Script Analysis: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” — Part 1: Scene By Scene Breakdown

Read the script for the critically acclaimed 2004 film and analyze it all this week.

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this bi-weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule:

Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
Tuesday: Plot
Wednesday: Characters
Thursday: Themes
Friday: Dialogue
Saturday: Takeaways

Today: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown. Here is my take on this exercise from a previous series of posts — How To Read A Screenplay:

After a first pass, it’s time to crack open the script for a deeper analysis and you can do that by creating a scene-by-scene breakdown. It is precisely what it sounds like: A list of all the scenes in the script accompanied by a brief description of the events that transpire.

For purposes of this exercise, I have a slightly different take on scene. Here I am looking not just for individual scenes per se, but a scene or set of scenes that comprise one event or a continuous piece of action. Admittedly this is subjective and there is no right or wrong, the point is simply to break down the script into a series of parts which you then can use dig into the script’s structure and themes.

The value of this exercise:

• We pare down the story to its most constituent parts: Scenes.
• By doing this, we consciously explore the structure of the narrative.
• A scene-by-scene breakdown creates a foundation for even deeper analysis of the story.

This week: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. You may download a PDF of February 4, 2003 draft here.

Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman, story by Charlie Kaufman & Michel Gondry & Pierre Bismuth

IMDb plot summary: When their relationship turns sour, a young couple undergoes a medical procedure to have each other erased from their memories.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
By Andrew Lightfoot
GoIntoTheStory.blcklst.com

Page 1 — Joel is at the train station, but rather than take his usual train, he hops over to a different one. From another station he calls in sick.

Page 1–2 — Joel goes to the beach with his journal, here he notices pages torn out of it. Shrugging it off as nothing he starts up another entry about his ex-girlfriend Naomi. Clementine shows up at the beach.

Page 3–4 — Clementine walks into a Diner, Joel is already in there. They make eye contact, but little else.

Page 4 — Both Joel and Clementine are back at the beach, they stare out at the water.

Page 4 — The meet up again at the train station, this time eye contact with little wave thrown in.

Page 4–12 — On the train, Clementine is the first to break the silence. She does most of the talking, which consists mostly about her hair colours. Joel eventually ends the conversation by claiming he has some writing to get to. Throughout the trip the train car fills up with passengers, Clementine ends up sitting closer and closer to Joel.

Page 12 — On exiting the train station Joel notices a large gash in his car.

Page 12–14 — Joel is driving, he spots Clementine walking on the sidewalk, he offers her a ride. At first, she declines, but then accepts. At her house she offers drinks to Joel, who like Clementine, at first declines.

Page 12–23 — Joel is in Clementine’s place, they drink, listen to music, and chat Clementine shares everything and anything with Joel, Joel on the other hand is shy and can’t hold her gaze for very long. He agrees to go to Boston with her. Patrick, her boyfriend, is mentioned.

Page 23–24 — Joel arrives back at his place, where two guys Patrick and Stan tail him.

Page 24–25 — Joel is in the entranceway getting his mail, he has blue dots on his head. He runs into another tenant there but Joel quickly dodges a conversation when he sees he has an envelope from Lacuna.

Page 25–26 — In his apartment, Joel changes into pajamas fresh from the package, and swallow a pink pill from the vile. Paranoid, he rushes to the window and spots the van, he tries to see who is in it, but gives up. In the Van the two guys, Patrick and Stan, watch Jeol leave the window, once the lights to his place go out, they get moving. They retrieve a bunch of large briefcases from the back of the van and make their way to the building.

Page 26 — Stan and Patrick enter Joel’s place.

Page 26–27 — Joel’s reaction to the pill, he lies down on his bed and gets drowsy, it’s black, we hear Stan and Patrick enter, along with Patrick singing.

Page 27–28 — Joes is outside the building, he sees the van again along with figures inside, this time one of them waves and laughs. He rushes inside where he bumps into Frank, their conversation from before is repeated, this time Frank fades away.

