<div class="seriesmeta">This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series <a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/Best Of 2020/high-school-movies/" class="series-4373" title="High School Movies">High School Movies</a></div><div class="seriesbox"><div class="center"> <a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/Best Of 2020/high-school-movies/" class="series-4373" title="High School Movies">High School Movies</a></div><ul class="serieslist-ul"><li class="serieslist-li-current">What Makes High School Movies Work? (Part 1)</li></ul></div>High school movies span decades. There are thousands covering most of film and TV history. This is mainly for one reason: the themes in them are universal.
The stories of high school are the stories of life. Of joy, sadness, yearning, accomplishment, and all things in-between.
On The Edge of Seventeen is a prime example of the comedy and tragedy of being trapped in four years of constantly shifting realities.
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<h3>We Can Relate</h3>
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Who doesn’t know the anguish of unrequited love? It’s exhilarating and crushing all at once. Or the clueless parent(s)? The love/ hate relationship we have with siblings? Or the feelings of being on train going the wrong way that pursue you throughout those confusing teen years?
Through archetypal characters and motifs of which we’re familiar, we experience seventeen-year-old Nadine Franklin’s (Hailee Steinfeld) life at a point in time. 
She basically has one true friend, Krista (Haley Lu Richardson). She lives with her mother, Mona, and her very popular brother, Darian, (Blake Jenner). Mona (Kyra Sedgwick) is raising the kids alone because her husband died of a heart attack. This was a father that Nadine adored and his death created a huge vacuum in her life and basically drove her inward. Currently, Nadine is nearing graduation and things are only getting worse.
In a truly funny turn, Woody Harrelson plays one of her teachers, Mr. Bruner, who is her adult-confessor when things spiral out of control, which happens on a pretty regular basis. His sarcastic tone when dealing with her puts her teen, melodramatic antics in context.
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Nadine bursts into Mr. Bruner’s classroom, sits at a desk opposite of Bruner’s desk. She’s obviously distressed.
NADINE 
(to Bruner)
Look, I don&#8217;t wanna take up a ton of your time&#8230; 
But I&#8217;m gonna kill myself. I just thought that someone 
should know. 
(beat)
I don&#8217;t know how this works. 
I&#8217;m probably gonna jump off an overpass in 
front of a semi, so&#8230;Or a U-Haul. Not a bus. 
I&#8217;m not gonna be a dick and make people watch. 
But it has to be big. It&#8217;s gotta be so big 
that it just&#8230;Done. Kills me. Lights out. 
&#8216;Cause if it just maims me and I&#8217;m like&#8230; 
well, how&#8217;s that good for anyone? 
Then I gotta find a nurse to smother me. 
How am I gonna get across &#8220;smothering&#8221; if I&#8217;m&#8230;
(beat)
We don&#8217;t need to get caught up in the minutia. 
I just  thought that an adult&#8230; you should know.
MR. BRUNER 
(sincere)
Wow. This is, uh, a lot to take in, Nadine. 
I&#8230; I wish I knew what to say.
(thinking)
Well, I was actually just drafting my own 
suicide note just now.
(picking up a sheet of paper)
&#8220;Dear everybody. As some of you know, I have thirty-two 
fleeting minutes of happiness per school day during lunch, 
which has been eaten up again and again by the same&#8230;especially 
badly dressed student, and I finally thought, you know what? 
I would rather have the dark, empty nothingness. 
I really would. It sounds&#8230; relaxing. Have a nice life.&#8221;
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This is from a transcript. An earlier version of the script called Besties is quite a bit different from the final movie and doesn’t appear to have a Bruner character in it. The addition is terrific and opens up Nadine’s circle of acquaintances wonderfully even extending to her ending up at his home with his wife and baby. Bruner acts as an oracle character, sarcastic but supportive and helpful.
In one scene, watching him play with his child you can see the yearning Nadine has for that sort of connection which emphasizes her lack of that in the present, presages her future, and touches back on her past when her father was alive and they were buds.
