I love the scene in the beggining of the daredevil netflix series, when daredevil talks to the priest and ends the conversation saying: "I'm not seeking penance for what I have done, I'm asking forgiveness for what I'm about to do" I think that was a good hook for me on one of my favorite tv shows
@@jacobstaten2366or those books that start off really fast paced and with a lot of action and then it just slows down and you don't get an answer to your begging questions until the end-
The Matrix has my favorite opening hook ever. You're thrown into the action, but not in a bad way, showing Trinity almost getting caught by police and agents. The peak moment for me happens when she runs for the phone booth knowing a tow truck is about to demolish it. Total "wtf just happened" opening and I couldn't love it more.
best thing about that scene is that the wachowskis were given an extremely limited budget, wanted more, didn't get it, overspent just shooting that scene, showed it to the studio execs and asked for more money again, and got it.
@@wfchannel4673 And the most important, they introduced bullet time, a filming technique that hadn't been done before and turned the movie into a massive reference for years. Such a shame the Wachowsky have fallen so hard from grace since then.
I went into the movie not knowing anything about it. It was really interesting as I thought they were setting up a villain in a way. Fighting and killing cops and fbi agents, only to get away. Then it transitioned into total craziness. It was very good, going into it blind.
One of my favourites is the beginning of The Seven Samurai. A villager overhears some bandits planning of raiding the village later that year. The village elder says they should hire samurai. They have no money though, only food. So he says to hire HUNGRY samurai. It beautifully sets up the expectation of the battle to come and also makes you wonder what kind of samurai they will get, all done with humour. The first of many hooks.
My favorite movie opening is The Fellowship of the Ring. On itself it falls dangerously close to the one you showed where too much happens and there's too much information, but I love the contrast with what comes immediately after. It's like the movie is saying "While there are epic battles, magic and all that stuff in this movie, first we need to get acquainted with these wonderful people called Hobbits. Trust me bro, it'll be worth it."
I think the FOTR prologue does a brilliant job of informing the audience, because while there's a fair bit of narrative info-dumping, the big battle scene and the big Sauron reveal are laser-focused on the goal of explaining to the audience what the big threat is. They show us Sauron and his orc horde and by doing so, they make it obvious that if our heroes fail, THIS will come back. And they even focus on the ring during the big Sauron reveal, to remind you of the connection between the ring and this dark fate. It's great visual storytelling.
On this note, Peter Jackson mentioned that James Bond movies usually start with some fast high stakes action scene. When they started The Two Towers at the Balrog scene, this is what he said they were trying to emulate.
The dark knight opening on a bank robbery with events that surprise not only the audience, but also robbers. Sets us up to see that this villain knows his chess
The Big Lebowski, with one of the more intriguing character intros with the Dude at a grocery store, drinking milk while shopping, wearing a bath robe, writing a check for a purchase of less than $1, all with Sam Elliot's signature narration. Immediately made me want to know more about the Dude, and already rooting for him since he's a quirky, independent person.
I watch a lot of authortube. Your content is unique and original. When I watch your videos I know I'm going to learn something new, clearly and compactly presented.
I am a screenwriter with a bad cold. I am spending the whole week watching your videos and I feel like I am at an expensive screenwriting workshop. I am so grateful to you.
I really appreciate how you use a variety of examples to accompany your points. Sometimes abstract ideas on writing are hard for me, but you make things so clear by using movies and tv shows. Thank you!
The opening of Wall-E: great character introduction - chipper, likeable little robot going about his tidying duties in an endearing and very Disney way and yet... look around. Wall-E's world is singularly horrifying in a very un-Disney way. Immediately raises the question of what the hell happened.
Could you make a video about how to use plot armor correctly? I've seen some comics where the hero are in some dire situation and the way they got out of it is completely unrealistic and almost utterly impossible. Btw, great video as always!
I think you almost answered yourself on this one, OP. Your problem doesn't seem to be that the heroes always make it out, but that they do so in ways that break the rules of the setting or believability in general. So, give them ways to win that *do* make sense. That can be magic or gods or super tech, as long as that's part of the 'rules', as long as it's 'in the game'. Set it up beforehand, explain it afterwards, or both imo.
@@RoyalFusilier You're right. But I kinda wanna make my heroes so that they can solve the problem using their own heads and whatever is available to them, without MacGuffins or maybe relying others for help.
Ideally you don’t use it at all (sorry character number 3, you don’t make it this time) but when you really need it, don’t make a guy survive something ridiculously lethal
Hi, I'm the fifteen year old who was writing a novel, I just wanted to give an update. As of now, my novel is 310 pages long and 70,000 words. I have to write only five more chapters before I go back to revise the draft. I watch one of your videos every day before I start writing, Brandon, and its been really helping me, so I just want to thank you for making all these videos 😀
Good for you! I wish I had stuck to my writing at that age. I'm 66 now and finally nearing completion of one of my four stories I've poked around with for 20 some odd years haha!
A really unoriginal example, but my favourite movie hook is the opening scene of Goodfellas. It's classic "in media res" but it is so perfectly paced it manages to show enough of the characters for us to care about the otherwise random action/violence/punchline we witness. It also not only gives a classic twist on the "what';s in the boot?" trope that gets us intrigued to find out how we ended up there, it then delivers a punchline with "As far back as I can remember..." that subverts everything and makes us question what we assumed we knew about the mystery set up. It also subverts the stakes it has already established such that we think "I really care about how I'm going to be made to care about these ***holes I thought I cared about." So much, and so many questions, in such a short scene.
I love the hook in Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, where you have the two travelers who seem to be alone and then both of them turn around in fear as a large military force overtakes them
Favourite movie is Jurassic park, has been since it came out when I was a kid. Not sure if the opening is a great hook… but it certainly was for me. When the raptor got its first victim. Also another great part in the movie. They kept the Trex sort of hidden, then build up its introduction with impact tremors and eats the goat until finally T-Rex breaks free and is revealed with a giant roar. As part of the audience you feel like the characters would. Shit is about to get real! As a kid that party was awesome.
