Finding Nemo (2003)

Screenplay Genre: Animation / Adventure / Comedy

Movie Time: 100 mins

1. INCITING INCIDENT

After an attack by a barracuda, Marlin is left a widower and his entire clutch of eggs has been destroyed. Upon further inspection, he discovers that one egg, Nemo, survived. He promises the little Nemo: “I’ll never let anything happen to you.”  (00:04:31)

2. LOCK IN (End of Act One)

On his first day of school, Nemo is dared by some of his classmates to swim out into open water to touch a boat. Marlin’s father shows up to prevent him from doing so, but Nemo defies his father’s wishes and touches the boat anyway. But just as he’s about to swim back in, he is captured by two divers. Marlin has no choice but to frantically swim after the divers, who get in their boat and motor away. (00:15:12)

3. FIRST CULMINATION (Midpoint)

Having only an address gleaned from a pair of the diver’s goggles, which fell off the boat that took his son, Marlin has been blindly making his way across the ocean when he gets directions from a school of fish and sets out with his traveling companion, Dory (Ellen Degeneres), but instead of following the fishes’ instructions, they swim over a canyon and are surrounded by jellyfish. Marlin does all he can to save Dory from the jellies before fainting himself. (00:47:37)

4. MAIN CULMINATION (End of Act Two)

Dory and Marlin are trapped in the belly of a whale. Marlin gives up all hope of escaping, but he won’t follow Dory to the back of the throat. Finally, Dory convinces him to “Let go,” and he literally lets go and he falls deeper into the whale. As everything seems to be lost, the whale blows them out of his blowhole and into the Sydney harbor, where they know Nemo will be found. (01:12:48)

5. THIRD ACT TWIST

After Nemo has escaped from the dentist’s tank and been reunited with Marlin, Dory is swept up in a fishing net. Their reunion seems to be soured until Marlin and Nemo save Dory by getting all the fish in the net to swim in the same direction. (01:26:51)