Recommended Screenwriters
Misleads and Reveals: Tools for Powerful Drama
- November 25, 2010
- Posted by: HalCroasmun
- Category: Articles
Why would an intelligent screenwriter mislead their audience? One simple and very important reason — to increase the drama the audience experiences.
Some of the most dramatic moments in movies occur when the audience is misled, then the truth is revealed.
In a mystery script, for example, what looks like the most supportive person in the movie often turns out to be the bad guy. Or a key piece of evidence turns out to be erroneous. Or someone we thought was dead reappears. Those are the most blatant uses of this technique, but misleads and reveals are used in almost every movie to increase the drama.
To start this process, let's look at some definitions from the Webster's Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary.
Mislead: To lead or guide in the wrong direction, whether by accident or design.
Reveal: To bring into view; expose; show. To divulge or disclose; make known.
So a mislead guides the audience into believing one thing and a reveal exposes the truth.
Important Guidelines for Misleads and Reveals
The mislead may be a deliberate action of one of your characters or it may be an "accidental" piece of mis-information that your protagonist stumbles upon.
While a mislead almost always demands a reveal in the future of the script, a reveal doesn't require a mislead for its existence. In fact, almost any piece of information you want the audience to get can be delivered in a reveal.
The reveal needs to evoke an emotional response for it to be valuable to the script. And that is easy to do if it is set up correctly.
For a reveal to work well, it needs to answer a story question or bring a level of surprise with it that changes the direction of the story.
Keep in mind, that whatever techniques you use need to make sense for the story, but you'd be surprised how many times misleads and reveals are used in scripts without you even noticing it.
To bring all this into reality, let's look at one of the ultimate mislead/reveal movies — MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. As you read the opening scene below, notice these things:
- How misleads are done through masks, sets, and even dead bodies.
- How the activities in the "closet" are revealed bit by bit until we finally get the real picture of what is happening here.
- How each part of the "apartment" scene is revealed to be what it truly is.
From MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
INT. KIEV APARTMENT – NIGHT
We're in a large closet. JACK KIEFER, an athletic American in his late thirties wearing a headset, is wedged into a corner, staring at a television screen.
The television shows a surveillance view of the living room that lies outside the confines of the closet. The TV image is in black and white. JACK shifts, trying like hell to get comfortable but he's been there a while.
MISLEAD: This is setup to look like standard surveillance.
ON THE SCREEN
A bare bulb shines down on the contents of a shabby hotel room. Directly under the blub a man, GENNADY KASIMOV, sits in a straight backed wooden chair in his blood-stained T-shirt. There are a couple of THUGS and a stray HOOKER in the room behind him. A legend:
KIEV
MISLEAD: Are these really thugs and a hooker or more evidence supporting the mislead of the setting?
KASIMOV is sobbing. Uncontrollably. A MAN enters the room, ANATOLY, an imperious Russian in his forties, a Russian godfather. The THUGS and HOOKERS are ushered out. ANATOLY looks down at KASIMOV pitiously and urges him to go and sit by him in a chair he picks up for him. KASIMOV does as he is bid, looking gratefully up at ANATOLY. They speak in Russian which is subtitled.
MISLEAD: Anatoly will turn out to be someone else.
IN THE APARTMENT
ANATOLY
Kasimov, Kasimov, good that you called us.
KASIMOV
(sobbing)
I don't remember what happened! We were
at the bar, drinking, laughing — having fun.ANATOLY gets up out of the chair and goes to a bed across the room. A WOMAN lies half under the sheets. She's lying in an unnatural position on the bed, and the sheets are smeared with blood. She's dead. ANATOLY lifts her eyelid.
MISLEAD: Dead woman?
KASIMOV
I don't even know how I got here. I swear,
Anatoly, I never touched her! I didn't lay
a finger on her.ANATOLY moves away from the WOMAN.
ANATOLY
Kasimov. Don't flounder.
IN THE CLOSET
JACK, impatient, checks his watch.
JACK
Jesus, she's been under too long. Come
on, come on!
REVEAL: The woman is "under." This tells us that there is some kind of danger to the woman if she doesn't come out of this trance. It also reveals that Jack is in on whatever ruse is going on. That creates story questions: What does Jack have to do with it? Will this woman live? How do the two people and this situation connect? What the hell is going on?
IN THE APARTMENT
KASIMOV
You're the only one who can help me.
REVEAL: For some reason, Kasimov thinks Anatoly can help him. This is a light reveal that creates more story questions: Why does he think that Anatoly is the only one who can help him? How can he help him? And will he?
