What is the Central Dramatic Question, and why is it essential to your movie?
If you don't have this crucial element of your story in place, your script is very unlikely to hook a reader's attention at the beginning and retain it until the last page.
Welcome to my Weekly Email Newsletter! Every Friday I do a deep dive into an aspect of the craft and business of screenwriting from a literary manager’s perspective.
As a literary manager, I read a lot of screenplays.
Scripts from potential clients who want me to represent them. Scripts written by current clients who want feedback before we take their material to market. And of course, I read the screenplays of movies that I love. One of the best ways to learn about what works in a script is to read tons of examples of really strong scripts.
A disclaimer: The thesis statement of today’s post is that your script needs a Central Dramatic Question that hits a certain standard of specificity and clarity.
However, there are a ton of films out there that are exceptions.
Many movies don’t have a strong or clear CDQ.
Also, many of them do, but writers don’t yet know how to spot them.
I am not interested in hearing about examples you find in the wild that disprove this specific structural theory.
Please ignore my advice if your script is entertaining readers from beginning to end.
Ignore my advice if your readers are forwarding your script to agents, managers, producers, and friends that they know, saying “You have got to check out this amazing script I just read. You’ll love it.”
Ignore my advice if producers and/or studios have had their lawyers send you offers to buy your script, take it off the market, and finance its production.
Clearly, what you are doing is working. Keep it up.
But if your script isn’t opening doors for you, or if people keep telling you, “it’s great!” but then they don’t actually want to move forward with it, then something isn’t working.
It’s worth examining your understanding of screenplay structure. Revisit your current script and check to see if you have a Central Dramatic Question.
If you don’t know what that is, read on and I will explain!
Part 1: The Question
First, let’s define the CDQ:
The Central Dramatic Question is the plot question that your audience starts asking at the beginning of the movie that is answered definitively on screen by the end of it.
Here are the characteristics required of a Central Dramatic Question:
It is definitive and answerable.
Once the audience gets the answer, everyone will be crystal clear on what it is. It is not up to interpretation. We all agree.1
It is specifically related to the events of the story, not universal or general.
When the audience asks the question at the beginning, they have a reasonable expectation that it will be answered for them by the end.
It is launched by the end of Act One.
Here is what a Central Dramatic Question is not:
A theme: “What does it mean to truly love a person?”
Unquantifiable: “How much does Amy really love her husband?”
Unanswerable: “Will Michael’s mother ever truly be happy?”
Ambiguous: “Why is such a rich man so unhappy?”
Overly complicated: “Will Jessica successfully burn all the trees in the forest down before the Fire Department uncovers that her alternate personality has demonic powers that she received during her trip to hell when she was in 4th grade?”
Here are some examples:
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991): Will Clarice find Buffalo Bill before he kills again?
BRING IT ON (2000): Can the Toros win a national championship with new choreography?
LEGALLY BLONDE (2001): Will Elle successfully win back her boyfriend?
KILL BILL (2003): Will the Bride succeed at killing Bill?2
INSIDE OUT (2015): Will Joy and Sadness restore Riley’s core memories before all her personality islands are destroyed?
GERALD’S GAME (2017): Will Jessie escape from her handcuffs?
KNIVES OUT (2019): Who killed Harlan Thrombey?
THE MENU (2022): What does Chef Slowik have planned for tonight’s diners?
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (2022): Will Evelyn successfully defeat Jobu Tupaki and bring balance back to the multiverse?
Put simply, there are two common versions of a Central Dramatic Question:
Will the main character achieve their goal?
What is the answer to the mystery?
Why does a story need a Central Dramatic Question?
Many writers make the mistake of thinking that if they write interesting characters, exciting events, or funny jokes, their audience will stick around to keep watching those things.
Make no mistake: All those elements are also essential to a movie. We can get into Proof of Concept, Promise of the Premise, or Set Pieces in another article.
But the CDQ, whether the audience realizes it or not, is the reason your viewer wants to keep watching all the way until the end.
