The Message of a Story

The message of a story is in the third act, when the main character has their "aha" moment and the climax, which follows the "aha" moment. Or it's earlier than that, but the main character learns something. What the main character learns is often the message of the story, not the ending.

I'll use two examples. My examples are both of the Top Gun movies.

So here's the three-act story structure for the original Top Gun (1986). 

Act 1

Opening scenes

Setting.

When the movie opens, we see a scene sequence featuring fighter pilots who are practicing take-offs and landings upon a naval aircraft carrier. We immediately see that this story will focus on characters who are in the U.S. military.

Introduction of main characters, their personalities, and the character's relationships with one another. Also hint at the internal (relationship) conflict and escalating external conflict.

-One of the first scenes introduces us to Maverick, the main character, and his copilot and best friend, Goose. Both are in the cockpit of a fighter jet, engaged in a dogfight over the Indian Ocean alongside Maverick's wingman, Cougar.  

This scene shows us who works with Maverick, and tells us that they will have something to do with the story unfolding. 

First scene opens with an interesting situation (initial problem).

Maverick and his wingman are engaged in a dogfight against Russian MiGs over the Indian Ocean. We see that Maverick is an exceptional fighter pilot and that he is very daring, to the point of maneuvering his fighter jet to an inverted position over a MiG. At the end of the dogfight, Maverick is ordered to land by his superior, Stinger, but when he sees Cougar having a panic attack,  he disobeys orders and goes to guide Cougar back to the carrier. This willingness to disobey orders and disregard the rules is one of Maverick's main character flaws. 

Inciting Incident

Back on the carrier, Cougar turns in his wings. Then, Stinger gives Maverick and Goose a stern talking to, revealing Maverick's habit of flying by control towers without authorization and his womanizing ways, as well as mentioning his family name and its reputation (Mitchell). 

Stinger: "No BS, Maverick, your family name ain't the best in the Navy." 

At this, Maverick's  serious and neutral expression breaks, allowing insecurity and fear to seep through. You can see it in his jaw. 

Then, Stinger reveals that as much as he'd like to punish Maverick and Goose, he can't because he has to send his best pilot and radar intercept officer (RIO) to Top Gun. Cougar was his best pilot, but he turned in his wings so Maverick and Goose are going to Top Gun to train against the best aviators in the world. 

And here's the three-act story structure for Top Gun: Maverick. 

Act 1

Opening scenes

Setting.

 When the movie opens, we see a scene sequence featuring fighter pilots who are practicing take-offs and landings upon a naval aircraft carrier. We immediately see that this story will focus on characters who are in the U.S. military.

Introduction of main characters, their personalities, and the character's relationships with one another. Also hint at the internal (relationship) conflict and escalating external conflict.

-One of the first scenes introduces us to Maverick, the film's titular character, and shows him contentedly fixing an old plane inside his personal hanger in a desert. Above his work desk are pictures of  him and his best friend/co-pilot, Goose. Goose died long ago during a training exercise Other pictures are of Goose and his family, a wife and young son. 

This wall of pictures show us the people who are important to Maverick and tell us that they have something to do with the story unfolding.

The reason I thought this blog post was necessary is because of Ascension Press's video "The Stories We Show Our Children Have Consequences." The video uses Disney's The Little Mermaid as an example of the corrupt messages that secular media tends to convey. In particular, the point was the bad message that The Little Mermaid sends by giving Ariel a happy ending despite the fact that she disobeyed her father and made a deal with Ursula. The result was a comments section full of comments on being picky about what we show our kids, how Disney is evil, how the culture is evil, and how adults have to be careful about what they watch, too. I'm not denying that stories have consequences and that we have to be careful about what we watch and read. But if you really want to know what message The Little Mermaid is conveying, look at the third act instead of the ending. Reflect on what Ariel realizes about being disobedient and making a pact with the Devil figure during the third act. And I haven't seen The Little Mermaid in a while, but I don't recall the message being as insidious as Father Mike makes it out to be. 

P.S. Part of this is because it is so exhausting to have to hear "look out for spiritual threats" when you're already doing that way too much. Scrupulous people tend to be way too vigilant.  The last thing I need is people being controversial and buzzkills over my pop culture consumption when I'm already causing myself to be too tightly wound about that.