McKee Says
I open up Robert McKee’s Story to a random page and write about what he says.
The Empire Strikes Back: When Darth Vader reveals himself to Luke, this pays off multiple setups strung back through two films. In an instant, however, this also becomes the setup for Luke’s next action. What will the young hero do? He chooses to try to kill his father, but Darth Vader cuts off his son’s hand – a payoff to set up the next action. Now defeated, what will Luke do? He hurls himself off the sky city, trying to commit an honorable suicide – a payoff to set up the next action. Will he die? No, he’s rescued in mid-air by his friends. This stroke of luck pays off the suicide and becomes the setup for a third film to resolve the conflict between father and son.
McKee explains that when a payoff is delivered it sends the viewer hurling back through the story looking for the moment when the expectation that this payoff would occur was set up.
In the case of Vader’s parenthood reveal, the viewer immediately thinks of the moments when Obi One and Yoda expressed concerned over Luke’s fate. The Payoff, “Luke I am Your Father”, informs those moments and makes them meaningful by letting us know what Obi-One and Yoda knew all along but held back. It makes those moments setups for this encounter.
To McKee, setups and payoffs are about creating gaps in the information provided. Writers create the expectation that information will be delivered and then deliver it. Sometimes it takes a sequel for the information to be delivered, sometimes it is delivered in the very next beat of the scene.
Sometimes a Good Notion 