They become invested in sticking around until they find out the answer.
To find the Central Dramatic Question of a movie, do the following:
Pick a film you have never seen before. (Make sure it’s a good one!)
Check the running time.
Instruct a trusted family member to march into the room exactly halfway through the movie and interrupt your viewing by abruptly turning off the TV.
Are you annoyed at them? Do you want to turn the TV back on? (If not, you should have picked a better movie).
If you want to keep watching, ask yourself: Why? What is it, specifically, that you want to find out the answer to? What are you hoping to see by the very end?
You can also do this by yourself. Pause a movie at the end of Act One.
Ask, “Why do I want to keep watching? What do I want to find out by the end?”
If your script isn’t working, it might be because your audience doesn’t have a clear plot reason to keep turning the page until they finish reading it.
How to launch the question:
Once you know what the Central Dramatic Question of your movie is, you need to make sure that your audience is asking it as quickly as possible.
This is essential because as soon as your audience “buys in,” they become invested in getting to the end of your film.
Most CDQ’s are launched as the result of an Inciting Incident.
If you’ve read any other screenwriting theory, you should know by now that at the beginning of your movie, your character is in their normal world, convinced that they are happy. Then tragedy strikes.3
The character’s response to that tragedy is the goal that determines the CDQ for the rest of the film.
Let’s do some breakdowns from the examples we’re already working with:
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
(click here for access to the original screenplay)
Inciting Incident - FBI trainee Clarice Starling is tasked by FBI Agent Jack Crawford with compiling a psychological profile of one Hannibal Lecter: “I want you to go after him today, in the asylum.” (p3)
In this scene we also get the context that there is a serial killer out there: “On the walls: maps charts, and screaming newspaper headlines (‘Buffalo Bill Claims 5th Victim’, ‘FBI: Still No Leads on Buffalo Bill.’)4 Most prominent of all is a row of five enlarged black & white photos - the faces of young women, taken from life.” (p1)
The Central Dramatic Question is launched definitively, with clarity, in a conversation towards the end of Act One (on page 26):
CLARICE: What do you mean by “fledgling killer”? Are you saying he’s killed again?
DR. LECTER: I’m offering you a psychological profile of Buffalo Bill, based on the case evidence. I’ll help you catch him, Clarice.
CLARICE (almost a whisper): You know, don’t you? Tell me who murdered your patient.
DR. LECTER: All good things to those who wait. I’ve waited, Clarice. But how long can you and Jack…? Our Billy must already be searching for that next special lady. (a beat; then, genially) Clarice… smile! We’re going to be partners.
Remember what we listed as the CDQ for this movie:
Will Clarice find Buffalo Bill before he kills again?
(The partnership with Hannibal Lecter is the “How”, which we can get into in a separate lesson).
INSIDE OUT
(click here for access to the original screenplay)
Inciting Incident - Riley’s family is moving. This is the first event that disrupts the status quo of the story and starts giving the Emotions new problems that push their capabilities to their limits.
This is further complicated by Sadness accidentally corrupting a core memory (p11).
The Central Dramatic Question is launched when Joy tries to meddle with the forming of a sad core memory and gets physically expelled from Headquarters (p44):
Joy grabs the core memories and jumps out of the dumpster. She sees GOOFBALL ISLAND, silent and dark.
JOY: Goofball island.
Joy surveys the islands beyond. They’re all dark.
SADNESS: Hoh… Riley’s Islands of Personality. They’re ALL down! This is bad.
JOY: We— we can fix this. We just have to get back to Headquarters, plug the core memories in, and Riley will be back to normal.
Joy and Sadness hurry towards headquarters.
SADNESS: Riley has no core memories, no personality islands, and no— (gasp)
JOY: What? What is it?
SADNESS: You! YOU’RE not in headquarters. Without you, Riley can’t be happy. We gotta get you back up there.
The goal is clear, and the reason it’s important is also clear:
Will Joy and Sadness make it back to Headquarters with the core memories?
