Ossessione

Screenplay by Luchino Visconti, Mario Alicata, Giuseppe De Santis, and Gianni Puccini (from James M. Cain's novel "The Postman Always Rings Twice") - Directed by Luchino Visconti

LOGLINE

The wife of a tavern owner falls in love with a vagabond and they decide to kill her husband.

SYNOPSIS

A. In post-war Northern Italy, a hungry vagabond walks into a tavern, asking for food from the boss's wife. The love-hungry wife is instantly attracted to him. The stranger offers to work for the husband and wins his trust. He pulls a trick, sending the husband away for a delivery, and makes love to the wife.

B. The lovers and the unsuspecting husband, who trusts his new worker, share the same roof, until the lovers can't take it any more. They decide to run away together.

ACT II

C. Giovanna decides to stay with her husband and Gino leaves her. He decides to forget about her and he starts working by the side of a travelling artist.

D. Giovanna and Bragana bump into Gino, again, and invite him for drinks. As the old flame starts to burn up, a dark plan takes form in the lovers' heads. On their way back, drunk Bragana lets Gino drive his truck.

E. Bragana is dead, killed at a road accident. Gino and Giovanna, who have faked the accident, testify to the police and get back to the tavern. Although Giovanna says she now has all she ever wanted, Gino wants to sell everything and leave. As the couple is drifting apart, the police watches them closely.

F. When Giovanna reveals that Bragana has had a life insurance, Gino feels that she has used him all the way and leaves Giovanna to start an affair with a young prostitute.

ACT III

G. New evidence shows the police that Gino and Giovanna have, indeed, murdered Bragana. Gino escapes the prostitute's room and goes back to Giovanna, who announces that she is pregnant.

H. Once back together, Gino and Giovanna escape from the tavern, with the police at their trail. During their escape, though, they fall off the road and Giovanna gets killed. The police comes and arrests Gino.

STEP OUTLINE

ACT I

A. The stranger's encounter with Giovanna

A country road in the Province of Ferrara, Italy. Two truck drivers make one of their regular stops at Bragana's tavern, which also serves as a gas station. They discover a vagabond sleeping on the hay, at the back of their track. While Bragana is busy with the truck drivers, the vagabond staggers into the tavern.

We never see the vagabond's face, until he enters the tavern.

We first notice Giovanna's legs; then, her face. I bet the vagabond did the same thing.

The stranger enters the tavern and goes straight to the kitchen, following the voice of a singing woman. She is Giovanna, Bragana's young wife, who instantly gets attracted to the dirty, yet handsome stranger. She serves him food, which he pays, and she lets him eat it in the kitchen. Bragana comes and kicks the stranger out. Giovanna secretly gets the vagabond's payment from the table and lies to her husband, saying that the man hasn't paid. Bragana goes after the stranger.

For a more detailed analysis of this scene, click here.

Giovanna's double take on the stranger. She is obviously dreaming of other things, trying to keep her beauty alive in a rough and boring place. 

We only see his face when she does.

Protagonist: The stranger, who is looking for something to eat.
Antagonist: Giovanna, who wants him out of the kitchen.
Subtext: their instant sexual attraction and Giovanna's resistance to it.

Needless to say, the relationship between the scene's outer and inner conflicts is superb, because they are both based on primal human needs: food and love.

• Outer conflict: He is hungry for food and wants to eat / She wants him out of the kitchen.
• Inner conflict: She is hungry for love / She wants to resist his seduction.

Bragana stops the stranger and demands his money. The stranger is surprised to hear the woman's lie and suspects the invite that hides behind it, but for the moment he is more concerned with dealing with the husband. He offers himself as a mechanic to Bragana, to pay for his debt, and they walk back to Bragana's garage.

The sexiest moment in the film: Giovanna staring at the stranger as she shuts the window.

As they approach the garage, the stranger sees Giovanna staring at him through the window, leaving him no doubt about what she wants. Bragana orders him to check the truck. The stranger swiftly hides an engine part into his pocket and tells Bragana that his truck has a distributor missing. Bragana orders the stranger to fix the water pump, until the new distributor arrives from the closest town. He starts liking the stranger, especially after he discovers that they have served in the same infantry regiment.

"Has your appetite returned?" Giovanna asks the stranger, while, absentmindedly, caressing her... eggs. The female instinct working like a turbo.

They get back into the tavern and Bragana calls up the repair shop, but finds no one available to deliver the distributor. (Meanwhile, Giovanna and the stranger seal their secret agreement: the stranger has come back to "eat" more, even though he has no money to pay.) Don Remigio, a priest getting ready to go for duck shooting, invites Bragana to walk together to the repair shop. They leave.

The stranger starts working on the water pump. After he sees the last man leave the tavern, he hears Giovanna's song. He lets go of the pump and goes into the tavern, closing the door behind him. He takes an empty plate and walks into the kitchen, where Giovanna is waiting for him.

The priest and Bragana cycle together. The priest tells him about some fisherman who has caught a 5-kilo eel. Bragana is thrilled and wants to find out where this has happened. He decides to go and ask the fisherman and to pick up the distributor on his way back.

Sequence's protagonist: the stranger and Giovanna, who want food and love. Antagonist: Bragana, who owns both the food and his wife.


B. Ménage à trois

Giovanna tells her story: she has prostituted herself to a husband, instead of being poor and homeless.

The stranger listens to her story, while his mind is drifting to the sound of the seashell. Stakes are not high for him. He likes the woman, but he can always roam freely. "It's not the same for you," Giovanna tells the stranger, when he asks her to go on the road with him. A woman, apparently, needs to settle.

In her bedroom, Giovanna and the stranger have finished making love. She wants to know what she means to him and he tells her about his loneliness and his tough life on the road. Then, he asks her about her marriage. She says she married old Bragana because of her poverty, but now she is a worker in his kitchen. He proposes her to run away with him, but she doesn't want to get back to her poverty. She changes her mind, though, when she sees her ageing face in the mirror, and agrees on escaping with the stranger. We hear the stranger's name for the first time: Gino.

Bragana returns and gives the distributor to Gino. Bragana is happy to see that both the water pump and the truck are now working. Gino asks for more work and Bragana agrees to have him around for some more.

Bragana gives Gino his razor, to shave his face. Notice how the razor is framed, against Bragana's body. A first, subtle suggestion of the tragic events that will follow.

