Script Analysis: “Knives Out” — Part 3: Characters

Read and analyze the script for the hit crime comedy starring an all-star cast including Chris Evans, Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.

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

Today: Characters.

Characters are the players in our stories. They participate in scenes, move the plot forward through action and dialogue, influence each other, evolve and change. Each has their own distinct backstory, personality, world view, and voice. When a writer does their best, digging deep into their characters, tapping into their souls, the players in our stories magically lift up off the printed page and come to life in a reader’s imagination.

But there’s this: In a screenplay, characters exist for a reason. Hence my principle: Character = Function. Writers can shade and shape a story’s character in limitless ways. But if you dig down deep enough, you can find each character’s narrative function, and that can become a lens through which you develop the players in your stories.

Same thing with script and movie analysis: Look at each character and think about why they exist and what their function is.

Today we discuss the characters in the script for Knives Out. You can download the script here. Here is a list of the script’s key characters.

Harlan Thrombey

Marta Cabrera

Meg

Linda

Richard

Ransom

Walt

Donna

Jacob

Joni

Greatnana

Lieutenant Elliott

Benoit Blanc

Written by Rian Johnson.

Plot Summary: A detective investigates the death of a patriarch of an eccentric, combative family.

Major kudos to Dan Gorski for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown.

To download a PDF of the breakdown for Knives Out, click here.

For Part 1, to read the Scene-By-Scene Breakdown discussion, go here.

For Part 2, to read the Plot discussion, go here.

I hope to see you in the RESPONSE section about this week’s script: Knives Out.