The film shows the descent of a young black male into the underworld of what appears to be a happy, liberal white family.

It’s like Eyes Wide Shut meets Meet The Parents. 

Did those references just confuse you?

A Dangerous Blend

This type of extreme genre mix is typically a recipe for disaster. But Get Out raked in nearly a quarter billion dollars in its first quarter at the BO.

It even made it into the all-time Top 20 for R-rated films.

So what made the movie so incredibly successful?

You can read it as a piece of racial propaganda, or even as a statement that whites are inferior:

            JEREMY
Cause, with your frame, your 
genetic make-up? If you pushed
your body, I mean really trained,
you’d be a beast.

Of course, in the quote above the speaker lacks authority, and his statement is part of the prejudice.

Because of the various points of view, and the topical nature of the theme, this movie provides an incredibly fertile base for heated debate. And that’s probably one of the elements that have fueled word of mouth.

But that’s not what I wanted to talk about.

At The End Of The Day…

What I found even more interesting as a filmmaker, is the story behind Get Out’s ending.

The production had wrapped, and the film followed the original screenplay. Then test screenings showed that audiences loved the movie, yet hated the ending.

It was not a matter of making a few edits. The studio requested an entirely new ending.

Trust me, this is not typically something a filmmaker is dying to do. After all, the original ending had remained consistent with everything preceding it, and the events play out closely to what you would expect would realistically happen in the real world.

The original ending was honest and true.

The new ending is the fairy tale.

It reflects what the audiences hope would happen in a better world, or perhaps in the future.

A Diamond Patch

To put it bluntly, Jordan Peele was asked to patch an ending to his movie that – on the surface – went straight against the very narrative he had built.

He may have had no choice, because the test screenings showed that the film could have easily flopped. Steven Spielberg is rumoured to claim that the most important part of a movie is its ending as it determines how people feel when they leave the theatre – and what they’ll say about it to others.

As a first-time filmmaker, it is not inconceivable that Peele’s contract with the studio stipulated that he had to make reasonable efforts to change the script, in case audience tests indicated the need.

To my taste, this is an example of the studio – or perhaps the tests – getting it right.

Three of my all-time favourite movies – Touch Of Evil, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and Blade Runner – have had re-releases that were closer to the director’s (initial) intentions.

None of these I enjoyed better than the original studio versions.

Studios step in all the time. These stories don’t always make it into the mainstream, though. In Hollywood, only a handful of directors enjoys final cut privilege.

Of course, the studios don’t always get it right. When they do, it is important to acknowledge this, and to study the differences between the original and the release versions.

Importantly, in the case of Get Out, the release ending may not be what was intended, ultimately it is still Jordan Peele’s.

5 Reasons Why Get Out Is A Classic

I love Get Out for many reasons. In some ways, I found it structurally similar to another fairly recent horror favourite: The Invitation. With that film, the parallels go all the way down to the animal-hit-on-the-road scene, which functions as a harbinger warning.

To name a movie an instant classic however, I need more than one point of excellence. In addition to a rock-solid single POV, I would point to the following:

1. It Transcends Horror – There is a term in the industry for films that offer something beyond pure genre, and therefore appeal to an audience larger than just the fans: elevated genre. Although it is a murky concept, this film certainly falls under that banner. I have heard of viewers who took their parents to see the movie. Unless your parents are horror buffs, I reckon this phenomenon doesn’t happen too often.
2. Incredible Mastery Of Tone – The hardest thing with genre blends, is to keep the tone in check. Scenes that play in one genre don’t always gel with the other. Even when you believe the script is fairly consistent in tone, the real challenges occur on set, and ultimately in the edit. How can a horror movie be scary if you have ample comic relief? And how can a truly dark movie be uplifting? I have a theory that comedy is not a genre but a tonal scale, applied to any genre. Remember Life Is Beautiful? And despite its upbeat ending, the discerning viewer will still leave Get Out with mixed emotions.
3. A Kickass Mid Point – I often say that once you have found your mid point, you have your story. Here, the MP has two important beats: First Andre yells “Get out!”, and minutes later Chris discovers the evidence of what is going on at the Armitage’s. After a first half that was more about building tension and figuring things out, the second half has tremendous momentum, sheer unbearable suspense, and razor-sharp focus.
4. Real Characters And Amazing Performances – No room for stock-horror cliché characters. Chris’ experience evokes that of millions of Americans, and the behaviour of the whites in Get Out reflects the omnipresence and the complexity of the issue. In terms of performance, nobody who has seen the film will ever forget the chilling performance by Betty Gabriel, when her character Grandma/Georgina goes up to Chris and apologises:

               GEORGINA
   I owe you an apology. I shouldn’t
   be touching things that don’t
   belong to me.

