INTERACTIVE PLOT GENERATION Goal: - generate plots interactively for use in computer games Approach: - stepping stone: - generate plot - interactively - CYOA interface - "action movie" plot - no subplots - why this stepping stone? - tractable - CYOA means we focus on plot - not story - not how to map small-scale interactions to plot choices - "action movie" plots are easily describable - a lot of action movies we can analyze - subplots are doable, but one step at a time - significant - CYOA branching plot that never converges could not be emulated in any other fashion - every player choice is significant to the story - "action movie" maps to things we know how to do in games: we don't know how to do deep NPC interaction; protagonist choices drive plot New Goal: - generate "action movie" plots interactively with a CYOA Format of interaction: - Alternating between story unfolding and player interaction - Story unfolding is a brief response and setup of possibilities - A list of protagonist actions/plans is given - Player selects an action/plan - Story unfolds in response to that choice Aspects / rules-of-thumb for movie drama: - three act structure (see Appendix A) - beats - plot is divided into plot beats, salient moments of plot development - beats can be reversals, discoveries, calamities (Aristotle) - avoid "false beats" - beats which don't actually contribute to plot - if you can delete the beat (or series of beats) entirely without affecting the story, it is a false beat - i.e. some story-relevant consequence must arise from a beat, even if it's not the consequence the protagonist was intending - could be character-relevant or subplot-relevant instead of main-plot-relevant, though - if no character development or subplots, must be main-plot plot relevant [our scenario] - active protagonist - protagonist should be trying to achieve goal, not just sitting sitting around waiting for stuff to happen - even if the protagonist doesn't achieve the goal, should try - Indiana Jones "spectacular failure" - "passive" protagonist tends to make for weak plots and never occurs in action movies - fortune & misfortune - bad luck for protagonist is fine - good luck for protagonist can feel cheap, unless the protagonist is "making his own luck" somehow - coincidences after the "inciting incident" (the reason this story is a dramatic story worth telling) should be avoided - for example, if the protagonist picks up a companion Susan while opposing an antagonist Fred, if Susan is later revealed to be Fred's sister, this better not be sheer coincidence; i.e. it only works if e.g. Susan knew protagonist was opposing Fred, and joined him because of that (either because she hates Fred, or because she was planning on betraying protagonist) - goals & questions - QUESTION: Early on (usually in act I), the movie sets up a question in the minds of the audience, which the end of the movie will resolve. - GOAL: The protagonist at every moment has a goal, although it may change over the course of the story - Examples (see Appendix A for more detail): - Star Wars - QUESTION: Will the rebels stop the Death Star? - GOAL: Get the plans into the hands of the rebels (act II) Blow up the Death Star (act III) - Raiders of the Lost Ark - QUESTION: Will the nazis acquire the Ark? - GOAL: Find and acquire the Ark - The Matrix - QUESTION: What is the Matrix? (act I) Is Neo the One? (act II, III) - GOAL: Learn who he is (act II), save Morpheus (act III) - Terminator - QUESTION: Will the Terminator terminate Sarah? - GOAL: Survive (act II); destroy Terminator (act III) - Pirates of the Caribbean - QUESTION: Will Elizabeth be saved? Will Will be saved? Will the pirates' curse be lifted? - GOAL: Rescue Elizabeth (later Will) -- defeat the pirates - Die Hard - QUESTION: Will the "terrorists" be stopped? - GOAL : Save the hostages (stop the terrorists) - There are other questions and goals that occur, but mostly those deal with subplots. Overall structure of plot engine: - Skip first act (no significant plot choices), although an interactive first act is still possible outside of this engine (e.g. in interactive fiction, often there's a first section that's more tightly scripted or more limited exploration, before the game "goes wide") - Don't distinguish between second and third act (save notions of tension for later development) - Top-level goal - The protagonist has a goal that he/she is trying to achieve - The player has a goal that he/she is trying to achieve - The plot engine has a goal that it is trying to reach - For gameplay reasons, always identify player and protaganist goal - The actual "story goal" may be different from what the player is striving for, for dramatic reasons. This could be too hard. - The "story goal" is the "dramatic question" discussed previously. The player/protagonist goal is the goal discussed. As you can see, the two are often closely connected in action movies, so