building in intensity, until at Crisis they collide head-on in a last impasse. Out of this rises the Story Climax, in which one or the other idea succeeds. This may be the positive Idea: “Justice triumphs because the protagonist is tenaciously resourceful and courageous” (BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK, SPEED, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS), or the negative Counter-Idea: “Injustice prevails because the antagonist is overwhelmingly ruthless and powerful” (SEVEN, Q & A, CHINATOWN). Whichever of the two is dramatized in the final climatic action becomes the Controlling Idea of Value plus Cause, the purest
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