Why This is Good

The most common problems I see when consulting screenwriters have to do with their hero’s goal-sometimes it is unclear, undefined, vague, impossible to achieve or nonexistent. Often, the hero has a negative goal-their goal is to not do something.

Negative goals are common because not doing something or maintaining the status quo is a goal many people perceive in real life, and they wrongly assume this will translate into film. Real people might try not to get fired, rather than trying to get a promotion. Trying not to get fired is a negative goal because it doesn’t require a person to do anything, they just have to fly under the radar and not get in trouble. Trying to get a promotion requires real, active work and would translate well into a hero’s goal for a film. After actively working to win the love of another, many people become passive and complacent in a relationship, secure that as long as they don’t upset their lover, everything will be fine. No longer actively courting and just trying to keep things steady and safe, they do the bare minimum and stop trying to keep their partner happy or interested. Other examples of negative goals would be: not being recognized; trying to live a quiet, peaceful life alone; keep a secret; to recover from an injury-when it requires nothing but taking it easy and resting.

The reason negative goals do not work in a screenplay is that the hero must be passive in order to achieve them. They cannot do anything or their negative goal will not be realized, and the status quo will be disrupted. A movie where a character stays home, watches TV and avoids hard work will not be successful. It doesn’t work when the only goal is to not do something or avoid life.

“But,” you’re probably thinking, “what about my favorite comedy of all time, Office Space?”

There are 3 answers to this argument:

1)      This is an exception that proves the rule.

2)     Office Space, while it has developed a cult following, was a box office flop that barely recouped its production costs.

3)      The negative goal that Peter started with led to and changed into a normal goal eventually, giving Peter something to do besides sit around.

Once he decides to stop working, Peter states his negative goal over and over-to not work. In his date with Joanna, he tells her he is not going to go in anymore, not going to pay his bills, basically just do nothing-a negative, anti-goal. However, what Peter actually does is not passive, and he does develop a concrete, active goal as the story progresses. [Spoiler Alert]

He could, in an attempt to do absolutely nothing, just sit at home and watch TV, and while he does this a little, he also goes out, asks Joanna to lunch, goes into work and causes trouble, goes fishing, and eventually convinces his friends to help him develop software that will get them a lot of money. Here he is being active, and you can see that despite his statements about having a negative goal of doing nothing, he really is pursuing goals of courting Joanna, subverting Initech, and earning money for himself, Samir, and Michael.  After their plan goes haywire, his goal changes into an entirely active, redemptive one-to stop Samir and Michael from getting in trouble, return the money to Initech, and take all the blame for the stolen money. So while Peter starts out with a negative, anti-goal, he eventually develops visible, concrete goals that allow him to actively pursue a goal with a finish line in the traditional sense that works for screenwriting.