One of my favorite movies is Dead Poet's Society. The opening scene has a soft hook of introducing the boys and their various attitudes and parental pressures. The big hook is when they get to poetry class and Robin Williams has them rip the intro out of their text books and stand on their desks to get a "new perspective". It sets up the emotional and social conflicts so well.
Scream 1996, the opening scene absolutely hooks me with the dialogue from Drew, the killer stalking/killing her and leaving the mystery of who the killer is.
Curse of the Black Pearl set up a chain of hooks from the "what is this medallion? Who is this weirdo pirate? why did the ocean pulse when the medallion touched the water...?" it keeps you interested
Back to the Future. From the very start…and through the whole movie. I was 10 or 11. And that film hooked me. Now I am 47. Back to the future is still amazing to me.
One of my all time favorite opening lines from a novel is an immediate hook, from Stephen King's *The Gunslinger* : "The man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed." Right away, I'm wondering: Who is the man in black? Why is he fleeing? Why is the Gunslinger chasing him? Instantly, with a single sentence, King has the reader hooked. It's masterful. So much so that 30 years later I'm *still* in awe of how good an opening line it is. I opened my own graphic novel with the main character walking along a road, and being attacked by bandits whom she quickly dispatches. I wanted to establish her character right away: Strong, capable in a fight, not someone to mess with.
I didn't read the book, but I did read your comment... Right away, I'm wondering: Who is the man in black? Why is he fleeing? Why is the Gunslinger chasing him?
Im relistening to 11/22/63. It's better than I remember. Depressing, like after listening to Bazaar of bad dreams. I can't hit those notes. I think he's a better writer than Mario Ouzo. Upon relistening to the godfather,I still think it's overated. It's a god book don't get me wrong,but I came away thinking maybe I could do that. Hubris perhaps. Probably.
One of my favorite movies is RRR, and I believe it has some of the best introductions to the main characters, raising a lot of questions, making them intriguing, and they barely talk. It’s show don't tell at its finest.
Though I don't remember specific details, I still remember the very first Harlan Coben book I ever read - and I read it over twenty years ago. Called "Tell No One," it immediately hooked me with a widower whose wife has been dead for years - who then in some random context happens to see his wife alive. In that story, Coben masterfully used hook after hook after hook after hook to move through each stage of the plot development. These elements got me so strongly - I had bought the book at a store after dinner out with the family on a Friday evening, and I caught snippets of time to find out more about what the main character was doing to figure out what in the world was going on after that moment of seeing his wife alive had rocked his world. Then later in the evening after getting the kids to bed and talking with my own wife who then went to sleep, I read the next chapter, which hooked me again, so I had to read the next chapter, which hooked me again, and... before I realized it it was something like 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, and that damn Coben had just dropped another hook... next thing I knew the sun was coming up on Saturday morning and I was still reading. I finished the book later that morning - lost a night's sleep - but, wow, what a fantastic story!
Favorite movie (1 of the short list) The Matrix. When did it hook me? Before I saw it. There were billboards that simple said "What is the Matrix" then a date below. Didn't specify that this was a film or anything. I was deeply and maddeningly intrigued. Tie that in with the fact that these billboards matched the theme of the story and it becomes (in my opinion) anoth e r part of that films experience.
In movies, this type of hook or scene is called a "stinger." One of the most famous franchises that became known for their stingers was the James Bond series. The very first line and the very first paragraph of a novel are paramount. There must be an inciting incident that causes the reader to go "Hm, what is going on here?" Brandon, you are right on target with regards to your explanations, which are excellent examples of stingers. Good job of contrast by giving examples of poor hooks.
One of my most favourite hooks is from "The other guys". If you go blind into this movie, it's such a huge subversion of expectations. It also explains the title of the movie ^^ On a completely different note, There Will Be Blood. Probably one of the most monumental and heavy opening scenes I've ever seen.
That's one of the keys isn't it? The audiance knows the synopsis. How to subvert expectation then? One of the best is the first mission impossible film. The whole team, cept cruise, get killed early in act one. Never saw that one coming. I think Hitch started that with Janet Leigh? in Psycho. Topping that, group kill, is ingenious. Topping that, next to impossible. Sometimes it is impossible. Marty McFly Has to get in the DeLorean . HOW and why he gets in ,keeps the element of surprise.
It's very funny because, if you don't know about the opening, it's shocking, but if you do, you still end up surprised since you're left wondering "did I get the wrong movie?" until you finally get the answer on "why are these guys the protagonists?"
Princess Mononoke, it grabbed my attention after what seemed like a normal forest and the narrator describing the conflct between man and beast. This led me to question “what does it mean by man and beast living in harmony’” and “what gods?” Then followed up by a ginormous threatening creature with what looked like worms comsuning the entirey of the beast. That immediately got me hooked and Princess Mononoke has remained my favorite movie for so long.
I love how in guardians of the galaxy, kid quill catches your attention as soon as the story starts, and right after that he gets kidnapped by space kidnappers, it sounds pretty extreme but works for some reason.
Great video. I tend to think of only one or two types of hooks and sometimes it's hard to get those to fit the story. This definitely added more arrows in my quiver. Well done, and thanks.
My favourite film is still Airheads. Opening credits back by Motorhead and Ice T singing Born to Raise Hell, then starts with Brendan Fraser riding a motorcycle to a record company office.
The opening sequence of Demolition Man is effing amazing. A police stand-off at night, search lights, the main character fast-roping to a building, kicks a bunch of henchman-ass, then confronts the villain. The sequence ends with the building blown sky-high...and I think we're at the 3-minute mark. Holy shit.
Love the idea of multiple hooks that relate because of course not every hook will catch to resonate with all readers. Yet, eventually readers could come around to an unfavorable hook with some kneading. Great video.