No saints in this film. Giovanna is a woman who has chosen the safety of a husband's wallet. Yet, we empathise with her because a. her husband mistreats her all the time and b. she is hungry for love. We want to see her ending happily ever after with Gino. Too bad, this will not happen.

Gino and Bragana go to the kitchen, where the latter demonstrates the "joys of matrimony," having Giovanna rub his back. When Giovanna accuses her husband of only thinking of himself, Bragana announces that has saved some money for the difficult days, something that doesn't go unnoticed by Gino.

Bragana takes his rifle and goes to shoot some cats mating outside. He fails to see the cats mating inside.

During dinner, Bragana insults Giovanna again, in front of Gino. When Bragana goes out to attend to some truck, Gino, again, asks Giovanna to run away with him. [Giovanna seems less reluctant now, agreeing that the three of them can't go on staying together.] Bragana returns with some news: some friend has been killed, shot by one of his workers, because of his wife. [This story foreshadows what will later happen to Bragana.] Giovanna complains to Bragana, asking him to do something about some mating cats, wailing outside. Bragana takes his rifle, goes out, and shoots the cats, while the lovers cling onto each other.

Sequence's protagonist: the stranger, who wants Giovanna to run away with him. Antagonist: Giovanna, who is reluctant about her escape. This sequence is kept together by Giovanna's "refusal of the call to adventure." (See MAJOR BEATS in Glossary page.) She resists Gino's proposal and tries to compromise, living with both men. Eventually, she agrees that this can't go on.


ACT II

C. Gino goes away

Gino prefers being poor, but free, with the woman he likes, than compromising and having an affair behind Bragana's back. His free spirit is what makes us like him.

Next day, Gino and Giovanna walk together, carrying a suitcase. She changes her mind; she wants to go back to the three of them living together. He leaves her and walks away. They part.

Against the rules of the archetypal story's structure, the film's Act II starts with a second "refusal of the call to adventure." It is common in non-Hollywood films to have characters very reluctant to go on with their desires.

Gino takes a seat in a train. He tells the ticket inspector he doesn't have a ticket. The inspector threatens him to kick him out while the train is in motion. Another man intervenes and offers to pay for Gino. He's an artist nicknamed Spagnolo. He asks Gino to stay and work with him. Gino agrees.

They get off at Ancona and look for a room.

They get a room and pay the hostess. As they settle, Gino's suitcase opens and Giovanna's underwear falls out. Gino tells his story and how much he loves Giovanna. Spagnolo advises him to forget about her, get on a ship and leave. They fall asleep.

Later, the artist wakes up to find that Gino has left.

At the harbour, Gino sits on his suitcase. He has missed his boat. He walks back to the city and meets Spagnolo outside the hotel. They walk off together.

In order to forget the love of a woman, Gino accepts the love of a man.

They get on the city's hilltop and admire the view, smoking a cigarette.

Sequence's protagonist: Gino, who wants to leave Giovanna behind. Antagonism: his love for her. The character of Spagnolo functions as both a confidante (an excuse for the audience to hear the thoughts of the protagonist: "I love her.") and a mentor (offering advice to Gino: "Forget about her.") The sequence ends with Gino following Spagnolo and moving on to a new life.


D. Gino meets Giovanna again

Spagnolo's jealous remarks and the looks the two men exchange suggest that he and Gino share more than a job: there has probably been a very subtle love story between them.

Gino assists Spagnolo at his show: he has a caged mouse that is supposed to predict the future by choosing little pieces of paper from a stack. Bragana and Giovanna show up among the audience. They see Gino and make fun of his new job. They invite him for a drink. Gino tells Spagnolo that he is invited. Spagnolo deflates, but lets Gino go.

Vulgar and insensitive Bragana surprises us when he passionately sings an aria from La Traviata. At the same time, Giovanna tells Gino that she plans to stay with her husband. We, too, are tempted to think that life with him is not that bad, after all.

Gino, Bragana, and Giovanna go to a café, where an opera singing contest takes place. Bragana gets on stage, to participate, leaving Giovanna and Gino alone at the table. Gino tells Giovanna that he can't forget her and asks to be with her. She refuses, telling him that she'll stay with her husband and he threatens to come back and live with them, like before.

Meanwhile, Spagnolo is looking for Gino.

Bragana finishes his aria, and receives a warm applause. Some people invite Bragana, Giovanna, and Gino at their table. As they drink, Giovanna eats Gino up with her eyes.

Bragana achieves a double triumph: in singing and in keeping his wife, too. This story beat, of a character's triumph in some kind of obvious contest underlining a victory in the plot is a common dramatic device. For example, it has also been used in Fatal Attraction (another deadly ménage à trois story), at the end of Sequence D, where Dan's triumph in bowling coincides with his (false) victory of getting rid of Alex. It is worthy of attention that both examples place this story beat near the end of Sequence D, at the midpoint's false victory moment.

A young man accompanied to the singing contest by, maybe, his mother, who taps her cane, emphasising his aria. If there is a thematic statement, here, I haven't discovered it yet.

Later, Giovanna and Gino leave the café with a drunk Bragana. Bragana brags about his public relations: even though he has paid the bill, he will get it back when the people visit his tavern.

The two lovers, about to reach the point of no return. Have they already, consciously, decided about killing Bragana?

They get to the station, where Bragana's truck is. Giovanna corners Gino and kisses him. A plan starts forming in their heads.

At night, drunk Bragana is driving the three of them back. Giovanna suggests that Gino takes the wheel. They stop and change, and the truck vanishes in the darkness.

Sequence's protagonist: Gino, who wants Giovanna back. Antagonist: Giovanna, who refuses to leave Bragana. When she realises that she, too, has strong feelings about Gino, she knows that they have to get rid of Bragana, in order to be together.


E. Their plot

The next morning, Gino and Giovanna testify for an accident: their truck is crashed and Bragana lies dead.

After the paperwork is over, Giovanna, absentmindedly, extends her hand to the police inspector, for a shake, as if she has just closed an important deal.

At the police station, Giovanna and Gino sign their testimonies. The policemen let them go, but tell them that they will be in touch, for additional reports.

The tavern is about to open again.

They get to Bragana's tavern. Gino wants Giovanna to sell the tavern and leave, but she says she is very happy to have exactly what she wanted: to be there, alone, with Gino. Someone knocks the door and Giovanna orders Gino to open the tavern, while she goes upstairs.

