miraculously saves him from being killed when a jet engine falls through a time-warp and then through his bedroom ceiling.
Following this near miss he falls in love with the new girl in school, while suffering a series of increasingly surreal hallucinations that lead him to discover the secret of time travel.
When his new girl is accidentally killed by a swerving car, Jake Gyllenhaal uses this knowledge to wind back time to save her, but in the process is himself killed by the same aircraft engine that had fallen on his previously empty bed.
I've left out various sub-plots. But that's basically what the film's about:)
[Notice that although it would be usual to abbreviate Jake Gyllenhaal to just Gyllenhaal in a Plot Buster, in this case his name is used in full, to disambiguate it from that of his sister's, Maggie, who also stars in the movie, although that fact is not included in the Bust.]
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_Darko
Perfect Stranger (2007)
(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO DID IT)
[Now for the first mini Plot Buster, where only enough of the plot is described in order to understand the ending. Not surprisingly this resulted from a query from someone who missed a vital moment near the end of the movie, and therefore couldn't understant how things had managed to work out just the way they did.]
Perfect Stranger (2007) is a psychological thriller film directed by James Foley, starring Halle Berry and Bruce Willis.
The Halle Berry character is the murderer.
She killed her "friend" played by Nicki Aycox, because she was being blackmailed by her, after Aycox witnessed Berry and her mother killing her abusive father as a child.
Because of his broken-off affair with Aycox, Berry was able to frame the Bruce Willis character and so hide her own guilt.
But Berry ends up killing Willis in order to maintain the secret, later claiming to the police that she was acting in self-defence, as Willis must have indeed been the true murderer.
Unfortunately for Berry, her cold-blooded murder of the innocent Willis is also witnessed. Time for a sequel!
I hope that this has unraveled the somewhat tortuous plot twists for you.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_Stranger_%28film%29
[Now for the first mini Plot Buster, where only enough of the plot is described in order to understand the ending. Not surprisingly this resulted from a query from someone who missed a vital moment near the end of the movie, and therefore couldn't understant how things had managed to work out just the way they did.]
Perfect Stranger (2007) is a psychological thriller film directed by James Foley, starring Halle Berry and Bruce Willis.
The Halle Berry character is the murderer.
She killed her "friend" played by Nicki Aycox, because she was being blackmailed by her, after Aycox witnessed Berry and her mother killing her abusive father as a child.
Because of his broken-off affair with Aycox, Berry was able to frame the Bruce Willis character and so hide her own guilt.
But Berry ends up killing Willis in order to maintain the secret, later claiming to the police that she was acting in self-defence, as Willis must have indeed been the true murderer.
Unfortunately for Berry, her cold-blooded murder of the innocent Willis is also witnessed. Time for a sequel!
I hope that this has unraveled the somewhat tortuous plot twists for you.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_Stranger_%28film%29
Wednesday 17 March 2010
Seconds (1966)
(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO ROCK)
[This Plot Buster resulted from a request to identify a film title, not because the plot was difficult to understand. The asker wanted the name of a black&white movie concerning some man who worked for either the CIA or the FBI, and who had plastic surgery in order to go deep undercover. The only other facts that the poster could recall were that there was a scene which showed various charts and diagrams of the agent's new face, and that there was a shocking ending when the agent revealed his new face in the mirror.
The question languished for several days without receiving any attention, until I wondered if the asker might have mis-remembered some aspects of the movie. I thought I recognised it. So the purpose of the Plot Buster was to give just enough information for the asker to recognise whether or not I had found the right title.]
Seconds (1966) is an American black & white film thriller directed by John Frankenheimer with a screenplay by Lewis John Carlino, based on a novel by David Ely. It was released by Paramount Pictures and starred Rock Hudson.
At the end of the movie Rock Husdon discovers that he is about to be murdered because of a deal he unwittingly signed up to.
Because he is suffering a mid-life crisis, Rock Hudson engages the services of a secret organisation that promises its customers the chance of a new life.
The way that the deal works is that both Hudson and an employee of the organisation undergo plastic surgery. Hudson is given a new face, while the employee is given Hudson's.
Hudson is then setup in his new life by the organisation, while the unfortunate employee is killed in what is made to look like a terrible accident, thus freeing Hudson from all the responsibilities of his old life.
Despite all the considerable trouble that the organisation goes to in order to provide Hudson with a fresh start, he soon realises that things aren't really working out the way he had hoped.
So he decides to take the organisation up on their offer of a second free transformation, if he wasn't entirely satisfied with the first one.