So many good hooks out there, it’s hard to pick just one so I’m going to go with the first hook I ever experienced. I was maybe 6 when I first saw Ghostbusters. The librarian going down into the basement of the library, strange things start happening like floating books, eventually we have the librarian running from something we never see until the thing chasing her catches up, scream, wind blowing, bright lights, cue the title. I was a ghostbusters fan for life after that.
My all time favorite movie is and always will be Jurassic Park. There are three major events in the film that hooked my attention. I had a good attention span for a six year old, but still, it's not easy to hook a child's attention like the way the movie caught mine. 1. The unknown thing in the box. We all knew the movie was about dinosaurs. We can see something in the box, but we don't know what it is. We learn from this that it is dangerous and wants to harm people, but we also want to learn what it is. It establishes fear as much as it establishes intrigue. This scene also sets the whole movie in motion, and regularly refers back to this inciting incident. 2. The science behind how the dinosaurs were engineered. For me, even though looking back on this with today's knowledge the science is not really accurate, at the time it was fascinating. A lot of people hate the movie's explanation of the engineering, but I love how it is tied directly into the environment. Mr. DNA is obviously intended for, as Hammond put it, the target audience (kids), but it's the delivery that's most important to that scene. The characters are shown reacting to it as well, asking questions, being amused, etc. We aren't given an explanation through lengthy dialogue, and instead through the tour the main cast are getting. 3. Nedry. His character adds a very interesting aspect to the story as well as his conflict with Hammond. We all want to know how this is going to play out. We know he's the villain but we want to see what he's gonna do anyway.
You always give me plenty to think about. My story's opening scene is admittedly busy and I'm working to avoid the infodump problem. It does occur to me that while the two characters, one of them a main character, are speaking, they know what they're talking about already and won't go into exhaustive detail. You've made me realize that if I craft the conversation correctly, it could set up this world while raising questions for the reader. At least, that's what I hope to achieve.
I'm so surprised you don't have more views and subs. I'm not even a writer, but I love watching your videos. You're such a great orator without all the "uhmms' and "uhhhs" and you have a good tone to your voice along with interesting content. Even though I don't write I've learned quite a bit about story telling I never knew went on behind the scenes. Keep up the good work!
I'll probably take some flak for this seeing as this particular movie is almost universally despised but I love the intro in M. Night Shamahalamina...'s 'The Happening.' Just these unexplained instances of people starting to behave oddly and then ending themselves. Book-wise, one of the best hooks is from a Dean Koontz novel, the title of which escapes me, but it opens with two lovers out hiking and climbing either a bird watching tower or a forest fire watchtower and the man's thinking about how much he loves his girlfriend and how perfect she is and then he pushes her off the tower, killing her. It's the first page, it comes out of nowhere, it was so well done.
The opener of Casino Royale is one of my favorites. Establishes the tone of the film, the style of Bond that Craig will be playing along with his level of experience. It tells us everything we need to know with minimal dialogue and an amazing and brutal fight scene
I quite love John Wick movies, they sort of created am entire world around the idea of this main character being an unstoppable force. Think of the first movie, while the audience doesn't see John Wick do anything *yet*.... During the whole set up you see every other character prepare and be frightful of what they are expecting will happen. I think that makes the audience so curious to see what's coming next, why is every other character in the movie afraid of John Wick?
The opening lines of Pitch Black with Vin Diesel comes to mind: "They say most of your brain shuts down in cryo-sleep. All but the primitive side, the animal side. No wonder I'm still awake." - It immediately raises tension and makes you wonder, who, how, what, where... In addition to giving quite a bit of exposition at the same time.
I deeply appreciate your examples! The way my brain works, I learn almost exclusively by example. I keep coming back to your videos for clearly illustrated points.
I have anumber of favorite movies that hooked me from the beginning. Here's 3 to name a few. 1. The opening scene of Jaws...the Buoy that lingers in the ocean and the pov underwater shot of the girl swimming. 2. The opening scene of A Soldier's Story. The sargent on his knees laughing in his drunkenness "they still hate you" before he is shot dead. 3. The Warriors. The clamatic buildup with all the gangs in NYC traveling to the bronx for the big rally in meeting Cyrus. "can you count suckers...the future is ours if you can count" that speech set the mood of the entire story.
My favorite movie is Patton. The opening monologue in front of the giant American flag pulls you in to the larger-than-life character of General Patton immediately.
The end of the first episode of Ozark is a great example of a hook. I wasn’t sure what the show was going to be about and when the episode ended I was hooked and super invested.
Ozarks hooked me in the first 10 minutes of episode 1. The scene with Jason Bateman watching a video on his work computer Completely shocked and surprised me and the show continued to do so through the first several episodes.
My favorite opening sentence: "When I got over to Leonard's Christmas Eve night, he had the Kentucky Headhunters turned way up over at his place, and they were singing "The Ballad of Davy Crockett," and Leonard, in a kind of Christmas tradition, was once again setting fire to the house next door." Joe R. Lansdale, The Two-Bear Mambo
Better Call Saul, the opening scene watching Jimmy practice in the bathroom, it was an amazing scene showcasing his dedication to the craft, and we as the audience already knew his path in breaking bad, so it's a great hook where it's not the end that's making us curious but rather the journey. The immediate scene focuses on Jimmy's preparation and it raises the first question, "Is this case somehow connected to BB, does something happen here? Is this relevant?" And as the case is done and it seems minor you realize how different Jimmy is from the Saul yet you see elements of Saul, brief elements of him within the scene, so without hooking us in the plot, it hooked us with the character, it showed a different person, a person I didn't see in Breaking Bad. I was hooked all the way till the end, loved the show, personally for me it was better than BB
I may be a little late, but the best opening hook I've ever seen so far is in Death Note's episode 2. The ending of the second episode had me sucked in the series like no other, in that moment I had decided I'd watch all of it for good. I strongly recommend you watch it, it's one of the most entertaining series in its entirety and one of the best you'll ever see
Dark City had a great opening that made you care about the main character and also wonder what the heck is going on. Very underrated Sci-Fi flick that should get more attention. The ride gets a little janky along the way, but still one of my favorites!
