UNIVERSAL STORIES
21 universal plots are the basis of any plot. In other words, if we take any movie, whatever it is, and analyze it, its argument would be included in one of these 21 arguments. It sounds a bit simplistic. But it’s pretty grounded. The first is
1. THE TREASURE HUNT
(Jason and the Argonauts)
There is a mission – an eventful Journey to your destination. Or instead, a training that will transform the main role. They often need help from an ally who turned out to be an enemy in the past but joined forces to achieve common goals…
Many action movies follow this pattern (Raiders of the Lost Ark, James Bond…)
2. HOMECOMING
(The Odyssey)
Usually, a lost protagonist has to return home. The return will always be difficult. Upon arrival, everything has changed, and he/she has to restore the home as it was before and face the impostor who has been able to usurp his place (Home / Adventure Duality)
(Stagecoach, Alice, The Wizard of Oz, Narnia.).
3. FOUNDING A NEW COUNTRY
(The Aeneid)
Showing how difficult it is to forge a community (it usually occurs in westerns when the laws of civilization reach the wild west or in biblical stories where new civilizations were formed). A common characteristic is to turn the pioneers (Moses) into a legend. The serenity and dedication that they must have, prevent them from dedicating themselves to love. And another characteristic of this story is that when they finally find the promised land, new adaptation problems mainly arise.
(El dorado, The Grapes of Wrath, Gladiator.).
4. THE BENEFACTOR INTRUDER
(The Messiah)
It is a biblical argument (one of the oldest books) where a messiah goes through a formation period that becomes aware of his mission, and that results in the beginning of a struggle for the community and on many occasions, a final sacrifice. At other times, the fight is in vain and the Messiah is useless. It may all sound very archaic, but if you realize it is the plot that nourishes films like:
Schindler’s list, Star wars…
5. THE DESTROYING INTRUDER
(The Evil One)
This would be the counterpoint of the previous argument. In this case, there is a placid community, which is usually a cynical society, where a crisis and subsequent cohesion are created. The crisis is created by a foreign entity or someone from outside (a way of criticizing what is different). Sometimes the form of this evil one can be a catastrophe, or monster, or even aliens.
(War of the Worlds, Rambo, Invasion of the Body Snatchers)
6. THE REVENGE
(The Oresteia)
Murder – Revenge – Trial and back again. It is the cycle of revenge; it never ends. The moral ambiguity of the avenger is shown, often ending in redemption or accidental endings. There is a code of honor (outside the law). There is also a version where revenge is obsessive and ends with the death or suicide of the avenger.
(Taken, John Wick…)
7. THE MARTYR AND THE TYRAN
(Antigone)
It gathers the 5 great conflicts: Man-Woman; Young-Old; Individual-Society; Gods-Humans; Living-Dead.
It is the defense of the innocent. The laws are not questioned, but the will of men to apply them.
(12 Angry Men, To Kill a Mockingbird…)
8. THE OLD AND THE NEW
(Cherry Orchard)
Wars, different cultures, evolution… Is the passage of destructive time and the Reification of space (a house, a place, or a car). What is known as “Chekhovian immobility” or the stagnation of an obsolete society. There is a Nostalgia for the past without a vision of the future.
(Gone with the Wind, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Gran Torino…)
9. THE VOLUBLE AND CHANGING LOVE
(A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Criticism of the arbitrariness of human feelings (Comedy). It usually occurs in a single place and over a reduced time, and the magic of the night, as it happens in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. There is a choral cast with a mess of characters that intermingle, getting entangled (like feelings)
(Love actually, Manhattan, Mamma mia…)
10. REDEMPTIVE LOVE
(Beauty and the Beast)
A young woman is kidnapped by a beast who forces her to live with her, but without harming her. The beast either lets her go or loses her forever. It will be Love that ends the beast. Here, the social marginalization of the different is valued. There is a second version where appearances are deceiving, and the kidnapper is very handsome, but it turns out that his soul is monstrous.
