Script Analysis: “Nebraska” — 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: Nebraska (2013). You may download the script here.

Written by Bob Nelson.

IMDb plot summary: An aging, booze-addled father makes the trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim a million-dollar Mega Sweepstakes Marketing prize.

Nebraska
Scene-by-scene breakdown
By David Joyner
GoIntoTheStory.com

1: Woody walks along a busy road, passing a sign for Billings, Montana, city limits.

1–2: David is in his apartment when his ex-GF Noel visits to return some things of his. (Some of the script was cut from the DVD version of the film.)

3: His Mom calls to tell him Woody was picked up by the police, found walking in traffic.

3–4: David picks him up at the police station. He finds Woody, the classic non-hero, wants to go to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect a $1 million sweepstakes prize he has “won.” by the following week. David realizes that it is merely a mail scam but can’t convince Woody of that.

5–6: David drives him home. Kate is upset. We learn Woody really just wants the money for a new truck and an air compressor, since his was stolen years ago by Ed Pegram (who we will meet later).

7–8: David works at a home theater store, a dead-end job. His mom calls again with news of Woody.

8–9: After Woody is picked up again, David and his brother Ross, a local news anchor, go to Woody’s and find him in his garage trying to fix his broken truck. His truck is broken down and his driver’s license revoked (because of his drinking).

9–10: Kate and Ross want to put Woody in a nursing home. David doesn’t. Ross’s career is looking bright.

10–11: David watches Ross deliver the 6 o’clock news on TV. His mom calls again with news of Woody.

11–11a: David drives to pick up Woody walking to the bus station. They argue.

12–13: David decides to drive Woody to Lincoln, much to Kate’s dismay.

13–15: Road scenes, conversation about Woody’s drinking. When they stop for gas, Woody gets out unseen
by David and gets a beer at a bar next to the gas station. David gets him back into the car.

16–17: David wants to stop by Mt Rushmore, but the sight bores Woody. They stop in a motel in Rapid City, S.D..

17–20: While in Rapid City, South Dakota, Woody goes out drinking while David sleeps. When Woody returns to the motel he hits his head. Woody gets some stitches for his cut at a hospital and tells David he’s lost his dentures. They retrace Woody’s steps and find the dentures by some train tracks.

19–20: David learns that they will be passing through Woody’s hometown of Hawthorne, Nebraska, and suggests they stay the night with Woody’s family. Woody is against the idea, but they end up going anyway.

21–22: Woody and David drive to Hawthorne, with one detour to a local site Woody remembers enjoying as a kid with his brothers.

22–23: They arrive at Ray and Martha’s — relatives in Hawthorne. They also meet cousins Bart and Cole, who are David’s age. However, the lack of ethics demonstrated by Bart and Cole, both by dialog and by implication form their acts, are in sharp contrast to David’s.

24–26: They all watch TV while Bart and Cole make fun of David, who puts up with them gracefully.

27–28: The next day, David and Woody visit a mechanic shop Woody once owned. We hear about Ed Pegram.

29–30: They visit some local bars. Woody is becoming more talkative, as he introduces David to the town and its characters.

30–33: As Woody becomes more open, they talk about relationships. David talks about Noel and, prodded by David, Woody talks about Kate.

33–34: They end up arguing about Woody’s drinking and Woody leaves the bar. David runs after him.

34–35: They go to another bar where they encounter Ed Pegram. After some introductions, David goes to the restroom.

35–36: When David returns from the restroom, Woody mentions winning $1 million and the customers of the bar give him a toast.

36: Woody, very drunk, is driven to Ray and Martha’s by David.

37–38: By the next morning, the talk of the $1 million Woody has “won” is all over town. Over breakfast, Bart and Cole display interest in seeing the winning ticket. Ray says he’s “real proud” of Woody.

39–40: Kate arrives in Hawthorne by bus. David and Woody pick her up in the car. While they wait for Kate, Woody gets special attention from a townsperson he once knew.

41–43: They visit the cemetery where Kate provides gossip of some sexual antics of Woody’s relatives.

43–44: Kate and Martha gossip about townsfolk.

44: Bart and Cole make fun of David on the porch.

45: A paperboy rides up on his bike and asks if Woody can have his picture taken by Mrs. Nagy at the local newspaper.

46–48: The next morning, David (alone) visits Peg Nagy at the newspaper office and they talk about the sweepstakes scam. Nagy shows David pictures and articles about Woody when Woody was in the Korean War. David learns Nagy is Woody’s ex-girlfriend.

49–52: Kate, David and Woody go to the local steakhouse. It’s Karaoke night. After ordering their dinner, Ed Pegram starts singing Karaoke. Kate talks colorfully of Ed and David in younger days. Ed stops singing and tells the restaurant about Woody. “the rich man”.