The Movie Frailty is not even a perfect excample for a good hook, it´s actually a really good thriller with a great way to fool his audience and still delivers a good script and satisfies the audience. WATCH IT!
Casablanca. Arguably the greatest film of all time, kicks off with an info dump. But it's in the style of a news narrator and it tells a small story of desperation ... and then the film plunges you into an otherworldly exotic locale.
GOT thrones with Bran being thrown out the window after witnessing incest is not only a great hook but a great way to show what you're about to get into.
One of my favorite hooks is at the beginning of Ghost in the Shell (1996). It starts with the assassination of a foreign government official and demonstrates the rivalry between Section 6 and Section 9, which tees off the main conflict of the movie. Then you’re dropped into an “in media res” chase scene with the main characters trying to track down a hacker. It’s short, beautifully animated and serves as a great adaption of the original source material.
One of my favorite movies is Oldboy (the original Korean movie). The whole movie is composed of hooks inside other hooks!! 😅 The beginning of the movie is very impactful - presenting something unexpected that raises questions, but the rest of the movie uses all of the other types of hooks. If anybody who is reading my comment never watched that movie, it's definitely a watch if you want to learn about good storytelling. Edit: I forgot to say that it is a R-rated movie, very disturbing in many ways, lightyears worse than Breaking Bad. Definitely not for the faint-hearted.
The advice against infodumping made me think of one movie. Alone in the dark (the 2005 movie). It literally starts with several screens of text exposition. It actually had me laughing out loud at the end, especially as it got more and more ridiculous. That movie was unintentional comedic gold.
Sometimes a movie hooks me just by style. Example: Crying Game. The film opens with the song "When a Man Loves A Woman" and we are under a bridge at a distance - a slow camera pan creates interest and tension as we wonder what will happen here? Then we meet a man and woman, apparently having fun at the fair and seemingly going to pop off someplace and have sex - only then we see they are being watched and then the man is kidnapped. A great opening - I was hooked in the first few seconds.
Favorite movie is Logan, and it hooked me right at the beginning, when Logan tried to scare off the gang jacking his car and his claws come out all messed up. And then that absolutely excellent fight kicks off and i was sold. Its the best kind of action - one that marries character, story, and world building altogether
My all time favourite movie is The Sting. The moment the mob courier opened up the handkerchief to reveal a bunch of paper I knew it was going to be a fun film
Nice memories of that. An old free standing cinema. I hardly had an incline what was going on but I enjoyed it anyway. Pa said he spotted a plot hole though.
My favorite movie is Iron Man, and the scene that caught my attention was the infamous missile test scene. The swagger of Tony Stark, the demonstration of his character and the visual effects definitely get you into the story about this playboy turned superhero.
There Will Be Blood has probably my favorite intro. No dialogue, only the soundtrack and physical acting by DDL tells you so much about the main character and the setting
my favorite movie is spirited away, and it caught my attention right away as chihiro mentions that she never got a bouquet of flowers, as indeed i have ALSO never been gifted a bouquet of flowers
I love the scene in the beggining of the daredevil netflix series, when daredevil talks to the priest and ends the conversation saying: "I'm not seeking penance for what I have done, I'm asking forgiveness for what I'm about to do" I think that was a good hook for me on one of my favorite tv shows
Agreed! Same! I love the Priest character very much too.
And then it takes half the season for anything interesting to happen because each season should have just been a movie.
@@jacobstaten2366or those books that start off really fast paced and with a lot of action and then it just slows down and you don't get an answer to your begging questions until the end-
@@jacobstaten2366Literally so wrong Wtf
@@eliminator1472 so you like low budget filler? Pretty much every season of every Marvel show is guilty of it.
The Matrix has my favorite opening hook ever. You're thrown into the action, but not in a bad way, showing Trinity almost getting caught by police and agents. The peak moment for me happens when she runs for the phone booth knowing a tow truck is about to demolish it. Total "wtf just happened" opening and I couldn't love it more.
And that scene is especially usefull for getting us to sit through the longer (more) boring scenes introducong Neo. Just an amazing movie)
best thing about that scene is that the wachowskis were given an extremely limited budget, wanted more, didn't get it, overspent just shooting that scene, showed it to the studio execs and asked for more money again, and got it.
@@wfchannel4673
And the most important, they introduced bullet time, a filming technique that hadn't been done before and turned the movie into a massive reference for years. Such a shame the Wachowsky have fallen so hard from grace since then.
I went into the movie not knowing anything about it. It was really interesting as I thought they were setting up a villain in a way. Fighting and killing cops and fbi agents, only to get away. Then it transitioned into total craziness. It was very good, going into it blind.
One of my favourites is the beginning of The Seven Samurai. A villager overhears some bandits planning of raiding the village later that year. The village elder says they should hire samurai. They have no money though, only food. So he says to hire HUNGRY samurai. It beautifully sets up the expectation of the battle to come and also makes you wonder what kind of samurai they will get, all done with humour. The first of many hooks.
And then sell them overpriced food.
Yeah that movie is awesome.
I think MATRIX is a good example of how stylish an action scene without context has to be to hook an audience.
My favorite movie opening is The Fellowship of the Ring. On itself it falls dangerously close to the one you showed where too much happens and there's too much information, but I love the contrast with what comes immediately after. It's like the movie is saying "While there are epic battles, magic and all that stuff in this movie, first we need to get acquainted with these wonderful people called Hobbits. Trust me bro, it'll be worth it."
I think the FOTR prologue does a brilliant job of informing the audience, because while there's a fair bit of narrative info-dumping, the big battle scene and the big Sauron reveal are laser-focused on the goal of explaining to the audience what the big threat is. They show us Sauron and his orc horde and by doing so, they make it obvious that if our heroes fail, THIS will come back. And they even focus on the ring during the big Sauron reveal, to remind you of the connection between the ring and this dark fate. It's great visual storytelling.
@@michaelwong9411 And it's narrated by Cate Blanchett, who is allowed to info dump as much as she wants in my book.