making the two identical is not too problematic. (It maybe disallows some surprise twists.) - Goal hierarchies - The plan to achieving a goal may involve multiple steps. Each step can be considered a subgoal that must be achieved. - Complications - Each time we give the player a goal, the player must be able to try to achieve it. That is, the player must be able to perform an action that would be expected to advance the story so the player is closer to achieveing the goal. Thus, there must be "obstacles" to achieving the goal so the player cannot immediately achieve it. We will call these obstacles "complications"; they make necessary more-complicated plans than immediately accomplishing something. - (note on terminology: there are other things that could reasonably called "complications", but the mnemonic here is that complications are things that cause the protagonists to need complicated plans) - Some "leaf" goals will have no complications. We can produce 1-choice CYOA menus in this case. (Equivalently, we could automatically choose it.) - Setbacks - Often, the protagonist will undertake a plan of action to accomplish a goal, and yet, in the end, not achieve that goal. An unexpected outcome from an action which prevents the plan from working, or forces a more complicated plan, is a "setback". (This may or may not be a "reversal".) - To prevent false beats, setbacks must still make progress towards some goal. - Ideally, that progress must be visible - For example: - Plot: - Joe has the goal of walking ten blocks to the pharmacy. - Joe walks five blocks, and encounters the route closed due to construction - He detours around the construction and reaches the pharmacy - The construction in this example is a setback - If Joe has to reverse all the way back home before detouring, and he always had the choice of going a different route, this is a false beat - But if Joe acquires something at the construction site he will need later, it is not a false beat - Although it may feel like a coincidence - If the player doesn't KNOW they'd need it, the forward progress is not visible, hence bad - Overall mainloop model - A situation is presented - Basic situation arises from last choice - Compute choices - Compute possible plans - invent possible complications - determine if a setback will occur - determine what forward progress will be made - For each of N plans, add to the 1 situation anything necessary - e.g. new characters or other plot elements - Present expanded situation - Record all added characters and plot elements for later use - Player selects choice - Expand choice as originally planned - or could only lightly plan outcome for each choice, and only fully compute now - Present feedback of choice outcome - Set new situation - iterate - Overall goal model - There is a goal player is trying to achieve - Goal has known complications (that have been presented to player), and possibly unknown ones (that aren't relevant yet) - Getting "past" each complication introduces a subgoal - This may recurse - Actions taken to get past a complication may fail (setback), but will have some forward consequence - resolve some _other_ complication - without being a coincidence! - introduce new element - plot engine MUST force that element to be plot-relevant eventually - Choose between "world-changes-based-on-player-choice" and "world-is-frozen-before-player-choice" - Former allows us to decide _late_ whether Susan is Fred's brother. - More flexible drama (does it turn out useful to have her be?) - Players may feel cheated (backstory changes depending on choices) - Latter requires us to decide all Susan's backstory at moment of her introduction and requires us to determine NPC actions that are theoretically independent of player's actions to REALLY be independent of player's actions - This is harder in this design (especially NPC - Less dramatic (characters may play out uninterestingly) - We choose former for this engine - But reconsider in future whether improved drama is worth compromising player's sense of world independent of her choices - maybe it doesn't hurt the drama that much to do the latter - maybe compromise the two; the moment we give out evidence that there's a traitor onboard, we choose who the traitor is (rather than waiting until the first time we present info on who); then this needs to play out dramatically regardless (traitor can be caught dramatically or die dramatically or get away and show up in the climax dramatically) See Appendix B for a detailed breakdown of three of Appendix A's sample movies (Star Wars, Raiders, and Die Hard) in terms, roughly, of the plot model the engine has (goals and setbacks). Primary goal of the six example movies: - Star Wars: Defeat the bad guys (in form of Death Star) - Raiders of the Lost Ark: Keep the ark away from the nazis - The Matrix: Defeat the bad guys (the agents & the machines) - Terminator: Survive the