(Another big hook here, the world-building, is one of the big “promises of the premise” and a reason the plot can come in so late. We can get into this into a separate lesson too).
KNIVES OUT
(click here for access to the original screenplay)
The Central Dramatic Question isn’t always goal-driven. It doesn’t have to be a yes or no question.
Sometimes the question is a mystery.
But here’s the trick: Even in a mystery, the answer must still be specific, external, and answerable. That’s why murder mysteries work so well.
Inciting Incident - The discovery of the dead body (p1):
The door swings open and Fran sees:
HARLAN THROMBEY himself. 85 years old. Slung across a white leather day bed.
Throat slit. Drenched in blood. Very much dead.
This also immediately launches an inherent question: Who is the murderer?
But that of course isn’t enough to get an audience invested in the answer.
The question doesn’t truly become compelling until we meet all the suspects and meet the mysterious detective who has been hired to solve this case under mysterious circumstances.
We also get the context that the murder victim was an author famous for writing the kinds of stories that this story is. And that he loved games and viewed everything as a game.
So by the time we get to p30, the question is clear:
BLANC: You’ve been very patient my friend, and you are right, none of these weak alibis and domestic squabbles answer your question: why is Benoit Blanc here? But now I will tell you why. (beat) I am here because this morning someone dodged one very important question.
LIEUTENANT ELLIOTT: Who?
BLANC: Me. Linda asked who hired me.
LIEUTENANT ELLIOTT: So who hired you?
BLANC: I. Do. Not. Know. An envelope of cash showed up at my apartment yesterday, with the news clipping of Thrombey’s death.
TROOPER WAGNER: An envelope? That worked?
BLANC: An envelope of cash.
Blanc indicates with his fingers - several inches thick.
BLANC: So somebody suspects foul play, but goes through this ha cha dance of hiring me, of staying anonymous. It makes no damn sense. Compels me though.
At this point, the viewer has aligned themselves with Blanc. The whole thing feels like a puzzle. And viewers love a puzzle.
So we’re compelled too:
Who killed Harlan Thrombey?
(If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll note that the answer to this question is the same as the sub-question, “Who hired Benoit Blanc?” One directly supports the other).
We’re excited to watch Benoit Blanc solve the puzzle, but we also want to be the ones to solve it first.5
THE MENU
(click here for access to the original screenplay)
The Central Dramatic Question of a horror film is often a combination of the previous types of examples. A little bit mystery, a little bit goal, a little bit promise of the premise.6
But you don’t want your audience’s experience of the movie to be passive.
A passive experience is a series of events.
An active experience is leaning in, excited about the puzzle to be solved.
Inciting Incident - Margot’s presence on the island. If Tyler’s previous date hadn’t bailed on him, Chef Slowik’s plan would have gone off with zero complications. We learn this when she first steps on to the island and is greeted by the wrong name (p12).
And the audience wouldn’t have an outsider representing our perspective as we experience how ridiculous this world is.
This film does also ask a specific plot question. It’s launched on p13:
ELSA: Welcome to Hawthorne. You are all part of an enormously special evening. First of all, we recognize it is not easy to secure a reservation at our restaurant. (smiles) That alone makes you pretty special, doesn’t it?
The group laughs nervously.
ELSA: But tonight is not like other nights. Tonight’s menu will be different. Unusual. Tonight we will tell you a story we’ve never told before. And one we’ll never tell again. So let me warn you now: Wonderful surprises await you all.
The question we’re asking is:
What does Chef Slowik have planned for tonight’s diners?
This is touched upon again on p33:
TYLER: Next level bad-assery. The way he weaves in historical allegories. The game is trying to guess what the over-arching theme of the entire meal is going to be. You won’t know till the end.
But I’ll admit, this isn’t that interesting of a question.
It starts to get a little interesting with the personalized tortillas. We start to realize, “This isn’t a normal restaurant, and tonight’s experience is not a normal real.”