@@LordBaktor Oh yeah. She can do no wrong. And "Thor Ragnarok" did the world a service by showing us what Goth Cate Blanchett would look like.
On this note, Peter Jackson mentioned that James Bond movies usually start with some fast high stakes action scene. When they started The Two Towers at the Balrog scene, this is what he said they were trying to emulate.
The dark knight opening on a bank robbery with events that surprise not only the audience, but also robbers. Sets us up to see that this villain knows his chess
The Big Lebowski, with one of the more intriguing character intros with the Dude at a grocery store, drinking milk while shopping, wearing a bath robe, writing a check for a purchase of less than $1, all with Sam Elliot's signature narration. Immediately made me want to know more about the Dude, and already rooting for him since he's a quirky, independent person.
I watch a lot of authortube. Your content is unique and original. When I watch your videos I know I'm going to learn something new, clearly and compactly presented.
Thank you so much. Thrilled to hear these videos are making a difference
Do you know more youtubers like him who teaches correct method on fiction writing?... Would be glad If I knew.
Check out Ellen Brock's channel
Thank you guys for suggesting me
Agreed. These videos are always great and helpful!
I am a screenwriter with a bad cold. I am spending the whole week watching your videos and I feel like I am at an expensive screenwriting workshop. I am so grateful to you.
“The Thing” contains literally some of the best film writing of All Time.
I hope you're referring to the original.
@@dolnick7 common now,.. let’s be serious
I really appreciate how you use a variety of examples to accompany your points. Sometimes abstract ideas on writing are hard for me, but you make things so clear by using movies and tv shows. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Watching your videos feels like getting university-level lectures for free. You're doing god's work here my friend :D
Haha thanks!
Nah for real coz I'm bout print the points out and paste them on my wall. God's work, indeed.
Amadeus has a great hook with Salieri claiming he murdered Mozart. Raises many questions and sets up the story.
such an excellent film. just saw for the first time a few months ago...truly exceptional.
LOVE that movie! Need to watch it again!
Great hook. I agree.
The opening of Wall-E: great character introduction - chipper, likeable little robot going about his tidying duties in an endearing and very Disney way and yet... look around. Wall-E's world is singularly horrifying in a very un-Disney way. Immediately raises the question of what the hell happened.
Could you make a video about how to use plot armor correctly? I've seen some comics where the hero are in some dire situation and the way they got out of it is completely unrealistic and almost utterly impossible.
Btw, great video as always!
Thanks for the request! I'll add it to my list
I think you almost answered yourself on this one, OP. Your problem doesn't seem to be that the heroes always make it out, but that they do so in ways that break the rules of the setting or believability in general. So, give them ways to win that *do* make sense. That can be magic or gods or super tech, as long as that's part of the 'rules', as long as it's 'in the game'. Set it up beforehand, explain it afterwards, or both imo.
His video about dues ex machinas is very similar to this, maybe check it out and see if it answers what you want to know
@@RoyalFusilier You're right. But I kinda wanna make my heroes so that they can solve the problem using their own heads and whatever is available to them, without MacGuffins or maybe relying others for help.
Ideally you don’t use it at all (sorry character number 3, you don’t make it this time) but when you really need it, don’t make a guy survive something ridiculously lethal
Hi, I'm the fifteen year old who was writing a novel, I just wanted to give an update. As of now, my novel is 310 pages long and 70,000 words. I have to write only five more chapters before I go back to revise the draft.
I watch one of your videos every day before I start writing, Brandon, and its been really helping me, so I just want to thank you for making all these videos 😀
Keep writing ✍️ 💪💪💪when you're done, if you need a beta reader, let me know
Good luck! One of my favourite series of novels was written by an author who was 15 when he started, so keep it up!
Good for you! I wish I had stuck to my writing at that age. I'm 66 now and finally nearing completion of one of my four stories I've poked around with for 20 some odd years haha!
A really unoriginal example, but my favourite movie hook is the opening scene of Goodfellas. It's classic "in media res" but it is so perfectly paced it manages to show enough of the characters for us to care about the otherwise random action/violence/punchline we witness. It also not only gives a classic twist on the "what';s in the boot?" trope that gets us intrigued to find out how we ended up there, it then delivers a punchline with "As far back as I can remember..." that subverts everything and makes us question what we assumed we knew about the mystery set up. It also subverts the stakes it has already established such that we think "I really care about how I'm going to be made to care about these ***holes I thought I cared about." So much, and so many questions, in such a short scene.
I love the hook in Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, where you have the two travelers who seem to be alone and then both of them turn around in fear as a large military force overtakes them
Favourite movie is Jurassic park, has been since it came out when I was a kid.
Not sure if the opening is a great hook… but it certainly was for me. When the raptor got its first victim.
Also another great part in the movie. They kept the Trex sort of hidden, then build up its introduction with impact tremors and eats the goat until finally T-Rex breaks free and is revealed with a giant roar. As part of the audience you feel like the characters would. Shit is about to get real!
As a kid that party was awesome.
When you said that the superman scene will alienate someone I laughed so hard 'cause Clark is Kryptonian 😂. 👽
Hahaha! Pun not intended--I swear
One of my favorite movies is Dead Poet's Society. The opening scene has a soft hook of introducing the boys and their various attitudes and parental pressures. The big hook is when they get to poetry class and Robin Williams has them rip the intro out of their text books and stand on their desks to get a "new perspective". It sets up the emotional and social conflicts so well.
Scream 1996, the opening scene absolutely hooks me with the dialogue from Drew, the killer stalking/killing her and leaving the mystery of who the killer is.
Curse of the Black Pearl set up a chain of hooks from the "what is this medallion? Who is this weirdo pirate? why did the ocean pulse when the medallion touched the water...?" it keeps you interested
Memento has probably my favorite opening hook ever.
Back to the Future.
From the very start…and through the whole movie. I was 10 or 11. And that film hooked me. Now I am 47. Back to the future is still amazing to me.
