What makes GAME NIGHT a Perfectly Structured Romp?
Once I accidentally went on a date to trivia night.
The date part was intentional - a first meetup after app exchanges - but I'd not realised it was trivia night at the bar until the MC came by with sheets of pre-numbered paper and a stack of black pens: "Are you here for trivia? Five rounds, about two hours." We made eye contact: it'd been a nice hour, but neither of us were sure the date was going anywhere. Why not!?
After Round One, the MC had us swap papers and 'mark' the other teams' score as he gave the correct answers. Swap back, round two, repeat, swapping with a different team to keep things fair.
Our wildly different knowledge bases had made the date stop/start, but trivia was neutral ground where we discovered ready-made conversation topics and a mutual love of competition in all forms. We were feeling pretty good after Round Three when we swapped again for scoring; we'd had more beer, only missed one question in Round One and none in Round Two. But instead of returning our paper for Round 4, the other team's captain marched it up to the MC, who switched off his mic with either longsuffering practice or a sharp sense of self-preservation. After a few moments watching Trivia Karen berate Standup Comedian Doing Weeknight Gig to Pay the Bills, my date leaned over:
"Wanna go see what her deal is?"
Boy, did I.
We approached to hear her complain another team had awarded us a point EVEN THOUGH THEY GOT THE QUESTION WRONG! How could he run such an unprofessional outfit? If he didn't take the point off she and her team WOULD NEVER COME BACK and they were REGULARS and he was VIOLATING the sanctity of the game . . .
"Sorry, what's happened?" my date sweetly interrupted.
TK pointed to where she'd drawn an angry crimson X over the +1 awarded to us by the other team. "You said it was Harry Potter and the Philosophy Stone, but it's Phil-oss-oh-FUR's stone." she enunciated.
The specificity of our faux pas has been lost to time, inconsequence, and what followed in the next several hours, but trust when I tell you 1. it was some British adolescent literature question, 2. the crux was merely the broader title itself 3. I have read more BritAdLit in my life than this woman could dream of, because if she had read enough she'd know this sort of behaviour means she is the baddie.
Two bigger problems dawned on me, the first being oh my god she brought her own red pens!? But the second I said aloud: "You went back over all twenty OTHER answers." She shrugged: but of course.
We looked from TK (apoplectic) to MC (apologetic), sure he would share our feelings (astonishment).
"Maybe we can give them half a point" he offered weakly.
"That's a tiebreak half-point, you cannot allow an INCORRECT answer to potentially win the whole thing."
Giving us his best houndog-I'm-sorry eyes, the MC said he'd take away our point. TK returned to her table, mollified. Date and I sat back down, made eye contact in what was quickly becoming an accurate means of communication, polished off our beers, and left before Round Four finished.
In a way I should thank Trivia Karen: Date and I bonded some over gameplay, but quicker and further in our joint contempt for someone who could only win a game via dragging everyone else down via high-intensity close-surveillance nitpicking. We went from being unsure the date would make it a full two hours, to spending the night most delightfully.
We were competitive as the next guys, but there's a line between competition and soul-sucking.
Game Night knows exactly where that line is, and enjoys fucking with it.
GAME NIGHT BREAKDOWN
Following is essentially Game Night in prose form, with my own commentary on what makes it efficient and story-wise. I'm using it as a sort of back-engineered guide to use alongside the film or script to learn how beats land and information is delivered. You can do whatever you want with it, I'm not yer mm. But if you use in any professional / study / public capacity please cite and let me know.
ACT ONE: THE SETUP
In a very tightly written opening three minutes Game Night establishes:
Max and Annie's meet cute involved trivia night . . .
as does their current social life.
They don't cheat [no googling trivia answers] . . .
however, will do anything but cheat to win.
They make a good team for games . . .
and in the bedroom, where they're trying to get pregnant.
Their competitive streak annoys some friends, because . . .
too much of a good thing can be a detrimental thing.
Minutes 5 to 7 they chat to next door neighbour/cop Gary and his small all-white-fur dog Sebastian. Three main bits of information are gleaned: 1. Gary has a monotone personality and astute powers of observation 2. Max and Annie are united in lying to him because 3. Gary is desperate to be friends and they are desperate to NOT be.
