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10 Great Preparation Scenes

By Meredith Alloway · August 21, 2011

The more we know about preparation, the bigger the payoff. Cheering when Micky Ward wins the match, crying when Nina meets her demise and cracking up when Fletcher, bloody and bruised, still has to continue his trial, all begins with the preparation. When we witness what a character goes through in order to achieve his or her objective, we feel more connected to them when they win or loose; we’ve been through the journey with them.

Now, the following list illustrates great preparation scenes, not montages, which have the challenge of showing us one important example from the character’s journey. These scenes elegantly demonstrate what a character will endure for his or her goals.

10. The Fighter (2010)

Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) is getting ready for his fight against the boxer Mungin in Atlantic City. He’s sitting in a room with him mother and brother, Dicky (Christian Bale), worrying about the difference in weight class. Dicky tries to prepare Micky for the fight saying, “You knocked down Joey Farrell,” a highlight in Micky’s career. His mother (Melissa Leo) quips, “Tell him Dicky he can do it, right?” Although this scene is simple, it clues us in on how Micky prepares for his fights and throughout the film, we see that Dicky is the one Micky looks to for encouragement.

9. Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

Danny Ocean (George Clooney) shares his plan to access the vault at the Bellagio with his friend Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) who comments that it’s “the least accessible vault ever designed.” It holds the money of three of the largest casinos in Las Vegas. Danny is preparing Rusty for the idea of robbing the vault and what such a venture will demand. They agree they’ll have to form a team, so the scene serves as the first step in preparation for the robbery: acquiring Ocean’s eleven and knowing the high risk of the operation.

8. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)

A group of underdogs has decided to enter a dodgeball tournament and is training with Patches O’Houlihan (Rip Torn), an ex-dodgeball champion. After days of training, Patches rails on one of the team members who isn’t being aggressive enough. He says, “Where’s your killer instinct son? You got to get angry, you got to get mean!” He then punches the man in the groin. This scene shows us that the team is going to extreme measures to prepare themselves for the tournament. They’re taking training very seriously, and the comedy rises from how desperate they are to win.

7. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)

To impress his family, Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams), posing as Mrs. Doubtfire, is preparing dinner. It’s his first day posing as the nanny, and he hovers over a boiling pot trying to read a cookbook. On accident he adds the entire bottle of basil, spills the water and almost sets the house on fire. Daniel’s attempts to prepare dinner show us how much he wants to impress his family and how much his cooking skills will need to improve. We begin to think that perhaps Daniel isn’t equipped to pull of such a risky identity switch. He can’t even make a convincing dinner for his family switch.

6. October Sky (1999)

Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal) has decided to build a rocket. He convinces his friends to help him, but they know they’ll need someone else’s expertise. Homer decides to approach the school nerd, Quentin (Chris Owen), despite his friends’ warnings that he “can’t associate with him. He’s a weirdo.” In the lunchroom Homer sits with Quentin, creating a commotion, and tells him he wants to know everything about rockets. This scene is crucial in Homer’s preparation for his rocket venture: acquiring the brains behind the outfit and taking a huge risk to do so, which we’ll see he will continue to do throughout the film.

5. Ray (2004)

Ray Charles (Jamie Foxx) was just a child when he first started to go blind. In a flashback scene, he runs into his house and trips on a chair yelling, “Mama help!” Although his mother is nearby in the kitchen, she refrains from saying a word. Then Ray begins to really listen to his environment. He hears the fire, a pot whistling, the wind outside and a bug on the ground. When he picks the bug up, he remarks that he hears his mother too, she’s right in front of him. This moment brings his mother to happy tears. We see through her eyes that Ray is already preparing himself for the world as a blind man, and that he’ll be just fine.

4. Liar Liar (1997)

Fletcher Reede (Jim Carrey) enters the courtroom and to his dismay, cannot tell a lie. He retreats to the bathroom and tries to calm himself. He decides he will beat himself up, making it look like he’s been jumped by someone. He punches himself, slams his head against the toilet and rips his hair out. This preparation he hopes will encourage the judge to take pity on him and delay the trial. Although Fletcher goes to an extreme measures to ready himself to go back into the courtroom, his efforts are useless and the trial continues.

3. Black Swan (2010)

Nina (Natalie Portman) has been awarded the lead in her company’s production of Swan Lake. Obsessed with perfection, Nina not only works on her technique during rehearsal hours, but at home as well. She has a small area in her mother’s home, where she lives, with a mirror and wooden floors. The scene where she practices her pirouettes at home is key to understanding the preparation Nina is enduring. Over and over again, she pushes herself to get her fouette flawless, and eventually we hear a cracking noise. She removes her point shoe to reveal a bloody, broken toenail. Is the role of the Black Swan worth the painful, exhausting preparation? Clearly, it is.

2. Spartacus (1960)

The slave Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) is training to be a Gladiator. The school he attends teaches men how to fight, gets them physically in shape and shows them the best way to kill. One day the men learn from the stone-cold Marcellus (Charles McGraw) the best places to aim at on a man’s body. As he dashes red paint across Spartacus’ neck and heart he says, “First rule, you get an instant kill on the red.” “On the blue you get a cripple,” He demonstrates, painting Spartacus’ arms. Marcellus tells the men as he colors the stomach and legs yellow, “Remember a slow kill may have enough kill left in him to kill you before he dies.” Marcellus says, “We expect more than just simple butchery, and we get it.” The men must not only attend the school’s lessons, but also listen carefully if they want to survive. This scene is crucial preparation for the gladiators. If they go for a kill at the wrong place on the body, they could die.

1. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Clarice (Jodie Foster) has been sent to interview Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins) by her boss at the FBI. Doctor Frederick Chilton (Anthony Heald), who runs the asylum where Hannibal is kept in confinement, leads Clarice to his cell. On the way he prepares her saying, “Do not touch the glass, do not approach the glass, you pass him nothing but soft paper, no pencils or pens.” Frederick shows her why they insist on such precautions: a picture of a nurse whose face Hannibal Lector literally chewed apart. This scene of preparation is crucial in both preparing Clarice for her formidable and dangerous interview with Hannibal and the audience for the monster they are about to meet.