I didn't realize that all films in the top 25 featured death.

I also didn't realize (although probably would have assumed) that none are comedies.

I think the death of someone or a group of people can be a great motivator for your protagonist (Gladiator comes to mind). Sometimes this will spawn revenge, sometimes guilt. This emotion will lead them through act 2 and at the end of act 2 they will die themselves, literally or figuratively, and emerge as someone new.

Everything I've written involves death... Never realized it. Maybe I'm not as happy/upbeat as I thought, or maybe I just always feel I can better portray the reverse in comparison with with the other.

Blake Snyder in Save the Cat always talked about the "whiff of death" where he felt that at your protagonist's lowest point it was important, no matter the genre to include some reference (even subtly) to death to raise the stakes.

His example was Elf, a light comedy, but there is a moment where Buddy stares over a bridge and briefly considers suicide.

Just a thought.

That may be one of the best random blog posts I've ever read. And I think it just really helped my screenplay. So thanks.

A friend told me that when a loved one dies my relationship with them doesn't end...it just alters. I hang on to that.

When the screen can deliver up the beauty in death, that's when I sob...eg,Wit, The Notebook. And in the sobbing, something shifts in the soul. I always feel grateful to the writer and the team who created that moment. Such generosity to remind us all that we're not alone.

Inspirational & thought-provoking post, Scott.

First off Scott, I'm sorry for your family's loss. Second that was a brilliant post and makes me realize why I hang around GITS.
My thoughts?
I think when I was in my mid-twenties I realized when you reach puberty and into your late twenties, you think you are invincible. Death has no concrete meaning. When you get into your thirties, it gradually comes to pass that you sense you might actually be mortal. When you are in your forties and later, Life pounds it into you- you will die.
That being said, when I was in my twenties I was in a war and saw people slaughtered. I almost died but I made it. After that I was and still am fascinated with the question, What is Death? It is truly absolutely something that no one on this planet or in this universe can truly know UNTIL IT HAPPENS, and the prime supreme irony is YOU CAN'T TELL ANYONE!
We have many religions which contain the poetry you allude to but ultimately they all require faith.
The one discipline, and not a religion, I've found which gave the best answer for me was Zen Buddhism. I'm not a Buddhist, but I love the perceptions of the writings I've read in books by Alan Watts and RH Blythe.They give me peace and serenity of mind.
Consider the Samurai of 16th Century Japan. Why would they be so quick to commit seppuku over a perceived insult? To their thinking, Life is merely the other side of Death and what lies beyond this world is not the conventional heaven-hell paradigm. The bodies we love so much decay and without them perhaps there is a far more interesting reality?
The films dealing with death are obviously astronomical because it is a human concern which crosses cultural boundaries and is inherently capable of creating drama, conflict, and emotion...all the things which make great films great.
I'll "whisper this down a dark well at noon": When I think about death, my own, my children,anyone I love, I think of this passage of a prayer or meditation- from the Clavell book "Shogun":
"Now sleep. Karma is Karma. Be thou of Zen.Remember, in tranquility, that the Absolute, the Tao, is within thee, that no priest or cult or dogma or book or saying or teaching or teacher stands between Thou and It. Know that Good and Evil are irrelevant, I and Thou irrelevant, Inside and Outside irrelevant as are Life and Death. Enter into the sphere where there is no fear of death nor hope of afterlife, where thou art free of the impediments of life or the needs of salvation. Thou art thyself the Tao. Be thou, now, a rock against which the waves of life rush in vain..."

In my current screenplay, I killed one of my main protaganists. I loved this character so much. So much that for a while considered making it alive. But I just thought that this ridiculous and unrealistic. For Death is the only sure destination that any human will reach. Only destination.

Great post Scott Thanks a lot.

THANK YOU!!!

Yesterday I read my last finished screenplay Kim.

The ending sucks. It is so cute it is dripping with syrup. Yesterday I still couldn't figure out a good ending.

I think you just helped me out there.

What are your thoughts? About death?

I'll give you my favorite quote of all time. It sums me up.

“In the last analysis, it is our conception of death which decides our answers to all the questions that life puts to us.”
Dag Hammarskjöld, U.N. Secretary-General, 53-61

Have you ever written a script involving death as a significant narrative element?

Yes. My paranormal mystery thriller (now in its 4th draft) is precisely about a man's realization that death may not be the end.

I think "Fight Club" is a comedy, and "Pulp Fiction" and "Goodfellas," too.