Crazies

1.       Give two examples of events that happen before the movie that affect later.

The government are developing chemical weapons and transporting them to over places.

David’s partner, Judy gets pregnant and this results in David leaving the “safety” of the other survivors to go back for his wife which in turn saves both of their lives. 

2.       List two events that happen within the film that happen at a different time and space to the one we are shown.

We know what happens to Russel for the movie while we follow David.  

We know where the survivors who don’t have the plague go to when we are at the hospital with Judy.  

3.       Identify key plot points that follow the three-act structure

Act 1

We see Dave and Russel shoot what they believe to be a drunk man until they see there was no alcohol and they discover the plane within the water. They investigate the water and speak to the major of the small town and asks to turn off he water supply as they believe it to be contaminated. They shut the water supply off themselves, but the damage has been done and people are going crazy. They try finding out about it on the news, but they have been completely cut off

Act 2

The government surround the town setting up camps they are then checking people’s temperatures to see if they have a fever and if they do, they separate them into two groups. The ones who are fine and the ones they believe are infected. The survivors get taken to the petrol station and we see other survivors. David leaves that to go back to his wife and we find out that if he would have stayed there then he would have died and been killed. Back at the hospital we see that Judy and others have been strapped down and the infected people within the cages have escaped as a truck got rammed through the fence.

Act 3

They find out the government were behind and had a bio weapon within the plane that went down. The town is completely over run, and the government were going to bomb the entire city. By this point Russel is dead as he knew he was infected and sacrificed himself to save David and Judy. They are trying to escape as far as they can but when they do escape, we find he are they’ve spent the movie trying to get to, has already being to be over run and the lock down is happening again.   

4.       What is the three-act structure? (apply theory)

The three-act structure is a narrative in which it follows the story broken up into three different sections and it also follows the hero’s journey. The beginning having the disturbance of the equilibrium. Is also where we meet the mentor and guardian for the main protagonist which is David. The guardian for David within this story is Russel which is his deputy. The second act is the build up to the final act and this is where the will be an abyss will take place in which a character will die, and the rebirth happens. This means that they can die or part of them can die like their sanity and the rebirth is the new-found thing they get from that event. The death of Russel follows into the abyss as he dies after scarifying himself to save David and Judy. The rebirth is that David has a new found will to survive the situation and to escape the nuke.  The third act is where the hero overcomes the antagonist which is the crazies and a new equilibrium is created. The new equilibrium is that the crazies has spread to new parts of America and the cycle is repeating itself but on a bigger scale.  

5.       What is the classical Hollywood narrative? 

The classical Hollywood narrative is a form of storytelling which follows certain rules within narrative structure. This consists of equilibrium–disruption–equilibrium.  There is generally the characters type such has protagonist, antagonist, guardian, helper and more. These all fit into the narrative in a classic narrative.