[Quick Summary: With a homicidal prisoner potentially on the loose, ten strangers, who are stranded at a lonely motel, are being killed off one by one.]
Q: If you had to sum up this script in word, what would it be?
A: ENERGY.
Q: Even in the dreaded act 2?
A: That's what made it so unusual! The energy never flagged.
Q: Why is that?
A: Anticipation, i.e., with each clue revealed, the stakes rose for the survivors.
Q: Can you give a good example?
A: In the scene below, notice that our curiosity is lit with an audible clue
--> we see the aftermath of a horror scene, which keeps us curious
--> the characters find more clues
--> they realize what this means for them
--> and we have to turn the page to get to see if they're right.
EXT. COURTYARD -- NIGHT -- CONTINUOUS
In the rain-soaked earth, Ed finds --
A single shower curtain ring...Then another...
They lead like breadcrumbs from Caroline's room out and away to the rear of the motel. Ed follows them to the walkway of a rundown swimming pool half-filled with rainwater.
Then he notices -- THE SWINGING GATE -- leading out into the black desert. Thunder cracks.
And then he hears it...
A dull metallic thudding...Bang-bang... Bang-bang... He tries to distinguish it from the downpour... Bang-bang... Bang-bang...He heads off around the side of the building... [Audible clue!]
INT. MOTEL LAUNDRY -- NIGHT
Darkness before Ed switches on the overhead fluorescent... Bang-bang... Bang-bang... THREE DRYERS ARE ON -- But one of them is making the noise... Bang-bang... Inside one of them, something inside is tumbling over and over...
Ed reaches out to a dryer door. Bang-bang... Bang-bang...Opens it... Nothing. It shuts off.
Ed cautiously opens the SECOND DRYER -- NOTHING... It shuts off.
Hesitantly, he opens THE THIRD DRYER -- And finds -- [By the Rule of 3, we expect something here, rhythmically in the story, but there is nothing.]
A pair of sneakers klunking round and round in the dryer. They come to a stop. Ed sighs -- but then notices --
EYES -- staring at him -- reflected in the circular glass on the dryer door -- [Then, BAM! Surprise clue!]
Ed spins around to face --
CAROLINE'S DECAPITATED HEAD staring at him from the fourth dryer cradle. Rhodes and Larry enter and freeze...
LARRY: Oh, Jesus Mother of God. That's a... (notices Ed's stony expression) ...you're real calm for a guy staring at a human head.
Ed considers this.
ED: She wasn't that human. [A little humor can't be bad.]
Rhodes kneels in front of the dryer and reaches inside.
ED (CONT'D): 'The hell you doing?
RHODES: ...There's something in there. [Another clue? Anticipation!]
Ed hands Rhodes a dryer sheet.
ED: Use this.
LARRY: ...You a cop?
Rhodes and Ed lock eyes.
ED: Not anymore.
Rhodes pulls out a BLOOD SOAKED OBJECT and examines it...
IT IS A MOTEL ROOM KEY -- NUMBER TEN. [Clue! What does it mean?!]
LARRY: Oh, man. That is fucked up.
ED: Was she in room ten?
LARRY (shakes his head, then points to Rhodes): ...They were.
ED (to Rhodes): Where's your guy?
RHODES (uneasy): ...'Cuffed to a toilet. [Oh no! Gotta turn the page to see if the prisoner guy is still in Rm. 10, or on the loose.]
CUT TO:
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I like that the stakes increased organically (threatened the characters in realistic way) vs. artificially (only there to get us from point A to B).
Identity (2003)(revised draft)
by Michael Cooney and James Mangold
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