Three Acts on the Quick

Hollywood loves the three-act structure. This narrative technique is so commonplace that most movie-going audiences can follow it in their sleep. And based on the number of people we spied sleeping in the theater last time, we're not entirely sure we're exaggerating here.

The three-act structure is like this: the first act gives you the setup for the film; the second act provides the confrontation, the action, the suspense; and the third act brings everything to a conclusion after the climax. Simple enough, right?

Men in Black gives into Hollywood peer pressure and follows this structure to tell its tale. The first act has the set-up. We're introduced to the Men in Black and Kay brings Jay into their ranks as a trainee. Jay learns about their history and the aliens currently living on planet Earth. Also, an alien bug crash lands on planet Earth and skins a farmer in upper state New York. Typical.

The second act is the confrontation. After learning the Bug's on Earth, Kay and Jay try to track him down. Their investigation leads them to Rosenberg and the Galaxy. The second act ends in the climax when the bug gets the upper hand, acquiring both the Galaxy and Laurel as a hostage.

Act three brings everything to resolution. The Bug tries to escape from Earth on a UFO borrow from Queens, but Jay and Kay shoot it down. They defeat the Bug by way of weaponized indigestion, and Kay reveals that Jay's being trained as his replacement. Kay reunites with his wife, Jay becomes a full-fledged Man in Black, and Laurel joins him as his partner.

Happy endings all around. Roll credits.

The Quick and the Comedic

In the "Metamorphosis of Men in Black" feature, Director Barry Sonnenfeld said that "comedy likes momentum and speed." The advantage to the three-act structure is that it allows the film to move right along because audiences are so familiar with it. The result is a movie that can move speedily from joke to joke, scene to scene, and the audience can follow it even with all the crazy sci-fi cars, skin-wearing aliens, and mind-erasing shenanigans.

Consider this: In one scene, Jay helps an alien birth a squid baby in the background while Kay speaks with its father in the foreground about aliens leaving the city due to suspicious new arrivals. We then cut to a scene showing Kay and Jay in the city browsing the "hot sheets" for tips in the case. Then we cut to a scene of the two of them driving up to Edgar's house to question Beatrice.

That's a lot of different locations, situations, and jokes coming at you rapid-fire. But events happen in chronological order, no flashbacks or dream sequences to confuse things. Thanks to the three act structure, Sonnenfeld can move between scenes and let the comedy find its natural rhythm without worrying of leaving the audience in the narrative dust.