"UP IN THE AIR" & Character Stakes.

After seeing and reading the screenplay for "UP IN THE AIR," I feel like musing a little on what I think this film does well: set up and pay off character stakes.

Stakes are essential to a story. I think a good defintion of "stakes" is: what does the protag risk to lose if he/she doesn't accomplish his/her goal(s)? What are the consequences of failure? Stakes make a story matter. They give it gravitas. High character stakes put our protag in grave emotional danger, which is key to getting the audience to root for him/her to change.

So, onto Ryan Bingham's character stakes in "UP IN THE AIR."

When we meet Ryan, he is living a burden-free life. Total independence. No strings, no commitments, no compromises, and most importantly: no personal relationships. Ryan believes his way of life is ideal. He actually gives a motivational speech telling people to NOT to commit to anyone. He charges people to basically tell them, "avoid the human race. Especially the ones who care about you. Don't love anyone but yourself." Ryan has convinced himself that he's happy, but we know he's not. We know what he's missing out on: human connections. The poster tagline even tips us off before we see the movie: "The story of a man ready to make a connection." (Although a more literal description would read, "the story of a man NOT ready to make a connection") Friendships, love, family: to varying degrees, we all value the connections we have to these people. But Ryan doesn't.

That's what Ryan risks to lose if he doesn't change: living the rest of his life alone, isolated, cut off from his family, with no chance at ever finding real love or frienship. There's a great line where his sister says, "You basically don't exist to us." Ouch. That's the grave emotional danger we find Ryan in.

As the story unfolds, Natalie and Alex catalyze his change. And by the end of the film, Ryan's arc is complete: he is ready to make a connection.

A good screenwriting lesson I learned from "Up in the Air" is to ask myself: what are my protag's character stakes? What does he risk to lose if he doesn't change? Is my protag in grave emotional danger?