Page 28–31 — Joel is at Rob and Carries’ place telling them that he is upset with a relationship and has to be the one to resolve it. He holds a red paper wrapped gift. A shot of the store Antic Attics where Joel selects jewelry and gets it in a red box for Clementine. A heart shaped card reads “Clem — I’m sorry. I love you. Joel.”

Joel arrives where Clementine works to give her the gift but is horrified to discover not only does she not recognize him, but also has a boyfriend. Back at Rob and Carries’ Joel is eventually shown a card which explains that Clementine has had Joel erased from memory and they aren’t supposed to mention this to her.

Page 31–33 — Joel arrives at the Lacuna offices, outside them he sees double of himself, which almost gets hit by a truck. Inside he meets Mary, who takes him to see Mierzwiak. He explains the situation to Joel of how he shouldn’t have seen this and that Clementine was not happy and wanted to move on.

Page 33–34 — In the kitchen of Rob and Carries’ home Joel talks with Carrie about this new information while Rob attempts to build a birdhouse whilst puffing on a joint. Carrie suggests this may have been a lark by Clementine.

Page 34 — Joel is in his car at a drive-in movie theatre, crying, fogging up the windows.

Page 34–35 — Joel storms into Mierzwiak’s office at the Lacuna building demanding that he gets the operation as well. Having some responsibility in all of this Mierzwiak agrees and tells Joel to go home and collect anything that has to do with Clementine. Joel does and returns with two full garbage bags. He almost gets hit by truck like we seen earlier on.

Page 35–37 Joel sits in the waiting room across from an older woman who has a box full of pet paraphernalia. Soon Joel is whisked away by Mierzwiak himself, on the way they stop by an open door where Joel is introduced to Stan, who is performing the procedure on a female client.

In Mierzwiak’s office Joel is told to start talking about Clementine as Mierzwiak records. Patrick interrupts the session mid-way through by accidentally dropping some files on the floor. He apologizes and quickly picks them up. Joel continues on, but suddenly the room begins to fade.

Page 37–40 — Joel is seated in an examination chair as Stan makes him inspect the items Joel brought. The fading of the room continues, Mierzwiak’s voice is affected too. Suddenly Joel finds himself standing in the room and watches himself in the chair. He is able to copy what Mierzwiak says based off of memory. Then Stan voice comes from somewhere outside the room.

Page 40–41 — Inside Joel’s apartment, Joel is fast asleep in his bed. A series of electrodes connect his head to machines. Believing that there’s a voltage issue, Stan gets Patrick to check the connections, which seem to help as back in the lab, the memory deteriorates.

Page 41–42 — Patrick begins criticizing Joel’s place and asks Stan who is better looking out of him and Joel. Stan refuses to answer and tells Patrick to stay focused. Later on, Stan mentions that Mary will be stopping by, which causes Patrick to bring up his “new girlfriend” and goes on to tell Stan that his situation is a little weird, but Stan cuts him off saying they need to focus.

Page 42–45 — Past Midnight at Joel’s apartment and a drunk Clementine stumbles in, Joel was waiting up for her and he’s not happy. They soon get into an argument causing Clementine to grab a few things and leave. Joel gives chase, he goes outside and notices his car up against a fire hydrant, scratched up.

He hops in and quickly catches up to Clementine. He tries to apologize but she won’t have it. He changes his tone saying by morning she will be gone and he will be happy. She continues on, Joel gets out of the car and pursues her down a street on foot, but once he gets to the end he returned to where he started, back at his own car.

At this point, Patrick continues on about his girlfriend. He tells Stan that not only did he fall in love with Clementine, but also stole a pair of her panties when they were erasing Joel from her memory. In the dream world Joel can her all of this.

