How to Write a Perfect Climax

all right how to write a perfect climax is a huge promise and I'm going to deliver on that promise in this video but I'm going to need your full attention my name is Tyler mauy if you don't know me I've coached screenwriters on scripts they sold to Hollywood and worked with independent filmmakers around the world in places like Panama Dubai South Africa and London what you're about to watch is me distilling 5 years of screenwriting coaching course building and essay writing into one single video whether you're trying to enter the traditional industry or charting your

own path as an independent Storyteller this video is for you a climax is a choice a story follows the conflict of two World Views or philosophies that battle each other through character choices a scene shows characters in conflict over a choice the dialogue in the scene is the argument about what choice to make look I don't want these people judging all of them it is too late no it's not too late you're the mom and you're supposed to protect her the choice can also be decided through action which makes the argument physical or violent and

a climax is simply the biggest story defining choice that resolves the conflict between the characters and their World Views the Lord of the Rings is about a philosophical conflict between overwhelming Evil versus Underdog good Little Miss Sunshine is about a philosophical conflict between Public Image versus private life these two philosophies are made physical by characters who represent the two sides Sauron represents overwhelming evil Frodo and Aragorn represent the fight for good Richard and Olive represent your value being in your Public Image Grandpa and Cheryl represent your private life life mattering most in the climactic choice

of The Lord of the Rings froto must make the choice between destroying the ring of power good wins or keeping it for himself evil wins in the climactic choice of Little Miss Sunshine Richard must make the choice between supporting his daughter private life wins or taking her off stage Public Image wins so to summarize a story is about two worldviews in Conflict represented by characters who battle out this philosophical Conflict by making important choices this battle leads the characters to one single climactic choice that will Define the entire story one side will win one side

will lose but to write a perfect climax we must understand act structure number two strong final Act equals strong climax a climactic choice is only only powerful with clear setup so to write a great climax we must start at the beginning of the Final Act there are eight key beats in an act these eight beats break down into around 12 to 20 scenes here's my ACT structure number one character status quo who and where are the important characters number two want established what is the main character's goal number three is the inciting problem what is

the problem standing in the way of the main characters want number four is the debate and choice of commitment what choic is made to solve the inciting problem number five is want achieved how does the main character get their goal number six is surprise problem what surprise problem destroys the main character's progress number seven is the climactic choice what immediate choices made to solve the surprise problem number eight is new character status quo how is the story World changed after the climactic choice this pattern can repeat in every single act of your screenplay TV episode

stage play or novel it is not bound to a particular story medium like I said in the beginning the Lord of the Rings deals with a philosophical conflict between overwhelming Evil versus Underdog good so in this act we are building up to one single defining choice that will decide which side wins evil or good one is the character status quo who and where are the important characters our main character Frodo and Sam are in Mordor Aragorn along with Gandalf and our other characters are in Minister tith following a huge battle in the opening of this

act we get this sequence of three scenes where Frodo wakes up in Mordor and the Orcs kill each other over his clothes Sam enters to save Frodo and defeats a few Orcs And when Sam frees Frodo we get a reminder of the Ring's power Sam wants to keep the ring and froto snatches it from him this reunites Frodo and Sam establishes them in Mordor and reminds the audience of the power the ring has over the one who holds it two is the character want established what is the hero's big goal now the Sam has rescued

Frodo Frodo can continue pursuing his goal get to Mount Doom so that he can destroy the evil ring of power three is the inciting problem what is the problem standing in the way of the hero's want froto and Sam walk through Mordor and see a massive orc Army in their way this is the big problem of the ACT how are they going to make it to the mountain come on let's just make it down the hill for starters this scene establishes the inciting problem now the next scene Begins the debate four is the debate and

choice of commitment what choice is made to solve the inciting problem our supporting characters Aragorn and the council now discuss what choice to make to solve Frodo's problem because 10,000 Orcs now stand between Frodo and and they make a choice Aragorn and his Army will march on the black gate to create a diversion for Frodo keep him blind to all else that moves a diversion certainty of death small chance of success what are we waiting for after this scene we get a few shots of Aragorn in The Army leaving for the black gate to solve

the inciting problem and froto and Sam see the Orcs clear out of their way look the ARs they're moving off the rest of this four marches us toward the choice of commitment Pro tip all of your slower setup scenes must come before the choice of commitment this is the point in an act where you can have some lower conflict scenes and be more intimate with characters and this is exactly what we see here we get multiple scenes with froto and Sam and the difficulty of their Trek across Mordor remember in a climactic Final Act once

we get to the choice of commitment you enter the climactic or payoff half of the act so after the choice of commitment there is no turning back now we get to scene Seven Aragorn and the Army arrive at the black gate scene Seven in this act is super important this scene will take us through the entire climactic half of the ACT remember present conflict equals high drama present conflict makes the ACT act interesting and fast-paced if you have huge time jumps in your climax it will be boring and lose its momentum this scene intercuts with

