Screenplay Examples for Every Genre: A Guide for Screenwriters
Whether you’re an award-winning writer or Johnnie Newcomer, the easiest way to become a better screenwriter is to watch a lot of films AND read every screenplay you can. Every writer stands on the shoulders of past generations–using their collective oeuvre as a lodestar for how to elicit visceral emotions in another through the power of language and storytelling. Studying examples of screenplays from the greats of the past and present will broaden your horizons for what can be and help you unleash your storytelling potential.
Screenplay example: The Holdovers (2023)
Over the centuries, storytelling has erupted through many different mediums, e.g. oral, poetry, prose. Screenplays are quite different from all previous mediums, however, and though they are a piece of art in and of themselves, screenplays are primarily the blueprint for films to be produced from. Many of the conventions and guidelines for scriptwriting arose to benefit the ease of film production. With this in mind, your screenplay will always be wedded to both the story and the production of your story into a film.
Example screenplay: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
By studying movie script examples, you will help yourself understand your affinities and your burgeoning voice. You will find what you like and what you don’t. See what works and what doesn’t. And you’ll find that what storytelling convention works in one genre won’t necessarily work in another.
Every story fell into two genres in Ancient Greece: tragedy and comedy. Things have expanded quite a bit today. The structural conventions of each genre vary to benefit the story in their own way. Action/Adventure films use the hero’s journey template, while comedies utilize setups, punchlines, and callbacks. Trends begin to emerge. Horror uses similar setup and payoff structures like comedies do, the difference being to elicit thrills instead of laughs. Studying screenplay examples is paramount to understanding and identifying the elements that your story needs to take off.
Let’s discuss how to write a screenplay like these screenplay examples:
What is a Screenplay?
Scaling back a moment, let’s discuss what exactly a screenplay is first-and-foremost.
Scripts differ from other storytelling mediums like novels because their principle purpose is to act as a blueprint. Therefore, a lot of information that would be included in, say, a novel can be omitted from a screenplay if it isn’t visual information. For instance, don’t write what your setting smells like unless it pertains to the plot or a character’s action because the audience isn’t going to passively smell the scene.
Screenplay sample from Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Screenplay scenes are denoted by scene headings to quickly deliver where and when we are to the reader, action lines provide the visual description of what’s happening in the scene, and the dialogue is centered in the middle of the page.
Format example: Barbie (2023)
As this sample screenplay scene shows, screenplays are formatted to quickly and clearly deliver information at a glance. Actors can clearly find their lines and don’t have to search through prose to find their dialogue. Producers can clearly see through the scene heading what location each scene in the story takes place. Check out our post about how to read a script.
How to Use Screenplay Examples to Improve Your Own Writing
Use your favorite films as your introduction to script writing examples since you are already familiar with the story. One strategy to use is to read the script scene-by-scene in tandem with watching the film scene-by-scene. This juxtaposition will clearly illustrate how the written word on the page transforms into the film.
If you don’t know what script to read or where to start, check out our top female screenwriters post for some inspiration.
Another strategy is to watch a scene from a film, transcribe what you saw into a screenplay scene, and then finally compare your written scene to the actual movie script example. Comparing your transcribed scene with the original can clarify what’s being looked for in screenplay formatting and more specifically to identify what’s working on the page and what’s not. In doing this, you’ll notice deviations, both subtle and stark, from the script’s scene to the film’s scene. Place yourself in the production’s shoes and try to identify why the change was made.
By studying screenplays in this way, you begin to consciously understand the inner workings of the stories that before you were only intuiting on an emotional level. You can put into words why it hits so hard when Marlon let Nemo put himself in danger to save Dory during the climax of Finding Nemo when he spent the entirety of the film prior to this trying to control Nemo’s every move to keep him safe—he overcame his flaw of being overprotective in a world he can’t control by trusting his son. It’s the payoff to his entire arc of the full film. Every audience-goer feels the power of Marlon’s decision but studying these script movie examples helps to put into words why these stories impact us as they do, and help you to recreate this emotional efficacy in your writing.
In learning how to write a script with examples from horror films like Nope or dramas like The Holdovers, you can harness genre conventions to elevate your stories.
Action/Adventure Movie Scripts Examples
One of the earliest genres in filmmaking started with The Great Train Robbery in 1903. For over 120 years, the Action/Adventure film has been providing thrills for audiences around the world. From chosen ones embarking on their heroes journey to the old journeyman who has fate intervene on the last day before they retire to our heroes trying to survive cataclysmic disasters, the principle characteristic of the Action film is fast-paced plot driven storytelling. Once the inciting incident forces our heroes' hands, the plot takes the wheel.
