The Pigeon: Impossible Blog

I started this one off the same as the other breakdowns, focused primarily on the structure. However, the structure is pretty straightforward. The act breaks are extremely clear, the midpoint is textbook, and it hits all the key beats of a classic Hero’s Journey. In fact in the commentary, JJ Abrams even talks about modelling it somewhat after Star Wars so its no surprise that the same beats are there.

So, rather than do an in-depth structural analyses which would be very similar to past breakdowns, I’m going to focus on some of my bigger takeaways:

Two main characters. Sure, if you had to pick one, most people would say Kirk, but really, this is a buddy movie. Spock’s arc is just as important, and many of the more emotional moments are centered around him. I’m working on a script with a similar issue at the moment, so I paid close attention to how they handled this:

1. They had a strong theme that tied the pair together. (Intelligence vs. Emotion/Acting from the gut) Every single scene with Spock or Kirk either played these aspects against each other, or showed how they balanced each other out towards the end of the movie.

2. They took the characters to the extreme of these viewpoints. They didn’t just favor one approach over the other, Kirk was all gut and Spock was all intellect. No grey area.

3 They showed how each character suffered because of their extreme attitudes. Kirk got beat up and arrested because he acted emotionally, while Spock spent the whole movie wrestling internally with the dilemma of not being able to express his emotions.

4. In the end, the solution to these character flaws was not to “fix” the extreme views, but to accept each other as partners.. Kirk was still impulsive, and Spock was still intellectual, but by becoming a team the negative aspects of their character flaws are cancelled out and only the positive aspects remain.

5. (Bonus) they managed to express the importance of this partnership on screen through Nimoy’s older version of Spock. I call this a bonus because it could be a mistake to do this in other cases, but because they had the Spock Prime character who was from the future and had witnessed the partnership, they were able to stick it on the nose without it feeling like something that was forced in by the hand of a screenwriter.

Another thing that stood out to me was how they handled a really wide range of emotions. Loss, empowerment, sacrifice, anger, awe, and a whole lot of others. The scenes stacked up in such a way that the audience never spent much time in a specific mood. It changed quickly and made each moment seem fresh by not overplaying any single emotion. A big part of that was the music (which I loved), but you could easily tell that almost every single scene was constructed to impart a fairly specific emotion to the audience. Camera work, staging, sound design, everything went together to support that basic idea of “what is the audience supposed to feel?”

The final takeaway is more of a personal observation. I find myself really attracted to movies that have some aspect of “fate” in them. This is actually very different than my real-life views, but I’m always a sucker for a well written and performed “Do you feel like you were meant for something better?” scene. I have no idea why that idea of being destined for greatness is so powerful, but it taps into something on a very fundamental human level.

Breakdown:

Sequence A – USS Kelvin
1:00 Mysterious phenomenon in deep space.
2:00 Arrival of mystery ship.
3:30 Message for captain to come over for negotiations.
4:00 You’re captain now Mr. Kirk.
6:00 Do you know Spock? What is the stardate?
7:00 Captain killed by Nero.
7:45 The baby is coming
8:00 Autopilot malfunction
8:30 Leave without me
9:00 I have to fight them off.
10:00 Dad drives the Kelvin towards the enemy ship. & James is born.
11:00 Impact

Sequence B – Boys will be boys
12:00 Young Kirk driving dad’s car.
13:00 Cop tries to pull him over.
14:00 Car over cliff
14:30 My name is James Tiberius Kirk
15:00 Young Spock gets insulted by other boys
16:00 Spock beats kid up.
16:30 Intelligence vs. Emotion (Statement of Spock’s theme)

Sequence C – The path to Starfleet
18:00 Spock asks his mother if he should continue his Vulcan training.
19:00 Spock is admitted, but declines because of the minister’s insult.
20:30 Kirk hits on Uhura
22:00 Kirk fights with cadets. Loses.
23:30 Captain Pike tells Kirk to join Starfleet
24:30 I dare you to do better.
25:00 Kirk debates joining starfleet.
26:00 4 Years? I’ll do it in 3.
27:30 Kirk Meets Bones.

Sequence D – Kobiashi Maru
29:00 3 Years later… Nero captures Spock’s ship.
30:00 Kirk is trying the Kobiashi Maru again.
31:00 Kirk and the green girl.
33:00 Kirk beats Spock’s test.
33:30 Kirk is accused of cheating, he addresses Spock.

Act 2
Sequence E – The journey to Vulcan
35:45 The cadets are sent to respond to the Vulcan distress call
36:30 Kirk is suspended
37:30 Bones smuggles Kirk aboard shuttle.
39:00 Shuttle arrives at the ship dock
40:30 Leaving the dock.
41:00 Sulu fail
42:00 Checkhov introduction
42:30 Crew briefing
43:00 Kirk realizes something is wrong
45:00 Kirk storms aboard the bridge.
47:00 Shields up. Red alert.

Sequence F – The Drill
49:30 Nero hails the enterprise.
52:00 Pike puts Spock in charge and promotes Kirk to first officer.
54:00 Space Jump
56:00 Landing and fight
58:30 Drill is disabled, red matter is launched at planet

Sequence G – Vulcan Destroyed
59:30 The planet has minutes, Spock leaves to save Vulcan council
61:30 Kirk and Sulu beamed back on board
63:00 Spock’s mom falls
64:00 Vulcan is destroyed -MIDPOINT
65:00 Spock and Uhura kiss in elevator

Sequence H – Aftermath
66:30 Nero tells Pike about his plan and how Romulus was destroyed.
70:30 Spock and Kirk argue. Whatever our lives might have been… our destinies have changed.
72:00 Kirk is marooned on Delta Vega
75:00 Kirk meets Spock Prime.
76:45 Spock explains the backstory with mind meld
80:00 So you do feel… did I know my father.
81:00 Bones argues with Spock

Sequence I – Putting things right
83:00 Spock and Kirk meet Scottie
86:00 Spock tells Kirk he has to take command and stop Spock
87:00 That’s cheating. A trick I learned from an old friend.
88:00 Back aboard the enterprise.
89:30 Kirk and Scottie are captured.
91:30 Spock relinquishes command

Act 3
Sequence J – Pursuing Nero
93:00 Kirk assumes command. Either we’re going down or they are.
94:00 Spock expresses his anger to his father.
95:30 The crew forms a plan.
96:45 Nero arrives at earth.
98:30 Spock and Uhura kiss on transport pad.

Sequence K – On Nero’s Ship
99:00 Kirk and Spock reach Nero’s ship.
101:00 The drill starts and they’re stuck on the ship.
102:00 Spock has doubts. Kirk says the plan will work. Steal the ship.
103:30 Kirk and Nero fight
105:00 Spock destroys the drill
106:00 Nero warps after Spock
107:00 Kirk defeats Nero’s lieutenant
107:30 Spock flies straight at Nero’s ship. Enterprise saves the day.
108:00 Kirk saves Pike

Sequence L – Singularity
109:30 Block hole is created
110:00 Kirk hails Nero.
111:00 Nero’s ship is destroyed.
111:30 Enterprise is caught in black hole.
112:30 Scottie blows them out of the gravity well.
113:00 Moment of celebration

Sequence M – Conclusion
114:00 The two Spock’s meet.
116:00 Kirk relieves Pike
117:00 The enterprise gears up.
117:30 Spock is appointed as first officer
118:00 Space the final frontier.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 13th, 2009 at 6:33 pm and is filed under Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.