From personal experience and discussion with other informed voices in the film community, I’ve developed a shorthand set of thumb rules: ten film commandments, my decem praecepta. This series of articles breaks down what I’m on about.

And now:

“3. Thou shalt not make too many mysteries.”

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Where am I? Who are you? Where are we going? And how did we get into this handbasket?

Screenwriter Jimmy McGovern: “I’d rather be confused for ten minutes than bored for five seconds” (see my first film commandment again). That said, even the fake feds from the 1992 film Sneakers have their limits: “Too many secrets, Mr. Bishop.” If viewers feel it’s taking to long to get even some answers (or worse: none are coming at all), filmmakers should expect a disconnect from audiences caring about the mysteries their heroes must contend with.

Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island is an example where an unreliable narrator and too many mysteries double up to disinterest viewers, made weirder by leading them like a fishhook in the cheek with flashy thingies (no, not the ones from Men In Black). On the flip side, Alex Proyas’ Dark City built character amnesia into his storyline, providing enough answers before new mysteries were introduced, a reward for viewers taking the ride. Like an A-plot and B-plot, it’s okay to have big mysteries to solve and little mysteries along the way, but a few answers need to be given, even if it’s just an informed opinion about The Autopsy of Jane Doe.

In Eastern films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the assumed good or bad guys can turn on a dime, often through a long flashback turning a narrative on its head. Learning the new information after all the former assumptions changes the entire story, a mystery solved at the same time it was presented. In this instance, it challenged viewers to reconsider all the assumptions made about characters, increasing the drama of what’s to follow when all the shades of gray are revealed.

All stories are mysteries at their core; after all, if viewers knew everything that was about to happen, there wouldn’t be much of a point. The first mystery is often who the protagonist or main character is, followed soon after by what struggle or antagonist they’ll face to make all their dreams come true, or perhaps an unpopular decision (see The Pixar Method for details). Problems begin when there’s too many mysteries to juggle, becoming difficult to keep track of them all… or to have any reason to bother.

Disclaimer: these are my opinions; feel free to articulate your own. 💀

Moving along:

“4. Thou shalt not use marginalized groups as plot devices.”

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