Desperately he tugs at ANATOLY'S jacket. But ANATOLY hits his hand away and smacks him around the head.
IN THE CLOSET
JACK reacts.
ON THE SCREEN
ANATOLY bends close to KASIMOV.
ANATOLY
C'mon, c'mon, tell the truth…c'mon.
KASIMOV
They'll kill me.
ANATOLY paces up the room, away from KASIMOV.
ANATOLY
You asked for my help. You asked for
my help…come on…
MISLEAD: Did he actually ask for Anatoly's help? Remember, he couldn't remember what happened. Maybe he woke up into this mess and was told that he was asking for Anatoly's help.
KASIMOV
You're right, of course.
IN THE CLOSET
JACK leans forward.
JACK
The name pal…give us the name.
REVEAL: Now, for the first time, it is clear that Jack wants the same information that Anatoly wants. Story question: Are Jack and Anatoly in it together or is Jack spying on Anatoly?
IN THE APARTMENT
KASIMOV
The contact in Minsk..the contact
in Minsk..works in a travel agency.IN THE CLOSET
JACK
Come on!
IN THE APARTMENT
ANATOLY
Come on!
KASIMOV
His name is…..Dimitri Miediev.
ANATOLY
Dimitri Miediev…Dimitri Miediev…
IN THE CLOSET
JACK
Got him.
ON THE SCREEN
Back on screen, ANATOLY places a hand on KASIMOV'S shoulder as if he had just anointed him.
IN THE CLOSET
In the closet, JACK types the name into a computer and cross checks — "MIEDIEV" comes up, then "posting/American consulate/Kiev."
JACK turns and nods to a WHOREHOUSE WAITRESS in costume in the closet next to him, dressed in traditional Russian tunic and virtually no bottom. She quickly leaves.
IN THE APARTMENT
A WAITRESS enters the room carrying a tray with a bottle of vodka and two shot glasses.
ANATOLY
Now, we drink.
REVEAL: This is the first actual evidence that Jack is part of what is going on in the room. Before this point, he could have just been doing surveillance. Now, he nods and a waitress goes into the room. Story question: Is he running this operation? What does Anatoly have to do with it?
He pours them out and hands one to KASIMOV.
ANATOLY
To friends.
KASIMOV
Yes, Anatoly, yes.
JACK Cheers.
He drinks. He blinks. Something felt funny about that.
Dizzied, KASIMOV swoons and passes out on the floor. ANATOLY moves to the closet door and opens it.
IN THE CLOSET
ANATOLY
reaches up to his face —
–and tears away a mask of flesh. He's no middle aged Russian mobster, he's ETHAN HUNT, an American in his early thirties. He gestures to KASIMOV contemptuously. JACK hands ETHAN a hypodermic kit and he goes quickly back into the room.
REVEAL: Anatoly is Ethan Hunt!
REVEAL: Jack and Ethan are working together.
ETHAN
(in English now)
Get rid of this scum.
Immediately, there is activity, and PEOPLE everywhere. TWO OTHERS come into the room and carry KASIMOV out.
ETHAN goes quickly to the body of the dead woman. He cheeks the pulse in her neck, shines a penlight in her eye. He strips the adrenalin kit and jabs the long needle into the dead woman's thigh.
REVEAL: She was part of it. And she isn't completely dead, or is she? Story question: Was she an unwilling participant or an agent like the others?
He checks her pulse again, checking a stopwatch. In about ten seconds, the woman's eyes open.
CLAIRE is her name, a French woman of thirty or so. She half rolls over, GROANS, and wipes some of the blood from her mouth.
CLAIRE
Did we get it?
ETHAN
We got it. On your feet.
REVEAL: Claire was an active part of the scheme.
Okay, this scene was built on misleads and reveals. In fact very little of that we saw in the beginning was what was really happening. The way it was written is very enjoyable and it intrigues the reader.
Also notice how the character reveal for Ethan Hunt is the perfect way to introduce this character. It gives us the most important part of his character — he is a secret agent who deceives in order to complete his mission.
HOW MISLEADS ARE CREATED:
Knowing the reveal you want the audience to experience, you search for ways to cover it. Either by going opposite or by using a form of misdirection or by simply not providing certain pieces of information.
In the example above, we first saw things through Jack's surveillance camera, but weren't let in on the scam they were running on Kasimov. The misleads were created by withholding information and by covering the truth. Then, reveals allowed us to see the truth — piece by piece.
You can do the same, even if your script isn't a spy flick — and if you want to see a thorough breakdown of this process, take our ProSeries Screenwriting Class.