But the movie really hooks its claws into you with the full stakes at the midpoint, the third course, on p51.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
(click here for access to the original screenplay)
Although this movie has a complicated world and premise, the plot itself is simple.
Our main character is given a mission, and what takes us to the end is the high stakes attached to whether or not she’ll accomplish it.
Inciting Incident - Evelyn’s status quo is disrupted on p16 when in the elevator Waymond becomes a completely different person and tells her, “Do not go into the janitor’s closet” and uploads the Alternative Life Path scan into her brain.
But the question is crystallized on p40 after we have gotten clarity on the rules, stakes, and backstory of this world and its verse-jumping premise:
ALPHA WAYMOND: This is the Alphaverse’s mission: To take us back to how it’s supposed to be. But that begins with finding the one who can stand up to Jobu’s perverse shroud of chaos. One who believes in truth and order.
EVELYN: And you think that’s me?
ALPHA WAYMOND: Why else would we risk everything to get you out of here?
Just because the question is launched and the threat is specified does not mean Act One is over. This movie in particular has a lengthy Act One.
But it does give your audience a plot to hold on to. And when the plot is clear, the creativity can come through in the action sequences and set pieces.
Part 2: The Answer
The answer to your Central Dramatic Question comes as close to the end of the film as possible, ideally at the climax.
Like the CDQ itself, your Answer should have the following characteristics:
When it happens, your audience understands exactly what the answer is.
The Answer is experienced on screen as part of your movie.
If your movie does not answer the Central Dramatic Question, your audience will walk away from the film unsatisfied.
Now, this might be the effect that you want to have on your audience.
Many filmmakers have an artistic objective of making their audience feel angry, dissatisfied, or annoyed at the conclusion of their movie.
This is a valid choice to make.
But if you don’t intend for this to be your reader’s reaction, make sure you satisfy the audience by answering the question that they have been longing for.
Here are the crystal clear answers to the previous examples I gave:
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991): Will Clarice find Buffalo Bill before he kills again? - YES
BRING IT ON (2000): Can the Toros win a national championship with new choreography? - NO (But they do get 2nd place with a routine that they are proud of).
LEGALLY BLONDE (2001): Will Elle successfully win back her boyfriend? - YES (But she doesn’t want him anymore, so she turns him down).
KILL BILL (2003): Will the Bride succeed at killing Bill? - YES
INSIDE OUT (2015): Will Joy and Sadness restore Riley’s core memories before all her personality islands are destroyed? - NO (But they co-create a new core memory + island for Riley together).
GERALD’S GAME (2017): Will Jessie escape from her handcuffs? - YES
KNIVES OUT (2019): Who killed Harlan Thrombey? - Technically, Harlan did, in fact, kill himself. (But Ransom tried to kill him).
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (2022): Will Evelyn successfully stop Jobu Tupaki and restore balance to the multiverse? - YES
The parenthetical with some of these answers hints at a separate structural tool here: the Internal Arc (which goes along with Thematic Question). Those are outside the scope of today’s specific discussion, but they are something we can talk about later.
Is this on its own enough to make a screenplay interesting?
Of course not!
If you read the full screenplays I’ve linked to above, you will noticed many different questions sprinkled throughout. What keeps an audience’s attention long enough to even get to the Central Dramatic Question? What keeps an audience’s attention long enough to get to the Answer?
There are many other tools and techniques used to craft a compelling journey.
The CDQ is just one of them.
But it is a foundational one. It’s only once you know what you’re building towards that you can start employing other techniques that will make your reader want to keep turning the page.
After all, how can you get them to buy into your story if you aren’t even clear on what you’re asking them to buy into?
Common Mistakes Regarding the Central Dramatic Question:
Mistake #1: Answering it too quickly.
Your Central Dramatic Question should be answered as close to the ending of the script as possible.
Most writers choose to answer it at the climax. Otherwise, why would your reader have any incentive to keep going?
Mistake #2: Changing the question midway through your script.