To deal with his fears and guilt, Gino starts drinking.

Gino opens the tavern door. A thin man with a moustache wants a drink. He asks Gino questions and Gino is very cold with him. After he has had his drink, the man leaves.

Gino goes upstairs and sees Giovanna going through Bragana's personal items, handed over to her by the police. She hides them behind her back. Gino takes off the fake bandage from his arm and asks Giovanna what she's doing. She refuses to reply. They struggle and end up in bed, kissing.

A pleasant moment promising that things can actually get better for them, as long as they are in love. This is the sequence's false victory moment.

An ancient tragedy "chorus" of old men play ball and gossip about the tavern's new manager. A glimpse of the public opinion. I guess, some dramatic devices never change.

Giovanna comes in with Don Remigio, the priest and finds Gino drinking. She wants to get the priest to agree on their marriage, but Don Remigio says that this will not stop the gossip. Plus, she must think of her duties as a mourning widow. The priest advises Gino to get a different job, but Giovanna doesn't like it.


Gino tells her they should leave the place. She wants to stay, so that they don't raise suspicions. She agrees that they can leave the place, but not yet. Gino has to put up with this job for a little more.

"Some job: keeping an eye on the house of a dead man," says Gino. CUT TO: a black-clad woman with a sickle enters. A wonderful, little, tragicomic gag.

A festival in the tavern. It is full of people drinking and dancing. Among them sits the man with the moustache, dressed in a slick suit and hat.

The festival is used as an ironic contrast to the dark psychological state of the characters. The merrier the festival, the greater the irony. It is impossible for the characters to forget what they have done.

In the upstairs bedroom, Gino is drinking, lost in his dark thoughts. Through the window, he spots Spagnolo, among the crowd outside, and he, merrily, runs downstairs. The man with the moustache sees Gino and follows him outside. Spagnolo sees a changed Gino, who has settled and doesn't want to travel anymore. When Spagnolo scolds Gino's dubious method of getting his fortune, Gino punches him. The man with the moustache intervenes, asking if Spagnolo needs help. Spagnolo walks away.

From the beginning of the film: tavern-owner Bragana shouting after vagabond Gino.

Now: tavern-owner Gino shouting after vagabond Spagnolo. In both images, the same street and the same story: a tavern-owner abusing a vagabond, sending him away, and then running after him. The use of a similar mise en scène and camera setup suggests that Gino is transforming into a new Bragana.

The man with the moustache warns Giovanna that Gino can be dangerous. He walks away and makes a phonecall.

In the police department, Spagnolo walks in.

After his last confrontation with Gino, Spagnolo changes from ally to enemy.

- "Do you want to eat?" - "I'm not hungry." The appetite motif, which represents their passion, continues.

After the festival, Gino sits, outside, alone. Giovanna comes to invite him back in. Gino reminisces his trips and his freedom, as if she is not there. He goes upstairs and Giovanna eats alone.

This sequence's protagonists are Gino and Giovanna, who both want to move on after Bragana's death. The conflict comes from the opposing directions they want to follow: Gino (whose background is that of a vagabond) wants to sell the tavern and leave, but Giovanna (whose background is that of a woman married to money) wants to settle there. She is happy to have both the tavern and her man to herself. She asks for the priest to marry them and she organises a festival in the tavern, so that everybody accepts the tavern's new management. By the end of the sequence, with Gino's last line ("I'm not hungry.") we see the two lovers becoming estranged.

F. Gino leaves Giovanna

In Ferrara, Gino hits on a young woman, sitting at a piazza. She tells him she is a ballerina and asks him to accompany her to the theatre, but he refuses. When she walks away, a man approaches Gino and tells him where the girl lives, insinuating that she is a prostitute.

Giovanna comes and tells Gino that Bragana has had a life insurance of 50,000 liras. Thinks that Giovanna has used him to get her hands on Bragana's life insurance money, Gino leaves her there and walks away.

Gino waits in the girl's room. A song coming from outside the door announces her, just as it happens with Giovanna in the film's beginning.

Gino finds the place where the girl lives, while Giovanna follows him from a distance. She sits at a café, while Gino enters the girl's building and waits in her room. When she comes, he stops her from taking her blouse off. Instead, he offers to get something to eat, and they exit together.

Giovanna sees them coming out of the building together and she confronts them, driving the girl away. She asks Gino to come home with her. When he refuses, Giovanna threatens him: if he doesn't come back, she can always tell the police. Gino slaps her and walks back inside the girl's building.

Gino goes to Anita's room. She stops him from explaining. They get to bed.

Sequence's protagonist: Giovanna, who wants to get Gino back, but he refuses to follow.


ACT III

G. The crime is revealed

The break to any mystery film's third act requires new evidence: two witnesses appear out of nowhere. How come they haven't appeared earlier? The police inspector asks the same thing. "We travel a lot because of our work," answer the men. The vagabond's motif is called to justify what would otherwise be an out-of-a-hat dramatic solution.

In the police department, two men testify having seen Gino and Giovanna jump out of the truck, as it fell to a crash. The man with the moustache is there, too. He says that he'll bring Gino for questioning.

Gino tells all about his crime to Anita, the prostitute, who doesn't make judgements. Meanwhile, the man with the moustache learns where Gino is and waits for him at the café across Anita's building. Gino sees the man from the window and makes sense of all his mysterious visits: he is a secret policeman. Thinking that Giovanna has betrayed him, he asks Anita to keep the policeman busy until he flees. She agrees to help him, but it's her turn to feel used.

After Gino explains his escape plan, Anita tells him: "I'll say that I'm angry with you, because you didn't pay me." The power of this line lies on its truth and its subtext: indeed, Gino has not paid the prostitute, because the prostitute has fallen in love with him. She is angry, because he is exploiting her love.

While Anita plays her part, Gino escapes from the roof and reaches the train station. The place is full of policemen, so he jumps onto the back of a moving truck and escapes.

Gino chasing a moving truck: he gets back to the old habit of travelling light.

Back at the tavern, Gino accuses Giovanna of reporting him to the police, but she says she has not. She announces him that she is pregnant with his child. Gino walks out, lost.


H. The lovers' escape

Looking for Gino all night, Giovanna finds him wandering at the beach. Gino tells her he love her and they forgive each other. They agree to leave the place. Gino realises that the man with the moustache knows where he is, so they get off to prepare their escape.

