So, I have this idea I`m writing on that came many years ago but until recently I started with my treatment for my screenplay. The idea is pretty smpel, Dead Bullies. He goes on a killing sprre on his old bullies. I bet many have a similair idea. But I need a big event to have him go on this crazy revenge that I have plotet out. Like Tarantino`s Kill Bll. The idea is pretty simpel but I think the motivation for The Bride to go on revenge is powerfull.. The people I have mentioned it for says it must be something really terrible that happened to him. I came up with something I think is really good but I i`m a bit doubtfull. Have you seen Law abiding citizen? It hit me when I saw that movie. It began with his daughter and wife being murdered and then he goes on revenge on the whole sociaety. I thought, what if the bullies broke into his house and "accidently", his mother got stabed and killed? They were under 18 and there where lack of evidence for them to go in jail. Many years later, he has done a plastic surgery and is on a killing spree. Is it powerfull enough?
Your character decides to kill his bullies? Isn't the fact that your character got bullied "the big event"? Say, years of physical and verbal abuse, now that can do things to a person...
The most important part of writing drama is not to choose something that would sound terrible to a reader, (murder, rape, torture, etc) but something that would seem terrible to the character. If the character cares, then the reader will care too. Lots of characters get upset over the death of a family member, but what about a character that gets upset that the villain promised to kill someone and didn't? Maybe the villain stole the hero's house keys as a joke, and it led to the hero being unable to get into his house when a very important event was going on. Or maybe the hero is very proud and the villain said something about him that caused the hero to lose face in front of someone he cared about. Before you decide on the plot, be sure to get to know your main character better. What would he hate? What makes him different than other characters? How does he react differently? Why was he bullied? The hero is not just the person all the important things happen to. He has to be the one to make them happen. He has to interact with the world, causing events or stopping them. If he wants revenge, it can't be because what happened was bad, it has to be because the hero is the type of person who would want revenge.
Thanks for the tips. I have the characters pretty much figured out. I just thought that just being bullied isn`t enough.
Well, I have read that first you write the treatment, then the script? I figure out the story fiirst, then writing the script. It perhaps works differently for different people. They say it is easier to write the script when the story is finished.
You don't need any big event for the bullied guy to want revenge. To people that are getting bullied every event seems like a big event, because that's how they convince themselves that they can't do anything about it. Sometimes a victim will say "enough is enough" and that's where the school shootings start. And wouldn't one seek revenge on the murderers of one's family much sooner than "many years later"? Also breaking and entering into a house with weapons and intent to kill goes far beyond bullying. On a personal note I think that when it comes to continuous bullying the fault lies with both parties. If the first time one is bullied he fights back, then the second he fights back as well and so on, at some point the bullies always deem it not worth the trouble after all and leave you alone. So if he was bullied continuously then he would be too much of a coward to seek revenge anyway.
You can come up with a solid event if you want. But if you understand the horror of being bullied, then all you have to do is demonstrate it. What you could do is share with the audience one such event. The very fact that the character remembers it makes it a significant event. The gritty details of the event make us understand the hate in the character. But remember another thing - not all outcomes are driven by one solitary event. Add some complexity to your character that is in tune with why he is bullied, how he is bullied, and how he reacts to it. But always be subtle about it. And when it comes to triggers, it could be anything. The look in one bully's eyes. A smile, a laugh. Have you ever seen The Breakfast Club? There's a scene in it where Emilio is talking about bullying a guy, and he thinks about how embarrassed the kid would have been having to try to tell his father about being beaten up. Whatever remorse and guilt Emilio feels at that moment, reverse it to understand the rage in the other person. You should watch the movie if you haven't get an idea of what I'm talking about, but the scene is on youtube.
Thank you so much all for the tips, it gave me some ideas. I will check out The Breakfust club. The reason I wanted to write a movie like this is because I like many, knows how it is to be bullied and the desire to payback. I have a smiliar idea to that cene in The Breakfust Club, i think. My idea is that there is a detecive that takes on the case for his murders and that he feel so embarresed about what he did to the guy becaus he knows it is him that kills these people and that he will be next. I will try and show it mostly from the side charachters, and their fear of knowing that he is after them, and in some level, they know they deserve it.