Page 45–47 — Joel has shifted to another scene, him and Clementine are having dinner and watching T.V. Patrick’s voice is still heard, he tells of how he asked Clementine out the day after they worked on her. Joel tells Clementine that a guy stole her panties. The memory fades.

Page 47–49 — In a different memory, Joel is back in his apartment and acts dead on the floor when he hears Clementine coming down the stairs. She sees him and the only reaction she really gives him is “ I should’ve left you at the flea market”. Joel’s memory jumps to the market where they have a heated argument over having a child. This memory also begins to fade and just before it disappears Joel tells Clementine that all this pain and hurt will be whipped away. She says she’s glad to which Joel responds “ Me, too”

Page 49–50 — Another memory, this time Joel is at a bar. He returns to his table to find another guy sitting in his spot, flirting it up with Clementine, who soon begins to insult Joel so all the patrons at the bar can hear. As the memory fades a doorbell rings. The bartender looks at Joel and asks him if it’s his doorbell.

Page 50–53 — Mary has rang the doorbell, Patrick let’s her in with a “hello” she simply walks past him. Seeing the coolers that Stan and Patrick are drinking she goes in the kitchen and returns with a bottle of scotch and 2 glasses for herself and Stan. The conversation quickly goes to Barlett’s and Mierzwiak.

Page 53–56 — Joel is in bed with Clementine who questions Joel about his lack of communication with her. The memory shifts to a Chinese restaurant. Joel and Clementine are having dinner, the chat is very stale. Clementine slams back the wine and tells Joel to stop leaving hair on the soap. Patrick’s voice spills into the memory. Joel looks around and sees the bookstore scene from earlier. Joel watches from afar, that is until he sees Patrick kiss Clementine. He walks from the restaurant to the bookstore to try and get a look at Patrick but is unable to see his face.

Back in the real world with Stan, Patrick has received a call from Clementine who wants him to come over. Stan says no at first but is convinced by Mary to let him leave. Patrick’s last line “ I’ll be right over, Tangerine. “ triggers a reaction from Joel.

Page 56–58 — A new memory gradually comes into focus, Clementine is modeling a bright orange sweater for Joel, who calls her a tangerine. Something clicks in Joel’s head just before the memory shifts to Clementine’s apartment. They are both in bed, underneath the blankets. Clementine tells Joel of her favourite story as a kid which gets her emotional. Soon after they begin to make love until the memory starts to fade. Panicked, Joel jumps up and starts yelling out to Mierzwiak to stop the procedure, he has changed his mind.

Page 58 — Stan and Mary are now smoking a joint while watching the monitors. Mary tells Stan about how amazing Mierzwiak’s procedure is and how it’s a gift to the world. Stand asks her if she loves Mierzwiak, she hesitates before denying it.

Page 58–60 — Patrick arrives at Clementine’s place. She is a mess and appears to be in distress saying nothing makes sense anymore. Suddenly she asks Patrick to go to Boston tonight. Patrick calls Stan who is stoned and is watching an equally as stoned Mary, dance around. He says he can handle things. Patrick rifles around in a bag and retrieves a gift and a letter. The letter was written by Clementine to Joel about the night they went to Boston.

Page 60–61 — Joel is now in the memory of that night, all is perfect until that memory begins to fade like the other. In an attempt to escape he grabs Clementine’s hand and runs, at first across the river, but then he begins to run through a series of past memories of Clementine. He turns to face her and sees only a woman he doesn’t recognize.

Page 61–63 — Joel barges into Mierzwiak’s office and sees himself giving the tape recorder session. He demands that Mierzwiak stop this procedure and leave him alone, but Mierzwiak only says he can’t because he is only a part of Joel imagination. Joel spots Patrick in the shadows and charges after him, but never gets any closer.

Page 63 — At Clementine’s place Patrick finishes reading the letter just as Clementine shows up all dressed to go. Patrick hands her the gift, a necklace that she really loves. Back at Joel’s apartment Stan and Mary are having sex on the floor, right next to Joel’s bed.