assault of the Terminator - Pirates of the Caribbean: Rescue Elizabeth - Die Hard: Save the hostages Expanded version of goal: - Star Wars: Defeat the bad guys by acquiring the plans to the Death Star and using them to destroy it - Raiders of the Lost Ark: Keep the ark away from the nazis by acquiring it and bringing it to America - The Matrix: Defeat the bad guys by actualizing Neo's inner potential - Terminator: Survive the assault of the Terminator by fleeting it until there's a chance to destroy it - Pirates of the Caribbean: Rescue Elizabeth by defeating the pirates holding her captive - Die Hard: Save the hostages by resisting and defeating the terrorists Goal template examples (I think this is a closed set, but dunno if it's enough) - GOAL: Acquire object - The protagonist must acquire an object - Complications: - The object's location is widely unknown (acquire info goal) - Travel to the object's location is difficult (travel goal) - The object is protected by non-characters (defeat traps goal) - The object is protected by characters (defeat enemy goal) - The object is for sale (money goal) - Object is possessed by character - The object requires special handling to carry (acquire object goal) - Many of these complications can occur on multiple scales - e.g. Location - What country is it in? - Where is it hidden in the office? - e.g. Difficult travel - Travel through Nazi germany - Invisible laser beams surround display - GOAL: Acquire information - Multiple scenarios - info is encoded on an object (acquire object goal) - info is known to someone (find character goal) - requires piecing together multiple bits of info (nested info goals) - info can be brute forced (e.g. search entire office for object) - Complications (beyond those in the above goals) - information is encrypted (find information goal to decrypt) - GOAL: Travel - Get to location X - Complications - Travel is blocked by enemies (bypass enemies goal) - Travel is blocked by enemies (defeat enemies goal) - Travel is made dangerous by non-characters (defeat traps goal) - Travel is expensive (money goal) - Travel is expensive but bartered (do a favor goal) - Travel requires vehicle (acquire object goal) - GOAL: Defeat traps - Many kinds of traps, which require different solutions - Trap defeated if you have right object (acquire object goal) - Trap defeated if you have right info (acquire info goal) - Trap defeated if you have right skills (acquire assistant goal) - Protagonist has right skills - "Traps" could be laser beams, guard dogs, barbed-wire fence - GOAL: Defeat enemy - Complications - Enemy's location is unknown (acquire info goal) - Enemy requires special tool to defeat (acquire object goal) - Enemy requires special skill to defeat (acquire assistant goal) - Combat - GOAL: Money - Sell something (Complication: acquire object goal) - Perform task for pay (do a favor goal) - GOAL: Find character - Probably mostly the same as acquire object goal? - GOAL: Bypass enemy - Scenarios - Sneak by disguised (Complication: acquire object goal) - Use unknown route (travel goal) - GOAL: Do a favor - Any goal at all, generated entirely from no interlocking with parent plot (but perhaps the setbacks will be plot related) - GOAL: Acquire assistant - Find somebody with needed skills - Complications: - Find out who has skills (acquire info goal) - Meet character (find character goal) - Persuade character to cause - financially (money goal) - for a favor (do a favor goal) - convince character this cause is right (acquire info goal) - GOAL: Escape - Escape from being held by enemy - Complicatons: - Remove bonds (requires skill) - Difficult to get away (travel goal variation?) - see Appendix B for inspiration Setback examples (need a lot more) - these depend on actions or goals - Actions generally correspond to goals which have no complications (you can just carry them out), i.e. "leaf goals" - Not being particularly formal yet - many setbacks allow simply aborting the current plan entirely, but then effort must be exerted to prevent a false beat - some complications can become setbacks if they aren't known in advance - that doesn't make them the same; they're different in dramatic terms - complications the protagonist plans around in advance - setbacks surprise the protagonist, upsetting plans - some are listed here, some are not - SETBACK: vehicle breakdown during travel - continue by repairing vehicle (requires skills, object) - can find new mode of travel - SETBACK: unexpected barrier during travel - defeat barrier and continue (skills, object) - go around barrier - whole new route - SETBACK: bypassing barrier leads to... - another barrier - a trap - enemies - SETBACK: attacked by enemies - this can happen at any time; a new goal, "survive", is always pushed - responses - defeat enemies - escape enemies - might lose a companion (makes enemies more threatening) - SETBACK: competitor/enemy gains