Enneagram – Page 11 – Enneagram and Encaustic

Left Behind

LEFTOVER NINE

While credits roll, the camera travels through a neighborhood of abandoned houses. Inside a garage is the horse, still wearing its tack. Cut to a frantic Ellie, ripping cloth for bandages and pressing on Joel’s wound. He lies on the basement floor gasping in pain. He tells her to leave, and she yells at him to shut up. “Go to Tom,” he says. After covering him with his coat, she gives him a long look and walks out. Fade to black.

ONE

Pearl Jam starts, over, and we fade in on a Walkman at Ellie’s waist while she runs laps in the school gym. Round and round the basketball floor the girls jog until some bully comes from behind and rips off Ellie’s headset. The bully taunts that Ellie’s friend, the one who fights for her, is no longer here. After a pause, Ellie throws a punch.

Cut to Ellie in the principal’s office. She has a black eye. Cpt. Kwong wears a FEDRA uniform. He’s gentle, mentioning that Ellie’s been in much more trouble over the past few weeks. The bully, Bethany, is in the infirmary with stitches. Kwong, who appears to like Ellie, lays out the two paths ahead for her. One, she becomes a drudge doing the worst jobs. Two, she becomes an officer and has an easier life. “There’s a leader in you,” he says.

Details of a room: a baseball on a window sill, dinosaur drawings, a paperback copy of “No Pun Intended”. Rain is heard while Ellie on her bed reads the comic book Sam loved in Episode 5, “Savage Starlight”. She tosses it aside and looks over at a bare corner of the room with an unoccupied bed. Lights out, and Ellie climbs under her covers.

Kin

LEFTOVER NINE

Henry’s final moment from the previous episode replays.

ONE

Three Months Later. We’re in snow country. A man carrying rabbit carcasses strides up to a self-sufficient cabin. We don’t see his face until he enters and exchanges a glance with this wife, who sits by the fire. Her eyes move sideways, and Joel steps from behind the room’s center post with his gun drawn.

The couple goes through some hilarious schtick, the kind only longtime partners have, and the man sits. Joel is looking for Tommy. Ellie, from the loft, asks to come down. Husband and wife exchange another speaking look.

TWO

Joel asks for their location on a map and how to travel west. “Go east,” the man says. Past the river are a lot of dead bodies, only some of them infected. Joel and Ellie head out, having no choice but to continue on.

(This was a jewel of a scene that ended way too soon. Give Graham Greene and Elaine Miles their own show. I’d watch them all day.)

THREE

As they leave, Joel has what appears to be a panic attack, although it could be angina.

It’s published!

Acting the Enneagram is now available at amazon. You may have noticed I’ve become more interested in how a character’s Enneagram impacts the overall success of the story.

In this book I go over the basics of Personality Typing for the Enneagram using movie characters and posts from the blog. I add some never-before-seen Storytelling Enneagram breakdowns for an assortment of movies, and then I mash the two sections together.

Going forward look for me to try more of this weaving of Enneagrams in my posts and in future books. I’m convinced this is the best way to write, create, and critique film and television stories. Besides, it’s fun!

Endure and Survive

ONE

Fireworks. People chanting and celebrating in the street. FEDRA is defeated, its officers shot, and the Resistance owns the city. (This is a flashback.) Henry and Sam hide from the searchlights and communicate with sign language.

TWO

A jail enclosure filled with people. Kathleen, Perry guarding her, enters and sits. These are the FEDRA snitches. With her sweet, girlish voice, Kathleen promises them a trial (where they’ll be found guilty) and some time served if they tell her where Henry is. When she threatens to shoot them, someone implicates the doctor. Kathleen insists Perry go door-to-door until Henry’s found. And the snitches, even the one who talked, should be shot and burned.

Henry and Sam enter a building. Random gunfire can be heard outside. They find the attic hidey-hole where the doctor waits. (Kathleen shoots him at the beginning of the previous episode.) Henry calculates they have enough supplies for 11 days. In that time they need to figure out an escape route.

THREE

To calm Sam, Henry comes to see what he’s drawing on his Magic Slate Paper Saver. (Yes, I had to google the official name of this well-known toy.) It’s Super Sam, wearing a heroic mask. Henry gives him a bag of crayons so he can decorate the brick walls.

Please Hold To My Hand

ONE

Ellie practices with her handgun in front of a decrepit bathroom mirror. Partly she’s watching herself look cool, but she also unloads the magazine and inspects the weapon, learning it. She reloads it and slides it into her backpack.

TWO

Outside, they’re at an overgrown gas station with cars parked nearby. Joel siphons the tanks. She’s talkative and curious, he’s curt and taciturn. From her backpack she pulls out a paperback: No Pun Intended, Volume Too. (His face is priceless as she reads the jokes with joyful comedic timing.)

THREE

As they drive down an interstate, Ellie passes him a Hank Williams cassette from her backpack. She’s sitting in the backseat. Reaching under the front, she finds a men’s magazine and starts exclaiming about the centerfold. (Remember, this was Bill’s truck.) Laughing at how flustered she’s made Joel, she tosses the magazine out the window.

