Script Analysis: “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” — Part 2: Plot

Read the script for the critically acclaimed indie film and analyze it all 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
Wednesday: Characters
Thursday: Themes
Friday: Dialogue
Saturday: Takeaways

Today: Plot.

In every scene, something happens. A plot point is a scene or group of scenes in which something major happens, an event that impacts the narrative causing it to turn in a new direction.

A relevant anecdote. Years ago, I was on the phone with a writer discussing a script project. My son Will, who was about four years old at the time, must have been listening to me talking about “plot points” during the conversation because after I hung up, he asked, “Daddy, what’s a plop point?”

That’s in effect what a plot point is. It’s an event that ‘plops’ into the narrative and changes its course. So when you think Plot Point, think Plop Point!

The value of this exercise:

• To identify the backbone of the story structure.
• To examine each major plot point and see how it is effective as an individual event.
• To analyze the major plot points in aggregate to determine why they work together as the central plot.

This week: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. You may download the movie script here.

Written by Martin McDonagh.

IMDb plot summary: A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter’s murder when they fail to catch the culprit.

Writing Exercise: Go through the scene-by-scene breakdown of Three Billboards and identify the major plot points. Post your thoughts in comments and we’ll see if we can come up with a consensus.

Major kudos to Halil Akgündüz for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown.

To download a PDF of the breakdown for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, go here.

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

To access 60+ 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: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.