There’s also the lovable friend character who is in love with her, Erwin (Hayden Szeto), who she’s put in the ‘friend-zone.’
These solid archetypes and familiar situations create a solid base for a dramedy that delivers on the concepts that make a high school movie what it is and allows us to easily relate to it.
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<div id="attachment_48266" style="width: 781px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-48266" class="wp-image-48266 " src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/cheDSO3mYmsAFQlRM91o7MK6Wcc-1024x576.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine " width="771" height="433" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/cheDSO3mYmsAFQlRM91o7MK6Wcc-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/cheDSO3mYmsAFQlRM91o7MK6Wcc-150x84.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/cheDSO3mYmsAFQlRM91o7MK6Wcc-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/cheDSO3mYmsAFQlRM91o7MK6Wcc-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" />Deanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Deaver in Booksmart. Photo courtesy of Annapurna Pictures</div>
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<h3>Transition(s)</h3>
&nbsp;
Many high school films take place at a moment of transition. Upcoming graduation, sexual awareness, a contest, parents divorcing, etc. The way our educational system is set up, it’s a no-brainer. Each step to the senior class level is a time of growth and transition. 
Book Smart, for example, is based in the final few months of high school for the characters and it is emotionally wrought for pals played by Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein whose close relationship as besties is about to undergo a radical change.
In On The Edge of Seventeen, the upcoming moment of change isn’t so much the impending graduation as much as it’s an emotional shift for Nadine’s friend, Krista, who begins dating Nadine’s brother, Darian. 
Nadine must learn to embrace the change in her friend which is causing them to drift apart. Nadine sees the dating of her brother as a betrayal. It’s growth, but not on Nadine’s part. And she can’t accept that her and Krista are no longer little girls (emotionally). She’s not ready to shed the preteen ‘skin’ she’s still living with, and the entire storyline gives us the painful confusion she’s experiencing. 
This is when she meets Krista as a child.
NADINE (V.O.) 
My childhood had become a raging dumpster fire, 
and I couldn&#8217;t take one more second of this 
intolerable, unliveable nightmare of a&#8230;
(beat)
And then, out of the clear blue, an angel appeared. 
She was dressed like a small, elderly gentleman. 
And her breath smelled of Sweetarts.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
That formed the basis of a years-long friendship. And as the old saying goes, misery loves company so Nadine found identity with Krista until Krista decided to push into adulthood leaving Nadine somewhat alone.
Nadine now feels even more isolated than she’s ever been and even the attempts by her mother to help don’t help.
This shock to the system that’s present in different forms in most high school films is what creates growth as Nadine begins to question the very nature of her life. She’s growing albeit painfully.
Nadine is having the same thoughts as Krista, but she’s resisting the change that’s on the horizon.
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NADINE (V.O.) 
He (Nick) works at Petland now. I should go 
in there and be like, excuse me, where are the beta fish? 
Also, could you put your penis inside me?
&nbsp;
(beat)
God. What if you actually did that? What if you 
lost your virginity in a Petland? I think it&#8217;d be kind of nice. 
All the little tropical fish watching. It&#8217;d be kind of spiritual.
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&nbsp;
This, in part is what makes high school movies so compelling. The fear of growth, the push-pull to adulthood; standing on the edge of a cathartic experience and being scared silly about the outcome. It’s some of the most powerful drama you can write because it’s an exposed, raw nerve and pulls no punches.
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<div id="attachment_48267" style="width: 779px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-48267" class="wp-image-48267 " src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/mean-girls-14.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine " width="769" height="428" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/mean-girls-14.jpg 980w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/mean-girls-14-150x84.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/mean-girls-14-250x139.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/mean-girls-14-768x428.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 769px) 100vw, 769px" />Main cast of Mean Girls. Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures</div>
<h3>Tribes</h3>
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These groups (cliques) popularized by The Breakfast Club are the “typical” ones which have remained basically the same forever, and form a social structure in any film or TV series. They are used for their effects on the main characters either by being accepted into one or rejected by one. Either result being potentially ultimately disastrous.
