Bullies Are Villains, Too! (or, Writing A Good Bad Guy)

In this post, I will explain how I created the main antagonist for The Quantum Terror, by thinking of him as a bully, rather than an evil villain. I don't feel that I'm spoiling anything in the film by writing about this, but if you'd rather watch the movie without having any kind of feel for the characters beforehand, you may want to skip this post. Like everything else in this film, I based my character motivations on things in real life that I have strong feelings about, and there's very few things I feel stronger about, than the evils of bullying.

(Disclaimer: Matt Blackwell, who plays our leading antagonist Jacob Colt, is actually one of the nicest actors I've ever met. Working with him has been a lot of fun, and he's probably more talented than he even understands. The fact that he hasn't been featured in more movies is absolutely criminal, in my opinion. People are going to want to kill his character, when they see the movie.) 

The first question I asked myself when I sat down to write Jacob Colt as a character was, who where my favorite bad guys in the movies, and what was the one thing they all had in common? What made them so infuriating to watch? It wasn't some evil plan hatched for personal gain, or a plot to take over the world, but rather something that almost anyone can relate to having to deal with. They were all bullies.

I feel that when writing a villain, it makes their character instantly more interesting to view them in this way, because now you're not just writing about a person who is mean in a one dimensional way. Now, they have modus operandi, which your protagonists will be vulnerable to in different ways. In order to defend against this bully, they first must fall victim to him, and then learn something about themselves that makes them grow into a person who may have a fighting chance to win. Not everyone in a story will, which is what makes a good antagonist so frightening, frustrating, and able to make our blood boil.

In order to achieve this effect to its fullest potential, we first must gain a better understanding of a bully's methods and motivations. I will use several of my favorite movie villains to illustrate them.

Isolate.

A bully needs a victim. Someone whom they mark, either through jealousy or opportunity for exploitation. Their first order of business will be to find out what aspect of their query can be used to manipulate them into a place of isolation, away from anyone who might notice the first red flags of abuse. Many times, the victim may not at first realize that the intentions of a new acquaintance are not at all good. Usually, an abusive person starts off offering some form of aid, but quickly that aid becomes a leash that can be tugged at at anytime, used to take away something of need, or turned against another. A good example of this may be Bobby Peru, in the David Lynch film Wild At Heart.

Bobby first appears as a friend to Sailor, who can help he and Lula out of their financial situation, by including Sailor in on a plan to rob a bank. However, when Sailor is out of the room, Lula instantly becomes alone and defenseless against Bobby extorting sexual promises from her, which if she denies, may result in something "going wrong" during the robbery. It may mean Sailor's death. She can't tell Sailor because he sees Bobby as a trusted friend, and they both know that they will have no place else to go, if they don't get some money. Bobby knows all of these factors, and has used them to encircle her, leaving no options left, other than to quiver, cry, and agree to his terms.

Isolating a person also makes it easier to...

Take Hostages

There's a reason whey the kidnapper always tells the person carrying the ransom to "come alone." Any support you might have in taking back what is rightfully yours is an extreme disadvantage for a bully. Hostages they might hold are...

The Promise of Love and Approval: such as The Joker uses (in Batman: The Animated Series) to hold Harley Quinn in place as a loyal servant, even though in truth, he only cares about himself.

Since her introduction into the show, we've seen that she would do anything to make him happy. The sad thing is, anything she might do to please him is viewed as success where he has failed, which infuriates him. Her failures are what makes her scramble to want to please him more and do his bidding. Too many successes and she might begin to notice his failures, and see that she doesn't need his approval. That's why when she captures Batman without any help, The Joker responds by beating her and throwing her out a window.

A Supposed Sacrifice They Make On Your Behalf: In Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, we see this in Norman Bates' mother, even though she is relegated in death to a voice that speaks to him within his mind, she still holds the power of guilt over his head. Norman even sees it, but he feels that he's been a burden to her. The least he can do is bear her insane reprimands. When talking about it, he even defends her, saying that she's not a bad person. It's the illness.

This power is then fortified by telling the victim that they are unappreciative, ungrateful for the things that have been given to them or done for them. Many people concede to these arguments, because bullies are also...

