Speaker 1: I see a lot of videos on YouTube that talk about how to craft a plot twist. They talk about how a good plot twist needs to be believable within the logic established, or how you need to give the audience all the pieces of the puzzle so they would be able to figure out the answer on their own. Even though these are valid characteristics of a good plot twist, none of them get to the core of what makes a truly meaningful twist, or, more importantly, why a writer should even consider having a plot twist in their story. Today I want to talk about how to build not only an interesting plot twist, but a meaningful one, and how you can integrate meaningful plot twists into your screenplay. Let's begin. I believe there is a very clear and structural method a writer can follow to ensure that they have a relevant twist that will impact their audience. This method stems from one simple definition. A meaningful plot twist should be a significant shift in the audience's perception of the philosophical conflict. Let me elaborate. Remember how the best stories have three sets of stakes? The external stakes, the internal stakes, and the philosophical stakes? Following this logic, we can see how a twist should be constructed. For a meaningful twist, we need an external shift, an internal shift, and a philosophical shift. An external shift is when we rearrange plot elements in a way that is unexpected. These are surprises happening to external elements of the story, such as characters finding a hidden passage, someone suddenly dying, or an identity reveal. It has nothing to do with character beliefs or the philosophical conflict, just the plot. An internal shift has to do with the emotion the audience feels, how they go from feeling peace to being hit with an event that shocks them. Or how they go from a state of depression to a state of hope. These emotional shifts must be clear and should not leave the audience confused. A philosophical shift is a significant change in how the audience perceives the theme of the story. They go from seeing a certain philosophical belief as being the correct or stronger one to realizing that this belief is flawed or weak. This is where a lot of writers fall short. When crafting their twist, they end up applying one or two of these layers, but not all three of them. This creates twists that are not memorable and not as impactful as they could be. Let's look at some of the different twists and see how the three layers of stakes apply. First, let us look at a twist that has an external shift, but no internal or philosophical conflict. Let's look at the midpoint shift in Brave. Until this point, the story has shown a philosophical conflict of rebellion, represented by Merida, and tradition, represented by her mother. The conflict escalates until Merida gets advice from a witch to change her mother's views. She gets a magic pie, which is said to change her fate. Merida gives the pie to her mother, but unexpectedly, it turns her into a bear. This is an external shift. The pie will change Merida's fate. The pie turns her mother into a bear. The problem with the twist is that it does not play with our emotions in a clear way. It is true that it subverts our expectations, but it leaves its audience confused as to why this would happen and how we should even feel about it. In regards to the internal shift, we go from anticipation to… nothing. The twist is confusing. If the audience is confused, they cannot have a clear emotional shift. In regards to the philosophical conflict, we go from Merida wanting to rebel and her mother wanting to stay in the tradition to that same idea. The philosophical conflict between Merida and her mother remains intact. Her mother turning into a bear has no impact on how we perceive their views on rebellion or tradition. By solely shifting the external elements, the movie creates merely a gotcha moment. It's a cheap magic trick. They rearrange plot elements in a surprising way. Ultimately, it is meaningless since its confusion leaves no lasting emotional impact or change in the philosophical conflict. Next, a twist with an external shift and an internal shift, but no philosophical shift. Let's look at the twist in Big Hero 6. Until this point, the writers attempted to convince the audience that the man behind the Kabuki mask was CEO Aleister Kray. At the end of the second act, Hiro and his gang find out that the bad guy is actually Professor Callahan. He was responsible for Tadashi's death and has been assembling his master plan ever since. So the external shift is that Tadashi was killed by a fire, and now Tadashi was killed by his mentor. The internal shift is that Hiro is frustrated to Hiro feels betrayed. However, one of the reasons the twist falls short is because it does nothing to change our perception of the philosophical conflict. In regards to the philosophical shift, we have death hurts people to death hurts people. We just see yet again a case of a character driven by the death of a loved one to take extreme actions, only confirming what the characters and the audience already knew. You might say this is a bad twist because it's too predictable or contrived, and you would not be wrong, but the core issue is that the twist does not challenge our view of the philosophical conflict. Now let's look at a twist that shifts all three layers. Let's look at one of the greatest twists of all time, Darth Vader is Luke's father. Is it a memorable twist because it's unexpected, or because it's a quotable line? Maybe, but it may really be because it perfectly shifts the three storytelling layers. The external shift is Luke's father is dead, to Luke's father is alive and is Luke's biggest antagonist. The internal shift is Luke holding onto hope, to now holding despair. The philosophical shift is that good is going to defeat evil, to evil and darkness are clearly more powerful. And this last shift is the reason this twist has resonated with so many people. Until that point, Star Wars had been a battle of good guys versus bad guys, represented by the light and dark sides, and we had been reinforced to believe that the light side would ultimately defeat the dark side. So when we see that Luke's father, the hero of the light side, has been responsible for such atrocities, and that Luke is also capable of doing the same, we have our previously held beliefs shattered. It shows us that the dark side is truly powerful, maybe even more powerful than good. Here is another example of a twist that shifts all three layers, the midpoint twist in Parasite. Up until this point, the story had been a battle of wits between the poor and the rich, represented by the Kims conning their way into the park residency. However, after the Kim family has gotten everything they wanted, they discover that the old housekeeper has a secret bunker in the mansion, housing an even poorer family. This sparks a battle between the two poor families as they struggle for control over the parks. The external shift is that the Kims control the house, to now they lose their power when there is a secret bunker housing an even poorer family. The internal shift is the Kims' state of peace, to their state of pure panic. And the philosophical shift goes from being a class struggle between the poor and the rich, to the real class struggle being between the poor and the poorer. Bong Joon-ho uses the twist to show class struggle in South Korea as a bucket full of crabs, where the villain is not the rich, but instead the poor people who fight to keep each other miserable. Meanwhile the rich remain completely unaware of the situation, as represented by the secret bunker. With this, you know the basic elements that separate great twists from mediocre ones. But the question still remains, why even have a plot twist to begin with? What is the point of a plot twist? Why should you consider implementing a twist into your story? Is it simply to shock the reader? Is it simply so you can brag about how smart you are because you masterfully deceived the audience? No. Instead, I want you to look back at the moments in your life. Moments that defined you. Single events that affected the beliefs you hold, making you question them. Maybe a sudden death of a loved one made you rethink your life goals. Maybe a breakup made you re-examine what it means to love. Or the loss of a job made you re-evaluate the importance of money and happiness. In life we come across single events that significantly shift our beliefs, and this is what twists are for. They mimic shifts in life that we all go through. These are external events that left a deep emotional impact on you, and thus changed your beliefs about life. External shift, internal shift, and philosophical shift. This is why changing the philosophical layer is so crucial. I'm not saying that twists that only have external or internal shifts are inherently bad. They can actually be useful tools to keep a story interesting and moving forward. However, I am saying that they will never be as impactful to an audience as a twist that hits an external, internal, and philosophical layer. So next time you are attempting to write a plot twist, first stop and ask yourself, why are you doing this? What does your twist say about life and how it should be lived? And next, ensure that you have a meaningful twist that causes an external, internal, and philosophical shift. Are you a writer who is struggling to consistently finish your screenplays? Do you get 30 pages in and quit? This is a problem I've seen again and again with new writers trying to get their first few screenplays done. And I've built a course for writers just like you who went from struggling to get their story out onto the page, to passionate writers with a clear sense of why they were writing and how to finish. If you're struggling to get that first draft onto the page, or if you're looking for a clear method of finding your story's problems and fixing them, then click the first link in the description. Thanks for watching.