They drive away in their car. They pep talk each other about their baby and their future. Gino says that he will take care of her always.

The police arrives at the tavern, where a little girl tells them where the lovers have gone. They drive off to find them.

The lovers get stuck behind a large truck. When Gino tries to overtake the truck, they fall out of the road, into the sea.

Another ironic element: the road accident, which made them start a new life is the same thing that destroyed them.

Gino gets out of the car and pulls out Giovanna, dead. He takes her up on the road. The police car arrives and the man with the moustache arrests Gino.

The End

Alien

Screenplay by Dan O'Bannon - Directed by Ridley Scott

LOGLINE

During a business trip in some faraway galaxy, the commercial starship Nostromo is ordered to go and investigate an SOS signal on an unexplored planetoid. When the rescue team comes back, they bring an alien organism on board, which proves to be "a tough son of a bitch."


STEP OUTLINE

ACT I

A. The SOS Transmission

Space, in the distant future. Commercial spaceship "Nostromo," owned and operated by "The Company," is returning to Earth, after a business journey. The computer system (called "Mother") wakes up the crew from suspended animation.

Parker to Kane: "Anybody told you you look dead, man?" He will soon be, though.

During breakfast, mechanics Brett and Parker bring forth a request for a bonus payment. Dallas, the ship's captain dismisses their claim, telling them that they will get what they have been contracted for. “Mother” calls Dallas for a confidential briefing.

"Dallas, Mother wants to talk to you." Ash, the spaceship nerd. What hides behind his disciplined manners?

Dallas sits before Mother, waiting for orders.

Ash, Ripley, Kane, and Lambert realise that they have strayed off course and Earth is nowhere in sight. They try to contact Earth's traffic control centre.

Brett and Parker argue about their reduced salary, as they walk inside the belly of the ship's machinery, going towards the crew meeting.

Film's catalyst: Dallas announces that Mother has stopped their return to Earth, in order to investigate an SOS transmission. Parker complains, bringing up the bonus subject again, but Ash says they are obliged to investigate, according to their contract; otherwise, they will receive no payment at all. The crew agrees to get on with the orders.

Sequence A sets up the ordinary world inside "Nostromo," until the film's catalyst: the Mother's request for the crew to respond to the SOS signal. Up to that point, the sequence is relaxed; the crew can't wait for the trip to be over and for their arrival to Earth. There is a minor dramatic tension about Parker's and Brett's bonus payment, who clash about it with Dallas, but the real tension starts when the crew realises that they have strayed off course and, moreover, they are asked to respond to an SOS signal of unknown origin. The sequence ends when they agree to respond to that signal, even if they don't like it.

The crew's payment issue serves two purposes:  a. it is the reason they get involved in the rescue mission (as Ash warns them of total forfeiture of shares if they don't) and b. it resonates the reason that the alien creature is brought on board in the first place, thus relating to the film's theme: the Company's greedy desire to study the perfect killing organism. But this is to be revealed later.


B. The Alien Organism

Lambert analyses the signal; it doesn't sound like anything they have heard before. They locate its source on a planetoid.

Nostromo approaches the planetoid, disengaging and sending a small raft towards it. They land with a bump, which causes minor damage to the raft. Parker and Brett say that they have to do about 25 hours of repairs. They nag, hearing that Ripley is coming down to check on them.

I may be missing something, but I still haven't understood what dramatic purpose this delay, due to repairing the damage, serves. Kane and the alien are brought inside anyway. The film's main tension -the alien visitor- is irrelevant to the damaged raft.

Kane, Second Officer and the team's member most willing to explore and expose himself to danger. And the person who gets killed first.

Dallas and the others debate walking to the signal's source. Ash analyses the atmosphere. They form a team and decide to walk.

"The sun is coming up in twenty minutes. And it's walking distance." Ash does his best to encourage his colleagues into responding to the signal.

Dallas, Kane, and Lambert wear their spacesuits and walk on the planetoid's surface, while Ash observes from the control room.

Brett and Parker pester Ripley about the payment again; she tells them to fuck off.

The crude male mechanics hit on the tough lady. An attempt of sexual harassment in the workplace and one of the subtlest of the many sexual references in the film.

Dallas and the others approach, as Ripley sits in front of Mother.

The team discovers an extraterrestrial spaceship wreck. Inside it, they find a gigantic alien corpse, fossilised on its ship's cockpit. Something has burst out of its chest. Kane discovers a hole in the floor and calls the others.

Ripley tells Ash that Mother has deciphered part of the signal; it has turned out to be not an SOS, but a warning. She tells Ash that she wants to follow the team, but Ash discourages her.

Kane gets into a huge cavernous vault full of alien eggs. One of them opens, and a crab-like organism hurls itself out of it and sticks onto Kane's mask. [-]

Dallas and Lambert bring Kane back to the raft. When Ripley hears about Kane's parasite she refuses access to Dallas's team, suggesting quarantine. Without Ripley's permission, Ash opens the hatch, letting everyone in and starting a rivalry between Ripley and himself [-].

Sequence B deals with the team's response to the SOS signal. Protagonists: the Nostromo crew. Objective: to find out what the signal is. Antagonism: the unknown planetoid's environment, as well as the mystery of the extraterrestrial shipwreck. Climax: Kane gets attacked by an alien organism and brought back to the ship. At that moment, Ripley shows a character perceived by the others as cold and cruel, but it is her loyal commitment to the procedures that could have saved them. She refuses access on board to the organism, but she is ignored. Ash bypasses her authority, granting the organism access on board, turning the crew's world upside down, and leading the story into its second act.


ACT II

C. Getting It Off Kane's Face

Ash and Dallas cut through Kane's mask. They see that the organism has eaten into the mask and attached itself onto Kane's face. [-]

Lambert slaps Ripley on the face, for refusing letting them in. The mechanics separate the two women. Dallas reprimands Ripley for disobeying his orders, "even if they are against the law." Parker takes Ripley's side.

Sequence C's dramatic tension: “How are we going to get this off, now?”

When Ash grabs one of its legs with a pair of pincers, the organism wraps its tail tighter around Kane's neck. Ash stops and performs a scan of Kane's body. The organism seems to be feeding Kane oxygen. Dallas wants to get it off, but Ash says that this may kill Kane. Dallas, however, orders him to cut the organism and release Kane.

