What is Chekhov's Gun — How Knives Out Perfects the Setup and Payoff

in this video let's look at the multiple ways ryan johnson obeys and breaks the rules of chekhov's gun enter benoit block this is what is chekhov's gun [Music] chekhov's gun attributed to the 19th century russian playwright anton chekhov it's a dramatic principle that claims everything in your story should be relevant and to discard anything unnecessary to the plot that's you operating the flamethrower isn't it you better sweet ass it was all right that's too hot chekhov describes this dramatic principle as such one must never place a rifle on the stage if it isn't going to go off it's wrong to make promises you don't mean to keep these promises can also be made with dialogue character traits or story elements excuse me what are you guys doing here in the middle of the street well i'm putting these chickens in crates and stacking them right here jim's job is to make sure we always have plenty of watermelons weird yeah you gotta wonder if this is gonna pay off later on anything that is assumed to be integral to the story and expect it to show up again this means something this is important to use chekhov's gun effectively consider these three things visibility is how obvious you present the quote unquote gun do you use a close-up with dramatic music or do you let it come and go without focusing on it so we just gotta ignore the bed it's a bear it's a bear it's a bear it's a bear it's a bear it's a bear it's a bear it's a bear it's a bear it's a bear [Music] relevancy is how clear the importance of the gun is to the story what do you want rita hayworth what is it obvious what will happen when this gun is fired one big damn conspiracy and everyone's in on it including her or is its relevance a mystery that will later be revealed [Music] [Applause] and velocity is how fast or slow the gun is fired after it's loaded do you pull the trigger immediately then we could wait until dawn and slice each other up [Music] or do you keep the audience in suspense go jesus a smart way to approach chekhov's gun is to mix and match these categories like writer director ryan johnson did in his murder mystery knives out i suspect foul play i'm coming in in the film patriarch harlan thrombi [Music] has died his entire family are suspects only marta knows the truth so who the is that um this has been why blanc and detective ben moyer blanc who is that guy he's very good at his job i have eliminated no suspects chekhov's gun is perfectly suited for the mystery genre and in knives out ryan johnson gives us plenty of examples of how to do it all my assets both liquid and otherwise i leave in their entirety this is your official spoiler alert warning to marta cabrera my entire ownership of blood like wine publishing i leave in its entirety to marta cabrera the copyright of its catalog likewise i leave in its entirety to marta cabrera there are quite a few chekhov's gun examples in knives out you have a regurgitative reaction to miss truth starting with a blood stain near the midpoint on page 56 johnson sets up the tiniest clue on her white sneaker one single drop of blood [Music] a question immediately forms in the audience's mind when will this clue be revealed despite their careful planning this might be the reason mata gets caught [Music] and even though in the next sequence marta is able to eliminate incriminating evidence what happened she is unaware of her bloodstained shoe the gun is now loaded and we wait for the inevitable shot in this instance the blood stain was highly visible clearly important to the plot and it took over an hour for the gun to be fired when did you know i had something to do with harlan's death oh from the first moment you set foot in front of me the interesting application here is the difference between the setup and payoff with an unambiguous close-up and a dramatic music sting johnson makes us believe this clue to be massively important but compared to the expectation the payoff is merely an addendum at the very end the lesson don't be afraid to mislead the audience a little bit it will keep them on their toes often with chekov's gun the expectation related to the element is clear but what about a prop that has no discernible expectation harlan's baseball is a rather unique application of chekov's gun but until his very last appearance we have no idea why we keep seeing it or what role it has to play the first mention comes on page 20. [Music] that's none of your business i know my daughter and she would want to know i've put all of it in this letter to her and we see it at least five more times before we finally understand its importance on page 123 linda places the ball back on harlan's desk and finds the note he wrote to her [Music] the baseball was a rather elaborate usage of chekhov's gun it was clearly visible making appearances in multiple scenes but lacked obvious relevance to the story in a murder mystery like this where everyone is a suspect and everything is a clue something innocuous like a baseball can still be captivating when used in this way [Music] now let's turn our attention to an example that follows chekhov's gun almost literally the decorative but rather menacing knife display in the library goes unmentioned throughout the film no characters comment on his presence thank you all for getting together like this but johnson goes out of his way to make sure we see it many times now with the entire solution in my field of view the arc of this case is a tragedy of errors like chekhov's original pistol on the wall johnson is making a huge promise to the audience at some point these knives are going to play a part in the story but we wait the entire movie and nothing happens until [Music] so how do we categorize the wall of knives with its over-the-top design and blatant visibility johnson is making a huge promise that at some point one or all of these knives will be used it has no direct relevance to the story and it doesn't come into play until the climax chekhov's gun isn't about guns at all 30 years ago lightning struck that clock tower and the clock hasn't run since it's a tool to set up and pay off various elements like plot and character for directors it's helpful to keep track of every instance of a chekhov's gun when breaking down the script tag the element in each scene so it's considered by the art department and be sure to call it out when shot listing so the next time you hang a gun on the wall make sure it goes off i knew it what other films or filmmakers use chekhov's gun in interesting ways this is compressed air you screw around with these tanks and they're gonna blow up share your favorites in the comments on the studio binder blog you'll find our additional resources on checkoff's gun foreshadowing and much more and remember chekhov's gun when you take a stab at your next story all right then our work here is done [Music] excellent [Music] in your mouth

Channel: StudioBinder

Views: 587,344

Keywords: Chekhov’s gun, anton chekhov, chekhov, checkov’s gun, chekov’s gun, what is chekhov’s gun, chekhov’s gun in movies, chekhov’s gun explained, film theory, video essay, filmmaker, script, filmmaking, knives out ending, knives out scene, rian johnson knives out, knives out video essay, knives out explained, knives out baseball, setup and payoff, knives out baseball scene, anton chekhov quotes, fandor, screenplay, screenwriting, directing, film making, film analysis

Id: zQ1Feczm93A

Length: 11min 39sec (699 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 05 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/the_ham_guy]

This video is click bait nonsense. It doesn't start talking about Knives Out until 4:34 and then uses the bloodstain on the shoe (that we is pointed out at the beginning of the movie) as an example of misdirection. The baseball that makes its rounds (but is clearly *not* an example of checkov's gun), and the knife wall in the background of the main room in the film, which is too literal of an example. I just saved you an 11min watch. Dont support these types of drawn out videos that say nothing of value.

Unless you literally have no idea what Checkhov's gun is, don't waste your time.

[u/pensivewombat]

This video feels like a cynical exercise in padding out 90 seconds of content into enough time to hit the optimal runtime for YouTube ad placement and draw in algorithm-generated clicks off of the back of an uptick in people searching for Knives Out because of the sequel announcement.

[u/Dillionaire]

Yeaaaaa, a lot of those are stretches for Chekov's Gun. Just watch this instead. (I didn't make this video I just love it so much)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQOvv_b9TpY

[u/SpaghettiSandwich]

Knives Out was fine and all but I don't understand why the internet keeps treating it like some intricate Rubik's cube of storytelling. I called the twist from the very jump, sitting there the rest of the hour and twenty minutes HOPING I was wrong and it was a misdirect or red herring.

[u/VideoCook]

It's the gun he kept under his station, ready to turn on Kirk and restart the revolution in the 23rd century