The terrible consequences of this deal only become apparent to Hudson at the very end of the movie, after he reveals his second new face in front of the mirror.
As he removes the bandages, he realises that he recognises the face in the mirror as that of the organisation's latest customer, a man he met only in passing as he arrived for his second round of surgery. The implications of this new face for his immediate future are instantly apparent to him.
The anonymous headquarters and secretive nature of the Seconds organisation would be easy to associate with some government agency. And their actions in setting Hudson up in a new life could easily be mistaken for some sort of undercover operation. So I think that there's a good chance that the movie that you're trying to recall is the one described.
It was an uncharacteristically serious role for Hudson, and was regarded as his best performance in movies, although his only ever Oscar nomination was for his earlier appearance in Giant (1956).
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seconds_%28film%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Hudson
[This Plot Buster resulted from a request to identify a film title, not because the plot was difficult to understand. The asker wanted the name of a black&white movie concerning some man who worked for either the CIA or the FBI, and who had plastic surgery in order to go deep undercover. The only other facts that the poster could recall were that there was a scene which showed various charts and diagrams of the agent's new face, and that there was a shocking ending when the agent revealed his new face in the mirror.
The question languished for several days without receiving any attention, until I wondered if the asker might have mis-remembered some aspects of the movie. I thought I recognised it. So the purpose of the Plot Buster was to give just enough information for the asker to recognise whether or not I had found the right title.]
Seconds (1966) is an American black & white film thriller directed by John Frankenheimer with a screenplay by Lewis John Carlino, based on a novel by David Ely. It was released by Paramount Pictures and starred Rock Hudson.
At the end of the movie Rock Husdon discovers that he is about to be murdered because of a deal he unwittingly signed up to.
Because he is suffering a mid-life crisis, Rock Hudson engages the services of a secret organisation that promises its customers the chance of a new life.
The way that the deal works is that both Hudson and an employee of the organisation undergo plastic surgery. Hudson is given a new face, while the employee is given Hudson's.
Hudson is then setup in his new life by the organisation, while the unfortunate employee is killed in what is made to look like a terrible accident, thus freeing Hudson from all the responsibilities of his old life.
Despite all the considerable trouble that the organisation goes to in order to provide Hudson with a fresh start, he soon realises that things aren't really working out the way he had hoped.
So he decides to take the organisation up on their offer of a second free transformation, if he wasn't entirely satisfied with the first one.
The terrible consequences of this deal only become apparent to Hudson at the very end of the movie, after he reveals his second new face in front of the mirror.
As he removes the bandages, he realises that he recognises the face in the mirror as that of the organisation's latest customer, a man he met only in passing as he arrived for his second round of surgery. The implications of this new face for his immediate future are instantly apparent to him.
The anonymous headquarters and secretive nature of the Seconds organisation would be easy to associate with some government agency. And their actions in setting Hudson up in a new life could easily be mistaken for some sort of undercover operation. So I think that there's a good chance that the movie that you're trying to recall is the one described.
It was an uncharacteristically serious role for Hudson, and was regarded as his best performance in movies, although his only ever Oscar nomination was for his earlier appearance in Giant (1956).
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seconds_%28film%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Hudson
A Perfect Getaway (2009)
(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO THE KILLERS ARE)
[This is the posting that prompted me to create Plot Busters. Someone posted that they nodded off during the performace, and didn't understand the movie. The advice that they received was to look it up on Wikipedia. They deleted their question before I had time to post a Plot Buster.]
A Perfect Getaway (2009) is an American psychological thriller film written and directed by David Twohy, starring Chris Hemsworth, Milla Jovovich, Kiele Sanchez, Timothy Olyphant, Steve Zahn and Marley Shelton. The film was shot in Puerto Rico and Hawaii, and its plot contain so many twists, turns and blind alleys, that it would defeat even the cleverest of champion maze solving lab rats.
(The plot summary available on Wikipedia is of very little help in unraveling the story, as it appears to have been written by somebody who themselves fell asleep at some point during the performance.)
The Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich characters are the killers.
Although the movie begins by portraying them as a mild-mannered and happy newlywed couple enjoying a hiking honeymoon in the wilds of Hawaii, they are eventually revealed to be a pair of psychopaths who are trying to make a career for themselves by murdering other couples whose identities they assume.
On their way by jeep to a particularly remote and beautiful beach the couple run into another pair of, seemingly less clean cut, hikers, played by Hemsworth and Shelton, who Zahn and Jovovich don't offer a lift to, despite the fact that they are on their way to the same beach.
