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Activity 5: Act 3

Diagram of "Act 3":
  1. Until finally...
  2. And ever since then...
The moral of the story is...
Part A: Identify Act 3 in each of your three favorite films.
  • What was the crisis?
  • How is it resolved?
  • How does the main character demonstrate that they learned what they needed?
  • What was the theme or moral?
  • Was the character arc emotionally satisfying? Why or why not?
An illustration of a man who is thinking in front of a wall of storyboards.
Part B: Now develop the information you want to present in Act 3 of your own film.
  • What is the crisis?
  • How could it be resolved?
  • How will the main character demonstrate that they learned what they needed?
  • What is the theme or moral?
  • Do you think the audience will find the ending emotionally satisfying? Why?

Want to join the conversation?

  • leafers seedling style avatar for user Sirel Philhower
    Will a movie still be widely appealing if instead of normal poetic justice being served, the villain actually has a victory, despite being defeated?

    I love, love, LOVE the idea of a villain who's ideology is actually something like "Treat all of us equal" or something similar so that he isn't a true "bad guy" rather, a guy trying to achieve good through evil methods.

    But, if the villain does in a way win, will the ending be less satisfying?
    (65 votes)
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    • blobby green style avatar for user buttt5274
      Just look at stuff like Game of thrones, Avengers Infinity war, or death note. They have very interesting perspectives when it comes to protagonists/antagonists. For example, in death note, I was always rooting for one person to win but then i realized that others were rooting for the opposite side.
      (23 votes)
  • primosaur sapling style avatar for user Rowen Adams
    until finally for 100 years i completed my homework and ever since then i kept on getting more and more the moral of the story is that you will never escape your nightmare
    (16 votes)
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  • starky sapling style avatar for user Reed
    star wars episode 9 when the resistence learns that palpatine was still alive and now they have the first order and palpatine to worry about until the end of the movie where palpatine jumps of the side of a star destroyer I think, thus killing palpatine {disney killed off my favorite starwars characters, shut down the original club penguin,AND they shut down club penguin island,WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM DISNEY SERIOUSLY!
    (13 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Jamie Cortes
    Disney descendants:
    -The children are going to a royal prep school
    -They can just go and see if they like it
    - The main character is Mal and well she demonstrates that not all villans stay bad forever and like what she needed was to just be free
    -You don't have to be what your parents want.
    -They will find it emotional because Mal is standing up to her mother and turning her back to her old self, to have true love
    Moana:
    - Moana wants to go beyond the reef
    - For her parents to trust her and let her do what she has always wanted to do
    -Moana will demonstrate but returning the tefiti necklace back where it belongs to stop the darkness from spreading
    -When you try you can actually achieve something
    -It will be emotional because Moana stops the darkness and its time for Maui to soar the skies again
    (9 votes)
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  • starky ultimate style avatar for user mud
    In the story I'm writing, there's a point where the character's favorite person,( a lady named Mrs. Jordan, who is a freind of her aunt's) who she looks up to, is walking down the street in New Orleans with her to the bus stop.
    The main character notices that one of the cars on the highway is zooming all around, but she doesn't think much of it.
    Next thing she knows, she hears Mrs. Jordan yelling and feels someone grab her by the waist. She hears a sickening crunch. Then she blacks out.
    When she wakes up, she is in the Ochsner Baptist hospital, on Napoleon Avenue. Apparently, Mrs. Jordan had gotten her out of the way just in time. They were both hit, but Mrs. Jordan acted as a buffer, saving the main character's life.
    But now Mrs. Jordan is dead.
    Would this be act 2 or 3?
    (8 votes)
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  • aqualine seedling style avatar for user Nilam Zygmunt
    Part A
    Aladdin
    -crisis: Jafar becomes the world's most powerful sorcerer
    -resolving: Aladdin tricks Jafar and tells truth to Jasmine
    -Aladdin decides to keep his promise and frees the Genie
    -you should always be yourself
    -it was emotionally satysfying because Aladdin learned his lesson
    Harry Potter
    -crisis: no one believes that the school is in danger
    -resolving: Harry takes his friends and they go on their own
    -letting friends go with him
    -love and friendship are important
    -yes because Harry passed "the test"
    Thor Ragnarok
    -crisis: Hela is too strong
    -resolving: Ragnarok is not to be prevented but created
    -Thor is ready to destroy Asgard, become a king, forgive Loki
    -Thor is a god of thunder not hammmers
    -Yes because Thor and Loki reconciled

    Part B
    -crisis: getting caught
    -resolving: escaping
    -they manage to resign themselves to their fate
    -friendship is important
    -yes because the ending is moving
    (8 votes)
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  • starky seedling style avatar for user jayda  burton
    Life is a jumbled up mixture of experiences. It's like someone made a really long movie with a bunch of different scenes, most of which are irrelevant to any kind of meaning (I.e. the many scenes where you use the toilet or the scenes where you're on your morning commute to work.).
    We can turn life into a story, but only by cutting out everything that isn't pertinent to the message you want to convey. That's the thing about stories, every moment of them is supposed to matter and serve an underlying message and theme.
    Your life doesn't naturally have an underlying message or theme - until you choose to give it one.
    (6 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user justin.ali7
    In BTTF 1, the crisis was that George needs to fall in love with Lorraine or else Marty would disappear from existence. It is fixed when Marty comes up with a plan to have George "rescue" Lorraine from Biff. This makes Lorraine fall in love with George. Marty preforms with the band during the dance and after the performance, Marty goes to the clock tower during a storm. With Doc's help. Marty uses the electricity from the lightning to go back home. George Mcfly becomes a successful writer and Lorraine becomes skinny and beautiful. Marty and his girlfriend lived happily ever after.... until Doc shows up in the Delorean, taking them to the year 2015 where their kids are in trouble.

    In my own story, Chase realises that in order to restore the multiverse and to save every one of his friends, he needs to destroy Xohia. Chase summons the mech that he spent the majority of the second act trying to assemble (he was looking for parts). A battle between the mech and Xohia commences. Both are evenly matched. An emotionally fueled Chase manages to cut a hole leading to Xohia's heart. Chase sets the mech on auto-combat and enters the heart. Chase is ready to take out the thing that vaporised his friends, the thing that made him spend most of his time alone. After the battle, the multiverse goes back to normal. Chase is returned home. His old friends return. Chase embraces them with tears of joy in his eye, telling them all about what happened. The audience will find it emotional because they know how important Chase's friends mean to him.
    (6 votes)
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  • boggle yellow style avatar for user » elle «
    So this might sound weird, but I'm thinking about writing a story with what I want to be a distinctly dissatisfying ending. (It's about WW2) Does that mean that I'm doing something wrong?
    (4 votes)
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    • male robot donald style avatar for user Tybalt
      No, not all stories have to end on a happy ending. Of Mice and Men is a perfect example of this (Other examples: Things Fall Apart, the Titanic movie, Dinosaurs sitcom). When you are doing a historic story, it might actually be better to portray these things because history was not always sunshine and rainbows.
      (4 votes)
  • leafers ultimate style avatar for user Jacob Martin
    In act 3 in Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2. Chloe, papi , and Degadgo need to save the puppies from robbers.
    (4 votes)
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