Inciting Event: Rising movie star Bo Laramie has his first major run-in with his main paparazzi antagonistic Rex Harper when he catches Rex shooting pictures at his son’s soccer game. Bo confronts Rex and politely but firmly asks him to stop. Rex initially agrees, then starts taking more pictures in order to bait Bo into punching him—so his three pals can photograph that too. This is an interesting Call to Adventure, since Bo is essentially the one initiating it. The Call to Adventure/Inciting Event is not where the protagonist fully engages with the conflict. This is where he first brushes with the conflict and refuses the Call. Here, Bo doesn’t so much “refuse” the Call as try to avoid the conflict by trying to amicably settle his problems with Rex—which works just fine structurally.
First Plot Point: Rex and his pals follow Bo’s car in order to ambush him and take more pictures of him and his family. As a result, Bo’s car crashes, his wife is injured, and his son ends up in a coma. This is the point of no return. Although Bo thoroughly hated Rex and Co. prior to this, he was still in “avoidance mode” up to this point. He was trying to control his anger about the situation and play it as cool as possible. But after this, there’s no going back. As he says, “You don’t mess with a man’s family.”
First Pinch Point: One of Rex’s partners follows Bo and accidentally wrecks his own motorcycle. The man hangs over a cliff. At first, Bo tries to save him—then, reflexively, lets him slip to his death. Although it doesn’t play out strongly, this story is, in many ways, set up as a negative change arc—as good-guy Bo goes into full-blown revenge mode and starts tracking down and killing the paparazzi. As such, he is, essentially, his own greatest antagonist. So it’s fitting that the First Pinch Point should be a turning point that emphasizes his destructive power. However, it’s also backed up with a scene in which the investigating detective finds Bo’s pen on the scene of the crime and starts suspecting him.
Midpoint: This time, Bo deliberately plots to kill one of Rex’s partners. He plants a movie-prop gun in the man’s car, then calls the cops on him. The man unwittingly draws the gun on the cops, and they shoot him while Bo watches. This is a full-blown shift from reaction to action on Bo’s part. The first death was reactive on his part: he didn’t intend to kill the man; it just happened. But this death is squarely on his shoulders.
Second Pinch Point: Rex and his remaining partner Wendall realize Bo is going to hunt them down too. They decide to try to protect themselves by bugging Bo’s house. They break in and set up their tiny cameras, only to be interrupted by Bo’s wife, who they didn’t realize was still home. Wendall attacks her and tells her he’ll kill her son if she tells the cops. This is nice emphasis of the antagonist’s threat, while still showing them scrambling back on their heels as a result of the actions the protagonist has been taking.
Third Plot Point: Bo evades the police who are staking out his house (ostensibly for protection) and kills Wendall with a baseball bat. Once again, death marks the Third Plot Point! This doesn’t present a tremendous emotional low, but it is a low point for Bo as he finally succumbs to first-degree murder.
Climax: After breaking into Wendall’s house and realizing he’s been murdered, Rex discovers Bo has planted the murder weapon in Rex’s house, effectively framing him. Rex then breaks into Bo’s house—only to find that Bo is waiting for him.
Climactic Moment: After beating up Rex and taunting him, Bo allows the detective to arrest Rex. The detective appears to realize the truth about what Bo has done, but he doesn’t press charges—apparently because he believes Bo was justified in his actions. At this point, there is no tension left in the story. The conflict is officially over. The main antagonist Rex has been eliminated as a threat to Bo and his family, and the detective removes himself as a threat by deciding not to arrest Bo.
Resolution: Bo’s comatose son wakes up. Months later, he and his family attend another movie premiere, where he deftly handles the paparazzi who try to bully him—proving how he has changed from the overwhelmed young star he was at the premiere in the opening scene.
