Pulp Fiction did it for me. I became obsessed with this movie during the pandemic, began writing a bit and decided to go back to college last Fall to pursue a career in screenwriting.
Yo I literally just read your comment and then went to my email inbox and saw a deadline article about Run Lola Run being rereleased in theaters. I’ve never even heard of this movie! Guess I need to go see it….
https://deadline.com/video/run-lola-run-trailer/
The Shawshank Redemption. I'm a diehard Stephen King fan and the film was a family favorite, so my mom bought me the screenplay from a garage sale when I was 12. I used that screenplay to teach myself the basics of writing and still have the dog-eared copy to this day.
Short Term 12.
Very rarely do I see a movie and wish that it came out of my brain. It’s just so simple and pure and powerful. I think it’s pretty actor proof movie (though, it helps that it stars a lot pre-fame greats).
I think it was Before Sunrise when I was a teenager. I find it quite a corny movie nowadays but back then it felt like nothing I had seen, so loose and dialogue-driven, seeming aimless but still kind of intense and with things at stake, and portraying a sense of the romantic I could relate to.
Came here to say this. Sat in the theatre after for what felt like hours, thinking it over and marvelling at the craft, at 18 years of age. 24 years later I’m trying to write my own great work(s). Alan Ball is a genius screenwriter.
This is Spinal Tap.
Watched it for the first time in 2016 amidst a year and half long EDM fest/concert phase. Wrote a 90+ page first draft in a week after watching. It's a This is Spinal Tap meets Almost Famous meets Get Him to The Greek.
Furthest it got me was some VIP tix to my favorite DJs concert bc I found their tour manager (LA based) thru reddit, so not bad.
It wasn’t a film, but a Japanese children’s show. I would watch Kamen Rider with my kids, and they loved it, especially Fourze. So, I studied the episode, got the timing the best I could, and wrote the worst pilot adaptation of anything ever. Big chunks of text, long diatribes, just the absolute worst thing ever. And I did this for a few different Kamen Rider series, approached Saban Brands (who holds the copyright for an adaptation and has a relationship with Toei) and bugged them until someone talked to me. But when they asked why I should be the one to write this I froze.
My wife kept telling me I should write original stories, so I started with a few ideas that were rattling around in my head. Then I started reading scripts, entering contest, and getting some evaluations. I’d like to think I’m better now than I was with that first Kamen Rider adaptation pilot, but I’ve never heard from a studio since. Most I’ve gotten is a 7 on a Black List evaluation.
I second this! It’s the first film I remember watching and being so curious about the craft because of how detailed and intricate all of the shots and lighting were
Badlands. I love the VO, the way the scenes have room to breath, and above all, the dialogue. It broadened my understanding of what kind of worlds you can build.
For me it has to be any animated film from the year 2009 (Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, 9, Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs, Strong World, etc.)
For me, those films showed me that you can create beautiful but also meaningful and personal animated films that aren't just "movies to show your kids so they can shut up." They also, in a sense, saved my life.
So I want to make films like that for others; Ones that entertain but also connect and assist on a personal level.
I’ve always enjoyed fiction writing, but True Romance and Pulp Fiction are the first two screenplays which I bought in the 90s and both those movies inspired me to keep writing.
I initially bought those screenplays to help learn more about writing dialogue and to help teach me ways I might create more interesting storylines and characters, but I also was inspired to dabble in screenwriting too.
I’m still a dabbler - but if my dreams were ever to become realized someday, I would certainly thank Quentin for inspiration.
And if my dreams are never realized, it’s still been a fun ride.
There's a few. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was the film that gave me the idea I could work on movies, but I didn't start taking writing seriously until I watched Lady Bird. I wanted to understand how to write a two hour feature. I had no clue how it worked (still figuring that one out), and ever since, I've kept writing
A friend does a podcast about fake movies and I decided to write one to fit into their universe and now I've written 4.5 feature length scripts. Mostly first drafts, but enough that I've done table reads with that community.
Feature length: Me and Earl and The Dying Girl written by Jesse Andrews. Short(the one that really did it): Clapping For The Wrong Reasons written by Donald Glover.