They do a little cut on one off the organism's legs, making it bleed acid! The liquid eats through two or three of the floors below. [-]

Parker and Brett continue struggling with repairing the engine.

Ripley reprimands Ash for letting the organism on the ship. "When Dallas and Kane are off the ship, I'm senior officer," she says. Ash defends his decision and asks Ripley not to get involved with his scientific job.

Sequence C shows the crew's futile efforts to free Kane from the alien organism attached on his face. Protagonist: Dallas, who, mostly through Ash, tries to cut the creature off of Kane's face. Antagonism: the creature's unknown capacities (namely the fact that it is smothering Kane and its acidic blood). The sequence ends with an evolution of the hate subplot between Ash and Ripley.

Following the archetypical story structure, the Ash & Ripley hate subplot is no other than the usual "love subplot" or "B-story" contained in most films, which evolves throughout Act II, and results to an inner transformation or a major realisation, just before breaking into Act III.


D. It Gets Off Kane's Face Itself

Ash calls Dallas into the infirmary. The organism has detached itself from Kane's face. Ripley, Ash, and Dallas look for the organism around the room. It drops on Ripley, but it's dead [+].

Sequence D's main tension: “What are we going to do with it?”

Ash, Ripley, and Dallas examine the dead organism. Ripley wants them to ditch it, but Ash wants to take it to Earth for tests. Dallas leaves the decision to Ash, infuriating Ripley. [-]

Ripley complains to Dallas for letting Ash decide. "This is what the Company wants," says Dallas, washing his hands [-]. Ripley reports that the repairs are almost over; Dallas orders take-off.

This scene looks like a couple's quarrel about taking the wrong turn in a countryside road. "My dear, that's what the Company wants to happen," says Dallas. Is there love tension between them? Maybe. Whatever the case, this is the scene where Ripley stops relying on Dallas. She will keep obeying his orders, but she will expect nothing more than his blind obeisance to the Company's demands.

Take-off sequence. The shuttle leaves the planetoid, heading back to the main spaceship.

Tough sailor Parker with his Hawaiian-shirted parrot, Brett.

Parker insists on freezing Kane and Brett agrees. Ripley makes fun of Brett for always agreeing with his supervisor, like a parrot. Dallas decides that Kane must go into quarantine. Lambert tells the crew that they are 10 months away from Earth. [-] Ash calls them to see Kane.

Ripley comments on Brett's lack of opinion, which the same thing that infuriates her about Dallas. One after one, the starship's male crew members are proven worthless.

The spirits get higher, as the crew finds out that Kane has recovered [+], having only the memory of a horrible dream about smothering.

"I'd rather be eating something else, but right now I'm thinking food." More crude sexual remarks by tough guy Parker; everything seems to have returned to normal. But it is only a false victory before the film's midpoint twist: something worse  is about to burst from inside Kane's stomach.

As the crew has a meal, Kane's chest bursts and a tiny alien breaks out of it. Ash urges them not to touch it, as the little monster ("Kane's son!") escapes. Kane dies [-].

An aftermath scene: Kane's funeral. They cast his body from the airlock out to space and continue their journey.

In Sequence D, their situation seems to improve: the crab-like alien is dead and, moreover, Kane comes back from his coma. The main tension relates to Ripley's clash with Dallas's incapacity to lead, resulting to unlikable Ash taking the most serious decisions. At the sequence's climax comes the film's midpoint twist: the terror isn't over. In fact, they ain't seen nothing yet.


E. Catching The Chest-Burster

Brett has prepared and demonstrates an electric weapon, while Ash offers a motion detector of his. Dallas orders the team to lead the organism into Parker's net and send it straight in the airlock. [+]

Ripley, Parker, and Brett look for the creature. Ripley's motion detector shows something. They think they get it cornered, but it is only Jones, the spaceship's cat, which runs away in panic. They send Brett to catch the cat, so that it doesn't affect the motion detector again.

As Brett searches for the cat, he discovers what looks like a rejected layer of alien snake-skin. Following the cat, he comes across the alien organism, which has grown into an enormous size. The alien kills Brett. Ripley and Parker hear his cry and follow, finding only his blood [-].

Sequence E deals with catching the little alien. Protagonists: the crew. Antagonist: the little chest-burster. Complications: the little chest-burster is not little anymore.


F. Burning It

Ripley and Parker report to the others that the creature that has killed Brett uses the air shafts to move around the ship. Ash proposes to try to burn it until it retreats to the airlock. Dallas will go himself, while the others cover him.

Ripley volunteers first, but Dallas orders her to stay with Ash, instead. Dallas's ego has received a lot of blows from Ripley's dynamic personality and he now wants to prove he is a man.

They proceed with this plan. Dallas crawls in an air shaft, holding his flame thrower. Lambert warns Dallas that she has just spotted a movement on the motion detector. As Dallas goes lower, Lambert loses the creature's signal on the detector, while Dallas finds some of the creature's slimy saliva. Then, the second signal reappears, moving towards Dallas's. The alien gets him [-].

Considering this film's abundance of sexual innuendos, as it is, I have resisted naming this sequence "Alien Does Dallas."

The four left discuss what to do. Ripley, being in charge, proposes to proceed with Dallas's plan. Lambert disagrees and proposes to abandon the ship, but Ripley tells her that the shuttle doesn't take four persons.

As Parker goes to refuel the flame thrower. Ripley asks Ash about Mother. She tells him that since she now has access to Mother, she doesn't need his useless interference.

"Ash, any suggestions from you or Mother?" Ripley doesn't tolerate the awkward scientist's hide-and-seek.

Ripley accesses Mother. She finds out that the whole journey to the planetoid has been a secret mission with the goal to bring back the alien life for analysis, while the ship's crew has been considered "expendable” [-]. Ash appears and fights Ripley, almost killing her by forcing a rolled porno magazine inside her mouth [-]. Parker and Lambert come and rescue her. As Parker knocks Ash out, they realise that their scientist is an android robot, bleeding white goo.

In Sequence F, Dallas decides to burn the alien, but fails. After his death, Ripley takes over, deciding to stick to the plan. At the end of the sequence, the Ripley & Ash hate subplot is resolved, when Ash  reveals his true self: he turns out to be a traitor and a robot serving the Company's greedy scientific researches.

