Page One: “Knives Out” (2019)

Written by Rian Johnson

The movie version of the opening:

During the course of the Page One series, we’ve seen several examples of what we see with Knives Out: how the very last line of the first page ends in dramatic fashion. Like literally the final few words. Here:

Throat slit. Drenched in blood. Very much dead.

Perfect! What a way to kick of a murder mysterious than with the first page ending with the mystery of the murder victim.

As discussed before, from a practical standpoint, if a writer can pull off something akin to what Rian Johnson does in this script, it does this: compels the reader to turn the page. That’s what we want, readers to turn from this page to the next, not because they have to, but because they want to!

But there’s something else: the aesthetic satisfaction of nailing the landing. Ending Page One with something like this both looks and feels good.

Kudos, Mr. Johnson! On your first page… and the rest of the script!

Download the script here.

FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!

Page One is a daily Go Into The Story series featuring the first page of notable movie scripts from the classic era to contemporary times. Comparing them is an excellent way to study a variety of writing styles and see how professional writers start a story.

For more Page One posts, go here.

You may follow the daily conversation on Twitter as I cross-post there: @GoIntoTheStory.