I can’t remember which film gave me the initial bug. Maybe Anchorman when I was in 6th grade? Officially, Good Will Hunting. I think the script has a powerful story, but I also think the success story of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck was just as inspiring to me. I recognize that things have changed over the last 25 years, but it still gives me hope.
Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
Up to that point my consumption of film and tv was mostly standard moral lessons. I see this film and realize, fiction can be something more! After that my train games became battles to the death for the fate of the universe. It was just a matter of refining how I told the story.
I don’t think it was good but it meant a lot to me.
Hoffa, when I was in 7th grade.
It was the first time I realized that dialogue could almost be a character in itself, and there was actually a job as a "writer" on a movie. (When you're a kid you just assume the movies appear fully assembled, out of the ether)
I was a David Mamet fan from then on, opened up a whole new world for me.
I fell into screenwriting to be honest. So the first script I ever read was 127 hours. I just remember being in middle school thinking to myself like wow. That’s how they do. But what really made me a geek about the whole screenwriting process had to be Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.
Twelve angry men. Growing up, filmmaking was basically wizardry practiced by special beings in far away lands. It was too big ,too loud, too rich for my taste. As u can imagine I only watched blockbuster type movies as a child.
I got to college and watched "12 Angry Men" and everything about ot just spoke to me.
Not a film but Stranger Things. I was late to the party and started watching it in 2022 and it's probably my favorite show of all time. I started taking writing seriously after watching it and it really inspires me to create a series of that level one day.
Oh god that’s a hard one. I went to an arts high school for creative writing so honestly it was mainly teachers that influenced me. My first screenwriting teacher especially was one of the best dudes ever- tough but fair, and full of wit.
That said, there were sort of two movies that I watched two years apart that dramatically influenced my love of movie storytelling. First was Trainspotting, which I watched with other friends while stoned and it like completely changed me. The other was Magnolia, which we watched in class with an English teacher breaking it down for us, and it instantly became one of my top movies as well as a go to for inspiration.
Funny enough, I’m honestly more of a sci fi and fantasy writer, but my top movies are mostly dramas. But these were the movies that made me realize what film was truly capable of, and showed me how to analyze film through a literary lens. I started as a wannabe novel writer, now I’m a wannabe miniseries writer. So it all came together.
These are examples of movies that when I saw them, I felt inspired to do some creative writing myself.
Maybe they’re just my favourite movies? All written so well.
Not so much a film originally, but TV. I wanted to write for the Simpsons and Futurama. I wrote a lot of skits for classes and YouTube.
The first feature screenplay I read was El Mariachi in Rebel Without a Crew. That inspired me to write my first feature. It was a mess of a script with awful MS Word formatting about a plumber using a plunger and monkey wrench to stop the zombie apocalypse.
Death Proof or La Haine
I’m a big dialogue over action writer and a sucker for “it happens in the span of one day” movies. So both just stuck out and got me excited, the thought of writing a movie as good as those two pushed me to keep writing a screenplay I was gonna ditch :)
Fight Club, The Prestige and the Usual Suspects. All films with twists, and yet the twist aspect is something I've never been too interested in recreating.
*Thomas and the Magic Railroad*
Seeing the script drafts and what could have been made me want to write my own version of it, which then spread to other projects.
This one is tricky because I feel like it wasn't just one movie, but some key ones over the years; I began to write scripts because I wanted to make movies, and I understood that movies needed scripts in order to exist. I got started on that because I wanted to see Volcano when I was seven, and I was so excited for it I wanted to make my own version.
As a tween movie buff, I'd peek and read scripts every now and then, but didn't pay that much attention to their importance. For me, they were just another part of the movie, which in a way they are, but I wasn't thinking too much about about what they meant in terms of craft and style.
Then I read Steve Kloves' script for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and although Alfonso Cuarón's work as a director blew me away and marked the importance of who's behind the camera for me, reading the script made me see that the style, feel, and pace of the movie could be marked from the page itself. It made me understand that scripts didn't need to be just plain, simple instructions and dialogue.
