The Italian Job

After a successful heist of millions in gold bars in Venice, Steve (Edward Norton) betrays his team, kills his mentor, John Bridger (Donald Sutherland,) leaves the rest for dead in the glacial waters on the Italian border, and disappears with the gold. One year later, having survived, Steve is found in Los Angeles; and the others are looking for some payback. Teaming up with Stella (Charlize Theron), Bridger's daughter, Charlie (Mark Whalberg,) Lyle (Seth Green,) Left Ear (Mos Def) and Handsome Rob (Jason Statham) plan on stealing the remaining gold left from the heist, thus avenging John's death and finally earning their share from the original job. The only problem: Steve knows all of them and what they'll do.

Format is a major choice to make in screenwriting. Where do the breaks come in? Should there be a time format? Is there a formula I should be following? Is there a simple way for me to tell my story? All of these are great questions to ask when formulating a plot in general.

In his essay "Poetics," Aristotle postulated that a plot needs only three simple things: a beginning, a middle and an end. And whereas every plot has these things, some need a road map. And one of these ways is the 30-60-30 configuration combined with the Three Act map. This structure follows that Act One concludes after thirty minutes of play, Act Two is sixty minutes in duration and the final, Act Three, lasts no longer than thirty minutes after the last plot point. The Italian Job is a near text-book model of this plot structure.

In this model, plot point one (the precursor to the change in action between Act One and Two and concurrently before the switch to Act Three) occurs a few minutes, give or take, around 25 minutes into the plot. Plot Point One is the pitch to Stella with her decision to join the crew is the switch to Act Two. That switch occurs within five minutes of the half-hour mark. Act Two, using this structure is typically twice as long as Act One, in this case, it should be sixty to seventy minutes in length. Act Two contains the body of the film, the small cause and effect episodes that build character and enhance the plot, and, in the case of a heist movie like this one, it details the preparations for the main job.

A halfway point changes the direction of the action and puts it into a downhill motion driving it toward the end. Three events create the bridge that propels this film over the hill and down toward the second plot point. First, Steve kills his fence. Then, when the team goes to pull the job, they discover a party at the neighbors, forcing Stella to keep her date with Steve. Steve's already in a heightened state of suspicion, and he figures out who she is, tipping the others to reveal themselves. This occurs ten minutes after the hour mark, like clockwork.

Plot point two includes the "call to action," a leap of faith the heroes take which will change their fortunes entirely. And for this film, it takes place when the team hears that Steve is moving his gold and begin the setup for the final takedown. This clocks in around twenty minutes after the hour mark. The Third Act is where the payoff occurs, all plot elements are tied up tight, no loose ends remain and the release is done. In this case, a comedic release: the good guys get paid and the bad guys are served their comeuppance. Everything is resolved in the end of the Third Act, which concludes anytime between one hour and forty-five minutes to two hours in the 30-60-30 format.

The third act also contains the second half of a set of pinches, insignificant motifs that are introduced in Act One and bear significance in Act Three. For this, it's the fact that Stella's father always cracked all of his safes by touch and she's forced to crack Steve's safe by touch in the end. She cracks it minutes before the famous Mini Cooper chase scene through the LA River toward the conclusion at the railway yard.

It's text-book accurate. Following a proven plot structure is not a lame action to take; usually, a plot structure fosters a comfortable atmosphere for the audience allowing us to easily engage with the story unfolding on screen. We're still pulling for Charlie and his team, in the end, and we surely hope that Steve has his gold stolen. We don't care that something has a formula, but as writers, it does help. As for The Italian Job, it helps writers to see that plot structures do work, because this is a tightly written film and it follows the format to the letter.

****

IN; Charlize Theron

OUT: Mark Whalberg

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