Telling You That You Can't Do What You Need, Without Them: Bullies are very good at subtly, yet very effectively making situations more difficult than they need to be, so that they can emphasize their own sense of self sacrifice, making them the appear to be a martyr for you. A good example of this might be Annie Wilkes, in the movie Misery.

When we meet her, she has already rescued writer Paul Sheldon from freezing to death after his snowy car wreck, and has begun to nurse him back to some form of health. However, in order to keep him where she wants, she orchestrates a series of difficulties she tells him she has to suffer, so that he can get better. At first they seem legitimate. They're snowed in, the lines are down, he's in no condition to be moved, but as these conditions begin to improve and Annie shows no sign of letting him leave, she turns to accusations. She lists off all the things she does for him, how she has sacrificed to do them, and how he wouldn't be able to do them for himself. Of course, she's become very good in these moments at forgetting that she is the one who sabotaged the phone lines and hobbled him when he was getting better.

That's a go to tactic for bullies, as well. They're very good at forgetting valid points that are in your favor, soon after you make them. They'll talk as if they were never mentioned, don't exist or say things like "Oh, that tired old argument again!" They get away with ignoring the facts of their bad behavior in favor of...  

Pointing Out or Picking On Insecurities: No one is better at this than Hannibal Lecter, from Silence Of The Lambs.

The most prominent example of this is when Dr. Lecter is brought to meet with Senator Martin, upon the promise that he can tell her how to find her missing daughter. The Senator is a competent and strong individual, yet Lecter instantly cuts into her emotions with surgical precision. The conversation goes something like this:

"Tell me, Senator: did you nurse Catherine yourself?"

"What?"

"Did you breast-feed her?"

"Yes, I did."

"Toughened your nipples, didn't it? Amputate a man's leg and he can still feel it tickling. Tell me, mum, when your little girl is on the slab, where will it tickle you?"

In the novel, Lecter is described as "drinking in her pain." We all have some weakness within us. If a villain cannot use it to exploit a person completely, they will still take cheap shots, to sting us, or assert some sort of superiority, whether it be intellectual like Hannibal's, or in...


Pretending They Have A Moral High Ground Over You: This is probably the most underused and subtle form of emotional manipulation, in movies, yet commonplace in real life. The best example I can think of in recent memory, that doesn't resort to using some stereotype of a group the writer would like to demonize, is in Deloris Umbridge of Harry Potter, and the Order of the Phoenix.

Here is an individual who given a blank check for authority and inserts herself among a group of people, to disrupt them on the premise that they're an out of control group that's making things unnecessarily difficult for everyone else. What she really means to say is that their actions are spotlighting that her and the group she represents (the wizarding government known as the Ministry of Magic) are corrupt, inept, and enabling dark forces to erode what makes their society strong. 

Her course of action is to spin doctor their motivations, question their loyalty, and try to show them as deviant troublemakers who lack morality, even when they are the only ones truly trying to uphold it. If someone cannot control how you see yourself, then they will next seek to control how others see you. Note how a key plot point in the film is when she goes about Hogwarts "interviewing" the school staff, seeing what bad things she get get them to say about themselves and others, with the intent of finding their weaknesses. From there, like small loose threads, she picks at them until they unravel, making them look like major problems that further build her case, in the eyes of the uninformed. With that reasoning, she is able to take power from others, and grant more to herself. This is also known as "campaigning" or "circling the wagons." 

If an audience sees them switching to this very dirty and underhanded tactic successfully, then they are sure to grip their armrests a little harder in anger and frustration. You'll have them on your hero's side, all the more for these injustices.

Many of the above things can be used to bind a villain to a hero in such a way that they feel they can't just walk away from a toxic situation, and into the sanctuary of people who might otherwise form a protective circle around them. The hostage ensures the isolation, but if there is no hostage, the bully loses their power.

Ganging Up

The other major component a villain has to ensure their success is their gang. Like with Harley Quinn, sometimes the gangs themselves are abused in a bullying packing order, but for the most part, they are there to help insure that the victim is as isolated as possible, with no one or where to turn to, for support.