Being a reflection of real life where we tend to gravitate toward common interests for support and safety, the power of cliques (tribes) can’t be underestimated.
In Mean Girls, Cady (Lindsay Lohan) is warned not to join the mathletes &#8211; it’s social suicide, she’s told. She’d be embraced by that group (maybe) but rejected by others. Edge Of Seventeen has cliques, but Nadine is never successful in being part of one so she ends up with Mr. Bruner as her tribe of one &#8211; well, two &#8211; although he clearly is wary of her lack of peer socialization.
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<h3>Alienation</h3>
&nbsp;
Another powerful theme in any high school film (or TV show) is the terrible alienation felt by the characters. 
Glee utilizes this to solid effect in the first season as the Glee Club (geek tribe) members get Slushied by the ‘jocks’ on a daily basis. Bullying isn’t funny and is definitely a practice that shouldn’t occur but no school can really do away with it completely because of the cliques that form. Again, a microcosm of real life where people gravitate to shared interests and form relationships based on that mutuality.
Again, Nadine isn’t really in any clique which is also standard fare for these movies. She’s an outsider trying to rise above the nonsense she witnesses but it also creates a terribly alienated existence. When Krista finds a new relationship and Nadine can’t cope this allows the writer to show some pretty insightful and dramatic scenes of Nadine scrambling to find identity.
This all leads to eventual growth as the alienation she feels explodes and causes a breakdown. Really solid, if painful, drama.
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<h3>Rejection Of Values</h3>
&nbsp;
No teen in these movies apparently can like or tolerate their parents. Some scripts take pains to show what was and what is now. When we’re young we count on our parents. But that transition from preteen to teen is a rough one on parental and other relationships. Neither part of the equation knows how to handle it.
Nadine’s father died at a time in her life when she was vulnerable. There seems to be a consistent arc for characters like this who have been ‘betrayed’ by parents, friends, family (brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts) or society. This action forms a barrier to continued social development and causes the character to reject their foundational support which then extends to secondary tiers like different classmates, teachers, and other people.
You might think that Nadine is being overly-dramatic when she indicts and then rejects her friend Krista; but because of her severely limited social circle &#8211; Krista is her only real friend &#8211; she sees another person she loves abandoning her. Of course, we see this in all facets of life when one of our friends gets a significant other, and then doesn’t seem to have time for us.
This can also extend to other areas where an A-student suddenly begins failing or an athlete doesn’t show up for practices. In high school, the magnifying glass is focused so much more closely because there’s a set of rules specifically designed to promote achievement. People in general typically don’t watch you as much in college or in real life.
High school narrows the context so that a senior is being monitored by several sources and the failings, especially the scholastic or sports activities, set off alarms which then leads to some sort of confrontation.
In Edge Of Seventeen there isn’t this type of degradation of goals except in general as Nadine grows further and further away from her so-called normal life.

What Makes High School Movies Work? (Part 1)

<div class="seriesmeta">This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series <a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/Best Of 2020/openings/" class="series-4325" title="Openings">Openings</a></div><div class="seriesbox"><div class="center"> <a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/Best Of 2020/openings/" class="series-4325" title="Openings">Openings</a></div><ul class="serieslist-ul"><li class="serieslist-li"><a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/writing-memorable-script-openings-part-1/" title="Writing Memorable Script Openings (Part 1)">Writing Memorable Script Openings (Part 1)</a></li><li class="serieslist-li-current">Writing Memorable Script Openings (Part 2)</li></ul></div><h3>Make &#8216;Em Laugh</h3>
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Of course, comedies need to be funny and that starts right at the beginning of the film. Mel Brooks was a master of comedic openings. Blazing Saddles has a fairly mundane opening with a theme song that sounds just like any western theme song. So where’s the comedy? Being satirical, the humor is exactly that &#8211; it sounds and opens like any western not an offensive, at times hilarious, spoof. And even the man singing the song, legit crooner Frankie Laine, reportedly didn’t know it was the outrageous comedy it was. He thought he was singing a true western opening.