5. The End – See above. I cannot overstate how difficult it is to get a movie’s ending right. (For Little Miss Sunshine, I believe Michael Arndt wrote ten different versions, and they shot four.)

If you are a screenwriter, read the Get Out script and compare with the final film. If you’re a filmmaker, study the movie, its theme and its tone.

If you’re neither, just watch and enjoy.

-Karel Segers

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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By Billy Mernit

“Should I try to write something personal, do you think, or should I go after a commercial, thing-that’s-gonna-sell kind of screenplay?”

It’s a question I often hear from pre-pros of all kinds, and my immediate response comes in the form of a counter-query: When someone reads the first page of a screenplay, what is the last thing this reader wants to see?

As a professional reader and a writer, nothing deadens my soul, puts my hope and imagination to sleep faster, than the sense that I’m being told One of Those Stories in the Same Old Way.  People think that studios are looking for “commercial” projects, i.e. stories deemed to be familiar, acessible, sellable.  But in truth, the studio ideal is a story that’s the same, only different.

As a professional reader and a writer, nothing puts my hope and imagination to sleep faster than the sense that I’m being told One of Those Stories in the Same Old Way

So what makes the difference?

Here’s the thing about a conventional script that’s meant to be commercial (i.e. a workman-like version of what’s already been done and what’s done all the time to fill programmer slots on a studio slate).  There are tons of established pros doing exactly that, and chances are, they’re already better at it than you are.

Sure, if you’re an aspiring screenwriter, you ought to know and understand how such standard genre fare is done.  But while writing a formulaic, by-the-books script might give you a grip on what works and what doesn’t, that one doesn’t have to be the spec script you go out with.  In fact, that’s not a script the industry needs.

What makes a script stand out from the crowd is the difference.

What makes the difference? You.

You and only you can write the story that only you know how to write, and this is where “personal” becomes key, in terms of creating a career.

What’s the difference between personal and who cares?  Personal doesn’t mean “autobiographical.” The nightmare version of “a personal project” is the script written by a struggling widget salesman from Akron that’s all about a struggling widget salesman from Akron and widgets, widgets, widgets.  It’s the equivalent of the guy with the shopping cart on Venice Boulevard getting messages from the Planet Zygon. I call these OPI specs: they come from someone’s Own Private Idaho.

Someone who understands screenwriting craft and how to keep an audience involved could make even a widget story interesting — the problem with OPI scripts is that their writers, who often aren’t really writers, aren’t really interested in creating a good movie.  They’ve just got a lot to get off their chest about widgets.

The problem with OPI scripts is that their writers, who often aren’t really writers, aren’t really interested in creating a good movie

You, on the other hand, want to tell a good story that people will respond to, and tell it well.  And how do you know that your deeply personal take on a story, told well, has a shot at getting a response from the industry?

Say you’re with some people at a restaurant.  Guy on your left wants to tell you a story about how he met his wife.  Woman on your right, when asked about her last relationship, blushes a bit and says there’s nothing to say.  When pressed, she says it’s a story, all right, but it’s not the kind of story she really can repeat.  Which story do you want to hear?

I want the unrepeatable.

What the audience wants is the secrets – the inside dope, the hidden scars, the don’t-know-whether-to-laugh-or-cry truths about what it feels like to be human.  We want to know the thing about you that’s as outrageous as the things we know about ourselves.

So instead of writing what you think is the thing that sells, try taking the risk of really owning what’s different – what’s unique – about your world and your world view.  Show us the difference.  Surprise us with your weirdness.

Personal means repeating what’s supposedly unrepeatable.  And of course the more you’re really yourself on the page when you write, the more honest you are about your point of view… the more universal your story gets.

Ultimately we’re all walking mysteries, and we’re eternally unable to be one another.  What a great movie does is give us the sensation of piercing that veil.  An unrepeatable story acknowledges how shockingly familiar our secrets and emotions are.  Your personal, passionate feelings and point of view, honestly expressed, are what’s most likely to say hello to the rest of us.

What the audience wants is the secrets – the inside dope, the hidden scars, the don’t-know-whether-to-laugh-or-cry truths about what it feels like to be human.

The mystery of what makes a person strive and thrive is one of the most primal fascinations in storytelling.  I’ll wager that the movies you love are the ones that remind you of both what you know, and reveal what you hadn’t yet comprehended, about being inside another person’s experience.

Seems to me those are the movies you’d want to write.  They’re surely the ones we really want to see.

-Billy Mernit

Billy Mernit, screenwriter, novelist, story analyst for Universal Pictures and private script consultant, is the author of Writing the Romantic Comedy and the novel Imagine Me and You.

A recipient of the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program’s Outstanding Instructor Award in Screenwriting, he teaches at schools and conferences at home in the US and abroad, and runs the popular screenwriting blog, Living the Romantic Comedy.

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Photo Credit: Chris Owens – Steven Depolo