The first ten minutes give us jokes and a couple 'kooky side characters' to set the comedic tone, lays out one serious topic of infertility to set some stakes, and establishes playful visual transitions and quick cuts.
By minute 10 three couples are gathered in Max and Annie's living room for Game Night, the others being Kevin and Michelle (high school sweethearts turned married couple), and Ryan and Forgettable Blonde Stereotype Girlfriend (who come through the window, the better to remind us they're avoiding Gary). We see they work (or not) as couples, learn about all their personalities, and see how game nights usually go.
Minute 11 we hear about Brooks via Max's straightforward "let me tell you about my brother" exposition. Exposition should be used sparingly, but Game Night has 'earned' it by now with its breakneck pace and multiple methods of information delivery. Plus, Brooks immediately shows up in a Stingray coup and a LOT of flair, demonstrating his personality and bringing tension because he attracts Gary's attention.
Not only do we find out Brooks ignores orders and does ill-advised things, but we get another trickle of Gary backstory: he used to come to Game Night but was a wet blanket. Meanwhile Brooks and Max's relationship of successful and middling is set up in everything from the car [Brooks buys Max's childhood fave] to the nicknames they call each other. All the event and dialogue in this few minutes serves at least one and sometimes two or three purposes of revealing character, delivering information, setting up plot, or foreshadowing events.
At min 15 is a fun interlude / montage of the seven playing games; a necessity when your film revolves around the concept, but the clues serve as jokes, and the specifics sets up the film's plethora of pop culture usage.
When it's over Brooks casually suggests 'my place next week?' even though he knows that breaks years-long tradition of Max and Annie hosting. This functions as the first of many 'could be ominous, could be ridiculous!' moments (complete with the matching musical stingers in the background), but also gives Max and Annie an easy way to hide from Gary, and ups the ante of Max and Brooks's sibling rivalry.
20 minutes in the film has set up all key relationships, personal histories, plot premises, and Max and Annie's goal: BEAT BROOKS'S ASS.
Some might call this the Turning Point, but I think we have one more scene to go; see if you agree.)
One Week Later: as Max and Annie depart for Brooks's Game Night, Gary pops up complete with an invite to dinner and more creepy awkwardness. Gary mentions Debbie, who is . . . deceased? Ooooh no, even worse: an ex. This information is delivered 'sideways' with him mentioning dinner is 'from a recipe Debbie left behind." Game Night keeps doling Gary our in small portions, keeping him in the back of our minds without letting his deadpan wear out its welcome.
Max and Annie disentangle themselves and get to Gary's, where we have the first TURNING POINT: Brooks announces a big surprise: he's set up an immersive experience for his Game Night!
ACT TWO: THE GAMES
Brooks, Max and Annie, Kevin and Michelle, and Ryan and Sarah (new first date, met as coworkers), chat as they wait for the game to begin. The tiny infighting and flirting between couples establish both group dynamics and smaller couple-stakes, which will come into play for better and worse the rest of the film. The casual living room chats feel almost Friends-like, which equals familiar, convenient viewing.
Breaking the vibe at minute 23: outside the house we see two Cruella De Vil Henchmen esque thugs in a van, one talking into an earpiece: "we're at the house, we'll let you know when we have em."
Bam, cut back inside the house where Max washes his hands in the bathroom. This is great economy of storytelling: we understand how peeing during game night works, we don't need the setup, it's just happening. It sets Max up alone for a jump scare! with Brooks holding a knife and a blaring horror movie stinger. Between this and the henchmen, Game Night is amping up the thriller tropes hard and fast.
Speaking of: A KNOCK SOUNDS! A man calling himself Agent Henderson enters, setting up two narrative things: 1. dramatic irony, because we know there's at least two other people outside with guns 2. confusion for the characters and us: who is THIS guy? A great trick to give us more info than the characters in one aspect, and the same in another; we can feel smart, but still be a bit lost.