Mine’s Oppenheimer. The text that appears on screen at the very beginning had me completely hooked
One of my all time favorite opening lines from a novel is an immediate hook, from Stephen King's *The Gunslinger* : "The man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed."
Right away, I'm wondering: Who is the man in black? Why is he fleeing? Why is the Gunslinger chasing him? Instantly, with a single sentence, King has the reader hooked. It's masterful. So much so that 30 years later I'm *still* in awe of how good an opening line it is.
I opened my own graphic novel with the main character walking along a road, and being attacked by bandits whom she quickly dispatches. I wanted to establish her character right away: Strong, capable in a fight, not someone to mess with.
I didn't read the book, but I did read your comment... Right away, I'm wondering: Who is the man in black? Why is he fleeing? Why is the Gunslinger chasing him?
Im relistening to 11/22/63. It's better than I remember. Depressing, like after listening to Bazaar of bad dreams. I can't hit those notes. I think he's a better writer than Mario Ouzo. Upon relistening to the godfather,I still think it's overated. It's a god book don't get me wrong,but I came away thinking maybe I could do that. Hubris perhaps. Probably.
One of my favorite movies is RRR, and I believe it has some of the best introductions to the main characters, raising a lot of questions, making them intriguing, and they barely talk. It’s show don't tell at its finest.
Though I don't remember specific details, I still remember the very first Harlan Coben book I ever read - and I read it over twenty years ago. Called "Tell No One," it immediately hooked me with a widower whose wife has been dead for years - who then in some random context happens to see his wife alive. In that story, Coben masterfully used hook after hook after hook after hook to move through each stage of the plot development. These elements got me so strongly - I had bought the book at a store after dinner out with the family on a Friday evening, and I caught snippets of time to find out more about what the main character was doing to figure out what in the world was going on after that moment of seeing his wife alive had rocked his world. Then later in the evening after getting the kids to bed and talking with my own wife who then went to sleep, I read the next chapter, which hooked me again, so I had to read the next chapter, which hooked me again, and... before I realized it it was something like 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, and that damn Coben had just dropped another hook... next thing I knew the sun was coming up on Saturday morning and I was still reading. I finished the book later that morning - lost a night's sleep - but, wow, what a fantastic story!
Favorite movie hook: beginning of Goodfellas, where the opening scene ends with Henry Hill saying, "all my life, I wanted to be a gangster."
Favorite movie (1 of the short list) The Matrix. When did it hook me? Before I saw it. There were billboards that simple said "What is the Matrix" then a date below. Didn't specify that this was a film or anything. I was deeply and maddeningly intrigued. Tie that in with the fact that these billboards matched the theme of the story and it becomes (in my opinion) anoth e r part of that films experience.
11:44 Cavil's deleted mustache is the most distracting thing in that scene...
In movies, this type of hook or scene is called a "stinger." One of the most famous franchises that became known for their stingers was the James Bond series. The very first line and the very first paragraph of a novel are paramount. There must be an inciting incident that causes the reader to go "Hm, what is going on here?" Brandon, you are right on target with regards to your explanations, which are excellent examples of stingers. Good job of contrast by giving examples of poor hooks.
Wasn't aware of the term "stinger"--thanks for cluing me in!
One of my most favourite hooks is from "The other guys". If you go blind into this movie, it's such a huge subversion of expectations. It also explains the title of the movie ^^
On a completely different note, There Will Be Blood. Probably one of the most monumental and heavy opening scenes I've ever seen.
That's one of the keys isn't it? The audiance knows the synopsis. How to subvert expectation then? One of the best is the first mission impossible film. The whole team, cept cruise, get killed early in act one. Never saw that one coming. I think Hitch started that with Janet Leigh? in Psycho. Topping that, group kill, is ingenious. Topping that, next to impossible. Sometimes it is impossible. Marty McFly Has to get in the DeLorean . HOW and why he gets in ,keeps the element of surprise.
It's very funny because, if you don't know about the opening, it's shocking, but if you do, you still end up surprised since you're left wondering "did I get the wrong movie?" until you finally get the answer on "why are these guys the protagonists?"
Princess Mononoke, it grabbed my attention after what seemed like a normal forest and the narrator describing the conflct between man and beast. This led me to question “what does it mean by man and beast living in harmony’” and “what gods?” Then followed up by a ginormous threatening creature with what looked like worms comsuning the entirey of the beast. That immediately got me hooked and Princess Mononoke has remained my favorite movie for so long.
I love how in guardians of the galaxy, kid quill catches your attention as soon as the story starts, and right after that he gets kidnapped by space kidnappers, it sounds pretty extreme but works for some reason.
“7 psychopaths” by Martin Mc Donagh has one of the best, cost-effective, Tarantino-esque openings ever.
Great video. I tend to think of only one or two types of hooks and sometimes it's hard to get those to fit the story. This definitely added more arrows in my quiver. Well done, and thanks.
I feel like hooked openings get no better than “Touch of Evil.” Really the noir genre slays this most often for me.
How to train your dragon’s opening was crazy. The shift from peaceful island village to DRAGONS! FIRE! MORE DRAGONS!
My favourite film is still Airheads. Opening credits back by Motorhead and Ice T singing Born to Raise Hell, then starts with Brendan Fraser riding a motorcycle to a record company office.
1408 is probably my favorite horror movie. “It’s an evil fucking room.”
The opening sequence of Demolition Man is effing amazing. A police stand-off at night, search lights, the main character fast-roping to a building, kicks a bunch of henchman-ass, then confronts the villain. The sequence ends with the building blown sky-high...and I think we're at the 3-minute mark. Holy shit.
Shawshank Redemption. Hooked me when we saw Andy’s cold dead eyes in the court room.
Simplicity is the best.
In LIFEBOAT they hooked us by starting with a scene of a ship sinking. GOOD JOB!
Love the idea of multiple hooks that relate because of course not every hook will catch to resonate with all readers. Yet, eventually readers could come around to an unfavorable hook with some kneading. Great video.
