Applying narrative theories

Recently i have watched many films, many big budget films and many indie films. From what ive seen all of them use Todorovs and Propps narritive theorys. The reason why is because people like a plot where it is structured in such a manner. Its keeps the audience entertained and on the edge of their seats, many early films did not use the theories and to the modern audience they seem very unorthodox.

One film i watched recently is the film elysium, this film staring matt damon follows all five stages but in a very interested way.

Equilibrium:
The story established, earth is a world which has be ravaged in war and over population. All the privileged people live on Elysium, a citadel which was created and is suspended in space. On Elysium there is war, no disease, a haven where they have the technology to cure any disease. On earth people struggle and the struggle of the main protagonist is introduced as well as many side characters.

Disruption:
In this film there are two problems which are introduced, one is where the protagonist had been exposed to a high dose of radiation and only has five days to live. This makes him desperate to get to elysium where he can get treatment but he needs to get there by doing a job for a crime lord which is his friend. As this is happening the antagonist which has a high status on Elysium is planing a coup in order to take over Elysium, she has the codes of the main frame of Elysium which she puts in the hand of a fellow resident of Elysium who is on his way to earth for a business meeting.

Recognition of disruption:
The crime lord gives the protagonist a job where he must steal information from a rich individual for money.This person happens to be the person who has the codes to reboot Elysium. They retrieve the info and then they realise what they have come across and the potential of what they have. This causes a mass hunt down for the info which is encoded into the main characters brain. Therefore the protagonist is being hunted down.

Attempt to repair the disruption:
With the new info they have they try and get into Elysium and take over using the codes in order to have a better life. They get onto Elysium but on their journey they are constantly followed by a psychopathic bounty hunter which works for the antagonist on Elysium. But when the bounty hunter finds out the extent of the info he decides he will take the codes for his own use.

Reinstatement of equilibrium:

The main character fights off the bounty hunter and both the crime lord and main character reach the control room. In there the crime lord finds out that extracting the data will cause the death of the main character. The protagonist is prepared to trade his life in for a better future for all the people on earth. He sacrifices himself and Elysium is rebooted and the technology to heal is made accessible to the people on earth. From there the film ends.

As you can see this film follows the theory very well. In-fact almost all modern day films do but they do it in their own way. the main thing i noticed from this film is how they borrowed ideas from many successful video games. in particular Halo and Mass effect. For example Elysium has a lot of similarities with the rings from halo and similarities of the privileged life style of the citadel from mass effect.

Here are some comparisons: