Script To Scene: “(500) Days of Summer”

From the 2009 movie (500) Days of Summer, written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, a whimsical fantasy sequence.

Setup: Tom finally gets a chance to know his fantasy girl Summer… in the Biblical sense.

INT TOM’S BEDROOM — SAME

We watch from behind as he re-enters his bedroom. Where Summer waits. Under the covers. Naked.

SUMMER
Hi.

TOM
Oh sweet Jesus!

FADE UP: “YOU MAKE MY DREAMS COME TRUE” by Hall and Oates.

CUT TO:

EXT DOWNTOWN STREET — MORNING

It’s the greatest morning of all time!

Tom walks down the street. Or, more accurately, Tom struts down the street. People wave as he passes by, they clap, they give him thumbs up. Tom points at people as he passes, winking, doing a little shuffle. He is the man. He checke out his reflection in a window. A YOUNG PAUL NEWMAN stares back.

A GROUP of BUSINESSMEN break into a Busby Berkeley-style choreographed dance. A whole parade is forming behind Tom. The POSTMAN, a POLICE OFFICER, the HOT DOG VENDOR, the MICHELIN MAN, the SAN DIEGO CHICKEN, everybody loves Tom today. HALL and OATES themselves walk with Tom singing the song.

Cars stop at crosswalks to let Tom go by. The DRIVERS also pump their fists in celebration of Tom’s achievement last night. He walks on, the man.

We notice the sidewalk lights up every time he touches the pavement like in “Billie Jean”. CARTOON BIRDS fly onto Tom’s shoulder. He smiles and winks at them.

Tom breaks off from the parade as he approaches his office.

Here is the scene from the movie:

There are some interesting differences between script and screen, but the substance of the scene is all there in the screenplay.

I’ll see you in comments for a discussion of this scene from (500) Days of Summer.

One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

For more Script To Screen articles, go here.