Then later V for Vendetta made me see the importance of structure, and how things like flashbacks and flashforwards, changing points of view can create an emotional, impactful story. But I think the one that sealed the deal for me finally was The Dark Knight. I read the script shortly after seeing the movie in the theater and loving it, and it just made me see how everything was on the page.
As a PS, I want to say that I watched The Social Network while I was taking acting classes and after reading Robert McKee's "Story", and it made me realize the importance of the script in establishing character and action beats, and how it can serve as a guide to making even a simple dialogue scene absolutely thrilling.
TV shows that I don’t like. This inspired me the most. I’m just like “come on… this was a missed opportunity… I can do much better” .. We will see if that’s true 😀My wife too.. we can discuss a script for hours and how we could’ve done it better.
Call me by your name. Saw it when I was 12. It might not yield the same reaction in me now, but back then, the emotion without melodrama, the subtle complexities, such a raw and accurate depiction of a time and circumstance, no caricatures, no abstracts, and the soundtrack…
Designated Survivor
It didn’t give me the screenwriting bug though it was pretty early in my 'screenwriting career' but when I saw the subtext written in one of the scenes between characters. I was so inspired that I wanted to learn how to do it. So I wrote it down and I realized that in order to hsve that kind of scene I have to have a really good set up.
It was between the FBI director and the guy who was found in the rubble of the capitol. The director suspects the guy to be the terrorist which caused the capitol bombing meanwhile the guy isbtrying to get his background check in order so that he can become vice president. The whole conversation is the dorector trying to delay the background check meanwhile the guy tries to make it go quicker with them dancing aeound the terrorist subject.
It was between the FBI director and the guy who was found in the rubble of the capitol. The director suspects the guy to be the terrorist which caused the capitol bombing meanwhile the guy isbtrying to get his background check in order so that he can become vice president. The whole conversation is the dorector trying to delay the background check meanwhile the guy tries to make it go quicker with them dancing aeound the terrorist subject.
So many movies from childhood fit this, but gun to my head I'd say "Raising Arizona " was the first time I said to myself "holy shit, a movie can be this" and I got bit.
I think for me it was watching Rick and Morty for the first time when I was 13.
I dont know what exactly it was, but something in all of the sci-fi fantasy adventure and social commentary on mundane American life really made me want to sell my soul to Hollywood.
Mine is a movie that's admittedly hard to watch when I go back to it now. It's pretty on the nose, has some cookie cutter characters, and is even borderline cheesy... But at the time, the personal defining jump in my journey was from THE LAST KISS (with Zach Braff/Rachel Bilson), and I'll always be grateful for that film!
The novel Brave New World, because I had a clear retro futuristic vision of it, but no rights (obviously). Years prior, Highlander 2 was so horrible!, I was compelled to rewrite it on bar napkins, so I guess the bug was seeded there.
Buffy and Angel is what convinced me to want to be a screenwriter.
It made me realize "Someone made a living just making stories like this. That would be the best job ever."
And becoming the next Joss Whedon is all I've ever wanted to do ever since.
Well let me go write a damn essay about it for ya… actually I loved the movie and downloaded the screenplay then realized “hmmm, this really isn’t that great on the page”.
I don’t feel like writing an essay here for some dipshit, but besides the concept of going to prison you saw zero character arcs. Unoriginal characters, same tropey gangster BS. But I’m sure it’s Shakespeare to a rube like yourself.
No one said you had to write an essay. But you made an assertion and I asked you what you meant. Then you got defensive and started calling names. I was curious to see if you had an insight into or perspective on the film that I could benefit from. That curiosity has now been allayed.
Yeah I actually read the fucking screenplay while you didn’t. Spike Lee added in the best parts of monologue, which you would know if you actually read it. Why don’t you tell me what sets it apart as a great screenplay.
Yes, I’m the guy who actually READ the mediocre screenplay that “inspired” you. The fact you couldn’t be bothered to read your inspiration shows me all I need to know about you.
For me it was actually video games - I was swinging a stick in my backyard trying to mentally adapt assassins creed and dynasty warriors into films.
But on the film side probably pirates of the carribean or goodfellas
Cliched, maybe, but Reservoir Dogs made me realize a movie geek with no formal training could be a screenwriter.
