It's not easy to write a movie script, but the recent Final Destination franchise has made concocting a bankable ninety pages easier than ever. In celebration of the disgruntling job market, The Scorecard Review is providing, free of charge, a first look at our new best-seller, "How To Write A Final Destination Movie." Here's an excerpt:
Step One: Have one young whippersnapper (male or female) have a premonition of a disaster (on an airplane, highway, roller coaster ride, etc.) about to befall on his/her friends.
Step Two: The friends are warned. Begrudgingly, they leave. Make sure it is apparent that only just barely did this lead kid convince his/her friends to leave the doomed area. They'd rather not have their time wasted by the main character's crazy ideas.
Step Three: Have all involved observe the disaster, as it unfolds right in front of their eyes as predicted. Lots of people die here. Explosions are a must.
Step Four: In the aftermath, place many of the “survivors” in a state of confusion. Some are more baffled than others. One of them begins to ponder out loud: “What if we weren’t meant to survive?” NOTE: You MUST have someone say to the original main character “You saw it before it actually happened!” However, more necessary is the main character muttering to himself/herself “I keep having these visions – I see how the next person’s going to die.”
Step Five: “Survivors” must then attempt to resume a state of normalcy. This is where your love interest factor, (should you want to take the two extra seconds to write one), can be placed.
Step Six Six Six: Slowly start knocking off your “survivors”with modestly creative deaths (shower lines, tanning booths, and explosive barbeque grills have worked in the past). Making them surprising to your audience is not necessary.
Step Seven: Have everyone deny the main character’s cry that their death is inevitable. More than not, cocky disregard for death leads to a more gruesome downfall.
Step Eight: By the last few pages of your script, everyone who avoided the original disaster is more than likely deceased, mostly because they couldn’t escape a second big disaster.
Step Nine: At the end, have one last “survivor” of the previous chaos meet his/her doom RIGHT BEFORE the cut to black. Note: Final line, “Who’s next?”, which would be spoken by aforementioned character, is optional.
Here is our work in action, and also in 3D!
The Final Destination opens August 28, 2009.