Hi, I'm Michael.
This is Lessons from the Screenplay.
On the surface, Logan and Children of Men may not seem that similar,
but on a deeper, story level, these two films are very closely related.
Each is an odyssey, featuring a reluctant hero pressured into a dangerous journey that
leads to a powerful conclusion.
So how do you create such an impactful character arc?
How do you lead your hero down the path to redemption?
There’s a line in one of my favorite books on storytelling, Notes on Directing,
in which the authors offer the following advice:
“Realize that the end is in the beginning.
In all the best material, the outcome is inevitable and inherent in the opening moment and in
every moment in between.”
So today I want to dissect the first acts of Logan and Children of Men.
To understand how the beginning story world prevents the change
the protagonist so desperately needs,
and how this world is then torn down and left behind.
And examine how the transformation we see in the heroes at the end of the story
is established and ignited in the beginning.
Let’s take a look at Logan and Children of Men.
In order to properly set up your character’s arc, you have to know how it ends.
So before we look at how Logan and Theo begin their stories,
let’s first look at how they finish them.
By the end of Children Of Men, Theo has risked everything to fight for the future of humanity,
and sacrifices his life in the name of hope.
By the end of Logan, Logan has gone out of his way to help a new generation of mutants,
and come to embrace the love of family.
These are the morals of the stories,
and each manifests itself as a truth that the protagonist must learn on their journey.
For this lesson to be dramatic, the character should begin their journey
as far away from this truth as possible.
This is why the first act of a story is all about setting up the lie the character believes.
In her book Creating Character Arcs, K.M. Weiland writes:
“The Lie Your Character Believes is the foundation for his character arc.
This is what’s wrong in his world.”
As Children Of Men opens, we immediately get a glimpse into Theo’s lie.
He enters a cafe where everyone is grieving the loss of the youngest person on the planet,
and he couldn’t care less.
A few minutes later, we hear Theo state the lie he believes pretty clearly.
When his friend Jasper mentions “The Human Project,”
a supposed group of people fighting for the future of humanity,
Theo rebukes the entire idea.
“Even if they discovered the cure for infertility, it doesn’t matter."
"Too late."
"The world went to shit."
"You know what?"
"It was too late before the infertility thing happened for fuck’s sake.”
Theo believes that it’s foolish to fight for humanity because all hope is already lost.
Logan’s lie has to do with family.
“We took you in.”
“I gave you a family."
“And they’re gone now.”
We actually hear Logan state his lie pretty clearly as well,
although in this case it isn’t until toward the end of the film
when he’s starting to admit it to himself.
“Bad shit happens to people I care about, you understand me?”
Logan believes that allowing himself to love and have a family will only lead to pain.
Both of the lies these characters believe
are the exact opposite of the truth they discover at the end of the story.
Logan and Theo are missing the precise thing their stories will help them find.
But for the audience to go on the journey with the characters,
the lie has to be something we can empathize with.
We need to understand why they believe the lie
and why it’s so difficult to break free from it.
This is why the lie should be reinforced by the protagonist’s Normal World.
In Creating Character Arcs, K.M. Weiland writes:
“The Normal World dramatizes the Lie the Character Believes.
It empowers the character in that Lie, giving him no reason to look beyond it.”
Children of Men takes place in a world filled with things that empower Theo’s apathy.
He lives in a near future version of London,
which has become the last bastion of human civilization.
A militarized police force hunts down refugees from every country,
creating a constant reminder of the suffering in the world.
It’s not difficult to understand why someone might resort to apathy in this environment.
In fact in the opening scene, Theo walks out of the café because of his apathy
and we see what happens to those who allowed themselves to care.
(explosion)
In Theo’s Normal World, the Lie he believes is keeping him alive.
(screaming)
(train goes by)
Logan’s Normal world consists of caring for an ailing and potentially dangerous Charles Xavier,
while realizing that his own health is failing as well.
“Something’s happening to you, Logan."
"On the inside, you’re sick.
"I can smell it.”
Knowing that his time is running out,
and that the last of his X-Men family won’t be around much longer,
it’s not hard to understand why Logan believes
that caring about family will only lead to pain.
The story world empowers this lie even further.
He lives in an abandoned smelting plant in Mexico,
so he is completely isolated from other people.
And his work as a driver ensures that the few interactions he does has with people
are very brief.