This can be used as a pivotal moment within a story, because nothing is more powerful than either flipping the tables on this gang, by bringing them and their bad behavior out into the light for all to see, or by flipping them on the villain in some way, isolating them from their gang. A powerful example of this is in the movie Stand By Me, when Ace and his gang are about to inflict some serious harm. Suddenly, Gordy pulls a gun on them, leveling the playing field. The gang no longer has the upper hand. Ace at first does not lose his composure and tries to disarm Gordy through manipulation of his morality by saying, "You must have some of your brother's good sense." Gordy doesn't take the bait.

Ace then switches to intimidation by saying, "What are you going to do, shoot us all?

This is where Gordy is smart, and wins the gambit. He says, "No Ace. Just you." Ace is pissed, but he has no choice but to back down. He's been both outmatched and outwitted and his gang sees that he's not brave or tough enough risk his life in a fight that he might not be able to win. He backs off, because bullies are never looking for a real fight. They are only interested in victims.

Power

This is the real motivation for pretty much any villain in any story, or in real life. Whether it be out of some form of resentment, a feeling of superiority guided by the notion of a birth right or imagined moral high ground, or insecurities that they feel can only be compensated for by keeping others oppressed, a bully's answer to all of these things is the tearing down and holding of power over others by whatever means necessary. Almost always, that will include the mental (often followed by the physical) subjugation of your protagonist, their efforts, and/or the things they care about.

Everyone has had a bully in their lives, or watched someone they love at the mercy of a bully. The most clever of them are subtle. They push, prod, needle, intimidate, and exploit until you realize that things are not going to get better until you take a stand.

When that happens, the initial reaction will be to tell them to get back into their place...

...and when that doesn't work, they'll play the victim to as big an audience that they can find, in order to make you look bad, so that you'll back down.

Stepping Into The Light

Like in Stand By Me, this is where your hero will win. Regardless of if it is in a final conflict or a Cumbia moment, a hero takes their power back, when all the abuses, lies, and other injustices of the antagonist are laid bare, were all can see them for what they are, and know the truth. Even then, the worst of them will try to make everyone doubt that truth.

However, your audience will always be able to see when the hero has gained what they need to win, because our heroes will be the ones to ride off into the sunset or towards something better. 

Of course, no victory is ever a permanent win. Bullies will say they'll change their ways, but soon after, most go back to their old habits. In real life and in the movies, that can feel like a burden, but remember, a good villain can also be the promise of a new adventure for a good hero. 

If you've enjoyed this article, you may be interested in my other musings on writing. You can read them by clicking HERE. 

Please, be sure to follow The Quantum Terror on all of our social media, and stay tuned for our upcoming trailer. 

Thank you. 

Screen Writing For Beginners, As Told Through Aliens!

The following is a kind of overly simplified explanation as to how your basic movie script story is broken down, that I originally wrote to someone, who asked my advice on the subject. There is of course a lot to add to this conversation, but if you've never written a script before and want to try, this may be a good jumping off point. I hope it helps. Here it is:

So, telling a good story is a many layered thing, and like learning to draw or play an instrument, you have to suck at it before you can get good. I don't even know if I'm that good, but I think I know enough to keep things entertaining.

The first thing to understand about most stories is that they're broken down into three acts. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but three is the standard and you should stick with that number until you understand why. The Quantum Terror is in three acts. Each act is like an episode with a cliffhanger, where all the ideas you have introduced at the beginning, come to a head at the end of the act.

I'll used Aliens as an example.

In act one we are reintroduced to Ripley and what her life and attitude is like after the first movie. We see how people interact with her when she tries to tell them what happened, and then we see how she is treated when they start to believe that she may be telling the truth.

They go to the planet and think they've got things under control.

They find Newt who foreshadows how bad things can get, but the marines think, "We've got this." Soon they're in the hive and most of them get wiped out. Ripley saves what is left of them in a huge climatic rescue and boom, the first act is done.

The second act opens with them realizing that the problem is far worse than they imagined and asking themselves "How are we going to handle this?" That's how every second act starts. The characters are forced to rethink their situation and come up with a new plan to deal with it.