Frodo and Sam's Journey Frodo drinks the last of their water the eye sees froto Aragorn calls for Sauron to open the gates and Aragorn gives a speech to his soldiers after they see the massive orc Army a day may come when the courage of men fails when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of Fellowship but it is not this day now we're finally at the choice of commitment this Choice signals the end of the four where Aragorn chooses to attack sauron's Army for [Music] froda so now the ACT set up froto and Sam

and Mordor set up Frodo's want to destroy the ring set up the massive Army blocking their path and and set up Aragorn's choice of commitment to solve Frodo's problem notice how the stakes have also been set up if Frodo can't destroy the ring in time Aragorn and all of his allies will die the arrow has been drawn back everything is set to pay off five is the want achieved how do the characters get their goal Frodo and Sam make it to Mount Doom but Gollum attacks Sam fight gum off while Frodo enters the mountain this

is the five big want achieved huge Victory and as we get this Victory we also get a turn for good in the battle the Eagles come to fight against the nasgul this is the payoff of the two where we saw Frodo's want out there in the distance and now we're here notice that Frodo hasn't yet destroyed the ring but he has arrived at his goal he is in the physical location where he will make the Allin important final choice now the six surprise problem and the Seven climactic choice will happen in the same scene together

as one single movement of drama six is the surprise problem what surprise problem destroys the character's progress now that we're inside Mount Doom the rest of this is supposed to be easy I'm here son fro simply walks to the edge throws the Ring of power in evil is defeated and we all go home simple enough right destroy it this is why the six is a surprise if the hero expects the six it doesn't make sense froto has traveled all this way and finally the ring is above the fires of Mount Doom throw it in the

fire but the ring speaks to him there are three characters in the scene right now Sam tells Frodo to destroy the Ring The Ring tells Frodo to keep it it's Frodo's Choice everything comes down to this debate we don't even have to understand the language of the Ring to know what it is telling Frodo to do and Frodo makes the wrong choice the ring is mine [Music] no no everything shifts toward evil winning the eye turns toward the Mountain entrance the nasgo fly to the ring Gandalf senses something is wrong Gollum is back and knocks

Sam out the troll emerges to kill Aragorn Gollum bites Frodo's finger off the troll shoves Aragorn to the ground evil keeps winning every moment Stacks the deck against good again and again and [Music] [Music] again seven is the climactic choice what immediate choice is made to solve the surprise problem as Gollum jumps for Joy froto gets up and fights Gollum on the edge for the ring this is the highest moment of drama climactic Choice made Frodo shoves Gollum off the cliff the ring Falls with Gollum and Frodo is able to hang on and as Frodo

grabs Sam's hand the ring of power is dissolved into the lava now everything shifts toward good winning the eye of Sauron feels the pain the troll fighting Aragorn runs away the tower Falls good has conquered evil even though it wasn't perfect Frodo is able to finish the job and destroy the ring of power paying off Aragorn in the Army's commitment at the four to fight for Frodo what I love about this climax is that Frodo makes the wrong choice and Gollum becomes necessary for good to win the day the Lord of the Rings is a

huge EP story where many characters even one as treacherous as gollum have an important part to play in God's plan for good to Prevail eight is the change new character status quo how has the world changed now that the climactic choice has been made we see Aragorn officially become king of Gondor Sam Mary's Rose and froto sails away to the undying lands all of these scenes make up the new character status quo now the characters are in a very different place than when they started the act in the one good has now conquered over evil

peace dominates Middle Earth once again there's a ton of scenes in the epilogue because this is the third film in an epic trilogy but we aren't making an epilogue we're understanding a climax I love the ending to The Lord of the Rings it's huge epic and life or death Stakes but the stakes don't have to be life or death to be Stakes um I'd like to dedicate this to my grandpa who showed me these moves let's break down the third Act of Little Miss Sunshine in Little Miss Sunshine the film deals with a philosophical conflict

between your public image of being a winner or loser versus supporting the important people in your private life so in this act we're building up to one single defining choice that will decide which side wins Public Image or private life one is the character status quo the third act starts as the family has finally arrived at the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant this has been their goal for the entire film and they have finally made it two is the character want established now that they've arrived we established the want Olive wants to compete in the

pageant Richard has some trouble with the pageant official but he shows his desperation and is able to get olive registered please you don't know what we've been through now the ACT takes a breath here remember the setup part of an act is the time to have smaller scenes that set up new characters tie up loose ends and develop character relationships in scene two the film sets up Miss California a new character who is on the judge's panel for the pageant Miss California do you need ice cream I love ice cream my favorite flavor is chocolate

