12 Angry Men (1957)

Screenplay Genre: Drama / Mystery

Movie Time: 96 minutes

1. INCITING INCIDENT

Twelve jurors are set to the task of reaching a verdict of a teenage Hispanic boy who has just been tried for murdering his father, with a guilty verdict sending the boy to the electric chair. Once in deliberation, the jurors take a preliminary vote, but Juror #8 (Henry Fonda) is the only one to vote "not guilty" because he feels the boy at least deserves a review of the case before they hand in their verdict. (00:11:42)

2. LOCK IN (End of Act One)

After the other jurors offer a brief examination of the case but fail in their attempts to convince Juror #8 that the boy is guilty, it looks like the only solution will be a hung jury, but Juror #8 offers a proposition: another vote, but by secret written ballet, with Juror #8 abstaining. If all 11 jurors still vote guilty, Juror #8 will agree to join suit with a guilty verdict, but if anyone votes not guilty, they stay and talk it out. After the votes are counted, there is one vote (Juror #9) for "not guilty". (00:30:47)

3. FIRST CULMINATION (Midpoint)

The vote is still 10 to 2 in favor of guilty, but after Juror #8 illustrates that the phrase "I'm gonna kill you" – a phrase that an old man testified he heard the boy yell at his father – can be delivered in multiple ways and not only as a literal intention to murder someone, a reasonable doubt begins to brew with the credibility of the testimony, causing Juror #5 to change his vote to "not guilty". (00:46:53)

4. MAIN CULMINATION (End of Act Two)

The vote is now deadlock at 6 to 6, so in an attempt to break it up, Juror #7 changes his vote, trying to can get out of there because he has tickets to a baseball game later that night. Infuriated at the callousness of #7's switch in position, Juror # 11 challenges him to explain why he changed his vote. Juror #7 can't illustrate any logical reason, but still confirms the boy is "not guilty". Disappointed, they take another vote: now 9 to 3 in favor of "not guilty". (1:15:32)

5. THIRD ACT TWIST

After Juror #9 finally sees his vote has been predicated on racial prejudice and Juror #4 has a reasonable doubt of the credibility of the only eyewitness, a woman who wasn't wearing her eyeglasses, the vote is now 11 to 1 in favor of acquittal. Juror #3 – a man impervious to reason because of personal prejudice towards his own teenage son – is all alone, and now it's up to him to convince the other 11 that they're all wrong. (1:29:07)