I don't like arguments on forums, but I will say this is a very damaging and ignorant opinion to have. Due to personal experience, I can say the idea that 'standing up to bullies over and over makes them go away' is better suited to Saturday morning cartoons than real life. For me, it made it much much worse. It's even worse when you're not only being bullied, but other people are blaming you for being bullied and calling you a coward. Isn't that just bullying the victim? I find it very upsetting that you would say something so thoughtlessly ignorant and cruel. But back to the topic. If he's going to begin revenge many years later, it could be a completely different bully that triggers his hate towards all people who have ever bullied him, and his old bullies aren't the primary motivator. After all, it's very likely that being bullied as a teen would leave him with PTST that would last his entire adult life. Any trigger old be an acceptable start to he story, really.
I agree that you don't need a big bullying-related event to justify revenge. Continuous bullying is enough. I was bullied from the ages of 5 until I was 13, and knowing in some environments that any sign of weakness would be picked up on I became emotionally very insular and would stew on things instead of expressing them. There were some places that were 'no go areas' - parts of my village where I knew these bigger kids would make my life hell if they encountered me there. And Xatron, seriously? Being bullied as a 7 year old by a five or six big 9-10 years-olds on a power trip, fighting back was not something that looked like a good option (plus, as a 7 year old, you don't have the mental framework to work through all the potential choices and outcomes). And then, you get into the habit of being a victim, unfortunately. Eventually when I was almost fourteen (by this point, I continually had to hide bruises from the bullying from my family), I started karate classes and after a few months that gave me the confidence to fight back, and the bullying stopped - they moved on to an easier target to fuel their egos. However, the emotional injury caused by eight years of being terrorised in and out of school was pretty considerable and took me a quarter of a century to finish dealing with completely. Also, as children who grow up in abusive families often enter abusive relationships as adults (either as the abuser or the victim), so children in bully-victim relationships often tend to do the same. I'm not necessarily talking 'romantic' relationships - these could also be for example being bullied by a boss or group of co-workers. I went through a fairly long period (I guess in my late teens / early twenties) when I would fantasise about getting revenge on my bullies (not that I ever envisaged killing them). I think that kind of thinking escalates when feeling out of control in other areas - it's a way of mentally asserting control over something. When things don't go well in life (say, because of a lack of social skills, confidence or whatever) it's easy to blame these things on the bullies - adding fuel to the burning desire for revenge.
OP: I don't think the plastic surgery is 'necessary' for him to reinvent himself (or become unrecognisable to his bullies, if that is the intention). Given a span of ten years, a change of sun tan, facial hair, clothing style and some time in the gym would be plenty. Also, I think someone taking revenge on their bullies would very much want to be recognised at some point in the process - in your story, the revenging victim would want the bully to know why he was being killed. Incidentally, at a recent school reunion, I made a point of saying hello to one of these 'big kids' who made life unbearable in the village about 30-33 years ago. He had no idea who I was. So, while the bullying is huge at the time to the victim, the bully is probably 'just having a laugh' and the victim is just 'furniture' and doesn't register enough as a person to be memorable anyway.
true... my brain was clearly not in gear when i wrote that post... gotta be sure to have my morning's green tea before i post, from now on...
The bullies kicked him in the crotch so hard so many times that his male parts became useless. He has transgendering plastic surgery and seduces and kills all of the bullies.
So, it's just fine to attack someone on a whim, and if he doesn't fight back, he deserves to be attacked? Have you thought this through? What if he's smaller? In a wheelchair? Doesn't want to get expelled for fighting? Seriously, you're saying that someone who is unwilling to engage in physical combat _deserves to be beaten up_? If it's also the fault of the victim, should the victim also get expelled? When a mugger attacks someone, should their victim also go to jail if they didn't fight back?
I can suggest a possible change in direction, and I know this will come across as more of a tv script than a film, but here goes....... I have always been a fan of something on TV asking questions of myself. In this case the question would be "have I ever been a bully?" and "what is classed as bullying?" Perhaps introducing copycat killings once people find out about the attempts of your main character. This will then scare a number of people in their every day lives. For example, a successful family man with three kids and a nice home will worry about 'the time he called someone by their nickname' or 'pushed someone into the river' and is now worried about how they dealt with that. This will then also open up other possibilities, where people contact old school friends and clear their conscience. I could do further, but you get the idea.