But the most similar aspect of the Normal Worlds in these two films
is the lack of a future.
In Children of Men, the human race is going extinct.
There hasn’t been a newborn in eighteen years.
In Logan, it is the mutants that are going extinct.
“There are no new mutants. Understand?”
“Hasn’t been a new one born in twenty-five years. Not anywhere.”
This helps us truly empathize with the characters’ lies.
How could someone want to care when there seems to be no hope?
The protagonist’s Normal World gives them no reason to ever challenge their lie,
which means they’ll never discover the truth they need to transform.
This is why at the end of Act One, the normal world must be destroyed.
The destruction of the normal world begins with the inciting incident.
The inciting incident often has three parts:
a sudden opportunity, a refusal by the protagonist, and a reluctant agreement.
Theo is asked to help escort a young girl and her caretaker
on dangerous mission across a long distance.
“I need your help. I need transit papers.”
“Not for me. A girl, she’s a fugee."
"Need to get her to the coast, past security checkpoints.”
This would challenge the lie he believes, so he refuses…
“I can’t. It’s too dangerous.”
And reluctantly agrees because of money.
“I can get you five thousand pounds.”
Logan is asked to help escort a young girl and her caretaker
on dangerous mission across a long distance...
“There are men after us. We need to get out of here.”
“Go north, cross to Canada.”
This would challenge the lie he believes, so he refuses…
“Not available, call a cab.”
And reluctantly agrees because of money.
“I’ll give you fifty thousand dollars!”
In his book The Anatomy of Story, John Truby writes:
“The best inciting event is one that makes your hero think
he has just overcome the crisis he has faced since the beginning of the story.
In fact, due to the inciting event,
the hero has just gotten into the worst trouble of his life.”
Logan and Theo think they’ve finally found a way to solve their financial problems,
but in fact they’ve just taken the first step toward destroying their normal worlds.
This quickly becomes clear as everything goes wrong
and their plans are flipped on their heads.
(car crash)
Logan: “Shit.”
This is called the first plot point.
In Creating Character Arcs, K.M. Weiland writes:
“This is where the setup ends, and the story begins ‘for real.’
At this point, the character commits—usually because he has no choice—
to a decision that will propel him out of the comfortable stagnation of the Normal World
and the Lie He Believes.”
For both Logan and Theo, this is where the most powerful element of their normal world—
the lack of a future—is stripped away.
“I’m scared.”
Theo realizes that Kee is the first pregnant woman in eighteen years.
“She’s pregnant.”
“Now you know what’s at stake.”
And Logan realizes that there are new mutants,
and that Laura is not just any mutant, but one very similar to himself.
“Holy shit.”
Suddenly the Lies that Theo and Logan believe are harder to hold on to.
“As I told you, Logan. She’s a mutant like you.”
“Hold on!”
This triggers a reversal in the protagonist’s behavior.
Before this moment, Theo had nothing but apathy toward the world
and didn’t want to get involved in politics.
Theo: “I don’t talk politics.”
“That’s all you ever used to do.”
But now he’s participating in a discussion of what to do about Kee’s pregnancy…
“Make it public!”
…and leading her escape to safety.
For Logan, a minute ago we was ready to leave the girl for dead.
“Logan, we mustn’t forget about Laura.”
“She’s not our problem.”
And now…
Logan and Theo have passed the point of no return.
Their normal worlds have been destroyed and the story moves on to Act Two.
(train impacts the car)
Logan and Children of Men are great films to study
because the protagonist’s internal changes are expressed by their external journeys.
While Theo and Logan are destroying their normal worlds emotionally,
they are literally leaving their starting locations behind.
They travel with an embodiment of the truth they’re trying to hide from—
two young girls who represent hope for the future and a chance at family.
As they navigate the second acts of their stories,
they visit new worlds which are very different from their old worlds,
where they meet characters that teach them about faith and love.
They witness the last people they care deeply for die to defend the truth
they themselves are afraid of.
And by the end of their stories,
Theo and Logan abandon their Lie and make the ultimate sacrifice
to ensure the future of humanity,
and for the love of family.
When it comes to Theo and Logan’s character arcs,
it’s clear that the end is in the beginning.
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I hope you guys enjoyed this video!
Logan was one of my favorite films of this year,
and Children of Men is one of the best films every made,
so I had a lot of fun putting this together.
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Thanks for watching.