'Agent Henderson' waves an FBI badge, hands out manila folders, and says a ring of violent kidnappers in the neighbourhood may be targeting someone in the Game Group. Having Sarah as a 'new face' to the group is another important puzzle piece here, because there's a hint of chance this is real . . . until Henderson breaks to talk 'above table' asking if anyone has any allergies. The moment we realise this is a liability issue and thus he is clearly part of Brooks's game: the door breaks open, henchmen in masks (so we think but cannot be sure they were the same as from the van) cold-cock Agent Henderson, and grab Brooks.
From getting our first hint someone was watching the house, to Brooks getting grabbed, takes just under two minutes.
Everyone gasps, thoughtfully moves their dishes out of the way to prevent mess, comments "how real it looks". Brooks fights back, pulling Chekov's gun from an ankle holster; it slides across the wood floor, and in a closeup shot we see Annie watching it.
The three couples stay in the living room eating cheese; a comic suburban counterpoint to Brooks and the two thugs taking their heavy violence through hallways and kitchen where Brooks is finally subdued. When the thugs carry a duct-taped Brooks back through the living room and out the door, the three teams of two consult their dossiers and strategise how to 'win' the game.
Kevin and Michelle hunt through the study while escalating their argument about what celebrity Michelle slept with during 'the break.'
Annie and Max retreat to Brook's office where they follow through tactics established in the opener: Annie picks up Brooks's iPad and says "let's not play by his rules." They jump in their car, using Track My Phone to see where Brooks is moving.
When Ryan and Sarah see Max and Annie drive away (a smooth transition point between storylines), Sarah grabs Brooks's dropped wallet and uses his phone (is 2018 really believable to have a landline?) to call the credit card company. Sarah pretends to have lost the card and asks to know what the last few charges were on it; she's trying to find what company is running the game, so she and Ryan can go straight to the source. It's a personality reveal for Sarah, and her banter with Ryan about it shows the difference between their personalities and intelligences. More importantly, it cuts off audience objections right off the bat, so as the game 'devolves' the audience isn't saying "ugh why don't they track down the company is": it's already done. Before Ryan and Sarah leave, they introduce sabotage by using a table to block Kevin and Michelle into their room.
Meanwhile Max and Annie track Brooks's phone to a dumpster, which again could easily be an intentional mislead by Brooks himself OR truly nefarious. From the vantage point of the dumpster they spot one of the 'actor' thugs smoking outside a dive bar, so head over, armed with only oblivion and smugness.
The film takes a beat for Max and Annie to have a suspicious exchange with the bartender then while waiting for their drinks, talk about how life will change when and if they have kids. The chat conveniently ends when a thug opens a door, giving Max and Annie a glimpse of Brooks 'tied up' - or tied up - in a back room. Here Annie reveals to Max she picked up the 'fake' - or real - gun Brooks dropped, subverting out expectations of her keeping it a secret but immediately fulfilling our expectations of things going hilariously wrong: she flourishes it with theatrical threats, which the thugs respond to as real, because why would she have a FAKE gun?
Cut away from that 'tense' - or tense - interlude to Kevin and Michelle still trying to escape the barricaded room and arguing about what celebrity Michelle slept with. Here's an example of a scene which *could* move around in the edit; sequentially it has to fall within a certain handful of scenes, but exactly where those scenes break and intercut can be reworked in post for pacing, tension, and/or comedic relief, especially as trims affect overall timing and dramatic/comedic flow.
Ryan and Sarah arrive at the "Murder We Wrote" offices, their 'personal conversation while going about gameplay' conversation quite different from the other two, because they barely know each other, Each teases the other with whether or not they considered this 'a date' - another familiar trope. In the offices there's another tension fakeout with the dead body - 'dead body' - of the receptionist. Her bullet wound is fake but her pregnancy is real, which sets up a joke but also continues the themes of keeping from both participants and audience where the in-game realities meld into make-believe.