object - this occurs during an acquire object goal, before the player can gain it - responses - new acquire object goal, based on new circumstance - SETBACK: enemies steal object - this can happen for a goal which had a complication of requiring an object, at any time during pursuit of that goal - responses - may be possible to pursue and steal back - may force a different response to that goal - reversal: enemies steal wrong object - SETBACK: betrayal - a companion is working for the enemy - steals a well-guarded object - delivers useful info to enemy (justifies further setback) - delivers protagonist into hands of enemy (escape goal) - SETBACK: disguise at risk - someone might realize the disguised protagonist is in disguise - run away - answer questions (might succeed, might fail to next setback) - SETBACK: disguise exposed - fight! - run away - reversal: people exposing disguise are not enemy - SETBACK: information was wrong - object not here - character not here - etc. depending on the info goal's source - SETBACK: character is dead - find a character goal--character died - long ago - recently due to antagonist - consequence depends on parent goal - SETBACK: object destroyed - acquire object goal--object was destroyed - long ago - recently due to antagonist - consequences depend on parent goal - SETBACK: sell object money goal - money received is counterfeit - buyer runs off with object without paying - maybe add a 'hostile exchange goal' -- those always go wrong - possible SETBACK: enemy arrival - enemies arrive where the player is undertaking an action - responses - hide - fight enemies - this should probably be explictly parameterized for scenarios where it has dramatic value - or may require tension modelling Obviously all of these need to be instantiated in concrete form with specifics, probably largely by human authorship with final programmatic parameterizations just of characters and objects. E.g. you might create a "guard dog" concrete template that still gets further instantiated randomly (or in some plot-engine-driven way) and provides a specific set of known ways to overcome it (only some of which the plot engine uses). The plot engine can then use this as a leaf goal / action, and construct larger goals that involve it (e.g. using it as either a complication--so the player knows in advance to acquire some drugged meat--or as a barrier--in which case solutions cannot really require the player to go off and acquire drugged meat, for pacing reasons). Then we would annotate this particular barrier in a way that indicates what scale of travel it applies to (not flying from New York to Rome), and possibly indicate what sorts of situations it's appropriate to, both in a physical sense (what sorts of things would a guard dog be guarding? who would employ a guard dog of this kind) and in the sense of Note, though, that unlike something like Facade, we wouldn't really have _any_ clue how this would fit into the overall plot. Also, note that it might later be possible to wire this up as some sort of small-scale text-adventure style scenario, so that the CYOA engine could then be used to drive at the high-level a "traditional-seeming" IF with small scenarios strung together by "cut scenes", although not all of these goals and setbacks might work in such a scenario. ---------- APPENDIX A ---------- Three act structure - Act 1: sets up characters, world, possible conflict - Act 2: thrusts protagonist into (often metaphorical) new world; protagonist attempts to overcome obstacles to achieving goal - Act 3: ticking clock--protagonist must achieve goal or very bad things will happen; possibly there is a newly revealed, different goal - Examples: - Star Wars: - Act 1: introduce Rebels, droids, Luke - Act 2: Luke's home destroyed; off to adventure - Act 3: Death Star (ticking clock) threatens rebel base - Raiders of the Lost Ark - Act 1: Indiana Jones: adventurer - Act 2: Get the ark before the Nazis do - Act 3: Get ark back before Nazis use it (ticking clock) - The Matrix - Act 1: What is the Matrix? - Act 2: Stuff happens. - Act 3: Save Morpheus before sentinels arrive (ticking clock) - Terminator - Act 1: Sarah, Terminator, Kyle, Terminator gets wrong Sarahs - Act 2: Kyle & Terminator find Sarah; they flee - Act 3: Kyle dies; Sarah must defeat Terminator alone - Pirates of the Caribbean: - Act 1: Elizabeth, Will, Jack; Port Royal attacked - Act 2: Will & Jack try to save Elizabeth - Act 3: They try to stop pirates from killing navy - Die Hard - maybe - Act 1: John McClane meets his wife - Act 2: John tries to stop "terrorists" - Act 3: John must prevent hostages being killed on roof - or - Act 1: John, "terrorists"; John calls for help - Act 2: John must act instead of getting outside help - Act 3: John must prevent hostages being killed on roof - but this analysis of Act 3 is weak - ticking clock = hostages blown up on roof? - ticking clock = bad guys