Plot And Predator 2018 Revisited

Since I wrote my original post on the new Predator movie where I made up my own plot for fun, more details have come out about the movie’s actual plot. I am happy to see that my mess-around plot was not horribly off base. My plot centered around Dutch, and a bunch of other people who had to be disappeared, in a Prisoner-like camp. Eventually, a Predator gets into said location.

Here are some elements of the actual plot: it’s known the film will take place in the suburbs, and that a group of hospitalized war vets will end up facing the alien hunters.

Not the same thing, certainly, but it is pleasing to the plot-generating part of my brain that the professionals are coming up with stories that contain similar elements. To be honest, I don’t think that much about plot when writing. In broad strokes, plot is some stuff that happens. Plot often happens naturally, methinks.

Here is a plot: Tom and Bob need money. They decide to rob a bank. They make a plan to rob the bank. They rob the bank. They try to get away. Cops chase them. They get away, or they don’ t get away, or they find out it wasn’t worth it or they turn on each other or…it can spin off into a variety of choices, but the actual plot just kind of trips along over itself.

Oh sure, one can throw plot twists into it: Bob goes along with Tom to rob the bank because he needs money for his wife’s operation. They go into the bank in disguises. It turns out Bob’s wife happens to be visiting the bank when they rob it. They have to take her hostage. How would that work? How long until she figures out its him? How long could he hide his identity? Would she go along with it?

Or one could go really outlandish: Bob and Tom rob the bank, including safe deposit boxes. One of those safe deposit boxes contains an alien artifact. Whatever. The point being is that a plot is some stuff that happens. The stuff may happen naturally as one goes along. The stuff may happen artificially before one starts, like how Agathe Christie did it. But, at the end of the day, stuff happens. That’s plot. Do it how you want to do it in whatever way that allows you to end up with a finished story. Now that I think about it, I sometimes do a combination. I have my basic idea of the story. I start writing the opening. Then I eventually need a better idea of the shape of it all, so I jot down a basic outline of where things are headed. On the next story, I think I will experiment with a different method, however, just for fun.

What other wrinkles are there about plot? I suppose there is slow-burn plot and fast-paced plot, but, either way, it is still a series of stuff that happens. Take the remake of The Crazies from 2010 and compare it to Impulse from 1984. Same plot, different pace. Again, it’s up to the creator.

One can also check out the Edgar Wallace Plot Wheel or the Hero’s Journey. I think all of that stuff is interesting, but I tend to avoid getting too lost in the forest for the trees when it comes to plot. Too a degree, we have all been studying plots our entire lives. We read books. We watch movies. We watch TV shows. We’ve been getting undulated with subconscious lessons in plot since we were set in front of the TV to give our parents some peace and quiet. Don’t get me wrong, it is worth looking into plot theory, but don’t let it psych you out.