Back to Michelle and Kevin for the first Big Complication; they talk to the now-conscious Henderson actor, who is developing real bruises. As he protests "that was not supposed to happen!" two more thugs burst through the door, wearing clown masks distinctly different than the first two thugs. Michelle half-lampshades, half-exposits "you guys already DID the breaking-in thing." But then one clown raises his mask, and it turns out these two are WITH Henderson. The clowns call "Murder We Wrote" and have . . .
a quick conversation with the Receptionist, overheard by Ryan / Sarah / Kevin / Michelle, which begins to tie all stories together. Now four of the six - five of the seven if you count Brooks - know this is For Real, while we the audience have started to figure out who's who. This makes it a perfect time to cut back to Max and Annie . . .
who are dancing around the REAL bad guys lying on the floor. They barge into where Brooks is tied up, and after a quick comedic riff comes the second TURNING POINT where three things happen at once: a bad guy begins to break into the room, Max takes the duct tape off Brooks's mouth, and Annie drops the gun which shoots Max in the arm with a real bullet.
Now EVERYONE knows this is 'real' . . .
ACT THREE: GAMES, BUT FOR REAL
they must figure out what the game IS.
Brooks starts spilling so many beans. He crossed a bad guy known as The Bulgarian, who is after a Faberge Egg, IE Game Night's Maltese Falcon. Brooks kiboshes going to the cops because The Bulgarian has a lot of moles; this excuse doesn't need to be hyper believeable, it just needs to flag to the audience the characters have 'a reason' not to do the immediately apparent narrative reaction.
In the tradition of all Macguffins, Brooks gives a longwinded expository shaggy dog ramble about needing to find the guy with the alias Marlon Freeman who has the egg, and to do that needing to access a secret police force database.
But this isn't just a boring exposition dump because 1. there's heightened comedy going on 2. all this is happening during a suburban car chase.
Brooks ends the car chase by sacrificially, throwing himself out of the car; the bad guys stop chasing Max and Annie to collect him. Max and Annie now take an interlude: first calling Michelle to say DON'T TALK TO COPS (which updates us that Ryan and Susan have rejoined Michelle and Kevin), then buying gas station supplies so Annie can sew up Max's arm. It's a staple of the 'crossing mobsters' genre, but with comedic details like dishwashing gloves, white wine, and a squeaky toy instead of latex gloves, disinfectant, and a bite stick.
After this extended tragicomedy bit they and we discover the bullet was a through-and-through, thus never needing surgery amateur or otherwise; before we can think about that logic too much, SMASH CUT
to the six reunited at Max and Annie's house, brainstorming finding Marlon Freeman, and the Egg. Like the 'pee interlude' in Act 2, this transition knows we can connect the narrative tissue from A to B in our heads and don't need "driving to the house, calling the friends to join us" scene.
Ultimately they realise to access the database they need a cop, and thus must turn . . . *deep sigh* to Gary.
Enter The Gary Complication Section, which intercuts five of them pretending to have fun playing Jenga while smaller story threads resurface; what celebrity did Michelle sleep with, are Sarah and Ryan on a date, exactly how MASSIVE is the psychic hole Debbie left in Gary's soul? This is cover to Max not-subtly sneaking into Gary's office to break into Gary's computer, finding necessary information and also The Bulgarian's rap sheet.
Another Complication: Max's arm begins dripping blood onto the white carpet, and Sebastian comes to 'investigate' and ALSO ends up covered in red. Max's attempts to clean only make it worse, and the sounds emanating from Gary's computer room force the other five to stall in more and more ridiculous ways; a typical heist tension-raiser, with more hilarity.
Finally Max bails on both the blood-spattered room and game night, overturning the Jenga tower and fleeing with the other five in tow. We leave Gary, knowing he shall reappear, but not how or when.
On the drive to Marlon Freeman's house, Max gets an anonymous call from presumably The Bulgarian, who gives them an hour to get The Egg and swap it for Brooks's life; a specific goal and a ticking clock all in one.
There's a comedic/touching moment where Annie insists she's 'in this all the way' with Max, then Michelle and Kevin say they come to game night not for games but for FRIENDSHIP, and Susan offers to stay because she's having a blast. United, the six of them walk into the mansion to find The Egg . . . in the midst of a massive party-cum-fight-club, which was foreshadowed in Act One and Two throwaway line about rich people game nights.
