Script Analysis: ‘Sound of Metal’ — Scene-By-Scene Breakdown

Read the script for this award-winning drama set in the world heavy metal music.

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: Sound of Metal (2019). You may download the script here.

Screenplay by Darius Marder & Abraham Marder, story by Darius Marder & Derek Cianfrance.

Plot Summary: A heavy-metal drummer’s life is thrown into freefall when he begins to lose his hearing.

Sound of Metal
Scene by Scene Breakdown
By Laura Bolton
GoIntoTheStory.com

P.1: Ruben and Lou’s onstage/offstage routine. RUBEN, (drummer) waits while LOU, (guitar and vocalist) begins their song during a concert on stage. It’s hard to tell while Ruben plays music if he is in pleasure or pain. The next morning together in an Airstream, Ruben works out, cooks, listens to music, while Lou sleeps. She scratches her arm, revealing where she used to cut herself, past wounds. They’re parked in a Wal-Mart parking lot. They dance romantically to 60’s music sharing a happy moment.

P.4–8: Ruben drives them to the next show. They sing and joke when the conversation turns serious, Lou shares that she used to dream about her funeral. Ruben and Lou set up a merchandise table and Reuben hears a ringing sound in his ears. He doesn’t tell Lou about it. They play a show. The next morning he wakes up in pain, has trouble hearing and is lost in worry. Lou notices Ruben’s distance and asks him what’s wrong. He doesn’t tell her. When his pain is too much; Ruben leaves sound check and heads to a pharmacy. He tells the pharmacist he is having trouble hearing. The pharmacist calls a doctor. Ruben waits for the doctor.

P.9–14: The prognoses. Key plot points: A) the doctor is concerned that music is an issue for his hearing. B) Ruben can hear under 30 percent in the right ear and 25 percent in the left. He misses 70 to 80 percent of words. It’s bad. C) Cochlear surgery is a possible option however it’s between 40 and 80 thousand dollars. Goal: Ruben wants to fix his hearing fast. The doctor wants to protect the little hearing he has left.

P.15–17: Ruben plays the show. On stage, Lou regards Ruben with confusion when he starts playing something out of sync with her. Unable to hear, upset, he stops playing and leaves the stage. Lou finds him. He tells her that he can’t hear anything. At a diner, Lou questions Ruben by writing on paper. She’s upset. Ruben tells her they will keep playing the tour they have booked. She disagrees, wanting him to get help. Both distraught. He leaves the diner to ask a stranger for a smoke.

P.17–20: Outside the diner, Ruben smokes. Lou believes his smoking cold be a signal he might be in further danger with his addiction. She suggests calling HECTOR, the manager. They tell him Ruben can’t hear and Hector will look into it. Hector will call them back. It is difficult to communicate.

P.20–22: In the airstream, Ruben gets ready to drive when Hector calls with a solution. Lou tries to get him to let her drive, he doesn’t. They sleep. They drive and finally end up at a DEAF CHILD AREA.

P.22–31: Ruben and Lou meet JOE, the leader of this community and who is deaf. Lou looks after Joe’s dog while Joe talks with Ruben. Joe communicates by using ASL and reading lips. Joe gets some help from Jeremy about computers. He talks to Ruben through the computer. Ruben can’t hear anything. He admits he uses drugs, heroin. Joe tells him he is an alcoholic. Ruben has been clean for 5 years and together with Lou for 4 years. Ruben doesn’t want help. He worries about Lou. How this will impact her. Joe explains that the deaf community doesn’t view deafness as a problem to be fixed. Joe asks him to invite Lou in for a discussion.

P.31–5: Joe’s suggestions. Joe explains that he thinks Ruben needs help. If he were to stay there, he wouldn’t be able to contact anyone from the outside, even have a phone on him. Ruben explains that they live in the airstream. Lou is stunned. Ruben pulls her out of the room. Ruben asks Joe about the implants. Joe feels that focusing on the surgery is not going to help. They both need support. He encourages Lou to get help and ‘pull the band aid off.’ it will ‘hurt less then the alternative.’ Ruben doesn’t hear him say this.

P.35–9: Back at the airstream. Ruben wants to keep playing shows. They fall asleep, afraid. Ruben wants to get the surgery. Lou wakes up to Ruben angrily destroying equipment in front of the airstream. This throws Lou into a state of paralyzed anxiety. She remembers Joe’s words. Lou calls RICHARD for help. Ruben is angry she has called him. They argue using a pen and paper. Lou writes that ‘you need support.’ Ruben says what he needs is a gun. Lou gets a call that she can catch a plane to leave. Ruben can go back to the deaf community.