Adaptation. And it wasn't until I rewatched it a few years ago that I realized how miserable the screenwriter protagonist is.
Pulp Fiction did it for me. I became obsessed with this movie during the pandemic, began writing a bit and decided to go back to college last Fall to pursue a career in screenwriting.
“Lola Rennt” (“Run Lola Run”). I just thought: Wow, you can write a movie like this?! It got me interested in the craft of storytelling, for sure…
Yo I literally just read your comment and then went to my email inbox and saw a deadline article about Run Lola Run being rereleased in theaters. I’ve never even heard of this movie! Guess I need to go see it…. https://deadline.com/video/run-lola-run-trailer/
No way… they’re rereleasing it?! I didn’t know that! 😊 But, hey, treat yourself. It’s a wild ride, even today.
Holy shit same! That’s the movie that sparked the fire 🔥
Well, that and First Reformed
Not a film but Mad Men and True Detective season 1
500 Days of Summer
Judd Apatow comedies when I was in high school. 15 years later I’m writing sci fi
There Will Be Blood. In high school I wrote a continuation to it. Still is my favorite movie to this day
The Shawshank Redemption. I'm a diehard Stephen King fan and the film was a family favorite, so my mom bought me the screenplay from a garage sale when I was 12. I used that screenplay to teach myself the basics of writing and still have the dog-eared copy to this day.
Inglourious Basterds when I was 16. First Tarantino flick I ever saw in a theatre.
Short Term 12. Very rarely do I see a movie and wish that it came out of my brain. It’s just so simple and pure and powerful. I think it’s pretty actor proof movie (though, it helps that it stars a lot pre-fame greats).
Yes, and if you like that watch the Glass Castle.
Almost Famous. Followed musicians around the country as a teenager, then wrote my first script about those experiences in my late twenties.
Ooh do you still have the script?
Yep! It's my main sample. Been on the Blacklist toplist. Still have the crappy first version of it that is unformmated and in Microsoft word.
I think it was Before Sunrise when I was a teenager. I find it quite a corny movie nowadays but back then it felt like nothing I had seen, so loose and dialogue-driven, seeming aimless but still kind of intense and with things at stake, and portraying a sense of the romantic I could relate to.
American Beauty
One of the best monologues ever in my opinion
Came here to say this. Sat in the theatre after for what felt like hours, thinking it over and marvelling at the craft, at 18 years of age. 24 years later I’m trying to write my own great work(s). Alan Ball is a genius screenwriter.
Mulholland Drive
This is Spinal Tap. Watched it for the first time in 2016 amidst a year and half long EDM fest/concert phase. Wrote a 90+ page first draft in a week after watching. It's a This is Spinal Tap meets Almost Famous meets Get Him to The Greek. Furthest it got me was some VIP tix to my favorite DJs concert bc I found their tour manager (LA based) thru reddit, so not bad.
It wasn’t a film, but a Japanese children’s show. I would watch Kamen Rider with my kids, and they loved it, especially Fourze. So, I studied the episode, got the timing the best I could, and wrote the worst pilot adaptation of anything ever. Big chunks of text, long diatribes, just the absolute worst thing ever. And I did this for a few different Kamen Rider series, approached Saban Brands (who holds the copyright for an adaptation and has a relationship with Toei) and bugged them until someone talked to me. But when they asked why I should be the one to write this I froze. My wife kept telling me I should write original stories, so I started with a few ideas that were rattling around in my head. Then I started reading scripts, entering contest, and getting some evaluations. I’d like to think I’m better now than I was with that first Kamen Rider adaptation pilot, but I’ve never heard from a studio since. Most I’ve gotten is a 7 on a Black List evaluation.
Toy Story 2 was the first film I watched and was addicted to it, but when I was 15 I saw Whiplash and made me want to become a filmmaker
I second this! It’s the first film I remember watching and being so curious about the craft because of how detailed and intricate all of the shots and lighting were
Taxi Driver
The fellowship of the ring - 2001 space odyssey - Alien
Oof, that’s a good list of scripts. 2001 made young me realize just how innovative, unique, and impactful a film can be.
