I Don't See Plotpoints

Last night, I read the script for the Sixth Sense. It goes w/out saying this is a great script and film. I love the quote from M. Night Shyamalan, "It wasn't until about the fifth draft that I really began to figure it out. It was then that I realized he's dead. It took me five more drafts to execute it right." Let that be a lesson to us writers. My favorite film, "LA Confidential," required seven drafts.

Anyway, the film has an interesting structure. The first eight pages are a great setup, doing not merely double duty but quadruple duty by:
A. Providing exposition about Malcolm, his profession and his wife.
B. Setting up the central conflict (Malcolm feels guilty because he failed young Vincent Gray and won't rest until he redeems himself with Cole).
C. Establishing genre and tone.
D. Just being a damn dramatically interesting scene.

There's a great midpoint. "I see dead people." Happens at page 53 of this 104 page script.

There's a definite second plot point, when Malcolm rewinds the tape and hears the ghostly voice, making him a believer.

There's a great two beat climax: Cole hands the incriminating tape to the father and Cole convinces his Mom that he's not crazy by revealing secrets that only a Sixth Sensor could know.

There's a satisfying two beat conclusion to the Malcolm-Cole subplot: Cole is the hero of the school play and Malcolm and Cole bid fond farewell.

And there's the great out of nowhere twist that Malcolm is really dead.

You may have noticed what's missing. A first plot point. Pages 9-53 are pretty much undifferentiated. There's a dramatic growth but it's continuous, not choppy.

You could say that The Sixth Sense has a very long act 1, going all the way from p1 to p53, where Cole says, "I see dead people." That would imply it has a very short act 2, going just from p53 to p76, where Malcolm hears the ghostly voice on the tape.

Interesting.