Developing Characters With A Single Line Of Dialogue
Sometimes I'm Amazed at What a Single Line Can Do
Character development in a film is difficult. You have only a few minutes to get the audience to like or hate your character before they get bored and go back to scrolling through their phones.
Throughout all the movies I’ve watched, a few lines of dialogue stick out in their ability to solidify a character’s motivations and depth in a way that draws me in and makes me understand and care about them.
The Town
The 2010 film “The Town” stars Ben Affleck as Doug MacRay, a bank robber from Boston's Charlestown neighbourhood. Doug is planning one final job to escape his criminal life with the woman he has fallen in love with.
During the film, Doug MacRay approaches his partner in crime, James Coughlin (played by Jeremy Renner) and says:
I need your help. I can't tell you what it is, you can never ask me about it later, and we're gonna hurt some people.
To which James replies:
Whose car are we gonna' take?
That last line does a lot to define James’ character. He is asked to get up on a moment's notice to hurt some people without reason or explanation and with no questions asked.
His response shows us that he is not only willing to use violence at a moment's notice without reason or provocation but that he has implicit and unconditional trust in his friend and partner in crime.
A single line shows us that he is a dangerous but exceptionally loyal man.
A Few Good Men
A Few Good Men is a courtroom drama in which a team of Naval JAG lawyers is tasked with defending two Marines from Guantanamo Bay who are accused of intentionally killing a member of their platoon. Throughout the film, we find out that there is much more to the story than it seems.
If you haven’t seen A Few Good Men, stop what you’re doing and watch it right now. You won’t regret it.
In the climactic courtroom scene, Colonel Jessup (played masterfully by Jack Nicholson) starts an epic monologue with a single line of dialogue. This one line solidifies who this man is and why he is sitting in the witness box.
You can’t handle the truth!
That line gives me goosebumps every time.
Throughout the movie, we are shown evidence through Jessup’s actions and words that he considers himself and his position essential to the nation's security.
His courtroom outburst confirms that he has a god complex. He goes on to explain how he is essential to the nation's security, but these five words of dialogue show us that he feels he is above the courts and the law.
Jessup feels that his actions, regardless of their legality or cost, are just and should not be questioned.
Previous to this line, Lieutenant Kaffee (Played by Tom Cruise) has his own outburst, accusing the Colonel of authorizing the ‘code red’, doctoring tower logs, and hanging the accused Marines out to dry when things went wrong.
We can see Jessup’s anger at the court and the young and inexperienced lawyer questioning his methods. During Kaffee’s demands for answers, the judge tells Jessup that he doesn’t have to answer Kaffee’s questions.
But he does.
Why?
Because he knows the truth, and the rest of us can not handle it, he wants to be left alone to protect his nation the way he sees fit, and no one should question his methods.
Heat
The 1995 Michal Mann LA crime saga Heat follows a group of highly skilled criminals as they pull off several heists in the LA area. The film centers around Neil McCauley (played by Robert De Niro) and Vincent Hanna (played by Al Pacino).
Neil is the leader of the criminal gang, while Vincent is the detective chasing them.
We get fantastic character development for each of these men, but one line demonstrates the origin of Neil McCauley's motivation. It also helps us understand and empathize with his actions throughout and at the end of the film.
Like with A Few Good Men, if you haven't seen Heat, do so now. If you have seen it, it’s probably time for a rewatch.
I’ve seen the film at least fifty times and still find it to be an amazing work.
The line comes from a scene where Neil and Vincent have coffee together. The scene itself is a masterclass in writing that I may cover in a future article.
As the men talk, we get some pieces of backstory about Neil and Vincent and we start to understand how entrenched they are in their chosen lifestyles. Vincent suggests that Neil is committing crimes with the aim of going back to prison, to which Neil responds:
I am never going back
We know a bit about his past incarceration, and we know throughout his actions in the film that he is cold, calculated, and ruthless. However, this line teaches us that, above all else, he does not want to enter a prison ever again.
He will kill anyone who stands in his way or die to avoid ending up in cuffs.
Taken
The 2008 film Taken follows Bryan Mills (Played by Liam Neeson) as he tries to find his daughter, who was kidnapped while on a European vacation.
His backstory is hinted at, but when his daughter is kidnapped, she is on the phone with her while it happens. The entire call is an excellent example of how little we need to build a character like this, but one line not only caps off some good character development but sets the stage for the rest of the film’s action.
I will find you, and I will kill you.
Half of the beauty of this line of dialogue is in its delivery. Liam Neeson delivers it in a calm and cool way, which adds weight to the words. Before this moment, we only have hints that he is a dangerous and trained man, but his confident delivery tells us that he is a trained professional.
From this one line, all the actions that follow become believable and grounded in the skillset we assume a trained operator like Bryan Mills would possess.
Final Thoughts
Building a character from the ground up is difficult at the best of times. When you only have a few minutes of screen time to make people care about your character, sometimes less is more.