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The 3 Levels of Antagonism And How To Use Them In Your Script

Discover which one of these antagonists is perfect for your story's hero.
by Emily J on October 16, 2024

It is often said that your hero is only as good as your villain. But bringing antagonism to life on the page is harder than it seems. One great villain can be the thing audiences walk away talking about more than anything else. It’s been almost 15 years since The Dark Knight was released in theaters and Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker is still considered one of the greatest of any on-screen villains.

But the Joker wasn’t the only antagonist in that film, and it was that mountain of force that Christian Bale’s Batman was up against that made the character’s emotional journey so compelling.

Your goal is to make your hero feel as though their goal is insurmountable, no matter what genre you’re writing. One of the simplest ways to approach your script to ensure you have great conflict is by leaning into the three major areas of antagonism.

The “forces of antagonism” are discussed in-depth by Robert McKee in his infamous seminars, webinars, and books. This is an entrance into what they are and some recent examples on-screen so you can know where to look for them as well.

The Levels of Antagonism

1. Interpersonal Antagonists

The first level of antagonism is Internal Antagonists (or inner/interpersonal) which is the internal flaw, self-belief, trauma, etc. that your character will change by the end of the film. They may not change in the way we expect of a hero, which is an anti-hero arc. For these examples, we’ll look at the more common change from a flaw or self-belief to a triumphant ending.

Traditional screenwriting books tend to look at the inner antagonist as a simple flaw. For example, Barbie in last year’s hit film is naive, and Carl Frederickson in Pixar’s Up is cranky. It’s a good play to start and you know why they are that way, but it’s up to whether or not to show it.

Barbie is naive because she’s “Stereotypical Barbie” and has only ever known life in her bubble. Carl Fredrickson isn’t just cranky, he’s lonely from losing his wife and regretful of dreams never seen through. It’s not a simple, one-word flaw but a fully realized character that doesn’t realize how much they’re actually holding themselves back in their current life.

As you’re writing, every beat is challenging the character’s known way of thinking, believing, and acting to change for the better and they’re resisting the whole way through. They might try new paths but it’s never the “correct” path until the last moment, the climax of your film, when the audience sees how your character has changed.

Read More: Script Apart: Every Character Needs a Flaw, According to the 'Back to the Future' Screenwriter

Carl and Russell on an island in 'Up,' The 3 Levels of Antagonism And How To Use Them In Your Script

'Up' (2009)

2. Personal Antagonists

Personal Antagonists are the “man-to-man” conflicts we traditionally think of with villains/antagonists that push the protagonists to become the heroes we want them to be. You will likely have one primary antagonist your character goes up against, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t others. The trick is to ensure that they’re pushing your protagonist in different ways to challenge their way of being.

An easy way to think of it is an emotional line or range that your protagonist moves back and forth on. If the simplified flaw is “naive,” the opposite end of the spectrum would be “corrupted” or “jaded.”

If it’s “cranky”, the other end could be happy. Your protagonist might not be all the way at one end at the start of the film but could move back and forth before landing at the opposite end, or make progress while still being in the middle.

Humans are more complicated than simply “good and evil” after all. But it can help to visualize them moving back and forth along that spectrum, taking two steps forward and one step back.

Extra-Personal Antagonists

Technically, the second level of antagonism is Personal Antagonists but we’ll get to that in a moment.

The third level of antagonism is the Extra-Personal Antagonists, which are forces that are much larger and greater than any one person, though there may be one person who represents the extra-personal (that’ll come up in the ‘personal’ level). This is the area with large societal institutions, such as the government and crime organizations of Gotham in the Batman films.

It can also be major natural events that you see in films like Twister/Twisters and San Andreas, or environments such as in Cast Away or The Revenant.

This also includes society’s collective beliefs, such as gender roles in BARBIE or the industrial military complex in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

This will also often be represented by an individual who speaks on behalf of the institution.

Read More: 3 Reasons Why 'Twisters' Works as a Disaster Movie

Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones), Tyler (Glen Powell), and Javi (Anthony Ramos) looking at a tornado in 'Twisters'

'Twisters' (2024)

3. Positive vs. Negative Antagonists

The audience will know where the protagonist exists on that emotional range based on the personal antagonists they come in contact with. This allows the audience to also place those antagonists on that same line and see who is pushing the main character to move in a positive direction vs. who challenges your main character to move in a negative direction.

Christian Bale’s internal conflicts are personified in The Dark Knight by the Joker, the negative antagonist and worst version of who "vigilantes" can be, and Harvey Dent (before he becomes Two-Face), the positive antagonist representing the good in humanity and heroes.

Comic book movies can make it easier to study and learn how these levels of antagonism can manifest, but you can see it in every genre. Let’s look at some examples from more recently released films. We’ll keep it broad and try not to give away any endings, but there are some spoilers!

Nope

The central idea of Nope is “man vs. man” vs. “man vs. animal.” The film makes a point to show the difference in how humans interact with each other vs. animals and the respect and humility that’s needed.

The main character OJ is a good guy but he struggles to push back and take charge (interpersonal antagonist) to save his family's horse farm in a world that has no problem with exploitation and an addiction to spectacle. When an outer-worldly event (extra-personal antagonist) arrives, OJ, his sister, and their new-found friends (positive antagonists) fight to save their farm and themselves vs. the very different approach from a competing farm run by a former television star (negative antagonist).

Thelma

This is a beautiful independent film about how our society treats elderly people (extra-personal antagonists). It revolves around Thelma, a 93-year-old widow, mother, and grandmother who has lost many of her friends and is determined to be self-reliant even against the genuine struggles of aging (interpersonal antagonist). She is targeted by a phone scam that costs her thousands of dollars and decides to get her money back by finding the scam artists (negative personal antagonists). To do so, she teams up with an old friend who has found contentment living in an assisted living facility (positive personal antagonist), for which Thelma looks down on him.

This film has a very small cast but even the ones not listed here all fall into different places within that emotional arc range Thelma struggles with, challenging our own views of how we treat our aging friends and family members.

Challengers

A small emotional drama, this film centers on three people who are all main characters with different flaws/interpersonal antagonistsTashi wants to control her destiny and won’t give up control, her husband Art doesn’t know how to stand up for what he wants with Tashi, and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend Patrick is so cocky he takes his talents and relationships for granted.

All three of these people are, of course, each other’s personal antagonists, positive and negative in different ways. Tashi challenges both men to be better and prioritize their tennis careers. Both men challenge Tashi to love something more than tennis. Art and Patrick challenge each other’s loyalty toward their own partnership when Tashi enters the picture.

The world of tennis and the short window of their lives that athletes have to play within, the pressure that it creates, and the impact it has on player’s families who’ve invested in them - all of that makes up the extra-personal antagonistic force that frames the entire film as we watch a present-day tennis match and flashback through the events that led these three people to this moment.

This soapy, dramatic film that centers on just three people still manages to bring in antagonistic forces in complicated ways to hit viewers hard emotionally.

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There are limitless ways to push your main character and shape them into whom they ultimately become. The harder you push them, the more audiences will cheer them on and invest in their journey, so use every force you can in those pages.

Read More: Using Empathy to Create a Better Villain


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