Blog Prompt #8

Stand By Me, the movie based on Stephen King's novella "The Body", is the classic coming-of-age story of four best friends. In Act I, which Professor Ramierez-Berg told us was also referred to as the introduction and lasts about thirty minutes, does exactly that. In Stand By Me, the four best friends decide to go search for a dead body by Back Harlow Road after Vern (Jerry O'Connell) hears his older brother talking about it. Vern then tells his friends Chris (River Phoenix), Gordie (Wil Wheaton), and Teddy (Corey Feldman) and they all decide to find the missing kid's dead body and become 'heroes'. The four friends set out on the two day journey, on foot nonetheless, to find this body. In Act I, they also show the lives of all the friends and their personalities so the viewer gets a feeling of all the characters in this introduction piece. Plot point one or mini-climax one occurs at 27' when the friends are passing through the local Junkyard and the Junkyard owner sees them. Vern, Chris, and Teddy have made it over the fence and Gordie, who has just returned from the store is running to get away from the owner and his dog, Chopper. After Gordie successfully scales the fence, the Junkyard owner comes up to the fence and starts yelling at the kids and threatening to call their parents. This is a mini-climax because the argument becomes so heated that they have to drag Teddy away which escalated the stakes of the movie and also served as an 'act-ender' for that act.

(L to R): Gordie, Vern, Teddy, and Chris



In Act II, the longest Act and also known as the Complication piece, the friends continue on their way to Back Harlow Road in search of Ray Brower's (the missing kid) body. In this complication piece, the kids are almost run over by a train going over a bridge, the boys have to sleep in the woods and stand guard one at a time because of the terrifying noises they hear, Chris opens up to Gordie about his behavior while Vern and Teddy are sleeping, the boys have to take a shortcut across a body of water that is unknowingly teeming with leeches and Gordie faints when he pulls a huge, bloody leech out of his underwear. After the leech incident, they all question if they should go back or not and Gordie decides that they have to finish their journey. The four friends finally reach Back Harlow Road and begin a sweep of the surrounding for Ray Brower. At 70', Plot Point Two occurs when the boys find the body of Ray Brower knocked out of his Keds and under some brush. Plot Point Two, in this case, implies complication because the boys have finally found the body and are unsure about what to do with it.

Ray Brower's Body



In Act III, the Resolution Act, Gordie begins to freak out about death. Previously in the movie, we learned that Gordie's older brother Denny (John Cusak) had died in a Jeep accident and his parents still had not been able to pick up the pieces of their lives. Gordie is slowly coming unraveled and Chris sees this, so he sends Vern and Teddy to find branches to make a stretcher. Chris consoles the crying Gordie and tells him that his dad doesn't hate him, he just doesn't know him. It's a very emotional scene which is interrupted by the other gang of Ace and Eyeball showing up. The Cobras gang (Ace, Eyeball & Company) try to tell the boys to get lost and that they're going to be the heroes. Chris refuses to leave and tells Ace some horrible things about his mother and so Ace responds by pulling out his switchblade. He approaches Chris and is about to strike when Gordie fires the gun. This is Plot Point Three which happens at 76'. This is the Climax of the movie, which is then followed by the resolution. The climax is the height of action in the movie. Everything is stopped when Gordie fires the gun. The Cobras decide to leave and the boys resolve to leave an anonymous message with the police as to where Ray Brower's body was. The boys make their way back to their homes in Castle Rock. After this, the viewer is submerged into the 'present', which is the narrator's life. He is writing this story when we come upon him, as Gordie the man with children of his own. He is typing his last lines (instead of narrating it), "I never had any friends later on lik the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" And the movie ends with Gordie taking his son and his son's friend to the pool.

The Cobras