the ryan king

My thoughts on National Treasure….

and every other Bruckheimer film….

and many other action/adventure movies…

(beware- spoilers follow, not that I need to tell you what happens in this film)

So when my mom decided to bail out on my dad and I the other night, we decided to go to see a movie. Since it was just us, we decided to go see a guy movie- something Mom probably wouldn’t want to see. Our best option, schedule-wise was National Treasure.

Now, I’ll say this up front: I’m not a fan of Nicolas Cage or Jerry Bruckheimer.

The movie was entertaining, yet predictable. There was plenty of action, some romance, a mystery and a hero. However the movie followed a very familiar plotline:

1. The Myth– the story starts with Benjamin Gates’ (Cage) grandfather telling him about a enormous treasure which has been in existence since the days of King Solomon. The story followed the 5 rules:
   1. It had a long history
   2. It involved characters recognizable by most audience members
   3. It would prove inspire to our story’s protagonist to begin a journey of epic proportions
   4. It almost sounds too good to be true
   5. But its wacky enough that most will not believe it (and go on the adventure and find the treasure before our protagonist)

   Of course only our hero understands and believes the myth.

2. The Breakthrough– we join the protagonist in the early stages of the adventure. In this part of the film we see him make a critical breakthrough which had stumped the previous attempts at this treasure. Chances are this is where the protagonists’ father got stuck, gave up and settled down. Sometimes, at this point, there is a breakup in the posse of the protagonist, which spawns our antagonist.
3. The obstacle– the Breakthrough inevitably leads the hero to an obstacle which seems in surmountable. In this case, it is stealing the Declaration of Independence .
4. The Chase– now that our hero has broken through the Obstacle and probably has someone chasing him (who may have previously been a part of his posse) he must hurry.
5. The Decision – at some point our hero must make a decision between the treasure and something more meaningful like love, family, patriotism or some other transcendent purpose (or maybe all of the above!).
6. The Acceptance– because he is forced to make ‘the Decision’ and our protagonist is a hero, he chooses against the treasure. There is a moment here where he comes to accept that, though the journey seems like a waste, something deeper has happened. He’s ok with this and with the likelihood of the antagonist winning.
7. The Bonus– Well, it turns out that things aren’t as bad as were though. There was a neglected clue which now leads the protagonist to find the treasure.
8. The Wrap-up– The hero finds the treasure, he already has the deeper fulfillment, he gets revenge on the antagonist and, oh yeah, he gets the girl too. Somewhere along the story, he picked up a girl for the adventure. At first she thought he was crazy, but felt compelled to go along. Then she realizes that she’s involved and might as well contribute. Then she realizes she’s in love with the hero (or, at least, wants to sleep with him).
9. And they all live happily ever after. At least until the bad guy gets out of jail and seeks to obtain some vengeance in the sequel.

Other miscellaneous rules:

1. There’s always a girl
2. Her loyalty is usually questioned
3. The door is always left open for a sequel

Of course, Team American: World Police does a much better job at this analysis than I do. :-)

I just overheard someone talking about a podcast. It was a little eery. Of course I am in the Bay Area and it was the Bay-Area-based Super Smart Radio Whore Show, but still this is a milestone in my mind since podcasting is yet only a few months old.

A few articles on brewing beer. Also a website and a a couple of books.

This is for my own future reference. I want to try homebrewing someday.

I’m not really sure if I can say, ‘us’ anymore, but there certainly still is some hatred.

Everyone hates us.

NASA wants to start doing their development by offering prizes a la the Ansari X-Prize with reward up to <voice type=”Dr. Evil”>$1Billion</voice>. I think this is a great idea, because it applies market forces and competition. And if there’s anything I learned from Into to Economics, its that people (and organizations) respond to incentives and competition.

Read morehere.