Deadpool and Wolverine has this epic fight scene with *NSync singing “Bye, Bye, Bye” playing over it but before that happens we Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) breaking (shattering) the fourth wall by talking about the logo music, Disney, Fox, etc. And then digging up Wolverine in North Dakota. You’re smiling already and of course the franchise has always been this irreverent to good effect. The opening sequences are absolutely suited to these films.
&nbsp;
<h3>Pitch Perfect</h3>
&nbsp;
Openings need tone. Meaning, they have to reflect the joy, fear, anger, etc., of the film.
Legally Blonde opens with a young woman on a bicycle riding through a college campus. She’s waved at, called out to, and generally happily acknowledged. Over the opening the earworm by Hoku, Perfect Day plays to great effect. Of course most of us wouldn’t be lucky enough to be able to present a pop hit like that in any form let alone in a script presentation, but the writer could suggest the song by writing about how gorgeous the day is, how happy everyone is, etc. This is a credit sequence in the movie and not something normally up to the writer but the concept is valid.
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<div id="attachment_47725" style="width: 783px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-47725" class="wp-image-47725 " src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/KgGowXJE3ZgnGA8dgu7PAP-1024x576.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine " width="773" height="434" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/KgGowXJE3ZgnGA8dgu7PAP-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/KgGowXJE3ZgnGA8dgu7PAP-150x84.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/KgGowXJE3ZgnGA8dgu7PAP-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/KgGowXJE3ZgnGA8dgu7PAP-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 773px) 100vw, 773px" />Moana (Auli&#8217;i Cravalho) Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Animation Studios</div>
Moana 2 has a joyous Polynesian song in the opening and then we see Moana (Auli&#8217;i Cravalho), now a powerful, young woman, running pell-mell through the forest. Again, script-wise we can only suggest an opening song, but any Disney-hire for scriptwriting duties is going to get some of the best in the business to write music for the film. So suggestions are appropriate in the script.
The recent remake of A Star is Born shows a concert stadium venue and rock star Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) heading to the stage to play his opening number. On the way, he downs drugs and drink, and we hear a raucous crowd before launching into a song called “Black Eyes.”
JACK 
(singing) 
‘Black eyes open wide, 
It’s time to testify, 
There’s no room for lies, 
And everyone&#8217;s waitin’ for you, 
And I&#8217;m gone, 
Sittin’ by the phone, 
And I&#8217;m all alone, 
By the wayside,
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
This sets the tone for the film and draws a stark contrast between him and Lady Gaga who comes in with her own song just minutes later.
&nbsp;
<h3>Tangential Threads</h3>
&nbsp;
The Untouchables doesn’t bring in main character Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) until after we get a total sense of how brutal Al Capone (Robert De Niro) is. There’s a scene with Capone with the press as he’s getting shaved and he’s cut by the barber who reels back in horror showing how capricious Capone’s anger is; but the kicker is when Frank Nitty (Billy Drago) blows up a bar that won’t buy Capone’s rot gut. Brian De Palma and writer David Mamet make sure the impact is felt because it’s a little girl holding the briefcase bomb in the doorway of the bar when it explodes. Welcome to Capone’s Chicago in the 30s &#8211; a great way to set the stakes and introduce the world. We don’t see Eliot Ness until later but we have these moments in mind when we do.
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<div id="attachment_47726" style="width: 781px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-47726" class="wp-image-47726 " src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Arrival-4-1024x640.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine" width="771" height="482" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Arrival-4-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Arrival-4-150x94.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Arrival-4-250x156.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Arrival-4-768x480.jpg 768w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Arrival-4.jpg 1560w" sizes="(max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" />Louise Banks (Amy Adams) in Arrival. Photo courtesy of Film Nation</div>
The opening of Arrival is a montage which shows scenes with a quiet, serious voice over of Amy Adams’ character and her daughter at various ages.
