Romancing the Stone (1984) - Written by Diane Thomas (Script Breakdown)
This is the first in an ongoing series of script breakdowns from Mercedes K. Milner, host of the WODC’s Script to Screen Podcast. These are companion pieces to the podcast for visual learners interested in digesting the information in article format.
Readers are encouraged to read the script in full to familiarize themselves with the structure of the script. For more context and additional content, tune in to the Script to Screen Podcast episode.
Writers of all mediums ultimately work for credit. Being credited for your work not only provides proof of ownership, but it also helps to determine the stage of your writing journey and compensation. There are a slew of writer credits that you’ll need to be familiar with, but for now, we’ll focus on the credit given to the writer of Romancing the Stone (1984).
Written By - Indicates that the writer(s) is entitled to the “Story by” credit and the “Screenplay by” credit.
Story by - Anyone who worked on a treatment or outline of the movie.
Screenplay by - For the writers who physically wrote drafts or scenes included in the final version of the movie.
Next, we’ll move into the first page. This is arguably the most important page of the script because it determines if the reader will find the script interesting enough to continue on. Bear in mind that eyes on any script you produce is a privilege and time is the most valuable asset in this business. Make sure the reader of your script is making the most of theirs by giving them something worthwhile right off the top.
This is a very striking start that grabs the reader right from the first action line. It’s extremely visual and right away we know we’re stepping into some unfinished business between these two characters.
The tone is clear. This will be a fun action/adventure, with a bit of a campiness to it. Angelina’s voiceover is used as a way to add a bit of deadpan to an otherwise very horrifying situation. Written in another tone, this could easily be more suspenseful and scary.
The writer invites the reader to use deductive reasoning to solve the mystery of this scene. Obviously these two have unfinished business, but by the bottom of the page we know that Angelina has something extremely valuable, maybe she’s even stolen it from Grogan? Whatever the item, it’s worth Grogan killing her for. And it’s worth her fighting for her life to keep it from him.
Act One
Once we’ve hooked the reader with our first page, we move into act one. This is where you’ll set up the characters, their world at present, and introduce the inciting incident that will set them off on their mission.
There is a really surprising twist that comes within the first few pages where we are introduced to the true main character, JOAN CHARLES. She’s the novelist that provided our film’s opening with Angelina and Grogan.
So far, this script is fairly description heavy, but the writer is using visual elements to clue the reader in to who Joan is. This is a common and effective approach to the old adage “Show, don’t tell.”
From this one paragraph, here’s what we glean about Joan’s character:
Joan is meek, and lacks confidence.
She has a sister Elaine who we can presume is outgoing, adventurous, maybe even a frequent traveller, judging off of the mail stack.
She may not have much of a life outside of her work, hence the confusion by the surprise visitor. If it’s not an appointment, she has no idea who on Earth it could be.
Now that we’ve met our protagonist, let’s take a look at her internal and external conflicts.
The Internal Conflict is the major aspect of the character that must evolve over the course of the story. They are going on a life changing, perspective shifting journey and once they return to their normal world, they won’t be the same. This is because they’ve overcome this internal challenge.
Joan lives out her fantasies in her novels, but in real life she’s too scared to experience anything that goes beyond the realm of her rigid lifestyle. This is a major problem because she is never going to come close to making her dreams realities if she doesn’t come out of her shell.
Her internal conflict revolves around fighting her naturally timid tendencies to open herself up to the life she wishes she could lead.
The External Conflict is the major issue of the story itself. This conflict focuses on the physical struggles that the protagonist will be up against at the hands of the antagonist. This conflict should seem impossible to beat when the protagonist is introduced to it, because they are completely lacking the skill set or the mindset to go up against it.
Here, Joan’s external conflict feels particularly impossible because of the way she is. It would be a daunting task for anyone to have to transport an antique map to a gang of criminals in order to save their sister, but for Joan, it’s so far out of her comfort zone, it might as well be in a different universe.
This is a fantastic example of using the external conflict to force the necessary character arc.
