Hi, I’m Michael.

This is Lessons from the Screenplay.

Everyone is familiar with the premise of "Groundhog Day".

Phil Connors finds himself reliving the same day over, and over, and over.

This simple premise is a great engine for comedy,

and the film is full of hilarious moments...

"Ned?!"

But the premise is also expertly constructed to drive natural,

organic character change.

So today, I want to examine how Phil is designed to be a character

that seems like he could never change...

To dissect how the premise of the story traps Phil

in a world that will constantly attack his character flaw...

And explore how the relentless nature of the premise

ensures that the protagonist will have no choice but to transform.

"Ah, nuts."

Let’s take a look at "Groundhog Day".

In his book, “How to Write Groundhog Day,”

one of the screenwriters, Danny Rubin, discusses how he’d been

pondering immortality while conceptualizing the story.

“The conversation I was having with myself about immortality

was naturally rephrased in my mind as a movie idea:

‘Okay, there’s this guy who lives forever.’

Movie stories are by nature about change,

and if I were going to test the change of this character

against an infinity of time,

I’d want him to begin as somebody who seemed unable to change...”

To create someone who seems unable to change,

the character of Phil Connors was given a deeply-rooted flaw.

Phil is a weatherman at a small TV station in Pennsylvania

who believes that he’s more famous and important than he is.

“For your information, hairdo,

there is a major network interested in me.”

He’s sarcastic, rude, and as his producer, Rita,

deftly summarizes later in the film:

“I know you’re egocentric, it’s your defining characteristic.”

Phil is completely self-centered,

and will need to undergo a fundamental change to become selfless

if he is to achieve his desire: to be with Rita.

“He comes out, he looks around, he wrinkles his nose,

he sees his shadow, he doesn’t see his shadow.

It’s nice, people like it.”

Rita is warm, kind, and optimistic…

“You know, people like blood sausage too.

People are morons.”

The opposite of Phil.

So the Phil that we meet at the beginning of the movie

could never be with Rita because he is far too selfish,

In order to drive the protagonist to change,

the script imprisons him in a place that will constantly be attacking his flaw.

Phil gets assigned to cover the Groundhog Day festival,

where every person and every event brings out his egocentric nature.

“These people are great! Some of them have been partying all night long.

They sing till they get too cold, then they go sit by the fire,

and then they get warm, and then they come back, and then they sing some more!

“Yeah, they’re hicks, Rita.”

It’s the perfect setting for Phil to have to confront his flaw,

and the premise traps him here in two ways.

At the end of the day,

a blizzard prevents Phil and his team from leaving—

he is physically trapped in Punxsutawney.

“Now, you can go back to Punxsutawney,

or you can go ahead and freeze to death.

It’s your choice.”

“I’m thinking.”

The idea of trapping Phil in time

came from Rubin’s attempts to design a story

where the protagonist became immortal.

“‘If a person could live long enough, would he ever change?’

Maybe if guys like that had more time they would eventually mature.

Maybe one lifetime is not enough.”

So now that Phil is trapped in Punxsutawney on Groundhog Day for eternity,

what propels him to change?

The brilliance of "Groundhog Day" is that once all these elements are set up,

the protagonist’s change is the inevitable consequence of the premise.

Once Phil is stuck repeating Groundhog Day,

he is propelled through his character arc in two ways:

He either pursues a specific goal until he has to admit failure and move on,

or he indulges himself until he gets bored.

At first, Phil wants to understand what’s happening to him…

“When are the long-distance lines gonna be repaired?”

…and tries everything he can think of to fix it.

“Well what if there is no tomorrow?

There wasn’t one today.”

He tries calling for help...

“Hello?”

...asking Rita for suggestions...

“It’s like yesterday never happened!”

“I am racking my brain,

but I can’t even begin to imagine why you’d make up something like this.”

...and visiting both a doctor and a psychologist.

“I think we should meet again.

How’s tomorrow for you?”

But once it becomes clear that Phil can’t escape this new reality,

he tries to exploit it...

not by changing for the better, but by indulging even further in his flaw.

‘What if there were no tomorrow?”

“That would mean there would be no consequences.

There would be no hangovers.

We could do whatever we wanted!”

“That’s true.”

Phil begins harming people with impunity,

using his situation to take advantage of others,

and living out his fantasies.

Once he becomes bored of this,

he turns his attention to his desire—Rita

—and begins manipulating her into falling for him.

“Would you like to try some white chocolate?”

“Yuck. Don’t make me sick.”

“No white chocolate.”

He tries all the tricks he can think of, but fails every time.

“Stop it!”

Rita sees through to the real person inside,

and knows he is still consumed by his flaw.

“I could never love someone like you, Phil,

because you’ll never love anyone but yourself.”

Phil now realizes he will never obtain his desire of being with Rita

until he learns to be selfless.

But he still doesn’t change.

Instead, Phil continues to consider only himself,

as the script reaches its midpoint

and he is pushed to his darkest place yet.

“I’ve come to the end of me, Rita.

There’s no way out now.

I just want you to remember that we had a beautiful day together, once.”

Phil would rather die than change,

but the design of the story’s premise is such that even death is not an escape.

So once again, it’s not until Phil has exhausted even this path…

...that he has no choice but to admit that maybe his life

isn’t the only thing that matters.

“I’ve never seen anyone that’s nicer to people than you are.”

There is literally nothing left for Phil to do...but change.

In the second half of act two,

Phil begins trying to make other people’s lives better.

And by the third act of the film,

Phil has become truly selfless,

demonstrated by his willingness to sacrifice his desire...

“Well, where are you going? Would you like to get a cup of coffee?”

“I’d love to—can I have a rain check? I’ve got some errands I gotta run.”

...for his need.

Being forced to relive the same day over and over

has led Phil to the realization that a life of generosity is what makes him truly happy...

“This is the best day of my life!”

- “Mine too.” - “Mine too.”

It took him a lifetime of struggle to figure it out,

but Phil has arrived at the inevitable endpoint of the premise…

and is finally released.

“They’re gone!

They’re all gone!

Today is tomorrow.

It happened.”

"Groundhog Day" is a great example of what it looks like to fully commit to a premise.

It leads the protagonist along their arc not just through a clever set-up…

“Well, it’s Groundhog Day…again.”

…but also through its relentless nature.

“I have been stabbed, shot, poisoned, frozen, hung, electricuited, and burned.”

“Oh really?”

The film never abandons its premise or modifies the rules,

and at no point does Phil get any kind of reprieve.

Instead, the film fully explores every avenue within its simple premise,

mining the idea for every funny, moving,

and heartwarming scenario Phil could find himself in...

on Groundhog Day.

Presumably, most of us are not living the same day over and over again

for what is essentially an eternity,

so we can’t rely on having infinite time to learn the skills we’re interested in.

But luckily, we do have the next best thing—Skillshare.

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and your new year goals.

If you’re interested in learning about essay writing—whether for text or video form—

I recommend checking out Roxane Gay’s class

“Creative Writing: Crafting Personal Essays with Impact.”

She goes over important principles that are critical to be aware

of during the writing process.

Skillshare is the perfect place to keep you learning and thriving in 2019,

and the first 500 people to sign up using the link in the description

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So head to Skillshare and start learning today.

Thanks to Skillshare for Sponsoring this video.

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