get away? - Turning point to act 3 is probably when the bad guys break into the vault, so the latter makes more sense - in the end, this is just a model, and the movie is what it is; perhaps Die Hard just has strongly rising action with no real sharp turn into act 3 ---------- APPENDIX B ---------- Actual action movie plots presented roughly in terms of the engine - "New goal" means "this replaces old subgoal at this level" - if "Goal", it means previous subgoal was accomplished - "Complications" aren't explicitly listed, just subgoals and setbacks, and might be represented either way - "FWD: ..." describes how this still "forwards" the plot (why this must happen for the story to work), only for actions that fail to reach their goal Star Wars (mostly from Luke's POV only): - Act I - Goal: Deliver droids to Obi-Wan-Kenobi - Setback: Uncle won't let him - New goal: Repair droids - Setback: R2D2 runs off - New goal: Bring R2D2 back - Goal: Go to R2D2 - Action: pilot landspeeder - Goal: Return - Setback: Sandpeople show up? - Goal: investigate sandpeople presence - Action: Luke spies sandpeople - Setback: Luke taken down - Fortune: Kenobi arrives - not too coincidental, since R2 was looking for him - New Goal: talk to Kenobi - Revelation: Luke's father - New goal: take Kenobi only as far as Anchorhead - Setback: encounter attacked Jawa Sandcrawler - Setback: home is no more - Act II - New goal: Take Kenobi & droids to Alderaan - Goal: Find ship in Mos Eisley - Goal: Enter Mos Eisley - Setback: Stormtroopers looking for droids - Action: Kenobi uses Jedi mind-tricks to get past - Goal: Get passage to Alderaan - Goal: Find pilot in cantina - Setback: Luke threatened - Action: Kenobi uses Jedi combat skills - Setback: passage is expensive - Goal: Get money - Action: sell landspeeder - Goal: Get on board Millennium Falcon - Setback: Stormtroopers attack - Action: Han holds them off while others board - Goal: Fly ship to Alderaan - Goal: Take off - Action: done - Goal: jump to light speed - Setback: four imperial cruisers! - Action: dodge their attacks - Action: jump to light speed - Setback: No alderaan!!! - Setback: That's not a moon! Tractor beam! - [FWD: The flight to Alderaan does not accomplish any of their goals, but it ends up getting them to rescue Princess Leai, without whom they wouldn't go to the rebel base] - New goal: Get away from Death Star - Goal: avoid capture when boarded - Action: hide in smuggling compartments - Setback: bringing scanners on board - Action: shoot them and their guards - Goal: find safe place to wait - Action: take over command office - Goal: Release tractor beam while others wait - Setback (sort of): Discover princess' presence - Goal: rescue princess - Setback: Han not interested - Action: appeal to his greed - Goal: reach prison cellblock - Action: pretend Chewie is a prisoner - Goal: defeat guards - Action: shoot them - Action: also shoot cameras watched by other guards - Goal: find princess - Action: look up in computer - Goal: get princess - Action: open her door, say hi - Setback: more guards attack - must change plan for how to escape prison area - Goal: escape prison area - Action: shoot through grating - Action: go through chute - Setback: - Led to sealed garbage masher room - Goal: get out of garbage room - Goal: Shoot lock - Setback: magnetically sealed - Setback: monster - Goal: survive - Setback: shooting it fails - Fortune: it releases him (presumably because of:) - Setback: walls begin moving in - Goal: survive - Setback: can't brace the wall - Goal: get R2D2 to shut it down through computer - Setback: droids aren't responding to comlink - Action: droids respond, shut down masher - Goal: open door - Action: R2D2 opens through computer - Goal: get back to Falcon - Setback: encounter stormtroopers - Goal: get away from stormtroopers - Setback: giant open core shaft, troopers behind - Goal: don't get caught by stormtroopers - Action: close door - Action: blast close mechanism - Goal: get across shaft - Setback: previous blast destroyed crossing mechanism - Action: use grappling hook and cable to swing across - Action: get to Falcon - Goal: Get on Falcon - Setback: Ben is fighting Vader - Action: That distraction serves to get them on board - Setback: Ben "loses" to Vader - Goal: go to Ben, revenge on Vader??? - Action: advance, shooting - Revelation: Ben tells him to run (in script, is it in movie?) - Setback: too many troopers & Vader - Goal: Close their door - Action: blast the control panel - ... which closes it??? go consistency - Action: run on board - Goal: Fly away from Death Star (alive) - Setback: Tie Fighters - Action: shoot them down - Action: jump to hyperspace - Act III - Goal: Stop Death Star before it destroys the Rebel base - Goal: fly to Death Star surface - Setback: outer defenses - Action: Use one-man fighters - Goal: reach trench - Setback: tie fighters - Action: shoot them - Goal: fly down