The opening few scenes of lord of war are PERFECT.
So many good hooks out there, it’s hard to pick just one so I’m going to go with the first hook I ever experienced. I was maybe 6 when I first saw Ghostbusters. The librarian going down into the basement of the library, strange things start happening like floating books, eventually we have the librarian running from something we never see until the thing chasing her catches up, scream, wind blowing, bright lights, cue the title. I was a ghostbusters fan for life after that.
My all time favorite movie is and always will be Jurassic Park. There are three major events in the film that hooked my attention. I had a good attention span for a six year old, but still, it's not easy to hook a child's attention like the way the movie caught mine.
1. The unknown thing in the box. We all knew the movie was about dinosaurs. We can see something in the box, but we don't know what it is. We learn from this that it is dangerous and wants to harm people, but we also want to learn what it is. It establishes fear as much as it establishes intrigue. This scene also sets the whole movie in motion, and regularly refers back to this inciting incident.
2. The science behind how the dinosaurs were engineered. For me, even though looking back on this with today's knowledge the science is not really accurate, at the time it was fascinating. A lot of people hate the movie's explanation of the engineering, but I love how it is tied directly into the environment. Mr. DNA is obviously intended for, as Hammond put it, the target audience (kids), but it's the delivery that's most important to that scene. The characters are shown reacting to it as well, asking questions, being amused, etc. We aren't given an explanation through lengthy dialogue, and instead through the tour the main cast are getting.
3. Nedry. His character adds a very interesting aspect to the story as well as his conflict with Hammond. We all want to know how this is going to play out. We know he's the villain but we want to see what he's gonna do anyway.
As someone who is writing my first book currently, your content helps so much. Thank you for doing what you do
You always give me plenty to think about. My story's opening scene is admittedly busy and I'm working to avoid the infodump problem. It does occur to me that while the two characters, one of them a main character, are speaking, they know what they're talking about already and won't go into exhaustive detail. You've made me realize that if I craft the conversation correctly, it could set up this world while raising questions for the reader. At least, that's what I hope to achieve.
I'm so surprised you don't have more views and subs. I'm not even a writer, but I love watching your videos. You're such a great orator without all the "uhmms' and "uhhhs" and you have a good tone to your voice along with interesting content. Even though I don't write I've learned quite a bit about story telling I never knew went on behind the scenes. Keep up the good work!
I'll probably take some flak for this seeing as this particular movie is almost universally despised but I love the intro in M. Night Shamahalamina...'s 'The Happening.' Just these unexplained instances of people starting to behave oddly and then ending themselves.
Book-wise, one of the best hooks is from a Dean Koontz novel, the title of which escapes me, but it opens with two lovers out hiking and climbing either a bird watching tower or a forest fire watchtower and the man's thinking about how much he loves his girlfriend and how perfect she is and then he pushes her off the tower, killing her. It's the first page, it comes out of nowhere, it was so well done.
I love almost all of his movies. He's really creative, great at hiding things under your nose. That movie was creepy good.
The opener of Casino Royale is one of my favorites. Establishes the tone of the film, the style of Bond that Craig will be playing along with his level of experience. It tells us everything we need to know with minimal dialogue and an amazing and brutal fight scene
That hooked Daniel Craig as my favorite Bond instantly
Well, it's iconic the intro of Harry Potter, with these strange old people doing magic and talking of a child we don't
I quite love John Wick movies, they sort of created am entire world around the idea of this main character being an unstoppable force. Think of the first movie, while the audience doesn't see John Wick do anything *yet*.... During the whole set up you see every other character prepare and be frightful of what they are expecting will happen. I think that makes the audience so curious to see what's coming next, why is every other character in the movie afraid of John Wick?
Whole John Wick Movie is a Hook!
@@theautomationistwhole series is awesome. 1 and 4 are the best, though
The opening lines of Pitch Black with Vin Diesel comes to mind: "They say most of your brain shuts down in cryo-sleep. All but the primitive side, the animal side. No wonder I'm still awake." - It immediately raises tension and makes you wonder, who, how, what, where... In addition to giving quite a bit of exposition at the same time.
LOVE that movie!
I deeply appreciate your examples! The way my brain works, I learn almost exclusively by example. I keep coming back to your videos for clearly illustrated points.
I have anumber of favorite movies that hooked me from the beginning. Here's 3 to name a few.
1. The opening scene of Jaws...the Buoy that lingers in the ocean and the pov underwater shot of the girl swimming.
2. The opening scene of A Soldier's Story. The sargent on his knees laughing in his drunkenness "they still hate you" before he is shot dead.
3. The Warriors. The clamatic buildup with all the gangs in NYC traveling to the bronx for the big rally in meeting Cyrus. "can you count suckers...the future is ours if you can count" that speech set the mood of the entire story.
“GOT” has a great beginning hook, “Gladiator” and “Gangs of New York” also.
My favorite movie is Patton. The opening monologue in front of the giant American flag pulls you in to the larger-than-life character of General Patton immediately.
Havnt seen much of it. Enjoyed the MAD parody. ' Put on'
I know you probably dont want to dip into the Jurassic Park well again, but man that was a great prologue and hook.
Jaws. Indy. Star Wars. Ghostbusters. Terminator. Aliens.
The late 70s through early 90s. Good times.
Nice to see frailty in this, underrated movie in my opinion
The first scene in The Matrix - AMAZING hook right off the bat.
The end of the first episode of Ozark is a great example of a hook. I wasn’t sure what the show was going to be about and when the episode ended I was hooked and super invested.
Ozarks hooked me in the first 10 minutes of episode 1. The scene with Jason Bateman watching a video on his work computer Completely shocked and surprised me and the show continued to do so through the first several episodes.
I was legit hooked after the opening scene of Breaking Bad.
I absolutely love The Thing - the opening made me ask so many questions when i first watched it. Cant get enough!
