How do you fall in love with a movie? And can screenwriters and filmmakers make an audience fall in love, or is it like trying to capture lightning in a bottle?

I’m not going to claim there’s a formula to this, or else every movie would be a classic, but I do think great movies and great TV shows make audiences fall in love with them in large part because they treat their relationship with the audience like an actual relationship that needs to be nurtured. When I say that a movie is doing this, I mean the screenwriter has actually structured the story in a way that makes this possible.

A fantastic example of this is The Princess Bride, written by William Goldman. It’s an all-time great and one of my absolute favorite films. You could choose a dozen things this movie does well—from the quotable dialogue to the masterful character work—but I think it’s a classic in large part due to how it develops its relationship with the audience.

I want to break down some of the things that the film is doing to hook the audience and grow that relationship into true love.

Lesson 1: Show the audience you care

The Princess Bride cares about the audience so much that it actually puts the audience in the movie. The film is presented as a book called The Princess Bride being read by a grandfather to his grandson who is home sick from school.

The grandson acts as a stand-in for the audience. You can map the audience’s relationship with the movie onto his relationship with the story his grandfather is reading to him. He starts out skeptical, gets hooked, becomes more invested, and in the end can’t wait for the re-watch. As the grandson hears the story he is asking questions, voicing his doubts, and mentioning the things he’s excited about.

What’s really happening here is that the grandson is asking questions the audience watching the movie is wondering, and he’s also sharing doubts and fears they might have. This allows the movie to address those questions and fears. It’s reassuring the audience that it’s not taking them for granted.

Now, this format of the movie being read as a book to a character only works  because the movie is basically a fairy tale. So I’m not saying screenwriters should do that in their own scripts. But I am saying that this is an example of how seriously you should take your relationship with the audience, and how much care and attention you should give them.

Screenwriters need to think about what the audience is feeling and what questions they’re asking at each point in the story.

Lesson 2: Put in the work for the audience (acts of service)

One of the ways you can give care and attention to the audience is by putting in the work for them in the first part of the story that will allow them to really love the later parts of the story.

If you’re into love languages I think this would count as “acts of service.” But if you’re not into love languages, people like when you do things for them that make their life more enjoyable. And audiences are no different. Let me give you a couple of examples.

At the start of the story, the audience learns that “As you wish” is Westley's special way of telling Buttercup “I love you.” So later, when Buttercup pushes the masked Man in Black down a cliff and he yells “As you wish,” the audience understands that it’s actually Westley.

The movie has let the audience feel smart, which is nice. And they also feel cool and accepted because they’re part of the experience, like how good it feels when you’re in on an inside joke.

And then at the end of the movie when the grandfather is leaving and he tells his grandson, “As you wish.” The audience understands he’s telling his grandson he loves him. Again they feel smart and included, but this time they’re included in the love between a grandfather and his grandson. The audience actually gets to be a part of that relationship and share the love.

But enough with the heartstrings, let’s look at an example with torture. Literal torture. When Wesley is in the Pit of Despair, Count Rugen is going to torture him with “The Machine,” which sucks life out of its victims. They’re going to start at Level 1, and he might go as high as Level 5. Then we see how much Level 1, the lowest level, hurts Wesley. This lays the groundwork for when Prince Humperdinck comes in and sets the machine all the way to Level 50.

Without that earlier scene, going to Level 50 wouldn’t mean anything. It would be an abstract number on a make-believe machine. But with the earlier scene, the audience gets to feel a much more intense emotional reaction to what’s happening to Wesley.

Of course, you also have to  make the groundwork engaging as well. You can’t just dump in exposition so it pays off later. It has to be integrated into the story and interesting at that point of the film as well.

Lesson 3: Keep them interested

Both the examples I just shared were things that happened earlier in the movie that then had payoffs later, but they were also examples where the audience wasn’t necessarily expecting a payoff. They didn’t make the audience wonder how something was going to turn out. However, making the audience wonder things and anticipate things is also super important.

Movies and TV shows are often built around a big question that the audience is wondering. In The Princess Bride the big question is, “Will Wesley and Buttercup live happily ever after?”

But that one question isn’t enough to keep the audience interested for the whole hour and 38 minutes. You have to keep them engaged with a lot of other little things to wonder about or anticipate, or else their eyes will start to wander.

These little things can be mysteries, like “Who is the man in black?” Or they can be dilemmas like, “Will they rescue Buttercup before the wedding?” But they’re all basically questions the audience is asking. You need to keep them asking questions. When you answer a question, you get the audience interested in a new one.

I think my favorite example of this in The Princess Bride comes from Inigo Montoya’s quest to avenge the death of his father who was killed by the six-fingered man. When Inigo Montoya first brings this up it makes us wonder “Who is the six-fingered man?”

Then the audience gets to learn the six-fingered man is Count Rugen before Inigo Montoya does, which is such a treat for us. So the movie answers the question, “Who is the six-fingered man?” And now the audience is asking new questions like, “Will Inigo Montoya find him? Will he get his revenge?” They are really excited to keep watching to get those answers.

Lesson 4: Confound them

Just because the audience really wants something doesn’t mean you should give them exactly what they want. Yes, getting what you want can be satisfying, but if the audience sees it coming from too far in advance it’s going to be a bit of a letdown once they get there.

You actually need to confound them a little bit. Remember, the audience is dependent on the movie to tell them a good story. If they could think of the whole thing themselves, they wouldn’t need the movie. So they need things they don’t see coming and things they don’t know they want.

The Princess Bride shows us this when Inigo Montoya finally confronts Count Rugen and delivers his famous line, “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” We’re expecting them to launch into a swashbuckling sword fight, but instead, Count Rugen runs away and then ambushes Inigo with a dagger to the stomach. It’s not exactly what the audience wanted in that moment, but I think it’s more interesting.

Lesson 5: Give them what they want

Of course, ultimately Inigo does get his revenge. It’s harder and more complicated, but he gets it in the end. And in the end, the big question of whether Wesley and Buttercup will live happily ever after is also answered in the affirmative. And in the end, even the grandson who started out annoyed that his grandfather was visiting asked his grandfather to come back the next day.

Because that’s what the audience is here for. It’s why they’ve entered this relationship and stuck around. They wanted these happy endings.

This isn't to say all endings need to be happy. Audiences have different wants from different stories, but the ending should meet their expectations. Or at least address their expectations, because ultimately screenwriters can do whatever they want. None of what I've described are rules; they are techniques. If your goal is to piss off the audience, you do you.

But if you want the audience to fall in love with the story and have their love last over multiple viewings and even multiple decades, consider rewarding them at the end with what they really want. Because getting that feeling again is what’s going to keep them coming back.

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