I know of a former script coordinator who'd be a shoo in.

FAVORITE OVERLY COMPLICATED PLOT
Dead Reckoning

What does The Entity do again? And who the heck is Gabriel to it? Don’t know, don’t care, movie was a blast!

HM: M:I I’ve watched the first film at least 40 times and I think I almost understand most of it!

So… what are your franchise faves?

9/fin

FAVORITE NEW CHARACTER
Ghost Protocol

Hello, Jeremy Renner and your beautiful, tortured backstory.

HM: MI III, who can even imagine Benji wasn’t in 2 of the movies? An essential addition, but it was the later movies that made even better use of Simon Pegg.

8/n

FAVORITE CHARACTER CALLBACK
Fallout

I’m living for that Michelle Monaghan emotional wrap up.

Nice try: Fallout’s the White Widow. Bring back Max, you cowards!!

7/n

FAVORITE MCGUFFIN
Mission: Impossible III

The Rabbit’s Foot, a weapon with the power to… eh, I’ll tell you tomorrow. — Peak J.J Abrams!

HM: Fallout. You can never go wrong with a nuke!

6/n

FAVORITE MASK REVEAL
Mission: Impossible 2

Samp brings a gagged Ethan to Ambrose who kills him… only to realize Ethan is really Samp and Samp is Ethan! (This movie also gets award for MOST masks—woo boy!)

HM: Rogue Nation, Ethan as head of MI6 fools both Prime Minister & Alec Baldwin.

5/n

FAVORITE VILLAIN
Mission: Impossible III

Phillip Seymour Hoffman nailed the twisted, sadistic Davian so well.

Honorable mention: The spicy tuna hand roll that chased Ethan’s motorcycle in Fallout (I can not take credit for this joke, it was a tweet I saw years ago andlives free in my brain)

4/n

FAVORITE ACTION SEQUENCE
Dead Reconing

The falling train cars!! Brilliant use of repetition to escalate the stakes, I wish that train had 200 cars!

Honorable mention: Rogue Nation’s opening — Ethan’s not in the plane? He’s on the plane!

3/n

FAVORITE HEIST SEQUENCE
Mission: Impossible

Gotta go OG on this with stealing the NOC list from CIA HQ. It created such a fun template often imitated (I’m looking at you, Charlie’s Angels), rarely matched.

Honorable mention: Rogue Nation’s liquid cooled data vault.

2/n

Or 3 days of picking the *perfect* font on the title page, for me!

When it comes to my screenwriting advice, I'm simply trying to help writers avoid that confusion.

Because there are tradeoffs to breaking "rules," and in my opinion, if you're going to break a rule, it's better that it be a choice than an accident.

#scriptsky

4/4

If I take a bowling ball, put it on a pedestal, and call it a "painting," who's to say I'm wrong? (Certainly not Marcel Duchamp!)

But if I put that bowling ball in a gallery that sells paintings, I should not be confused if nobody wants to buy it.

3/n

Now, "rules" can be broken (especially in art!), but it's to an artist's detriment if they don't understand that's what they're doing.

For example, the "rules" of a painting are that it's made of paint on a 2D surface.

2/n

Hey Newt, I appreciate the engagement (and intro to the Mumblecore movement!). Here's where I'm coming from when I give screenwriting advice :

I think we'd both agree that art should have no limits. But every type of art has certain cultural and societal expectations — let's call them "rules."

1/n

If you enjoyed my TED Talk, I post a new screenwriting tip every week and really appreciate the likes, replies, reposts, and follows that help spread the word!

#Scriptsky

INDECISIVE and RELUCTANT characters make for weak protagonists.

So write a character who WANTS something with the same fiery passion you want your reader to feel about entering a bidding war for the rights to your script!

🧵9/9