Geostorm (2017) is a disaster film where a global satellite system controls the worlds weather, it is the job of main character Jake to fix the array before it creates a Geostorm causing the deaths of millions of people. It follows a Three-Act structure which has been broken down over time into various formulas. The most popular is as follows:
Figure 1: Three-Act Structure Diagram
This diagram is a visual representation of a typical three-act structure in film, it can be applied to Geostorm as a way of representing its construction.
Ordinary World: The ordinary world is literally the calm before the storm, it is set on earth before the Weather Array satellites begin to malfunction, the world consists of a legal battle between the main character Jake (Gerard Butler) and the U.S. Government, when he is fired, his world becomes the trailer which he resides in with his daughter.
Inciting Incident: The inciting incident occurs when the first satellite creates a geostorm over Afghanistan snap-freezing an entire village in the desert including its occupants leaving eery human ice statues in its streets; Jake is called to fix the problem his construction is creating.
Figure 2: Geostorm (2017) - Afghanistan Village
End of Act 1#: The threshold Jake must cross as the end of Act 1 is the literal barrier of space travel, he needs to board a rocket bound for the second environment of the Space Station, it is the beginning of his journey to confront the problem.
Mid Point: A dawning of realisation as Jake figures out that the malfunction isn't actually that, but instead a U.S. Government sabotage plot to bring about the end of the United States political rivals on earth, Jake gets an encrypted message to his brother on earth which brings about the beginning of trying to fix the problem.
Start of Act 3# (Race to the climax): The race to the climax begins when the virus is discovered in the space station and a realisation that they need to reboot the space station, this is when they hatch a plan to confront the president for the codes as only he can shut it down. The satellites then begin to charge for the Geostorm climax.
Figure 3: Geostorm (2017) - Beginning of Geostorm
The Climax: The climax is the moment the kill codes are transferred to the space station and Jake must navigate an exploding space station in order to get to the shut down terminal, the kill codes however do not stop the station from self-destructing, the climax ends with the main characters dramatic space flight to the final space pod to escape the ensuing explosion.
Figure 4: Geostorm (2017) - Space Station self-destruction
The Denouement: The end occurs when the dust and excitement settles, the characters involved have metamorphosed into better, more family centred and wholesomely pleasing people, this is shown by a scene of the three characters fishing on a jetty and additional conversation.
Illustrations:
Figure 1: Three-Act Structure diagram
Figure 2: Geostorm (2017) [Film Still] - Dean Devlin: Warner Bros, Electric Entertainment
Figure 3: Geostorm (2017) [Film Still] - Dean Devlin: Warner Bros, Electric Entertainment
Figure 4: Geostorm (2017) [Film Still] - Dean Devlin: Warner Bros, Electric Entertainment
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