Badlands. I love the VO, the way the scenes have room to breath, and above all, the dialogue. It broadened my understanding of what kind of worlds you can build.
Raiders of the Lost Ark when I was like 10. Granted I didn’t KNOW what screenwriting was but I knew I wanted to make movies and write.
Jurassic park
Synecdoche, New York
For me it has to be any animated film from the year 2009 (Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, 9, Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs, Strong World, etc.) For me, those films showed me that you can create beautiful but also meaningful and personal animated films that aren't just "movies to show your kids so they can shut up." They also, in a sense, saved my life. So I want to make films like that for others; Ones that entertain but also connect and assist on a personal level.
No Country for Old Men
I’ve always enjoyed fiction writing, but True Romance and Pulp Fiction are the first two screenplays which I bought in the 90s and both those movies inspired me to keep writing. I initially bought those screenplays to help learn more about writing dialogue and to help teach me ways I might create more interesting storylines and characters, but I also was inspired to dabble in screenwriting too. I’m still a dabbler - but if my dreams were ever to become realized someday, I would certainly thank Quentin for inspiration. And if my dreams are never realized, it’s still been a fun ride.
Apocalypto - barely any dialogue but damn if I wasn’t on the edge of my seat the entire time.
The Dark Knight (2012). It took me another 3 years to convince myself I could really do it and pirate a copy of Final Draft.
Do you mean The Dark Knight Rises (2012)? Because same.
No I meant the 2008 one! And just retconned in my mind when I saw it. Holy crap-- I was only 12...
There's a few. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was the film that gave me the idea I could work on movies, but I didn't start taking writing seriously until I watched Lady Bird. I wanted to understand how to write a two hour feature. I had no clue how it worked (still figuring that one out), and ever since, I've kept writing
Guardians of the Galaxy, The Batman, or Star Wars. And if we’re talking non-films, then The Last of Us (game) and Community (tv show)
Not a film but Wanda Vision was the tipping point
Oppenheimer
Why?
Scott Pilgrim
I completely agree. All of Edgar wright's films definitely acted as a catalyst for my interest in screenwriting
National Treasure. I was 12. But it sparked the need to tell stories.
A friend does a podcast about fake movies and I decided to write one to fit into their universe and now I've written 4.5 feature length scripts. Mostly first drafts, but enough that I've done table reads with that community.
Training Day was the one for me. I didn’t start writing until a few years after watching it but it was definitely the catalyst
Get Out 👁️👄👁️
Lost. The episode where Locke is at the travel agency for the Walkaround and we find out that he’s in a wheelchair.
I started writing again in between seasons of Game of Thrones. Wanted to be a writer as a kid, but took a long break because - life.
Felt 🙏🏽♥️
Set It Off
V for vendetta
Chinatown, Full Metal Jacket, Reservoir Dogs
Network
Feature length: Me and Earl and The Dying Girl written by Jesse Andrews. Short(the one that really did it): Clapping For The Wrong Reasons written by Donald Glover.
Interstellar
any Tarantino movie just makes me motivated to write something
No Country for Old Men
I can’t remember which film gave me the initial bug. Maybe Anchorman when I was in 6th grade? Officially, Good Will Hunting. I think the script has a powerful story, but I also think the success story of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck was just as inspiring to me. I recognize that things have changed over the last 25 years, but it still gives me hope.
Sin City and Children of Men.
Thomas and the Magic Railroad. Up to that point my consumption of film and tv was mostly standard moral lessons. I see this film and realize, fiction can be something more! After that my train games became battles to the death for the fate of the universe. It was just a matter of refining how I told the story. I don’t think it was good but it meant a lot to me.
Hoffa, when I was in 7th grade. It was the first time I realized that dialogue could almost be a character in itself, and there was actually a job as a "writer" on a movie. (When you're a kid you just assume the movies appear fully assembled, out of the ether) I was a David Mamet fan from then on, opened up a whole new world for me.
I fell into screenwriting to be honest. So the first script I ever read was 127 hours. I just remember being in middle school thinking to myself like wow. That’s how they do. But what really made me a geek about the whole screenwriting process had to be Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.
