How it works

Script consultant Michael Hauge set out this model in Writing Screenplays That Sell (1988). Five turning points, near 10, 25, 50, 75 and 90 percent, cut a screenplay into six stages. An inner plot runs alongside, carrying the hero out of a protective identity toward what Hauge calls essence, and from 25% on it turns at the same marks as the outer plot.

Setup (0–10%) draws us into the hero’s everyday life until the Opportunity at 10% creates a desire. In the New Situation (10–25%) the hero reacts and forms a plan, which the Change of Plans at 25% sharpens into a specific, visible goal. Progress to 50% suggests the plan is working, and the Point of No Return at 50% burns the bridges. Complications and Higher Stakes (50–75%) build to the Major Setback at 75%, when all seems lost. Out of options, the hero risks everything in the Final Push (75–90%). The Climax at 90% decides their fate, and the Aftermath shows the new life. Beneath these beats, the hero glimpses essence before the midpoint and commits to it after, still afraid.

Hauge’s turns sit almost exactly on the three-act quarters, with extra marks at 10% and 90%; Field’s plot points come slightly earlier, at 22% and 73%. His midpoint is a full commitment, firmer than Snyder’s false victory or false defeat. The inner layer is the real distinction. It predicts a retreat to the old identity just when the outer plot asks the most of the hero, which charges the final push.

A useful first step is to set the hero’s outer goal beside their protective identity, then check every turning point against both. The Major Setback lands hardest when it drives the hero back into the old identity, so that the Climax becomes the moment they act from essence. Hauge’s numbers describe a typical film, and individual scripts drift from them, so they work best as a check in revision.