Script Analysis: “Man Up” — 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.

Today: Man Up (2015). You may download a PDF of the script here.

Written by Tess Morris.

IMBd plot summary: A single woman takes the place of a stranger’s blind date, which leads to her finding the perfect boyfriend.

MAN UP
Scene by Scene Breakdown
By Clare Macdonald
GoIntoTheStory.com

p 1: Establishing shot of a loud themed party in a country hotel and go inside to:

p 1: An engagement party (a sign tells us it’s DOM & KATIE’s) with enough cheesy music and booze to make sure everyone finds love tonight. We follow one horny couple into the lift and up…

p 1–3: To the bedrooms. The lift couple are really going for it but we stop short of their room and enter the room before theirs to find the feet of our heroine (NANCY PATTERSON, 34) who is still getting ready, drinking, mentally preparing like it’s a boxing match not a party. She’s nearly through the door then suddenly loses her courage and throws in the lei.

p 4: The party is off for Nancy and she’s watching Silence of the Lambs, twisted intimacy between Hopkins and Foster, a scene she recites by heart. Worse, she’s ordered room service, which arrives, coinciding with a phone call from:

p 4–7: ELAINE, Nancy’s big sister, coach and champion, who coaxes her to give the party a try, and ropes Andy the room service boy into helping. He flees at the first and Elaine prompts Nancy to remember her MANTRAS about putting herself out there. Their intimacy and protector/younger sibling dynamic is evident and gets Nancy to the door.

p 8–12: Nancy “mantras” her way down in the lift, comically ruining her grand entrance by getting caught mid-squat as the doors open. This is connected to her “get stronger thighs” mantra (one of several recurring comic references to her constant fears of inadequacy — there’s a wound here). She nearly bottles it but doesn’t, and bravely enters the fray/bar.

Nancy’s focus is on couples as she moves through the party and finds her friend, DOM, the groom-to-be, with whom there is history, evidently not shared with his fiancee, KATIE, as Nancy quickly finds out by putting her foot in it. Katie is romantic and has set Nancy up with RYAN, who Nancy offends before meeting by calling him a sad loser. The date’s already a disaster and Ryan turns out to be fixated on his dead sister. It’s a washout.

p 12: Nancy waits for her train under self-help bestseller advert: 6 Billion People and You.

p 12 -14: Nancy gets on the train on the phone to Elaine, expressing her despair about the dating situation in a series of hilarious and crude comparisons involving Barbie and Ken’s privates.

Nancy’s train conversation INTERCUTS with Elaine and her husband ADAM setting out to Elaine and Nancy’s parents’ 40th anniversary party: a lot to live up to! Elaine is responsible and organized — bossing Adam too — to Nancy’s creative, crude cynic, but the family rely on Nancy to express their feelings and she is needed to make the SPEECH.

Back on the train we learn the train won’t stop in the right station so Nancy will be late to the party.

p 15–17: Nancy jots a mundane note to do Black Pant Wash laundry alongside her mantras in her notepad as she plans to write a speech for her parents’ anniversary. The GIRL opposite Nancy is reading the self-help book from the advert, 6 Billion People and You, and, based on Nancy’s cynical chat with Elaine, suggests Nancy should too. Nancy bristles defensively and they bicker until Nancy tells the girl to be quiet.

p 17: Nancy wakes up arriving in London. Train girl has gone but has left her the book with a napkin to mark the chapter she thinks appropriate to Nancy. Nancy’s outraged and runs after her to protest this smug intervention.

p 17–20: Nancy loses the girl in Waterloo Station (we see she has gone to buy another copy of the book) but bumps into JACK who assumes she is his blind date. Nancy, liking what she is seeing, then what she is hearing, he immediately quotes her Silence of the Lambs scene, lets him deal with Elaine’s phone call, and chooses to go with it rather than come clean: MEET-CUTE

p 20–23: Down in South London, BERT, Nancy’s dad, Adam, Elaine, and FRAN, Nancy’s mum, are shopping for the party and not sure of what to make by Nancy’s unusual spontaneity.