Further along the trail Zahn and Jovovich meet a second couple of more experienced hikers, played by Olyphant and Sanchez, who they decide to team up with on their journey.
However, the widom of this decision soon comes into question when the group discovers a distressed young woman who has heard frightening news of a brutal slaying of yet another honeymooning couple on a nearby island, their teeth having been removed as part of the murder, ...
because Olyphant has been recounting his time as a member of the special forces involved in the invasion of Iraq, and Sanchez has demonstrated considerable skill with a knife by butchering a goat that Olyphant killed for everyones' supper.
Calm is temporarily restored within the group as the local police arrest the apparently sinister pair, whom Zahn and Jovovich had failed to give a lift in their jeep to earlier, after a collection of teeth is found in Hemsworth possession.
However, the truth of the situation is revealed, and blind panic restored, when the Sanchez character accidentally discovers camcorder footage of Zahn and Jovovich rehearing their new identities, those of their most recent victims.
All of Olyphant's military training, and Sanchez's butchering skills come into play in their ensuing battle for survival with Zahn and Jovovich, in which Olyphant only manages (somewhat improbably) to escape death from a bullet to the head by virtue of the metal plate that was put there following a previous encounter with a granade during his time in service.
In the end Olyphant and Sanchez prevail, but only after she pulls him out of the line of fire of a sniper, one of a number of police who have gotten involved in the chase, who luckily ends up killing Zahn insteed.
The movie closes with Olyphant proposing marriage to Sanchez, as they are airlifted from the scene. Perhaps not surprisingly, they both agree to forgo the pleasures of a honeymoon.
It is a testament to the skill of Twohy as a writer and a director that he manages to pull off this slight of hand, without leaving the audience feeling cheated by unforeseeable plot twists.
The clues are all there it you can manage to spot them. It's just that they've been so cleverly mashed up that he is able to play on an audience's expectations, so that the plot twists, when they do occur, are genuinely surprising.
But, as you found out, take your eyes off the action for even a moment, and you'll be lost.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Perfect_Getaway
http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/movies/07perfect.html
http://outlawvern.com/2010/01/13/a-perfect-getaway/
http://www.cinemademerde.com/Perfect_Getaway.shtml
And that's how we Plot Bust.
[This is the posting that prompted me to create Plot Busters. Someone posted that they nodded off during the performace, and didn't understand the movie. The advice that they received was to look it up on Wikipedia. They deleted their question before I had time to post a Plot Buster.]
A Perfect Getaway (2009) is an American psychological thriller film written and directed by David Twohy, starring Chris Hemsworth, Milla Jovovich, Kiele Sanchez, Timothy Olyphant, Steve Zahn and Marley Shelton. The film was shot in Puerto Rico and Hawaii, and its plot contain so many twists, turns and blind alleys, that it would defeat even the cleverest of champion maze solving lab rats.
(The plot summary available on Wikipedia is of very little help in unraveling the story, as it appears to have been written by somebody who themselves fell asleep at some point during the performance.)
The Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich characters are the killers.
Although the movie begins by portraying them as a mild-mannered and happy newlywed couple enjoying a hiking honeymoon in the wilds of Hawaii, they are eventually revealed to be a pair of psychopaths who are trying to make a career for themselves by murdering other couples whose identities they assume.
On their way by jeep to a particularly remote and beautiful beach the couple run into another pair of, seemingly less clean cut, hikers, played by Hemsworth and Shelton, who Zahn and Jovovich don't offer a lift to, despite the fact that they are on their way to the same beach.
Further along the trail Zahn and Jovovich meet a second couple of more experienced hikers, played by Olyphant and Sanchez, who they decide to team up with on their journey.
However, the widom of this decision soon comes into question when the group discovers a distressed young woman who has heard frightening news of a brutal slaying of yet another honeymooning couple on a nearby island, their teeth having been removed as part of the murder, ...
because Olyphant has been recounting his time as a member of the special forces involved in the invasion of Iraq, and Sanchez has demonstrated considerable skill with a knife by butchering a goat that Olyphant killed for everyones' supper.
Calm is temporarily restored within the group as the local police arrest the apparently sinister pair, whom Zahn and Jovovich had failed to give a lift in their jeep to earlier, after a collection of teeth is found in Hemsworth possession.
However, the truth of the situation is revealed, and blind panic restored, when the Sanchez character accidentally discovers camcorder footage of Zahn and Jovovich rehearing their new identities, those of their most recent victims.
