Script Analysis: “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” — Part 3: Character

Read the screenplay for the hit animated movie and analyze it 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
Friday: Characters
Saturday: Themes
Sunday: Dialogue
Monday: 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 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. You can download a PDF of the script here.

A list of the key players:

Miles Morales

Peter B. Parker

Gwen Stacy

Uncle Aaron

Jefferson Davis

Aunt May

Rio Morales

Mary Jane

Spider-Ham

Peni Parker

Spider-Man Noir

Doc Ock

Screenplay by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman, story by Phil Lord.

IMDb plot summary: Teen Miles Morales becomes Spider-Man of his reality, crossing his path with five counterparts from other dimensions to stop a threat for all realities.

Writing Exercise: Think about each character. What’s their function? And see if you can use character archetypes to help in your analysis.

Kudos to Halil Akgündüz for doing the scene-by-scene breakdown.

To download a PDF of the breakdown for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, click here.

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

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

To access 70+ analyses of previous movie scripts we have read and discussed at Go Into The Story, go here.

I hope to see you in the RESPONSE section about this week’s script: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Onward!