You might know the feeling when the card dealer asks, “What’s your wager?” You put down fifty dollars, hoping the amount will multiply; hoping that with the money you win, you can save a loved one from some terrible fate…. Knowing full well that IF you lose, your lifeline could all disappear.
The term stakes is thrown around in the realm of film and TV with reckless abandon.
“What are the stakes?”
“It feels like there should be more at stake.”
“Bigger stakes!”
Because it’s tossed around so much, the word “stakes” sometimes loses power and effectiveness. When we’re not sure how to define stakes, we can be less effective at raising them or even implementing notes about them.
When we hear “BIGGER stakes!” sometimes our instinct is to inflate the equivalent of the monetary amount wagered at the crap table.
“Not 50 dollars! I said 50,000 dollars!” That’s a much larger amount and surely it would feel more devastating to lose it. Thinking of stakes as simply the AMOUNT being wagered won’t necessarily help to build a reader’s emotional investment in the story.
Amounts and numbers are impersonal. Characters—people—are personal.
It’s not the money on the table, but what’s lost IF that money disappears.
When someone says “BIGGER stakes” they don’t necessarily mean that IF the main character fails, everyone on earth will perish.
Stakes are personal. Stakes are everything the character stands to lose IF they fail. Stakes are only as meaningful to us as they are to the main character we identify with and love.
When contemplating stakes, IF is a magic word. Notice we have capitalized it throughout this post. We all have personal “IFs” in our life….
This is why anxious people sometimes make good writers. It’s about being able to visualize the worst, most devastating outcome IF something goes wrong.
Let’s look at how a few scripts raise stakes and build up our emotional investment in the story. Notice that in none of these scripts is the hero trying to save the whole globe from collapse.
APOLLO 13 (1995)
Screenplay by William Broyles, Jr. & Al Reinert
Based on the book Lost Moon by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger
The Apollo 13 crew just completed their mission, but have encountered some engine and heating trouble, which might jeopardize their safe return to earth.
IF they drift there in space in the freezing cold, they will obviously die.
IF Fred doesn’t get medical attention, he will die. (Note how the writers encourage us to uncover this with our intuition: “It hurts when I pee.”)
IF Fred dies, his newborn kid doesn’t get to know his father.
BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM (2003)
Written by Gurinder Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges and Guljit Bindra
Jess is obsessed with football, but must sneak around her conservative Sikh parents in order to play.
IF Jess is discovered playing with the local women’s league, she’ll bring loads of shame and disappointment to her parents who’ve had to sacrifice their own aspirations and happiness to give their daughters a conventional home.
In this scene, Jess’s sister stresses that — according to her — something as lame as football is not worth the risk.
DIE HARD (1988)
Screenplay by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza
John McClane takes on Hans Gruber, who holds people hostage in Nakatomi Plaza in order to steal bearer bonds.
At this moment, we discover Gruber’s plan: Blow-up the roof of the building, killing the hostages and the FBI agents sent to help, getting away with hundreds of millions of dollars in theft.
IF McClane fails to stop Gruber, everyone in the building will die, including him. IF McClane dies, he loses the opportunity to truly make amends with his wife.
FRIDAY (1995)
Written by Ice Cube & D. J. Pooh
Craig’s life at home is shitty. Excuse the pun.
IF Craig doesn’t go to school, learn a trade or find a job, he’ll be stuck at home — and the writers succeed at making being stuck at home a gross and unappealing prospect.
IF Craig doesn’t find a job (and rent money), he’ll be kicked out of the house and have nothing.
This is a great example of using humor to communicate stakes.
THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON (2019)
Written by Tyler Nilson & Michael Schwartz
Zak has Down syndrome and lives out-of-place at a state-run home for the elderly… until he runs away to pursue his dream of becoming a pro wrestler.
Eleanor works for the nursing home and is tasked with finding Zak and bringing him back.
This is a very subtle example, yet through this phone call at the restaurant, Eleanor finds out what will happen to Zak IF she brings him back. He’ll be forced to give up his dreams, happiness and purpose to live in a place where he won’t be treated for what he needs. He’ll likely deteriorate.
THELMA & LOUISE (1991)
Written by Callie Khouri
Thelma and Louise are in the worst possible bind. They’ve killed a man in self-defense and now they’re being tailed by police as they flee to Mexico. To boot, they’ve been robbed of all their money.
Now, Thelma has committed a crime by robbing the store. IF they get caught, they will most assuredly face punishment.
This is an interesting turning point in that it’s a victory which simultaneously places the heroes in greater jeopardy. What they lose IF they are caught becomes greater. They lose their freedom.
ZOOT SUIT (1981)
Screenplay by Luis Valdez Based on his play
In Zoot Suit, inspired by the Sleepy Lagoon murder trials in LA in the early 1940s, (which unjustly targeted Mexican-American youths), Henry Reyna is thrown in jail for a murder he didn’t commit.
Valdez’s script, adapted from his play of the same name, cleverly presents stakes through El Pachuco, the mythical embodiment of both Hank’s subconscious and of the Pachuco way of life.
According to El Pachuco, IF Henry fights back against what happened to him or tries to fight back against the system, nothing will happen. He’ll still be seen as a criminal.
IF you have any questions about these or other scripts in the library, feel free to e-mail us at library@wgfoundation.org