Once you’ve established your main character, their conflicts, and the world as they know it, it is time to mess everything up and force them ahead on their journey. You do this with the Inciting Incident. This screenplay element is the undeniable call to action for your character to leave the life they know behind. Joan’s inciting incident comes in the form of a phone call from her sister Elaine.
There are a couple of things the writer has established here: An undeniable call to action and the stakes.
This is a life or death situation and Joan is the only person who can take on this mission because she’s the one with the map. When you’re approaching your own inciting incidents, make sure you are creating scenarios that make your character the only person for the job and give them enough skin in the game to ensure they can’t deny it.
Now that we’re locked in and it’s personal, let’s make our way to act two.
Act Two
In this act, you’ll see your protagonist and antagonist throw one curveball after another to each other. The protagonist will do the bulk of their struggling here and, as a result, the bulk of their character evolution. As the writer, you want to make them work for every win and learn from every loss.
The second act follows directly after the inciting incident and usually opens with the protagonist Committing to the Quest. This is essentially a scene that shows the protagonist accepting their fate and agreeing to move forward. Our commit to the quest scene here is fairly simple, but does a really great job of establishing extra danger (and more stakes):
Now we know that Joan has accepted the mission to save her sister, but we also get a formal introduction to Zolo, the antagonist. His character intro here establishes:
There’s another Big Bad after that map.
It’s not just Elaine’s life on the line anymore, Joan’s life is also in danger.
Obstacles and raised stakes rule the second act. Because of her character set up in act one, we know that Joan is going to struggle hard through her arc. The writer starts with likely the smallest possible challenge for Joan to overcome: the flight to Colombia.
Though it’s probably the most basic step of her journey, the writer does a fantastic job of giving the reader visuals that will show the audience how hard this character will have to work moving forward (i.e. the cocktails remnants, the torn up napkins and the offer of another Dramamine by the stewardess).
A major benefit to starting so small with the challenges, is that it gives you more room to steadily ramp up the chaos for the main character. No struggle is too small.
We get a few steps into Joan’s journey in this action-adventure tale before the romance kicks off. Even before Joan realizes she’s in the presence of the man of her dreams, the reader gets the tip given to us in the first act about a man with a “particularly familiar hat” to show us where this is headed.
Then, when the shooting stops, we get their Meet Cute. A meet cute is the scene in which the future love interests in your screenplay meet. There is no specific rule that says how this meeting needs to unfold, only that the audience should be able to tell clearly that even if these two characters hate each other at the top, they’ll be in love before the end credits.
At this point, we’ve already been tipped off by Jack’s hat that he and Joan are meant to be, but the approach here leads the audience to wonder how on Earth the writer is going to get these two to fall in love by the end? In this instance, by forcing them to stick together.
Next, I’d like to touch on a major staple of action-adventure narratives that might seem obscure to write: the car chase scene. I’ll be using the car chase scene elements suggested in the StudioBinder article How to Write a Car Chase Scene to break down the first car chase in our script.
The Set-Up: This is the context for the chase. In Romancing the Stone, we already know that Zolo is hot on Joan and Jack’s trail and now he’s got Jeeps in tow. Our set-up here is an escape from the antagonist.
The Driver: Juan is described on the page as “Thirtyish, Aloha shirt, shades, very, very casual, but no fool.” He’s known as the Bell-Maker and is an eccentric marajuana drug lord who also happens to be a big fan of Joan’s novels. Not exactly the supercharged, action character someone might expect, but that adds intrigue and gives the audience pause. They’re forced to wonder, “How is THIS guy going to get them out of this?”
The Ride: When writing a car chase scene, the car you choose is EXTREMELY important because it not only gives the characters a physical vehicle to escape in, it helps to shed light on the type of chase this is going to be. Here’s our getaway ride:
The Little Mule isn’t exactly what anyone would imagine as a Fast and Furious level ride. It’s completely absurd, and that’s what is going to keep the audience invested in how this one wild Bronco will beat out Zolo’s fleet of Jeeps. The answer? To use their location to their advantage.
The Location: The location for this chase is completely unconventional: a secret weed farm and the Colombian countryside. This takes everyone out of their element, except our driver, Juan! His knowledge of the area ultimately helps to give our heroes the upper hand and escape Zolo’s crew.