P.39–41: Lou leaves. The cab comes and Ruben is distraught. He tries to get Lou not to leave. Lou is convinced that this is the best thing to do, after what Joe told her and makes Ruben promise to go back to the deaf community. He asks her to wait for him. It’s heartbreaking. Ruben can’t believe that Lou is leaving. He sits alone. Lou tells him she loves him but he can’t hear him.

P.42–43: Ruben returns to the Deaf Area. Joe takes him in his house, shows Ruben a room and asks Ruben to hand over his phone. Later, Ruben joins the adults in a support circle. Joe introduces Ruben to them. Joe writes on the white board that he will be given a deaf name and a job. Joe assigns him a buddy, JENN to be around him at all times until he is stable. They will use a tablet to communicate. A woman gives him a name, but he doesn’t know what it is. Later, Ruben eats dinner at his new home. Jenn gets in a heated signing conversation signing with Dan. Jenn writes, “Dan is a pussy” on the tablet. Ruben is like an alien among his new tribe.

P.44–47: Ruben hears nothing while getting washed up and dressed. He gets in the back of Joe’s pickup with Jenn and a bunch of other housemates. Ruben asks Jenn if there is Wi-Fi anywhere. She tells him it’s in Joe’s office. Arriving at a farm, everyone disembarks into a large garden. It’s a school for the deaf. Joe ushers Ruben into teacher, DIANE’S classroom full of children. Diane explains that Ruben is learning ASL. Ruben writes his name on the board in graffiti and kids love it. They all make “r” signs with their hands. The kids write their names on the board and it inspires MICHAEL, a hyperactive kid to want to write his name dripping in blood. He gets a warning to calm down. Jenn comes and says that she will meet Ruben in an hour. Ruben feels claustrophobic in class. Jenn and Ruben walk back to Joe’s. Dinner is going on but Ruben tells Jenn that he will be right there and heads to Joe’s office. He finds an email from Lou in Paris. She asks him to let her know that he is safe and asks him to be brave for her. He fights back emotion. He smokes. A deaf group of addicts meeting. Ruben introduces himself as almost 6 years sober. Joe translates. Ruben is deflated.

P.49–53: Ruben fixes a broken shutter in Joe’s house, and it upsets Joe. Joe reprimands him because Joe didn’t ask him to do that. Joe tells him that Ruben is in crisis, deafness, addiction and losing his girlfriend. Ruben tells him he isn’t drumming. He offers an opportunity that Ruben can help with a summer program with students from the class yesterday. Ruben starts to get frustrated. Joe infers that Ruben has been forced to grow up too early. Joe asks him if he knows the difference between working and surviving and living and surviving. He challenges Ruben to devote some time in the mornings for himself, mediation or writing. He agrees and corrects Joe for saying that he lost his girlfriend.

P.53–55: Jenn and Jeremy approach Ruben and ask him if he will play drums to accompany Jeremy’s dancing for an end of school thing. Sensing Joe has put them up to this, Ruben says no. They are taken aback. However, Ruben tries to do Joe’s suggestions for his morning routine. Ruben grabs a donut and coffee and goes to the room. He feels out of place. At school, Ruben watches Jeremy’ dance and feels ashamed for not drumming. He notices Michael’s inability to sit still. Ruben takes him outside and asks to borrow his phone. No emails from Lou. Ruben taps a drumbeat on the metal slide, to the delight of Michael, who can feel the vibration in his head.

P.55–57: Ruben learns new skills and fits in. Montage: Ruben signs with deaf children. Ruben writes in the morning, healing. Ruben plays an ASL game with a kid in a class. Ruben and Diane take the kids hiking. Ruben is calm in the back of Joe’s truck, silence is “no longer oppressive to him.” Ruben sits around the table comfortable in ASL and eats. Ruben draws a dirty picture of a woman for Jenn. Jenn wants it as a tattoo at the back of her shoulder. Ruben sits in his mediation room, without writing, seeming to fulfill Joe’s challenge of being able to sit with himself. At deaf school, Ruben plays the drums and shows Michael the kit.

