It Happened One Night Beat Sheet

It Happened One Night 
Movie Poster

Here is my attempt at the Beat Sheet for It Happened One Night (1934). If you would like more information about beat sheets and the 15 beats every great movies shares, check out this page. 

Opening Image – The film opens on a yacht. Ellie Andrews has been locked in her stateroom by her wealthy father until he can get an annulment through for her recent elopement. Her father is complaining that she is on a hunger strike. 

Set-up – Ellie escapes the yacht and swims to Miami where she hocks her watch to buy clothes and a bus ticket to New York where her husband waits. In the meantime, Peter Warne is a down-on-his luck newspaper reporter who has just been fired by his boss in New York City. He, too, is taking the bus to New York. 

Theme Stated  – In modern screenplays, the theme is normally stated to the protagonist around minute 5. In this movie, the theme is one of growing independence. 

Catalyst – Ellie gets on the bus and travels to New York. 

Debate – There is not much debate before Act Two, more set up to get to the main part of the movie. 

Break Into Two  – Act Two is the upside world of Ellie traveling on a bus with little to no money and only Peter to help. 

B Story – Peter Warne, the newspaperman, at first follows Ellie to get a story and later falls in love with her. 

Fun and Games –  We see Peter and Ellie at various bus stops.  They go to a motel where they have to share a room. 

Midpoint - A man on the bus recognizes Ellie and wants to return her to her father for a $10,000 reward. Peter manages to turn him away but they must now leave the bus. 

Bad Guys Close In – Ellie and Peter have no money. Peter's suitcase gets stolen. All they have to eat is carrots. They stay at a motel without any means to pay for it. 

All is Lost – Ellie gets woken up in the middle of the night to find that Peter is gone. She thinks that he has left her. She calls her father to get his help. Peter passes them as they leave the town and sees her with her husband. 

Dark Night of the Soul – Both Peter and Ellie are devastated. 

Break Into Three – Ellie decides that she should just go ahead and remarry her husband in a large wedding and forget about Peter, especially after she thinks he wants to collect the reward. 

Finale – Peter comes to visit Ellie's father and only wants the money he spent on getting her home, not the reward. He tells her father that he loves Ellie. As her father walks Ellie down the aisle, he tells her that Peter didn't want the reward, and that she should not get married. She leaves in the middle of the ceremony to find Peter. 

Final Image – In one of the coolest endings, we see the outside of the Ellie and Peter's motel room, hear a trumpet sound, and see a blanket (the walls of Jericho) fall before the screen goes black.