In the Line of Fire 8 pages
"To be honest, no. But it's my job." -- Clint Eastwood as Frank Horrigan
Wolfgang Petersen took the post-Dallas Secret Service guilt complex and built a two-man cat-and-mouse around it. Clint Eastwood, sixty-three at the time of shooting, plays the only active agent who ever lost a president; John Malkovich, in his Oscar-nominated turn, plays the would-be assassin who calls himself "Booth" and keeps the question of whether Frank Horrigan would actually take a bullet in the foreground for the entire film. Jeff Maguire's screenplay turned a one-line premise into a $187 million hit and one of the cleanest examples of the better-tools-sufficient redemption arc in 1990s mainstream cinema.
Film & Story
In the Line of Fire (1993) is the central hub.
Analysis
- Plot Structure (In the Line of Fire) — Two Approaches reading: better-tools-sufficient redemption arc, with the Washington rooftop as midpoint and the Bonaventure ballroom as climax.
- Backbeats (In the Line of Fire) — the film in 40 beats, structured by the Two Approaches rivets.
- The Bonaventure Ballroom Climax (In the Line of Fire) — the strict-mission-test climax page: Frank's step into the line of fire at b34b.
All Pages
- Backbeats (In the Line of Fire)
- Cast and Characters (In the Line of Fire)
- In the Line of Fire (1993)
- Plot Structure (In the Line of Fire)
- Plot Summary (In the Line of Fire)
- The Bonaventure Ballroom Climax (In the Line of Fire)
- two-paths-reasoning-in-the-line-of-fire
- two-paths-structure-in-the-line-of-fire