Analysis of Perfect Plot: The Futigive

We sat down on Sunday night to watch The Fugitive as a family. It was our last family night before 18 went off to college on Monday night. The movies is an old favorite of both mine and my husband's (though for different reasons, I suspect. Mine have to do with a long-time Harrison Ford crush). But I had been thinking about the problem with many stories and their lack of plot clarity. The Fugitive is possibly the perfect movie plot and I think there is a lot to learn from it. I kept stopping the movie frequently and asking my kids (they got tired of this) what the motivation of each character was in each scene. You hardly ever have a question, though the movie does try to surprise the audience a couple of times.

1--how backstory is handled. The beginning of the movie does a lot of backstory, but it tells the backstory as a story in itself. It's not boring details being narrated by someone else. It's all in-scene and we get to see the emotions on the faces of all the characters. But it's also interspersed with the front story, as Richard Kimball is loaded onto a bus to take him to Death Row with a bunch of other bad guys and a couple of guards. There's plenty of tension in both storylines and there's never any doubt which one you are seeing because besides Richard Kimball, none of the characters overlap.

2--sympathy for the Richard Kimball character. It may seem cheesy, but there are some key moments where we find out that Kimball couldn't possibly have killed his wife. It isn't because we see it in flashbacks. There's a few key moments held back to keep the audience in a little suspense. But then we see Kimball risk his life to save the guard who has been shot. And we see him helping the guard again in the hospital. And the little boy whose X-ray he looks at and whom he risks his life again to save. The man is clearly a compassionate person, and it's impossible for us to believe he would have killed his wife or that he is acting when he says he loved her.

3--Kimball's competence and daring. This is established over and over again. He's a brilliant surgeon, asked to scrub in on a friend's surgery. He struggles with the one-armed man. He helps save multiple lives. He is inventive, not fearless but not willing to let fear get in the way of his goals. He jumps over a waterfall and gets free. He stitches up his own wound. He makes a fake ID card by himself. He faces down multiple people who might or might not recognize him. He is super competent, but it's all in a good cause. He's not ever showing off. He's deadly serious. Gerard, for that matter, is also shown as super competent. He immediately suspects that the guard is lying about the prisoners being dead. He does a bit of simple math to talk about containing the area and how far a man can get on uneven ground. He knows what he is doing when he shoots the other prisoner while his man is being held. He says he never bargains. We love him for it, too.

4--the bromance between Kimball and Gerard. It begins when Gerard and Kimball face off in the tunnels above the waterfall. Kimball gets Gerard's gun, holds it on him, but ends up throwing it away. "I didn't kill my wife," he says. "I don't care," says Gerard. That's where they begin, but every scene between the two of them that happens after that, their relationship grows. Kimball calls Gerard directly when he is at Sykes house. Not only does he give him information, but reminds him of their first conversation. And then Gerard gets to meet all these people that know Kimball and believe in him. And finally, in the climax on the tower, Gerard knows that Kimball didn't kill a cop. He knows that the helicopter up there is full of people who think Kimball did kill a cop. So he gets the helicopter out of the way. He knows that Nichols is the bad guy. He has all the evidence and he offers it to Kimball. Kimball then saves Gerard's life one final time, and you can see the connection between them as Gerard walks him to the car and unlocks his handcuffs. So perfect.

5--the pacing. There is tension in nearly every scene, but the writers knew how to vary the kind of tension. There are funny moments between Gerard and his team, but you never get bored. Gerard has a purpose and his team helps him achieve his goals, with cameraderie. Kimball on the other hand, is always trying to find the one-armed man, but he sees the bigger picture. He needs to change his appearance. He needs to get money. He needs an apartment to stay at for a while. He needs to get into the hospital with an ID. Smaller goals that lead to the larger one, and allow the audience to relax a bit between the gun fights and life and death kinds of stakes that occur in the other scenes.

6--the reveal. I don't love the fact that it's a German who is the bad guy. I don't love the fact that a handicapped person is the other bad guy. I don't like the easy answer that it's the big bad pharmaceutical company that has arranged everything. But I love that it's Kimball's best friend who has betrayed him. I love that as an audience, we also feel betrayed. It all makes sense, too. You see why Nichols has been playing both sides, trying to deal with Kimball without the US Marshals involved because he needs to know how much Kimball knows.

There is something to be said for using a simple plot structure for your book. If you can make it clear from the beginning that your protagonist has a clear goal, then set up natural obstacles for him to get around, and then show how awesome your character is as he gets around them--you don't even need an antagonist as great as this one. But if you do have one, make him as clear-sighted and as interesting as Gerard is. He's the hero of his own story.