The Dilemma

Should I stay or should I go?

That’s pretty much how I like to think of the dilemma moment. Whatever the inciting incident set in motion, the dilemma brings to the forefront. The dilemma is also known as the seventeen-minute point because in a two-hour movie, the dilemma tends to hurl itself onto the screen at seventeen minutes in. Here, the stick of dynamite explodes and the protagonist faces an unavoidable moment of questioning: to reject, or accept, the invitation to go on the quest.

In STAR WARS IV: A NEW HOPE, the inciting incident, as we have seen, consists of R2D2 revealing part of Leia’s message to Luke. However, the stick of dynamite explodes when R2 plays back the whole message for Obi-Wan, revealing the Empire’s drive to destroy the rebellion and their only hope. Unless the plans concealed in the R2 unit reach Alderaan and Leia’s father discovers some kind of weakness in the Empire’s weapon system, the rebellion will be wiped out.

Luke now finds himself in the midst of the conflict. Obi-Wan invites him to travel to Alderaan to deliver the plans. The old Jedi Master goes so far as to explain Luke’s father was also a Jedi Knight, who knew the ways of the Force. As proof and a final nudge, Obi-Wan gives Luke his father’s old light saber—the weapon of the Jedi. (If you’ve read Christopher Vogler’s Writer's Journey, you’ll recognize that the light saber is Luke’s talisman. Meanwhile, Luke’s mentor figure, Obi-Wan, plays the role of threshold guardian.)

Like all heroes, Luke resists the call. He can’t possibly go to Alderaan. His uncle needs him; the harvest’s coming; there’s too much work to be done at home. How far we have come from that opening dinner scene when Luke squabbled with his uncle about not being able to go to the academy! Dreaming about being a great fighter pilot and going to the academy is, to be fair, a whole lot simpler than finding oneself smack in the middle of war and in possession of plans the Empire is seeking to retrieve at all cost.

What we witness in this scene is the conflict between Luke’s internal stakes (Will he become a Jedi Knight? Will he answer that call to greatness?) and the external stakes, embodied by the all-powerful Empire, poised to quash the rebels like insects. Luke faces, very literally, a dilemma. What should he do? Should he stay or should he go? At the first opportunity, Luke retreats.

Let’s consider another example. In GLADIATOR (2000), the inciting incident is Marcus Aurelius’s charge to Maximus: Become the protector of Rome, rule in Commodus’s place and give Rome back to the people. Let Rome be restored to her glory and be a Republic once more. Maximus’s desire to return home and see his family stands in direct opposition to his call to go to Rome and take a stand for the future of the great city in which he believes. The fuse is lit. Of course, General Maximus refuses the call and the emperor gives him until nightfall to think it over. Oh hesitation, at what cost you come! During those few hours, Commodus learns Maximus is to rule in his place, murders his father and claims the throne.
 

Maximus’s dilemma occurs when the new emperor summons him. Suspense is at an all-time high. Will Maximus pledge allegiance to Commodus? Or will he smell a rat? To make matters worse, Maximus has already made up his mind to serve Marcus Aurelius and go to Rome. (We know this because he tells his slave, Cicero, they may not be able to go home after all.) But it’s too late. The disjuncture between what we know, and what the protagonist knows, fuels the suspense. We’ve seen Commodus kill Marcus Aurelius with our very own eyes. Thus, while Maximus is surprised to find himself face to face with a new emperor, we are not.

The setting opens up an opportunity for the audience to focus, instead, on what is central to the story: Maximus’s reaction to the events. Commodus presents his hand and ring, asking for Maximus to declare his allegiance…but the general refuses it and goes to his quarters to arm himself. Although Maximus hesitated when he was presented with the inciting incident, he responds decisively at the so-called seventeen-minute point, or dilemma. But it’s too late. The die is cast. That’s the stuff of which great tragedies—and great underdog heroes—are made.

Here’s another way to think of the dilemma. The inciting incident shakes things up, but like all of us, the protagonist may not respond eagerly to change. Perhaps, even, she just doesn’t understand yet the significance of the inciting incident. After all, she’s experiencing the events as they unfold. As I’ve already pointed out, the protagonist has no idea what’s coming next. Something may seem different at the inciting incident, but it’s only upon looking back that the protagonist would be able to say, “That’s where it all started, right there.”

The dilemma, on the other hand, makes the events of the inciting incident palpable and unavoidable. There’s no denying that everything is changing. Still, the protagonist doesn’t make the leap right into the abyss and the unknown. What’s different and significant is that she can no longer avoid the changes taking place around her. The decision—the commitment to move forward in the story—looms just around the corner. The protagonist must come to terms with the invitation into the adventure of the story world. She may resist at first, but eventually something’s going to happen to make that resistance futile. That something creates the dilemma. The protagonist can no longer put off making a decision. She must face the reality that a choice must be made.

As you now understand, the inciting incident and dilemma work together to create tension. Remember, the goal is for tension to increase gradually over the course of the story. That’s what we call rising conflict. So the call to adventure must be even more pressing at the dilemma than it was during the inciting incident. Keep in mind also that your job is always to show and not tell. Your protagonist cannot tell us how she is feeling or that danger is imminent. Instead, we must see it. This means that the inciting incident and dilemma will most likely be set in motion by external circumstances that affect the protagonist. Your job, as a writer, is to figure out how your protagonist reacts. That’s one of the foundational elements of every scene.
 

At its most basic, a scene consists of a setup (i.e., what is going on at the beginning of the scene) followed by an event to which the protagonist reacts or refuses to react. (Refusal is an action in and of itself.) Then the other characters in the scene react to the protagonist’s reaction. Or vice-versa. We’ll have plenty of occasions to dig deeper into the art of crafting scenes. For now, let’s round out the day with an exercise.

© SJ Murray, 2018