Collateral: PSR Quad validation!

[mlucas]

Something awesome happened when I watched Collateral last night. (first time seeing it, awesome film!)

A bit past the halfway point of the film, there was a scene where I totally saw the whole quad of Delay/Choice/Preconception/Openness, clear as day, as part of Vincent (Tom Cruise)'s impact. I actually paused the film at that point and made a note to myself to check later if IC Signpost 3 had that quad for PSR variations.

After watching, Domains/Concerns (my assignment from Jim) were super easy so I decided to try for the whole storyform. It was a bit tricky when I was focusing on the Issues, but once I realized the Problem was Avoid it came together. I checked the Dramatica site and I got the storyform right!!

Then I checked the PSR, crossed my fingers, and there it was:

THE IMPACT CHARACTER THROUGHLINE
…
Act three … is explored in terms of Preconception, Openness, Delay, and Choice.

(I left out the signpost type in case others need to watch this film for one of Jim’s mentoring assignments)

Pretty amazing – great validation that the PSR was accurately reflected for that part of the film, since I noted it before knowing what the storyform was, let alone the PSR. Almost scientific, in an n=1 way!

Note I realize that a quad from the PSR won’t usually be explored all in a single scene, but I think that scene might have been a kind of ‘preview’ of the impact that would be felt from Vincent through Act 3.

[jhull]

Woah! That’s incredible…what scene was it?

[mlucas]

It was the one in the cab.

Just kidding, half the movie is in the cab! It was when they’re in the cab just outside the nightclub where the badguy that hired Vincent (Felix?) is, and Vincent tells Max he has to go in and get a copy of the “hit list” data. Paraphrasing:

1. Max keeps repeating “I can’t do this … I can’t” (Preconception)
2. Vincent tells him something like “sure you can, you just threw my PC onto the freeway” (Openness)
3. Max brings up the ramifications of his choice “if I do this it’ll get other people killed” and Vincent tells him he’s out of options, and something to the effect of “if it helps, remember you didn’t have a choice” (Choice)
4. Vincent still hesitates, asking useless questions (this is also his Response of Reconsider I think, he can’t make up his mind). Then Vincent tells him to “quit stalling and get out of the cab!” (Delay)

Of the four, the least clear from the dialog is Openness, but for the whole film Vincent is like an Openness machine, his impact in that area pointed squarely at Max, so it doesn’t take much for that to come across.

[MWollaeger]

Cool!

(Post must be at least…)

[jhull]

That is stunning. What a great find! Must post about it, must post about it…