For both Snyder and McKee, this is one of the most important parts of a movie. It usually follows right after the false victory, around the time that the hero realises they haven't totally prevailed against whatever bad guy or evil force they're up against. Having got cocky, they get a thorough dressing/beat down from said antagonist, or else suffer some emotional trauma from which they're going to have to work to return from, during which time they will examine their character and (hopefully) go through some hard-earned development. It's through these moments of adversity, these "dark nights of the soul" as Snyder names them, that the true personality of these fictional characters are revealed. In Guardians Of The Galaxy, it's when the team gets done in by Ronan and co, and Peter Quill realises he probably should actually act heroically instead of flying around making jizz jokes. In Fast & Furious 6, it's when Gina Carano's DSS agent Riley Hicks betrays the crew, and it turns out she's been working with the villains all along, leaving The Rock and co in shambles. It's another piece of a successful formula. It not only means the film can shoehorn in some quiet reflection on the motivation of their characters (which is usually them figuring out said motivation for themselves), and create the sense that maybe the good guys could actually lose? Obviously they won't in the end, but hey, they failed at least once before, see? Anything can happen! So long as anything is part of a codified and well-known list of rules for screenwriting.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