The second act is all about the new approach to the problem, and it usually goes pretty well for a bit, even with new problems popping up along the way, until BAM!!!! Everything turns to crap in the second climax. Their ride back to the ship crashed! Lets call the other ship down remotely, because the planet is going to explode soon. The hardware to do that is trashed? Okay, Bishop will have to go out there and do it manually. Stay safe and bolted up in the compound. Wait a minute, Burk is trying to infect Ripley and Newt with a facehugger. Now, Aliens have found a way in. The ride is here, but now everyone is dead and the Aliens just grabbed Newt and took her back to their hive to make more alien babies with. End of second act.

Now everything has fallen apart and things are even worse. The planet is about to blow up. The one solder that could help is out of commission, and Ripley has to go into the belly of the beast to get the one thing she cares about back. Again, Ripley has to rethink everything to get through this. Things get worse. The tracking device on Newt gets dropped. They run into the Alien Queen.

The Alien Queen got on the ship once they escaped and tore Bishop in half.

Ripley has had enough and here comes the big climatic showdown over the daughter that Ripley lost, but has a chance to redeem that loss. Ripley wins. End of act three. End of movie.

Within these acts are highs and lows, like a roller costar taking you up and down. Stay high or low for too long and the story gets boring. But what is the story? All of the stuff I wrote above is just the stuff that happens. That's not story! Okay, so this is the most important thing I'll tell you. Here it is. The story is how each character reacts to the stuff happening, and how it changes them. We have the story of Ripley, who is broken but has to pull herself together to reconcile with her losses to the alien, so that Newt will learn to trust her and not suffer more. There's the story of Bishop, who is silently seeking Ripley's approval.

There's the story of Hudson, who is a punk ass and thinks he's invincible, but turns coward when faced with something tougher than he is. In the end, he even redeems himself when he saves Newt from the facehugger and then later goes down fighting, holding off the Aliens as the rest of his fellows escape. Burk has a story. Hicks has a story. Every last one of them has a story, and each one is reacting to what is happening and also reacting to how they're interacting which each other, as events unfold. Each one of these arcs has a beginning a middle and an end, no matter how things turn out for them. Each one either learns something and grows, or meets their end because they refused to.

The line, "You always were and asshole, Gorman." is really summing up what Vasques has been expressing all along. Watch how she interacts with him, up until that moment. She doesn't respect him. His decisions get her partner killed and make everything worse, confirming her attitude towards him. When she gets burned by acid and trapped by the aliens in an air duct, he redeems himself to her by going back to try to save her and making the choice to sacrifice himself and die with her, rather than leave her to face her fate alone. In that last moment she sees his bravery, and he is redeemed in her eyes. She forgives and respects him, shown by her clasping her hand over his, as he uncorks the grenade that will spare them becoming wombs for the next generation of monsters.

There's really a lot going on in that movie.

If you enjoyed this breakdown, please head on over to The Quantum Terror Facebook and give us a "like" or find us on Twitter @quantumterror. I feel it's going to be a pretty good little indie film. Thanks.

Why A Lesbian Couple In A Horror Movie?

I've had a lot of comments since I started this campaign to bring The Quantum Terror to life. Two of them stand out in my mind, and I feel are important for me to address.

The first one was from a Facebook commenter who said something like, "I was into the trailer until I saw the girls kissing." I don't think they were actively offended by it, but may have had some concerns that the movie was just going to be gratuitous in an exploitation kind of way. While I freely admit to wanting to make a movie that is as sexy as it is scary, it's also very important to me that there isn't anything in the film that doesn't need to be there. The Quantum Terror is a love story between two women that is interrupted by not only the horrors that come with alien creatures, but the perceptions of others on the outside looking in. These preconceived notions come from everywhere and at everyone who is trying to be true to themselves, their feelings, and sense of place in the world. After all, quantum physics is partly to do with the influence of observation. (...as explained in this video, if you want to know more on that.)