A note about sex on board of Nostromo: It is obvious that Kane and Lambert have something going on. We have, also, seen the mechanics hitting on Ripley, and Dallas having some understated crush on her. Throughout the story, Ash is the only man on board who seems to be lacking sexuality, altogether. By the end of this sequence, however, we see that he has simply been restraining himself in all aspects of his behaviour, including his emotions towards the dynamic female officer Ripley. Moreover, he becomes the man who, most openly, tries to sexually abuse her, even if this abuse is a little robotic and consists in forcing an artificial phallus inside her mouth.


ACT III

G. Escaping With The Shuttle

They plug Ash's remains and ask him how to kill the alien. He tells them that they simply can't kill such a perfect organism. Sequence's catalyst: Ripley decides to blow up the ship and escape with the shuttle, along with Lambert and Parker. These revelations clarify every mystery about Ash's conflict with Ripley, resolving their hate subplot with a grinning "You have my sympathy."

I'm not even going to bother mentioning sexual references here... Plus, a robot admiring the alien's "purity, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality," and giving his sympathies to the poor humans who have to confront such a perfect monster is weird enough without the white goo.

Ripley tells the others to go and get some coolant for the air support system, while she gets the shuttle ready. They split. As she gets the shuttle ready, Ripley remembers the cat. / Lambert and Parker collect oxygen tanks. / Ripley finds the horrified cat and puts it into its cage.[+]. / The alien appears and kills Lambert and Parker, leaving Ripley all by herself [-].

Ripley activates the complicated mechanism for self-destruction, setting a dramatic "ticking clock."

Ripley discovers Dallas's and Brett's bodies trapped in a cocoon complex. Dallas is still alive, pleading for his death. Ripley burns both men with the flame thrower.

On her way to the shuttle, Ripley confronts the Alien and runs back inside the main spaceship.

Ripley tries to override the self-destruction mechanism. Even though she manages to reverse the process within the time limit, Mother doesn't stop the countdown [-]. "Bitch!" shouts Ripley.

Ripley carefully makes her way towards the shuttle again. She manages to arrive there safely, pick up the cat's cage, and lock herself inside the shuttle. The alien is nowhere to be seen.

She rockets away as Nostromo blows up [+].

Sequence G deals with organising the escape from Nostromo. Protagonist: Ripley, who wants to blow up Nostromo and escape with the shuttle. Antagonist: the alien, who kills her colleagues and blocks her escape route. On top of that, bitchy computer Mother decides to disobey her mistress.


H. Killing The Alien In The Shuttle

Among a mostly male crew, one doesn't have many opportunities to feel comfortable. Alone in the shuttle, Ripley becomes a woman, again. Little does she know, there is a voyeur on board and his erection comes out of his mouth. 

The previously mentioned erection.

Ripley gets ready to sleep, but the Alien is in the shuttle, hiding among the controls. [-] Rippley slips into a space uniform and forces the Alien to expose itself by turning on the coolant tanks. When it does, Ripley opens the shuttle's airlock, casting the alien out.[+]

Ripley records the final report of the Nostromo before getting herself into suspended animation, again.

Sequence H shows that the destruction of Nostromo is only a false ending, since the monster has followed Ripley into the shuttle. Protagonist: the alien, who wants to kill Ripley. Antagonist: Ripley, our heroine, who will outsmart the monster and be the last survivor of Nostromo.

THE END

Fatal Attraction

Screenplay by James Dearden - Directed by Adrian Lyne

LOGLINE

NYC lawyer Dan meets sexy publisher Alex and decides to have some fun, while his wife and kid are away. Alex, however, doesn't see the encounter as a simple one-night stand. She will claim Dan for herself, more and more aggressively.

SYNOPSIS

Lawyer Dan meets beautiful Alex in a NYC book publishing party and they are attracted to each other. Dan is a happy husband and father, but he obviously hasn't seen much excitement since his daughter was born.

While his wife and kid are away for a house viewing at the suburbs, Dan bumps into Alex, again, and they end up in bed. And kitchen. And elevator. Dan sneaks back home, early the next morning, thinking that this is the end of a clean, hush-hush one-night stand.

To his surprise, the next day, Alex invites him to spend the day together like a couple. In the afternoon, when Dan gets up to leave, again, Alex becomes aggressive, reaching the point of slitting her own wrists, to make him stay. Dan, eventually, does stay, to take care of her, and leaves in the morning. It all seems to be the end of it. Again.

Dan gets back to becoming a zealous family man. He agrees in buying a house in the suburbs, he is affectionate with his wife, he plays with his daughter... His little misstep has made him appreciate what he has. When Alex appears at his office to apologise and ask him out again, he sticks to his guns, telling her that it is all over.

Alex starts calling repeatedly, until she gets Dan to meet her. She reveals that she is pregnant with his child and asks him to be a responsible father. When she appears in front of Dan's wife as a potential buyer for their apartment, Dan bullies her into stopping harassing him and his family.

Coming back from the grandparents' house, the family finds their pet rabbit boiling on the stove, which makes Dan reveal everything to his wife. She kicks him out of the house.

Alex takes Dan's daughter from school, driving his wife crazy and making her crash her car. The accident brings the couple together again. Dan has a violent confrontation with Alex, at her apartment, but he prefers to tell everything to the police, instead of killing her.

Alex attacks Dan's wife, but eventually the wife kills her. Dan gets his family back. And a good lesson.


STEP OUTLINE

ACT I

A. THE MEETING

Dan, a NYC lawyer in his early forties, and Beth, his wife, get ready for a party. The babysitter arrives, taking care of their daughter, Ellen.

In the party, Dan meets with a friendly couple, Hildy and Jimmy. Being alone with Dan, Jimmy makes a crude attempt to hit on Alex, a slim blonde book editor with a dark look, but she turns her back and walks off.

Moments later, Dan finds himself next to Alex and they exchange a few words. The meeting turns out to be a brief one, as Dan's wife calls him and they leave the party together.

Back home, Beth reminds Dan that he can't sleep without taking the dog for a walk. Returning from the walk, though, little Ellen has occupied their bed, "only for tonight," as Beth says. Sex is something that obviously doesn't happen very often in this family environment.

The protagonist of this sequence is Dan. He has the unconscious objective to find some excitement, inside or outside the family environment. Antagonists to this are his wife and kid -his dog, too!- who keep him domesticated and unsatisfied.


