1) The film starts with a couple going on a romantic getaway, establishing equilibrium. 2) Some teenagers disrupt this by stealing from the couple, making them the agents of change. 3) The boyfriend kills the gang leader's dog, subverting his role from victim to "rogue hero" and switching the gang leader to the new victim. 4) In the end, the girlfriend kills a gang member in self defense, also becoming a rogue hero, but is ultimately killed by the gang leader's parent, failing to restore the final equilibrium as Todorov's theory predicts.

1. 2008

2. •The film starts off with equilibrium
•As the couple are going on a romantic get
away
•So the start of the movie follows the
conventions of Todrov’s theory
•The couple start off innocent and can be
seen as the victims.

3. Disruption starts
when the teenagers
start playing loud
music and later
steal the beach bag
from the couple
(the agents of
change)
At this point there is
a clear outline of
who the villains are
(the teens)
and again, this
follows the
conventions of
Todrovs theory
(stage 2)

4. However there’s a
subversion with
character role as the
boyfriend who is meant
to be the ‘victim’ turns
into a ‘Rogue hero’ as
he kills the gang leaders
dog (which is immoral)
So the gang leader
quickly changes to
become the victim.
Then the characters
switch back into their
original roles and the
gang members chase
and terrorise the couple
through out the movie
and later end up killing
the boyfriend.

5. A helper then comes along (a small
boy in the area) and offers to lead the
woman to safety but ends up being a
false hero leading her back to the
gang.
In self defence the girlfriend ends up
killing one of the gang members so she
too ends up as a rogue hero.
The end of the film does not follow
Todrovs theory as a state of new
equilibrium is not restored as the gang
members parent end up killing the
girlfriend.

6. To conclude, Todrov’s theory applies to the film to some extent as it starts
with equilibrium, disruption, recognition etc however it does not end in
new equilibrium as he claims films should but instead a state of
disequilibrium .
Relating back to Propp’s theory, a few of his characters can be identified
such as the hero, villain and helper but it does not have all eight.