I know there's a storyform for Dramatica users for this, but I'm not that familiar with the story itself, having just seen it and I don't want to rack my brains figuring it out (especially when I have to keep looking up character names). I thought about chasing down Truby's 22 steps... but eh. Sort of the same thing. It's late and there's no discussions going on so I'll probably end up talking to myself. So I figured well, at least I can do his 7 steps: 1) Weakness and Need: Jason's weakness appears to be that he's self-centered to the extent he's more or less living in denial, particularly with regards to the past. He's more or less stuck in it, a nice contrast to the futuristic elements. He also seems to think the world revolves around him - showing up late to events and making others suffer, yet, he's the first one to take credit and basks in the glow of the audience's adoration. This sets up his needs fairly simply - stop being this way and become a team player and a true leader. 2) Desire: This band of rag-tag actors have seen better days, but Jason gets more than an earful while in the restroom that cracks the veneer of denial and sends him into a bit of realization of how far gone they really are... until the aliens show up. Then the desire to actually "do" something kicks in. 3) Opponent: That would be Sarris. What makes him a worthy opponent is he's able to see what Jason and the crew really are vs. what Mathesar and his people see: they're actors. This allows him to "attack" that as a weakness and we get the one seen where Jason's forced to confess to a tortured Mathesar that they're not really what they appear to be, that they've lied. It's a great moment of psychological devastation, both for Jason for having to confess and for Mathesar, who has trouble comprehending. 4) Plan: Mathesar and his people have followed the exploits of Galaxy Quest and mistaken it for reality, enlisting Jason and his crew to settle the dispute with Sarris. But of course this leads to all sorts of further complications because of the mistake, forcing Jason and his crew to literally become the roles they had been playing. 5) Battle: Yeah, there are several of them. One of the key things going on here appears to be faith. These characters end up living the lives of the caricatures they were playing and somehow find faith in what it is they're doing whereas in the beginning, there's a certain lack of enthusiasm for it all - especially on Alexander's behalf. 6) Self-Revelation: I think there are several of them due to the size of the cast. But typically, this is where a character who wanted something realizes it's not what they needed. Alexander probably has one of the more poignant ones as it's demonstrative of his arc: he goes from being a sniveling, whiny pathetic actor embarrassed to be doing what he's doing and unwilling to say his catch phrase for his fans, to a person who finds compassion amongst a different kind of fan's death - uttering the words triumphantly so there's a resounding sense of meaning to them. 7) New Equilibrium: Once we have the final battle in front of the convention, there's a sense of togetherness and appreciation for what everyone has gone through with particular not to the roles they played and the growth they've undergone because of it. As a result, the group is able to stand together on the stage as a single unit - not just its captain and the rest of them - and Jason appears more than happy to be sharing the stage. Gwen has become that character with her cleavage showing and she's comfortable with it. Alexander, Fred et al have all displayed various states of change as well. There's obviously a lot more to it than that going on, but that's more or less the basic seven steps Truby discusses which I felt a more comfortable level to discuss at since I've seen the movie/read the script only once (just yesterday). Had I been more familiar with it, I'd probably dive in deeper - but hopefully some others out there will chime in and share their thoughts.

Thanks for this, TBBB. I'm going to try to plug in my 10 major plotline points in the next day or so.