Hey Man; it's not worth it...

[Heathen72]

Hey everyone,
I've been writing a cop/buddy film and have almost finished - this is how I am thinking of ending it.

Our hero stands over the villain with his gun pointed squarely at him. The villain, a loathsome and murderous maniac who has killed hundreds (including the hero's mother, girlfriend and dog) screams at him "Do it, man... Do it!!!!" Our hero seethes with conflicting emotions - there is nothing he would like to do more than blow this scum away, but the first rule of being a cop is that you don't kill someone in custody. (You're only allowed to beat them up a little.) His eyes tighten and the sweat runs down his temple. The villain taunts him further - "You haven't got the guts!"
Our hero is on the brink of crossing the line from good guy to not-so-good guy....
But then his buddy/partner/lover (and if the subtext is anything to go by, probably all three) steps in, his voice quiet, yet steady...
"Don't man; it's not worth it."
The villain is still screaming at him, but our hero pauses, and despite his free and easy attitude with the rules, his contentious relationship with the chief, and the emotional turmoil he is undergoing, he lowers his weapon. He slowly limps away, his pride intact. The police officers move to put the cuffs on the scum. Our hero has won - won the battle with the villain, and the battle with himself. He has managed to reaffirm the values of the system, and the sanctity of human life, even that of the scum.

Then, suddenly, and who would have thought that this could happen, the villain pulls out a concealed weapon (or grabs the weapon of one of the arresting officers, or rushes the hero with his teeth bared.) The hero turns, and simultaneously with his partner, who also has a very big gun, blows the scum away!!


So what do you reckon?
I think it's the perfect ending for this sort of film. The hero makes the moral decision and gets to blow the bad guy away. Talk about getting your cake and eating it, too!
And sure, it's been done a few times, but how can you break such a perfectly conceived routine as this one? I mean some film-makers have tried - Dirty Harry taunted the villains to make them go for their gun, and don't get me started on 'Seven' - but I don't think audiences wants the officers of our noble police force acting like this. I think rogue film makers like Fincher have got it all wrong, and with any luck all Cop/Buddy films will soon end my way.

As opposed to just most of them...


What are your favourite/most hated cliches? At the movies? Around the gaming table?

 

[Nifelhein]

Make him leave and get shot, the partner shoot and the man dies... a dead man of moral...

By the way i would, if you allow me, suggest to change some portions and put actual thoughts of the cop, that would make the moral struggle stronger...

 

[Steve Jung]

Umm. Isn't this the ending for Lethal Weapon?

 

[Heathen72]

Umm. Isn't this the ending for Lethal Weapon?

Lethal Weapon, Bad Boys, and with little variation about half a dozen other cop movies. It's a stupid cliche that you think they would have got tired of by now. But no. I've edited the original post to make it a little clearer, and to make it a little more RPG relevant... Essentially - What are the cliche's in gaming? The hackneyed plot resolutions that get used and used again. Or the plot starters - the sign posted in the Tavern wall etc...

 

[Steve Jung]

Sorry. I didn't realize you were being sarcastic in the original post. Oops. As far as gaming cliches go…

Villains being powerful warriors/spellcasters
Good characters will have the same agenda as the PCs
Villains overreach in their goals. Never just want to be left alone.

 

[Kai Lord]

Hey everyone, I'm writing a romantic comedy and I think I came up with a really awesome idea.

I was thinking of having the guy and girl meet, start out not liking each other, then like each other, then the guy does something really stupid and you think its over, but then he comes back and professes his undying love for the girl in the pouring rain, and she takes him back.

Doesn't that sound awesome? I think the audience would really be kept on their toes with so many twists and turns.

 

[Heathen72]

The formula to sit-com success...

I'm also doing a new sit-com, and in it, one of the character's loses or breaks something that belongs to one of the other characters. And instead of just owning up to the owner, he lies about it, hoping that he can find it (or a replacement that looks just like it) before the owner finds out! He just gets into more and more trouble, and ends up telling bigger and bigger lies to cover up the one he told earlier. It ends up in hilarity and hi-jinks.
Mike

 

[rbingham2000]

Umm. Isn't this the ending for Lethal Weapon?

As well as Bad Boys and some other cop flicks I can mention.

If the bad guy rushes the maverick cop with his teeth bared, I think it would be a good time for the maverick cop to whip around and open up a can of unarmed whoopass on the bad guy and send him to the floor so his buddy can cuff him. A nice solid right to the face that sends him down hard would be more than sufficient.

If the bad guy pulls a gun and tries to shoot the maverick cop, his buddy can tackle him, shove him to the ground or otherwise get him the hell out of the way (and possibly take a bullet in the process). And the maverick cop can either shoot the weapon out of the bad guy's hand or take the expected route of shooting the bad guy down (which is what a cop is within his rights to do if you take a shot at him -- sad but true).

If the buddy does take a bullet, depending on where he gets hit, he might recover after a stay in the hospital (and have to wear a cast for the ending), or he might die and end the movie with a funeral. It mainly depends on the tone you want for the movie -- if it's a comedy, you'll definitely want to have him survive, though if it's a hard-edged drama, you can go either way.

 

[rbingham2000]

And now that we're talking about cliches, here's one I see a lot in action flicks.

A criminal or government agent wants out of the business. The boss hears about this and offers to let him quit if he performs one last job (one last heist, one last hit, one last sabotage run, you get the picture). Way more often than not, the employer of the criminal or government agent is using this one last job to set him up for a big fall.

The reason I came up with for why the criminal or government agent's employer would do this kind of thing is a fairly simple and logical one: he knows lots of nasty little secrets about the organization he works for through his jobs for them, nasty little secrets that the organization does not want revealed.

 

[Drakmar]

it sounds like a pretty standard ending. It's what I would expect and prolly half the world.

why not show the bad guy going to jail and imply that it won't be a very comfortable place. Dying is getting off easy. The bad guy obviously knows that.