Hidden Protagonist: Can a film survive with too big a secret?
The design is clever, the dialogue is witty… but we still need someone to root for.
When it comes to screenwriting, we can outsmart ourselves sometimes and it's important to be wary of that truth. Some structural choices are so damned clever on the page, you completely miss that those same choices might be costly in the pitch room.
Let me give you an example.
Concealing your protagonist's true identity from the audience is one of the oldest tricks in genre filmmaking. The Usual Suspects, The Third Man, and a genuine favorite of mine with zero apologies… Lucky Number Slevin. Writers make this kind of choice because it can make a third-act reveal land like a gut-punch to the audience. But cleverness has a bill that comes due somewhere in the middle of the story, and knowing when is key to nailing it!
A script that came through dev|cut.™ recently uses the 'hidden protagonist' device, and the coverage caught precisely where the bill comes due.
The script is a holiday slasher comedy in the vein of Ready or Not and Violent Night: a packed ensemble gathering that turns deadly, anchored by a protagonist whose true identity the script deliberately keeps hidden from the audience gearing up for a “WTF?! No way!” kind of reveal. The coverage came back strong but its biggest finding, I felt, was worth walking through in a Case Study because it shows up in a lot of scripts that try the same gambit.
Where it showed up. For most of Act Two, the audience doesn't really get to know who they're following. Now, to be fair, that's the point and is clearly intentional. And the concealment is doing real successful structural work, building toward a reveal. What was flagged in the coverage was the cost that comes with it… without a clear ally to hold onto in the middle of the story, the audience starts floating around characters instead of gripping. The mechanics were still working, scenes were escalating, and the threats were real (and hilariously gory). Yet, there was no steady hand to hold through the middle stretch urging us to carry on and root for someone.
The fix. The note wasn't “give up the concealment.” It can't be because the whole design depends on it working. What the real solution here is comes from giving the audience an honest emotional throughline they can hold onto, something true about this person that doesn't require knowing who they are yet. Maybe a want, a fear, a relationship – anything specific enough to root for while we're in the dark. Don't worry, the identity can still stay hidden, but the person underneath it doesn't have to.
A concealed protagonist is a device you can absolutely use and has been proven to be successful time and again. Just don't forget your audience needs someone to hold onto while they're waiting for the reveal to pay off.
Want a read this specific on your own script? Today's the last day of founding pricing. See pricing.
[Soon] The story continues… — Brian Hanford, Writer & Founder, dev|cut.™ · devcut.io
← Back to Blog