Something dies at this point in every story. Page
75 is the “All Is Lost” beat, that moment when it looks
like everything is not only lost, but gone forever. And it is! What
we are charting here is this truism: “All stories are about
transformation.” We have seen that heroes start one way and
end another — that’s the point of showing them one way
in the Opening Image and the opposite in the Final Image.
We’ve also seen that at Midpoint there’s no turning
back. The pressure really is on; the pace accelerates. All of this
is about forcing the hero to change. And to change he has to die.
Not literally! But something about his old beliefs has to.
That’s what real change is, and what All Is Lost forces, when
the hero is “worse off than when this movie started”
because he is stripped of everything he had before that made him
feel safe. “All Is Lost” is where all mentors go to
die! Why? Because for the hero to win, he must slough off
everything that’s held him back. And that sometimes includes
the mentors who’ve helped him come this far, who now must
leave their pupil to go the rest of the way on his
own.
