Heretic
Reimagining Circe, the Enchanting Witch, as a Charming Monster
ESTIMATED domestic box office revenue
$18 – 34MM
Mythosis universal quests used
3
Audience appeal
0.50% – 0.61%
Hidden Potential
$380 – 420MM
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. The invisible plot structure of Heretic
1A. The script of Heretic borrows 92% of its events 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.
NOTE: Detailed mirroring of each character’s primary quest to their respective mythological tales is in section “3A. Quests of characters and their mythological counterparts”
Mythosis plot structure
#18,662
Tales interweaved
Circe, Sita & Odysseus
I. How does interweaving mythological tales lead to infinite story plots?
II. Can the pursuit of a Desire have more than one quest?
2. The potential of Heretic’s plot structure: $18 – 34MM
The interweaving of 32 mythological tales can generate a billion unique stories. By using these 32 tales, we can extract the plot structure of any story across various genres. Our study of blockbuster, hit, and flop plot structures led to the discovery of the Mythosis Code, a set of principles for creating compelling stories. The plot structure of a story is analyzed to see how well it adheres to these storytelling principles.
2A. Plot structure evaluation of Heretic
- 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 have a quest interweaving threshold of 0.5. Interweaving occurs when events of 2 quests occur simultaneously in the story. Heretic’s quest interweaving score of 0.33 is below par.
An example of interweaving the quests of Reed & Barnes:
2B. Box office revenue estimation of Heretic
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.
The Script Score measures a plot structure’s adherence to the four principles of Mythosis Code. We use the Script Score to estimate a movie’s audience appeal & revenues. Blockbuster plot structures have a score of at least 0.64 and appeal to 20% of the audiences.
Script Score
0.02
Audience appeal
0.50% - 0.61%
I. How is Mythosis Code used to estimate revenues?
II. Aren’t box-office revenues influenced by several factors beyond just the story plot?
3. The ideal plot structure of Heretic
We have identified 32 mythological tales, the superset of all tales across cultures. The quests of these tales have also recurred over time periods. They represent human behaviours that are deeply embedded in our shared memories. Each tale is the richest expression of the pursuit of a human desire. The tales have a unique pattern of events spread over 5 major arcs.
Mapping a character’s quest to the relevant mythological tale reveals the gaps in their quest, if any. Plugging these gaps with the missing events deepens the character quest. The missing events also provide an opportunity for interweaving the various quests. These events strengthen the story and unlock its hidden potential.
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.
a. Plot structure #18,662 enhances the quests of all the 3 characters
- It retains the 2 arcs from the tale of Circe (as used in the script) for Reed but adds a few missing events.
- Currently, Barnes’ borrows events from 2 arcs of Sita’s tale. The revised plot structure borrows more events as well as uses 3 arcs.
- Similarly, Paxton borrows 3 events from 1 arc of Odysseus’ tale. In the revised version she borrows all events from that arc.
b. The revised plot structure has 3 unique character quests, average character depth of 24% and a perfect interweaving of the 3 quests
c. 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.
Explore Mythosis plot structure #18,662 that can enhance current revenues by 20x!
Tags: Sita, Odysseus, Circe, Tranquillity, Power, Tranquillity, Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, A24, 2024