One of my favourite transformations is the character of Michael Corleone in The Godfather. This guy, a clean cut war hero, who wants nothing to do with 'the Family' ends up murdering a cop and a drug dealer precisely because the future of 'the Family' depended on it. He totally and irrevocably changes the trajectory of his entire life, any (respectable) career me might have had and his relationship with Kay Adams. It was an enormous switch for a character to make. And it happened half way through the movie! I think it worked so well because the shooting of the Don pressed exactly the right button for Michaels character: loyalty. He was loyal to his country when he dropped out of college and signed up for WWII. He agreed to shoot Sollozzo and the cop McCluskey out of loyalty to the family. He demands loyalty from everyone else as the story progresses. That was the key driver for this character. The scene in the Brooklyn diner is a classic, packed full of tension and suspense. Really superb. Hats off to Francis Ford Coppolla and Mario Puzo.

Great example, sutinderbola. Talk about Disunity: Pushed to live a legit life by his father, yet has Mafia blood coursing through his veins. That is his authentic nature and inevitably he had to go that route. One of the greatest movies of all time and a clear presentation of transformation.

I often struggle with this: how to balance the external story with the inner story of the character, but this has been helpful. Thank you -- again! Would you (or someone who has a grasp on this idea) mind doing another example? I'd appreciate it big time. If this helps... Here is the link to the Up sequence breakdown: http://gointothestory.blcklst.com/2012/06/how-to-read-a-screenplay-part-3-plotline-points-and-sequences.html Here is the link to the Gravity sequence breakdown; romanbewhet did an excellent breakdown at the bottom of the comments: http://gointothestory.blcklst.com/2014/11/script-analysis-gravity-part-3-sequences.html#comments

jem, why don't we have a go at this next week when we take up The Imitation Game? Broadly speaking, both Up and Gravity are resurrection stories - in my view. Both have suffered grievous losses in their lives. They are, at the beginning of the story, life-less individuals. So in some respects, the entire POINT of the plot - their physical journey - is to reconnect them to life and their desire to live. If you go through and track the major plot points, you will see each character - Carl and Ryan - make an incremental shift, stage by stage, toward wanting to live. Carl does through his bonding with his new 'family,' Russell and Dug. Ryan does by being in the 'heavens' and having a chance to provide a proper goodbye to her deceased daughter and - importantly - ask a kind of forgiveness re her daughter's favorite red shoe. In the end, both characters, in wildly different stories, have a similar arc: Going from a state of essentially alive, but dead, to revitalized and as I say resurrected. Let's dig more into the Event-Reaction-Shift lens with The Imitation Game next week, okay?

Sounds good.