Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

Nonfiction | Reference/Text Book | Adult | Published in 2005

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 2

Chapters 3-5

Chapters 6-8

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 6-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 6 Summary: “The Immutable Laws of Screenplay Physics”

Snyder describes the rules he discovered in the process of viewing movies and writing screenplays. The first, “Save the Cat,” is amended from its description in the Introduction to being an action that gets the “audience ‘in sync’ with the plight of the hero” (121). The author gives the example of Pulp Fiction, where the audience sees the hitmen (anti-heroes) as funny and even somewhat “childlike” (121) before they start killing people. In order to make an anti-hero likeable, Snyder suggests making the villain even worse. Disney’s Aladdin provides an example of a “Save the Cat” scene with an anti-hero when Aladdin, a somewhat unlikeable thief in the original source material, steals food only to end up giving it to some hungry children. Snyder emphasizes that the heroes don’t need to be good people, but the audience needs a reason to care about them in order to care about what happens to them.

“The Pope in the Pool” is named after a scene in a script titled The Plot to Kill the Pope, wherein a meeting takes place in the Vatican pool area while the pontiff swims laps (124). This trick allows the writer to insert exposition (background information necessary for understanding the situation) without it becoming a boring lull in the story. Situating the exchange of information during something else that’s happening holds the audience’s attention.

“Double Mumbo Jumbo” is Snyder’s term for not putting two pieces of magic in the same movie. He provides two examples: Spider-Man, where both Peter Parker and the Willem Dafoe character receive different magic powers from two separate sources (a radioactive spider and a lab accident, respectively); and Signs, where the alien invasion of Earth competes with the hero’s crisis of religious faith (126-127).

“Laying Pipe” is the term for setting up the premise. If it takes too long, the writers risk losing the audience’s interest. Snyder cites Minority Report as an offender because it takes 40 minutes to get into the action and the hook of the story (129). Per the BS2, the set-up should conclude around the 25-minute mark.

“Black Vet a.k.a. Too Much Marzipan” is a rule about too many ideas heaped on one premise. The name of the rule comes from a Saturday Night Live sketch about a TV show where the hero is a veteran and a veterinarian. Snyder refers to his own experience pitching a show called Lefty where the hero was going to be a politically left-leaning ex-boxer who is left-handed. His idea is another example of violating the “Too Much Marzipan” rule, in which a good idea gets buried by too many other concepts (131-132).

“Watch Out for That Glacier!” is the rule regarding pacing of the danger. While volcanoes may eventually erupt, and slow-spreading viruses may be deadly, in contrast to a looming glacier, such scenarios do not lend a sense of an imminent threat.

“The Covenant of the Arc” governs character arc. Snyder puts it simply: “Every single character in your movie must change in the course of your story. The only characters who don’t change are the bad guys” (134). Demonstrating change in the important characters shows that a story is important, at least for the characters. Flat scripts may lack this component.

Snyder learned the rule called “Keep the Press Out!” from Steven Spielberg. Bringing the media into the scenario of the film (unless the film is about the media) may break “the fourth wall,” that is, the separation between actors and audiences. Breaking this rule, in turn, may make the characters’ situation “less desperate” (138), as introducing the media means either that other people are going through the same thing or that the world outside the characters’ lives is aware of the situation and could intervene to help them.

Chapter 7 Summary: “What’s Wrong With This Picture?”

This chapter addresses problems in a finished screenplay. The first problem one may encounter is an “inactive lead” (145). The hero needs motivation and agency and cannot just be pulled through the journey by the actions of others. If the character is too passive, then they may not actually be the hero. The checklist of making sure the lead is correct consists of making their goal clearly stated in the set-up, making the hero work for what comes next, making them active instead of passive, and making the hero be the person the other characters go to for answers.

The second problem is “Talking the Plot,” which is when writers use dialogue in an artificial way to provide the set-up or exposition. Dialogue should have more subtext than explanation, akin to the famous writing rule of “[s]how, don’t tell” (147). Snyder reminds readers that movies can convey ideas through images instead of words, so the dialogue should be used for character development and furthering the story. Related to this issue is flat dialogue that says nothing about the characters or having characters all sound the same. The advice is to cover the names of the speakers and see if you can identify which character says the line. If not, more nuance needs to be added to their dialogue.

Related to the development of the hero is the idea of making the villains as bad as possible. A hero without an appropriate challenge is not very interesting. Sometimes writers like their characters so much that they protect them from danger, which prevents the heroes from growing or changing. Snyder cites James Bond’s villains as a good match for the hero, instead of “an evil accountant who was juggling the books down at the local bank” (149).

“Turn, Turn, Turn” is a reminder Snyder put on his desk to remind him that it is “not enough for the plot to go forward, it must go forward faster, and with more complexity” (150). The stakes must increase as the plot progresses, and the pace of the action should increase in the latter half of the movie.

Snyder also points out that even movies labeled “comedy” or “drama” have more than one emotional note in them. Viewers should go on an emotional journey, vicariously feeling fear, frustration, and yearning, among other feelings. To fix an emotionally flat script, writers can color code the cards on their BS2 board and see how scenes can be played out for a different emotional effect.

The advice to “Take a Step Back” pertains to the progress of a hero on their journey. If the character is too evolved and complete, there is nowhere for them to go, arc-wise. Taking the character back a step in their emotional evolution can allow the audience not only to understand where the character is coming from but also to root for that character on their path.

