On May 25, 2015, I posted a blog titled “The Ripple Effect in Storytelling.” I wrote about consequences in setting up a scene. I was reminded of this blog when I recently watched Ryan Reynolds’ latest Netflick movie, The Adam Project. As a longtime Reynolds fan (Two Guys and A Girl!), it was fun to follow his adventures as a pilot from the future who goes back in time and encounters his younger self.
Reynold’s character is wounded while stealing an aircraft to travel back in time. Although the bullet supposedly exited, its path was through his body, not a graze mind you, a bullet hole through flesh and organs and blood vessels–and he bleeds a lot.
While he spends some time early on tending the exterior of the wounds, he ends up in several physical encounters with no visible problem of an untreated bullet wound in his side. In The Adam Project, the screen writers forgot about the ripple effect.
What’s the ripple effect, you ask?
Well, once something is introduced into the story, it has consequences that ripple out. Imagine a pebble tossed into a pond, it hits the water and then ever widening ripples reach out to touch more area than the pebble itself touched.
Let’s look at the word consequence. It has two meanings. Consequence is something that can be the result of an action or condition. Think outcome or repercussion or aftermath. The second definition of consequence is importance or relevance. Used in that sense, words such as significance, substance, or value comes to mind.
The consequence or result of being shot is a bullet wound. What is the importance of this wound? Its relevance? We feel it has significance when we watch Reynold’s character pull his blood soaked hand away from the wound.
Thus, the writers dropped in the pebble of a gunshot wound, but they failed to truly widen the repercussions. They erased the effects of the wound.
What happened?
In the beginning, Adam the pilot is profusely bleeding as he escapes capture. He needs to find medical supplies to treat the wound. He even tells his younger counterpart that the bullet exited so he doesn’t need to worry about fishing it out. Then the remainder of the movie, it’s as if he has no bullet wound. There are no consequences. No infection, no fever, no bodily weakness from blood loss.
According to Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia:
“Gunshot wounds that pass through the body without hitting major organs, blood vessels, or bone tend to cause less damage.”
I guess this is what the writers intended, no major organs hurt, no ricocheting off a bone. But bullets still destroy tissue and blood vessels. Gun shot wounds hurt! They cause damage to the body which needs time to heal. Without the proper care, they become infected.
Wouldn’t that hurt?
At the very least, the wound would be a source of pain when someone whacked you in the side.
Yet, Reynold’s character fought valiantly against a slew of opponents, including the villain’s henchman who engaged him several times in one-on-one physical battle. Ryan’s character never flinched or displayed any disability while being pummeled, or leaping around, or bopping the bad guy.
While this lack of the ripple effect may be all well and good for an established actor, the average writer might want to think about the ripple effect’s consequences and how they impact characters when building story scenes.
The screen writers failed to give the wound a true ripple effect. It was the result of an action, but it failed the second definition when its important role in the beginning of the story fizzled out. The ripple effect of this injury never reached its true dimensions.
Don’t leave your readers wondering why a character fails to react when someone lands a punch in a body part that was penetrated by a bullet only hours earlier. Think of the ripple effect as you write your story.
