- Home
- Screenplay Structure Summaries
- Congo Structure
Congo Structure
- Details
- Related products
- Customer feedback
- Related
Congo is an adventure screenplay with a straightforward Quest structure. The goal is to find out who attacked a team of geologists looking for industrial diamonds in the Congo and rescue the survivors - if there are any. The script has a corrupt industrialist who sends the rescue expedition more for greed than altruism (similar to Alien). The story also brings together oddball members with useful capabilities and resources (a mercenary and an ex-CIA agent), or to simply add mystery and threat (Herkemer). The unique aspect of the script is that the rescue expedition gains a unique 'Side-Kick' or 'Buddy' in the form of Amy, a gorilla that is able to communicate verbally through a computerized sign language translator. It is no secret that the geologists were attacked by gorillas and the audience will predict that the rescue expedition will too. But, note how the Lost City of Zinj is used to explain mystery of how the gorillas became so violent. Act I is a useful lesson in how to plausibly bring the expedition members together even though few have met before (similar to 1960 version of The Lost World). Act II is the journey to the Lost City of Zinj, while Act II is the attacks and escape from the gorillas.