Looking ahead to Act III: The Castle

As we head into the third quarter of your book or script: Act II: Part 2, I want to look ahead to the FINAL BATTLE of Act III — because it needs to be in the back of your mind as your endpoint!

You could call all of Act III: STORMING THE CASTLE.

This very Hollywood phrase comes from the movie which in some ways is the Ur movie of American cinema, the ultimate textbook film, referred to visually and structurally in hundreds (thousands) of movies and TV shows since its release in 1939.

We’re talking about that deceptively simple classic, The Wizard of Oz.

In The Wizard of Oz, of course, Dorothy’s Team, led by Toto, confronts a literal castle— the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West—and develops a desperate PLAN to rescue Dorothy from the witch’s clutches. They fight some guards, don their uniforms, and march over the drawbridge.

But The Wizard of Oz is also a profoundly metaphorical film, and the Castle is a deeply useful metaphor for the Final Battle of any story.

• Full breakdown of the The Wizard of Oz in Stealing Hollywood .

In Act I, your protagonist’s ORDINARY WORLD reflects a lot of their character. In the same way:

The Castle is a reflection of the Villain or Antagonist’s character.