The somber opening feels more suited to a drama and not a scifi thriller. You’d be excused if you’re wondering what’s going on.
LOUISE (cont) 
Now I&#8217;m not so sure 
I believe in beginnings 
and endings.
(beat)
There are days that define 
your story beyond your life.
(beat)
Like the day they arrived.
That ending line in the opening montage grabs you and sets up the arrival of the aliens but, as mentioned, before that it could have been any drama. The dialogue itself foreshadows the principals in the film that will make the difference. The film focuses intensely after this and tells an amazing story in the best tradition of science fiction tales.
None of this is apparent initially but once you understand the story, that opening, upon reflection, has direct and powerful impact that says so much.
&nbsp;
<h3>The Promise</h3>
&nbsp;
Openings are about the promise of what’s to come. The purpose of this is simple: create questions in the audience’s mind so they’ll stay engaged. Voice- overs are many times used in these types of openings to accomplish some good things.
Famously, Stand By Me uses an adult version of one of the boys who go on the journey to see the dead body. He mentions he was thirteen-yrs-old when he saw the dead body. Hmmm. Interesting. Tell me more.
A drawback to this is you know the character speaking probably survives the adventure &#8211; not such a bad thing, certainly, but writers need to use a V.O. opening with the right technique to ensure they don’t invalidate any suspense in their script’s storyline. It’s hard to be frightened for a character when we see them alive and well at some future point in the timeline.
In Brothers (Peter Dinklage, Josh Brolin), that’s not really an issue. Voiceover is used to good effect as images of someone building a vaguely dangerous, homemade explosive device is intercut with someone else making a typical Americana Thanksgiving dinner. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a juxtaposition like this and it really made me want to watch this film, especially when I heard this:
JADY MUNGER (V.O.) 
Did you ever think about trying to 
unf***(screw) your life? 
Yeah, maybe not. But I have. 
And this is how I did it.
(beat)
Some families have a long line of dentists or lawyers. 
We have a long line of felons.
We find out some funny specifics about those felons and their family and we’re hooked. I imagine reading the script and laughing aloud meaning I’m in. Mission accomplished.
In Joy, the recent docudrama about the first IVF baby, a voice-over from a letter mentions the main character, Jean Purdy (Thomasin McKenzie) and how without her contribution it wouldn’t have happened. Purdy was a twenty-three year old nurse so this is of interest. How many nurses are credited with a world-changing breakthrough in medical science? Probably not nearly enough. The V.O. is a recommendation that she be included in credit for the breakthrough. That’s intriguing and made me want to watch the film and it would likely have propelled anyone to read the script. Again, success.
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<h3>Recap</h3>
&nbsp;
Let’s list some of the ingredients of openings.
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li>Match the movie.</li>
<li>All openings need to match the genre. Someone killing someone is not likely to be seen in a romantic comedy unless it’s a black comedy.</li>
<li>The Heathers a satire, has the song Que Sera Sera playing as three expertly coiffed women (all named Heather) tea and stroll on perfectly manicured lawns. They hit croquet balls, the last one bonking a buried Winona Ryder in the head. Brilliant and perfect for the satirical nature of the movie.</li>
<li>Intrigue the audience.</li>
<li>Grab the audience, yes, but really intrigue the audience is a better mandate.