My favorite opening sentence:
"When I got over to Leonard's Christmas Eve night, he had the Kentucky Headhunters turned way up over at his place, and they were singing "The Ballad of Davy Crockett," and Leonard, in a kind of Christmas tradition, was once again setting fire to the house next door."
Joe R. Lansdale, The Two-Bear Mambo
Better Call Saul, the opening scene watching Jimmy practice in the bathroom, it was an amazing scene showcasing his dedication to the craft, and we as the audience already knew his path in breaking bad, so it's a great hook where it's not the end that's making us curious but rather the journey.
The immediate scene focuses on Jimmy's preparation and it raises the first question, "Is this case somehow connected to BB, does something happen here? Is this relevant?"
And as the case is done and it seems minor you realize how different Jimmy is from the Saul yet you see elements of Saul, brief elements of him within the scene, so without hooking us in the plot, it hooked us with the character, it showed a different person, a person I didn't see in Breaking Bad.
I was hooked all the way till the end, loved the show, personally for me it was better than BB
I may be a little late, but the best opening hook I've ever seen so far is in Death Note's episode 2. The ending of the second episode had me sucked in the series like no other, in that moment I had decided I'd watch all of it for good. I strongly recommend you watch it, it's one of the most entertaining series in its entirety and one of the best you'll ever see
Opening scene... Dark Night, Momento, and Fury Road. From the top of my head.
Opening scenes of Gladiator, Casino Royale, Troy, all have great hooks
Favorite film is The Dark Knight, and it grabbed me in the first 30 seconds.
Toombstone is one of my favorites. The wedding scene and Doc Holliday's intro. Two scenes show how wild the Wild West was...
Dark City had a great opening that made you care about the main character and also wonder what the heck is going on. Very underrated Sci-Fi flick that should get more attention. The ride gets a little janky along the way, but still one of my favorites!
It's funny how I first wrote my book, then I watched your videos and I feel I did an even greater job than I expected.
The Movie Frailty is not even a perfect excample for a good hook, it´s actually a really good thriller with a great way to fool his audience and still delivers a good script and satisfies the audience. WATCH IT!
Casablanca. Arguably the greatest film of all time, kicks off with an info dump. But it's in the style of a news narrator and it tells a small story of desperation ... and then the film plunges you into an otherworldly exotic locale.
GOT thrones with Bran being thrown out the window after witnessing incest is not only a great hook but a great way to show what you're about to get into.
The movie "get out" is a great example. I had to watch it twice though to grasp scenes I had misunderstood.
I just watched that last night, wow, it was so bizarre but so good.
I like the beginning of Howl's Moving Castle. Sophie is so mild mannered and polite, then you have book accurate Howl fly away with her. So wonderful!
One of my favorite hooks is at the beginning of Ghost in the Shell (1996). It starts with the assassination of a foreign government official and demonstrates the rivalry between Section 6 and Section 9, which tees off the main conflict of the movie. Then you’re dropped into an “in media res” chase scene with the main characters trying to track down a hacker. It’s short, beautifully animated and serves as a great adaption of the original source material.
Abercrombie 1st prologue in The Blade Itself starts with a fight scene and that hooked me.
Jaws has a great opener. Immediately sets the tone and establishes the threat.
One of my favorite movies is Oldboy (the original Korean movie). The whole movie is composed of hooks inside other hooks!! 😅 The beginning of the movie is very impactful - presenting something unexpected that raises questions, but the rest of the movie uses all of the other types of hooks.
If anybody who is reading my comment never watched that movie, it's definitely a watch if you want to learn about good storytelling.
Edit: I forgot to say that it is a R-rated movie, very disturbing in many ways, lightyears worse than Breaking Bad. Definitely not for the faint-hearted.
Please more breaking bad videos
Haha you got it
Thanks, Brandon.
I love the content of your videos, and I love how you explain. Very well done 👏
Thanks! Glad the videos are helping
The advice against infodumping made me think of one movie. Alone in the dark (the 2005 movie). It literally starts with several screens of text exposition. It actually had me laughing out loud at the end, especially as it got more and more ridiculous. That movie was unintentional comedic gold.
Yep, 90-second-long infodump! I actually talked about it in my Bad Prologues video
Reminds me of Space Balls and the really really really long spaceship.
Dune 1984. But i like it.
Sometimes a movie hooks me just by style. Example: Crying Game. The film opens with the song "When a Man Loves A Woman" and we are under a bridge at a distance - a slow camera pan creates interest and tension as we wonder what will happen here? Then we meet a man and woman, apparently having fun at the fair and seemingly going to pop off someplace and have sex - only then we see they are being watched and then the man is kidnapped. A great opening - I was hooked in the first few seconds.
the classic sci-fi TV show the Prisoner hooks you in right from the outset
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
_When Janet gets starts to sing_ ❤
“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”
Mic drop
Actually, that's been done :D
Episode 1 of Mad Men is a great hook from the start to the surprising end, and sets up all of the great conflicts and struggles facing Don Draper.
Favorite movie is Logan, and it hooked me right at the beginning, when Logan tried to scare off the gang jacking his car and his claws come out all messed up. And then that absolutely excellent fight kicks off and i was sold. Its the best kind of action - one that marries character, story, and world building altogether
My all time favourite movie is The Sting. The moment the mob courier opened up the handkerchief to reveal a bunch of paper I knew it was going to be a fun film
Nice memories of that. An old free standing cinema. I hardly had an incline what was going on but I enjoyed it anyway. Pa said he spotted a plot hole though.
This was so helpful. Thank you so much.
Thrilled to hear it. Thanks for watching!
My favorite movie is Iron Man, and the scene that caught my attention was the infamous missile test scene. The swagger of Tony Stark, the demonstration of his character and the visual effects definitely get you into the story about this playboy turned superhero.
There Will Be Blood has probably my favorite intro. No dialogue, only the soundtrack and physical acting by DDL tells you so much about the main character and the setting
my favorite movie is spirited away, and it caught my attention right away as chihiro mentions that she never got a bouquet of flowers, as indeed i have ALSO never been gifted a bouquet of flowers