Bad Guys Close In (Falling Action): Three Examples for Screenwriters

The second part of Act II is often one of the hardest parts of a film to write.

This is the section that Blake Snyder refers to as the Bad Guys Close In (BGCI). It also aligns with “falling action” or “descent into chaos” from classical sources. This is where it’s clear that the “fun and games” within the new world of Act II are over. The new world becomes its own dark mirror.

This stretch of narrative must test the protagonist both internally and externally. We can expect plans to go awry, allies to vanish, secrets to rear their heads. More than anything, pressure mounts. The world falls apart around the protagonist–and we run a real risk that, at least figuratively, she won’t get out of this alive.

It’s massively common even for otherwise great films to lose focus here. There’s a lot of running up and down white corridors full of white Stormtroopers at this point of Star Wars. Donnie Darko, in this section, simply devolves into a hot mess of terrible, inconsistent philosophizing. Et cetera, et cetera.

However, when done well, Act IIb becomes the part of the film that you’re most likely to remember–for example, as we will see, this section is responsible for practically all the most famous scenes in Back to the Future.

Let’s look at three well-executed BGCI sequences, each with a writing exercise for you to try. followed by a writing exercise to apply the lesson to your own screenplay.

The Apartment (1960)

At the midpoint, Baxter–still reeling from the discovery that his crush Fran has been sleeping with his boss in his apartment–Baxter returns to the apartment to find Fran overdosed on his bed. He saves her life, tarnishes his reputation with his neighbors, has to fight off other superiors still wanting to use his apartment for their trysts (and keep Fran away from them), cover for her at work, and then deal with her family when they come to seek her.

BGCI Mechanics:

Baxter juggles deception, guilt for his part in the problem, and Fran’s good name.
For all his trouble, he gets punched in the face by Fran’s brother-in-law.
His apartment—once the mechanism of his own rise in the corporate world—becomes the site of his own reckoning, humiliation, and potential downfall.
The comedic setup has now fully flipped. At the beginning, renting the apartment for trysts was sort of funny and cute. Now it’s harrowing and tragic.

This is a classic BGCI shift: the “fun and games” premise turns sour. That is, the very same mechanism that brought status threatens to destroy everything in his life, down to his unconsummated flirtation with Fran.

Exercise 1:

Consider the “tool” or “benefit” your protagonist has been relying on within the new world of Act II? Imagine the worst possible effect it could have. How would this force the protagonist into a corner?

Back to the Future (1985)

The Bad Guys Close In section begins when Marty sees the photo with his siblings disappearing and realizes that he has disrupted his parents’ courtship, which thereby risks his own existence. He spends the rest of the act trying to get his parents together. Some of it works and some of it doesn’t, but notice that we have the clock ticking the entire time. Even after George saves Lorraine from Biff, Marty checks the photo and sees he hasn’t yet solved the problem. At this point, he must help the band–whose guitarist has just injured his hand–and plays with the band while his parents kiss. This fixes the problem with the photo, and he can rush to Doc to get back to 1985.

BGCI Mechanics:

There’s an existential threat (Marty will disappear forever if he can’t get his parents together) piled on top of the ticking clock (time until the lightning strike). This isn’t just convenient, it is existential. Marty will disappear into nothingness if he doesn’t succeed.
Notice the push-pull of success and failure. Marty succeeds, then fails, then succeeds, then fails to get his parents back together. Even after success when George takes Biff out and escorts Lorraine into the dance, Marty sees he isn’t done. At this point, he has to seal the deal–taking the injured guitarist’s place–by playing with the band to make sure his parents kiss.

Notice the multiple overlapping stakes in this section. This is where the genius of the logline shows: sending someone into the past is all well and good, but only when that risks his own present existence do you have a tight, urgent film.

Exercise 2:

Consider what might seem like a background detail or subplot in your story that could suddenly–immediately–becomes life-threatening if unresolved? Consider how you can increase tension using time pressure or irreversible consequences.

True Romance (1993)

At the midpoint, Clarence and Alabama arrive in LA where Dick introduces them to his friend Elliott. Elliott is the assistant to a Hollywood producer, Lee Donowitz, who can potentially move the huge amount of cocaine Clarence has stolen. Meanwhile, one of the mafia hitmen catches up with them and corners Alabama in the hotel room, and after a vicious fight, she kills the hitman. Lee Donowitz reluctantly agrees to the meeting. Clarence finds Alabama and tends to her wounds, while Elliott gets busted with a chunk of the drugs and is intimidated into making a deal with the police.

BGCI Mechanics:

Each character’s behavior becomes more erratic as pressure mounts.
The mafia bad guys are literally (not figuratively) closing in.
Clarence plays confident, but we know he’s in well over his head.
Alabama is traumatized and therefore unreliable; Elliott is compromised and therefore unreliable.

Note the parallel pressure building: Elliott could sell them to the cops, the mob is out to kill them, and Alabama just killed a man after he beat the shit out of her. And they also have a ridiculous amount of cocaine to sell.

Exercise 3:

Find two or more separate threats that converge during your Act IIb. Consider how each can be (largely) unrelated but collide. Play these parallel threats off one another to create impossible choices for the protagonist.*

*Note how the collisions actually culminate with the Mexican Standoff in Lee’s hotel room in Act III.

Patterns of Descent

Let’s look at a few familiar patterns within a Bad Guys Close In sequence:

Pattern	Description
Convergence	Multiple problems collide with one another.
Internal + External Pressure	The hero experiences internal and external pressure.
Isolation	Help evaporates. The hero is left holding the bag.
Tone Shift	Comedy gets deadly serious, adventure turns to life-or-death struggle, etc.
Time Running Out	A clock (often an actual clock) is ticking somewhere.
Worse Than Death	The protagonist faces something they may never recover from, whether psychologically, socially, or existentially.\

More than anything, the BGCI is where we understand the true costs of the journey. That is, it’s more than simply stacking obstacles to be overcome. By the end of the Bad Guys Close In, the protagonist will be broken–or close to it. It’s everything up to the final moment in Act IIb where All is Lost.