Shane Black on how he approaches action stories

H/T to GITS reader Russell for finding this article in The Guardian:

A man, a mission, a fiendishly clever bad guy, some guns and a few explosions. It's the classic recipe for a good action movie. Back in the 1980s, Shane Black became Hollywood's go-to screenwriter for that sort of stuff. He wrote Lethal Weapon when he was just 23 and went on to write scripts for Last Action Hero, The Last Boy Scout and The Long Kiss Goodnight... this is his masterclass of moves no action movie should be without.

Black offers 10 tips on writing action movies. Here are the first two:

1. An action-driven plot

That sounds obvious but I see a lot of movies these days that have a bunch of scenes that concern the plot and a bunch of separate scenes that feature the action. But you could lift all the action scenes out wholesale and it would make no difference to the meaning of the film. The action should always go hand in hand with the story so it's all invisibly interconnected. Take the original Star Wars movies: every action sequence is perfectly timed and is designed not just to excite the audience on a visceral level but also to reveal crucial elements of the plot and characters.

2. Highs and lows

An action movie should, like any other, follow the narrative traditions of literature. That means there should be subtlety, a slow build and a gradual bringing together of all the separate threads of the plot. To see all of it coming together slowly is very rewarding for the audience. But if you make everything go at 100 miles per hour from the outset, it loses any impact or meaning. I mean, if a flying truck lands on the bonnet of your car, it should be shocking and scary. But if stuff like that is happening constantly throughout the film, it becomes mundane. An action film can have too much action; picture an equaliser on a stereo, with all the knobs pegged at 10. It becomes a cacophony and is, ultimately, quite boring. Now picture the high-low variations in a film such as Jaws. The lulls, the high points: it's essentially a well-choreographed dance with the viewer.

The rest of the list:

3. Sudden impact

4. Throwaway gags

5. Subjective action

6. Awkwardness

7. Conventions stood on their head

8. Set-ups and pay-offs

9. Reversals

10. Quality of edge

This is an excellent overview, an article you should print out and keep handy, not just for action movies, but all films.

Which one of Black's observations resonate the most with you?