Movie Night

Ask for the name of a movie that’s never been made (“The King’s Eyeball”). Then ask for a brief “reminder” of what kind of movie it was, and what it was about. (“A fantasy about a quest to retrieve the king’s magic eyeball.”)

Two players are movie enthusiasts, getting together to watch one of their favourite films (on DVD or internet). The other players will be all the other characters in the movie. The game works well with around five players.

The two movie watchers describe each scene, then jump to that point in the movie.

ROB: Let’s jump ahead to the part where Sir Roland meets the Dragon Witch!

LARRY: Yeah, I love the way that the Dragon Witch is scary but also kind of sexy.

Now the other players play a short segment showing this encounter.

DRAGON WITCH: You can never get past the Dragon Witch! Prepare to die, you naughty boy.

SIR ROLAND: Wow, your fire is… hot…

The movie-watchers work through the movie from beginning to end (it’s confusing if you go backwards). There might be six scenes, each under 30 seconds long. The movie-watchers should keep things moving along, not spending too long on any one scene. They can also throw interesting challenges at players.

ROB: This bit is boring. I’m going to skip ahead to the bit where the Dragon Witch asks him those crazy riddles.

LARRY: Right, and then he answers all her questions in song form.

Players should keep things lively, jumping into the middles of scenes. Don’t worry about it making sense – the audience expects to see random clips from the movie.

LADY JOANINA: Here it is! The Crystal Bridge of Gorgleblast.

SIR ROLAND: I will cross it – for my dead brother!

If things are going off track, movie-watchers can summarize (or invent) the story so far, then skip ahead.

LARRY: I’m confused. I don’t remember what’s happening here.

ROB: Sir Roland learned from the Dragon Witch that the eyeball is hidden in Desert of Night.

LARRY: Oh, right, and then there’s that scene where Garrion the Evil looks down from his palance and sees Sir Roland riding in the distance.

ROB: I love that bit where he keeps getting angry at his minions and pulls off their limbs.

LARRY: (raising remote) Let’s watch it!

The other players will now provide the scene described, which here will mean a new location and new characters.

The movie-watchers guide the direction of the story. It’s a good idea to start with a scene where we see the main character is their normal life before the story starts, then send them on their adventure.

I came up with this game as a variation on the narrating game Movie Critics (which sometimes leads to too much critiquing and not enough narration). But it’s the same idea – a way for someone to direct the story and introduce a variety of locations, characters and events.