P.58–62: Jenn prepares to leave. She tells them of her plans to move back to her parents, she looks afraid. Ruben talks to Joe about Jenn leaving. Joe offers Ruben a chance to stay on and work at the community. Anxious, Ruben goes into Joe’s office and finds a video of Lou performing alone which upsets him. In the airstream Ruben looks around at his old life. He breathes in Lou’s clothes. He rips chords out of equipment. He plays his kit. Jenn looks at his pictures. His mom was in her twenties and he was in his teens. Ruben wants to send packages and Jenn wants to know why. Ruben wants to get money for Lou and her himself. Ruben and Jenn load the large mixer into the van. Jenn dissuades Ruben from going with her. He asks that she get cash for it. Jenn seems annoyed.

P.62: End of summer performance Ruben plays the drums with the deaf children. Ruben stays behind. Diane offers to drive him home but he wants to walk.

P.63–65: Ruben looks for Jenn. Joe leaves to look for her. Ruben smokes. The next day, In support group, Joe tells them that Jenn overdosed and is in the hospital. She had cash on her from Ruben’s property. Ruben works hard in the farm. Ruben goes to Joe’s office and looks at Joe’s pictures of his wife and child from the past. Ruben finds his airstream keys. Ruben calls Prince Audiology and confirms an appointment. At school, Ruben places his hands on a piano to feel the vibrations with the kids, however his mind is elsewhere.

P.66–68: In the airstream, Ruben shows a man and his grown son the airstream. They negotiate the price. Ruben wants a chance to buy it back. The man and his son buy it and drive off.

P.68–74: Ruben leaves Joe a note that he will be back tomorrow. He has the cochlear implant surgery. It will be silence for four weeks and he needs to go back for reactivation. Ruben goes back to Joes. He tells Joe he had the surgery. Ruben expresses his feelings that the world doesn’t care for him. Joe encourages him to think about his morning practice. Did he notice any moments of stillness? He suggests to Ruben that God lives inside him. Joe sees Ruben has made his mind up to leave the community. When Ruben asks him for money, Joe suggests that Ruben needs to find another place to live. He leaves and Joe feels pain for his loss.

P.74–76: Ruben returns to the outside world. He eats Chinese food in a motel. He shaves his head. He watches other people. He misses Lou. The audiologist activates his hearing but it sounds more mechanical then what Ruben remembers. She suggests taking it easy. Ruben experiences the sound of an airplane, a school children yapping like geese.

P.76–81: Ruben arrives at Richard’s apartment. Richard knows who he is and lets him in. Louise doesn’t know he is coming. There’s a party later for Richard, which he calls his death party. Richard makes Ruben some food. They talk. Richard is a musician. Richard confesses to not liking Ruben’s music. He suggests that Ruben lives for the road. He explains how “Louise’s” mother took Louise from him when she left, and then when she committed suicide. Richard considers Ruben a temporary phase in Louise’s life that happened when Louise hated him. Now, he feels the Louise is doing better. Ruben agrees.

P.81–83: Ruben goes to lie down in Lou’s room. Lou comes in, vibrant and strong. Reunited, Lou looks different to Ruben. She shows him her arm, no more scratching. They hug. Richard asks for her help with the party.

P.83–85: Richard’s party. Ruben head is pummeled with sound. Lou is with good-looking people. Ruben tries to get through it. Richard asks Lou to sing with him. They sing together, a song Richard wrote for her mother. The sounds shatter Ruben’s ears.

P.85–89: Lou’s bedroom. Ruben sits on the bed and Lou gets ready. They kiss and Lou pulls away. Ruben encourages her to talk about her life now. When Lou asks, Ruben doesn’t tell Lou where he got the money for his surgery and instead expresses the desire to get the airstream sorted. Ruben comments on how Lou speaks French. She has met new people. Ruben wants to go back to their life. The tour. Lou starts to get anxious and scratch herself. Ruben sees that the person in front of him is different then the one he used to know, in the airstream. Ruben feels the painful truth of their relationship. They tell each other they saved each other’s lives.

P.90: Ruben leaves Richard’s apartment in the morning. The sounds of Paris kill his head. He sits in front of a cathedral and removes his hearing devices. He looks at the church bells swinging.

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?

Here is a trailer for the movie:

To download a PDF of the breakdown for Sound of Metal, go here.

Major kudos to Laura Bolton for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown.

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

For an in-depth analysis of Sound of Metal, go here.

To read dozens of Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis Series, go here.