Heretic reimagines Circe, the Enchanting Witch, as a Charming Monster
Script potential at Domestic box office: $18 – 34MM
Plot structure made from mythological tales enhances revenues by 20X!
Heretic written & directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods follows two young missionaries whose routine visit turns into a terrifying ordeal. The movie explores basic human desires of power and tranquillity, wrapped in a discussion on faith. Mythosis, with the help of mythological tales, has extracted the plot structure of the movie to estimate and unlock its potential.
1. Mythological tales reveal the invisible plot structure of Heretic
1A. 92% of the events are borrowed from 3 mythological tales
Reed’s quest is driven by the desire to dominate others and borrows events from the tale of Circe from Greek mythology. Both Circe and Reed use a façade of godliness to lure unsuspecting victims and abduct them.
Barnes’ quest is driven by the desire to be in a secure environment and mirrors the tale of Sita from Hindu mythology. Both Sita & Barnes land themselves in a hostile environment due to an error in judgment.
Every human desire has two quests - a fulfilled one and also an unfulfilled one. Heretic uses both quests for the desire to be in a secure environment. Barnes mirrors the unfulfilled quest whereas Paxton mirrors a part of the unfulfilled quest.
Paxton has an underdeveloped quest driven by the desire to be in a secure environment and mirrors the tale of Odysseus from Greek mythology. Both Odysseus and Paxton are helped to navigate their way back through hostile environment.
Detailed mirroring of each character’s primary quest to their respective mythological tales is in section “3A. Quests of characters and their mythological counterparts”
1B. Heretic’s unique plot structure extracted from our reservoir of infinite stories
Human beings are driven by 16 fundamental desires. Every desire, whether encountering fulfilment or unfulfillment, gives rise to two distinct quests. Thus, a spectrum of 32 unique quests mirrors every human desire.
We have discovered mythological tales from across civilizations that uniquely portray each one of these 32 human quests. While each mythological tale stands as a distinct quest, the true magic unfolds when these tales are combined. This synergy is evident in the epics of Odyssey and Ramayan, where various universal quests seamlessly intertwine.
Combining any five tales from the 32, generates a staggering 24 million unique story plots. Take it a step further, by combining six tales the possibilities explode to an astounding 600 million!
The plot of Heretic is a subset of plot structure #18,662 that interweaves the tales of Circe, Sita & Odysseus.
2. Plot structure potential of Heretic: $18-34MM
2A. Plot structure evaluation
An analysis of Blockbuster, Hit & Flop plots has led to the discovery of Mythosis Code. The Code reveals the story principles shared by all Blockbusters. We use the Code to estimate a story’s potential.
All Blockbusters have at least 3 universal quests.Heretic uses 2 universal quests of Power & Tranquillity.
In Blockbusters, each universal quest is mirrored by ONLY ONE character. Barnes mirrors the quests of Tranquillity. Reed mirrors the universal quest of Power.
Every Blockbuster character borrows at least 35% of the universal quest. Barnes borrows 10% from the quest of Tranquillity. Reed borrows 32% from the quest of Power.
Blockbusters interweave different quests to create a tight plot structure. Interweaving occurs when events of 2 quests occur simultaneously in the story. Blockbusters have a quest interweaving threshold of 0.5. Heretic’s quest interweaving score of 0.33 is below par. An example of interweaving the quests of Reed & Barnes:
2B. Estimating revenue potential from the plot structure
The plot structure of Heretic relies on a single quest of Power. As a result, the character of Reed played by Hugh Grant has the most fascinating journey. Besides Reed none of the characters have a compelling quest. Barnes has a shallow quest whereas Paxton’s quest is underdeveloped. Shallow quests, not only result in uni-dimensional characters but also create gaps in the plot structure.
We have created an algorithm by assigning weights to the principles of The Mythosis Code. The algorithm calculates the potency of a story’s plot structure and estimates its corresponding audience appeal. Blockbuster plot structures have a score of at least 0.64 and appeal to 20% of the audiences.
Heretic has a script potential score is 0.02 and the movie will appeal to 0.50% - 0.61% of the population. Our estimate of the movie’s revenues from its script is $18 – 34MM in the domestic market.
3. The ideal plot structure of Heretic
We have identified 32 universal quests that represent every human desire. These quests are the superset of thousands of stories across cultures that reflect our collective subconscious. Each quest has a structured sequence of events divided into 5 major arcs.
We map a character’s quest to the relevant mythological tale (universal quest) which reveals the gaps in their quest, if any. The ideal Plot Structure is constructed by plugging these gaps with the missing events from the tale. These events strengthen both the journey of characters as well as the weaving of quests without altering the story.
3A. Quest of characters and their mythological counterparts
Quest 1: Reed mirrors the universal quest for Power
Reed’s desire for Power stems from the need to dominate others. The tale of Circe from Greek mythology is the universal quest for Power.
3B. Gaps in the current plot structure
Heretic’s plot structure is weak due to the shallow quests of Barnes & Paxton. Barnes mirrors 10% of Sita’s tale from Hindu mythology whereas Paxton mirrors a few events from Odysseus’ tale.
3C. Unlocking the hidden potential
Heretic’s plot is a subset of Mythosis plot structure #18,662 that interweaves the mythological tales of Circe, Sita & Odysseus. This plot structure can be used to deepen the quests of Barnes & Paxton without changing the story.
1. Plot structure #18,662 enhances the quests of all the 3 characters
a. It retains the 2 arcs from the tale of Circe (as used in the script) for Reed but adds a few missing events.
b. Currently, Barnes’ borrows events from 2 arcs of Sita’s tale. The revised plot structure borrows more events as well as uses 3 arcs.
c. Similarly, Paxton borrows 3 events from 1 arc of Odysseus’ tale. In the revised version she borrows all events from that arc.
2. The revised plot structure has 3 unique character quests, average character depth of 24% and a perfect interweaving of the 3 quests
3. It can generate revenues of ~$415MM in the domestic market with a script score of 0.39 that will appeal to ~13% of the population.
Tags:2024, A24, Bryan Woods, Circe, Long range prediction, Mythology, Odysseus, Plot Structure, Power, Scott Beck, Sita, storytelling, Tranquillity