For a cohesive emotional experience, you want your reader tracking on one primary question from beginning to end.
There can be sub-plots and sub-questions, but they should be serving your Central Question. There can be a conflicting Internal Need, but your character will learn to grow and accept it through their pursuit of that Central Dramatic Question.
If your main character keeps changing their goal, then your reader will lose interest because it’s clear that none of these goals are that important to the character in the first place.
And it means that none of them are big enough to sustain a whole movie’s worth of story. When that’s the case, you don’t have a movie.
You just have a series of loosely related events.
Mistake #3: Having too many questions.
You should have one Central Dramatic Question for your movie.
You absolutely need smaller questions as well. But these should contribute to or escalate against our experience of that bigger one.
A movie can’t be about too many things. Otherwise, it’s about nothing. Find what makes one story interesting. Don’t try to shove a bunch of different stories into the same film.
They won’t have room to breathe, and therefore your audience won’t get invested in any one of them.
Mistake #4: Misidentifying the question.
The Central Dramatic Question can be anything you want.
But you have to make sure that your audience is actually asking that question when they’re reading. When I do script consultations, I almost always ask the writer what the intended Central Dramatic Question of their script is. Sometimes I can tell from the script what I think the writer wanted it to be. Many times, that’s not actually what I am interested in as a reader.
It’s the writer’s job to launch a question in a way that makes the reader interested.
If you fail that, then the reader isn’t having the experience you intended. This means that somewhere along the line, you’ve left out crucial pieces of information.
Mistake #5: Calling it a Central Dramatic Question when it’s actually your Theme.
Many times I ask writers what the Central Dramatic Question of their movie is, and they’ll say something like, “Can love really conquer all?”
Don’t get me wrong: Theme is essential to your story. But it’s a completely different ingredient than plot. They support each other. Your script is meaningless without a Theme.
But a Central Dramatic Question is specific to the actions playing out on screen. If your Central Dramatic Question can apply to anyone (not just your main characters), then it’s not a CDQ, it’s a theme.
Now it’s your turn:
Think about one of your favorite movies.
Write down what you think the Central Dramatic Question is and what the Answer is. Then go back and re-watch the film (or better yet, find the screenplay for it!) What is the exact moment the question was launched for you as the viewer? Meaning, what did you see and hear on screen that made you genuinely want to know the answer?
For bonus points, post your breakdown in the comments!
Please do not post Answers to CDQ’s from movies that came out after 2015. We are courteous about spoilers here1
Want to know how the Central Dramatic Question works in television?
Tune in next Friday for another deep dive with a whole new set of examples—This time from TV!
There are edge cases that violate this rule. I’m not going to go into examples here, but perhaps at a later date I’ll talk about the films that violate the rules of the CDQ and why they are (or aren’t) effective. For now, at this stage of your learning, I strongly suggest focusing on learning and following this rule. Only once you can consistently successfully employ it do I recommend playing around with breaking it.
As a self-proclaimed Quentin Tarantino scholar, it is my assertion that Kill Bill is a single movie composed of Volumes 1 and 2 rather than a movie and its sequel. Thus, I conceive of them as one story, of which Volume 1 is the first half.
I’m being dramatic here. It doesn’t have to be a literal tragedy. But it should feel tragic, in that moment, to the character. The event has to be big enough to shatter their world and get them out of their rut.
This movie came out over 30 years ago. In today’s market, I highly recommend finding a more interesting way to convey backstory than newspaper clippings. It’s too overdone at this point and feels like a hackneyed trope. But in a pinch, it is efficient.
Does this movie have the most satisfying Answer? I could argue that the answer is so convoluted that in trying to be surprising, there was no way an audience could have solved it themselves. The best Answers are ones in which the pieces were right there in front of us all along, but we still didn’t guess it. That wasn’t the case in this movie. But it made $312 million at the box office, so what do I know?
For example, in a movie like The Substance, the Central Dramatic Question is, “How badly is this going to go for her?” The Answer: [See Act Three].