The film I chose to apply the 3-Act Hollywood structure is the 2007 horror film, "1408", which is based off the short story "1408" written by Stephen King and stars John Cusack.
The first act of the film commences with a scene in which we are introduced to the protagonist of the film, Michael "Mike" Enslin (played by Cusack), as he is driving through torrential rain to a haunted inn. He investigates the reportedly haunted room of the inn using scientific devices like a spectrometer and electro-magnetic field detector and finds no paranormal activity in the inn. As the scene progresses, viewers learn what Michael Enslin does for a living, and we see his personality take form. He's a very skeptical occult writer who travels to haunted locations around the country to debunk or otherwise witness any evidence of paranormal activity. We see that he has a very cynical outlook on life, though we do not figure out why until later in the film, and he is very stubborn and self-absorbed in his work. When he checks his mail one day, he finds that he has received a postcard from the Dolphin Hotel in New York City warning him not to enter Room 1408. Considering the warning to be "cute," Mike decides to travel to NYC, where we find out that he has some unfinished business,to stay in Room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel. Despite the dark history of the room and the warnings and bribes from general manager, Gerald Olin (played by Samuel L. jackson), Mike insists on staying in the room. The first act peaks about 28 minutes into the film, when Mike is left to his own devices to fare alone with whatever lies in 1408, and viewers are left to wonder what really inhabits Room 1408 and how Mike will handle it, whatever IT is.
The next act of the film, which lasts roughly 55 minutes, shows just what kind of evil inhabits Room 1408. As things become complicated, we see Mike try to rationalize all the events that happen in the room and write them off, but as things get progressively worse, he begins to realize just what he has gotten himself in to. Trapped in the room with no way out whatsoever, Mike tries at every attempt to reach someone outside the room that can help him. When yelling out the window, knocking on the walls, and calling on the phone for help all prove futile attempts, Mike takes out his laptop and turns on his Yahoo! messenger account, reaching out to his wife, Lily (played by Mary McCormack), whom he hasn't spoken to since the death of their daughter a year before, in a desperate cry for help. before he has the chance to explain the situation, the sprinklers in the room are set off, destroying his laptop hard drive. With nothing to do but wait it out as the Mr. Olin's warning, "Nobody lasts more than an hour," starts to become more of a reality with each passing second. But when it seems like Mike might lose the fight with 1408, he comes to, and he is lying on his back on the California beach just as he had earlier in the movie after a surfing accident, indicating that everything that had happened in the room was all a dream. At this point, the viewers are left to wonder what will happen next. If Mike's whole experience in Room 1408 isn't real, what does that mean for the remainder of the movie? Or IS it all real? Hmm...
The third and final act of the movie lasts about 25 minutes, though it depends on which version of the film you are watching, since there are multiple endings to the film. In the theatrical version, after thinking that he is rid of Room 1408, he discovers that he never actually left the room, and all the time he thought he was out, it was just the room playing with his mind. In this act we see the climax occur about 10 minutes from the end of the film. Mike decides to end the evil reign of 1408 forever by setting the room on fire, because if nothing else in the room is real, fire must surely be real. This climax leads to the resolution for the film, because Mike's decision to set fire to Room 1408 made it so that no one else would ever have to lose their lives to such evil. Different endings involve what happens if Mike makes it out of the room alive and others show what happens when Mike dies in the fire, but either way, the decision is a chief point in resolving the complication of the film.
1408 Trailer
Happy Halloween! 3:-)
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