All of Olyphant's military training, and Sanchez's butchering skills come into play in their ensuing battle for survival with Zahn and Jovovich, in which Olyphant only manages (somewhat improbably) to escape death from a bullet to the head by virtue of the metal plate that was put there following a previous encounter with a granade during his time in service.
In the end Olyphant and Sanchez prevail, but only after she pulls him out of the line of fire of a sniper, one of a number of police who have gotten involved in the chase, who luckily ends up killing Zahn insteed.
The movie closes with Olyphant proposing marriage to Sanchez, as they are airlifted from the scene. Perhaps not surprisingly, they both agree to forgo the pleasures of a honeymoon.
It is a testament to the skill of Twohy as a writer and a director that he manages to pull off this slight of hand, without leaving the audience feeling cheated by unforeseeable plot twists.
The clues are all there it you can manage to spot them. It's just that they've been so cleverly mashed up that he is able to play on an audience's expectations, so that the plot twists, when they do occur, are genuinely surprising.
But, as you found out, take your eyes off the action for even a moment, and you'll be lost.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Perfect_Getaway
http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/movies/07perfect.html
http://outlawvern.com/2010/01/13/a-perfect-getaway/
http://www.cinemademerde.com/Perfect_Getaway.shtml
And that's how we Plot Bust.
Motivation of a Plot Buster
(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO DID WHAT)
You may be wondering why anyone would want to attract the sort of abuse that some kill-joy standing up at the start of The Crying Game (1992) and shouting out, at the top of their voice, "The girl's a dude, man!" would do? (I was actually in a theatre once when just such a thing happened!)
I love movies. And the last thing I would want to do is spoil someone else's enjoyment of them.
I enjoy seeing movie trailers, reading movie reviews, seeing movies on both the big and small screens.
And I enjoy discussing movies with my friends afterwards, and seeing what Web forum contributors think about movies they've seen. And sometimes I'm inspired to contribute my own thoughts online.
Sometimes what people say about a movie is "I haven't a clue what was going on. It had me completely lost."
Unfortunately, very often when they admit this online, and ask for help, the responses that they receive are, "why don't you just look it up on the Net."
The problem with such advice is that almost exclusively what's available on the Net is derived from publicity material that was produced for the movie's release.
And of course, the problem with publicity material is that it doesn't tell the whole story. And, worst still, it has "very occasionally" been known to mislead the audience.
So if you weren't supposed to understand the movie by reading its publicity material beforehand, how can it possibly help you to understand the movie to read it afterwards?
I have occasionally been known to take pity on these innocent victims under such circumstances, and provide a short Plot Buster as best I can.
However, the more of these that I have produced, the harder it is to keep track of them. And in some cases so much scorn and vitriol is poured on the poor asker, that they have decided to delete their question, and my efforts are wasted.
So as much as anything this blog is somewhere safe for me to collect my forum contributions together, as and when I make them.
Please don't be too disappointed if you can't find your favourite movie Busted. It just means that no one else has failed to get it, yet. Or, at least, no one's prepared to admit that they didn't get it:)
So, Movie Plot Busting isn't supposed to help decide whether or not to see a certain movie. It's an autopsy performed after the event, so that you can understand what it was that you either enjoyed or didn't enjoy.
Without further ado, let's get on and Bust some Movies:)
(One very last note. I am dyslexic. So if you spot some mistakes, try to be kind:)
You may be wondering why anyone would want to attract the sort of abuse that some kill-joy standing up at the start of The Crying Game (1992) and shouting out, at the top of their voice, "The girl's a dude, man!" would do? (I was actually in a theatre once when just such a thing happened!)
I love movies. And the last thing I would want to do is spoil someone else's enjoyment of them.
I enjoy seeing movie trailers, reading movie reviews, seeing movies on both the big and small screens.
And I enjoy discussing movies with my friends afterwards, and seeing what Web forum contributors think about movies they've seen. And sometimes I'm inspired to contribute my own thoughts online.
Sometimes what people say about a movie is "I haven't a clue what was going on. It had me completely lost."
Unfortunately, very often when they admit this online, and ask for help, the responses that they receive are, "why don't you just look it up on the Net."
The problem with such advice is that almost exclusively what's available on the Net is derived from publicity material that was produced for the movie's release.
And of course, the problem with publicity material is that it doesn't tell the whole story. And, worst still, it has "very occasionally" been known to mislead the audience.
So if you weren't supposed to understand the movie by reading its publicity material beforehand, how can it possibly help you to understand the movie to read it afterwards?
I have occasionally been known to take pity on these innocent victims under such circumstances, and provide a short Plot Buster as best I can.