Indeed, whether we like it or not, our daily lives are greatly influenced by how others perceive and interact with us. Regardless of our skin color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or age, each and every person is experiencing life from their own individual point of view, yet we still have to contend with how others perpetuate the stereotypes that come with our commonalities. Celebrities and media will over inflate them, encouraging others to embrace these stereotypes as culture or life style, when they are neither. They are simply pigeonholes meant to keep people thinking of themselves and others as part of the masses, rather than taking ownership of ones own individual identity. The result is often segregation through the illusion of pride or heritage. Heritage and traditions can help us learn about where we came from and where we're going, but unfortunately are also often used to draw lines between us and our fellows. Before you know it, people are using them to justify bullying through bigotry.  These stereotypes influence those who would rather generalize than address each person they meet as a unique human being, who may have their own thoughts and feelings, their own hopes, problems, fears, or loves outside of what any group which has been automatically designated to them by a roll of the cosmic dice. We seem to live in a world where daring to step outside of that has become socially unacceptable on any side of these lines. I feel that could be damaging to anyone's psyche, especially of today's young people, who don't seem to have any frame of reference to ground themselves in.*

My intention in creating a lesbian protagonist was to take the stereotype and strip it from the character, so you would see the human being underneath, which we all have in common. In doing so, I felt that I could be free to take an objective look at these characters as I wrote them and free them from the box others might want to put them in, even if I am a heterosexual male. Was I successful? I asked our leading actress Kristen Cochell (IMDB) what she thought, and this is the reply she sent me.

"I fell in love with my character in The Quantum Terror, Sam, shortly after reading the script. Sam is unlike a lot of heroin/leading roles we see in the cinema currently, which is what attracted me so much to her. In this movie we have one of the first Lesbian heroines. A gay hero? It's unheard of, which is one of the reasons I wanted to play her. Another reason Sam's character spoke to me is because main female characters have always been undermined by covering their emotions on film. God forbid we show a main character in an emotional light, right?  Don't get me wrong Sam is very strong, sort of like Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, but she's also very fragile at moments, which makes her human. Sam's character has been a turning point for my career. The internal struggle between fighting to find her sister, fighting back her feelings for Lucy, fighting aliens and quantum physics, it's been a truly challenging role that I could not be more grateful to tackle. The Quantum Terror is not just about making a lesbian love story, but raising and changing standards in the film industry."

Which brings me to...

The second comment I received was from another actress who auditioned for the lead. Her's was something to the effect of, "Even if you don't cast me, I just want to say thank you for creating a part like this in your film. It means so much to me and to other women, especially in Austin, that a filmmaker would chose to have a female lead like this one." I confess, I was much taken aback at being told this. I've always been a fan of science fiction and horror, and in my mind all the great films had a woman at the forefront. Sigourney Weaver's Ripley in Alien and  Linda Hamilton's Sarah Conner in Terminator stand out the most, but movies like Hellraiser, Nightmare On Elm Street, Rosemary's Baby, and Halloween all centered around a well written heroine. It seemed only natural to me to do the same. That's not to say that the decision was entirely accidental. I had decided that I didn't want to center my theme around a person's race or spiritual beliefs, because not only could that become unintentionally polarizing, but I feared that not everyone would be able to automatically relate. On the other hand a homosexual person can come from any walk of life. It truly seemed to be the only way to go. I hate to say it, but in this day and age I realize that this is still going to be a hard sell. It would be an even harder one if the romance was between two men. I feel that two women may be a little easier for male moviegoers to handle.

I realize I still run the risk of garnering criticism and perhaps even malice from our potential audience, but it is my hope that people don't come at this movie thinking I'm going out of my way to make some sort of progressive statement. I'm really not. This movie is ultimately about tentacled horrors from another dimension whose very existence will bring people to the brink of metaphysical madness. All this other stuff about individuality, having the freedom to chose, and being true to yourself is just subtext to make the movie more engaging for everyone, including myself. Or, is it? When you see it, you can decide what to take away from it on your own.

Hey, by the way, we'd actually love to have you as part of the fun, so why not head on over to our Indiegogo page (click right here http://igg.me/at/quantumterror) watch the trailer, and pick up a pledge reward.

*Next up: How Lovecraftian cosmic horror and quantum physics apply as a metaphor for our media driven society!