B. THE ONE-NIGHT STAND

On Saturday, Beth and the kid travel to the suburbs, to view a house, leaving Dan alone for a day and a night. Dan and Beth argue on whether they should buy the house or not.

Dan waving his family goodbye. A weekend of excitement is about to begin...

Dan attends a business meeting, where he sees Alex, again. Dan is asked to defend a book author who has been accused that her character is based on a real politician. During the meeting, they are obviously attracted to each other.

Sequence's catalyst: After work, she offers him her umbrella and they go for a drink.

The drink turns into a lunch. Dan tells her a story about how her mother asked him to represent her against his father, during their divorce. Alex cuts to the chase, openly flirting with him.

Cut to: her place, having wild sex. Afterwards, Alex asks exhausted Dan to go dancing. This super-energetic woman is probably something that family man Dan can't easily keep up with.

After returning from the latin club, they have some public sex, pausing the elevator in between floors.

This sequence's protagonist is Alex, who wants to have sex with Dan. (This, we will see, is part of her super-objective, which is to have her own husband and family.) The antagonist is Dan, who flirts a little, but hesitates to cross the line. Crossing this very line gets Dan to the new world of the story's second act.


ACT II

C. THE RELATIONSHIP

Dan leaves Alex's apartment early in the morning, heading home. He gets a voice message from Beth and calls her back. He finds it difficult to answer her simple and innocent questions and tries hard to lie about where he has been. Unsuspecting Beth says she will have to stay one more day at the suburbs, in order to view the house. This is a convenient dramatic device that will allow Dan to see Alex again, very soon.

Sequence's catalyst: Alex calls, asking Dan to come over. Dan tries to avoid it, but he eventually does.

Dan and Alex walk the dog at the Central Park. When he fakes a heart attack, she stuns him, saying that her father has died of one. Then, she reveals that this is also a fake story, making him feel stupid.

They cook together at her place, listening to Madam Butterfly. Dan opens his heart, telling Alex about his father and about how he was terrified by Madam Butterfly's tale of suicide. As they eat, Alex gets serious: despite Dan's marriage, she wants to see him again. Dan refuses, putting forth his marriage as the excuse.

After sex, Dan gets dressed to leave. Alex wants to make him stay and she even rips his shirt violently, to achieve this. Dan stresses out that "she knew the rules" but Alex doesn't see any of that. She eventually kicks him out of the bed, giving him the impression that this is the end.

Just as Dan is about to walk out the door, Alex appears to tell him goodbye, but her wrists are slit. Dan takes care of her wounds and stays.

At night, while Alex lies in bed with bandaged wrists, Dan calls his wife trying to sound normal. Beth sounds excited about the house she has seen in the suburbs.

Dan stays with Alex until the morning. (Alex achieves her goal, after all!) Dan says goodbye and asks Alex to go and see the doctor.

The sequence's protagonist is Alex, who wants to spend the day with Dan, like an ordinary couple, walking the dog, eating together, and making love. Dan is the antagonist, who hesitates, wanting to painlessly get back to his married life.


D. BACK TO HIS FAMILY

Back to his home, he prepares for his wife's return. He sets up the house as if he has stayed in it for the past two days, undoing the bed and feeding his spaghetti to the dog.

He shows up in the office very early, to his secretary's surprise, in order to catch up with his business.

His family returns. He hugs his wife passionately. "I should go away more often", Beth says.

He plays card games with his daughter. His wife tells him that the house in the suburbs is perfect. (It even has a place for rabbits, says little Ellen, excited.) Dan happily surprises his wife when he proposes to go and visit the house, the following day, during lunch break.

Indeed, they view the house. At start, Dan is hesitant, but eventually loves it. "This is a terrific area for kids," says the real estate agent, not knowing how these words will pay off later.

Dan gets particularly excited when he sees the attic. "This will make a terrific playroom," says Beth, to which Dan answers: "What are you talking about, playroom? This is my den!" Dan is a child, after all.

Coming back from lunch, Dan finds Alex waiting for him in his office. She apologises and proposes him to go to the opera, Madam Butterfly, together. Dan calmly refuses. (Note: This is also the second time colleague Jimmy sees Alex, remembering her from the party.)

Intercutting between: Alex, alone in her home, listening to the opera, and Dan, scoring at bowling with his wife and friends.

The sequence's protagonist is Dan, who wants to be a good family man, hiding his secret adventure. The biggest part of this sequence keeps our interest through suspense, as we expect Alex to reappear anytime. Indeed, she does, but Dan seems to be strong enough to refuse her call.


E. THE PHONE CALLS

Dan's boss, satisfied by his performance, invites him for a business lunch.

Alex calls Dan at his office. Dan tells her that he doesn't want them to talk to each other again. Afterwards, he instructs his secretary to refuse all of Alex's calls.

Dan observes his wife, while she is getting dressed, getting excited seeing her in her underwear. The doorbell interrupts.

Dan and Beth have their friends, Jimmy and his wife, for dinner. They talk about Dan's upcoming promotion. (The jokes Jimmy makes about marriage and family are extremely ironic in relation to Dan's recent adventure.) Then, the phone rings. (This is the sequence's catalyst. Alex starts calling at Dan's apartment.) Dan watches in terror, as his wife picks it up. Nobody speaks.

Alex calls in the middle of the night. Dan picks it up. She is aggressive and even mocks him, as he pretends that he is talking to a colleague. She demands a meeting for the next day.

When they meet, the following day, Alex reveals that she is pregnant. Dan softens, offering to pay for an abortion, but Alex doesn't want one. She wants to keep the baby and have Dan face his fatherly responsibilities.

Dan sits at home with his family. He listens to his wife playing with his daughter.

When Alex is not there, Dan breaks into her apartment and goes through her things. Early Pregnancy Test kit; Madame Butterfly program; some random drawings; an article on her father's death of heart attack when he was 42.

In the library, Dan confides everything to Jimmy, asking for advice on family law. Dan says, "I'm scared. I don't want to loose my family," meaning it in a legal context. (Very soon, Dan will find himself fighting to keep his family alive in a much more primal meaning.)

Alex calls Dan, but the number has changed. She gets furious and shouts at the operator.

