As noted in the first post, screenwriter Chandor provides a pretty good indication of four major plot points with these act breaks: Act I: Man vs. Man (P. 1-8) Act II: Man vs. Nature (P. 8-19) Act III: Man vs. Self (P. 19-31) But there are other key events which we could describe as plot points such as a storm, setting off in his lifeboat, etc. Plots are scalable to the scope of the story. Here things like finally figuring out which direction to head can be considered a plot point. Who would like to take a crack at identifying all of the plot points in the script?

I‘m surprised that it‘s not so easy to find the plotpoints. Or am I too tired today? Dealing on an external basis I would suggest to use the scenes where he leaves the ship which is the rest of normality. Just a suggestion to give a little bit more material for discussion. P—1: The movie opens with a V.O., a black screen, and the sound of gentle waves. The protagonist, who is never named, is reading a letter he wrote. Basically, it says he is sorry for all his failings as a person. The letter also hints at the difficulties ahead. P—4: He has to risk allowing more sea water into the boat in order to go back to the container and retrieve … the sea anchor. You get the sense that it will play a major roll later in the movie. He also looses his best knife; another event that will have significance later. As he fights to bring the sea anchor back on board, you get a sense of the very difficult struggle coming later. P—16b-17: He attaches the rope from the life raft case to the railing of the boat and tosses the case into the ocean, where it expands into a full sized life raft with a cover. The seas are finally calming as he attaches the sea anchor to the life raft and jumps onto the life raft P—19: At the last moment, just before the sailboat sinks, he releases the rope connected to it. An extreme wide shot shows his tiny raft alone on the vast ocean. P—29c-30: He wakes up with his legs cramping. It is night, but with a full moon. In the dim light he sees a small ship in the distance. He tries yelling two times, but there’s no gas left in the tank. Desperately he lights a small fire on his desalination widget. But, it’s not enough. He balls up the sea anchor and throws it on the fire. That works, but now the entire raft starts burning. He jumps into the water, waits a few moments and says his peace.

Maybe I have scaled it back too much -- but this is what I came up with: The boat hits something. Radio dies. The storm. The boat sinks. A second storm hits the life raft. Sharks arrive. Container ships pass by. Our man sets fire to the raft and gets the attention of a fishing boat. He's saved. I suppose the sharks' arrival and the container ship passing perform the same function -- raise the stakes -- so, perhaps they could be one point. Does that work?

9 the storm begins but he doesn't seem too CONCERN. 15 LUCKILY the see anchor seems to be working. 17 the boat STILL floating. 23 he curls up into a FETAL position. 24 his water SUCCESS. 30 He JUMPS into the water. For me this are the must meaningfull moments where the caracter has a change of awareness, from the pride till the surrender.

Colleen, Katha and Victoria: I think each of your takes has merit. Per my take on plot points, I align most closely with Colleen's perspective: The boat hits something. Radio dies. The storm. The boat sinks. A second storm hits the life raft. Sharks arrive. Container ships pass by. Our man sets fire to the raft and gets the attention of a fishing boat. He’s saved. Those are pretty much the high point of events that transpire in the plotline. Interestingly enough, that plays out to 9 plot points, and 8 sequences, which is the exact number as laid out in the Sequence Theory. Again I'm not saying that's some sort of rule or normative template, just noting that 8 sequences is what they've been teaching at USC for years. But then, there is the narrative in the story's Internal World, what I call the Themeline (in contrast to the Plotline). We get into that on Thursday: Psychological journey.