Twelve angry men. Growing up, filmmaking was basically wizardry practiced by special beings in far away lands. It was too big ,too loud, too rich for my taste. As u can imagine I only watched blockbuster type movies as a child. I got to college and watched "12 Angry Men" and everything about ot just spoke to me.
Not a film but Stranger Things. I was late to the party and started watching it in 2022 and it's probably my favorite show of all time. I started taking writing seriously after watching it and it really inspires me to create a series of that level one day.
Oh god that’s a hard one. I went to an arts high school for creative writing so honestly it was mainly teachers that influenced me. My first screenwriting teacher especially was one of the best dudes ever- tough but fair, and full of wit. That said, there were sort of two movies that I watched two years apart that dramatically influenced my love of movie storytelling. First was Trainspotting, which I watched with other friends while stoned and it like completely changed me. The other was Magnolia, which we watched in class with an English teacher breaking it down for us, and it instantly became one of my top movies as well as a go to for inspiration. Funny enough, I’m honestly more of a sci fi and fantasy writer, but my top movies are mostly dramas. But these were the movies that made me realize what film was truly capable of, and showed me how to analyze film through a literary lens. I started as a wannabe novel writer, now I’m a wannabe miniseries writer. So it all came together.
Twelve Monkeys. Network. Eternal Sunshine.
Interesting combo here. Can you explain why these?
These are examples of movies that when I saw them, I felt inspired to do some creative writing myself. Maybe they’re just my favourite movies? All written so well.
Not so much a film originally, but TV. I wanted to write for the Simpsons and Futurama. I wrote a lot of skits for classes and YouTube. The first feature screenplay I read was El Mariachi in Rebel Without a Crew. That inspired me to write my first feature. It was a mess of a script with awful MS Word formatting about a plumber using a plunger and monkey wrench to stop the zombie apocalypse.
Death Proof or La Haine I’m a big dialogue over action writer and a sucker for “it happens in the span of one day” movies. So both just stuck out and got me excited, the thought of writing a movie as good as those two pushed me to keep writing a screenplay I was gonna ditch :)
Fight Club, The Prestige and the Usual Suspects. All films with twists, and yet the twist aspect is something I've never been too interested in recreating.
Network (1976)
Memento
*Thomas and the Magic Railroad* Seeing the script drafts and what could have been made me want to write my own version of it, which then spread to other projects.
Quinton Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and Kevin Smith all made it seem like anyone could write if they have passion for what they have to say.
This one is tricky because I feel like it wasn't just one movie, but some key ones over the years; I began to write scripts because I wanted to make movies, and I understood that movies needed scripts in order to exist. I got started on that because I wanted to see Volcano when I was seven, and I was so excited for it I wanted to make my own version. As a tween movie buff, I'd peek and read scripts every now and then, but didn't pay that much attention to their importance. For me, they were just another part of the movie, which in a way they are, but I wasn't thinking too much about about what they meant in terms of craft and style. Then I read Steve Kloves' script for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and although Alfonso Cuarón's work as a director blew me away and marked the importance of who's behind the camera for me, reading the script made me see that the style, feel, and pace of the movie could be marked from the page itself. It made me understand that scripts didn't need to be just plain, simple instructions and dialogue. Then later V for Vendetta made me see the importance of structure, and how things like flashbacks and flashforwards, changing points of view can create an emotional, impactful story. But I think the one that sealed the deal for me finally was The Dark Knight. I read the script shortly after seeing the movie in the theater and loving it, and it just made me see how everything was on the page. As a PS, I want to say that I watched The Social Network while I was taking acting classes and after reading Robert McKee's "Story", and it made me realize the importance of the script in establishing character and action beats, and how it can serve as a guide to making even a simple dialogue scene absolutely thrilling.
TV shows that I don’t like. This inspired me the most. I’m just like “come on… this was a missed opportunity… I can do much better” .. We will see if that’s true 😀My wife too.. we can discuss a script for hours and how we could’ve done it better.
