Scene Description Spotlight: “The Hangover” (2009)

Today, we check out The Hangover, screenplay by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore.

Since it’s a comedy, we would expect the scene description would be … you know … funny. Here is an excerpt from the script, where the guys wake up the morning after The Night.

First off, the scene is about the guys — and the reader — adjusting to the previous night’s antics, so the scene description takes a pretty documentary view on matters, Lucas & Moore slowly doling out a few mysterious details including a cowboy hat, a bra, and a battle axe. Funny.

The choice to use a chicken as a means into the scene is also humorous as is its Rube Goldberg procession to the cup, then pecking it off, sending stale beer onto Stu, and waking him up.

Then there are some notable descriptors: “totalled suite… spastically jerks awake… ragingly hungover… hairy nakedness.” Also funny.

The choice to have some of the action occur O.S. also lends a comedic element to the scene leaving the business in the bathroom to our imagination.

But the critical choice is something that is present in its absence, something the guys don’t even notice until they’re downstairs trying to have breakfast: Where’s Doug? It’s like the screenwriters are expecting the reader — who is not ragingly hungover — to grasp Doug’s absence (especially given Vick’s confession on P. 2 that “We lost Doug”) when the dudes do not. And that plays as subtext through this scene. The following hallway scene. The elevator. And the restaurant. Which means that sometimes the best scene description is no scene description — choosing not to include a character in the action.

Takeaway: The style and approach to scene description should reflect your story’s genre.

Here’s an extended clip of The Morning After scene.

For more Scene Description Spotlight articles, go here.