10 James Bond Screenwriting Lessons You Can Learn From Spectre
9. Tie Previously Unassociated Plot Threads Together
In Spectre, the events of the past three Bond movies (i.e., all the Daniel Craig Bond movies) are tied together as if all of Bonds hardships were a master plan of Blofelds to get revenge on Bond for stealing his fathers attention years before. The explanation weaves the previous movies plots together so well that it's almost conceivable that it was all planned. But it wasnt EON Productions didnt even obtain the rights to use Blofeld and SPECTRE until November 2013. This gave the writers the opportunity to use some of Bond's iconic past in a new way. Smartly, the story doesnt lean too much on those previous events in case those seeing Spectre havent seen those movies. But for fans of the series it adds tremendous weight to Blofeld being the big bad by treating the events of the previous three films as preludes to this one. It represents a type of continuity not seen since the original seeding of Blofeld in the Connery era. With that precedent in mind, the screenwriters look like they planned it all along as a big story arc even though that's not what happened.
Chris McKittrick is a published author of fiction and non-fiction and has spoken about film and comic books at conferences across the United States. In addition to his work at WhatCulture!, he is a regular contributor to CreativeScreenwriting.com, MovieBuzzers.com, and DailyActor.com, a website focused on acting in all media. For more information, visit his website at http://www.chrismckit.com.