Dan goes home and finds Alex sitting in the living room with his wife, as a potential buyer for their apartment. They pretend they don't know each other and Beth gives Alex their new number, to Dan's dismay. This scene has strong ironic tension, because of the unsuspecting wife.

Dan goes to Alex's place, to make her leave him alone. Alex warns him that she will not stop until Dan faces his responsibilities, as father of her child. She attempts to scare him by calling his wife, but she hangs up the moment she hears her voice.

If we simply say that Alex is dangerously psychotic, we dismiss her, thus missing a lot of her depth. "I don't know what you're up to..." says Dan. He constantly thinks that Alex is plotting something to harm him (even long before she actually does so) and refuses to see the truth: that Alex, above all, is a woman in need of love. "You're so sad. You're lonely and very sad" he tells her, only to add "I pity you, because you're sick." Her argument is amazing: "Why? Because I won't allow you to treat me like some slut that you just bang a couple of times and throw in the garbage?" Her madness is founded on real human emotion and this is why, even if she is the villain, we are surprised to find in ourselves streaks of empathy for her, too.

The protagonist of this long sequence is Alex, who besieges Dan with her phone calls (first to his office and then to his home), wanting to tell him about her pregnancy and to ask him to be a part of the miracle. Dan makes it clear that he has no intention of doing so. There is a couple of scenes where Dan drives the action (breaking into Alex's apartment and asking Jimmy for friendly/legal advice), but mostly it is Alex pursuing and Dan avoiding. He refuses her calls and blocks the number, but the result is opposite to his expectations: Alex comes to his place in person. After the last scene of the sequence, we have no doubt about what Alex is after: a family of her own, with Dan as the father. This is, in fact, the super-objective of Alex: to be a wife and mother.


F. THE RABBIT

Dan and Beth move into the house in the suburbs. The phone rings, but Dan is relieved to find it is not Alex calling.

"It's Martha!" Thank God!

The ringing phone as a motif of horror is brought back from the previous sequence, but only as a false alarm. As we will see, Alex has moved on.

Dan calls Beth: he has bought a rabbit, as a surprise for his daughter. On his way out of the office, his secretary gives him a small package, which has arrived for him.

Dan goes to pick up his car from the lot, but he doesn't see Alex hiding there. He finds the hood of his Volvo trashed with acid.

He hires a car and drives away, while Alex follows him with her own car. On the way, Dan opens the package: a tape that reads "PLAY ME - Alex". It's her voice, accusing him, asking him to take his responsibilities, calling him a faggot. Dan reaches his house. Once there, through the windows, Alex watches the whole family, for the first time. And gets sick.

This is the sequence's catalyst. Alex realizes that Dan's family is what stops him and her from being together. A plot starts to form in her head, to get Beth and the kid out of the way.

In the middle of the night, in his "den," Dan listens to the tape, with headphones. "You're afraid of me," says Alex's voice. His wife sneaks up on him, giving him a big, unintentional scare.

Dan goes to the police, pretending that he is representing a client who has trouble with a woman. The policeman says that only if they catch her in the act they can press charges. "It's his bed. I'm afraid he's going to have to lie on it."

Dan and his family get ready to visit his in-laws. They leave the rabbit in its cage, in the garden.

In the grandparents' house, Dan gets emotional watching his daughter rehearse a part for the school play. He gives her a strong hug.

When they return home, Beth finds the rabbit dead, boiling on the stove.

Alex violently brings the wife and the kid in the picture. Until now she has only been asking for Dan to be her man. Now, though, she makes clear that she is capable of destroying Dan's family, in order to get him from them.

Dan decides to tell his wife everything about Alex. She tells him to leave.

Dan packs. He calls Alex, at Beth's presence, telling her that Beth knows everything. Beth speaks to Alex: "If you come near my family again, I'll kill you," a dangling cause paid off at the end of the film.

Again, the sequence's protagonist is Alex. She pursues Dan and kills his daughter's pet, as a warning of his family's destruction. And, indeed, she manages to disrupt Dan's family: Beth kicks Dan out of the house. On the other hand, her action makes Dan face his responsibilities; not towards Alex and her unborn child, but towards his own family. Dan tells Beth all about his affair, something that "needs balls," as Alex says. This long chase has finally made a man out of Dan, a transformation that marks the end of the film's second act.


ACT III

G. ALEX IS AFTER THE KID

Dan has settled in a hotel room. He calls home and talks to his daughter, but not his wife.

Sequence's catalyst: Beth goes to school to pick up little Ellen, only to find that someone has already picked her up. She panics.

Beth drives around looking for Ellen. / Meanwhile, Alex has picked up Ellen and taken her to the rollercoaster. / Beth drives around desperate and crashes with another car. / Alex leaves Ellen back to her house, safe and sound.

"Ellen, can I have a kiss?" Alex explores the mother role,while at the same time pushes Beth out of her place in Dan's family

Dan goes to the hospital to see his wife. He cries, holding her hand.

The crash is the dramatic device that brings Dan and his wife together again. It stands on the borderline of being some form of deus ex machina, but it gets away with it, since it happens because Alex takes the kid.

Dan drives to Alex's place and attacks her. They fight violently. He almost strangles her, when he suddenly stops, not wanting to become a murderer. She strikes back with a kitchen knife, but Dan disarms her and leaves.

Very upset, Dan goes to the police and tells them the truth about the whole thing. The lieutenant says that they will bring Alex in for questioning.

The sequence's protagonists are Beth (first half) and Dan (second half). Their objective is to protect their family against Alex.


H. ALEX IS AFTER THE WIFE

Dan tucks Ellen in bed. He promises her that he will be with her and Beth.

Dan speaks with the police and finds out that Alex is missing. As he speaks, Dan checks in a drawer and sees his gun.

Dan gets some painkillers for Beth, as she gets ready to have a bath. When Dan leaves the bathroom, Alex appears with a knife and attacks Beth. Dan hears the screams, comes upstairs, and drowns Alex in the bathtub. Or so he thinks. When he lowers his guard, Alex jumps out, wielding her kitchen knife. Beth is there, though, with Dan's gun, and shoots Alex dead, paying off the words she has told her: "if you come near my family again, I'll kill you."

The police clears the scene and Dan is left alone with his family. He hugs Beth and the camera closes in on a framed family photo. Dan manages to get his family back together.

The final sequence's protagonist is Alex, again. The whole sequence is about her attack against Beth and Dan.

THE END