52–53: David and Ed talk in the restroom alone. Ed makes it clear to David that Woody owes him money.

53–54: David returns to the table and tells Woody and Kate of the conversation. Kate wants nothing to do with Ed.

55–56: Woody wakes up David asking when they are leaving. David tells him it’s Sunday. They will leave tomorrow when the offices open. David asks Woody about Peg, his ex-GF. Woody doesn’t want to discuss it.

56–57: During a conversation between Martha and relatives, we learn Cole went to jail on a rape charge.

57–58: Relatives Ray and Verne have a confused conversation about cars. Ross enters, having driven from Billings for the family reunion.

59–61: At dinner with all the relatives, Ross and Kate try to talk them out of believing that Woody has won a $1 million. They won’t have it, preferring to feed their unspoken fantasy that Woody will give some of it to them.

62: David mentions to Woody the idea that they drive to see Woody’s childhood home later.

63–66: After dinner, Woody’s nephews, and others approach David and Ross about getting money that they believe Woody owes them. A fight begins, ending abruptly with Kate calling out the relatives for their own unpaid debts to Woody.

66–68: David, Kate, Ross and Woody tour Woody’s childhood home, which has fallen into disrepair. More family history. Stern father named Tolf (“I’d get whipped if they found me in here.”) We learn Woody had a brother who died of Scarlet Fever n childhood, also named David.

68–70: David and Woody walk out into the fields beside the house, once farmland growing oats. Woody tells a story about after a hailstorm a “hail adjuster” refused to pay for the damage caused by the hail. Woody tries to return a knife the hail adjuster dropped. Tolf stops him. We also learn that the house Tolf and his brothers built was on land rented from a banker.

70–74: Long sequence where (1) Kate mistakenly identifies a farmhouse as that of Ed Pegram, (2) David and Ross decide to take back the air compressor that Ed “borrowed” years earlier, (3) David and Ross carry it out of the barn and load it in the back of their station wagon, (4) on the way out, Woody complains that isn’t his air compressor and says that was the Westendorf’s place, not the Pegram’s, (5) David and Ross drive back and return the air compressor to the Westendorf’s barn but while in the barn the Westendorf’s return, (6) not wanting to get caught, David and Ross hide until Kate drives off and the Westendorf’s go inside.

75–77: David and Woody are at a bar when Ed, drunk, joins them. Ed, in the midst of asking Woody for money he own him (“ten grand”), reveals that Woody cheated on Kate before David’s birth and Ed calls Kate a name (the b-word). Ed tells him to leave.

77: When leaving the bar, they are attacked by a masked Bart and Cole, who steal the sweepstakes letter and take off.

77–78: David goes to Bart and Cole’s room and confronts them. They say they threw it away when they saw it was bogus.

78–80: David and Woody return to Ray and Martha’s. Woody can’t sleep and sits, dejected, in the kitchen drinking milk. David agrees to help Woody search for the sweepstakes letter. They search the downtown streets of Hawthorne under the streetlights, when they see Ed Pegram holding court in a local bar with a large glass window front. Ed is reading from the letter making fun of Woody. Ed says “We know what the son of a bitch would do — buy a truck!” (An important setup for a later event.) Ed returns the letter to Woody. After Woody takes the letter back and goes outside, David punches Ed out.

81–84: Outside the bar, Woody collapses after David says the trip to Lincoln is cancelled. Woody reiterates he wants to go. He wants a new truck and money to leave David and Ross. David drives him to a hospital in Norfolk, where Kate and Ross join him. Ross and Kate leave after agreeing to drive him then next morning. David falls asleep in a chair.

84: David awakes. Woody is gone. David drives around and finds him in his hospital gown, with his jacket over it. David agrees to drive him to Lincoln.

85: In the car, the pass a Lincoln city limits sign.

85–87: They arrive at the marketing agency in Lincoln to collect the money. Of course. Woody did not win. His consolation gift is a hat that reads “Prize Winner”. He leaves to go back to the car. David chats with the receptionist a moment then leaves.

87–88: David goes to a car dealership and sells his car to buy Woody a “practically brand new” truck with Woody’s name on the title. Woody asks, “You work out something with those prize people?”

88–89: David buys a new air compressor and puts it in the back of the truck.

89–90: While driving back to Billings, David takes a detour through Hawthorne, David lets Woody drive the truck down the main street for all to see. Among them is Woody’s former flame Peg Nagy who smiles at him and a perplexed Ed with a new shiner.

90–91: Woody waves goodbye and drives the truck out of town, then stops in the road and switches seats with David, who drives them home.

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?

To download a PDF of the script’s scene-by-scene breakdown, go here.

Kudos to David Joyner for doing the breakdown.

To see 100+ screenplay scene-by-scene breakdowns, go here.