Narrative Structure: The Crazies (Eisner 2010)

Give two examples of events that cause latter events in the film but occur before the start of the film?

We know that the infections of the waterways will have taken place before the start of the film, we know this because of the plane that was carrying the infection was shown to have crashed in the nearby creek instead of being incinerated in Texas

Another event that happened before the start was Judy getting pregnant. We find out she is pregnant when the government is checking for high temperatures and David shouting that the reason she had a temperature was because she is pregnant. This ends up being a blessing as if David had not gone back to save her. He would have been killed along with all the other non infected people that we see at the end in incinerated trucks.




Two events that happen in a different time frame to the main film (off camera)

We know that Russel tried to escape the city when he found out about all the wrong that was going on but was stopped after his tyres were spiked by the army and was then taken to the quarantine area on the same bus as David. We can also assume that he was cleared of not having the disease as he knew about the red truck crashing into the quarantined zone.

We also know that the people who were deemed safe and taken to the dinner (green wristbands) were all killed. We infer this when Judy is seen holding a bunch of bullets with more scattered around, with the trucks being filled with everyones bodies after being burned and we see that the bodies are also wearing the green wristbands that signify safety.







Sort the hole of the film into 3 acts ( 3 main plot points )

Act 1 - Normality and setting the scene
Act 2 - Disruption
Act 3 - some form of normality regained

In act one we get indications of to what life was like in ogden marsh, seeing some of the jobs and see Becca being let off work to go watch a baseball game that her boyfriend is playing in.The baseball game is the part where things switch over to act two as this is the point where David shots Rory.

After Rory has been killed the towns calm nature turns more concerned and we slowly see more and more crazies start to appear causing more death as the sheriffs can't stop them.This is when the army appears to try and contain the virus to one spot. But that fails and the army tries other techniques to try and stop it from spreading.

Act 3 is a little while later towards the end of the film, we see Judy and David get into a truck after fighting off some crazies and start to drive towards the nearby city. But this is when we see the big explosion behind them which takes out ogden marsh, the explosion causes their truck to crash but luckily they both appear unscathed and continue walking to the nearby city but the only bit you could say could make it so it isn't normality is the fact that now the city is also starting the quarantine situation.