Long, Long Time

On my first watch of The Last of Us I missed the plot plants for this episode. The radio link in Joel’s apartment that plays 80’s tunes as a sign of trouble, and Tess’ plea for Joel to leave Ellie with Bill and Frank, didn’t stick with me as important.

However, that means I went into episode 3 with no expectations. I didn’t remember that Bill had a Frank. I’m glad, actually, that everything was a surprise for me. It let me experience each beat at its full impact. I’ve really been looking forward to this rewatch.

Let’s see how the breakdown holds up!

LEFTOVER NINE

Joel’s damaged hand reaches into a stream and takes out a stone. He’s building a cairn on the riverbank. Ten Miles West of Boston. Ellie waits for him in the woods. As Joel packs up to move on, Ellie takes him to task: Don’t blame me for Tess’ death. After a beat, Joel nods. They have a five hour hike ahead of them.

Infected

Episode 2 of The Last of Us

LEFTOVER NINE

Jakarta, Indonesia, September 24, 2003. Pre-infection, with a bustling city scene. At a restaurant a woman eats alone. Military enter and approach her.

She rides in the military vehicle, wondering why she’s here. The driver confirms her identity: Ibu Ratna, Professor of Mycology. They take her to a secured room in a medical facility. She examines the prepared specimen under the microscope. “Cordyceps cannot survive in humans,” she says. She’s wrong.

In a hazmat suit in a locked room she examines the dead human subject. Cutting open the human bite mark on the leg, Ratna exposes the fungus growing underneath. She then goes into the mouth with forceps and pulls out strands that move toward her on their own. Ratna runs from the room as the strands quest outward from the subject’s mouth.

Over tea, Ratna speaks with the officer. This episode happened 30 hours ago at a flour and grain factory. They don’t know where the first bite came from, and fourteen workers are currently missing. Ratna’s hands shake as she sets down the tea. Officials would like a vaccine or a medicine from her. There is no such thing, she says. Bomb the city and everyone in it.

Roll credits.

When You’re Lost in the Darkness

Needless to say, spoilers for the first episode of The Last of Us follow.

ONE

1968. A talk show with a live studio audience has two guests discussing pandemics. One is worried about viruses, the other — the one delivering the information we need — is concerned about fungi and its ability to infect and control minds.

Roll credits.

2003. A teen girl’s bedroom. Morning. She makes her father eggs for breakfast. No pancake mix. Their relationship is light, easy. Uncle Tommy arrives. Again, a mention of no pancakes. The brothers are business partners in construction. On the radio, something about disturbances in Jakarta.

As they prepare to head out for the day, Sarah sneaks into her dad’s room for money and a watch from his bureau drawer. She takes a moment to admire a beautifully carved pocket knife. Neighbors in the front yard tending to an elderly woman in a wheelchair call hello. They’re eating biscuits, including feeding one to the old lady. Austin, TX, September 26th. Joel’s birthday. The world is green and shiny.

KOMARAM BHEEM, NINE

This is our other RRR hero, the tribal leader. He’s such a Nine. Unbelievably powerful, and yet never seeking conflict until it knocks on his door, Bheem is like a boy when in the city. Raju is much more confident and worldly, taking Bheem under his wing.

When Bheem is roused, though, he is stronger than anyone else — physically and mentally. He is the perfect protector for his people. His indomitable sense of justice, even to the point of extreme suffering, is the only thing that can break Raju’s purpose. Throughout much of the film it’s hard to see how these two men can remain friends when all the truth is out, and yet they do.

Don’t let their energetic and glorious dance sequence deter you from appreciating the craft of the acting and filmmaking. Their jacked handsomeness is plot- and character-driven, I assure you. This is classically epic storytelling — reality is secondary — and these protagonists are the movie stars this genre deserves.

RAMA RAJU, EIGHT

This movie, RRR, has two heroes. Raju is in the military during the end of the British Empire in India. He investigates the other hero, befriends him unwittingly, and leads a surprise double life throughout. Both men play complex characters. The movie introduces us to them in separate over-the-top, fabulous action sequences that resonate during the rest of the story. I can’t recommend this film enough.

Okay, so who is Raju?

He will finish his mission, no matter how difficult. His opening scene hammers that trait home, lol. However, his secret mission with the military, which is more mental than physical, is also unstoppable. He was forged as a child and has become an indefatigable man.

Given almost superhero strength and agility, is Raju a Body Type? Oh, look at that. He’s an Eight. It’s his willpower. When so many forces press against him — loss of family, career, and country — he won’t bend. He won’t give up.

He also has a great joy in being with his friend. He has every reason to hold back, to stay unengaged, yet he jumps in. That lack of worry, of rolling in the moment, is very Eight. The only thing that thwarts his mission is a display of genuine compassion by Bheem, something that an Eight respects as a strength move. Physical dominance just makes Raju fight back harder, but Bheem’s acceptance of suffering moves Raju to sympathy.