The Little Things: How to Write a Trick Ending

The Little Things: How to Write a Trick Ending This week, we're going to be talking about The Little Things by John Lee Hancock, as well as some other films with the greatest trick endings of all time, like The Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects and Se7en. Specifically, we’re going to be answering the question: how do you write a trick ending in your screenplay? If you haven't seen The Little Things yet, don't worry, I am going to talk about the plot, but I will not give away the big surprise until the very end. And I promise I'll warn you before we get there. And if you have seen the movie, then you and I probably can agree that it has (what should be) a really fun trick ending, the kind of trick ending that we all look for, that wonderful moment that seems connected to character, that has emotional stakes to it, that surprises the audience, that’s even is a riff on the title of the script.  It's a nice little moment, or at least it should be.  But somehow, you probably found that the trick ending in The Little Things left you just a little bit cold. It just doesn't totally land. In your head, (if you didn’t see it coming), you might still think, “oh, that's interesting, that's a cool trick ending.” But in your heart, you don't really feel the trick ending.  That happens for a very simple reason.  So in looking at The Little Things we’re going to talk about exactly why the trick ending doesn’t work to its full potential, and how to write a trick ending for your screenplay that works both intellectually and emotionally. Often, when your trick ending isn't landing, or for that matter, when any element of your script isn't landing, you rush back to rewrite, and you start to get focused on all the little details that aren’t working. And, of course, we could talk about all the little details of The Little Things. We could talk about the kind of clunky exposition at the beginning where we're told again, and again, and again, and again about Denzel’s nervous breakdown and what a messed up cop he was before he lost his job and ended up at this crappy little out-of-town precinct.  We could talk about the good things about this script. We could talk about the wonderful performance of Jared Leto’s character, and the nice little twist on the serial killer that we see with him. We could talk about the cool 90’s throwback stuff and the old technology of solving a crime. We could talk about the pacing of the script.  These are exactly the kinds of things that we often get obsessed with when we rewrite, especially when something big isn't working in our script. All those little details. “Oh, no, I messed up this little line of dialogue...”  But what I want to tell you is that these are the little things. They're not the big ones.  And as screenwriters, as much as we care about the details, we actually have to make sure we take care of the big things before we take care of the little ones. (Even if we're writing a script called The Little Things).  The reason the trick ending of The Little Things isn't landing has absolutely nothing to do with all the little clunky execution issues in the script.  The truth is, the script could survive those clunky issues, even though I wish the writer had cleaned them up. The real reason the ending doesn't land comes down to what almost always gets in the way of trick endings: it's all about the characters.  The first key in writing a trick ending that works is making sure that the trick ending isn't just happening for the audience. It’s also happening for the characters.  And that's especially important if you're writing a two-hander like The Little Things.  By two-hander I mean, there are really two characters in The Little Things. Sure, you have Jared Leto’s character,