Minor characters need to stand out from one another. Giving each one some distinguishing characteristic, what Snyder calls “A Limp and an Eyepatch” (157), can help secondary characters stick in viewers’ memories. The final piece of advice is the repeated directive to make it “primal” (159-160). Even minor characters should have primal motivations.

Chapter 8 Summary: “Final Fade-In”

Snyder shares some insight into the business of screenwriting. He suggests that people think of their screenplays as a “business plan” when it comes time to try to sell them (164). He shares two stories of how he got an agent. The first time, when one of his shows would be airing on Public Access TV, he sent out fliers advertising the show to a neighborhood where producers lived. The second time, a friend of his girlfriend’s became an agent and signed him as a client. However, as those methods won’t work for every screenwriter, Snyder sets out a hierarchy of ways to contact an agent, from in person to phone calls to query letters to email.

He recommends accepting an offer, even if it is not much money, from any legitimate entity that is interested in one’s screenplay because having one project in the works makes the second project look more promising to future producers (170). Would-be screenwriters need to make personal connections via networking at film festivals, classes, or screenwriting groups. Becoming a movie reviewer or having your own website are possible other paths. He points out that the movie-making industry is centered in Los Angeles, so moving to California may be a vital step for someone who is serious about the business. Snyder does not recommend entering screenplay contests (unless there are high-profile professionals involved) or using gimmicks to get attention. Snyder does, however, go on to describe marketing ploys that mostly succeeded.

He ends the book with the mantra he and his writing partner Colby Carr would say when sending out a script: “It is what it is” (179). This manta reminds them that if they have done their best, the rest is up to fate.

Chapters 6-8 Analysis

Snyder closes out his instructions with two chapters on rules of successful screenwriting and one chapter on networking and the business side of screenwriting. He claims that the rules are the fun part of the guidance for him: “To get to the good part, I had to explain the screenwriting process, from idea to execution, in order for anyone to understand what I was talking about” (120). Part of the reason the rules are the “dessert part” of the book for him may be that the sections on loglines, story categories, beats, and the board are not originally his ideas (120). Loglines and story boards have been used in the movie industry for decades, and the stages of the BS2 can be traced to Joseph Campbell’s stages of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, as well as other teachers of screenwriting who inspired Snyder.

The “laws” of screenplays and the troubleshooting section may strike the reader as very similar. Both chapters contain principles of what to do and what to avoid, as well as some more specific issues. For instance, the admonition to keep the media out of the story seems to apply to certain types of stories, particularly ones with a supernatural or otherworldly element occurring in the ordinary world. It is too isolated a situation, perhaps, to be included as an “immutable law.” Dealing with exposition is the core of both “Pope in the Pool” and “Laying Pipe,” though the latter stretches into the category of the set-up in Act 1 instead of merely background information. The “Black Vet/Too Much Marzipan” law and “Double Mumbo Jumbo” are also similar with regard to putting too many ideas into one story, though the latter is specifically for magic or supernatural concepts. Clearly, coming up with colorful names for writing advice was entertaining for the author.

The troubleshooting chapter also features concepts that could be grouped together. “Talking the Plot” and “Hi How Are You I’m Fine” (53) both deal with ineffective dialogue. Within this chapter lies one of the main themes that Snyder hits on throughout the book: Making It Primal, “it” referring to both the premise and the protagonist’s motivations. The placement of this theme as the last tip in the final instructional chapter is not due to its insignificance so much as its usefulness as a reminder of the concept that Snyder brings up in earlier chapters: The stakes for the hero must be significant, and significance resides in the basic needs and desires of life. It is in these two chapters that the author signals his disgruntlement with some trends in Hollywood movie-making: action flicks with lots of action but no arc or emotional progress, which he calls “kinetic eye candy with no forward motion” (151), and films that ask the audience to suspend too much disbelief, “moronic creativity” (127).

Snyder’s narrow perception of his target readers is important in considering the advice of the book. Throughout Save the Cat!, the author addresses the reader as a fellow screenwriter, whom he calls a “bullhead” (11) in an early chapter. His imagined interlocutor throughout these lessons is someone committed to the art of writing screenplays and who may take themselves or their craft too seriously. Snyder assumes they will bristle at rules, laws, and structures being imposed on their art. He defends his thesis against these imagined screenwriters by bringing in the business side and focusing on what sells, trumpeting the importance of Box Office Success Versus Art, as well as saying that one cannot effectively break the rules without knowing what they are. As Snyder puts it, “Before Picasso could dabble in Cubism, he had to become a master of basic drawing. It gave him credibility and authority” (120).

Snyder’s take on what leads to success in Hollywood—at least prior to 2005, when the book was published—may rub some readers the wrong way because the author does not promise an easy path, even if one follows all the rules in the book. For example, he states, “L.A. is where the business is, so what are you doing living in Dubuque?” (172). Nor does he guarantee success, as evidenced by his final message of “It is what it is” (180). Art and entertainment are subjective fields with many pitfalls that can catch a person, especially a newcomer, off-guard: “The powers-that-be can take away a lot of things. They can buy your script and fire you, or rewrite it into oblivion, but they can’t take away your ability to get up off the mat and come back swinging” (180). The book thus ends with an exhortation to keep doing the good work, no matter what.