I love UFO stories. They’re fascinating and informative narratives that can be interpreted on multiple levels such as fairy tales, mythologies and now, even religion. It should come as no surprise that I’ve got a penchant for UFO movies too. So when I learned that Night Skies was based on the 1997 Phoenix Lights UFO sighting in Arizona, I anticipated a damn good paranoid drama about MKULTRA, space aliens and honest-to-good Americans getting caught up in the mix. But I was wrong. Very wrong. Night Skies is a horrible film. The title has more potential than the movie itself. But, if I were to explain the film’s story elements, you would realize that it had all the makings of a great film. So, what went wrong? The plot. It’s possible that the movie goes badly because the plot is horribly written (or edited) despite being a good story. For Night Skies, everything goes downhill after Act One. That’s obviously not a good sign.
For those of us trained in screenwriting – even those badly trained – we know that every story needs an Act Two. That was the class when the elderly profesoor stood up at the front and said that Act Two was the “meat” of the story. You don’t skimp out on that anymore that you forget to put several layers of deli meat on rye. Act Two is where the story happens. That’s where complications ensue and by complications, we obviously mean between people, the characters. Even the extraterrestials ones. Even dogs, cats or anything else our human-viewing audience has anthropromorphized. Act Two is where we get to know them. It’s where something happens to hem. Some people even say that without Act Two there wouldn’t be a story in a first place. They’re right and also may be annoying in stating the obvious too. If Act One sucks, then we’d say the intro sucked. If Act Three sucked, then we would say that we didn’t like the ending. But if Act Two sucked, then we would say the story sucked. Most of audience members wouldn’t ask how or why it happened. Nor the wannabe writers. Just the aspiring ones that are desperate to see how stories work. It’s a fun topic. A little time consuming, but fun.
Night Skies can draw an audience – like me, sadly – because the Phoenix Lights 1997 is a mega-event in alien history. Hundreds of people saw the glowing lights, up in the night sky, in Phoenix Arizona, including respected members of society like police officers, paramedics and maybe even politicians who dared to admit it. That’s more than enough for any aficionado or truly believer. Police Officers, after all, are supposed to be trained observers. So when they see something they haven’t seen before, it might be worth looking into. But Night Skies isn’t about professionals, it’s about a group of American friends who take a road trip into the woods and get abducted. It gets better when they run into a lonely vet stranded on the side of the road who ends up helping them escape. It’s a true story, so, in reality, the story ought to write itself. Or maybe the screenwriter, director and editor should help it out a bit.
This film starts with several young friends – Matt, Molly, Joe and June – riding to Vegas in an old beaten up RV. That’s a good sign because the magic always happens in old RV ready to break down on a deserted highway. It gets even better. Matt’s horny little sister is there too, so complications ensue. Unfortunately. Even more unfortunately is Joe video-recording everything he sees happening on the RV. It’s a great set up, I don’t deny it. I like it. Even though it’s a big formulaic or even cliche, I wouldn’t mind settling down to it for an hour or two. And, aslo, it should be mentioned that Matt and Molly are a couple, but Matt isn’t ready to settle down.
Their RV crashes into a pole. Spoiler alert. It’s badly damaged. Matt, the driver, tries to avoid a stalled car but crashes into a pole instead. To make it worse, Joe, the camera guy, is mortally wounded in the process. He’s our ticking time bomb. Without Joe, there wouldn’t be any tension in the film. Joe needs to get to the hospital or he’ll die. It gets worse when they run into the vet on the side of the road, Richard, he’s full of POW emotional scars. He hasn’t been treated for it and he’s been trained to kill. So who knows what he’ll end up doing. No one wants to be judgemental these days, but at the same time, Richard has an untreated mental illness that could turn ugly any time he doesn’t want it to.
So our friends are terrified too. Except for Matt, who acts like a major asshole whenever Richard is around. I’m not sure if this is supposed to add tension to the story or if Matt isn’t handling his life properly in general. Molly is pregnant with his baby. As an aside, Matt’s horny sister is coming on to the Richard which means maybe she will be pregnant too. This is a true story. As stated before, all of the story elements of a great movie is here, but it’s quite possibly one of the worst films you’ll ever see. And please, don’t call this a B movie. Not that again. It’s not low-budget, it’s poorly written. They’re not synonymous.
Aliens kinda appear outside the RV, then disappear. It happens every now and then. Our horny little sister hits on the traumatized veteran even some more. Joe is screaming death, kinda literally. At this time, I picked up a vintage handheld game, the kind where you solve a puzzle while still catching most of the dialogue. After a few easy leves, I looked up shrewdly. I realized that Night Skies didn’t have an Act Two. I mean, technically it was there, but what was there wasn’t serving the function of Act Two very well. What I mean is that after they ended up in the ditch with the perhaps dangerous vet, the plot structure failed miserably. It lost momentum in characterization and definitive action towards any possible conclusion. All of the story elements just drifted into the next forty minutes or so. None of them connected in a way that was thrust forward by events to converge on some kind of ending. I was fascinated by that. It’s like the storytelling didn’t quite understand any of the nuances of storytelling. He didn’t understand narrative unity. Wow. That’s a powerful discovery
How to Fix Night Skies
Believe it or not, Night Skies is based on the true life account of Richard’s story not the American youngsters on the road trip. So, I would modify the angle of the story to tell it through Richard not the college kids.
First: We begin the film with the Richard driving down the highway. He’s listening to the presidential news conference that’s discussing the Arizona lights. Get the details of his life. Maybe his car is messy. Maybe he’s got an old letter from a lover. Maybe he’s got a bottle of whiskey in the car and a gun. Give him a haggard look, like he’s hurting inside but still moving on with his life somehow, despite how desperately lonely he’s become. Then show he’s a vet.
Second: Juxtapose the hopeful lives of these young people against Richard’s troubled life. Unlike him, they’ve got potential ahead of them. Maybe they’re going to school to get an expensive degree. Maybe they’re taking vacations around the world – without fear of a shrapnel wound. Maybe they’re falling in and out of love with each other. Make sure they come off as being American too. Typical American kids who are going to get their share of some good ol’ American Apple Pie.
Third: The story isn’t about the abduction. It’s the story of a possible abduction that goes badly. The actual abduction, in the real-life account, doesn’t take a long enough time to fit into the movie. It’s what happens at then end of painful struggle out in the woods. So, take all of the depth of characterizations which includes all of the hopes and dreams and put all of that in dangerous peril of doom, death or disability. The vet they find is a wild card on top of all this mess. But he’s the only one with the gun too. Above all, make sure the kids look helpless and vulnerable, barely able to stay alive against an enemy that is powerful, mysterious and inhuman. Many alien movies are actually horror ones. So get the terror right.
Fourth: Give every indication that they will avoid abduction. Make it look convincing. Obviously. Give them their life back. All of it. They got stuck on the side of the road with a mortally wounded friend and unstable war vet with a gun, and let it look like they’re going to survive it. Then, take it away. Remember screenwriters aren’t cruel, aliens are. It’s a true story after all.
That’s a good start. Any half-talented writer can at least impove on Night Skies. No one in the storytelling business would be kind to his movie. If this is a good movie, then the world would be mad. We simply wouldn’t have a definitive task at hand and if anything goes then eventually it will include your pay cheque and your mind. But Night Skies is a free writing lesson for anyone wanting to learn more about visual storytelling. You’ve got to look at the stories that don’t work to learn to make sense of the stories that do. Good luck.