Cherry Garcia although technically I think that's a frozen yogurt we get a few quick scenes here Richard asks the DJ if there's a funeral home around Olive goes into the dressing room to put her costume on Frank and Dwayne choose to leave the pageant and Olive gives the DJ her music and the final scene of this opening one two Richard gives Grandpa's body to the funeral home this is an important setup grandpa is the mentor for the Viewpoint of private life in the film he believed winning and losing wasn't n as important as having fun

and forgetting about what everyone else thought he was the symbol of private life dominating your public perception through dealing with his father's body Richard is reminded of his father's worldview there's seven scenes in these first two beats so let me recap in this opening of act three we set up a few new characters the pageant official the DJ and Miss California we also show a closer relationship developing between Dwayne and Frank and Richard is reminded Ed of his father's philosophical Viewpoint from the grave while this is a lower conflict portion of the ACT every single

scene in this opening setup is moving the story forward three is the inciting problem after watching the other girls perform Richard and Dwayne realize there's no way Olive is winning the competition Richard watches the opening of The Pageant he realizes Olive is clearly out of place and isn't going to win at the Docks Dwayne arcs after his realization that he can't be an Air Force pilot he decides he doesn't care about what others think Frank arcs as well he spent the entire story caring about his relationship and caring about being the number one prow scholar

and now we see his change Richard watches the talent competition section of the pageant and is weirded out by what he sees Dwayne and Frank return and can't stand it at all this scene solidifies the inciting problem Olive is not going to win the pageant [Applause] I'm going backstage yeah four is the debate and choice of commitment scene 11 is this film's debate and choice of commitment think of this moment like the scene of Aragorn in the council deciding what to do combined with the moment when Aragorn charges the orc Army Richard and Dwayne try

to convince Cheryl to stop Olive from going on stage what's up I don't want her to go on Olive overhears her father and brother debate with her mother it's too late no it's not too late you're the mom and you're supposed to protect her look she's not a beauty queen she's just not after listening to Richard and Dwayne Cheryl gives Olive the choice if you don't want to do this that's okay we got to go and Olive chooses to go forward with her performance this is the choice of commitment and we're walking to what the

family believes is complete and total embarrassment good luck honey notice how the stakes have been set up for the climax just like in Lord of the Rings where it seems like Aragorn is going to his death Olive is doing the same thing but instead of death it's total public embarrassment the arrow has been drawn back everything is set to pay off and now we go into the climactic sequence the 5 through 7 happens in one unbroken scene five is the want achieved Olive performs on stage this pays off Richard's want at the two where he

begged the pageant official to let Olive compete notice the family had no idea what Olive's performance was going to be only Olive and Grandpa knew this performance is Olive acting within Grandpa's view of the world six is the surprise problem as Olive performs people throw insults and leave the family's worst fears are being realized Frank stands up and supports Olive then Richard stands up and supports Olive but his support is still weak he hasn't fully let go of his belief that your public perception is more important than private life notice that he still looks around

the crowd nervous about his decision when Olive throws a ribbon at the pageant official she Springs into action and tells the host to get olive off the stage now this is the real surprise problem the family knew Olive might get embarrassed but this is on a whole new level the host tries to pull Olive off the stage everything shifts towards public perception winning the host is going to pull her off stage Richard runs on stage embarrassing himself and Olive even more the pageant official yells at him get your daughter off this St right now now

seven is the climactic choice this is the highest moment of drama Richard now has two options he can drag Olive off stage holding to his belief that your Public Image defines you or he can choose to support his daughter letting go of his belief and embracing The View that your family and private life are more important than your Public Image this is where Richard arcs in the four the choice of commitment he was against Olive going on stage now he is faced with the same choice but much more intense and in the climactic choice Richard

chooses to dance with [Music] olive [Music] everything shifts towards private life winning Frank runs on stage Dwayne follows Cheryl jumps in and the family dances on stage together finally [Music] unified eight is the change new character status quo in the new character status quo the family is barred from ever entering a Little Miss Sunshine pageant ever again that you never enter your daughter and a beauty pageant in the state of California ever again ever I think we can live with that in the beginning the family wanted more than anything to have Olive perform in the

pageant now they couldn't care less and we watch them leave the pageant hopping into the VW you bus one by one like we've seen many times in the film but this time there's a new sense that it doesn't matter what everyone thinks of them they have each other and they're proud to be together let's recap first a climax is a choice a story is about two worlds using conflict represented by characters who battle out this conflict by making important choices and a climax is the biggest story predefining choice that resolves the conflict between the World

Views number two strong Final Act equals strong climax number one character status quo who and where are the important characters number two want established what is the main character's goal number three inciting problem what is the problem standing in the way of the hero's want number four debate and choice of commitment what choice is made to solve the inciting problem problem number five want achieved how does the main character get their goal number six surprise problem what surprise problem destroys the character's progress and number seven climactic Choice what immediate choice is made to solve the

surprise problem and finally the new character status quo how is the story World changed after the climactic choice if you made it this far please leave a like on the video hit that subscribe button and thank you very much for watching