The Story Solution. Eric Edson
must appear to be the most powerful character in the story.
In The Shawshank Redemption, Warden Norton (Bob Gunton) wields total power over innocent prisoner Hero Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins). The cruel, corrupt warden Adversary answers to no one. He locks Andy in solitary confinement for months, and he murders the only person who can prove Andy innocent. It looks like there’s just no way poor Andy will ever triumph. And it’s the warden’s seeming invincibility that makes Andy’s ultimate victory over him so deliciously sweet.
4. The Adversary believes deeply in what he wants, and thinks it’s correct to confront and stop the undeserving Hero.
In Air Force One, the terrorist commander Ivan Korshunov (Gary Oldman), having hijacked Air Force One, tells President James Marshall (Harrison Ford) how Korshunov’s wife and child were killed in a revolutionary war in his home country. Now the terrorist is willing to die — and kill the President’s wife and daughter, too — in order to avenge his own family and win the conflict still raging back at home. This Adversary remains truly evil, but we sure get why Korshunov is driven to violent actions against the President and why he sees himself as correct in his actions. We understand his motivation.
Adversaries must believe passionately in their own cause.
It also helps to give your Adversary some charming or thoughtful qualities. The impact on any Hero will be much more powerful if that Hero finds his Adversary to be a wellrounded foe.
5. Psychologically, the Adversary can be the flip side of the Hero herself.
Dangerous or suppressed qualities within the Hero can be expressed in the character of an Adversary. This way the Hero symbolically ends up fighting some flawed aspect of herself, personified in the Adversary. There is often a scene near the climax of movies where the Adversary points out to the Hero how much they’re actually alike. That’s what happens in The Taking of Pelham 123 and Insomnia.
6. An Adversary may use helpers who carry out his will against the Hero.
In building to a climax many Heroes face legions of bad guys that must be overcome before earning the right to duke it out with the Adversary at last.
In The Matrix, Agent Smith commands hundreds of other foot-soldiers he sends off to attack the Hero. But Smith’s many operatives are not Neo’s one true Adversary. The movie cannot end until Neo and Agent Smith personally face each other and fight to the death.
Smaller, more relationship-driven stories may offer an Adversary who operates without help, like Beth (Mary Tyler Moore), the mother in Ordinary People.
Or, as in a few films, the Adversary’s influence will be felt and fought by the Hero without any Adversary Agents or even the physical presence of the Adversary until that final confrontation at the end of the story. In Sideways, struggling novelist Miles (Paul Giamatti) drinks his way through the vineyards of central California overwhelmed by yearning to get back together with his ex-wife Victoria. Victoria only turns up in the flesh for one climax scene near the end, at sidekick Jack’s wedding. But Victoria serves as Miles’ Adversary throughout, since his inability to win her back dominates almost every bad decision the Hero makes.
7. A Hero should not be his own Adversary.
Any character in the throes of internal self-combat has a lot going on inside, sure. But without an opposing force seen clearly in the outside world, stories containing these Heroes can become off-putting.
Man on the Moon presents a bio-pic tale about eccentric comedian Andy Kaufman (Jim Carrey). In this recounting of Kaufman’s career, all of the Hero’s problems can only be blamed on Kaufman himself. This tale of self-destruction becomes emotionally remote, and the domestic gross for the picture came in well below the break-even point.
When a Hero becomes his own Adversary, the audience does not experience an emotional journey so much as a clinical chronology of hara-kiri.
In Walk the Line, Hero Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) fights his inner demons and an instinct for self-destruction just like Andy Kaufman does in Man on the Moon. But in Walk the Line, Johnny Cash has a clear external Adversary in his father, who has inflicted a lifetime of psychological abuse on Johnny, nearly crushing his soul.
This movie avoids trapping the Hero as his own Adversary and creates a visible, riveting conflict in a film that was a hit with audiences.
8. A natural disaster isn’t an Adversary.
Getting caught in a violent storm (Twister) or lost in the desert (Flight of the Phoenix) may provide harrowing adventures and a wonderful arena for conflict. But like every other type of story, man-against-nature movies work best when there’s also a human Adversary present.
The Blair Witch Project concerns three student filmmakers who get lost in a deep backwoods area and can’t find their way out. Being lost in the woods is frightening. But it’s the creepy Adversary “witch” they never see who terrorizes them and kills them off one by one.
9. An Adversary can wear the mask of friendship or romance and not be revealed as the true opposing force until the end — but still remains the Adversary throughout.
One of the more dramatically intriguing versions of the Adversary character is what Professor Campbell has labeled “The Shapeshifter.” This kind of bad person hides from view behind a mask of innocence. The Hero believes that the Shapeshifter will provide a positive force in her life and she has no idea he actually wants to destroy her. A major turning point comes late in these stories when the Shapeshifter’s true nature gets revealed.
In The Usual Suspects, the lame and cuddly small-time criminal Roger “Verbal” Kint (Kevin Spacey) chatters away to U.S. Customs Detective Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) throughout the movie, telling the tragic tale of a heist gone bad and an ex-cop Hero (Gabriel Byrne) murdered by the vicious, legendary criminal mastermind Keyser Söze. Only in the last few seconds of the film, after Verbal has been released by Kujan and he’s limping away down the sidewalk, do we discover that Verbal is actually the legendary Keyser Söze himself. Kujan has just released one of the most insidious and brilliant criminals in the world.
Verbal Kint is a Shapeshifter Adversary.
A Shapeshifter does not change character categories during the story. Shapeshifters just conceal their true opposing nature from the Hero and the audience until it’s time for a dramatic Big Reveal later in the story.
10. The Adversary will not always be a bad person.
An Adversary is the main opposing force, but he is not necessarily a bad or evil person. Some of the most interesting Adversary characters are good people who fall into opposition with the Hero only because of circumstances.
Zack Mayo (Richard Gere) in An Officer and a Gentleman wants to fly jets for the Navy to prove himself better than his low-life sailor father. But drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley (Louis Gossett, Jr.) remains committed to grinding Zack down until he will DOR — Drop On Request — from flight training boot camp. Zack only looks out for himself, and Foley knows in battle such behavior can be deadly. Sergeant Foley isn’t a bad man. He’s a very good man with a tough job, weeding out recruits who might not back up fellow pilots under fire. Sergeant Foley works to save lives. But for Zack, he’s one hard-nosed Adversary.
11. The Adversary can never become the Hero, but sometimes can dominate the story.
The Adversary cannot take over the function of Hero in a movie. However, he can sometimes be the star.
A Charismatic Adversary shows up in stories where the plot builds to illuminate the opposition character as the dominant personality. Such roles invariably are played by movie stars and are often misdiagnosed as being the Hero of the film.
In Primary Colors, John Travolta plays Governor Jack Stanton, a charming, Bill Clinton-esque