<ul>
<li>Opening with a character beginning their morning routine is just about the lamest, most cliché way to start any film. What about that is even remotely interesting? Now if the character is a rock climber and that morning routine happens in one of those tents that are hung from the side of a cliff then that’s obviously a different color cat.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The more questions you can create (in a good, not confusing way) in the audience’s mind the more mileage you’ll get.</li>
<li>Connect the dots.</li>
<li>An opening gambit is a set piece that isn’t necessarily connected with the main story. Raiders of the Lost Ark has an amazing opening (eight minutes of suspense and action) that doesn’t have direct relevance to the quest for the Ark. It’s designed for other things. And although we do meet Beloq, Indy’s nemesis, we don’t connect him yet with the Ark adventure.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Be creative.
<ul>
<li>One chance.
<ul>
<li>Imagine your opening scene is the most important writing you’ll ever do. In some ways it is. It’s your handshake, the coffee cup challenge, the only chance you may get to land that gig. Make it count. Let other people read it and give you feedback.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Do an AI or Google search on the concept of your opening. Ask if there are other similar openings out there and research what those openings did right or wrong.</li>
</ul>
Any opening can be connected or not connected directly to the storyline. It’s up to you. But make certain you’re not creating something superfluous to the story &#8211; you just don’t have that much time in a script and every word is precious.
And make it memorable!
<fieldset><legend>Series Navigation</legend><a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/writing-memorable-script-openings-part-1/" title="&lt;&lt; Writing Memorable Script Openings (Part 1)">&lt;&lt; Writing Memorable Script Openings (Part 1)</a></fieldset>

Writing Memorable Script Openings (Part 2)

<div class="seriesmeta">This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series <a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/Best Of 2020/openings/" class="series-4325" title="Openings">Openings</a></div><div class="seriesbox"><div class="center"> <a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/Best Of 2020/openings/" class="series-4325" title="Openings">Openings</a></div><ul class="serieslist-ul"><li class="serieslist-li-current">Writing Memorable Script Openings (Part 1)</li><li class="serieslist-li"><a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/writing-memorable-script-openings-part-2/" title="Writing Memorable Script Openings (Part 2)">Writing Memorable Script Openings (Part 2)</a></li></ul></div>Let’s get the cliché out of the way, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” In movies, that may not be true because people coming to your work may already know about the movie or TV series, but the first people to actually judge your work are reading it, not watching it. They may reject your script if you don’t engage them right away. In any case, if you have an insipid opening, it will be twice as hard to get someone to say yes because they’re already making decisions about your script in the context of a lame opening.
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<h3>The Contract With The Audience</h3>
&nbsp;
Years ago, I was in a theater watching who-knows-what and I noticed I couldn’t get comfortable. No, it wasn’t the guy behind me blowing popcorn breath on the back of my head, or the idiot trying to impress his date with his arcane knowledge of the history of the film &#8211; it was that I never felt like I was given what I needed to enjoy the movie. The filmmakers hadn’t set the film up properly and I was just unengaged and lost.
Afterwards, I came to the conclusion that there’s a process of getting stories rolling. And the most important part of that is the opening sequence. You may think it’s a cliche but that opening does so much you cannot really be without a strong presentation. And it’s only a cliché if you make it a cliché. It’s incumbent on you, as the writer, to elevate openings so they do what they’re supposed to do but in a different manner than the rest of the openings we’ve seen.
I identified the “Contract With The Audience” (Quantum Scriptwriting, Part I, Act I, Setup) as the items you need to accomplish to fully engage an audience, reader or viewer. Again, the opening sequence is perhaps the most important of that list. From a purely practical angle, it’s the handshake with the reader. Readers are typically writers and we are a harsh and sometimes petty group. We resent the reading even though as a reader it’s literally our job! In defense, we can also be impressed with a stunning opening. So cliché away at your own peril.
If you do the opening right, you establish a bond with the audience (the reader) that then will gain you a lot of goodwill throughout the script and make that script even more interesting.
&nbsp;
<h3>Big Openings</h3>
&nbsp;
Recently, a student wrote an eleven-page scene of mayhem that his character, a rock star, engendered. The character was nude from start and finish and flashed his frank and beans all over L.A. while being chased by various cops and offended citizenry. It was fantastic if a little over the top. Ultimately the opening pages were reduced in length but it still made a great opening introduction and showed the vision he had of that character’s world.
