VII. "Hollywood Formula" Fragments

Pieces of the Script Frenzy Official "Hollywood Formula" that can apply to my script, so I applied them (also partly so I could add a little more detail to the relatively bare middle section of my summary in Post VI. before I finally write the actual thing...)

• 50% Mark (where, "obviously", there can be no more change at all in the protagonists' situation, so obviously things immediately get worse): After Joe and Don conveniently stumbled on a nice deserted bunker, they can finally get some rest, and hope that after a few weeks hiding out underground with the ample provisions that were left there, they might even escape Dr. Nope's minions once and for all. After a brief conversation they fall into a well-deserved sleep--and that, of course, is when one of the minions releases a potent neurotoxin into the bunker's ventilation system. (Of course he/she forgot to bring his/her gas mask, so will stand well back--which allows Joe and Don to escape again, undetected, and with a nice lead on their pursuers.)
• 50-75% (where The Antagonist Returns! to crush those stupid protagonists once and for all): Some unfortunate minion is sent to tell Dr. Nope that Joe and Don escaped the gassing. After killing the messenger in a particularly bloody and cinematic way, Dr. Nope swears that from now on, he's serious. He's no longer going to send his minions to do this job; he needs certainty of success; he can't farm it out to underlings any more. He's going to start sending his henchmen/women/things.
• 75% Mark (where All Is Lost--for the first time, not the final time. That's right, all will be lost TWICE; this first time is just to fool you into thinking the movie is over when there's still several important plot twists to go. Obviously, all is not really lost, as the protagonists survive): In a spectacular aerial chase scene, our heroes are in the middle of the Pacific when one of Dr. Nope's top henchmen (not yet specified) catches up to them (or succeeds in ambushing them.) In addition to the threat from the outside, there is another minion inside the plane Joe and Don stole to get away from the previous attack, who's ready to cause them even more trouble. Of course, Joe and Don thwart the attack, but not without crippling their plane. It falls through the clouds and toward a deserted desert island. It crashes and there is a huge explosion. No survivors.*

* Just kidding. Of course Joe and Don survived (this is a movie, after all). They ejected from the plane at the last second and somehow survived the fall (I'll figure out how, or I can just never explain it. Hey, it's a [intentionally cheesy] movie [should that be "a" or "an"??!! Darn parenthetical edge case grammar!], not real life). But they survive and are washed up on the island same island as their plane.**

** In a rare twist, the plane exploded not because of physically unrealistic fuel explosions (i.e., blown up by the moviemakers using whatever the usual explosive for blowing up vehicles for cinematic effect is)--but because of the bomb planted in the toilet by the Dr. Nope minion. So by wrecking their own plane and forcing themselves to bail, Joe and Don in fact had yet another narrow escape from death at Dr. Nope's proxy hands.