Save the Cat Moment.

If you’ve ever written anything, you probably know what I’m talking about.

Almost every movie has one of these, but your usual viewer doesn’t even know it’s there. Which makes it a good one.

You want people to like the main character. Even more so if she is a prick. You need to show them there’s a heart of gold beneath all of that unpleasant demeanour.

So, you have her save the cat.

Back in the day she actually saved the cat from a tree or something along those lines. These days it means “do something nice.”

Tony Stark in the first Iron Man is a prick. A colossal one at that. Remember the opening of the movie? He is drunk and gambling instead of receiving an award. Then he proceeds to bang a reporter and his secretary throws her out of the house in the morning.

That’s not nice. Not nice at all.

But then he gets to Afghanistan and as he’s being escorted by the soldiers. And he’s cool and charming. You see his friendly side. He jokes with the soldiers, takes pictures… And he tries to help when they are attacked.

There’s also the opposite. As in Kill the Cat. When something tragic happens and it makes the audience think “You go get them and do whatever you need to do!”

Think John Wick for that one.