Morph Archetypes: “The audience watches an onscreen character—generally but not always the main character—go through an Outer Game adventure in order to deal with some psychological/emotional issues within themselves. They change—Morph—as we watch.”
Sandy Frank
In Sandy Frank’s book The Inner Game of Screenwriting, he writes that the three most common Morph Archetypes are Evolution, Devolution and Staying the Course:
EVOLUTION
The Evolution Archetype is the classical Hollywood ending where the main character overcomes a flaw, which leads to growth, which leads to a positive ending. Sandy writes, “Whether or not he attains the goal of the Outer Game is almost beside the point, and in different movies that can go either way. The important things is the growth expressed by the Inner Game.”
It’s easy to rattle off some of my favorite films over several decades and spanning many genres that fit this category; Rain Man, Seabiscuit, Erin Brockovich, The Verdict, Schindler’s List, Tender Mercies, Good Will Hunting, The Apartment, An Officer and A Gentleman, The Breakfast Club, Toy Story, On the Waterfront, Tootsie, The Shawshank Redemption, It’s a Wonderful Life, Wall St., Babbett’s Feast, Star Wars, The Matrix, Winter’s Bone, Casablanca.
DEVOLUTION
Sandy defines this category; “In this type of story, the main character starts out healthy, but through the course of the screenplay he Devolves or sinks, ending up at a lower level than where he was at the beginning.”
A Place in the Sun, Death of a Salesman, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Psycho, Black Swan
(Though you could question how healthy some of those main characters were at the start.)
STAYING THE COURSE
“In this Archetype, the main character neither Evolves nor Devolves—he remains essentially at the same level.”
Sandy Frank
This is an important distinction to make. People sometimes argue about who the main character of such and such a movie is and the claim is often made that the one who changes the most is the one the movie’s about. But I don’t think that’s always the case.
This weekend I watched Saving Private Ryan again and I think the main character of the story is the Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks). But he doesn’t change much through the film. But what he does do is follow the chain of command and he changes those around him. They follow his lead and accomplish their mission.
Forrest Gump, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and The Untouchables all have main characters that stay the course and change the characters around them. Superheroes in general seem to fall into the staying the course group.
Of course, this is just a sweeping overview, but a helpful way of coming at your story from a different angle. Sandy’s book (The Inner Game of Screenwriting) goes into more detail than I can in this overview, plus has some additional categories as well. Like where would you put The Wrestler?
I find that many people get caught up in the Outer ending of the story and think in terms of positive/ negative/ neutral, or up/ down/static, or happy/sad/ambiguous. But saying that Cast Away has an ambiguous ending doesn’t quite capture the inner emotional evolution that the Tom Hanks character went through in that movie.