Look at other big openings: Raiders of the Lost Ark has an eight-minute insane opening sequence that starts the movie. Baby Driver has a really tense anticipatory opening that roars into crazy-ass drifting and driving once the bank robbers jump in. I love the moment when one of the robbers points to go and Baby, Ansel Elgort, zooms backwards. 
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<div id="attachment_47715" style="width: 782px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-47715" class="wp-image-47715 " src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Drew-Barrymore-Casey-Scream-1024x512.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine" width="772" height="386" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Drew-Barrymore-Casey-Scream-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Drew-Barrymore-Casey-Scream-150x75.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Drew-Barrymore-Casey-Scream-250x125.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Drew-Barrymore-Casey-Scream-768x384.jpg 768w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Drew-Barrymore-Casey-Scream.jpg 1400w" sizes="(max-width: 772px) 100vw, 772px" />Casey (Drew Barrymore) in Scream. Photo courtesy of Dimension Films</div>
Scream plays with genre and expectations as Drew Barrymore answers a phone call and flirts with the caller &#8211; until he reveals he’s been watching her and things start to get weird.  Of course, no one thinks they’re gonna kill a star like Drew Barrymore. And then they do.
These openings shout to the audience to pay attention and put that popcorn away &#8211; things are gonna get mental.
Reading these scripts would have been such a dream to any producer. Nothing is what it appears to be and everything that follows should be a pure joy to read.
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<h3>Bond. James Bond</h3>
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The big opening is nothing new. Movies from the dim days of film history have always shown the audiences the sizzle and the steak.
Perhaps no more faithful adherer to this are the James Bond films. In watching all twenty-five recently, I was shocked when one of them, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, did not open with a huge action set piece. No car chases, fights, bombs &#8211; and the only gun in the sequence is a disassembled rifle that Bond only uses to scope out something in the scene.
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<div id="attachment_47716" style="width: 781px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-47716" class="wp-image-47716 " src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/maxresdefault-1024x576.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine" width="771" height="434" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/maxresdefault-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/maxresdefault-150x84.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/maxresdefault-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/maxresdefault-768x432.jpg 768w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/maxresdefault.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" />George Lazenby as James Bond. Photo courtesy of Eon Productions</div>
Contrast this to the amazing openings in all the Daniel Craig Bond movies where frantic chase scenes on foot and in cars take place.
The next Bond should be interesting in that the producers lately seem determined to re-invent the master spy. Will they then do away with the great opening set pieces? No more Bond driving a motorcycle off a cliff and skydiving to a pilotless airplane? Doubtful. Bravura openings have become a franchise expectation and no matter what they do with character, the Bond films are action films and require an action opening.
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<h3>Small, But Memorable</h3>
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American Beauty is a challenging movie on many levels these days. You’re shown this by an opening that can be described as, well, if you haven’t seen it try it on. But the most memorable part of that opening is the main character’s contention that this (what he does in the shower) is the high point of his day. In mere moments we already know a lot about this sad sack of a man who will upend his life completely.
Get Shorty doesn’t open with a bang but has a quiet buildup to a moment with Chili Palmer (John Travolta) and Ray Barboni (Dennis Farina). Travolta translates the character perfectly. He’s calm, calculating, in charge of himself and the small things that happen lead to a moment that will have implications throughout.
Ted Danson’s recent turn as Charles Nieuwendyk in A Man on the Inside (show runner Mike Schur) has a very mundane opening, more like an extended montage, to show Charles’ sleepy world of retirement and widowhood. It’s done to contrast what he will be doing, but also to show that he’s living a boring, repetitive life at this point. I’m not sure how I would have approached this, but I can understand and embrace its efficacy. It also shows us how meticulous Charles is in his grooming and coffee making, using a scale to weigh exactly the right amount of beans. It’s a quiet opening that accomplishes a lot. By the way, this funny series is based on a documentary, shown on the screen, which makes it even more interesting.
