Journey vs. The Destination

*Originally published on 8/13/09


As a writer, I've often heard it said that it's the journey, and not the destination that matters. Script writers, however, say that the backbone of the movie should be the last 20 minutes. In essence, they say that the destination is more important than the journey.

Even though film and prose are two different mediums, one would think that story telling is story telling and that no matter what form the story comes in, the rules would essentially remain the same.

If I had to choose one, I would say that the journey is more important. You can't build something on the climax alone. Look at Transformers 2, it ended with an hour long slugfest in Egypt with all of the Autobots joining up with the military to stop the Decepticons. The story, however, was all over the place and the film managed to go nowhere even with two and a half hours of run time.

If movies did rest solely on the climax, Transformers2 should have been great. It's true, there were other problems like the fact that you couldn't tell the robots apart and robot heaven, but the movie still proves that a movie needs more than a big climax to really work.

My only problem with the "journey being more important than the destination" mantra is the fact that writers usually pull this out when people aren't satisfied with the ending of a work. Stephen King brought it up when some readers were less than satisfied with his ending to the Dark Tower books. I could see how it was the right ending, but they weren't wrong. Seth MacFarlane also used this to justify his ass-pull ending of a 2 part episode. The episode had Lois finally discovering Stewie's evil nature and trying to stop him. The whole thing is retconned by being revealed to be just a computer simulation, restoring the status quo.

The truth is that you need both. The journey is very important, make no mistake. It's the journey that allows the character to grow and develop, but you can't create a great journey only to cop out at the 11th hour, nor can you build a whole movie or book around the climax. I like big dramatic confrontations as much as the next guy, but it works far more effectively when it's the result of the story and not just shoehorned in for the sake of having it.

Think of it like an Oreo, you need both the cookies and the cream filling for it to work. In the same fashion, a story or film needs both a compelling journey and a deserving climax in order for it to be effective and enjoyable to the fans.