Page 64–66 — Clementine and Joel are in the middle of a forest. Joel confesses that he hired people to erase her from his memory and he wants it to stop but can’t cause he’s asleep. Clementine tells him to just wake himself up. He tries, and for a brief moment could see his own ceiling but returns to the forest. Angry he blurts out the only reason he did this was because she did it to him first. The memory starts to fade and is replaced by the sound of rain, Joel spots a window floating in mid-air.

Page 66–68 — Joel shifts to one of his favorite memories. He and Clementine sit on a couch on a rainy day reading a book together. Clementine tells Joel to take her to a memory she doesn’t belong in to try and escape the eraser people. Joel tries, a series of memory fragments flash by.

Page 68–72 — Joel lands in a memory from his childhood. He plays underneath the table as his mother talks with a neighbor who is now Clementine. Joel starts crying, he wants his mommy and doesn’t want to lose Clementine, until she points out that this memory isn’t fading.

In the real world this causes all sorts of wrong for Stan. Him and Mary, both fairly stoned, decide to call Mierzwiak. Stan does and soon enough Mierzwiak is on his way, Stan tries to get Mary to leave, but she wants to remain there.

Page 72–73 — Joel and Clementine make love underneath the table in his mom’s kitchen. Joel tells Clementine that she’s dating a guy named Patrick who is copying Joel and stole her panties. Clementine tells Joel to find her in the morning and tell her everything.

Page 73 — Patrick and Clementine are on route to Boston, Clementine is crying thinking there’s something wrong with her, Patrick tries to soothe her, but this only seems to make it worse.

Page 73–79 — Stan and Mary wait anxiously for Mierzwiak, Mary more so about how she looks. When he does show up, Mary pounces for the door to let him in. After being told by Mary why she’s there, he hooks up to the system via his own laptop and quickly finds Joel. Back in his mom’s kitchen Joel is being bathed in a large sink, he’s at peace until things vanish and he is left there struggling in a sink for a moment, until he is sent to another memory. One of Clementine and him at a drive-in movie theatre.

Just as Joel realizes what’s going on, Clementine vanishes. In a desperate attempt, he hugs the air and calls out “Tangerine” which pops Clementine back into the memory and confuses Mierzwiak in the real world. They take off on the run Joel looks back and sees that the car has vanished and for a brief moment awakes back up in his apartment. Mierzwiak sedates him again sending back into the memory world, there, Clementine tells him to hide her in “Humiliation”. Mierzwiak believes things are under control now.

Page 79–80 — Joel forces his memory to go to something humiliating and shift into a black void. In the real world Mierzwiak is just about to leave when Stan tells him they lost Joel again. Joel has now moved on to a memory of him being caught masturbating by his mom. Mierzwiak takes control of the machines and quickly gets Joel back on track. In the dream world Joel is at the beach in the middle of winter. Clementine goes running off towards a house, Joel chases after her and pulls her away as things start vanishing.

Page 81–82 — Joel is in a memory of him Clementine pretending to suffocate Joel with a pillow. Joel pranks Clementine that he’s actually dead. Joel shifts to a childhood memory where he is forced to hit a dead bird with a hammer by other kids. He does, afterwards Clementine walks him to his childhood home where she says it’s her turn to be suffocated with the pillow. When Joel removes the pillow he discovers that Clementine has disappeared and his childhood home is now crumbling.

Page 82–87 — Seeing that Mierzwiak has got the hang of finding Joel, Stan decides to go out for a smoke leaving Mary and Mierzwiak alone. The start talking about quotes, Mary tells one that Mierzwiak doesn’t know by Alexander Pope “How happy is the blameless Vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot: Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each prayer accepted, and each wish resigned.” Soon after Mary kisses Mierzwiak, who at first refuses, but eventually gives in.

