Ministry of Warfare’s plot potential is $15 – 30MM (actual $21MM)

Guy Ritchie’s latest spy film, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is based on the 2014 book Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII by Damien Lewis. The film is a retelling of the Greek mythological tale, Jason and the Argonauts’ heist of the Golden Fleece. Other characters from the mythological tale – Pelias, Aetees & Medea also find their roles attributed to different characters in the film. At Mythosis, we extract the plot structure, find gaps in the script and unlock the story’s hidden potential.

Mythological tales reveal the invisible Plot Structure of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Stories are an interweaving of quests, each representing a fundamental human desire. These desires echo across time and cultures, finding their universal counterparts in mythological tales.

92% of the events in the story is borrowed from four mythological tales. There are 4 prominent characters whose quests mirror these mythological tales.

Gus’ quest mirrors the tale of Jason from Greek mythology, where both are driven by the desire to find an elusive person/object. Jason & the Argonauts undertake an arduous journey to Colchis and overcome multiple obstacles to escape with the Golden Fleece. Gus & crew reach Fernando Po travelling through enemy territory and escape with a German ship.

Churchill’s quest mirrors the tale of Dron from Hindu mythology, where both are driven by the desire to confront offenders. Dron finds and trains Arjun to punish Dhrupad. Churchill sends Gus on a mission that would weaken the threat of U-boats.

Gus’ crew & Heron’s quest mirrors the tale of Hanuman from Hindu mythology, where both are driven by the desire to be loyal to an order or clan. Hanuman is sent by Ram to find Sita’s whereabouts and take him there. Heron sends crucial information about the mission to Gus from Fernando Po & the crew takes Gus there.

Luhr’s quest mirrors events from the tale of Ravan from Hindu mythology, where both are driven by the desire to dominate others. A spy escapes from Ravan’s custody & destroys his kingdom. Luhr apprehends Marjorie but is shot dead by her.

Marjorie has an underdeveloped quest.

Detailed mirroring of each character to their respective mythological tales is in section “Unlocking the Ideal Plot Structure”

Blockbusters differ from Flops in the way they borrow from mythological tales

Blockbuster stories consistently defy the norms of conventional plot structures. The analysis of Blockbuster, Hit & Flop plot structures across decades and genres has uncovered an optimal method for incorporating mythological tales into storytelling. The Mythosis Code for creating blockbuster plot structures has the following principles -

Every blockbuster plot structure borrows events from at least three mythological tales.

Blockbuster characters are consistent and complex. Each character in the story reflects events from a single mythological tale, and the degree of mirroring is approximately 35%.

Blockbusters create a cohesive plot structure by intricately weaving the multiple tales. Characters are woven with each other through their quests and not merely by relationships. Quests become interconnected when events from two mythological tales occur simultaneously within the story.

Mythosis Code evaluation of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’s Plot structure

Ministry of Warfare’s plot structure borrows from four mythological tales.

Since, each character mirror events from a single mythological tale their quest is consistent.

Every character borrows below the threshold of 35%. Gus borrows 19% of the events from Jason’s quest. Churchill borrows 8% of the events from Dron’s quest. Heron & Gus’ crew borrow 10% of the events from Hanuman’ quest. Luhr borrows 7% of the events from Ravan’s quest.

Blockbusters have a quest interweaving threshold of 0.50. Only Gus’ quest is interwoven with Heron. No other quests are interwoven. Ministry of Warfare’s quest interweaving score of 0.17 is below par. Here is an example of interweaving the quests of Gus & Heron:

Estimated potential of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’s Plot Structure

Each one of us is driven by at least one desire, which is why specific mythological tales resonate with us. When a story interweaves more tales, it broadens the story’s appeal to a wider audience. However, to realize the power of multiple quests, the quests must have sufficient depth and they should be interwoven.

The plot structure draws upon a single mythological tale i.e. Jason. Since all quests are shallow, the characters mirroring them lack complexity and are unidimensional. The shallowness of quests also impacts the interweaving between quests resulting in a disjointed sequence of events.

At Mythosis, weights are assigned to the principles of The Mythosis Code for calculating the potency of a story’s plot structure. From the potency we estimate the scripts audience appeal and its corresponding box-office revenue. Blockbuster plot structures have a score of at least 0.64 and appeal to 20% of the audiences.

Ministry of Warfare’s plot structure has a score of 0.01. Ministry of Warfare will appeal to 0.40 – 0.50% of the population. Our estimate of the movie’s revenues from its audience appeal is $15 – 30MM in the domestic market.

Unlocking the Ideal Plot Structure of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

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 each character’s journey and weaving of quests without altering the story.

Extraction of each character quest

Quest 1: Gus mirrors the universal quest for Expedition

Gus’ desire for Expedition stems from the need to find an elusive person or object. The tale of Jason from Greek mythology is the universal quest for Expedition.ek mythology is the universal quest for Expedition.

Quest 2: Churchill mirrors the universal quest for Vengeance

Churchill’s desire for Vengeance stems from the need to confront offenders. The tale of Dron from Hindu mythology is the universal quest for Vengeance.

Quest 3: Heron & Gus’ crew mirror the universal quest for Honour

Heron’s desire for Honour stems from the need to be loyal to an order or clan. The tale of Hanuman from Hindu mythology is the universal quest for Honour.

Quest 4: Luhr mirrors the universal quest for Power

Luhr’s desire for Power stems from the need to dominate others. The tale of Ravan from Hindu mythology is the universal quest for Power.

Ideal Plot structure reconstruction

The reconstruction of ideal plot structure is around the mythological tale of Jason. Besides Jason, there are four prominent characters in the tale – King Pelias sent Jason to acquire The Golden Fleece, Argonauts aided Jason throughout, Medea provided insider information to Jason and King Aetees furious with Jason’s demand wanted him dead.

The ideal plot structure is made with 5 mythological tales. Each tale builds the character quests of Jason, Argonauts, Aetees, Medea & Pelias by borrowing maximum number of events from the universal quests of Expedition, Honour, Vengeance, Status & Power.
The reconstructed plot structure increases revenue by 20x by a. improving the depth of every character quest b. strengthening the interweaving of quests c. introducing a missing quest. The major interventions to unlock the hidden potential of the script are as follows:

1. Deepen Gus’ quest: A deeper borrowing of events within each of the 5 arcs in Jason’s tale makes Gus’ quest compelling.
2. Deepen Luhr’s quest: King Aetees’ sadistic pleasure, treachery, viciousness and disastrous defeat made Jason’s quest engaging. A deeper borrowing of events from the relevant arcs of Ravan’s tale makes Luhr’s quest compelling.
3. Assign a universal quest to Marjorie: Medea was privy to crucial information. She chose to share it with Jason because he promised her status & freedom. Medea ensured Jason succeeded by guiding him to successfully complete the tasks, stealing the Golden Fleece and finally helping him escape by taking down the pursuers.
4. Retain Gus’ crew & Heron’s quest: Argonauts helped Jason reach, navigate and escape from Colchis. Gus’ crew & Heron play exactly the same role.
5. Retain Churchill’s quest: The character mirrors King Pelias and has a compelling quest of Vengeance. Since, this quest can’t be interwoven with any of the other quests it is used for set-up & closure. This ensures that there aren’t any unwanted gaps in the plot structure.

Tags: 2024, Arash Amel, Black Bear Pictures, Character Arcs, Dron, Eric Johnson, Expedition, Guy Ritchie, Hanuman, Honour, Jason, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Lionsgate, Mythology, Paul Tamasy, Power, Ravan, Screenwriting, Story plot, storytelling, Vengeance