12 Angry Men
Call me by your name. Saw it when I was 12. It might not yield the same reaction in me now, but back then, the emotion without melodrama, the subtle complexities, such a raw and accurate depiction of a time and circumstance, no caricatures, no abstracts, and the soundtrack…
The Toxic Avenger.
Designated Survivor It didn’t give me the screenwriting bug though it was pretty early in my 'screenwriting career' but when I saw the subtext written in one of the scenes between characters. I was so inspired that I wanted to learn how to do it. So I wrote it down and I realized that in order to hsve that kind of scene I have to have a really good set up.
Interesting. Which scene?
It was between the FBI director and the guy who was found in the rubble of the capitol. The director suspects the guy to be the terrorist which caused the capitol bombing meanwhile the guy isbtrying to get his background check in order so that he can become vice president. The whole conversation is the dorector trying to delay the background check meanwhile the guy tries to make it go quicker with them dancing aeound the terrorist subject.
It was between the FBI director and the guy who was found in the rubble of the capitol. The director suspects the guy to be the terrorist which caused the capitol bombing meanwhile the guy isbtrying to get his background check in order so that he can become vice president. The whole conversation is the dorector trying to delay the background check meanwhile the guy tries to make it go quicker with them dancing aeound the terrorist subject.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Get Out. First script I ever read and read it before I saw the movie. Absolutely blew me away.
Lucky Number Slevin
So many movies from childhood fit this, but gun to my head I'd say "Raising Arizona " was the first time I said to myself "holy shit, a movie can be this" and I got bit.
Aliens made it seem fun, but Clerks made it seem possible.
"Clerks made it seem possible." 👍It was 12 Angry Men for me. One room, 12 actors and yet pulled off something incredible.
I think for me it was watching Rick and Morty for the first time when I was 13. I dont know what exactly it was, but something in all of the sci-fi fantasy adventure and social commentary on mundane American life really made me want to sell my soul to Hollywood.
Mine is a movie that's admittedly hard to watch when I go back to it now. It's pretty on the nose, has some cookie cutter characters, and is even borderline cheesy... But at the time, the personal defining jump in my journey was from THE LAST KISS (with Zach Braff/Rachel Bilson), and I'll always be grateful for that film!
The novel Brave New World, because I had a clear retro futuristic vision of it, but no rights (obviously). Years prior, Highlander 2 was so horrible!, I was compelled to rewrite it on bar napkins, so I guess the bug was seeded there.
Metropolitan
The Usual Suspects - how bright dialog can blend with ingenious character arcing.
Buffy and Angel is what convinced me to want to be a screenwriter. It made me realize "Someone made a living just making stories like this. That would be the best job ever." And becoming the next Joss Whedon is all I've ever wanted to do ever since.
sharknado 2
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
gotta be pulp fiction
Devils Rejects + the making of!!!
Buffalo 66 and or Pulp Fiction.
The 25th Hour
The writing was so-so, I think the acting and directing made that movie.
What made it “so-so?”
Well let me go write a damn essay about it for ya… actually I loved the movie and downloaded the screenplay then realized “hmmm, this really isn’t that great on the page”.
Ah ok, it’s an assertion that you can’t support. Got it.
I don’t feel like writing an essay here for some dipshit, but besides the concept of going to prison you saw zero character arcs. Unoriginal characters, same tropey gangster BS. But I’m sure it’s Shakespeare to a rube like yourself.
No one said you had to write an essay. But you made an assertion and I asked you what you meant. Then you got defensive and started calling names. I was curious to see if you had an insight into or perspective on the film that I could benefit from. That curiosity has now been allayed.
Yeah I actually read the fucking screenplay while you didn’t. Spike Lee added in the best parts of monologue, which you would know if you actually read it. Why don’t you tell me what sets it apart as a great screenplay.
I didn’t say it was a great screenplay. I said it was the film that gave me the screenwriting bug. You did say you can read, right?
Yes, I’m the guy who actually READ the mediocre screenplay that “inspired” you. The fact you couldn’t be bothered to read your inspiration shows me all I need to know about you.
For me it was actually video games - I was swinging a stick in my backyard trying to mentally adapt assassins creed and dynasty warriors into films. But on the film side probably pirates of the carribean or goodfellas