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<div id="attachment_47717" style="width: 780px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-47717" class="wp-image-47717 " src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/22inside-review-pwmz-videoSixteenByNine3000-1024x576.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine" width="770" height="433" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/22inside-review-pwmz-videoSixteenByNine3000-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/22inside-review-pwmz-videoSixteenByNine3000-150x84.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/22inside-review-pwmz-videoSixteenByNine3000-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/22inside-review-pwmz-videoSixteenByNine3000-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px" />Charles Nieuwendyk (Ted Danson) in A Man On The Inside</div>
Small openings are a challenge because you have to be working at a high level of skill to know how to hook your reader with a gentle brush as opposed to throwing a gallon of paint at the canvas.
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<h3>The Hook</h3>
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X-Files perfected the opening hook for series TV. Episodes showed deliberately mysterious events that were then investigated by Scully and Mulder. Taking his X-Files sensibilities with him, Vince Gilligan created many more memorable openings in Breaking Bad. 
For example, Season 3, Episode 1 had one of the best openings I’ve ever seen anywhere.
In a rural village many people are shown crawling in the dirt. A new car pulls up and expensive boots set down in the dirt. The boots have death’s heads on them. The men are dressed in $3,000 suits. They suddenly drop down and begin to crawl with the rest of the villagers. They are heading to a shrine to make an offering to give them luck against the man they’ve been hired to kill &#8211; Heisenberg (Bryan Cranston).
I’ve never seen a more compelling or original opening. And I could no more turn that episode off than turn down a bowl of Chunky Monkey. Gilligan had hooked me into watching it and I did. I guarantee if this had been a spec script whoever was reading it would have continued to turn pages.
Masterful.
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<div id="attachment_47718" style="width: 781px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-47718" class="wp-image-47718 " src="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/maxresdefault-2-1024x576.jpg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine " width="771" height="434" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/maxresdefault-2-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/maxresdefault-2-150x84.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/maxresdefault-2-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/maxresdefault-2-768x432.jpg 768w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/maxresdefault-2.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px" />Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) in Mission Impossible 3. Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures</div>
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<h3>Non-Linear Openings</h3>
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Trickeration, as the sports pundits call it, is doing something unexpected. One of my favorite examples of the unexpected is the Mission Impossible III movie. It opens with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), tied up in a chair and being questioned. Across from him is his wife. If Ethan doesn’t tell Phillip Seymour Hoffman what he wants to know, they will kill his wife. He swears he doesn’t know and they shoot her. Shocking! Well, maybe not. But it is a grabber and you sit there thinking, did they really just kill her?
The purpose of opening this way is if you have a slowly developing story and you want to show the audience they need to stick around. If they’re killing main characters off in the opening then where is this crazy movie going?
Hoffman is involved in another non-linear movie, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead which keeps folding in on itself to tell the story of two brothers who will be robbing their parents’ jewelery store. The opening shows a married couple (Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei) making passionate love &#8211; it piques your interest, and then falls back to display a suburban neighborhood and The Day of The Robbery. Hmmm. Intriguing. Gotta follow that.
Wicked opens with the Wicked Witch having been destroyed by Dorothy. Galinda (Ariana Grande) is asked about the nature of evil and she recounts the past history of the witch. It’s a brutal tale filled with rejection and prejudice and we can begin to understand how Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) went bad as the story rolls forward.
<fieldset><legend>Series Navigation</legend><a href="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/writing-memorable-script-openings-part-2/" title="Writing Memorable Script Openings (Part 2) &gt;&gt;">Writing Memorable Script Openings (Part 2) &gt;&gt;</a></fieldset>

What Makes High School Movies Work? (Part 1)

Writing Memorable Script Openings (Part 2)

Writing Memorable Script Openings (Part 1)

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