The Music: Though it might not be one of the first things you’d consider, the music chosen for the chase is integral to not only providing tone, but also aids in ramping up the energy for the audience. Here, the music selection chosen is “The music of Angelina!
One last tip! This is the time for your action paragraphs to shine. Don’t be worried about not having enough dialogue to balance the page. In sequences like this, there isn’t a lot of room for dialogue, anyway. To add it in arbitrarily would only take away from the intensity of the scene. Be sparse with the dialogue and go heavy on the details!
In the middle of the second act, there should be a Midpoint Twist to shake up the story in a way that will breathe second life into it. The ups and downs of the second act can run the risk of being stagnant if the stakes aren’t on a continuous rise. With a twist, the characters are re-energized and they’ve learned enough in their journey so far to feel confident in a switch up.
Up to this point, Joan’s main mission has been to get the map to her sister’s captors, but with the new developments with Jack after their enchanting night in Fiesta, she’s feeling emboldened and is starting to embrace her inner Angelina! She’s ready to go for the treasure. This Midpoint twist is a symbol of growth and progress in her inner journey.
As the characters near a breaking point, they get to The Big Fall. This is a scene that isn’t quite the climax, but leaves the protagonist feeling just low enough that the antagonist will think they’ll be easily defeatable in the big showdown. The protagonist may also feel this way about themselves, but there’s a persistence in them by this point that forces them to trek on.
In Romancing the Stone, this scene arrives just after Joan and Jack discover the stone for themselves only to have it immediately stolen by Ralph, a henchman for the man who’s holding Elaine captive. The culmination of the events that follow ends in a literal “big fall”, as Joan and Jack go off the edge of a large waterfall. The lovers find themselves on opposite ends of the river and with Jack holding the stone. At this point, Joan’s faith in him is shaken and she can’t be sure he won’t take off with it. To add more stress, we’re left with a bunch of questions that seemingly won’t be answered and a lot of despair:
Will Joan find her way to Cartagena in enough time to save her sister?
Will Jack really make it back to Joan? And if/when he does, will she still trust him?
Will Zolo kill them all for the stone?
In your own scripts, this is the type of heightened anxiety you want to induce in your audiences with your big fall. This will force them to want to continue on to the climax.
The climax here brings all of the major players in the narrative together for one final stand off. This is where the antagonist (Zolo) seems to be at his most powerful and the protagonist (Joan) seems to be at her most vulnerable.
Everyone in this scene comes to it with their own specific motivations:
Joan wants to save her sister.
Ira wants to get his hands on the map.
Ralph wants to kill Ira.
Zolo wants the stone.
Jack wants to get the stone AND Joan.
Elaine wants to be saved.
The climax should be structured in a way that brings all of the specific wants sought after in your film come to head, primarily between the protagonist and the antagonist. This is also your protagonist’s opportunity to put together all of the internal growth they’ve done over the course of the journey and put their need before their want to win.
Since the beginning of the story, Joan wanted to lead a life like the main character of her novel, Angelina. What she’s realized over the course of her journey is that she doesn’t need to be Angelina to be adventurous and daring at heart. She has all of that stuff within her already. And this culminates itself in one insane punch that takes Zolo out for good.
But what about everything else? What about Joan and Jack? What about the stone? These are the loose ends you save to tie up in the third act.
Act Three
In this act, you reintroduce the protagonist to the world they knew when they started. They get the chance to look at the world with fresh eyes and their new and improved selves. We meet our main character again as a transformed woman. Her walk is confident, her posture upright, and her head is held high. Not even a gang of catcalling teens could deter her from walking the path she wants to. She’s really rounded out her journey in a way that makes her glow. But, she’s alone? No Jack? No stone?
This is where we move into our What Happens After Everything Happens, which is a final scene or sequence that gives the audience a glimpse at what’s to come. We could end the film with Joan being a strong, independent woman who is fearless and confident. That would be a totally fine ending. However, it’s bad practice to leave any story unfinished, and we’re still missing two key elements: Jack and the stone.
Luckily, the writer acknowledged that and what we get is our happy ending in full.
