 |
| Figure 1: Now You See Me [Poster] (2013) |
Now You See Me (2013) is a Mystery/Crime film based around four magicians running a stage show who pull of bank heists during their performances. The illusionists then raise a cause for alarm by pulling off legitimate crimes in front of hundreds of witnesses, without a single explanation left in anybody's head other than: 'magic'. This sends the FBI into a frenzy, desperately trying to track down the Four Horsemen (the magicians' stage name) in attempt to arrest them with proof of their crimes; this proves to be a lot more difficult than anybody previously believed. The audience and FBI are then left with the truth: the closer you look, the less you see.
Syd Field suggested that the three-act structure consisted of: The Setup, introducing the incident to lead to obstacles (25 minutes), The Confrontation, the obstacles that need to be overcome (50 minutes) and The Resolution, the confrontation is complete and the plot is drawn back together and everything is resolved (25 minutes).
Gustav Freytag suggested that a five-act structure consisted of: The Exposition/Inciting incident, a prologue, where characters and settings are introduced to the audience, The Rising Action, where the tension begins to build and obstacles arise, The Climax, the height of the tension when the major conflict is faced, Falling Action, when the final conflict unravels and loose ends of the plot are tied up and finally the Denouement, where the story is finally concluded.
Within Now You See Me, the setup of the film takes place when we meet the characters one by one within the type of (setting) work environment they do their business in, each one being quite different from the last, but with the exploitation of the audience in each character's setting. After we meet each character in their own scenes, they all receive a different card of 'the eye', this is what draws them all to meet. When they meet, the four are given the blueprints to a show called the Four Horsemen. This is when the scene flashes to the future when they are running the show, this is where the setup stops and the confrontation begins. This could also be the inciting incident, that we see in the five-act structure, where the plot is finally put into motion.
The next stage is the confrontation, this is where the obstacles come in. The Four Horsemen rob a bank while performing to a Las Vegas audience, this results in the Horsemen running away from the FBI, upon attempts to arrest them, but with no evidence to justify an arrest. This is where the first plot point happens, as this FBI chase becomes the Horsemens central problem. The Horsemen need to continue running from the FBI and performing shows that please the audience in while committing crimes in ways without ever getting caught. This can also fall into the rising action, as seen in five-act structure, within the film because this is when the tension really starts to build up around the plot and gets the audience on edge about what will happen next.
This would then lead to the climax, the height of the tension within Now You See Me. The magicians are on the top of their game, impossible to find let alone arrest. They are heading into their third show by this time; their biggest show yet, their finale. Before this, they arrange an elaborate plan against the FBI to make them believe that one of the Horsemen is killed while on the run. But this was a distraction from the real plan, stealing one last vault. The three 'remaining' Horsemen then go on to perform a final show, leading the FBI in the wrong direction- reminding the audience to stop looking so closely. This part of the film is arguably the longest part, working to really exceed the tension that was built- making this show the best one that they put on, and the most confusing as to how they did it.
According to the three-act structure, the film would be at the resolution after the Horsemen's final show. As this is when the film starts to end and everything is made clear. The Horsemen then end up going to find 'the eye' after escaping being caught for the third time. However, the five-act structure can argue that there is then the: Falling action.
The Falling Action would be when the final conflict unravels, in Now You See Me, this is when Thaddeus is imprisoned and finally figures out how the Horsemen did everything, including framing him and why they framed him. This was one of the plot points of the film, Thaddeus was exposing them for how they did things to the FBI and making DVDs to ruin the magic. So the Horsemen got him back. He realises all of this while talking to the FBI agent on the case, who then ends up to be a magician within 'the eye'. This concludes all of the missing pieces of the story and allows everything to make sense to the audience, tying off all loose ends that we didn't quite understand.
This leads onto the Denouement. This is the final outcome of the film, it can be argued that the reveal of the FBI agent (Dylan) being a magician who is part of the eye is a third act twist, linked to earlier parts of the plot and tying off what didn't always make sense before.
This then leads into the resolution. The film concludes with the Four Horsemen meeting with the FBI agent who chased them all the way through the film, unable to beat them in his own game introducing them into the eye. They managed to earn their way in through outsmarting him, and this is how Now You See Me concludes. But we don't see what they do after, so there is an open ending (and a second movie).
In conclusion, Now You See Me can fit into both structures, five-act and three-act. But I think it fits better into a five-act structure because there are so many smaller plot points going on throughout. There are a few mini-plots around each character, which adds a little more confusion when trying to place the entire film under an act structure- and there are also flashbacks to and from the performances by the magicians to allow the audience to make some sense of it. So Now You See Me is a fairly advanced film in terms of structure and being generally a little confusing anyway. But I would conclude that it can fit nicely into a five-act structure.
Figure 1: Now You See Me [Poster] (2013)- Available: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1670345/mediaviewer/rm1351393536
0 Comments