p 23–28: On the date, Nancy and Jack have an awkward drink by the river as Nancy struggles to keep up with who she is supposed to be as his blind date, city-worker and triathlete JESSICA. Her cover is nearly blown when Jack’s friend Tom calls to say that Jessica hasn’t found him. But Jack dismisses this as a mix-up, and they both switch off their phones to commit to the moment. Now they hit it off over quotes, and Jack is a talker, allowing Nancy to creatively get out of holes in her back-story and reactions. We learn that Jack is divorced, Jessica is a triathlete, and they were both cheated on.

p 28–30: Time lapse into Nancy and Jack really getting on, both pretending they don’t find passing babies cute, until Nancy finds out she’s supposed to be 24 to Jack’s 40! She still agrees to go to a next bar and Jack gives her his scarf to keep her warm on the way.

p 30: Jack and Nancy cross a bridge together.

p 30–34: Jack takes Nancy to do shots at a Mexican bar where he is a regular. He tries to deny this and distracts Nancy with a notebook swap that Jessica had planned, misreading her to-do list of laundry and life-goals, for her favorite bands, foods etc… They both have the same notebook. They get it over with: it’s no longer relevant, the ice is well and truly broken. Fighting over the bill, Jack sees Nancy’s cat photos (Axl and Slash and jokes about Paradise Kitties). He knows her references and Nancy is about to come clean when Jack jumps in first. He confesses he doesn’t know the band ‘Black Pant Wash’ but he’s having a good time and wants to go somewhere else with her. Nancy is torn, but he suggests bowling and she can’t resist.

p 34–35: Hot bowling montage. They rock bowling being inappropriately sexy and having fun. It’s perfect.

p 35–42: At the bar, Nancy is recognized by the barman SEAN, whom she doesn’t remember was at school with her, and reveals an increasingly creepy obsession with every detail of her life there. Nancy tries to shake him off, but Sean follows her back to the lane and soon realizes she is pretending to be someone called Jessica. He blackmails her, and Nancy agrees to give him a kiss later.

p 42–43: Back at Nancy’s parents’ house, Elaine, Adam, and Fran prepare the party.

p 43–45: Fran, Elaine and Bert worry and wonder where Nancy is. Elaine messages Nancy.

p 45–46: Jack and Nancy have finished bowling and are flirting hard but Jack sees something in Nancy’s teeth so she goes to the bathroom to fix it.

p 46–53: Nancy fixes her teeth in the mirror, over the moon about Jack, until a cubicle swings open to reveal a naked Sean. He won’t let her go and Nancy can’t think of a way out. She is about to kiss him when Jack walks in and her cover is blown (MIDPOINT). Jack is furious at being lied to as this pushes all his ‘wrong’ buttons. He fixates on whether she is actually a triathlete and is about to leave when Nancy confesses everything. Jack stays angry and gets hung up on her age, which pushes all her ‘wrong’ buttons. At least Sean is sent packing.

p 53–55: Nancy and Jack continue to argue as they get their coats and realize Jack left his bag at the Mexican along with Nancy’s notepad, which they didn’t swap back. He tells her needs his divorce papers, revealing the divorce to be a lot fresher than he suggested, and she needs her speech, revealing she should not be on a date.

p 56–58: They head back to the Mexican bar, Jack judging Nancy for missing the anniversary party, and arguing over the fastest way to get there. Jack says cab, Nancy says foot and challenges him to a race! Jack takes a cab. Nancy runs a mini-triathlon and….

p 58: They arrive together. She is filthy and pukes in the road before they go inside.

p 58–59: The bar is now full and Nancy goes to the toilets while the barman looks for the bag, missing Jack’s strange satisfaction about something.

p 59: Nancy tries to call Elaine — she’s crumbling.

p 60: Down in South London, the party is well under way. Everyone’s having fun, and nobody hears Elaine’s phone ring.

p 60: Nancy pulls herself together ALONE! and manages to pull off looking pretty sexy all in all.

p 60–64: Jack seems to be checking for something and double takes when he sees newly sexy Nancy. He is still annoyed but she apologizes. The barman finds his bag and he is just unbending towards her when Jack’s ex-wife HILARY and her partner ED, appear beside them. It turns out they have a timeshare on this bar, which used to be special to them. Jack introduces Nancy as his girlfriend and Nancy realizes he had planned this from the beginning — hence the 24-year old Jessica date. Jack apologizes and asks her to help him ‘get closure’ from his bitchy ex!

p 65–66: Elaine sees the missed call from Nancy. Adam reassures Elaine that she can let go of Nancy and they remember their own romantic beginnings.