trench to exhaust port - Setback: Cannons in trench - Action: shields to front - Setback: tie fighters behind - Action: dodge - Setback: Vader behind - Action: die - Goal: shoot exhaust port - Setback: shot didn't go in, impacted on surface - Action: don't use targetting computer (revelation from Ben) - Setback: Vader behind - Fortune: Vader attacked by Han - Action: shoot it Raiders of the Lost Ark (Indiana Jones, protagonist) - Act I - Goal: acquire an idol - Setback: an assistant pulls a gun - Action: whip him good! - Setback: tarantulas! - Action: brush them off - Setback: a trap - Action: go past it carefully - Setback: a pit trap - Action: swing across on whip - Setback: darts triggered by floor tiles - Action: thread carefully across tiles - Goal: take idol without setting off trap - Goal: swap equal weight on for idol - Setback: it doesn't work! - Goal: escape with idol - Setback: darts triggered by floor tiles - Action: run like hell across tiles - Setback: assistant swings across first, demands idol for whip - Setback: assistant takes idol, does not give whip - New Goal: escape without idol [FWD: would be false beat...] - Setback: get across pit - Action: jump across it - Setback: a trap - Revelation: assistant got caught in it - New Goal: escape with idol [ FWD: but it's not!] - Setback: giant boulder! - Action: outrun it - Setback: Belloq, arch-nemesis, takes the idol - New Goal: escape without idol - Setback: natives & Belloq - Action: run when Belloq shows idol to natives - Setback: natives chasing - Action: run to plane - Setback: natives shooting blowguns - Action: get lucky - [FWD: This whole sequence "is" a false beat, but since it's act I, it's not important; it's establishing Indy's character, and his habit of spectacular failure (dramatic near success), which gives everything a serial feel. (Belloq makes off with the idol, and in a serial you could imagine next week, Indy steals it back from him... note this DOES happen with the nazis)] - Act II - Goal: acquire the Ark - Goal: acquire headpiece of staff of ra - Goal: find Abner Ravenwood - Action: go to Nepal - Setback: Abner is dead - Setback: Marion says she sold everything - Reversal: She knows where the piece is - Goal: get it from her - i forget exactly - Setback: nazis arrive - Goal: keep headpiece from nazis - Action: fight nazis - Setback: set bar on fire - Setback: Belzig finds medallion - Reversal: it's burning hot and he drops it - Action: defeat nazis - Goal: use headpiece to locate ark - Goal: read writing on headpiece - Goal: kill time ??? - Setback: their monkey betrays them - Setback: nazis attack them - Action: Indy fights them - Action: Marion hides - Setback: monkey sees it - Setback: Indy hears Marion being carried off - Goal: stop the truck she's on - Action: shoots the driver - Setback: the truck explodes - Setback: Belloq goons threaten Indy - Fortune: Sallah's kids come protect him - FWD: Marion's kidnapping is subplot important (note also Marion romance subplot drives the main goal of Act III) - Goal: talk to guy who can read writing - Setback: the nazis have translated it too! - Reversal: but they only had half of it, and it's wrong - Goal: go to Tanis and use headpiece and get out - Goal: Evade Nazi detection - Action: dress as Arab - Goal: reach map room - Action: sneak through camp - Action: descend rope into room - Goal: acquire info - Action: place staff in right spot - Action: read off location - Goal: get out of room - Setback: rope is gone - Reversal: makeshift rope appears - Goal: get out of there - Setback: nazis want him to work - Action: run away - Setback: nazis in way - Action: hide in tent - Reversal: Marion is here (coincidence!) - New goal: get out of there with Marion - Goal: Free Marion - Action: with knife... - Reversal: decide to leave her there - New goal: get ouf of there without Marion - Setback: Marion gets loud - Action: put gag back on her - [FWD: Marion romance subplot] - Goal: go to ark - Action: dig at correct location of ark - Setback: snakes - Action: drop torch - Action: descend rope - Goal: get out with ark - Action: grab ark - Action: raise ark on rope - Action: Sallah goes up on rope - Setback: the nazis are up there! - (Fortune? they send Marion down) - Setback: the nazis seal them in! - [FWD: they must find ark for nazis to steal it] - New Goal: get out alive - Action: knock giant statue into wall - New Goal: repossess ark - Goal: steal plane it's being loaded on - Action: get to plane - Setback: they're discovered - Action: fight! - Setback: whole thing blows up - Setback: it's on a truck - [FWD: doesn't forward plot; just spectacular failure] - New Goal: steal it off truck - (this action sequence could be described in terms of goals, setbacks, and actions, but it's not really plot-y) - Goal: take ark on freighter back to US - Action: get on freighter with ark - Setback: a german submarine stops the freighter - Setback: Marion and ark are captured - Act III - New Goal: rescue Marion (and maybe the ark, but really the subplot has become primary, due to Indy's character arc) - Action: Grab onto the submarine - Action: Threaten blowing up ark to get Marion - Setback: His bluff is called - New Goal: survive - Action: don't look - Reversal: Hey, got the ark too - Reversal: So much for giving it to the museum, though Die Hard (John McClane, protagonist) - John's goals are constantly shifting to survival, and he often doesn't achieve his other goals, but they always have plot consequences (his failed fire alarm delivers him a terrorist, hence his gun and walkie-talkie; police do respond to his request, if inadequately, etc; when he shoots someone, he ALWAYS achieves more than just shooting them) - Act I: - Goal: talk to wife - Get off plane, meet driver, ride to building, access staff listing, find wife is using maiden name, go to party, meet wife's boss, meet wife, talk, fight, take off shoes - Setback: "Terrorists" take party hostage - Act II: - New goal: Resist terrorists - Goal: get away - Setback: they're coming down his hall - Action: run away when they get distracted - Goal: investigate - Action: follow their leader as he talks to wife's boss - Setback: leader shoots the boss - Setback: makes a noise while fleeing, terrorists hear - [FWD: He learns some info about them] - New goal: survive - Action: hide, lock door - Goal: Get help - Action: set off fire alarm - Setback: terrorists call in and cancel it - Setback: terrorist investigates fire alarm - Action: kill terrorist - Goal: get information - Action: send dead terrorist down in elevator as a message - Action: listen in on conversation from atop elevator - Action: ride elevator top up to roof access area - Action: go to roof, use walkie-talkie to call for help - Setback: emergency operators don't believe him - Setback: terrorists guess he's calling from roof, attack him - New goal: survive - Action: run away - Action: flee to elevator shafts - Setback: no handy elevators to ride on! - Action: dangle from strap of gun in giant ventilation core - Action: swing to other ventilation opening - Setback: miss! - Fortune: grab one below it! - Goal: crawl through ventilation duct - Action: flick lighter so can see - Setback: terrorist sees the light in the ventilation core - Setback: terrorist starts shooting into duct from below - Fortune: terrorist is called off just before he reaches him, because a policeman has answered the emergency call - New goal: get help - Action: watch as policeman goes in - Action: impatient, smash glass - Setback: terrorists come running - Action: shoot terrorists - Action: throw terrorist out window at police car - Action: chat with leader on walkie-talkie, unclear why - Action: chat with police officer Powell - New goal: sit back and let the cavalary arrive - Setback: the SWAT team assaults (he says bad idea) - Setback: the terrorists blow up an armored car from a low floor - New goal: payback - Action: drop a bomb down the shaft the terrorists descended - Plot point: he has the detonators and the "terrorists" (really thieves) want them back very badly - New goal: sit back and survive - Action: Patrol the floor so he doesn't get surprised - Revelation: encounter a hostage - Action: give him a gun - Setback: The hostage is actually the thief leader, and calls for his men - Reversal: The gun isn't loaded - Setback: more thieves arrive - Action: run for cover - Setback: thieves shoot glass, leaving floor covered - Dumb fortune: thief rolls in a flash bomb for no reason - Action (off-camera): Runs across glass in bare feet to exit - [backstory, character stuff] - New goal: investigate what leader was doing up there - Action: go up there again - Revelation: discover the roof is wired to blow - Act III - New goal: save the hostages (and his wife) - Setback: Brother of first dead thief finally catches him - Action: fight him to the death (seemingly) - Action: go up to roof - Partial setback: wife not there - Action: tell them to get off roof - Setback: they can't hear him over the FBI helicopter - Action: fire machine gun in air to scare them off - Setback: FBI thinks he's a terrorist, shoot at him - New goal: survive - Action: descend from roof via firehose (?) - Setback: roof blows up, hose spool comes loose - Reversal: spool catches on edge of roof - Goal: get inside - Goal:break window - Action: kick it - Setback: too strong - Action: shoot it - Action: get inside - Setback: spool falls off edge, tries to drag him out window - Action: pull loose at last second - Goal: find wife - Setback: helicopter explodes into room - Action: dive in water - Setback: elevator shaft fire - Action: (off-screen take stairs) - Goal: save wife - Setback: thief leader is holding her captive, having learned she's his husband - Setback: only two bullets left - Action: Trick them with empty machine gun and hidden pistol