(King kong, The beauty and the beast…)
11. FORBIDDEN LOVE
(Romeo and Juliet)
It begins with a crush, courtship, marriage, or sex, separation, and death. And I just summarized Romeo and Juliet for you. It usually occurs with young and rebellious characters, and it tends to happen in a short period since their passion does not allow them to let a long time pass. Most of the time, it has a very tribal component with different groups or opposing families. It usually has a “happy ending” in quotes since THAT HAPPY ENDING is given as they will spend eternity together after death.
(Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story…)
12. THE ADULTEROUS WOMAN
(Madame Bovary)
An inexperienced woman marries by a family pact, she lives a closed family life (almost always set in rural places or small cities). Suddenly, there is a call of desire, a man of the world who cajoles her. After the adultery, she suffers a disappointment and a subsequent abandonment. There is usually an economic decline, a threat of scandal, suicides… (All very dramatic). The characters are usually a cold and extortionist husband, and an apparently neutral but complicit community. Some people consider this plot as an awakening of the feminine conscience.
(Anna Karenina or The Scarlet Letter)
13. THE RELENTLESS SEDUCER
(Don Juan)
A man lures everyone by promising his love, which usually ends up being avenged. The society judges him and sentences him to a lonely death. Or forgiven if he finally finds true love.
(American Gigolo, Dangerous Liaisons…)
14. THE ASCENSION FOR LOVE
(Cinderella)
This is the story of a Social advancement and quality improvement (a mixture of ambition with innocence). When innocence is lost, it is a plot of gold diggers.
(It’s the story of Cinderella, Pretty Woman…)
15. HUNGER FOR POWER
(Macbeth)
It is the familiar rise and fall topic. The struggle for power and its consequences initially originated by Macbeth.
(Game of thrones, Scarface, the godfather…)
16. THE PACT WITH THE DEVIL
(Faust)
Where a person sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge, sometimes it can be fame or omnipotence, but always something that in itself would not be possible to achieve, or if it is, a lot of effort is saved. They are usually arrogant characters and with bad company or persecuted by ghosts. Often, this character turns out to be a Messiah who is ultimately saved by a good deed.
(Constantine, The devil’s advocate, Casablanca…)
17. THE DOUBLE BEING
(Jekyll and Hyde)
Insecurity in the Self that opens a moral breach, creating an evil double. Or at least this is the original story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. There is also a comic version using twins or cross-dressing. Another version is the superheroes stories where there are two good doubles or one good and one super good.
(The Nutty Professor, Superman, Batman, Spiderman…)
18. SELF-KNOWLEDGE
(Oedipus)
That was seen for the first time in the myth of Oedipus who ends up marrying his mother without knowing it. It is a journey of fatal self-knowledge. Where the protagonist does not know who he is due to an unknown origin or amnesia, and an Identity Search is developed, where there is usually a detective investigation.
(The Bourne Identity, Total Recall, Planet of the Apes…)
19. INSIDE THE LABYRINTH
(The Castle)
It is the story of a man against the world. A journey without purpose. A gray and nullifying society. It is a cyclical journey with no defined end, where it is common to find helpers and false helpers.
(Brazil, North by Northwest, Citizen Kane, Inside the Labyrinth…)
20. THE CREATION OF ARTIFICIAL LIFE
(Prometheus and Pygmalion)
They play GODS. There is usually a scientist obsessed to the point of madness with controlling the human being, coming to believe that he is above God. He ends up creating a monster that has feelings. It is the story of Frankenstein. Although you have also been able to see this theme in films such as…
(Bladerunner, Pinocchio…)
21. THE DESCENT INTO HELL
(Orpheus, Virgil and Ovid)
It takes place in a dreamlike and surreal world, where impossible love goes beyond death. This death is often represented by dark alleys or dangerous suburbs. Sometimes there is a double death, the first is salvageable or has a remedy, but the second is definitive.
(Requiem for a Dream, Beyond Dreams, Ghost, The Fisher King…)
All these are considered “The Universal Arguments” elaborated not by me but by Jordi Batlló and Xavier Perez, and you have the link below in case you are interested in the book and want to take a closer look at it (I am afraid it is in Spanish, though). If you think there is another type of argument, tell me, although often the arguments do not stick to one but are a mixture of several.
LINK: https://www.amazon.com/semilla-inmortal-argumentos-universales-cine/dp/8433905481