p 66–77: Jack and Nancy vs. Hilary and Ed. Nancy hilariously nails a game of one-upmanship with outrageous lies — she is a firewoman and their sex life is X-rated. She saves Jack from losing face in front of Hilary by dancing with him and he tells her his sad divorce story. Despite everything, he is still romantic to her cynical and they fight their points of view in a perfectly synchronized dance-off. All the same, Jack is too sad and takes refuge in the toilets.

p 77–80: It’s Nancy’s turn to stalk Jack into the WCs (theme here?). She finds Jack at his lowest, crying on the toilet seat and squeezes into the cubicle to share her sad relationship story. They stop pretending, competing, are honest about their wounds and prejudices, and nearly kiss but a man in the next cubicle interrupts with his own psycho-breakup story and the moment is lost.

p 80–83: Back in the bar, Ed and Hilary are showing cracks, Jack and Nancy are a team and Nancy saves Jack from humiliating himself further, accidentally setting fire to Ed, comeuppance on Nancy’s firewoman lie as she struggles to operate an extinguisher. Jack helps her and they escape leaving everyone but themselves covered in smoke and foam.

p 83: Jack and Nancy skip happily back over the bridge, stopping to high five Jack getting closure.

p 83–88: Back where they began, at Waterloo station, Jack turns his phone on and receives a stream of messages. Nancy is about to invite Jack to her parent’s party, when he reveals that Jessica still wants to meet and asks Nancy for advice on whether he should go. He completely misses her disappointment and, too insecure to declare her own wishes, she tells him to go. They leave each other awkwardly, noticing they will have no way to reconnect — Nancy’s not on Facebook.

p 88: Nancy gets on the train alone, giving away copy of the book to some other girls as she does, and realizes she still has Jack’s notebook: they forgot to swap! She feels depressed.

p 88–89: Jack tries to replay his date with 24 year old triathlete JESSICA but they have nothing in common.

p 89–91: At the party, Bert makes a speech with dubious metaphors about his love for Fran, at the end of which Nancy arrives and finally bursts into tears.

p 91–93: Jack is struggling to connect with Jessica who suggests to swap lists. Jack pulls out his notepad only to discover it’s Nancy’s. He opens it and sees her speech.

p 93–94: Jessica helps Jack on his way to find Nancy but they realize he has no way to find her, until Jack remembers a mutual friend…

p 94–95: Sean’s closing up the bowling lanes, still wearing Jack’s scarf, and agrees to help Jack, creepily knowledgeable about Nancy’s parents’ location.

p 95: A rundown car tears through suburbia.

p 95–96: Inside the car, Jack is more and more disturbed by Sean’s psychotic deviant stalker revelations.

p 96: Sean drops Jack off outside house 74 and speeds away.

p 96–98: Nancy sobs out her story and regret at letting Jack go to her confused family. Nancy is about to explain when the doorbell rings.

p 98: Jack rings the doorbell to number 74.

p 98: Nancy and her family open the door to…?

p 98: Jack asks for Nancy and is pulled into a crazy teenage party.

p 98–99: Nancy can’t understand why Sean is at her door, and her family assume he is Jack. She goes with it to save them further disappointment.

p 99–102: The teens help Jack look for Nancy in the party until they find one boy who’s babysitter she was. He knows where she lives and they all run into the streets to find her.

This street search INTERCUTS with a depressed Nancy being intrusively fed chocolate mousse by Sean.

p 102–107: Nancy finally shakes Sean off and makes her speech, improvised and heartfelt thoughts on love and optimism. She forgives herself for failing the date, and acknowledging that she has in fact made progress. Her family are supportive and pleased for her. Then Jack appears at the window, climbs through it and declares himself to her in a romantic speech saying that the wrong girl was in fact the right girl. Nancy loves it. They kiss, and Jack tells Sean to get lost. The party resumes, now including all the crazy teens.

p 107–108: In the bathroom, Jack and Nancy finally get it on.

p 108: Outside the bathroom door Sean waits for Nancy’s exclamation; he hears her shout and finally gets his satisfaction. Everyone is happy. The camera pulls away, through the party, and up into the night sky.

THE END

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?

Kudos to Clare Macdonald for doing the scene-by-scene breakdown.

To download a PDF of the breakdown, go here.

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