However, the more of these that I have produced, the harder it is to keep track of them. And in some cases so much scorn and vitriol is poured on the poor asker, that they have decided to delete their question, and my efforts are wasted.
So as much as anything this blog is somewhere safe for me to collect my forum contributions together, as and when I make them.
Please don't be too disappointed if you can't find your favourite movie Busted. It just means that no one else has failed to get it, yet. Or, at least, no one's prepared to admit that they didn't get it:)
So, Movie Plot Busting isn't supposed to help decide whether or not to see a certain movie. It's an autopsy performed after the event, so that you can understand what it was that you either enjoyed or didn't enjoy.
Without further ado, let's get on and Bust some Movies:)
(One very last note. I am dyslexic. So if you spot some mistakes, try to be kind:)
Plot Busters Mission Statement
After reading such an over-the-top Welcome message, you're probably wondering what Movie Plot Busting is all about, and what you can expect to find here in the future if you choose to take the Red Pill?
In a nutshell, what you can expect to find is a (SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO DID WHAT) warning message heading up each posting, because what follows will be a no nonsense, no holds barred, no punches pulled summary of the plot of a movie.
A Plot Buster is a summary of the plot of a movie that leaves no doubt about who did what to whom, and, if possible, why. The story will be cut back to the bone, for better or for worse.
The point of Plot Busting is not to tease the audience into buying tickets, or renting DVDs. It is to help the poor souls who handed over their hard earned cash, to understand what they've just paid to see.
Where movie reviewers fear to tread, Plot Busters will boldly go.
In a nutshell, what you can expect to find is a (SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO DID WHAT) warning message heading up each posting, because what follows will be a no nonsense, no holds barred, no punches pulled summary of the plot of a movie.
A Plot Buster is a summary of the plot of a movie that leaves no doubt about who did what to whom, and, if possible, why. The story will be cut back to the bone, for better or for worse.
The point of Plot Busting is not to tease the audience into buying tickets, or renting DVDs. It is to help the poor souls who handed over their hard earned cash, to understand what they've just paid to see.
Where movie reviewers fear to tread, Plot Busters will boldly go.
Welcome to the Jungle
When there's something strange / In your picture house
Who 'ya gonna call? / Plot Busters!
Welcome to Genuine Jon's Movie Plot Busters, an occasional foray into the sometimes twisted world of motion picture story lines.
With apologies to Andy and Larry Wachowski...
Friend, sooner or later, you're going to realize, just as I did, that there's a difference between seeing the movie and understanding the plot.
I don't know if you're ready for what I have to show you, but unfortunately, your choices are limited.
Let me tell you why you are here.
You have come because you want to know something.
You're here because you know that there is something wrong.
You don't know what, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.
The hype. The hype is everywhere, it's all around us.
Even now, in this very blogosphere.
You can see it when you go to the pictures or turn on your television.
You can sense it when you read the paper, or when you go to the mall, or when you listen to the radio.
It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
The truth. That you are a slave, friend.
Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside the prison of publicity that you cannot smell, taste, or touch.
A prison for your mind.
Unfortunately, no one is ever told what the hype is. You have to weed it out for yourself.
This is your last chance. After this, there is no going back.
You take the blue pill. The story ends. You go back to your reviews and believe whatever the publicists want you to believe.
You take the red pill. You stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
Remember... all I am offering is the truth. Nothing more.
Who 'ya gonna call? / Plot Busters!
Welcome to Genuine Jon's Movie Plot Busters, an occasional foray into the sometimes twisted world of motion picture story lines.
With apologies to Andy and Larry Wachowski...
Friend, sooner or later, you're going to realize, just as I did, that there's a difference between seeing the movie and understanding the plot.
I don't know if you're ready for what I have to show you, but unfortunately, your choices are limited.
Let me tell you why you are here.
You have come because you want to know something.
You're here because you know that there is something wrong.
You don't know what, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.
The hype. The hype is everywhere, it's all around us.
Even now, in this very blogosphere.
You can see it when you go to the pictures or turn on your television.
You can sense it when you read the paper, or when you go to the mall, or when you listen to the radio.
It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
The truth. That you are a slave, friend.
Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside the prison of publicity that you cannot smell, taste, or touch.
A prison for your mind.
Unfortunately, no one is ever told what the hype is. You have to weed it out for yourself.
This is your last chance. After this, there is no going back.
You take the blue pill. The story ends. You go back to your reviews and believe whatever the publicists want you to believe.
You take the red pill. You stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
Remember... all I am offering is the truth. Nothing more.
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