Script To Screen: “Army of Darkness”

Yes, it’s the Boomstick scene from the classic 1992 comic horror movie Army of Darkness, written by Ivan Raimi and Sam Raimi.

Plot Summary: A man is accidentally transported to 1300 A.D., where he must battle an army of the dead and retrieve the Necronomicon so he can return home.

Here is the scene for what is reported to be the shooting script:

Here is the scene from the movie:

Here is an example of where what is on the screen is both quite similar yet quite different than the script. The structure of the scene, it’s primary point in relation to the plot, and tone are all pretty much the same. But there is an extensive reworking of the dialogue, adding a lot of lines. Here is a transcript of Ash’s actual lines from the movie:

Why do you think Raimi added all of that dialogue? I have a theory, but I’d like to hear your thoughts. If you don’t respond, I may have to bust out my own boomstick!

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 Go Into The Story series where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

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