Plot points are linear links that make up the chain of traditional Aristotelian 3-act dramatic structure. This classic structure worked well in Hollywood for almost a century now. Although young movie makers are forcing the limits of this structure, plot points still rule the day as the “tent poles” that hold up of the circus of our dreams. Here are the plot points of Deceiver (1997), as I see them.

Deceiver (1997)

Starring: Tim Roth, Christopher Penn, Michael Rooker, Renee Zellweger, Ellen Burstyn
Directed by: Jonas Pate, Josh Pate, Joshua Pate
Writers: Jonas Pate (Screenplay), Josh Pate (Screenplay), Joshua Pate (Screenwriter)

ESTABLISHING SHOT: The rookie Detective Phillip Braxton walks us to a police station in South Carolina and up the stairs into a police interrogation room.

INCITING INCIDENT: Textile company heir and Princeton-educated James Walter Wayland, IQ 151, does not hide his contempt for the intelligence of the two police detectives who are administering a polygraph on him to find out the killer of a prostitute named Elizabeth.

PLOT POINT 1: Wayland reveals that he knows everything about Braxton and his gambling debt.

MID POINT EVENT: Wayland reveals that he knows the truth about the lower-class Kennesaw and the affair of his beautiful wife. Wayland's epilepsy attack is triggeredm followed by a fist fight in the interrogation room.

PLOT POINT 2: Wayland shows the video tape and irrefutable video proof of Kennesaw's relationship with the victim, Elizabeth.

3rd ACT RESOLUTION: Wayland stages his own death. A year later, we see him approaching another hooker in a dark park.