From the van Stan can see them starting to have sex, a car pulls up to, it’s Mierzwiak’s wife Hollis. Stan honks the horn to warn them, but this only causes them to stand up in full view of Hollis. She is in her car ready to leave when Mierzwiak and Mary show up outside. They both try to tell her it was a mistake and a one-time thing. Hollis tells Mierzwiak to tell Mary the truth and tells Mary “Poor kid. You can have him. You did”. Mierzwiak only tells her that they have a history and she wanted the procedure done, Mary leaves.

Page 87–88 — Clementine is lying on the ice with Patrick, but something isn’t right. Patrick says exactly what Joel said to her in the letter, this time Clementine cries, gets up, and runs.

Page 88 — Joel is drawing a portrait of Clementine in a skeleton costume, mixed in with this memory is that of his father fishing in a rowboat. He tells Joel to not waste his life or else he’ll be sewn into his own fate. Clementine tells Joel this isn’t true. The memory pops out of existence.

Page 88–91 — Joel and Clementine are now in a memory of their first date. They sneak into the movies. Clementine quizzes Joel on the particulars of their first date, what they talked about and what she was wearing, he gets them right. Joel drives Clementine home and later on makes love to her in her apartment. The memory fades away.

Page 91–93 — Mary returns to the Lacuna offices where she searches for her folder. She finds it in Mierzwiak’s desk, in it is the tape recording of her session with Mierzwiak.

Page 93–97 — Another one of Joel’s memories. This time he goes through his break up with Naomi and his hooking up with Clementine. At the end of the memory Joel is talking with Clementine at the bookstore where she works. Joel says things will be different if they can give it one more go around. She responds with “ Remember me. Try your best. Maybe we can.”

Page 97–106 — This is it, Joel’s first ever memory of Clementine. At his apartment Joel leaves Naomi behind due to her having some work to get done. Joel travels to a beach bonfire party with Rob and Carrie. There he wanders off on his out and this is when he comes across Clementine. Both Joel and Clementine talk about their true thoughts and feelings that day as the memory plays on.

They walk along the beach together and spot a house, which is soon broken into by Clementine. Joel, infatuated with Clementine at this point, nervously follows her in. This doesn’t last too long as Clementine scouts out the place Joel walks out the front door claiming he has a ride he needs to catch.

This time he stops, he confesses to Clementine that he felt like a scared little kid and that he ran back to the bonfire to outrun his humiliation. Clementine tells him to come back and make up a goodbye this time. He returns to Clementine and as they kiss the memory fades.

Page 106 — Two quick memories of Joel running back to the bonfire and the second of the ride back home with Rob and Carrie.

Page 106–107 — Stan and Mierzwiak have completed the procedure and begin to clean up. Mierzwiak tries calling his wife, she doesn’t pick up.

Page 107 — Mary is still in Mierzwiak’s office listening to the tape. We learn that she was also pregnant with Mierzwiak’s child, but they decided to get an abortion.

Page 107 — Stan and Mierzwiak are finished cleaning, Stan leaves to return the van back to the Lacuna building.

Page 108 — Patrick and Clementine are driving back from Boston, Clementine is silent and depressed. Patrick tries to start a conversation but fails.

Page 109–110 — Stan returns to the Lacuna building where he sees Mary carrying a box of her belongings to her car, she is leaving Lacuna. She asks Stan if he knew or even suspected that her and Mierzwiak were together. Stan replies he only seen them together once, but they looked happy and in love. Mary goes to her car and places her box in the trunk, which of filled with many boxes of Lacuna files.

Page 110 — Joel performs his regular routine after waking up. Outside he finds the scratch on his car but doesn’t know how it happened. He drives to the train station where he catches his train to work.

Page 110 — Mary listens to her own recording as she drives, she cries. The back of her car is also filled with boxes of files.

Page 111 — Joel, at work, calls Naomi and schedules a dinner for later that night

Page 111 — Mary is in her apartment with Mierzwiak, she tells him she doesn’t like what he does to people. Mierzwiak says he needs the files back but Mary denies him claiming them for her own.