They split into couples to better search and continue their couple-side-discussions: dating or not? cheated or not? baby or not?
Kevin and Michelle's involves a flashback fantasy sequence with Not-Denzel Washington. Max and Annies involves a convoluted PacMan metaphor. Both make sense in context, and also serve to break up the action/action/intensely-stressful sequences.
Ryan and Sarah spot the egg in a conveniently-located fight club money wall safe. Ryan grabs it, almost too easily . . . the better to set up a comedic counterpoint when the fight suddenly ends via knockout, the room falls dead silent, and everyone turns to see him holding said egg.
He runs . . . beginning one of the most fun chase sequences of the year!
Long story short: everyone gets involved, the team get the egg, and Kevin has an excellent payoff to a glass table gag from much earlier. Success!
But on the drive to the bridge, Kevin hits the brakes too hard right into: TURNING POINT! The Egg breaks, revealing itself cheap plastic but! with a list of Witness Protection clients hidden inside.
ACT FOUR: ACTION, BUT (a teeny bit) MORE AND (slightly) LONGER AND (just a little) BIGGER
The six friends try to exchange the clue for Brooks, and (predictably) end up face down on the bridge, arguing why they shouldn't be shot.
As everything begins to converge, the script magically carves out time a brotherly Brooks and Max heart to heart, of course involving how they used to play - and Brooks used to cheat at - games as children.
Because of the type of comedy there's not TOO much tension in whether anybody is going to die, so without further adieu: a police car skids to a stop, Gary jumps out and to the rescue, gunning down baddies left and right! He is explaining how he was suspicious from the moment they knocked on his door when BANG! one of the bad guys shoots him. As he lies bleeding out, he gets Max and Annie to acknowledge they really do like him and have been selfishly avoiding him. A mix of guilt and gratitude prompts them to invite Gary "to every single game night we have" - at which point he jumps up proclaiming "and THAT, is how you do a game night."
Gary has a few moments to pontificate his process (using criminals he ran into while working as a cop) and motive (what better way to prove his worth as a game participant?) but it soon it becomes clear he didn't know about the WitSec list so some of it must be real . . . right on cue more thugs arrive, and with the lampshade-hanging line "sure, a couple new characters introduced at the last minute" The Bulgarian is revealed as a famous face (Michael C. Hall) to help sell it to the audience.
Enter: CLIMACTIC ACTION SEQUENCE!
New Two bad guys take Brooks (again), and the Six hightail it (offscreen; see above two sections on story economy) to grab Brooks's Stingray beat The Bulgarian to the airport. In a comedy version of Taken 3 / Fast Five, Max and Annie use the Stingray to keep the plane from taking off and the Bulgarian from cutting Brooks open, using teamwork, communication via charades, and objects like a fire extinguisher and bungee cord (another callback!).
TURNING POINT: taking out the Bulgarian.
All elements of the action sequence knows the [literal and filmic] language of high-octane, high-budget action thrillers, and plays them shorter, more realistically, and for laughs . . . including one of the best line readings of all time:
which you can read as a commentary on the disposability of action-movie gun-fielding bad guys, the desensitisation of audiences to violence through repeated exposure, or exposure of Hollywood's shortcomings using Rachel McAdams as a romantic lead because of her looks when she really should be allowed to flex her comic chops more often.
Anyways, the final act also follows the traditional / template beats of a satisfactory wrap-up.
ACT FIVE: TIE UP HANGING PLOT BITS AND EMOTIONAL BEATS
Brooks takes credit for every lesson Max learns . . . but acknowledges he fucked up.
Max fully commits to having this baby with Annie and living life without worrying about what he CAN'T do.
THREE MONTHS LATER
Brooks has sold the WitSec list for three million, and is hosting another Game Night, with his girlfriend . . . Max and Annie's Fertility Doctor. Also invited are the happy Kevin and Michelle, the somber Gary, the very much dating Ryan and Sarah.
The final game of charades is how Annie reveals she is Pregnant! right before two wall-breaking shots of Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman call back to the opening montage.
before the camera pans out through the window to reveal two more thugs in a van . . .