Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
In
Star Wars
, this is the moment at which Luke seems about to be killed
by Darth Vader during Luke's trench run. The Sith Lord even says, “I have
you now,” and we can see on Vader's scanner he's got Luke dead to rights.
But Han Solo and Chewbacca swoop in at the last moment, throwing
Vader off course and clearing the way for Luke to fire his torpedoes and
destroy the Death Star.
In
Uncharted 2
, the Resurrection occurs in a cutscene, when Nate at-
tempts to make a clearly impossible jump across a crumbling gap, and is
surely about to fall to his death—at which point Chloe miraculously man-
ages to catch him by the arm and help haul him to safety.
12. Return with the Elixir
With the main conflict resolved, the Hero's path is now clear to return with
his boon to the Ordinary World, which is changed and improved thanks to
the Hero's brave actions. Rewards and punishments are doled out to any
characters to whom the audience has developed any attach-
ment—generally, “good” characters are rewarded and “bad” characters are
punished. At this point, with the conflict resolved, the Hero has grown and
everyone has gotten what they deserved—the story ends.
In
Star Wars
, this sequence is represented by the awards ceremony, with
Luke and Han Solo being rewarded with medals, C-3PO receiving a polish,
and R2-D2 revealed as being fully recovered following his ordeal. Luke and
all his allies bask in thunderous applause from the Rebels—who have
struck a devastating blow to the Empire—providing a strong sense of clos-
ure.
In
Uncharted 2
, this phase takes place in an extended closing cutscene,
in which we see that Elena has recovered, her relationship with Nate is be-
ing rekindled, and that Sully—dirty old man that he is—might actually have
a shot with Chloe. Most important, of course, the world is safe because
Lazarevic has been stopped.
Final Thoughts on the Monomyth
The Monomyth is a very well-documented and much-discussed theory of
story. A simple Web search for “Monomyth” or “Hero's Journey” will yield
potentially overwhelming results for anyone interested in digging deeper.