Page 111–112 — Joel and Naomi walk down a street. Both say they missed each other. Joel tells her he hasn’t been seeing anyone for two years whereas Naomi mentions she’s met a good guy. Naomi ends up kissing Joel anyways.

Page 112 — Clementine is back in her apartment and is crying on her bed. Patrick is by a window flipping through Joel’s journal for tips.

Page 112–113 — The same scene from the start, Joel ditches work and goes to another train at the station.

Page 113–115 — Joel leaves Clementine’s apartment and says he will call her that night. He returns to his own place where Naomi calls. She says she had a nice time with him the other night and seems to be interested in getting back together, Joel doesn’t think they should rush it. After the call with Naomi ends he calls Clementine, soon they set up a date for the next night.

Page 115–118 — Joel’s and Clementine’s date on the frozen Boston river. Clementine rushes out on it with no care in the world and Joel hesitates, too scared. He submits to Clementine’s pleas and joins her. There they lie side by side, snuggle up, and point out the constellations they know.

Page 118–123 — Joel pulls up to Clementine’s place to drop her off, but Clementine wants to go to his place. She runs inside to gather her toothbrush a small bag of things. On her answer machine we hear Patrick’s voice, he’s worried about her and wonders where she is, and that he’ll stop by in the morning to check on her. Outside Patrick shows up to the house but walks away briefly when he sees Joel. Next moment he is at the driver’s side window asking why Joel is there, but soon cowards out and just asks Joel for a smoke before walking away.

Clementine returns from her place and they take off. They don’t get far when Clementine discovers the Lacuna envelope she got in the mail. She takes out the tape and plays in through the car’s stereo system. The tape is of her session with Mierzwiak about Joel, she insults him and tells of all her dislikes about him. This causes Joel to reverse back and leave a crying Clementine back outside of her apartment. Patrick is still outside and rushes up to Clementine who screams at him to get away.

Page 123 — Later on Clementine is in her car driving to Joel’s using a torn-out piece of phonebook with his address circled on it.

Page 124 — Approaching Joel’s apartment building, Clementine runs into Frank, who knows her but she has no idea who he is.

Page 124–130 — Clementine arrives outside Joel’s door and sees that it’s open. she hears Joel’s voice and goes inside; the place is a mess. She finds Joel sitting down listening to his own recording. They apologize to one another while Joel’s recording plays on. Things start to work out until Joel returns with a couple glasses of what little scotch Mary left them. At this point, on the recording, Joel mentions that he believes someday Clementine will just go around screwing everyone, this upsets her and soon after she leaves.

Joel catches up to her down the hall and tells her to wait for a moment. Clementine tells Joel how they will end up, that he will find things to dislike about her and her feeling bored and trapped with him … to which Joel replies … “Okay”.

Writing Exercise: I encourage you to read the script, but short of that, if you’ve seen the movie, go through this scene-by-scene breakdown. What stands out to you about it from a structural standpoint?

Major kudos to Andrew Lightfoot for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown.

To download a PDF of the breakdown for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, go here.

I am looking for volunteers to read a script and provide a scene-by-scene breakdown for it to be used as part of our weekly series. What do you get? Beyond your name being noted here, my thanks, and some creative juju, hopefully you will learn something about story structure and develop another skill set which is super helpful in learning and practicing the craft.

Pick a favorite movie which has its script available online and let me know.

Now is YOUR chance to contribute to this most worthy cause and provide an additional resource for the online screenwriting community.

Even if you do not participate in the analysis, discussion, or write up a scene-by-scene breakdown, I strongly encourage you to read these scripts.

So seize this opportunity and join in the conversation!

I hope to see you in the RESPONSE section about this week’s script: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

For 70 movie scripts which members of the GITS community have read and analyzed, go here.