Action films love to ramp up the stakes as much as possible, leading to many action films threatening to blow up the planet if the heroes fail, but stakes can be intense even when every mortal soul isn’t in danger. Deadpool 2’s stakes revolve around saving the soul of a mutant child from falling to the dark side.
Star Wars (1977)
Speaking of dark, Star Wars is the seminal action-adventure film. Luke Skywalker follows the hero’s journey to help the rebel alliance destroy the Galactic Republic’s planet destroying Death Star. Star Wars’ stakes were a bit higher than Deadpool 2’s. The Hero’s Journey is a tried-and-true template that can be seen below.
The action screenplay tests your characters' limits and uses the magic of the silver screen to transport audiences to pure escapist fantasia.
Another action script writing example: John Wick 4
Comedy Movie Scripts Examples
From the silent clowns of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin to modern day’s Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart, comedies have been making audiences laugh for generations. The Cinematic medium gives writers and performers a plethora of tools to work with to make audiences laugh in addition to your quick-witted dialogue. Using the juxtaposition of the edit allows writers to create jokes in ways comedians of the stage wish they had. Take for instance a crash cut. A character desperately doesn’t want to do something–one moment, they’re emphatically saying, “NO!” the next moment, boom!--they’re forced to do the thing they swore to never do, and the audience laughs.
There are endless ways to induce the audience to laugh: the buddy comedy of having a “normal” character forced to interact and work with the zany goofball character; the straight man in the crazy, zany world; the free spirit confined into a boring world; using costumes that are normal in one environment but alien in another while having the characters not notice the strangeness.
Bottoms (2023)
Bottoms is a 2023 sex comedy that takes place in high school. There are several football players in the story. They have their gear on at all times. When they’re on the field, or course. But also in the hallway. In the classroom. Everywhere. And it's never pointed out by the characters. This is a recurring gag. Bottoms also dramatically raises the stakes during the climax that is so over-the-top… it’s just pure joy, and so funny. But I won’t spoil it. Click the link above and find out for yourself.
Use all the tools and elements at your disposal such as timing, dialogue, visual humor, quirky characters or exaggerated scenarios, things abruptly entering or exiting frame, etc. to make the reader and the audience laugh. The limit is truly up to you.
Drama Movie Scripts Examples
Oh! The Drama. The quintessential genre. Drama screenplays focus on character development. The characters push the plot, whereas in other genres, the plot is either nudging the characters along, or barreling them over. When you strip all the externalities away, you’re left with the human soul in conflict. And that’s enough.
These screenplays highlight the emotional depth and the complex interpersonal scenarios that your characters find themselves in. Dialogue is often more subtle, as your characters may know each other very well, and understand each other’s mannerisms, their tells, their facades. Your character can be fighting a war inside themselves, be in conflict with their family, with their lover, all of society, or even life itself.
Past Lives (2023)
2023’s Past Lives centered on the soul of the Korean-American immigrant, Nora confronting her past self when her childhood crush visits her out of the blue. There’s a big hitch in the childhood crush’s plan though: Nora is married now. Past Lives weaves together an intricate net of conflicts and thrusts them upon Nora, forcing her to confront her entire identity: how she sees herself, how she conceptualizes her past growing up in Korea with her present living in New York, what she wanted to do when she was a child versus what she’s actually doing now. Hae Sung’s sudden appearance doesn’t just make Nora question her choices in her love life, but forces her to reflect on the entirety of her life choices that led her across the world to New York.
Burrow deep into your character’s. Humans are infinitely complex. We’re often hypocritical. Find what binds your characters, and pressure them to see how far they can bend before they break.
Many dramas are adapted from previous material. You can read more about the screenplay adaptation process here.
Horror Movie Scripts Examples
The horror genre contains unique challenges for writers. But challenges beget opportunities. The horror screenwriter utilizes suspense, tension, and fear to manipulate the audience to their every whim. Develop the setting to create a thick atmosphere of dread.
Use monsters as allegories for real world devastation. Turn your hero into a monster because their fatal flaw destroys them. In The Babadook, the monster represents the mother’s trauma. More often than not, the monster ends up being just a human. How much trouble could one human cause, right? Right? Whatever form your dread takes, it’s often to exploit the psychological horror of your characters.
Horror has a very dedicated following among movie-goers. So producers love to scoop up horror screenplays as a result. Get writing.
Ready to Start Your Screenwriting Journey?
Reading screenplays from every genre, even if you only write one, will help you round out your writing skillset. Studying examples of scripts like the links above help to elucidate what actually makes successful stories tick. To transform that visceral feeling into understanding.
If you have any more questions, you can contact Kinolime to pair you film with a writing professional to enhance your screenplay. From checking script examples for film structure to discussing every aspect of STORY, Kinolime can help you with every step of the process. If you're confident in your script, enter it into the Kinolime writing contest where we will turn the winner into a movie!
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